I think I started a blog elsewhere.  Actually, several elsewheres.  We'll see if this one is the one that sticks.  I have no clue what I'm going to use this blog for.  I'll probably give you some insight into what I eat, what I like to do, and where I like to go.

Let's start of with a little about me:

Location: Kahului, Maui, Hawaii
Hobbies: Taiko (Maui Taiko)
Interests: a little bit of everything
Food:  Yes please!

Work: Imua Family Services
Community stuff:  Maui Matsuri, Japanese Cultural Society of Maui

This weekend, you may want to check out Maui's annual Maui Matsuri.  Matsuri translates into "festival".  Maui Matsuri is the largest Japanese Cultural festival on the island.  It kicks off our Obon season... which would take a whole other blog to explain.  It would take another one to explain why Maui even has a Japanese cultural festival!

Short versions:  Obon is when Japanese Buddhists honor their ancestor.  There's a whole story about a monk who saw a dead person and it made him want to dance or something like that, but it's basically a time for us to look back and be thankful for those who have contributed to our lives, celebrate their contributions, and honor their sacrifices and memories.

Japanese on Maui.  Hawaii was riddled with plantations after contact with the western world was made.  There weren't enough Hawaiian people back then to work the plantations - it may have had something to do with Western disease ravaging their populations, and it may also have been because racist views cast Hawaiians as lazy and unfit for labor.  Japanese, along with other populations around the world (Puerto Ricans, Portuguese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, etc...) were brought in to work on the plantations.  They were physically separated into camps to work on the plantations, paid varying wages to help make sure they didn't get along, and without the riches they had been promised, eventually settled on the islands permanently.

Anyhoo,  Maui Matsuri is Saturday from 2PM to 7PM at UH Maui College.  On Friday we'll have a Free Movie night on the same campus (Pilina Building) featuring 2 movies about Japan after the devastation of the triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear) of March 2011.

A Hui Ho!