Category: Okinawan Festival

Gus Hokama’s Lovely Song “Jikuu no Hana”

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Gus Hokama’s Segment from the HUOA Virtual Festival 2021

I hope you enjoyed the two days of Uchinaa culture with HUOA’s 2021 Virtual Okinawan Festival (and if you haven’t, there’s always the archives). We were treated to a lot of amazing local talent and a few special guests and one that came to our attention is singer-songwriter Gus Hokama from Argentina and his song “Jikuu no Hana”. The video has been on his YouTube channel for a few years with Español subtitles (it’s sung in Japanese) but the version clipped above has English ones and is the Español version of the song. This particular song with Gus’s husky voice wouldn’t be out of place in a K-drama. It’s so good. The icing on the cake is that musician Brandon Ing makes a special appearance on sanshin for the song. “Jikuu no Hana” is from his 2018 album of the same name which is definitely worth adding to your music library (Apple Music link).

Gus recently released his single “Quiero oír tu voz” on June 19th and has a music video for it.

New HUOA Merch for the Okinawan Festival

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It’ll be a virtual festival again this year but we can still show our support by purchasing from the Hawaii United Okinawa Association’s official store shophuoa.com. On Friday, September 3rd at 8 AM Hawaii time, they’ll be selling all new festival merchandise and t-shirts so be sure to set your alarm so you don’t miss out!. They may have already given us a sneak peek at what may be coming with the announcement of the 2021 festival design contest winner.

2021 Virtual Okinawan Festival

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The Hawaii United Okinawa Association’s (HUOA) popular Okinawan Festival will sadly be virtual again this year but we’re still excited for it. They also have a t-shirt design contest going on that ends July 19th (check out their website for more details). Looks like for this year they’ll even be doing smaller in-person events and we loved the Okinawan FEASTival from last year so it’s great that they’re continuing it. This year it will take place on September 4th and 5th so be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel to catch the virtual festivities.

We learned a lot in 2020 as we created our first ever Virtual Okinawan Festival. This year, we will continue our virtual format for the continued safety of our community. HUOA will continue to strive to bring you the best our culture has to offer with all the entertainment, singing, dancing, interviews and fun videos from the comfort of your own home. We will also be celebrating Okinawan FEASTival and encourage you to pre-order food from your favorite Okinawan-owned restaurant.  

In an effort to elevate the experience, we will also have a number of drive-through food orders and small in-person events. Be sure to check with your HUOA club and this website for more details.

https://www.okinawanfestival.com

They also have a presale for this year’s festival merchandise at https://shophuoa.com. Presale ends July 24th so don’t miss out!

(h/t JTB USA Honolulu)

Seibun Tokuhara, Johnny Ginowan, hirara to perform at the Okinawan Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii

Haisai Richie3 Comments

We’re just about two weeks away from the 27th annual Okinawan Festival held in Honolulu, Hawaii, and like every year the event features several guest artists/groups from Okinawa. Performing at this year’s event is utasaa (Okinawa folk singer) Seibun Tokuhara, one of the top musicians of Ryūkyū minyou and classical music in Okinawa, ukulele musician Johnny Ginowan who released his latest album “Waserge” on June 25th, and Miyakojima-born beauty (and she sings!) hirara (who looks to be a fan of K-drama).

Johnny Ginowan’s “Que Sera, Sera”

hirara’s “Tsuki ni Negai o” (CM for Kiku no Tsuyu, a brand of awamori from Miyakojima)

hirara & David Ralston in a Kiku no Tsuyu CM jamming to the Miyakojima folk song “Kanikubata”

You’ll be able to catch hirara’s performance on Saturday, September 5th (scheduled for 3 PM)—don’t forget to bring your camera. Johnny Ginowan and Seibun Tokuhara are scheduled to perform at 12 PM as part of the Radio Okinawa show on Sunday (9/6/09).

27th Annual Okinawan Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii

Haisai Richie11 Comments

Wow, it’s already that time of year? This year HUOA‘s Okinawan Festival, its 27th year, will take place on September 5th and 6th. As always, it’s a great place to learn more about the Okinawan culture (you’ll still need to check-out Karakui.com for your pop culture fix, tho 😛 ) and other neat stuff like the food booths and local entertainment. Both days are filled with awesome line-ups and the bon dance on Saturday night is always a winner.

More info at the festival website: Okinawan Festival.

Mamoru Miyagi’s latest album “Shimakaze” released on 8/20/08

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OkinawanFestival2008-4032
Originally uploaded by tiarehi

Gosh, he was just here and he sounded great, didn’t he? Well, fans of his probably already know that he released a new album on 8/20/08 titled “Shimakaze.” The 12-track album features the single “Yunion (Union) desu kara!” (Image is from photog tiarehi on Flickr from this year’s Okinawan Festival in Hawaii.)

(Via Campus Record Staff blog.)

Enjoy pictures from this year’s Okinawan Festival in Hawaii

Haisai Richie5 Comments

So I didn’t live-blog this year’s Okinawan Festival but not to fret, there are pictures up on the Web that’ll make you feel as if you were there IRL.

HonoluluAdvertiser.com (link: http://bit.ly/WpuIF) has a total of seven pics up here—several of the pics featuring Derek Ichiro Shiroma’s group Urizun’s performance on Saturday.

starbulletin.com (link: http://bit.ly/4aVJ8G) has three pics up—one of them with Sara and Stacie who are kutu players from Miyashiro Soho Kai.

And as always, lots of pics are already up on Flickr (link).