A Friendly Reminder...

A friendly reminder from the supermarkets of Yamaguchi Prefecture.

From April 1st...



Don't forget...



You need...



To bring...



Your own shopping bag (i.e. eco bag)...



Or suffer the consequences!^*



Listen to the lady!



^* Actually, the consequence is an extra 3 or 4 yen (I forget) per shopping bag.

And yes, this is true.




I could watch the first fifteen minutes or so of Raising Arizona over and over.

Yamaguchi-ken high school student suspected of murder found in Akihabara

More Yamaguchi-ken news, this time some sad news.
A 16 year-old 1st year high school student (name withheld) accused of murdering his grandfather in Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi was found in Akihabara. He had traveled to Tokyo from Yamaguchi. He had also assaulted and locked up his grandmother. The boy beat his grandfather with a bat and then strangled him.
The boy was not actually nabbed because he was a murder suspect. The one-way trip to Tokyo cost him roughly 12000 (and because he used local trains took almost 24 hours) and left him with only 50 yen. He was caught shoplifting food in the Akihabara Don Kihote and is being held in Tokyo right now.

Yahoo Japan article with news report is here.
Latest MDN article in Japanese is here.
MDN story in English before he got caught is here.

Update: They're There! The Hōkūleʻa (ホクレア) has landed in Okinawa!

Update: Story from The Honolulu Advertiser.

As I was editing this post, this went up!

"Just received information from Okinawa that Hokule'a and her escort boat Kama Hele pulled into the harbor at Itoman, Okinawa at 6am Hawai'i time this morning, that is 1:00am, Tuesday, 4/24 Okinawa time."

They've arrived!

Original post:

This is an update to this post.

From the Polynesian Voyaging Society weblog:

"After a cloudy, windy night and morning, Okinawa appeared on the horizon at one o’clock this afternoon. Nainoa spotted the island during a break from the hazy fog-like conditions. We were about 15 miles away, and Hokule’a was heading right for the majestic island, without anyone helping her to steer. Everyone could feel the mana of this wa’a, and we hugged each other with tears of joy and emotions we may not ever be able to put into words."

The full weblog is here.

Events are planned in Okinawa from the 25th of April.

Two of the crew members are from Japan, 内野加奈子 (Uchino Kanako) and 荒木汰久治 (Araki Takuji). A Japanese weblog is here.

Photos of their journey from Yap to Okinawa.

I'm looking for stuff about Hokulea related events in the areas they'll be landing in.
沖縄 Okinawa
熊本 Kumamoto
長崎 Nagasaki
福岡 Fukuoka
山口　周防大島 Yamaguchi (Suo-Oshima)
広島 Hiroshima
愛媛　宇和島 Ehime (Uwajima)
横浜 Yokohama
If you get a link, put it in the comments and if I can I'll update the list.

For those who will be in those areas, come out to see the crew and celebrate the almost one hundred year relationship between Japan and Hawaii!

Add-on:
Here's a video about the Hokule'a's voyage to Japan from Japanese TV (thanks to Youtube user hokuleaoutreach):