We successfully hosted our annual Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall this past week. It was a blast! I especially liked the variety of formats, activities, and session topics. It was a great conference experience, and I truly felt a sense of community.

Our friends from HSTE put on Edcamp Honolulu as one of our pre-conference activities. It is a privilege & blessing to work alongside these passionate educators.

Our high school drumline opened Day 1 and rocked the Pikake Room! (I was also touched that they wore our conference t-shirts under their unbuttoned uniforms.)

We also had student DJs bringing the energy to our conference🎵 How cool is that?

Along with Hawaiian crafts, we had a wellness station called “Paws & Relax,” a partnership with the Fur-Angel Foundation who are looking to get puppies adopted.

I also participated in the HSTE AI Slam. I shared about SUNO, a free AI music generating platform. I created the image in Adobe Firefly for a training and needed music for the storytelling component.

One of my conference duties is to do the announcements. My main goal is to make our attendees feel welcome and appreciated!

The highlight for me was hosting Mizuki and Kiyomi先生 from UH-Mānoa. It was great making new friends! But I was also able to experience the conference from their perspective. Sometimes when you plan an event, you don’t get to enjoy it. I saw how wonderful the day was unfolding and got to see their reactions. Everyone at the conference was so friendly and filled with Aloha. I was so happy to see my new friends happy. Looking forward to next year!

Blessed to have had the opportunity to visit Japan during Spring Break. This trip was to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom (mankai)🌸 I attended the Ueno Sakura Festa and also strolled along Meguro River & Sumida River. It was also my first time visiting a jazz kissa🎵

Of course, the highlight for me was visiting friends and catching up. Happy memories❣️

The lowlight was experiencing Haru no Arashi⛈ or “spring storm.” It was crazy & ridiculous, but fortunately short-lived.

This is my shopping haul. Haha. Usually, I just get snacks for the office. This time, I got an omiyage for myself and picked up a towel handkerchief タオルハンカチ。In Japan there is no napkin culture, so it’s common for people to carry these.

Spoke 日本語 and made new friends on this trip. So looking forward to the next one🍁

Aloha shirts, that is.

My aloha shirt of choice is the Reyn Spooner. Timeless, classic, and part of the fabric (no pun intended) of our local culture.

Reyn McCullough set up shop at Ala Moana Center back in 1959. He later partnered with Ruth Spooner in 1961, and the rest is history. I’m a big fan of the Spooner Kloth™ (55% cotton / 45% polyester) since it requires no ironing. (I don’t own an iron.)

Some people have amassed huge closet collections. Me? Small kine…

In Hawai’i, aloha shirts are your standard daily work attire. And especially at my school, aloha wear is part of our work culture. Imua💪

But I’m especially fond of Christmas Spooners. They’re fun, unique, and a big part of local Christmas tradition. I always wear one to Honolulu City Lights each December. Mele Kalikimaka🎄

Spooners are also released in limited editions to commemorate special occasions, places, and sometimes people. This one is for Chinese New Year🧨

OK, OK, but these shirts are premium and can get a bit pricey. How can anyone possibly afford them?

Well, here’s the secret… Shhhh🤫

eBay.

There are great deals to be had! I limit my purchases to around $25. With shipping + tax, it comes out to around $34. The $128 price tag for brand new is way too rich for me🤪

Another option is the Reyn’s Again program where you can trade in gently used shirts for store credit. You can get $20 credit for Spooner Kloth and $15 for 100% cotton. Make sure that there is no fading and that all of the tags are intact. I traded in a few shirts that I hardly ever wore and picked up Kikaida👊

Finally, at the end of the day, you just sometimes need to treat yourself to a little “liquid aloha.” And you know what? Somehow, someway, it always tastes best in a Spooner aloha shirt🤙

Blessed to have gone to Tōkyō for Fall Break. This trip felt different in that I had more meetups than usual, but that’s a good thing! Got to spend precious time with people who mean so much to me❣️

There was a typhoon nearby, but the weather held up. The yen rate was ￥150 per dollar. I got to try Jiro-kei and Ie-kei ラーメン for the first time🍜 I also got to explore new places and ate new things. Of course, the highlight (as always) was the people and the relationships. So looking forward to the next one…

Shohei fan here. And this is my very favorite Shohei Ohtani baseball card (he has tons!) I was in Japan during the Tokyo Series and got to experience a bit of that energy. This card is part of that memory.

“Small kid time,” my favorite players were Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. Now as an “old fart,” it’s been Shohei. Part of the affinity is that I’ve been studying Japanese language & culture for more than 5 years now. And Shohei is a national hero. But this blog post is not as much about him as it is about me being a fan.

Shohei started out with the Angels in 2018 as a two-way player, billed as the “Babe Ruth of Japan.” Yup, I was an Angels fan for 6 painful years😖 Nope, never finished reading this book🤣

2nd fave card. 2018 Topps Heritage pays homage to the 1969 set. I’ve been (hardly) working on completing a ‘69 set for over 25 years now🤣 Aging myself, but these are the very first bubblegum cards that I ever bought as a little kid. Simple, clean, nostalgic…

If you remember, Shohei donated gloves to every elementary school in Japan back in 2023. I was actually able to play catch with his glove at Keio Yochisha Elementary in Tokyo last November. The principal was kind enough to bring them out to the playground. Hopefully he got ‘um all back🤣

Only regained interest in the hobby after Shohei joined the Dodgers. Now collecting his Topps base card each year. Fun and inexpensive (except for his rookie…)

Got his first Topps Dodger card from a garage sale thanks to my sis. It’s these stories that make collecting fun & meaningful.

And no collection would be complete without his Japanese cards. These are his 2014 Calbee & 2017 BBM base cards.

Last season he became the first 50/50 player and reached superstardom. (If your face is on ITO EN, you’ve made it!) This is what I was drinking in Japan back in March🇯🇵

This is his 1st Dodger Stadium bobblehead giveaway from last May. I’ve been waiting for almost a year to find a good deal on eBay. Snatched it!

Finally… Never thought I’d be “that guy” to ever wear some other dude’s name on the back of a jersey.

I am him😬