Ryoichiro and Kenichi were in town. What a great excuse to assemble the culturally-minded champuru posse for an outing.

Okay, so maybe you haven’t heard of them - yet. They’re the Yoshida Brothers, two young talented virtuosos, musical phenoms that take the traditional art of tsugaru-shamisen and modernize it for their generation. They play the shamisen like Hawaii’s Jake Shimabukuro plays the ukulele: fast and furious.

We started off our evening at Indigo Restaurant. It was an interesting group: initially, 5 girls and Hubby, he felt like he was the lucky sultan dining with his harem. Shortly after we placed our dinner order, Kamu called my cell phone and said that he was able to join us. So, we squeezed another place setting at the table and found ourselves being entertained by the one and only Kamu who geeked out about his Sony PSP and gave shameless plugs about his radio show, Geek Nation. (Speaking of which, you really ought to tune in tomorrow night on KUMU AM 1500 from 7:00-8:00 pm for their special Halloween show. More details, i.e., shameless plug later.)

Here’s a few photos from the evening. More photos are posted on my Foto Blog.

Thai Snapper Roasted in Banana Leaf

The food was absolutely tantalizing. I love how Chef Glenn Chu keeps you guessing while exciting your palate. Joyce and I had the Thai Snapper Roasted in Banana Leaf. To compliment the dish, a couple of slices of pickled mango cradled the fish inside of the banana leaf and slivers of delicately pickled chayote squash topped the rice. The flavors were unusual, yet familar; we had to ask our server to identify them. I also enjoyed the Goat Cheese Won Tons with Four Fruit Sauce appetizer, filled with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and sweet peppers. Absolutely delightful.

The sound of the gong announces the arrival of a flamboyant dessert called Madame Pele’s Chocolate Volcano, complete with a dazzling sparkler. We saw it delivered to a neighboring table and since Shari was so fascinated by it, I figured that I would order it to bring a little excitement to our own table. Although Hubby initially didn’t want to share dessert with me (he wanted his own!), he finally relented and we ordered the dessert. The chocoholics that we are, we thought with a name like “chocolate volcano” that the dessert would have contained more chocolate. Essentially, it was a hollow chocolate cone shaped like a volcano with fruit and cream surrounding it. Although it was enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, it wasn’t quite enough to quell Hubby’s.

By the time we finished dinner, it was nearly 8:00 pm. The show was set to start at 8:30. Norman and Christina had called at 7:30 and were already standing in line. After picking up our tickets at the Will Call window, we saw that the line snaked all the way around the block. Luckily, Kamu had a HIFF (Hawaii International Film Festival) Media Pass which gave him Priority Seating. And even luckier than that was Kamu’s ability to ward off concert-goers from 9 seats that he had reserved for us.

“You should have seen the stink looks I was getting from all the obaachans,” he said as we filed in and filled the vacant seats that he had saved. We had perfect seats in the middle section of the lower level with a view of the Yoshida Brothers head on.

The Yoshida Brothers took the stage in front of the curtain, wearing matching hakama. The set was spartan, just two chairs and a couple of microphones. It was two men and their shamisens. Nothing else. No background music, no drum and bass to compliment them. Undoubtedly, their skill is positively phenomenal and stood on its own. They astounded audiences with their lightning fast fretwork. Their plectrums moved at breakneck speed, merely a blur when in motion. They were seated the entire time, but Kenichi’s animated style was enough to keep my eyes as amused as my ears.

I ended the evening with one thought: We must do this sort of thing more often.

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