Kwaidan Kalabash- Hawaiian Ghost Storytelling...

Sunday Night's FREE Ghost Stories... Last Sunday night, a group of storytellers got together and held an event they called Kwaidan Kalabash and it was at the Japanese Cultural Center. We went to their similar event last year that was held at the Ala Moana Beach Park auditorium. That venue was overfilled and a bit uncomfortable. This time it was still overfilled, but a little more comfortable. The event was free and advertised as 6pm-9pm. We arrived at about 545pm to find that sign up there posted everywhere... elevators, lobbies and many near the door of the banquet room. Why am I highlighting this sign?!? Because if you were there early at 5p or 530p or even 545p and read this sign, what would you do? Probably go down to the 1st floor and visit the display. We did, but we did it in pairs. Kelli's mom and sister went down first while we waited up stairs. Then the returned and we went to look. While we were looking, those Trick or Treat buggers open the doors at about 615pm!! Luckily we had the other half of our team up there to get us the seats! We had decent seats in the 5th row and the whole place was packed with standing room even filled up. So now, just imagine if you were one of those people or families that went down to view the exhibit to kill time until 7pm. Well, it was free so nobody could complain. The stories and storytellers were interesting. Some are obviously better than others. We especially enjoy Lopaka Kapanui and his stories. He also conducts the walking and bus ghost tours <-click. Kelli's been on his tour, but I've only been on Glen Grant's walking tour. Glen is the ghost story historian that mentored Lopaka. They mentioned that this Friday (10/26) at 7pm they will be paying tribute to the memory of Glen Grant by having a candlelight ghost storytelling session at Kapiolani Community College. Jeff Gere and Lopaka Kapanui will be doing the storytelling. We might try and catch this. They said 100 candles and 100 stories while blowing out 1 candle after each story. 100 stories seems really long! I'm sure there will be some really abbreviated versions. Did anyone else get tricked by their sign?? I hope not. Here's some pictures from their exhibition. The exhibit will be on display 10am-4pm Tuesday through Saturday until October 31st.