Category Archives: Hawaii( ハワイ）

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) One of the things you never, never want to do is to try to take rocks (including sand) off the Big Island. Each year the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park receives packages and letters from people who have been foolish enough to do so, begging them to return the rocks. Many of the letters describe the misfortunes and bad luck that plagued the thieves after they took the rocks home with them. Broken bones, traffic accidents, loss of jobs… The reason for this is Hawaii’s Volcano Goddess Pele. She hates it when people take her property out of her territory and curses the luckless soul stupid enough to steal from her. 石をハワイに残しましょう！   ハワイ島では絶対にしてはいけないことは、石（砂も含む）盗みです。 毎年、ハワイ火山国立公園には石泥棒から石の入った小包が続々と届けられます。石と共に、石を盗んでからの不運な骨折、交通事故、失業等々の説明文も…殆どにはお詫びと石を元の場所に戻す依頼が含まれています。 不運の理由は『ペレ』というハワイの火山の女神です。彼女は自分の国から石を盗み出すのが大嫌いで、泥棒に呪いをかけます。 By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Books published by AELS (AELS出版書籍) 魔女学院＆光塾：魔女ガールズの冒険 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Most people think of coffee when they hear the name, “Kona” and would probably think that Kona Gold is a strain of coffee if they were asked what it was.   That would be pretty far from the truth since “Kona Gold” is a strain of potent marijuana which has probably been grown in Hawaii since the 1960s. It’s famous throughout the world as being one of the best strains of marijuana ever!   And yes, it’s also illegal in the state with jail time and fines possibly applied if you’re caught possessing it, with the exception of medical marijuana used to alleviate certain medical diseases. For example, the possession of more than an ounce to a pound (28g-454g) can get you a one-year jail sentence and a fine of up to $2,000.   Since […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) The Hawaiian dish called the “Loco Moco” made it to Japan a few years back. I was surprised to find a shop in a mall food court specializing in it. The taste was pretty close to what I was used to eating in Hilo, where the Loco Moco is said to have originated, but it wasn’t quite the same. The gravy was an attempt at gravy that didn’t quite make it. The original Loco Moco gravy was thick, viscous and had a heavy-duty, almost fatty taste.   Basically it’s one or two scoops of rice with a hamburger patty and a sunny-side up egg on it drowned in gravy. It’s quite filling and the original required a pretty good stomach to handle the oily gravy. We used to joke, “I gotta loco mocate my bowels […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) “Da kine” (pronounced dah kīn) is an expression used in Hawaiian pidgin English to refer to something that the speaker believes the other person knows. It’s also sometimes used to replace a word that the speaker can’t recall offhand.   Pidgin is officially classified as a creole, or mixed hybridized language and has wide understanding among the local people in Hawaii.   Let’s look at an example of the use of “da kine”. “If you goin cook da steak, you bettah go hebi on da kine or no moah taste.” Translation: “If you are going to cook the steak, you should salt it heavily with alae salt (or Hawaiian salt) to make sure you give it some taste.”   Here’s another one you could use for an ad for a restaurant. “Da kine broke da […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Hawaii is full of haunted buildings and places. One of them is the UH Hilo Hale Kanilehua (“House of the Sound of the Rain Falling on the Lehua Blossom”(1).   Way back in the 1970s my cousin was a resident there when it was still a women’s dorm as were several classmates from my high school.   Gossip about the ghosts there was widespread and there was a story about the dorm being built on the site of a house where a young boy had died. My cousin and friends told me about the voices they would hear in the middle of the night. One of them was a child’s whisper and the other was a woman who sometimes screamed. According to them the halls in the dorm were unnaturally cold and poltergeist phenomena such […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) If you’re part of the younger generation, you might be surprised to hear that there were authentic Japanese furo baths in Hawaii in use up until around the early 1980s.   When I was growing up, most of the older homes had a wood-heated furo, which would be called a “Goemonburo” in Japan. One of the after-school chores my sister and I faced was to wrap the wood piled up in the coffee orchard in burlap coffee bags and to carry it home for furo kindling.   The furo at my grandparents place was located in a separate building enclosed with corrugated roof iron. The furo itself was a redwood rectangle with a copper bottom floor surrounded by concrete, which formed the fire chamber under it and supported the furo (hint: think of a wooden […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Public water didn’t become available in some areas until the 1960s and even then, the remote areas still weren’t served by a water line. Most families relied on catchment rain water collected in wooden tanks built on stilts, which was probably to help them survive Hawaii’s earthquakes. Some of the water was used for flush toilets but in general, most houses had dry toilets located a short distance from the main home, often with a fig tree planted near it (which is often the case in the country in Japan as well).   Even the elementary school I went to had a row of dry toilets located above the school, although the kindergarten had a flush toilet. This changed during my elementary school years when the school got hooked up to County water.   The […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I’ve always been able to see ghosts and spirits, but usually they’re pretty obvious and have features that alert me to their ethereal states. The following case was an exception.   I was a freshman in college driving home late at night from Hilo to Kona for the weekend. It was probably close to midnight when I reached the turnoff to Hakalau about fifteen minutes out of Hilo. There was a lone streetlamp lighting the turnoff and I saw an old man wearing khaki clothes and what appeared to be black riding boots standing in its light. He was wearing a pith helmet. I recall thinking at the time, “This old guy’s out really late at night. He probably has dementia and wandered off. I hope somebody comes and gets him soon.”   I continued driving […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Most young people have probably never heard of a party line. A party line is a phone service in which a number of phones are connected in a loop. When one person is using the phone, the others can listen in and cannot make phone calls until the person on the phone finishes.   When I was in elementary school my grandfather’s home where I lived had a party line. I remember how difficult it was for my grandmother to make calls because one person on the party line liked to talk for hours (Hawaii Island calls were free). I’m pretty sure that other people on other party lines in Kona experienced similar problems. Of course, in an emergency you could talk to the person and ask them to relinquish the use of the party […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) While May Day in Japan is associated with labor unions, in Hawaii it is a day of celebration and wearing leis.   Every child in Hawaii knows the song, “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.” and elementary schools throughout the state hold celebrations where a May Day King and Queen and their court as well as princesses and princes from the major islands are chosen and reign on a stage decorated with flowers and ti leaves. Of course, all of the children wear leis on that day at one time or another. Parents, grandparents and friends provide an enthusiastic audience that gives the event an even more festive atmosphere.   In my day, each class presented something with a cultural theme and the children danced (including the hula) as part of the ceremonies. I […]