Category Archives: Hawaii( ハワイ）

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 […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Most junior high and high school students of my era held part-time jobs. Some worked at supermarkets as bag boys, others worked at the local hotels as porters and such. In my case, in addition to working in the Hotel Maintenance Department, our local Nikkei kumiai asked me to take care of the Japanese Immigrant Cemetery on contract.   You might think that taking care of a cemetery would be the last job a person who can see ghosts would want to take, but I’d never seen a ghost there and it was close to my home, so I readily accepted.   The kumiai would pay me a flat fee per month for maintenance and would pay extra for whatever herbicide costs I incurred.   I would go to the cemetery after school and spray […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) When I was about four or five years old, I began to have a recurrent dream of a naked young woman in her late teens. The dream would reoccur at least once a week and there wasn’t a week that went by when I didn’t have the dream. In my dream, the woman was always sitting or standing by the same low waterfall and I could vividly see the water-worn stones in the water and around the waterfall. The dreams came regularly for years until one day when I was in 7th grade, my close friend invited me to go and stay with him for a week at his uncle’s place in Waipio Valley. In those days, Waipio Valley was extremely isolated and very few people got to go there, so I was quite fortunate […]