Monday, June 14, 2010

Sunday's Pan Pacific Parade




On closer examination, it ain't as easy as it may seem.



Hawaii's contribution to the Pan Pacific theme consisted of a number of judo clubs. Quite a few dojo's (judo clubs).












Every so often these flag bearers would stop and wave their giant flags horizontally a foot above the heads of the onlookers. Nice kind interaction with the crowd.




I've seen snare drums, taiko drums, conga drums, bonga drums, etc., in parades before, but up until now I've never seen pan drums? As a matter of fact, an entire brigade of panners. Pan drums as in "Pan" Pacific, LOL, just thought of that.



I surmise that the general idea behind these plastic footware is to give an impression that the dancers are bare footed.



On my way over to the parade, I found this wallet on the other side of the crosswalk. So I went try give the wallet back to the owner who I figured must have just crossed the street in the opposite direction. I was able to find a picture ID in the wallet. Ended up chasing a guy that fit the general description from the back view. After I yelled out his name, he turns around and now I'm fairly positive its the same guy as pictured on the photo ID. But the owner turns 180° around and keeps on walking as if a panhandler was trying to accost him. I kept calling him by his name. But he keeps walking away even faster. Finally tracked the wallet's owner down tonight. Turns out he lives just 2 apartment buildings from me.





Guarding the paraders, a Kiriko. One at each end of the parade. The crew mainly local was pushing it on wheels. Traditionally, you lift it up on your shoulders for the entire length of the parade route for the sheer joy of it.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was very nice of you to return the wallet. I would have left it on the street, but you did the right thing. The owner must have been relieved.

Brad Farless said...

That's a pretty cool looking parade. I think I'd have had a lot of fun watching it myself.

It was good of you to take the time to track down the wallet's owner, especially after he ran away from you in the street. If it were me, I'd probably have given up and just dumped it in a mailbox.

RONW said...

gigi- truth be told, I usually walk on the opposite side of that particular street.

Brad- some things are priceless.

OkiHwn said...

Quite a return post after two weeks! You've been missed!

RONW said...

Nate- I've been getting sidetracked with all kind stuff. 2 weeks already, you say.

Rowena said...

You good samaritan you! And then that guy was trying to run away. He should have known that with a fancy camera in hand, you were just another tourist in Waikiki.

Glad to see you back. Was wondering if perhaps the camera fell off the lanai or something.

Ann da sista said...

See? Try to do something nice and the guy runs away. If you were hollering his name, you'd think he'd stop. Oh well. Good job, Ron!

Nice parade. We had a pirate festival in our town. Nothing like this parade. Just a few people dressed up like pirates. Oh. And Nate dressed up too. He wore his "Dad's Little Mate" pirate parrot onesie. He fit right in.

kahuku said...

Great coverage. Nice of you to return the wallet. You must have scared him. Maybe he thought you were trying to serve him papers or something. =)

RONW said...

Rowena- well, two nights later after I finally was able to get his phone number, I asked him if he knew Rowena, your blog, however he didn't, so I assume that applies to other things, too.

Ann- One day I was walking out of our apartment building and this $50 money order came fluttering down from the sky and landed a few feet in front of me. The money order was blank, absolutely nothing filled in on it. I scotch-taped a note in the elevator if anybody by chance had lost a money order.

The next day a lady responds and I meet her down in the lobby, and I ask her to verify the dollar amount, bank, etc. She gives me all the right info, so I hand her the money order. She takes the money order, does a pirouette, and immediately scampers off. I thought that was kinda odd to put it mildly. I think she was trying to avoid at all costs to give me some mahalo money. Yea right, for a blank $50 money order that had nothing filled in on it.

My friend found a wallet laying on top of a hotel public telephone. He turns around and chases this older couple who was just using the telephone right before him. Gives the wallet to the man. Alright with that. Then, the wife asks the husband right in front of my friend, "Is the money all there?"

kahuku- and that's the reason I was late getting to the parade. Just missed the beginning which is usually the best for photos when your intention is to take photos.

Kay said...

What a parade! Thanks for showing us the great photos! I didn't even know they were having this parade. I agree with Gigi about the wallet. I wonder why he didn't stop when you called him by name though. Strange. Good for you for making such a huge effort to get it to him. I hope he was happy.

RONW said...

Kay- and they always said that, "money talks, bs walks." LOL. Bernie Madoff, excepted.

with that picking up the wallet .... I'll use the hypothetical of a wallet or purse that's turned into the store's lost-and-found counter. How you know from that point on whether or not the store employee won't cockaroach any cash that the finder left intact. In that sense, if I left the wallet where it was, I would be trusting things to the honesty of the next person and circumstances beyond my control in the chain of custody. I'm pretty sure that the wallet wouldn't have been there all day.

I once found a wallet in our building's laundry room. The dryer was still running. Our apartment building's street number, the owner's apt., wasn't on any of the owner's ID. Probably didn't live in the building that long for it to be his permanent address. But the wallet had a wad of bills inside almost a ½-inch thick. So I turned it over to the apartment manager. Didn't think much about it at the moment because there were four HawTel workers upgrading our building's phone lines present in the manager's office. Indeed, the manager returned the wallet, but in the spirit of it all kept the money, itself. Eventually he got himself fired for an unrelated issue.

Usually, I would have hand counted the money in front of the manager, and the manager in front of me, and jotted down the serial numbers, but due to the four HawTel workers, witnesses, so to speak, in the same room, I didn't give it a second thought. Before that, I found even another wallet in Starbucks. Yeah, I'm good at this. But there I counted the money in escrow even though I frequent that particular Starbuck's often, and they know me and I knew the worker.

I probably gained some inspiration for valuing other people's possessions from when I was hitchhiking from SF to LA, way back, and I forgot a second backpack with some personal items inside the van which I had hitched a ride with. The items weren't expensive stuff, diamond, etc .... homework that I needed for a college assignment and sentimental value items and that nature. A few days later when I returned home .... you know the folks that I was talking about that I had caught a ride with .... they had detoured off their route, and dropped my precious items off at my address on their own return trip up north. I don't even know who those people were, or maybe I do.