On our last morning in Hawaii (only yesterday!), Steve and I went to the beach for a few hours. Remember those beach chairs I wanted to sell? I'm not that good a salesman. But we did pass them on to another couple who was there with 4 kids. They needed the chairs. We asked them to pass them on when they left. Honestly, that felt better than it would have to sell them.

I started taking photos of Japanese tourists – finally. It's the clothing that I was fascinated by. This woman and her husband were at the beach with their son, taking pictures. This woman looked fantastic even though she was in a cover-up…

As you look at these photos, remember that the other tourists (American, German, Australian, etc.) are dressed way more casually – in swimsuits that look good (or often not), with and without cover-ups. And that is true not just at the beach, but everywhere near the beach. 

The men wore much more tailored garments, even though they were casual garments, than I am used to seeing on Texas men. And they did not appear to be afraid of color or texture or prints. 

These folks layer, a lot. The fabrics are light, sometimes sheer so layering even in hot weather is not steamy.

I noticed lots of leggings – both short and long – mostly in black but not always. And many of the Japanese women wore something over their arms. Picture a knee sock without a foot pulled over the length of your arm. There must be a name for this because I saw a lot of them, but didn't get a photo. And some wore gloves – either in black or white, wrist length or much longer.

Once I noticed the gloves I realized that I almost never saw a Japanese woman with a tan. I think they are way ahead of me in protecting their skin from UV rays.

I noticed that older women (sigh, that would be my age or older) were dressed a bit differently than the younger women were, but still looked good. Here I liked the pattern and color in the top combined with the Vera Bradley purse. I think the hat pulls the two together.

Also, notice the woman to the left (above), in shorts and tank top. Unfortunately, that would be my more normal choice for walking to the beach (although with longer shorts). It's a look that is not as finished. I really need to up my game.

It also looked to me as if many couples had chosen outfits that would photograph well together…

More power to them. I wished Steve and I had done that often throughout the trip. And look at the shoes! Remember, they are at Waikiki Beach! I stuck to flip flops (or slippers as they are called in Hawaii) but I noticed many Japanese in colorful, different sorts of shoes.

I made the assumption that most of these folks thought about what they were putting on in the morning more deeply than I do. And/or that they have assembled a closet of clothes that work together very well. Or both.

I loved this sheer yellow striped cardigan over the blue and white print dress…

And next, the purple shoes with the blue print dress worked very well in person. Or maybe I was just used to the idea of how these things mixed together…

I had to quit taking photos so that I could eat the Acai salad at Island Vintage one more time. This may be the best thing I ate on the whole trip! It is a frozen acai berry smoothie, covered with a layer of crunchy granola, sliced fruit, and organic honey. So very good!

And then, it was time to go home. Sitting at the airport, it was odd to watch the people coming off of incoming flights. So very happy and excited, as we had been only 5 days before! Vacations do fly by. None of us was excited about leaving Hawaii. But we did. I took some pictures out of the window on the plane…

It was funny to remember that we hiked up a part of that crater – Diamond Head. It looks so different from above…

We were flying away from the sun so it got dark very soon after I took this photo of the clouds…