Hawaiian treasures

Honolulu - a shopper's dream come true!

By Lynn Yaeger

Never mind the beach. Rare Japanese antiques, $35,000 collector jeans, and hula-girl kitsch make Honolulu a shopper's dream come true.

Behold—markandeya!—this is the realm of art. It is the atrium of heaven,” reads the inscription on the window of the Robyn Buntin of Honolulu shop, the premier Asian antiques gallery on Oahu. It’s my first day in Hawaii, and unlike those travelers who shed their clothes and jump into the water the minute they’re off the plane, I’m here to hit the shops, not the surf. Though the sun is beating down deliciously, I make a beeline to Buntin’s world-class store. “I don’t mean to brag,” he says, smiling, “but we have museum-quality works here—it’s a museum where you can touch.”

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