Bachelor: Only 5 remain

Brynn Leake, left, laughs after bachelorette Jenn Lee and Hawai'i's Bachelor Kelly Komoda had a mishap in their kayak during their beach outing. Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

Bachelor Kelly Komoda has fun during "alone time" with Brynn Leake at Kailua Beach Park. Leake is a teacher at Kanoelani Elementary School in Waipi'o.

The five women still in the race for Kelly Komoda's heart, from left, Angela Hoan, Lauren Sumida, Brynn Leake, Jennifer Hee and Jamie Inouye, had an enjoyable time at Kailua Beach Park.

Kelly Komoda receives a hug from Angela Hoan, who was one of the five women to receive roses that signaled dating-game survival.

Bachelor Kelly Komoda takes a stroll on the beach with Angela Hoan. Later, the former beauty queen took a tumble in a kayak.

Liane Kaneko, left, and Jenn Lee say participating in the game was fun, but being eliminated is no big deal. It is, after all, only a game.

• • • Beach-date credits The Advertiser organized the Hawai'i's Bachelor date at Kailua Beach Park with help from these companies: Kayaks: Go Bananas Kayaks Flowers: Alaka'i Floral Creations Food: Creations in Catering

First it was on a kayak with Bachelor Kelly Komoda, which flipped when they tried to catch a wave. Then it was when Komoda eliminated her and fellow contestant Liane Kaneko from the dating game being chronicled for Advertiser readers.

But Lee was the most prepared for being dismissed from the dating pool, which narrows each week.

Her ears have been ringing since she was on the radio the day before the date, being questioned on air by KQMQ 93.1 FM morning host Justin Cruz, who wanted to know whether what he heard about her dating someone else was true.

For the record, Lee met a guy at the beach two weeks ago, just after the Hawai'i's Bachelor contest started. They've been going out casually, surfing and hanging out. Suddenly, her love life has become the subject of calls aired on the radio and e-mails to the newspaper. So it goes when you enter the spotlight of Hawai'i's Bachelor.

The silver lining for Lee, a 21-year-old surfer and nursing student, is that she still likes Komoda and the other bachelorettes so much that she went out with them Saturday night — even after ending the game in a wipeout.

"As for me being cut, I don't have a problem with it," she said. "I just have a problem with people that I don't know saying things about me."

So, be nice. This is only a game.

Actually, make that an 'extreme sport.'

Round 2 of the dating game took place last weekend at Kailua Beach Park, where the wind was whipping onshore at 30 mph and kayaking was a challenge that made the game seem something like "Survivor Bachelor."

If she were at home in front of the television, that would be a show Liane Kaneko would be watching. Of the 300 or so people who applied to be a bachelor or bachelorette for this contest, Kaneko was one of the few who honestly answered that she was a "couch potato."

She had second thoughts about her admission when that became her label in the newspaper: "Couch potato who gets sucked in by 'Golden Girls' reruns." (A lesson to everyone that what you write and send in to a newspaper could actually wind up in the newspaper.)

Kaneko should have added that she's a tough little 4-foot-11 spud. She bowed out gracefully when she didn't get a rose.

She said she usually has her guard up when she goes out on a date to protect herself from getting hurt. Her guard was up on this one. So was her paddle. She accidentally hit Komoda in the head with it while they were kayaking. She's not sure whether that had something to do with her elimination.

"Oh, I'm OK," she said after being eliminated. "It's not something to take seriously."

The best part, she said, was that this experience made her more confident in front of people.

No more Mr. Nice Guy

This has been a test for Komoda's confidence as well. He took some public flogging for using The Advertiser's online popularity poll as his method for eliminating bachelorettes after the first date. People questioned his ability to think for himself.

Now the laid-back elementary school teacher from Maui has to get tough. This weekend, he will whittle his choices from five to three. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

It will be interesting to see whether Komoda, who generally is not someone who gets into political or highly intellectual debates, will fall for Jennifer Hee, a 23-year-old Harvard grad who likes to listen to classical music or opera while she writes.

She doesn't think his confidence has been shaken too much.

"He's definitely into himself," Hee admitted before the rose ceremony. "But kind of like in a you-can-laugh-at-him-in-your-head sort of way while he's talking."

That's not to say she isn't excited about going on date No. 3. That, too, will be interesting. It's at a steakhouse. Hee hasn't touched cow since she was 12.

Curiously, Komoda has kept the teachers in the running. He teaches fourth grade at Jefferson Elementary. Hee is a seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher at Iolani School. Another bachelorette still in the game is Brynn Leake, 29, a fifth-grade teacher at Kanoelani Elementary School in Waipi'o.

"Kelly, every time I talk to him, I think we get along better and better," said Leake, who says the bachelor is polite and good-hearted. Besides being a teacher, Leake also scored some points with Komoda by volunteering to go first in kayaking on a blustery day when there was strong surf and a small-craft advisory.

She is a golden-haired California girl who may not look like the woman Komoda's Grandma Amy had in mind when she pushed him to enter the contest. (And Komoda has said that he prefers Japanese women.) But, hey, love is blind.

Chemistry test coming up

At least Komoda has the dates' names all figured out by now. On the first date, he was having a little trouble. He kept getting Kaneko confused with Lauren Sumida. Now Kaneko's out, but Sumida is still in. The 24-year-old fashion promotion student said this has livened up her routine, which had become rather boring.

Now that the anxiety of the first date is over, Sumida said everyone is starting to relax and have fun.

One bet for a Komoda family favorite could be Jamie Inouye. She's 27 and graduated from Maui High School the year before he did. She's been finding sponsors to pay her air fare so she could play the game and represent the Neighbor Islands. And people on Maui, especially at the hospital where she works, have been telling her about their family connection to Komoda and wishing her well.

"He's a great guy. Very considerate. Very gentleman-like," she said. But: "No spark, I guess, as of yet."

But how about Angela Hoan? Former beauty queen for a guy who's into fashion? She showed her not-so-pretty side when she, too, took a tumble in a kayak on their date.

And ... she likes him.

"He's nice and he's laid-back and he's fun," she said. "As much as I hate to admit it, I do have a thing for Japanese guys. I feel like there could be chemistry."

(My friends always had an unwritten dating rule: If there's no goodnight kiss by the third date, maybe there's not enough chemistry. This weekend, date No. 3, maybe it's time for them to test that theory?)

Some readers have been getting a little impatient, wondering when the kissing-and-telling part of this game was going to begin. Now Komoda has more than an elimination strategy to think about. This time, he may have to concentrate more on his approach to making a love connection.

Have something you want to say? Write to hawaiisbachelor@honoluluadvertiser.com.

What's next?

It will be dinner and dancing for the Bachelor and his dates tomorrow night, but by the end of the evening, Kelly Komoda must narrow his dating pool from five to three.

Read the new postings for the online dating diaries Monday.

Watch for Komoda's hints about what happened in his diary on Wednesday.

Find out the details of the date, learn who was eliminated, read more diaries and view the online video and photo gallery a week from today in our dating game that brings reality to your doorstep.