What We Offer - Youth - Jr. Choir

The Junior Choir had a great trip to Hawaii. As usual, the hosts were awesome and provided us with more food than we could handle. The weather was great. We visited 4 temples of the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii.

The trip began early on the morning of July 24 at SFO. Everyone was to arrive at the airport by 7am so that they could work their way through ticketing, baggage check, and the various security stations. One family, though they were there on time, almost did not make it onto the flight because of the long ticketing and security processes. Our flight was made more special when we discovered that one of our flight attendants was scout parent Margie Kusumoto. She anticipated our arrival and privided candy leis for the kids and for Elaine Jones.

Arrival in Honolulu was on time and smooth. Our travel agent representatives met us and helped us gather our luggage and onto the bus to our first hotel - the Aston Waikiki.

Here we are, all decked out in our green travel shirts, and all ready to go to our rooms and relax after a long trip.

Pearl City Obon - (See Pearl City pictures)

Everyone was given ample free time on this trip, and our first event was to attend the Obon at the Pearl City Hongwanji Mission on Friday night, July 25. Unlike the Obons here on the mainland, Hawaii Obons tend to have fewer games, less food and much more dancing. In fact, the normal schedule is dancing, immediately following the Hatsubon Service at about 7:30pm and going until at least 10:30pm. San Jose Junior Choir participated in the entire evening of dancing at Pearl City. We were over 70 people strong, all in Choir (except for 3 Betsuin) hapi coats. Everyone had a great time, and after the dancing stopped (at about 10:45pm), our Pearl City hosts fed us. You will note a continuous theme about our hosts feeding us quite well.

Hawaii Betsuin Performance - (See Hawaii Betsuin pictures)

On Sunday July 27, the Jr. Choir got on their buses again bound for a morning performance at the Hawaii Betsuin (Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin Buddhist Temple). We attended their Dharma School Service where we listened to a wornderful sermon by Rev. Jan Youth about "Managing your Monku". What an appropriate sermon! After the service, the Choir members were each presented leis by our hosts and then the choir performed its first program of the trip in the Hondo. Honolulu local, and Choir mom Joanne Akizuki was the emcee for the Hawaii Betsuin performance. Everyone did well and the 150+ people who attended were very appreciative. After the performance, we were invited downstairs for an unbelievable lunch provided by our hosts.

Our thanks go to Mrs. Mitsuyo Saito and Mrs. Laura Naksone for hosting us and helping us with the logistics of the day. The Senior Choir members of the Hawaii Betsuin were responsible for making and presenting the leis to the San Jose Junior Choir members and they also helped throughout our visit. These special flower leis were made with flowers from a university project. The flowers had unique aromas depending on their specific hybridization process.

Hilo - (See Hilo pictures)

Our stay in Hilo was very brief. Leaving Honolulu on two separate flights, the Choir arrived in Hilo in two groups. Each group visited Big Island Candies on the way the the hotel - the Hilo Hawaiian. The hotel was great and the view was spectacular.

Hilo Betsuin Performance

Our performance at the Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin was on the night of our arrival in Hilo. Our emcee for this event was Hilo native Irv Harada - a Choir dad. We were directed to the Hondo first where we were given a Hawaii lei greeting and then we offered Oshoko. The Hilo Betsuin has a beautiful, new, $3M Sangha Hall. The hall is used for both temple events and for community events. It accommodates gatherings, sporting events, and musical and other stage events. What a great venue for our kids.

This second performance was made special by performances by Hilo's Junior and Adult choirs. In addition, all of the choirs joined in to sing "Ondokusan II" and "Good-Bye and So Long". Unlike our other venues, the Hilo folks did not feed us after the performance - they fed us first! Another wonderful meal, prepared by the local temple members, with many local treats and specialties. Many thanks to our host, Mrs. Karen Maedo, and to Hilo Rinban Tatsuo Muneto.

The evening came to an end all too quickly, and it was back on the buses and back to our hotel. Most of us wished that we had at least one more day in Hilo to get a look at the area, but it was time to head off to Kona - by bus - the next morning.

Trip to Kona - (See pictures of our bus ride to Kona)

The first stop upon leaving the Hilo Hawaiian was to visit the local KTA grocery store to pick up both breakfast and lunch. They were warned that we were coming, so they had lots of breakfast and lunch bento ready to go, and their bakery was full of delicious treats. The buses took us to Kona through several points of interest. We had wanted to visit the active volcano to see the lava flows, but the hike is currently over two miles. Instead we visited the national park and stopped at the information center and at the rim of the caldera. It was windy on top of the mountain, but it was a very interesting journey, complete with sulfur deposits, various types of lava flows, and active steam vents. We stopped at a lava tube to allow everyone to walk through the tube, located in a lush jungle-like area. Other stops along the way included a sweet bread factory where we ate lunch, and a Kona Coffee store where we stopped to learn more about Kona Coffee and buy a little too.

Kona - (See pictures from Kona, the Onizuka Museum and the Kona Mission)

We arrived at our final hotel - the Ohana Keahou Beach Resort after a day of sightseeing and, yes, eating. Another hotel with an awesome view, a great pool, and snorkeling areas right next door. The families had lots of time to go play, shop, rest, or do whatever they wanted in Kona.

Ellison Onizuka Museum

Alvin Hironaga, one of the Choir dads, arranged for us to visit the Ellison Onizuka Museum at the Kona airport. Given the size of our group, we really filled up the small museum and exhibit. We were treated to a video presentation along with the many hands-on exhibits. Though many of the Junior Choir members are too young to remember the Challenger disaster, the museum had many great exhibits and informational offerings to explain the significance of Ellison Onizuka's contributions to both out Space Program and to the community. Our sincere thanks go to Alvin for arranging this very special field trip.

Kona Hongwanji Mission Performance - (See pictures from Kona, the Onizuka Museum and the Kona Mission)

We arrived for our final performance, at the Kona Hongwanji Mission, quite a bit early after misjudging the local traffic. However, our hosts rallied to get everything started early since we were there. Amazingly, most of their members were already at the temple - over 45 minutes early. (We need to send a study mission group from San Jose to Kona to find out how they get people to show up early!!).

The Hondo was ornately decorated for the Hatsubon service. We entered the Hondo to a lei greeting. These beautiful hand-made yarn leis were all made by one 83-year-old temple member (Mrs. Sato). There were over 80 of us traveling together, so there was a lot of her work going home with us. Reverend Hosho Shindo, though ill with walking-pnuemonia, performed a brief service before we moved over to the hall. Their large hall was a perfect venue for the Choir performance. The Choir wishes to express their special thanks to Dr. Walter Kunitake who helped us a great deal with the arrangements and greeted us as we arrived. Our local native representative emcee for the Kona performance was Choir dad Alvin Nakagawa. Once again, the kids performed well and received a grand ovation from the local temple members. The Kona folks provided a significant amount of entertainment of their own. Four young ladies performed two classical Japanese dances. The Kona Choir sang for us. Finally, the local taiko group accompanied as Mrs. Shindo led us in several Obon-odori dances - after first teaching us Pokemon-ondo. Oh yes, and lest we forget - they fed us. We discussed having a "light refreshment" available after the performance, but what they provided could easily have been dinner. It was wonderful and plentiful.

Farewell Dinner - (See pictures of the Farewell Dinner and final night)

Arranged by Choir mom Cyndi Sakuma, our farewell dinner was a buffet held at the King Kamehameha Hotel. The required dress of the night was distinctly Hawaiian. Consequently, the local Hilo Hattie's did a land-office business in the days leading up to the dinner. The food was great, the shirts and dresses were beautiful and it was fun seeing everyone all dressed up. We were entertained by stories, awards, singing and dancing. The farewell dinner is always a great sendoff party, and this one was no exception.

Another special treat in Kona was the interest by the local YBA in getting together with our YBA members. Several of them, along with Mrs. Shindo, came to our hotel on our final night and spent several hours visiting with the San Jose members.

Mandatory Parent Meetings

After long days of touring, swimming, shopping, performing, and riding buses, we tried to make sure we had a parent meeting to wrap up the day - at least for the adults. Jim McClure, who spent so many hours making this trip possible, served as chairman of the meetings. Attendance was spotty at times, but we still managed to cover the necessary topics. Of course the only meeting rooms available were in the hotel lounge, but we suffered through it. But, as you can see below, our last parent meeting was not to be - we burned out our fearless leader.

We finally wore him out. Oh well, great job Jim!! It was a wonderful trip.

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