Our Hokule'a Adventure

The weekend started out typically enough...running for the last train into tokyo on saturday night, met some friends at ueno station to go dancing at club ageha. tehani had never been to ageha (our favorite club in tokyo) so she HAD to go before she moves back to okayama. ageha is the biggest club in tokyo. it's like taking four different clubs and connecting them all together in one...there is also an outdoor deck with a pool and bar, a separate outdoor food area where there are picnic tables and various vendors, serving everything from korean to turkish...it's technically in chiba prefecture just two stops away from disneyland. sorry i don't have pictures of ageha, it's because camera's aren't allowed inside and there is a security check at the front including an unnecessary full body pat-down. we were at ageha until 5am, and caught the first train back to michelle's apartment.

later that day, we woke up around 1pm and didn't leave omiya until around 3. tehani's friend from home had a friend who's doing an architectural internship in tokyo. his name is luke, and he's an '01 grad from kamehameha. he's been in tokyo for 3 months but doesn't know anybody so he came along with us to ageha, and then met us again later that day. we had no set plans, but we knew that the hokule'a was docked in yokohama, so we decided to go check it out.


train to yokohama


yokohama

luke is a 6th year in UH's architecture doctoral program so he knows his stuff. we first made a stop at yokohama's international dock, where all of the boats with shipments arrive and depart. he taught us that this port is significant for it's construction because it was designed to look flowy like waves. there are supposedly no right angles, and it's hard to tell by the pictures but there are also hardly any flat decks. it just goes up and down, up and down...






the waviness is made possible by all of these boards carefully cut and shaped like this...he says that it's this kind of crap that makes construction workers hate architects. it's easy to conceptualize in your head, because you're not the one to have to put it togeether..michelle, tehani, and i were like, "so what? it's cut wood?" but he was fascinated...haha


after the port it was off to find the hokule'a! by the time we got to it, it was dark and there was nobody in sight...we were expecting a crowd because there had been festivities going on for it all week. it was just sitting there tied to the pier. there was a gate that was closed that prevented the public from being able to walk out on the pier and get near it. there was a really dark, kind of intimidating looking japanese guy standing at the gate, and we walked up to him and luke asked if we were allowed to walk out on the pier, and the guy (not even looking at us) just shook his head once and that was it. we were bummed, but it was japan. so we were about 30 feet away from it, snapping as many pictures as we could...it was dark so it was hard to get a good one.



we were standing there taking pictures, and listening to luke explain to michelle the entire history and significance of the hokule'a. we hadn't noticed that we were there for about 20 minutes...it was getting cold so we decided it was time to go. as we were walking away the same guy who wouldn't let us through the gate before stopped us and asked if we wanted to see the canoe. it was clear that he thought that we were just stupid foreigners who wanted to run out on the pier. apparently it happens a lot-naive foreigners and drunken japanese guys who try to hop on it. he let us through the gate, and the next thing we knew we were on the hokule'a.






solar panels

sleeping quarters





the man called himself "duke". he was a paddler from japan, who spent a lot of time in hawaii. the journey of the hokule'a from hawaii to japan took 6 months with one stop in-between. they left hawaii in january and arrived in june. they made 8 stops in japan, starting from okinawa and ending in yokohama. the purpose was to stop in the hometowns of the majority of japanese immigrants to hawaii. the hokule'a and it's escort, the kamahele, had a set crew for it's journey to japan, but there was no crew to take the kamahele back (the hokule'a is being shipped back). so that's how duke was recruited in japan to be part of the crew to take it back. he said it was his dream come true. he was disappointed though because once the hokule'a arrived in yokohama it was towed along to each city stop (rather than using free navigation) because each city had a big celebration and ceremony thing planned for it's arrival, it was important that the hokule'a arrive exactly on schedule at each port. duke said it made him mad at his country for being like that...we just said, "that's japan for ya!"

it was a surreal experience getting to hang out on the hokule'a. he was so nice and we were able to roam around, open all the flaps, coolers, boxes...we could touch all the paddles, hop in where they sleep...it was amazing! we asked where the rest of the crew was, and he said that they were having a potluck party in yamashita-koen just a 15 minute walk away. he told us to go check it out because there was plenty of food, but we didn't want to intrude on their party. so we went to kua'aina instead.




after we were done eating, we decided to just walk through yamashita-koen and see if we could just get glance at nainoa thompson and the rest of the crew. we heard the familiar sound of traditional hawaiian music, and a conch shell being blown, so we knew we were in the right place. as we were walking by the potluck we slowed down a lot and were trying to look around for any familiar faces. a lady saw his being "niele" and asked if we wanted to come and listen to the music. and we were all like, "oh no no it's ok"..and she was like, "nooo don't be shy just come listen!" so we explained to her that we were from hawaii and heard that the hokule'a gang were having a party here and was just passing through. so in typical hawaii style she offered us food and drinks. it turns out that her husband was the captain of the kamahele from hawaii to japan, so we met him too...his name was mike, a retired captain and boy was he drunk! he said we had to drinnk so we all shared a round of heinekens! we met a few other guys too, some even from the original crew! it was a lot of fun!


pa'ina


meenie greenies with the captain :)

we didn't take any pictures with the crew because they were so drunk they told us how they loved japan, but that it was hard to get around because they couldn't go anywhere without taking a thousand pictures and signing a million things, so we didn't want to ask..even though i'm sure that they wouldn't have minded for us. but oh well...

luke, michelle, and tehani had all never been to tsukiji fish market. it was on tehani's to-do list and we knew that it would have to be that next monday morning, or it would probably never happen. so the four of us decided to be CRAZY and wake up at 4am that morning and head down to see some fish! they were like, "andrea, are you sure you want to wake up that early and go AGAIN?" i was like, "are you kidding?? i LOVE that place!!" so we were off to tsukiji :)



shrimp

maguro

can u guess what this is?? at first i was like, what is beef doing in tsukiji!!??

the correct answer is: whale meat!!


SUSHI DAI-the most famous of tsukiji sushi restaurants

there is a line outside this place EVERYDAY...this is us waiting for 45 minutes to eat sushi at 7:30 on monday morning!!





the best sushi i have EVER have...and quite possibly my #1 favorite place in tokyo

after tsukiji we were zombies...we just roamed around shinjuku and shibuya half awake

another kua'aina

it was an AMAZING weekend, and that's becoming harder to say for michelle and i...we've had some pretty awesome ones...they're getting harder and harder to top! luke couldn't believe all that we had done in just 2 days...clubbing all night in tokyo's biggest dance club, yokohama port, cruising on the hokule'a, partying with the crew, then eating the best sushi in the world! we told him he didn't know what he was getting into...when us girls are together we don't mess around! :)