  {"id":214164,"date":"2025-04-17T14:09:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T00:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=214164"},"modified":"2025-04-17T15:13:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T01:13:44","slug":"island-vibes-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/17\/island-vibes-in-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"Island vibes in Tokyo: <abbr>UH<\/abbr> alumni celebrate with President Hensel"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_214167\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-214167\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-3.jpg\" alt=\"5 people waving Shaka\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-214167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-3.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-3-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-214167\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Wendy Hensel with alumni at Tokyo Alumni Pau Hana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>More than 70 alumni and friends from across Japan traveled to Tokyo to meet University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> President Wendy Hensel and reconnect with <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> <span aria-label=\"ohana\">&#699;ohana<\/span> at the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation <a href=\"https:\/\/uhalumni.org\/\">Office of Alumni Relations\u2019<\/a> first Tokyo Alumni Pau Hana of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I was delighted to welcome the new president, Hensel, and the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation <abbr title=\"chief executive officer\">CEO<\/abbr>, Mr. Tim Dolan, to Tokyo, together with my fellow alumni. President Hensel is such a powerful yet thoughtful leader. We learned that <abbr>UH<\/abbr> is currently facing many challenges, but I believe the university will weather this difficult time and continue to grow under her leadership,&rdquo; said Taeko Yasutake, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Alumni Association Japan chapter president.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_214166\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-214166\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"group photo\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-214166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-214166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Wendy Hensel with <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation team and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Alumni Association Japan Alumni Board.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The evening celebrated the growing strength of the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Alumni Association Japan chapter and the meaningful ties that continue to connect alumni back to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>. At the Tokyo American Club, guests enjoyed pupu, drinks and a short program featuring remarks from Hensel, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation <abbr>CEO<\/abbr> Tim Dolan and Associate Vice President of Alumni &#38; Community Engagement Maile Au.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Connecting with our alumni community in Japan was especially meaningful given the deep and historic ties between Japan and <abbr>UH<\/abbr>,&rdquo; said Hensel. &ldquo;It was exciting to meet so many alumni and learn about the growth of this chapter in recent years. I\u2019m inspired by their continued enthusiasm and support for the university.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>As part of the alumni office\u2019s commitment to spotlighting entrepreneurial alumni, the event featured Hawaiian reggae music by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/J8nJ-hE-3Eo\"><abbr>DJ<\/abbr> Midori<\/a>, an alumna of <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> Community College and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/uhalumni\/albums\/72177720325113152\/\">See more photos from the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Alumni Tokyo Alumni Pau Hana.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_214165\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-214165\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-1.jpg\" alt=\"large group of people\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-214165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/uh-alumni-association-president-toykyo-1-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-214165\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tokyo Alumni Pau Hana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>UH<\/abbr> alumni pride and Hawaiian beats brought the aloha spirit to Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[394,271,319,947,1664],"class_list":["post-214164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-presidents-office","tag-uh-alumni-association","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-system","tag-hensel","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214164"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214191,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214164\/revisions\/214191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}