 view of the falls from the overlook  trailhead marked by the warning sign  a muddy, unkept trail Located just five minutes from Lihue, and once the seen in the opening scenes of the tv show Fantasy Island, Wailua falls is a beautiful, easily accessible 80 ft. waterfall on the island of Kauai. Unlike most waterfalls on the island, this waterfall is viewable from a roadside overlook where you can enjoy its beauty and the peacefulness of the surrounding area.
The flow of the south end of the Wailua River over this fall can vary greatly depending on the weather conditions. The picture above was taken during a long dry spell in the area, and thus the water level here is not incredibly high.
The view of the falls from the overlook is great, and for most people this is enough. For those who insist upon a bit more adventure, there is are nearby trails that lead down to the base of the falls.
One such trail begins behind the guardrail just to the south of the overlook. There is a sign put up by the county advising visitors to not go down which should be taken seriously. The trail is steep, and can be extremely muddy (keep in mind that these photos were taken during a dry period).
That being said, if you were to still want to adventure down, several ropes line the trail which aide greatly heading in both directions (up and down).
Note: There is an alternative trail that begins further down the road, but is much less steep which may be easier to climb down. It too is marked by a sign warning visitors to not go down the trail.
Regardless of how you get down there, once you reach the base of the falls, its another beautiful perspective. As an added bonus, there is a giant pool which is great for swimming which wasn’t quite as cold as the water flowing down Hanapaki’ai Falls or Rainbow Falls. Once in the pool, you can swim to the other side and climb up and behind the falls for what is always a great view.
To reach the falls, from Hwy 56, turn onto Maalo Rd (Hwy 583) and drive 3.9 miles to the overlook.
 ground view of wailua falls
 walk on the right here During my travels, one of the things I’ve found interesting is not only the differences of what side of the road cars drive on, but also what side of the sidewalk people walk. Driving is easy, everyone better do it or else it’s going to get messy. The lines generally make things pretty clear, and you would generally assume that for good reason, while rules such as speeding, and even stopping fully at stop signs or red lights may get ignored or taken lightly, the concept of staying on the proper side of the road would always be followed. Sure even with this there are exceptions, like the times when driving down the highway in the Rajasthan region of India, amongst three lanes of traffic heading in the proper direction, there was a lone car which decided driving against traffic was the best bet. One could only assume that the alternative of driving around and looping back was too much of a big deal to deal with.
One thing that has always left me somewhat perplexed is what side of the sidewalk to walk on. Its sort of the same thing as driving in many respects. Walk down the street and come face to face with someone walking in the opposite direction, and there’s a good chance that they’ll dart over to their right to avoid you. New York is easy in this respect, escalators and sidewalks almost all follow the rule of walk on the right.
Bangkok and Tokyo where vehicle traffic flows on the left side, this rule seem to be a bit quite relaxed. Take the escalators for instance, on countless occasions, which side the up or down escalators were on would switch, even within a single series. So while you might be on the left heading down one escalator, when it came to the next one you might need to cross over to the right side to continue down.
Stairs and corridors into and around the subways were even more unpredictable. Some would be marked to walk on the left, and others would be marked walk on the right. If there is no common rule underground in a somewhat controlled environment, could there be one above ground where there’s a lot more space to wander. So when walking down the sidewalk, which side is appropriate? Is there a rule? If not, and you are walking head on into someone, what direction should you dart over to? Do you both just come to a complete stop till one person waves the other one on?
 river cutting through near asakusa station Tokyo was a great experience and one that I’m glad that I did, even if it was for too short a period of time. It started off on a whim, as I had just been planning to spend about a week and a half in Bangkok. About six days into my stay there I was more or less ready to move on, and thought that since I was going to have to fly through Tokyo anyhow on my way back to Honolulu, that I might as well try and make a stop and check it out.
 bacon noodle dish? Making the arrangements wasn’t as easy as I had originally thought they’d be. While I had tickets which would bring me through Tokyo it turns out that making changes to the flights can be more complicated then just paying for the change fee. For starters, since my tickets were booked through United airlines, and the leg between Bangkok and Tokyo was scheduled on a Thai airways flight, Thai airways has a policy that there can be no refunds or changes to the ticket what so ever. That alone seemed a bit too restrictive personally, but was willing to deal with that. I figured that I’d simply book a ticket from Bangkok to Tokyo separately, one-way, and that I’d pick up the United flight that I was scheduled to be on the following Tuesday. This too proved to be somewhat more complicated then one would expect. At first the United representative was trying to sell me that in order to change the ticket as such would not only entail a change fee, but would also cost me and additional $1200 because it would be ticketed as a one-way ticket, essentially trying to sell me the very same ticket I already had purchased. Needless to say I deemed this unacceptable and persisted until a manager got on the phone and informed me that they could in fact just reissue me a ticket, forfeiting the Thai airways ticket from BKK to TYO and thereby allow me to check in and board at Tokyo. This too cost, but was just the standard United change fee of about $325.
Once in Tokyo I had an amazing time, as I’ve attempted to highlight in the previous set of posts . It was only about four days, and so I had an extremely limited timeframe to take things in, but the taste I got of the people, the variety of activities and of course the food was enough to make me come back and experience more.
Considering how unprepared I was for the trip, it is of great testament to the city that it was as easy to navigate and enjoy as it was. One exception to this ease though, which I had been warned about but I still underestimated, was just how important cash was around the city. Tip, take out plenty of cash when at the airport.
 citibank in tokyo are a great find There is a Citibank ATM machine at the airport which proves to be very important if you are coming from the United States at least, and are among the many people who have accounts in one of the banks whose card will not work in the many ATMs available at local banks and 7-11s. Basically, it appears that unless your ATM card is also a VISA (versus Mastercard or something else) or works on the Plus network (little logo on back of card), your card will NOT work at most ATMs. If this is the case, then your options will dwindle down to the few Citibank branches available around the city. Combine this with the fact that most credit cards will not work, and most locations do not accept credit cards, and you are essentially limited to cash on hand, so carry plenty.
Besides that, the only other issue that I ran into was time. Tokyo is a big city and to really grasp it without rushing through it takes time. At the same time there is so much more to Japan which is so easily accessible that much more time should be spent exploring. That being said, in my return trip I plan to; check out more of the temples and shrines, visit more of the popular bars as well as hidden hole in the walls places, try more exotic food and get to mingle with more of the locals and hopefully make a few last
ing friends. In addition to that, I want to browse around Tokyo station and board a high speed train out of the city to check out the more rural country as visit some of the more traditional cities such as Osaka.
Check out the post from this trip:
 smoking spot next to subway and bike stand So it’s been about a week and half now since i’ve returned from Tokyo, and so while I’ve tried to show some of the sights and describe some of the impressions that I had during my short (initial) stint there, I realize that I really only touched on a few aspects of it. Sure the subways are great, and the food amazing, but what about the feeling you get walking down the street…
The picture above is one that sticks in my mind, but not because of the photograph alone. So what’s so spectacular? The thing that I like about this particular photo is that for me, it is a snapshot of one aspect of daily life in the city that I thoroughly enjoy. For starters, there is the line of bike adorning the sidewalk, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but not a single one has a lock on them. Just the fact that there is a sense of respect for other people’s property, or oneself, that you might be able to leave your bike unlocked for a few minutes while you shop, never mind hours as you head into work.
 sidewalk smoking stand Just to the left of this is a smoking stand. A smoking stand? It seems that smoking on the sidewalks is against the law in Tokyo. Not being a smoker, this comes as a great relief as one of the things in New York which was could be annoying was when someone would be walking in front of you and puffing out clouds of smoke which you’d ultimately have to walk through. Besides this discomfort, the remains from those cigarettes more often then not found their way onto the streets and sidewalks adding to trash on the streets. The one thing that was somewhat odd on the flip side was that while smoking was against the law on the sidewalks, it was perfectly legal inside bars, restaurants, etc.
 no smoking on the sidewalk Along these same lines is the lack of garbage cans which always seem to amaze me in countries such as this, as well as Thailand. You can walk many streets without coming upon a single trash receptacle, and yet there’s very little to no garbage thrown on the ground. The subway tracks are nearly spotless. The only annoying part is when you do have something to throw out, it’s almost frustrating trying to find one. Luckily there’s always a Starbucks or some other cafe not too far away.
Finally, what discussion on the streets is complete without observations on the traffic. Bangkok this is not, that’s for certain. Likewise, compared to NYC, you would think Tokyo was always on a weekend. Maybe this is due to the great transportation system, but even in some of the most touristy areas which are typically prime areas for traffic tie ups there didn’t appear to be any crazy delays. In many respects, when it came to vehical traffic, I sometimes had to remind myself that i was in Tokyo and not in some much smaller city. Another aspect which is great is that there is very little (if any) use of horns. The only sort of sirens or horns you’ll generally hear are that of a passing ambulance…just as it should be.
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