HAWAI'I'S BACHELOR
Bachelor: Bliss missed

• Hawai'i's Bachelor has said 'No, thanks' to eight women so far

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

Brynn Leake recounts what her facial was like as fellow spa-goers, from left, Lauren Sumida, Kelly Komoda and Angela Hoan provide a rapt audience at the Heaven On Earth Salon & Day Spa, which was the setting for the first part of Saturday's date. More photos from the fourth date are available in the Hawai'i Bachelor photo gallery. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser What's next? Hawai'i's Bachelor will hand out his final rose on the last date tomorrow night. Read the contestants' dating diaries, view the video from Date Four and see the photo gallery here. Check back on Monday for more online dating diaries. Read Komoda's hints on Wednesday, and find out the results of the last date a week from today in Island Life. A party for all of the Hawai'i's Bachelor contestants will wrap things up May 9 at The Ocean Club at Restaurant Row. It's open to the public after 9 p.m. Spa date credits The Advertiser organized the Hawai'i's Bachelor date at a spa with help from these businesses. Spa treatments: Heaven On Earth Salon & Day Spa Flowers: Bella Rosa

It's not that Sumida didn't try to spice things up. As one of 10 bachelorettes competing for Bachelor Kelly Komoda's heart when this dating game began last month, she even tried to arrange a secret rendezvous with Komoda, but she decided he was boring with a capital B.

"You want the truth? Honestly, he's kind of blah," she said after the spa date.

"OK, you'll probably hear this later," she admitted, "A couple weeks ago, I asked him to go eat dinner. And I brought food over to his house. And I was trying to, you know, get him to have more life or something. He's just blah for me."

That's right, Sumida, a 24-year-old fashion student and soccer player, made it to the second-to-last date, but she was the latest bachelorette to be booted from the competition. Only two women remain for the final date this weekend.

In Komoda's defense, he took the whole spa date like a man. The 26-year-old teacher even let the pedicurist put clear polish on his toenails.

"It was way better than I thought it would be," he said. "I thought it was going to be a lot more girlish, very uncomfortable. But, overall, it was really relaxing. I can see why girls and guys come here."

But back to the booted bachelorette. Finally, someone is dishing the dirt on Hawai'i's Bachelor:

"My friends and everyone that I surround myself with, they're really animated and they're not so, 'Yeah, whatevers,' you know?" Sumida said. "They have their own opinions and they're not afraid to butt heads or hurt people, because that's how we actually learn from our mistakes and we learn from each other."

Her biggest criticism of Komoda? She said he was indecisive.

It's true that Komoda has tried to not hurt anyone's feelings. ("That's just the way I am," he said.)

He's relied heavily on advice from other people, including his mother. (She even showed up at the third date.)

The first time Komoda had to eliminate bachelorettes from his dating pool, he based his decision on readers' online votes. (He nixed that strategy after readers told him he had taken the easy way out.)

When he was asked which bachelorette he wanted to have specific spa treatments with, he left it up to them. (He said he didn't know which one wanted a pedicure, facial or massage.)

The most emotion he's shown in this game was when someone e-mailed hawaiisbachelor@honoluluadvertiser.com and said they spotted him holding hands and "mingling" with a non-bachelorette last Saturday night at The Ocean Club and they could provide photographic proof. (That prompted a defensive rant from the Bachelor, which said things like, "This is not the National Enquirer or something like that. I am very interested to see who it was that I am holding hands with (maybe I remember who it is), so please send in the picture because I forgot to take my camera that night.)

And you thought everyone was getting along.

The remaining bachelorettes, Brynn Leake (a golden-haired fifth-grade teacher from California) and Angela Hoan (a former Miss Waikiki who works at a bank), have been palling around. They even went to dinner the other night, sans the Bachelor. Maybe they're coming up with a plan to add some drama to the final date.

After Date No. 2, Hoan said she might feel some chemistry toward the Bachelor. But no sparks have ignited.

The candles, fountain and zen-like music at Heaven On Earth Salon & Day Spa may have done more to cool things down than heat anything up. Hoan was an hour-and-a-half late for the spa date (she overslept), and while she and Hawai'i's Bachelor shared a room for their body massages, they hardly talked. (They laughed because Komoda was so ticklish, but that was about it.)

And beyond being teachers who surf, Komoda and Leake have barely scratched the surface to find out whether they have much more in common.

Is there still a chance for romance?

"I mean, I can't say," Komoda said. "But I wouldn't bet on it."

Maybe you have suggestions on how to make the final date a doozy? Write to the Bachelor or bachelorettes at hawaiisbachelor@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Hawai'i's Bachelor has said 'No, thanks' to eight women so far

Date 1

Hours before the date, magazine editor Cathy Cruz pulled herself out of the running. Nine other bachelorettes showed up April 4 at Indigo restaurant in Chinatown to meet the man they had been reading about — bachelor Kelly Komoda. By the end of the date, Hawai'i's Bachelor eliminated two of the most outgoing contestants: Brooke Price, a spunky preacher's daughter, and Kelli Bullock, an outdoorsy type who has paddled the Moloka'i channel.

Date 2

The atmosphere changed dramatically on the second date, and the bachelorettes stopped trying to be pretty and just tried to not blow away April 12 during a gusty picnic at Kailua Beach. Bachelorette Jenn Lee got dumped, literally — first by flipping in a kayak with the Bachelor and then when he didn't give her a rose. Liane Kaneko, an accounting student who brought Komoda a bag of Maui potato chips on the first date, also got cut from the dating pool.

Date 3

A limo ride through Waikiki was the highlight of this April 19 date.

Or was the real highlight when the Bachelor's mom showed up at Morton's The Steakhouse, where Komoda was dining with five remaining bachelorettes?

The night was full of attention-getting moments.

It included the most public rose ceremony yet. In front of a crowd at the Ocean Club, Komoda eliminated Jennifer Hee, the Harvard grad who wanted out of the game, and Jamie Inouye, the bachelorette who had been commuting from Maui to play the game.

Date 4

Three was a crowd for the Bachelor last Saturday at Heaven On Earth Salon & Day Spa. While a pedicure made his toes tingle, Komoda's heart didn't go pitter-patter. He dropped one more bachelorette from his dance card. Lauren Sumida said she at least got a nice pedicure out of the deal.