For those of you who are not able to follow our radio show broadcasting on 79.5 Radio-i in Nagoya, Japan, “Manoa DNA Reports” is a segment from our show where we report about places or events around town and share them with our radio listeners. I am going to try and follow up here on my blog on those reports, so if you see this header, that’s what’s up.

Like I mentioned on our radio show, one of my favorite beaches to go and camp at is Bellows Beach Park in Waimanalo. For those of you that have never been out to Bellows, if you head east past Sandy Beach, you will round the corner and arrive in Waimanalo. A quaint town on the east side of O’ahu, Waimanalo has great food joints, and even better beaches. As you venture into Waimanalo, past the polo fields, you will arrive at Bellows Beach Park. Part of the USAF Bellows Air Force Base, Bellows Beach Park is a limited access beach that allows for weekend overnight camping.

My friends and I often go to Bellows to camp, and our favorite time of the year is fourth of July weekend. This is a jam packed camping weekend at all beach parks on O’ahu because most people have the entire weekend off from work. You have to plan ahead and get permits early, but if you do, it is a weekend full of fun and fireworks on the beach. It doesn’t hurt that you wake up every morning to the ocean and sun!

But be careful of the man-o-war!

“Nick Reports” is a section of the segment “Manoa DNA Reports” featuring weekly reports from each of Manoa DNA (Dad, Nick & Alex). Featured on Manoa DNA’s radio show, “Discover Aloha,” “Manoa DNA Reports” showcases different highlights from Hawai’i and Manoa DNA. For more information about “Manoa DNA’s Discover Aloha” radio show, visit the show’s website, or tune into 79.5 Radio-i (Nagoya, Japan) every Sunday from 11:00-13:00 (11a-1p).

Happy birthday to Nick!! He turns an old age of 27 today. We celebrated a little last night but tonight is the real party at Kani Ka Pila Grille. We play from 6-9 and we’ll stay after to celebrate. Come on down and have a few drinks with us and wish Nick a happy birthday while listening to some great music!

Now for those few people who read my blog know that my style is different than Dad or Alex’s. Dad and Alex use their blog to say what happened to them, where they’re going, what they’re thinking, etc. And while sometimes I like to mirror their style, I try to make my entries more informational and worthwhile long-term. So I hope you guys understand, that I’m not withholding information from you or ignoring you guys, I value each of my readers and hope they appreciate this difference.

Besides, if wanna get my day to day, follow me on Twitter!
http://www.twitter.com/nickkawakami

Anyway, onto the news! Hawai’i got smoked by Wisconsin over the weekend, capping off a roller-coaster of a season. And while the pole 11.5 crew showed up in force, it wasn’t enough as Wisconsin ran all over the place. Oh well, I have to say, with all the crap that Coach Mack had to deal with this year, it’s amazing how well it turned out. Congratulations and thanks go out to the senior class!

Some of you have heard that Manoa DNA will be airing a two-hour radio program in Nagoya, Japan every Sunday afternoon. We are meeting tonight to finalize the details of the show’s content, but as a preview I thought I would test my reporting skills and let you all know of a delicious Vietnamese place in Kaimuki, O’ahu called “Hale Vietnam!” Their specialty of course is the pho (Wikipedia definition), a soup and noodle dish with vegetables and your choice of meat. It comes with bean sprouts, basil, mint, along with your usual pho fixings creating a delicious aroma that hits you the minute you walk in the door. If you aren’t in the mood for soup, I also love their Vietnamese thin noodles. Comes with a variety of meat, seafood or vegetable toppings, and I tried the lemongrass chicken. Whoo! Broke da mout! So ono, so good. Definitely makes the trek out to Kaimuki worth it! If you get a chance to make it to Hale Vietnam, tell them Manoa DNA sent you! (They won’t know what you’re talking about, so take their photo and send it to me! I would love to see their face!)

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Have a great week everyone. Thanks for reading!
Nick

Good morning everyone!  It’s Day 1 for the JATA World Trade Fair and since it’s media day, we’re only doing one performance at noon today.  We’ll be attending a reception later this evening, so we won’t be able to join our dear friends, the Taguchis, for some great Tokyo shabu shabu … oh well, maybe in November?  The JATA/WTF is a huge tourism convention where countries from all over the world gather to showcase their food, music, and attractions to the public.  I heard that over 150,000 people attend this 2-day event … I recall past JATA events when I couldn’t even cross an aisle because there were so many people!  I hope our favorite Ghana food booth will be there again this year .. they have this awesome meat sandwich that is sooooo good!  I also wonder whether Alex will buy another instrument to add to his collection at home … last year he bought an African jembe (sp), a conga-like drum with a really great sound but a real pain in the butt to carry on the airplane home!

It was another busy day yesterday with a radio interview at InterFM and a visit to the J-WAVE studios.  I want to send a big “mahalo” out to our manager, Ann, for taking such good care of us and putting up with all of our b.s.!  U da bess, Umelani!  Well, I gotta run and start getting ready, so as we like to say to each other right before we go on stage, “see you at the end, boys”!

Aloha, “Pops”

I was bored today and I looked through my old videos and put together a little video!

Here it is, the VLog from last weekend’s adventure! My dad’s surprise birthday party and the shopping adventure are all in this vlog. It is kind of long, but it’s pretty great, I think I’m getting better at this video editing stuff. Be sure to see the very last scene with my brother when he tells us about his Jamba Juice.

Hope you enjoy!