If your idea of Nippon performance is demure, white-powder-faced women fluttering fans to a subdued koto soundtrack, check out "An Evening of Neo-Traditional Japanese Music and Dance," 7 and 9 p.m. Friday at rRed Elephant in Chinatown — and be surprised. The show features a fusion of taiko, bamboo flutes, koto, percussion and dance in traditional and modern styles by notable artists Chieko Kojima (top), Kaoru Watanabe (bottom), Monami Shishikura and Kenny Endo. Get tickets, $22.50, at 550-8457 or www.honoluluboxoffice.com.

Information: www.taikoarts.com.


— Catherine E. Toth

SEMINAR

KALAUPAPA'S UNCOMMON HEROES

Recent books on Kalaupapa have put the Moloka'i peninsula back in the headlines. Bishop Museum's free Research Seminar Series fills us in on more details, with "Kalaupapa: Uncommon Service on Common Ground," 4 to 5 p.m. tomorrow. Fred E. Woods of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, will explore the way work Father Damien and a Hawaiian Mormon named Jonathan Napela did with patients at the colony quarantining those with Hansen's Disease on Moloka'i was connected to an inter-relationship between Latter-day Saints, Protestants and Catholics. 847-3511.


— Advertiser staff

FINAL WORD

"Sayid is asking all the questions that (fans) want answered."

Damon Lindelof | the "Lost" co-creator on why Sayid's upcoming flashback episode will be so satisfying for fans, in TV Guide