Sean Akiyama '85

Within a day's time I was: enjoying the reunion events, talking with old class/school mates, listening to the Retros band, wondering if I could wake up at 5:30 am to catch my 8 am flight, watching people dive into the Pacific Ocean with Diamond Head in the background, hitting golf balls with my wife at the Hawaii Kai Golf Course, having dinner at Kyoya, a fine Japanese Restaurant in Waikiki, and later meeting with my sister, Lisa.

Now it is all over. Back to the grind: emails to read, mail to read, orders to place, and trying to make sense of a volatile intraday market, despite the second lowest volume trading day for the year. End result, the '99 reunion a memory that can’t be in any way duplicated. I would have to say my best moments and memory was to meet up with everyone from the early days of the Kadena/Kubasaki rivalry. This was my first reunion and I think if we did not have the DJs on Friday or the Retros on Saturday, the whole place would have still been rocking.

To those that played on our softball team, no, I was not paid off by Kubasaki to strike out with pure ugliness. It was my lack of hand to eye coordination and an irresistible urge to kill the ball. Sorry, I could not contribute on the plate and for not telling you that the last time I picked up a bat was back in little league, Naha Giants ’76. Thank God! We won!!! Mark Ando, Jens, and the dude who sprained his ankle, way to go all the way out. Even the Kubasaki guys were impressed with your gung-ho effort (sliding and getting all bloody). Tom S., Tom (Bucs soccer dude), JJ, Jack, Donna, Veronica, Bob Brace, Frank T, Witman, Mike, and the other young bloods – great job! We pulled it off even though we were out numbered and the fact that most of the Kubasaki players are pretty good athletes. To the surfer dude who sang the national anthem – that was great!

It seemed like we had enough soccer players out there on both sides, maybe next time we can get a co-ed SOCCER game going since Victor is retiring from Softball coaching. Jack Canavan = do you want to be a player coach for the 1st Kadena /Kubasaki Soccer match?

To all those who were there, hopefully, we can hook up again. Scott Clarke – Damn!!! I missed getting in touch with you. I’ll try to get more folks from Hawaii to show up next time. And to all those I was looking forward to seeing: Chris Malloy, Paul Ash, Steve Dang, David Flores, Mark Peters, Bill Copeland, Jack Cooley, Patrick Walsh, Sharon Purbeck, Kumi and Audrey, Mike Ramirez, Robert Gallegos, Young Rodrigues, Kanie Kastroll, Jim Dunham, Floyd Ladesma, Megumi, Mike Leigh, Kenneth Ishimatsu, Hunnicutt, Robert Gilbreath, Richard Steele, Mike Ajifu and from Kubasaki – Eddie Rose, Dawn Knapp – Maybe we’ll hook up in the future.

For those who have not attended a reunion, it is definitely worth going to. Especially for us who lived on the “Rock.” Think of it, for most of us, after graduation, we all went are separate ways to places all over the U.S. and the world thousands of miles away from where it all started. We have experienced many things that make life such a journey. A reunion can bring all of us together to one place so that our paths can cross again and maybe perhaps, the rest of our journey through life. That has got to be worth going to. It’s one of those lifetime experiences that cannot be explained unless you are actually there to share the experience. I had a GREAT time! Thank you to all that made it happen!
Aloha! Sean