$3

Whenever you use your HOLO card, for $3 you get 2.5 hours to transfer as many times or even come back home on The Bus or The Rail

After the 2.5 hours, you will need to pay another $3, the max they will charge your HOLO in a day is $7

It was fun trying to get to where I wanted to go and back within the 2.5 hours...

One excursion was from Pearl City to Punchbowl Cemetery

Got kinda lost trying to find the connecting bus from downtown up to the cemetery, so I ended up walking

And coming down from the cemetery also, I wasn't too sure as to the direction I was supposed to be going

On this day, I bought lunch from Royal Kitchen then went to BFF's office because we went to have dinner with my Aunties and W

Another excursion was from Pearl City to Kahala Mall

I went to Whole Foods

Then ate at W & M

Then caught the bus to town to meet up at BFF's office again because we went to have dinner with friend S

Yet another excursion was from Pearl City to Palama Settlement

Checked out part of the Street Art wall

It was kinda sketchy around there so I didn't stay long

Jumped back on the bus and went to Mo’ili’ili 

From the freeway, I had seen a lot of “so teeny” trucks at a house and wanted to check it out up close

Luckily it was where I thought I had seen them

From there I went back toward Pearl City and got off at Pearlridge to do some shopping

There was a glitch with the Holo Card reader, so they didn't charge me another $3 to ride home

Whenever I rode the bus, I would set my phone timer for 2 hours and 25 minutes, so that it would remind me that I had about 5 minutes to get to the bus stop.

The Bus is more punctual these days, sometimes even coming early

I still wish they would coordinate better with the rail though.

skyline

While I was in Hawaii, part of the rail system was given the green light to be used.

Kualaka'i to Hālawa, 9 stations running from the West side of Oahu (Kapolei to the Aloha Stadium in Hālawa).

If you have ridden the rail systems in Japan, Skyline is similar, but there are more differences too.

For example, not all stations have entry/exit on both sides of the stations, Pouhala, the station to go to Tanioka’s in Waipahu, does not have an entrance/exit on the Farrington Highway side, so you have to go all the way down to ground level on the mauka (mountain) side then physically cross the street to go to any of the businesses on the makai (south) side of the tracks.

(this photo is the view from Tanioka's, it would've been nice to go straight and be able to enter the station. Instead, I needed to cross the street to the right side of the photo, to enter the station)

In Japan, there are fare machines inside the wickets as well as outside of the wickets, so if you didn't have enough money on your card, you could add money to pay for your fare.

BFF pointed out, if you don’t have enough money on your HOLO card it wouldn’t let you into the station to ride in the first place.

It would've also been nice to have a little "counter" in front of the fare machine, to put down your bag of groceries/stuff, while you loaded up your card, instead of having to put your bag of groceries/stuff down onto the ground.

The Bus is not coordinated with Skyline.

I ended up waiting 20 minutes for the bus driver for this bus going to Waikiki.

Unlike other riders, I had time to spare, but another woman that was also waiting with me, ended up being late for work.

In Japan, we pay our train fares according to distance, the farther the ride the more you pay.

Also, in Japan, you pay for each way that you travel.

A Skyline/The Bus fare is $3 for 2.5 hours (no matter what distance you travel) you can go and come back on one fare in that amount of time.

During my stay in Hawaii, I rode Skyline 3 times. 

The first, when they had rides for free during the 4th of July weekend, once to Tanioka's and once to Kaka'ako.

I think that if they don't coordinate better with The Bus, more people will only continue to ride The Bus or just take their cars.

Still, I look forward to being able to use the rail stations to the airport and to town in the years to come.

Did you get a chance to ride Skyline? What did you think of it?