The Hawaii United Okinawa Association will livestream a commemoration of Irei no Hi, or Okinawa’s Memorial Day, on Monday, June 22, on its Facebook page and YouTube channel from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Tom Yamamoto Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Thirty years ago, an innovative idea became a reality: to create an exchange program for students to learn firsthand about diverse cultures, fostering their global awareness and sense of internationalism. In 1990, the Hawai‘i-Okinawa Student Exchange Program was established through a partnership between the Hawaii State Legislature, the…
Lyrics and music by Nick Kurosawa and Ohtoro Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Published with permission Editor’s note: “Yonsei” (Zenbu Records, 2018) is the title of a soul-hop album coproduced by Nikkei musicians Nick Kurosawa and Ohtoro. Kurosawa’s soul-colored vocals and Ohtoro’s enka-inspired beats create a blended flow of sultry sounds. When this audio dimension…
Bishop Eric Matsumoto Special to The Hawai‘i Herald The weather is warm, the breeze blows gently, the rain falls lightly and the flowers are blooming beautifully. Spring is such a beautiful time of year. Don’t you agree? It brings a new freshness, a stirring of excitement and a new awareness which warms and touches the…
Byrnes Yamashita Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Building Bridges with Japan Hawai‘i is a popular travel destination for the Japanese who hopefully soon will be back to enjoy the Hawaiian islands. But once they get past the beaches and the shopping malls, how interested are they in terms of our Japanese American history and…
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Jodie Chiemi Ching This summer, why not treat yourself to reading a variety of Asian American literary and nonfiction books? Even though Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month ended in May, you can hold your own mini-celebration of the diversity of Hawai‘i and the rest of the Land of the Free. I dug up…
Nick Kurosawa Commentary When the two words Hawai‘i and music come together, the images in your mind might look like a romantic cliché — the palm trees swaying, the hula dancer and her hips, the vowel-heavy pronunciations of native language, all coalescing into the predisposed notion of what music from Hawai‘i is supposed to…
Sansei Scholar Wesley Ueunten on What it Means to be Okinawan Ida Yoshinaga Researching Uchinanchu Within the Global Community Wesley Ueunten (上運天巌), an accomplished professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, spent his pandemic year in Okinawa on a Fulbright award, teaching at a local college. He and his part-Okinawan wife were…
For the second year in a row, the Okinawan Festival will be brought to you from the comfort of your own home on Saturday, Sept. 4 and Sunday, Sept. 5 from 2-5 p.m. Free and open to the public, folks can tune in live through the Hawaii United Okinawa Association (HUOA) YouTube channel or Facebook…
Get Your Stomachs Ready For the 2nd Annual Okinawan FEASTival In celebration of all things Okinawan, the Okinawan Festival will team up with the Okinawan FEASTival to create all of the delicious foods that many crave and wait for all year long. From Sept. 1 through 14, many local restaurants will create Okinawan dishes and…
Lois Kajiwara Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Editor’s Note: Due to COVID-19 pandemic protocols, it’s probably safe to say travelling right now is not the best idea. However, Japan is a favorite destination for many of us who live in Hawai‘i. For those of you who miss visiting the beautiful and diverse prefectures of Japan,…
Stacy Lee Special to The Hawai‘i Herald N95s, KN95s, KF94s, 3-ply-surgical, cotton masks; bandanas and face shields. Been there, done that. Still doing it. We have been inundated with masks during the past year and a half. For Americans, it is the new normal. And although the Japanese in Japan are more accustomed to wearing them, they…
Stacy Lee Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Overall, our sources of entertainment have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Food being a great source of comfort coupled with binge-watching movies and TV shows on Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube TV, Viki and others has become evident in our expanding waistlines. For those with kids (and adults),…
Days leading up to New Year’s Eve, a familiar Japanese tradition took place in many local backyards: the art of mochitsuki, the pounding of mochi rice to make mochi. Family’s and friends gathered in their social bubbles to take their turns pounding away at their owned or borrowed usu (a large round bowl-like mortar made…
Hasegawa Honors Community “Aunties” by Reviving Old Hawai‘i Cookbooks Ida Yoshinaga Republished with permission Zentoku Foundation (zentokufoundation.org) Itadakimasu! (We heartily receive this meal!) The nishime demonstration is done, as Hasegawa is poised to start “grinding.” Jennifer Hasegawa seems an unlikely preserver of simple community cookbooks from the Hawaiian islands’ early statehood period of the 1960s…
Stacy Lee Special to The Hawai‘i Herald It’s definitely a no-brainer. Like many Japanophiles, foodies, whiskey aficionados, manga fans, onsen lovers, cosplay enthusiasts or people who just can’t get enough of Japan, I am so there! For almost two years, many could only experience Japan by engaging in such activities as longingly watching an informative…
Rev. Reyn Yorio Tsuru Commentary, Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Almost 2,600 years ago in the gardens of Lumbini, a historical figure was born whose influence on humankind cannot be understated. Conceptually speaking, the ideas that Shakyamuni Buddha espoused were certainly not new, but the Buddha’s ability to present them in a way that could…
Photos by Wayne Shinbara On Tuesday, April 5, Bishop Daiya Amano and Rev. Jun Miyasaka of the Izumo Taisha Mission of Hawaii conducted a Shintōblessing of the new Hawaii Hochi facility at 2736 Waiwai Loop. This Shitōblessing follows a Hawaiian blessing that was held on Friday, Feb. 4 and conducted by Kahu Kordell Kekoa….
