We attended an informal cruise with one of the Hawai'i FB groups for Kei and JDM vehicles on October 10th, 2024. The cruise started at Neil S. Blaisedell Park, located over at 98-319 Kamehameha Highway, Aiea, HI, 96701. We met up before 8:30 am, and I think we finally left the parking lot somewhere near 10:00 am. A good 8 to 12 vehicles showed up, the vast majority of which seemed to be Honda Acty trucks. I was one of 2 or maybe 3 Subarus in attendance. Only one car, and that was Matt in his Daihatsu Move SR-XX, with the omnipresent Honda Motocompacto. I swear, that guy probably puts more miles on his Motocompacto than most people put on their kei vehicles! Seriously - if you like stuff like Kei vehicles, you'd probably really enjoy following Matt's adventures!
While we were in the park before we set off, I took a walk around the vehicles. Some cool details, for sure. I'm a big fan of shiny wheels (and shiny things in general!) so I was instantly drawn to this well presented silver Acty. Some work has gone into that one - interior was nice, too!
Right before we headed out. Once again, that's what 6'6" & just under 300 lbs of human looks like in a Subaru Sambar! We headed out from Neil S Blaisedell Park and headed east. We only had to hop on the Interstate H-1 for a short bit, but it was ok because it was flat ground and we all just hung out in the right lane. (Bonus content - YES, Hawai'i has Interstate Highways! The H-1 is one of four. (The fourth is H-201, which was known as Route 78 until 2004. There was an H-4 proposed at one point that would have gone around downtown Honolulu on the water side, but it was never constructed.) We joke about the existence of a real H-4 that goes between Honolulu and the Mainland US.
Enough tangents. For now. This the route we took:
I included a bit more of the surrounding area for people that aren't too familiar with O'ahu. You can see we started near the USS Arizona Memorial, just north-northwest of the Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Once past the airport, we continued on into Honolulu proper along Nimitz Highway. At Ala Moana Beach Park, we turned in (to the south, or Makai (towards the ocean)). We wound our way through the beach park and exited back onto the main road (in this area, East of Richards Street, it goes from being Nimitz Highway to Ala Moana Boulevard.) We followed Ala Moana Boulevard into Waikiki, through the blight that is the tourist attraction, and down along the water's edge of Queen Kapiʻolani Regional Park. From there, we stayed along the roads closest to the water and made our way to Operation Red Wings Medal of Honor Park (known locally as "Triangle Park," as it's shaped conveniently like a triangle.) Once we arrived at Triangle Park, we parked all along the same curb to mark our territory, and then got out for another pastime of local folks on O'ahu - "talk story!"
Spotted a real blast from the past on one of the vans. A radio sticker to the long gone, but not forgotten "Radio Free Hawai'i," which existed from June 1st, 1991 to March 7th, 1997. I can't remember all the specifics of how it formed, but it was basically a college radio station with a MUCH bigger transmitter. It was no exaggeration that you could go from hearing Snoop Dog to a classical piece - it could be that random, and fun! You, the listeners, got to vote every week on what would be played...and more. (While trying to do a little research on the history of Radio Free Hawaii, I stumbled across a 2014 interview with "Sheriff" Norm Winter (madman behind the idea of Radio Free Hawaii) on the website Aloha Got Soul (check them out, too!)
Following our "talk story" session at the park, four of us headed over to Kona Brewing Company in Hawai'i Kai. Great scenery, awesome company! Pictured are Tina and Doug, who own the orange & white Daihatsu Atrai van. Matt was just off to the left in this photo. You'd think I liked the guy enough to backup a little and get him in the shot.
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