Kaua‘i residents wanting a taste of the Okinawa culture have an opportunity right now as Hui Alu, the Kaua‘i Okinawa club, and the Kaua‘i Community College are wrapping up a series of events that are totally unrelated, but offer an
Kaua‘i residents wanting a taste of the Okinawa culture have an opportunity right now as Hui Alu, the Kaua‘i Okinawa club, and the Kaua‘i Community College are wrapping up a series of events that are totally unrelated, but offer an opportunity to learn the Okinawa culture.
At KCC, the nursing students from the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing are wrapping up the second week of their two-week trip to Kaua‘i where they got lessons in Hawaiian language and culture, the English language, and a taste of Western medicine as they toured Kaua‘i’s hospitals, taking time to join other KCC nursing students and Boy Scouts to help with the annual Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital’s beach outing at Lydgate Park.
The outing allows between 30-40 long term patients an opportunity to enjoy the beach as well as a special picnic lunch prepared by the hospital and its auxiliary members.
At the convention hall, Hui Alu and the Hawai‘i United Okinawa Association wrapped up their three-day Okinawa Day Camp where youngsters got some hands-on experience in learning about the Okinawa culture.
Headed by Bernie Sakoda who got a lot of help from local volunteers, youngsters created taiko drums and learned how to play the instrument from Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko instructor Glenna Ueunten and her daughter Amy.
Other activity stations had youngsters learning Okinawa terminology, creating fine art pieces under the direction of KCC instructor Wayne Miyata and Dean Oshiro, and two days were devoted to youngsters getting hands-on (feet-on?) experience creating Okinawa food dishes such as anda dog, andagi, and other familiar treats.
Additionally, the Warabi Ashibi experience was expanded to include some familiar hana-bata style games that were enjoyed by youngsters who grew up in the plantation lifestyle.
These included creating a race car using a paper (plastic nowadays) cup, drinking straws, and a balloon, and competing with each other once their racers were complete.
Other activities included the familiar milk cap (POGS) toss, marbles in different game formats, and more complex building of wooden boats using wood slabs (plantation days terminology was the kamabuko slabs). Florence Tomita, one of the helpers at the Warabi Ashibi also had some house guests from the Orient on hand to help the local youngsters resulting in a unique cultural exchange program that could be found only on Kaua‘i.
