Friends and Festivals

Had the pleasure of meeting Carly yesterday. She's a friend of a friend and was kind enough to give advice on the local happenings.

Even though she lives on Oahu she'd never been to Duke's so we decided to go. Good food but pricey. Worth going at least once. Huli Huli chicken and the ribs were tasty! No picture of that since I ate it too fast.

Had a little visitor while we were enjoying dinner. A tiny, grey gecko crawled by. I'd never seen one in real life before; biggest difference between that and other lizards I've seen in VA were the toes. Love how they spread out like that!



They had closed off the main drag when we arrived so after dinner we headed out to see what was up. Turns out it was the start of the Pan-Pacific Festival, a 3-day event promoting cultural exchange between Japan and Hawaii. This picture is of an Okinawan dance that was performed on the street and lasted for hours. The older folk took shifts. Younger ones just kinda wandered away (like we did). Here's some pics from last year's celebration.

Besides Japanese dances and drum exhibits, there were quite a few Hula displays. One thing I learned from Carly is that what I always thought of as "Hula" is actually Tahitian, not Hawaiian. The Tahitian dance is the one with the frenetic shaking of the hips and such. The Hula that I saw here was more reserved and graceful. Apparently Hula started out as a kind of prayer and is still performed as such during some official government ceremonies.

One of the biggest Hula festivals in Hawaii is coming up on the 11th - The King Kamehameha Festival, but it's over on the big island.

Hope they also do something over here.