Even as mega-cute Japanese pop sensation Halko Momoi was whipping a stage-side swarm of jumping, glow-stick-waving fans into a frenzy at the Hawai'i Convention Center yesterday, a parade of inflated, 8-foot-tall Beijing Olympic mascots with 4-foot-wide smiley heads marched methodically nearby — pausing to pose for photos with awestruck spectators.

The Japanese anime voice actress and supergirl, and colossal critters were merely the most noticeable aspects at the kickoff of yesterday's 14th annual Honolulu Festival.

Elsewhere, Formosan aboriginals in full costume displayed handmade cultural wares; Asian kamishibai (paper-play) storytellers kept listeners spellbound the old-fashioned way; and experts in origami and miniature flower arrangements divulged their secrets to any and all. Back by popular demand this year was Descendance — the Australian Aboriginal Dance Troupe.

The mission of the free, two-day event — to promote goodwill and ethnic harmony between the people of Hawai'i and those of the Pacific Rim countries — took many forms.

"We've got performances here at the Convention Center, at the Ala Moana Center Stage, as well as the Waikiki Shopping Plaza, and the Waikiki Beach Walk," said Arlynne Hurley, festival spokeswoman. She said 5,500 singers, dancers and artisans from Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hawai'i and the U.S. Mainland had come to participate.

Hurley said it would be impossible to find such a cultural mix anywhere else on Earth.

Sharlyn Goetz, a one-woman microcosm of the entire event, operated one of dozens of craft booths at the convention center

"I am Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and I was born in Hawai'i," said Goetz, whose booth specializes in products made of lauhala leaf. "My grandmother is pure Japanese, but she was hanai'd, or adopted, by this Hawaiian family that lived in La'ie, and she only spoke Hawaiian until she went to kindergarten. Her Hawaiian is in her heart, and she gave me the Hawaiian I have in my heart as well."

Among several special displays was one devoted to the incredible, and little known, story of Joseph Heco, who in 1858 became the first person of Japanese origin to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In addition to a seminar on Heco, about two dozen of Linda Fujikawa's Kapi'olani Community College students presented Heco's tale to festival youngsters in a form known as kamishibai used by itinerant storytellers long before the advent of electronic communications.

"Using drawings, they are telling the story in a very simple format so that children can understand," said Fujikawa, a member of the Joseph Heco Society of Hawai'i.

It is a story of a boy being orphaned as a child in a closed society, being shipwrecked at age 13, being rescued by U.S. sailors and taken to a land few Japanese had ever seen — America. After becoming a citizen, Heco returned to Japan as a diplomat and newspaper pioneer.

"Our theme is humanity above nation," said Fujikawa. "Because even if countries are at war, people to people can still make an impact. It was the friendship of Americans and people all over that brought Heco to this country."

The Honolulu Festival continues today from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with performances, craft fair booths, giveaways, drawings and the Grand Parade along Kalakaua Avenue.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.