"I'm kinda still in shock," said Stacy Horner over the phone.   On a cloudy Sunday morning on the northern coast of Molokai, Horner says he saw debris on a beach that was not there the day before.

He also saw the Japanese writing on a basket and couldn?t help but think:

"My wife and I both thought the debris would end up here on the north shore," he said.   "This is what's called plastic sand or micro-plastic," said University of Hawaii senior researcher Nikolai Maximenko, pointing to a pile of bits of colorful plastic.

On Wednesday, he was analyzing more debris just picked up by their two-man team that returned from a month-long expedition from Honolulu to Midway Islands.

Their mission was to find evidence that Japan's tsunami debris had arrived.   "We provided 11 buoys that will be tracked by satellite and 400 wooden markers," he said.   But, Maximenko believes none of the debris collected by their team is from Japan's disaster, but instead from that massive garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean.    "They're used in Canada and the west Coast for hag fish traps," he said pointing to a worn, small black plastic basket.

It's old plastic, combined with new revelations and some real surprises.

For one, the debris from Japan's disaster stopped, after advancing toward Midway for six months.   "It stopped. It stopped, because of a temperature front on the southern edge of the debris," said Maximenko.

They also found what they believe is the light debris from Japan's disaster, on the U.S. West Coast.

He believes it was carried over by wind, not ocean currents.

But maybe the biggest mystery is the tsunami debris found in Japan on the opposite side of the country.