Kauai Community College Instructor Pua Rossi-Fukino’s passion for Hawaiian studies started when she was a student herself at college 10 years ago. She fondly remembers how her trip to New Zealand broadened her horizons. Now, she wants to do the same for her students.
While Fukino was leading a newly formed popular on-campus hula group called Na Liki Aloha O Ka Hui Hula with 25 participants, several visiting Japanese exchange students formed new bonds with the group members as they learned the Hawaiian way of dancing.
“They extended an invitation to us in December to come visit them in our sister city Suo Oshima and we were honored,” said Fukino. “There are a lot of similarities between their island and our island. We can’t wait to see what their hula is like.”
Fukino’s hula students who are also enrolled in her Hawaiian sudies course titled Rediscovering Polynesian Connections are the students who will be traveling to Japan. They have focused their studies on learning Japanese phrases and researching Suo Oshima in preparation for the upcoming seven-day trip.
Alana Kanahele, president of the hula club, is excited to experience the Japanese culture and in kind share the Hawaiian culture with them. It will be Kanahele’s first time traveling far from her home on the Westside of Kauai where the majority of her fellow Hawaiian studies students were also raised.
“I think the Japanese people will be surprised at the way we are able to show our aloha to them, and our hula,” said Kanahele. “We also plan to do Oli to represent the places around Kauai, from the mountains to the sea.”
The students plan to visit a Suo Oshima museum that showcases the connection between the two islands.
Their itinerary also includes seeing a large detailed scale model of the Kauai County Building built inside a hotel.
“The reason why the islands are sisters is that a good number of the Japanese immigrants came to Kauai from Suo Oshima to work on the sugar plantations years ago,” said Fukino.
The Hawaiian Studies instructor will be asking for the communities support in the group’s fundraising efforts.
The cost for the June cross-cultural experience is expected to average $2,500 per student and chaperone. In the meantime, fundraising efforts have been ongoing and will continue. Activities include car washes, supporting a KCC dinner function, volunteering at an area church, trash pick-up efforts and an upcoming hula performance.
Fukino hopes to email daily photos from the trip to The Garden Island for publication to chronicle the group’s excursion providing she has an adequate Internet connection.
Kanahele is already gearing up to share her cell phone photos from Japan on her Facebook page.
“Most people I know have never seen Japan,” she stated enthusiastically. “I can’t wait to show them what it looks like.”
• Lisa Ann Capozzi is a features/education writer and can be reached at lcapozzi@thegardenisland.com.
