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):

Get on board EVA's Hello Kitty Plane! (エバー航空キティランド)

Went to Taiwan recently for a short vacation. From Fukuoka it takes about two hours to get to Taipei via plane. And I didn't ride just any plane. I got a chance to ride on one of EVA's Hello Kitty planes!



I think that because Fukuoka lacks the name value of Tokyo and Osaka the plane I rode on wasn't nearly as over the top as other photos I've seen on the net. No staff wearing Hello Kitty gear and the in-flight meal wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be. However I did get some nice "freebies" from them:



Hey, what's that on the left?



Yes, Sanrio believes that Kitty needs to be a vital part of your motion sickness.

I'll admit that I was excited when I realized that I was going to be riding on the Hello Kitty plane. And it was quite interesting, except for the video and song that play over and over while you're waiting for take-off. For anyone who does get to ride on the plane, when you're watching the video please try to get a close look at Kitty when they get really close up to her black dress. I won't explain, you just have to decide for yourself when you see it. I was just disappointed that the safety video didn't feature Sanrio characters.

Boo!


Note: For anyone who wants to use these photos, go ahead but a) save it and upload it yourself, b) give credit and c) keep the crappy watermark down on the left. I know it'll be unlikely but I'm just saying, you know?

BTW!
Do airlines in the states still give away decks of cards? When I was growing up my family had a drawer full of decks from United, Continental etc. I was surprised when I got this:



I don't think Japanese airlines give them out. If anyone has info (because I'm too lazy to google it) let me know.

BTW BTW!

Only five more days till SASUKE 2007!