I had never gone to either of Makino Chaya's new locations but my memory of the original site on King Street was a pleasant one - particularly for the items made to order off of a special menu during dinner hours. I had heard both good and not-so-good reviews of the new locations but, figuring that king crab was included on the buffet I figured we couldn't go too wrong!

The buffet started with an assortment of sushi which looked good enough to detract us from the crab we knew awaited us a little farther down the line...

And as we got to the spot which was the reason we were here today, I noticed a platter of saba (mackerel) that I had to try.

We eventually got to the crab pot and, to our sheer delight, the pot was filled with legs and claws of what has got to be one of my favorite foods. "This," I said to Paul, "will makes the whole buffet perfect, and we proceeded to enjoy ourselves perhaps a little too much.

Needless to say, the crab, sushi, and the freshly cooked steaks they were serving up made for a great lunch or, more accurately, too much of a lunch. Having heard that Makino Chaya was just sold and its future is uncertain right now, I wanted to share this with all the serious eaters as buffets which include as much king crab as we found on this day aren't that common. And, for $14.99, I think this old guy really got his money's worth!

The next day found me on Kauai, trying to kill an hour before catching my plane back to Honolulu. I decided to spin down to Nawilili Harbor to see if much had changed since my last trip.

There's a kayak rental/tour outfit that caters to the tourists brought in by the interisland cruise ships and, just as I was going to check them out, I noticed a guy working a fly rod like I've never seen before. It turns out Todd Hirano, who works nearby, was spending his lunch break practicing his fly casting technique.

Todd explained he was using a two-handed fly rod for a technique I later learned to be spey casting. Todd shared that he was practicing for trips to Canada in search of salmon and while practicing in these backwaters of Nawiliwili he gets an occasional papio or barracuda.

... Todd was able to move and place his popper anywhere he wanted without having to do the increasing back and forth swings that I knew as fly casting. I also later learned that this technique enabled anglers to get the distance they needed in limited spaces that would otherwise inhibit conventional casting techniques.

and just about anything you could think of. With my virtual lack of knowledge of fly fishing, the complexity of what Todd was doing was beyond what I could understand. But one thing for sure is that I was fascinated by the beauty of fly casting that day and swear to dust off the fly fishing rod & reel that my brother had gotten for me some years ago and give it a try!

After watching Todd for awhile, I truly understood the comment I heard from my brother after he got into fly fishing on the east coast... "when you're out fly fishing, catching something is just a bonus cause you're already in the zone simply placing your fly exactly where want it to be!"

Warmest aloha,