We decided at the last minute yesterday to brave the crowds and heavy gray clouds and check out the monthly "Family Sunday" at Bishop Museum.
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For all the paid advertising they did for this month's "X-TREME Science" exhibit, you'd think they'd have at least one person around to answer questions. It was a good thing we were already members, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have joined had they given me the pitch at the door.
Even though it was late (we got there at three, and things wrapped up at five), and the sky threatened rain, there was still a good crowd. There was live music and assorted booths, as always. But this month, sponsor Bank of Hawaii gave out free shave ice. So the first thing we did — suckers as we were for the stuff — was get in line.
We got our cones quick enough (I made sure to thank the guys making the stuff, as no doubt they'd had a long day), and settled down on the grassy hillside to enjoy our treat. And those ten minutes cinched the trip for me, and just about made my week.
Katie couldn't get enough shave ice, seemingly torn between wolfing down the sweet ice or sucking up the thick syrup through her straw. She didn't spare a single drop, not even on her clothes.
After all but licking our flimsy paper cones dry, we wandered around to see the sights. We went into the new exhibit building to check out the "X-TREME Science," chock full of displays and buttons and gizmos that kept the kids engaged, but didn't exactly offer much of substance. The space exhibit upstairs was only slightly different than the Mars exhibit we saw last August. And it turned out we also missed the day's star attraction: the famous (infamous) cloned mice, which — thanks to some jellyfish DNA — were bald, green, and glowed in the dark.
Just as well, though, as hearing about anyone "messing with Mother Nature" usually elicits an angry rant from Jen.
We then went next door to the original museum to revisit the permanent collections (which Jen and I wholeheartedly prefer to the flashy stuff). Once again we worked our way around every floor of the main gallery, up to the top floor with the costumes and other ethnic artifacts that Jen likes best.
With no buttons to push, Katie was a little bored, but she was patient and found ways to entertain herself. Rather than studying the objects in the various glass cases, her favorite pasttime was reading each case's serial number, painted in the corner in tiny numbers.
After an aborted attempt to get Katie on the big inflatable slide (turns out she was too small, which made us wonder if we missed the warning sign last year on the Tot-Tanic), we decided to head home.
And as we exited the main gate, the sky opened up, and we ran screaming back to the car. We got home wet but content, partaking of a simple spaghetti dinner to wrap up our weekend.
Although we didn't get our field trip to Kumu Kahua Theatre, we did expand our horizons in class today with a pair of "personal narrative" videos from the incredible (and ever under-funded) Wong Audiovisual Center at Sinclair Library. The topic? Japanese internment during World War II.
One was by a sansei woman who interviewed her mother about the experience, and the other by a nisei who was sent to Manzanaar when she was sixteen. Both were jerky, awkward, but simple and honest documentaries. After each video, it was hard for my classmates and I to come up with any worthy comments.
The journalist in me, or perhaps the diarist (or a combination of both), spent much of the class wondering about how thoroughly things like these obscure videos were being catalogued and archived. I hated to think that decaying, fading VHS dubs made from decaying, fading 8mm films stored in an old library at UH were the only place these personal stories could be heard. I wondered if there was an AJA project similar to Steven Spielberg's Holocaust Survivor Digital Archival Project.
It also made me remember the audio tapes of my grandmother that I once made for a school project. I know I wasn't able to use them much, as her stories were mostly in Japanese, but I really hope I saved them somewhere.
Maybe I'll start reading the "invitations" (i.e. donation solicitations) I keep getting from the Japanese American National Museum again.
Not a good month for the military in Hawai`i.
The tragedy of the Japanese fishing vessel that was hit by an American nuclear submarine on Friday dominated the national and local news all weekend, as it quickly mushroomed into an international incident. They're still searching for survivors tonight, more to appease the families of the nine missing (four of whom were 17-year-old students) than out of hope of success.
The military chartered a commercial catamaran (the Navatek, in fact) to take families of the victims to the crash site yesterday, and officials seem on the verge of reversing an earlier statement that they would not try to salvage the sunken ship. The sub's commander, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was quickly reassigned and may face a court martial. The U.S. is, if somewhat belatedly, working overtime to minimize the fallout.
It was only a day or so after the accident that I learned that it occurred during a dramatic "emergency blow" maneuver, in which the sub surfaces so fast it comes way out of the water at a steep angle and crashes back down. And that there were 15 civilian observers aboard the submarine at the time. I desperately hope, but know many genuinely fear, that some needless ... showboating was nvolved.
(Ironically, at work on the same day of the accident, we were contemplating having a high-ranking military official speak at our April meeting in Tokyo. Needless to say the idea was scrapped first thing this morning.)
And tonight, a fatal mid-air collision of two Army "Blackhawk" helicopters near Kahuku. Reportedly seven dead and a number of others injured. So once again Hawaii pops up in CNN's lead story, and no doubt military officials in Hawaii will wake up tomorrow to loud criticism from both sides of the Pacific.
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