Polihale and Bon Dance

In June, some friends and I went to Polihale and a Bon Dance; I'm just now getting around to posting pictures. First are some shots from Polihale, which is a wide, deep, silky beach at the very end of the road on the west side. The last couple miles of the road require four-wheel drive, so Chris rented a truck for the night and we plowed along the pitted road to this glorious destination to watch the sunset. If you blow up the picture you can get a good idea of the size of the mountain by comparing it to the teeny tiny people at its base:

Chris (a local) taking a picture of Gabriela (from Poland):

Chris and Gabriela watching the sunset while I play paparazzi:

Watching a kite surfer wrestle down his kite and fold it up:

Gabriela:

Tako poke (octopus) for dinner... yum! If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the suckers:

And the breathtaking sunset, of which I still managed to get a couple good shots without my tripod:

After the sun had set, we went to a Bon Dance in Hanapepe where we met up with our friends Jenni (who is now back in Germany until January, sadly) and Daniel. A Bon Dance is a Japanese Buddhist festival held in honor of the dead. In the middle of the festival was an oval-shaped arena in which the kimono-adorned performers danced circles around a center podium, where drummers struck a mesmerizing beat. I believe the podium (more like a scaffold) is called a yagura. The lanterns in the pictures have something to do with the dead spirits of loved ones -- to lead them home, I think?

Aloha!