First Hawaii and now Korea...

Oh, shyte! I think Daniel Dae Kim is stalking me.

...

Korean church turns wards into plowshares (or something like that)

I guess it's a good things if Korean churches get known for something other than being big or being scandalous. Helping the homeless (and teaching them urban agriculture) is certainly a worthy cause:

A Korean Assembly of God church in Kalihi that currently houses 35 homeless people in tents on its grounds plans to move two dozen of its homeless clients to help run a farm in Waianae Valley in the next several weeks.

State lawmakers who have been wrestling with homeless issues from Waikiki to Kalihi to Waianae had not heard of the plan by Hawaii Cedar Church on Kamehameha IV Road, but offered praise Tuesday after the church's announcement.

Yeah, yeah. Watch me eat my words three or four years later when I end up writing a post on how these homeless folks were used a slave farm labor.

I kid! I kid! (More on this later.)

...

Has Korea's dream of an US-based electric car boom gone bust?

Last year we reported on the plans of a certain Korean company, CT&T, to build electric cars with existing technology right here in the Aloha State, but now we're getting word that the venture is in trouble. In fact, it's kind of a no-show.

From the Honolulu Star-Advertiser:

Korean electric car company CT&T made a splash in three states when it rolled shiny, tiny vehicles off big rigs and announced with smiling governors that it would hire hundreds of Americans to build them in new factories.

But those plans have stalled in Hawaii, Pennsylvania and South Carolina without anyone hired, any plants constructed or any electric cars assembled.

The South Korean electric car and golf cart manufacturer has apparently abandoned its pledge to the three states — without notice — and deserted its new U.S. markets amid financial difficulties, The Associated Press has learned.

Meanwhile, an American subsidiary, CT&T United, is in the process of separating from Seoul-based CT&T and hopes to take on North American ownership and attract more U.S. investors, James Park, vice president of the subsidiary, told the AP in a phone interview Thursday.

He said CT&T United is abandoning plans for facilities in Pennsylvania, but the company still wants to build in Hawaii and South Carolina. Park said the U.S. subsidiary hopes to raise $250 million to move forward with its plans.

But there have been no signs of any progress, state and business leaders said.

Since the governors of all three states attracted publicity and news coverage for CT&T, the company has gone silent. Its phone lines in Atlanta and Los Angeles have been disconnected, and the website for CT&T United remains under construction.

CT&T had said in May of last year it intended to build an assembly facility in Hawaii that would employ up to 400 people and produce up to 10,000 vehicles a year. Hawaii hailed the automaker as it has struggled for years to diversify its tourism-dependent economy and shed its image as a difficult place to do business because of high costs, taxes and red tape.

That doesn't sound good at all. Hawaii is hurting for jobs, and it so desperately wishes to break out of the economic mold that is dominated by tourism, the military, and the agriculture that still exists. Perhaps the US subsidiary will be able to work better if it isn't constrained by a parent company thousands of miles away.

Indeed, CT&T has promise. The Economist had glowing things to say about what makes it work and its potential in an island setting like Oahu:

Its flagship model, the eZone, is a quirky two-seater aimed at housewives, the elderly and those making the daily school run. It has a range of 100km and can clip along at 70kph if you really put your foot down.

It is a proper car, though. In particular, it is the only low-speed electric car to have passed international front and side crash tests, meaning that it can go on general sale. That will happen in Europe any day now, with a starting price between $8,000 and $16,000, and CT&T has plans to introduce the eZone into Hawaii (one part of the United States where journeys are, by definition, short) in two years’ time, when a local factory is up and running. It is also cheap to run. The firm claims that 1,500km of urban driving—about a month’s worth—will cost a mere $7 in electricity bills. ...

Critics of electric cars frequently argue that their viability depends on government subsidies. Not so the eZone. CT&T’s use of simple, existing technology, as well as its country of origin—the South Korean government has shown a distinct lack of interest in handing out cash to electric-car drivers—means it is an exception which overthrows the rule.

Point of information: there are in fact some places in Hawaii where you can drive pretty far. From Hilo to Captain Cook, going over the Saddle on the Big Island, for example, is about a hundred miles, and that's by no means the farthest you can travel on the Big Island. Maui also has some long drives, as does Oahu if, say, you're commuting from Haleiwa to Ala Moana.

But I digress. For the most part, 100 km (about 60 miles) is sufficient for most people on Oahu, or in Southern California for that matter. It's doable, especially at $4/gallon gas.

Okay, CT&T, do your part.

Aloha Army

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has an article pointing out how big a role the US military plays when it comes to the Hawaii state economy. All told, it's about one-sixth of the state economy.

Their graphic is very telling (click to enlarge):

A lazy day on the windward side

We are winding our way from Kaneohe to Waimea Bay. We may take in a movie in Kaneohe on the way back. Any suggestions?

This spot is Kualoa Beach Park, not far from the oft films Kualoa Ranch.

UPDATE:
After a hike up to Waimea Falls, site of a couple scenes on Lost, and then jumping off the rock a couple times at nearby Waimea Bay, we saw Bridesmaids. It was pretty funny. Nice to see SNL's Kristen Wiig given a chance to try out a starring role.

Playing tourist (updated)

I'm starting my weekend early by playing tourist. After getting free samples at Dole Plantation and ruining my favorite white tee with plum powder and 파인주스, we have headed to the North Shore for shrimp scampi at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. 냄새 좋아 ...

UPDATE:
After viewing sea turtles coming ashore at Laniakea Beach (photos forthcoming), we headed for historic Haleiwa for a shave ice at Matsumoto's and then a coconut latte at Coffee Gallery (which closes at 8 p.m. but leaves their wifi-equipped lanai open indefinitely, a cool business model methinks).

This was followed by a delicious ahi (tuna) burrito at Cholo's Homestyle Mexican Restaurant (supposedly the best Mexican food on Oahu, which is a bit like being the best Mexican food in Seoul). While the ahi burrito did not taste like authentic Baja California cuisine, it was still incredibly good (very tender ahi, which tends to dry out when you cook it, which is why I prefer it as sushi).

UPDATE 2:
I should point out that the itinerary was all the work of "M," who is quite adept at figuring out interesting places to go on this island. I don't think it would have occurred to me to spend a leisurely day doing these things without her prodding.

Also, I had no idea Laniakea Beach was such a great site for viewing sea turtles. I had driven by there a number of times on the way to Waimea Bay (which has a great rock for jumping off of, and is a fun place to watch high waves crash during the winter months), but I assumed all the people standing there were just plain old tourists doing plain old touristy things. Is it my fault sea turtles are hard to see from Kamehameha Highway?

Honeymooning with a heavy heart

Takaaki Matsumoto and his wife Chiaki feel very, very bad.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is reporting on Japanese tourists who are still coming to Hawaii despite everything that's happened back home in Japan:

Tourists from Japan are still flying in to Hawaii, but some interviewed yesterday brought pangs of guilt with them.

"I feel apologetic," said 31-year-old Osaka resident Yasuo Mitsuhiro, through an interpreter. "But I planned this trip over six months ago, so I decided to come anyway. Right now people are suffering in Japan, and I feel bad coming on a trip like this."

On March 11, Hawaii was hit by seismic sea waves from Japan's devastating magnitude-9.0 earthquake. And now the state anticipates a drops in visitor arrivals just as the industry was starting to show signs of improvement after the recession.

About 1.2 million Japanese travelers accounted for about 17.3 percent of statewide visitor arrivals in 2010. They spend up on average about $270 a day.

However, several traveling agencies and hotels have reported cancellations and decreases in reservations.

The impact of any significant drop in arrivals would be broad. Toru Hama yasu, who heads the Rapid Transit Division, overseeing the city's $5.5 billion rail transit project, said last week that the city is concerned about a drop in general excise tax collections.

He said Japanese travelers can account for up to 5 percent or 6 percent of the general excise tax and that the rail proj ect depends on a surcharge of the tax for funding.

All of the arriving Japanese tourists interviewed yesterday said they had planned their trips months ago. None of them came from areas heavily affected by the quake or tsunami.

One might find that last bit, about how the Tohoku earthquake and ensuing tsunami will adversely affect Hawaii's coffers, a tad distasteful, but we've seen plenty of news stories talking about the adverse effects of Japan's two-pronged tragedy in economic or commercial areas not in Japan (e.g., that iPad shipments may be held up due to a lack of parts from Japan).

I guess that's just it: life goes on for many people, even if all this is there in the back of their mind. I can imagine, though, that they felt a little awkward having a reporter in Oahu ask them point blank if they feel guilty about taking a pleasure trip at a time like this.

I wonder how I would react if I were one of those honeymooners who was about to get married and take off to start my marriage when the quake and tsunami hit. I have a relative who got married on September 11, but one year earlier. I asked if they were considering changing the date on which they celebrated their anniversary. The answer was, no, they thought that day should still have some good associated with it.

The ten worst things about living in Honolulu

I found this list while searching for news about whether Olive Garden would be coming to Oahu anytime soon. I have to admit that all of these are true to some degree (my pet peeve is the drivers in Hawaii), though I usually don't let them get to me the way this person apparently has.

Earthquake in Japan, tsunami watch warning in Hawaii

Hawaii State Civil Defense information site HERE

A tsunami carries boats across waters in Kamaishi city
port in this still image taken from NHK video footage.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of northern Japan, which was struck by a powerful 8.9-magnitude earthquake earlier today, followed by a massive ten-meter high tsunami that swept away cars, boats, and even buildings [update: more tsunami video here]. I have not seen any reports of casualties, but there undoubtedly are many [update: At least 32 deaths].

NHK footage shows a ship upturned by a tsunami in Aomori Prefecture.

Here in Hawaii, the tsunami sirens have just gone off (9:57 to 10:00 p.m.). Immediately after news of the earthquake, there was a tsunami watch for the Hawaiian Islands, but it was just now upgraded to a tsunami warning (the difference between a tsunami watch and a tsunami warning is here). They are saying that all shores in the state are vulnerable, no matter which direction they face.

[Please note that Hawaii is not the only place threatened by tsunamis. The American territories of Guam and the Mariana Islands are also under threat, as are a number of other places in other countries ringing the Pacific Ocean.]

Any possible tsunami event would hit Oahu at around 2:59 3:07 a.m., four and a half hours from now. The western side of the island is most vulnerable. Judging by the last tsunami warning we had (which I live-blogged about here, here, and here), I'm on high enough ground (i.e., outside the evacuation zone), but tourists in Waikiki and especially residents of Waianae or Ewa Beach have got to be nervous.

Stay safe, everyone.

UPDATE 4 (the following morning):
With little news from Japan last night and with the coastal evacuation being a very big deal right here in Honolulu, updates to this post inevitably became more about Hawaii than Japan. I have since made a post exclusively about Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami here.



UPDATE 1 (10:30 p.m. HST):
All coastal areas are to be evacuated immediately. Honolulu Mayor Carlisle is announcing this. Waikiki visitors and residents may have to do a "vertical evacuation."

They are expecting wave amplitudes of two meters (about six feet).

Here is the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's handy-dandy list of refuge centers (outside the evacuation zone, of course).

More precise maps of the evacuation zones can be found here. The Hawaii State Civil Defense site at the top also has a link where you can input your address and see if you're okay or not. (This is something all residents should know before a tsunami watch or warning is issued... just sayin'.)

UPDATE 2 (11:15 p.m. HST):
It's 11:15 p.m. and those eerie sirens have gone off again. I'm out of the evacuation zone, but I suspect I'll be kept up all night from that. I guess that's a small price to pay for not getting killed.

UPDATE 3 (12:30 a.m. HST):
Long lines are being reported at gas stations, convenience stores, and supermarkets like Safeway. Okay, the food and water I get, but why gas? I mean, where ya gonna go? It's an island?

My dad always taught me to be prepared for anything by having as full a tank of gas as possible. That helped him evade the Feds for twenty-seven years.

UPDATE 5 (about 9 a.m. the following morning):
Update 4 deserved to be higher up than this. Anyway, I woke up this morning and everything feels fine here. I guess we're all okay, unless we're in a flash-sideways à la Lost.

The all-clear has been sounded and people can now return to the coast. Some damage from the tsunami was reported here on Oahu and on other islands, but I haven't seen any reports of death.

Schools across the state have been closed for Friday, including the universities and junior colleges. Even though most were not in evacuation zones, enough of their students were, such that it would have been disruptive to force them to go to class after evacuating their homes in the middle of the night.

From the Star-Advertiser:

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle has issued an all clear for Oahu residents after tsunami waves overnight caused a mass evacuation of coastal areas statewide.

Carlisle said city officials waited until after daybreak to assess the situation before declaring it is safe to return to the coast. No injuries have been reported from the waves, but damage is reported on three islands.

The surges caused extensive damage to piers and boats at Keehi Small Boat Harbor near Sand Island. The King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel got a foot of water in the lobby and canoes in the harbor were destroyed. Flooding was also reported in Kahului.

Tsunami waves from a massive Japanese earthquake began hitting Hawaii just after 3 a.m. today after an hours-long statewide coastal evacuation.

The waters continued to surge in some harbors hours after the intial wave hit.

Indeed, one witness reported a surge at Keehi Lagoon about 5:40 a.m.

Kauai also issued an all clear.

Gerard Fryer, a scientist with the Tsunami Warning Center, said an initial 6-foot surge was detected in Kahului Harbor, and Fryer said a second surge was more than 7 feet at Kahului Harbor.

"There's little question that there was some damage at that level," he said.

At Napoopoo at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, one wave reached at least 100 feet inland and an elevation of 11 or 12 feet, Fryer said.

"It could have been more than that," he said.

Here's a report on the damage at Keehi Lagoon. Flooding was reported in Maui, and damage was reported in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.

As I've noted before, Hawaii takes tsunami danger very seriously ever since the devastation at Hilo in 1960 (sixty-one killed), and I imagine had they not cleared people from the coast there would have been at least a few fatalities.

Of course, with such disasters and potential disasters, there are often looky-loos:

Off Diamond Head lookout, the water receded twice — once about 3:43 a.m. and again at 3:55 a.m. — exposing reef, before waves rushed back to the high water line.

More than 100 spectators gathered at the lookout to see the waves come in, and many 'oohed' and 'ahhed' when the near-shore reef was fully exposed in seconds.

"It was creepy," said Mike Moylan, 42, who had to evacuate his home on Kuhio Avenue and so decided to watch the waves at Diamond Head. "Seeing the water recede that much, it's scary."

Chana Dudoit, 28, of Kaimuki, saw the waves receding on TV and decided to rush out to see them in person. "I thought it was crazy," she said. "Where did all the fish go?"

Maybe the fish knew enough to get the heck out of harm's way, unlike the humans who rushed to the coast to watch a tsunami come in. Fish are smart. After all, they're always in school.

Anyway, everything seems to be okay on the island, yeah? Tsunami reporting pau.

UPDATE 6 (10:20 a.m.):
When am I going to learn that nothing is ever really pau?

California also suffered millions of dollars of damage from the tsunami that hit. This includes the northern California city of Eureka, which was hit hard by a tsunami in 1964, with eleven deaths, after the 9.2-magnitude Seward earthquake in Alaska.

Would-be candidates for the Darwin Award at Surfrider Beach in Malibu
checking out the surf at the time the tsunami was to hit California. Duh, winning.

I forgot to mention that local hospitals back here in Hawaii had problems during the coastal evacuation because people who were not sick or injured were crowding the hospitals to seek shelter.

The Civil Defense folks offered tsunami information in other languages, including Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, Cantonese, and a number of Pacific Island languages. It's something worth noting for the next tsunami advisory. Also, get a hand-crank emergency radio if you don't have one.

Now pau.

UPDATE 7 (5:00 p.m.):
While Hawaii escaped any casualties, California was not so lucky. One man in the northern California community of Crescent City was killed:

The Coast Guard is searching for a man swept out to sea in Northern California while taking pictures of tsunami waves.

Nearby, authorities in Brookings, Ore., say four people have survived after a tsunami surge swept them off a beach in Curry County and into the sea.

The five were on the beach Friday to watch the waves generated by a massive earthquake in Japan. The Curry County sheriff's department says two were able to get out of the water on their own, and two were rescued by law enforcement and fire officials.

Let's give thanks to the civil defense workers, including law enforcement, who were out in force to save idiots from themselves. I'd be furious if some of the police or firefighters got killed because of these mooks.

More volcanic footage of Pu'u Ō'ō

In a follow up to this story on the collapse of Pʻu Ōʻō crater, part of the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island, here's some cool AP video:

Kilauea volcano's Puʻu Ōʻō crater collapses and shoots lava 65 feet

Here's the story on the collapse of Puʻu Ōʻō from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the world's premier newspaper for reporting on Hawaiian volcanic events. I guess this might mean more vog will come our way.



Okay, if I was right in front of this with a video camera and saw the ground cracking, I'd be taking off in the opposite direction. And I wouldn't stop running until I reached Old Navy so I could get myself some fresh underwear.

And I sure as heck wouldn't get in a helicopter and fly over it.

UPDATE:
More cool video.

And today it's Diamond Head

Ill have something on the Netizens' discovery of Blackout Korea [also here and here] sometime after I get down.

(HT to the loads of SoKos who triggered Sitemeter while linking to an earlier post on that).

A beautiful day for Pearl Harbor

I'm taking a group of eight visitors from Japan to the newly remodeled USS Arizona Memorial, including the USS Bowfin submarine exhibit. An interesting but somber place. I'll include a "review" later, but for now this is all I can do on my iPhone.

Yikes!

And just so we're clear, this is Fahrenheit. 10°F would be -12°C. Double yikes.

Ah, that's better.

Seriously, if it makes anyone feel better, skin cancer is through the roof here. (And get used to this kinda of thing now that I've discovered how to do screen capture with my iPhone.)

And a Mele Kalikimaka to all!

Because the manger was not listed as a standard housing unit 
or abode, Mary, Joseph, and their new baby were undercounted. 
The City of Bethlehem, noting such shoddy work was endemic 
for Census0000, sued the Roman Empire for greater 
representation in the Senate, but they were unsuccessful.

It's still Christmas Eve here in the Aloha State, and I'm still working on end-of-semester stuff and I'm stuck in Honolulu (plus my MacBook Pro is giving me rare headaches — and rare headaches are often huge headaches), so I thought I'd post some links to past Christmas-themed posts.

• My first-ever Christmas post, from 2005, which included the above picture of a Korean-themed Nativity and a brief explanation of why Christianity took off as it did in Korea.

• My Christmas post from 2008, which includes a very snowy Big Island. I'm not sure, but I think NORAD tracks Santa from there (also in 3-D).

• Here's hoping for a white Christmas in Hawaii again this year (the picture at right is Mauna Kea right this moment). It's 80°F here on Oahu, at least in California it's chilly enough to feel like Christmas.

• Don't care much for gingerbread-flavored lattes at Starbucks.

• Somewhere in Kim Jong-il's plot to take down South Korea's giant "Christmas tree" at Aegibong is the plot to Team America 2. 

• We've been celebrating Christmas since October here in Honolulu.

• Story #6 from last Christmas: North Koreans detain "obese, jocular deer herder" who crosses Tuman River.

Sometime after Christmas I may write up about a conversation I had with "M," who is a Japanese Catholic, and her disgust that the birth of Christ has become a day for couples to get laid. Anyone in South Korea knows that Christmas for non-Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike) has morphed into a second Valentine's Day (making it hard to get reservations at restaurants and hotels in Seoul as well), so the idea may be familiar. 

Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale, and Merry Christmas to all!

UPDATE:
Roboseyo has two videos that, I think, can really make your Christmas Day. Their only downside is that they're both too short.

Welcome (back) to Hawaii, Mister President

President Obama has finally joined his family here on Oahu, the third year in a row they've spent Christmas in Hawaii.

After I get all of my work done for the semester, I may hang out at the Starbucks or burger joint in the Kailua shopping district, on the off chance BHO brings the wife and kids by during their stay in the Aloha State, which is where he was born.

Rally to Restore Sanity Honolulu

It technically hasn't begun yet, but there's not a great turnout here in Oahu. Not the hundreds of thousands (?) they got in Washington DC, but there are about a hundred or so people sitting in the shade ("today it's sunny with a chance of SANE," says this rally's FB page). I think most of them are not homeless.

For now we're just hanging out by the Korean War Memorial. Aimé Césaire will have to wait.

By the way, that's Hawaii's state capitol in the background, the only capitol uglier than that thing at Yôûido.

UPDATE:
Every haole in Honolulu is here. It started Hawaii-style (i.e., thirty minutes late) but there are now loads of people. So if you were thinking you shouldn't come 'cuz kushibo was fussing the whole thing, don't listen to me. No one should ever, ever, ever take anything I say seriously.

Random photos around eastern Honolulu

An iPhone, not just the iPhone4 but also the iPhone 3G and 3Gs, makes for a pretty good stand-in for a regular camera, especially in bright light. For better or worse, it has made me lazy about carrying around my Nikon when I want to do street photography (which is not necessarily pictures of actual streets).

It's also easier to hold an iPhone in such a way that it looks like you're not actually taking a picture of your subject than it is to do the same with an SLR. That is, if you're inclined toward that kind of photography where people who had the misfortune to walk near you in some "fashionable" part of Seoul unknowingly end up on the "fashion blog" you do instead of actually working on the PhD you tell everyone you practically already have.

Anyway, my pictures are more toward social comment or memorabilia, not aesthetic structure. No one's forcing you to look.

 "Stupid is Fearless." "Be Stupid." Quasi-PLO ski masks. This just begs comment, but I won't, since that's what they want.

Note not just the well-maintained VW bus, but also the "Hawaiian Kingdom" license plate (click once or twice to fully enlarge). The subtext here is Native Hawaiian nationalism and anti-colonialism. Frankly, I have no idea if this is a legally recognized license plate, but if you read up on the Akaka Bill, you might get some idea.

This is Waialae Avenue, a street I walk up and down quite often. There's something pleasant about the urban environment on this side of Honolulu that I just like. Very little trash, older well-maintained buildings, beautiful clouds and friendly people. I frequently end up at this street corner on the way to McDonald's...

... where Monopoly is back!™ Yep, I play, and I have been well-rewarded with fries, Cokes, McFlurries, and other goodies.

This is just half a block Ewa (westward) of the McDonald's. I pass this nearly every day, but I have no idea what this shop is. But it makes me want to sign a lease and open up a coffee shop full or retro Korean paraphernalia.

Note the old homes nearby. Were it in Seoul, Pusan, or just about any other metropolitan area in Korea, this would be a neighborhood in danger of being razed to make room for mid-rise apartments.

These campaign posters are for Dan Inouye (running for his ninth term in the US Senate) and Colleen Hanabusa (running to reclaim the Hawaii-1 US House seat for the Democrats). [The school right behind the posters was, I believe, the school attended by Jack Shephard's son in the flash-sideways episodes of Season 6.]

The beloved and respected Senator Inouye is considered such a shoo-in that the eighty-six-year-old, who is the longest-serving member of the US Senate since Senator Byrd of West Virginia died, has hardly been running any campaign whatsoever. So devoid of any campaign signage is this city that for a while there I didn't even realize he was up for re-election this year.

Ms Hanabusa, on the other hand, is having a tough time unseating her former opponent, Republican Congressman Charles Djou, who won the seat with a plurality because the two Democrats (one of whom was Ms Hanabusa) couldn't get their act together. It was a special election with no party primary, scheduled to fill the seat after Neil Abercrombie vacated it to run for Hawaii governor. (I shook his hand today at a campaign event that focused on educational issues; I didn't have the heart to tell the septuagenarian professor that this year I voted in California instead.)

Hawaii voters apparently don't like to vote out incumbents, which is what Mr Djou now is. That's why, even though this is a firmly blue state where Obama got nearly three-quarters of the votes in 2008, Republican candidate Djou is in a dead heat with Democratic candidate Hanabusa.

FBI breaks up "modern-day slavery" case

This was big news here in Hawaii, because some of these hundreds of Thais were put to work on farms here on Oahu. Locals news is suggesting that the farmers didn't necessarily know about the illegal conditions in which the workers were recruited and were being held.

Wish you were here?

Sandy Beach is a nice place to curl up with a good MacBook Pro.