1. Plan Your Travel

After the disastrous terrorism, airline companies are packing passengers into an aircraft by reducing both the number of flights and the size of the aircraft. Since good economy boosts visitors to Hawaii, Hawaii flights are always full. Please book your flight early to avoid missing the seminar!
We give airfare support to all the participants. The payment is made during the seminar. All we need for the pay to you is the itinerary and receipt or other proof of payment issued by your travel agency or by the carrier. The complete procedure will be available soon on our seminar web page;

You can purchase your ticket either from any travel agent or from an airline company. You can purchase it either in person or via Internet.

The current registration shows that the most people arrive at Kailua-Kona on the morning to early afternoon of March 12 and leave there on the morning of March 18.

When you book a flight, please schedule to arrive at Kailua-Kona, not Hilo. The Island of Hawaii is really a small island. But if you land in a wrong place, it is very costly to move from one place to another.

Please make sure you land at and depart from Kailua-Kona Keahole Airport, not at/from Hilo International Airport.

If you booked the ticket for the flights to Hilo already, please contact your travel agent as soon as possible to change your flight. If you already purchased a ticket for flight to/from Hilo and it costs fee to change the flight, please consider the following facts to see what is more economical;

1. Hilo is 160km away from the Royal Kona Resort, the venue of the seminar and it takes two hours by car. 2. There is a limited mass transportation between Hilo and Kona, but the bus does not carry large baggage. One backpack is, I think, the maximum baggage allowance. But there are only one or two buses per day. You may need to stay at Hilo to catch a bus. 3. I have no idea how much the taxi costs. You can join the local tour just to reach Kona. I heard it costs over one hundred dollar for one way. 4. Hotels in Hilo now cost very expensive. And all the hotels may be full. 5. There is one flight between Hilo and Kona for each direction every day day. It costs about 40 USD one way. A flight from Hilo to Kona leaves at 8:05 a.m. and a flight from Kona to Hilo leaves at 5:10 p.m. You need to stay in Hilo to catch the flight. 6. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide transportation between Hilo and Kona due to our limitation of manpower.

Please see the program section on the web. But the important dates are;

• Sunday, March 12 Reception from 5 p.m.
• Monday, March 13 Opening of the seminar
• Tuesday, March 14 Mauna Kea tour
• Thursday, March 16 Excursion
• Friday, March 17 Closing of the seminar and banquet

Most people check in the hotel on March 12 and check out on March 18. In this way, you won't miss any single event during the seminar. Regardless which airline you choose, you will arrive at Kona airport in the morning through early afternoon. Regardless which airline you choose, your flight leaves Kona early in the morning so that you can catch a flight to Asia leaving Honolulu on the same day.

To attend the whole agenda of the seminar, I would suggest you the following itinerary;

March 11 evening or March 12 morning:

Leave your country for a gateway airport to Hawaii (Narita, Nagoya, Osaka, Taipei, Manila, Guam or Seoul)

March 12:

Arrive at the gateway airport

March 12 evening:

Leave the gateway airport for Hawaii

March 12 morning:

Arrive at Honolulu or directly to Kona
Leave Honolulu for Kona

March 12 morning through early afternoon:

Arrive at Kona Please note that check in time of the hotel is 3 p.m. You may need to kill time until 3 p.m.

　

March 18 morning:

Leave Kona Transfer at Honolulu

March 18 morning through early afternoon:

Leave Honolulu for a gateway airport

March 19 afternoon

Arrive at the gateway airport

Most itineraries do not require a stopover at the airport.

2. Travel Support

We are glad to announce that we will offer airfare support at least USD 720 to ALL the participants. Our parent organization, National Institutes for Natural Sciences kindly allocated extra fund for the seminar and this made the additional support available.

Here's the procedures for reimbursement of the airfare. This applies to all the participants who receive full or partial support from us except those from Japan .

1. Book and buy air ticket by yourself. You can use a travel agency or directly book and purchase from a carrier.
2. Fax or e-mail (1) Itinerary issued by the agent and (2) Receipt or any proof of your payment no later than February 20, 2006 to;

   Mr. Takashi Kawabe, Subaru Telescope
           Fax +1(808)934-5099 or kawabe@naoj.org

Reimbursement is made during the seminar by cash in the U.S. Currency.

For details of the travel support, please contact one of the regional contacts for the seminar, or contact us at seas@subaru.nao.ac.jp.

日本国内から旅行される方の旅費手続き方法

１．航空券の手配
　航空券は各自で手配してください。

２．旅費の支払
　国立天文台から参加者が指定された銀行に振込みを行います。

３．必要書類
　・見積書
　・日程表
　・領収書（E-Ticketであれば支払ったことを証明する書類）
　・銀行振り込み依頼書（既に国立天文台に登録済みであれば必要ありません）

　送付先：〒181-8588　東京都三鷹市大沢2-21-1
　　　　　　　　　　　国立天文台すばる室　高本宛

　提出期限　2月20日