July 1, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
Aloha and こんにちわ！！
The Nagano area (most recently popularized by the 1998 XVIII Winter Olympic games) is another stop for those wanting to explore the beauty of Japan’s historical locales/great sightseeing opportunities, onsens, historical spots and of course-food, Nagano is definitely a suggested destination point while visiting Japan.
From the Zenkoji temple, to one of Japan’s original castles, Matsumotojo-Nagano is like taking a step back into time.
- Matsumoto Castle
- Zenkoji Temple
Here are some other images from our recent Nagano trip for Doko Ga TV, and a DGTV highly suggested place to stay while in Nagano, the Ryokan Biyu no yado. For those interested in checking out Nagano, Doko Ga TV and JTB Hawaii will be doing a DGTV/JTB tour of the Naganoarea in October 2010! Visit the JTB site for more information, or call (808) 979-0111.
June 16, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
Aloha all, just wanted to post a quick note (more updates coming soon)…
Check out my JapanMania Blog on StarAdvertiser’s website 
http://japanmania.honadvblogs.com/
May 11, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
So another shoot in the can. This time, our shoot was precluded by my group’s Golden Week tour! It was crazy but we did Odaiba, Kobe/Osaka, Yokohama, Akasaka and Yokohama again with some `ukulele workshops tossed in for good measure. すごいたのしかったです！
We ran into some Doko Ga TV viewers in Nikko during their JTB tours! (a huge shout-out mahalo and aloha to Mika-san, Sandie, Megumi and the rest of the gals @ JTB for hooking up our tours) …these lovely folks were from the Big Island (Hilo represent!)
Silent Mobius creator, famous Mangaka Kia Asamiya and queen of voice acting (seiyu) Naoko Matsui!
May 5, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
So, the band and I just finished our Golden Week tour, Odaiba, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama and Akasaka… we had a BLAST and want to thank everyone that came out (and to my `ukulele students—thank you so much for coming out!) すごいたのしかったです！！！
Here’s some vids of the performance at Kobe…
PALI doing Yoshida Brother\’s \”RISING\”
and then.. ‘Ulupalakua’ featuring the beautiful voice of Kapono Nailiili
PALI featuring Kapono on \”ULUPALAKUA\”
and our hana-hou, a well known tune from one of our most favorite groups from Japan, with SO many timely songs under their belt…
PALI doing Southern All-Stars \”Katte Ni Shindobado\”
(A HUGE mahalo to Bear-san for shooting and uploading these!)
so a quick post before crashing for tomorrow’s very, very early shoot..
Mahalo ときをつけて！
April 28, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
This is Japanmania related… when you take one of the best plate lunch places, that happens to make an incredible katsu, nishime, etc… and the fact they’d closed a while ago (breaking many hearts, and tummies), you can imagine the joy when we discovered that Spots Inn is back!! and located in Puck’s Alley next door to the Greek place. Same cook, same staff, same oishii food!!!
..and we met some new friends/Doko Ga viewers while we were there..
Our new friends! (they had the plantation omelette!)
my katsu w/brown gravy… mmmm..
Sachi’s Chili frank
(808) 941-4554 Spot’s Inn!!!
April 21, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
Sachi and I handled opening MC duties at the 5th Annual Kawaii Kon @ the Convention center. We also hosted our special guest, uber famous Anime Director, Designer Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Appleseed Ex Machina w/John Woo, Halo Legends). A big shout out to Chris Macedonio, Stan Dahlin, Marlon, Eric, Jason and the rest of the Kon staff for a great weekend. Sachi, Aramaki and I had a lot of fun.
Here’s some pics of Hawaii’s cosplayers in action!
We also took Aramaki-san to Magnum’s indoor gun range as he was doing ‘research’ (aka having fun) shooting a number of firearms under the supervision of Doko Ga TV buddies, Sonny Santos and Mike Newman. Aramaki-san did really well and fired .357, .40 cal, various 9mm, 12 gauge shotgun and AR-15. Here’s some pics..
Huge mahalo and きをつけて to Aramaki-san and Miki-san! 来年ね！
April 21, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
Doko Ga TV mascot Pepe, doing what he does best. :)
April 12, 2010 - Posted by admin - 1 Comment
So, Sachi and I were a part of Shinkon San Irasshai! Japanese Newlywed Game show in it’s 40th year!!! Amazing!!! The two of us and 3 other couples were the finalist. At the very end, we choose from (3) schools, one prize is $3000, one is a trip to Japan for two, all expenses paid, and the final is the junky gift of a ‘wash cloth.’ Pretty easy to see which one each couple didn’t want.
We made some new friends (shout out ALOHA to Troy and Sanae) and had a blast.
With host Katsura Sanshi! Irasshai!!!
My custom UCHIDA Koa Koaloha `ukulele getting another celeb autograph!
with our friends (who braved the SCORCHING hot sun) Hiroko and Reiko!!
Also, later that night we had dinner with some friends from Yomiuri Shimbun @
Arancino Di Mare at the Marriott hotel. That was my first time, and I gotta say, the food
is AWESOME!!! They have another restaurant @ Beach Walk too, Arancino.
Here’s a pic with a new friend and avid Doko Ga TV viewer, Masa!
thanks again for the great food and for watching DGTV, Masashi-san!
A huge shout-out to all of our well-wishers, and for our friends for coming down to support us.
April 12, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
awesome location.. ground floor of Nordstrom building, easy to get to and as always, the best service!
and JTB ’s new OLIOLI station!
Sachi, Pepe and I with JTB Manager, Mika-san!!!
Congrats on the new office! Doko Ga TV is so proud to be a part of the JTB `ohana.
April 6, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
We’ll be posting some pics of our visit to JTB’s brand new office at the base floor of the Nordstrom building. It’s VERY nice and the crew was so busy as customers kept booking travel to Japan on their grand opening day! Congratulations to Mika-san, the entire `ohana there and all the folks we’d met today. Also, the Oli Oli room from Aloha Tower Marketplace moved over there as well, and it’s gigantic!
1555 Kapiolani Blvd, Suite 1501
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 979-0111 (office)
(808) 979-0100 (fax)
…remember folks, if you want to go where we go for Doko Ga TV, call the friendly folks at JTB!
