I had a terrible golf score yesterday – 93!  For some reason my drives off the tee were hooking so badly that it looked like I was throwing a boomerang!  Luckily, the other guys weren’t doing much better so I pretty much broke even on my bets and escaped a lot of abuse!  I was invited to play tomorrow morning at Hoakalei, a new Ernie Els-designed golf course  out in Ewa.  My friend told me that the courset has something like 130+ sand traps … YIKES!  Sand is my worst #@*%# enemy!  Now, now … think positive, Lloyd …

The University of Hawaii football season kicks off tonight with our U.H. team taking on Central Arkansas out at Aloha Stadium.  We won’t be able to go since we’re playing at Lulu’s, but we’ll be rooting for our beloved Warriors!  Go get ‘em coach Mack!!

Aloha, Lloy”D”

With 9 shows down and 11 or so more to go, we have been jammin’ round Tokyo. First two days we spent in Narita, performing at the Narita Airport’s “Oasis Music Week.” I’ll be honest, I thought it was going to be pretty bad, but it turned out to be ok. Good turn out for all five performances, and everyone really seemed to be in a good mood! Luckily, the last show was mostly people going to Hawai’i anyway, so I think they appreciated getting in the mood.

Yesterday was our first full day performing in Tokyo. We got up and headed to four different show locations, performing for travel industry types and people booking tours! It was really an interesting experience considering we had to play three of the four gigs acoustic. I felt like the old-time Hawai’i performers, showing our craft for anyone who would listen. Really humbling, and brought me back to our beginning days of Manoa DNA!

Well, we’re off to two more gigs in Tokyo, then on to Sendai. Hope everyone is doing well, and thank you to all those readers who came down and supported us!

Aloha,
Nick

We performed for Nittele TV’s 55th Anniversary show, which wasn’t really a show as it was a festival. This stage was sweet! Sandwiched between the giant Nittele TV building and the Shiseido (makeup) building, they had booths, demonstrations, live shows, music, and of course THIS GUY:

He was the MC for the whole entire show and the hardest working man there. He did everything from MC the shows, to sing the festival theme song, to broadcast live on the radio! He’s my hero.

Anyway, we enjoyed four short shows over two days and were featured twice on Nittele TV’s weather report. Thanks Tokyo! We’ll be back soon!

As a present to our fans, we gave out headbands to a few lucky fans who made it to our shows.
Created specifically for our trip to Yokohama this month, it sure helped us beat the heat!

For those that came to the Yokohama Hawaii Festival at the Osanbashi Hall were privileged to a sneak peak of the Tokyo Disney Compilation Album we were on.

If you have a chance, check out the album. It includes greats like Vance K., Cecilio & Kapono & Willie K.

This year, at the Osanbashi Hall, we we’re lucky to help our hula dancers Jackie Booth, Malu Akiona & Kainoa Silva teach 1,000 people the hula to our HTJ theme song “Discover Aloha with Me.”

Thank you Yokohama!

Now we are in Tokyo for the second half of the trip. If you are in the area, come down to the Nittei TV station building as we will be performing two more shows today before we head home!

Aloha, Nick