"The school children were presented with a letter from Hawaiian language immersion school Nawahiokalani’opu’u in Kea’au, Hawai’i. The letter was written in kanji and sent with crew members with a message of aloha to the mountains, the oceans, the people, and the ancestors of Japan. Nawahi has many students of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Okinawan descent – of which kanji is a shared writing system between all. To honor their eastern connections, students are learning to write Hawaiian through kanji characters. Students and teachers were so excited to receive the letter from their distant relations in Hawai’i."

For more information about the Hawaiian in Kanji project, see Education Downloads in Education Resources, and also http://subarutelescope.org/staff/saeko/HokuleaSupport/.