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  • Your Aloha Preview - February

Courtesy of Cloudia Charters Author of Aloha Where You Like To Go?
Aloha Greetings!
 
Hope this Aloha Preview of the next "Walking in Waikiki" column finds you warm and happy. 
 
Hawaii is still buzzing about our local guy (born & raised!) Barack being sworn in as 44th President.
 
The slight downturn in visitor numbers has only made Waikiki even sweeter, I think.  Robert Cazimero told me that he thinks that the slower pace is conducive to renewed ALOHA.  "Folks have the time to talk story, and to remember how Mamma and Grandad treated people back in the old days."  I think he may be right!
 
So jump on a hotel "deal" (they are out there!) and get your feet into da sand!  Jimmy Buffet will be performing here later in February, and will no doubt also be seen at his NEW Waikiki restaurant on the site of Don Ho's iconic show.
 
If you can't fly over, then just sit back and enjoy this stroll through Waikiki and surrounds along with us.
 
Walking in Waikiki now appears in the Kaimuki News! along with Waikiki News and TripAtlas.com.   And please remember to visit my daily Hawaii Blog: Comfort Spiral at
comfortspiral.blogspot.com  for more free feelgood!
                                            Warm Aloha, Cloudia 
 
Zippys (a casual dining chain) is the place that returning Hawaii folks go to directly from the airport for local comfort food. Usually, when in Chinatown, I'll have dim sum at my favorite place, but I was "ono" (Hawaiian, means 'hungry' and also 'delicious') for Won Ton Min at Zippys.  So, I began my Chinatown New Year Celebration at the Maunakea Street & Vineyard Boulevard location directly across from the beautiful Kwan Yin Temple.  My server told me that my choice is President Barack's favorite when he's in town!
 
  Waddling towards the Chinese Cultural Center after my meal, I passed the Lum Sai Ho Tong(1899-1953 on Kukui at the canal) which is the clan temple, gathering place, and record-keeping center for all of the folks with the surname of "Lum" who immigrated to our Honolulu from China. This was the first time in my 20+ years in town I ever saw it open for New Years visitors! It was an amazing place with multiple altars upstairs and a great, usually inaccessible view across the canal (Nu`uanu Stream) from the upper floor.
 
At the Cultural Center I bought some lucky calligraphy on red paper as well as "Gau," a round rice "pudding" cake that celebrates family cohesion. Streets were closed, crowds were thick, and dancing lions with their gong/drum/crashing cymbal bands roamed the district to the sounds of firecrackers. I went into a hole-in-the-wall noodle factory and bought some fresh noodles for dinner. "Nihau" (Hello) Shi Shi (Thank You) and "Gung Hee Fat Choy" (Happy Lucky New Year!) everybody! A bit of patient gesturing, along with the linguistic niceties above will take you far in our friendly and fascinating Honolulu Chinatown, the oldest in America!
 
Walking back to the car with my noodles, lucky amulets, and new red t-shirt, I noticed that the Shinto Shrine on Kukui Street was open too. Inside, a Shinto Priest was conducting services for two young Japanese folks. At the end of the service, he took a ceremonial pole with hanging white papers from the altar and blessed the two with it by dangling it over their heads. Then he kindly blessed me as well! Finally, he brought a wooden tray with porcelain cups on it and served each of us a sip of good Sake. Bracing! I had been afraid that I was trespassing so I thanked the Priest sincerely. "Thank you for coming." he generously said. Cultures and customs mix and share like nowhere else, here in our Polynesian metropolis!
 
For over twenty years I have driven right past the Kaimuki Fire House (Koko Head Avenue)without thinking much about the hill that looms over it. I'd been close to a real treasure and never even knew it! The Pu`u (pronounced: poo - oo) or "hill" O Kaimuki, the high point of the whole neighborhood, is crowned by a tiny, secret jewel of a city park! The pu`u has many stories and legends attached to it.  Hawaii's "little people," the Menehune, supposedly frequented it nightly well into the 20th Century; and its peak is also considered a likely site of Hawaiian cultural practices dating back to "pre-contact times.  The little mountain has played host to a water tank, an early astronomical observatory, and a WWII military lookout. She witnessed the arrival of the original Hawaiian voyaging canoes, and later saw the first European ships sail past an incredulous Diamond Head.  Yes, this quiet spot has certainly seen lots of change, and lots of growth. An easy climb, the Pu`u boasts spectacular views from Koko Head and Maunalua Bay in the East, to Waikiki, urban Honolulu, Punchbowl Crater, and the expansive, green Ko`olau range all the way to the Waianae Mountains at the western edge of O`ahu.  I was greeted at the top, by mellow locals jamming on guitars, and enjoyed a mesmerizing sunset over the Pacific.  Check it out!
 
I have always been of fond of our classic little Kaimuki neighborhood with its main commercial strip of Waialae Avenue. Strolling there, one finds a few remaining "mom and pop" businesses beside culinary gems offering everything from classic diner food (Big City Diner) to Asian, Italian, Greek, Mexican, French & even an Indian Tandoori place!  Kaimuki was the first large subdivision outside of Honolulu (though now it's part of the City & County). In 1898 two businessmen bought 520 acres of land here for 20,000 dollars, envisioning a lucrative, high-class residential area where only rocky hills and hardscrabble dairy farms existed. Fee simple house lots were offered for 400 to 600 dollars each; but without paved roads it was a hard sell. Potential buyers were even offered a 50-dollar "Bounty" for every baby born in Kaimuki!  Today we can see that the parched red dirt finally did grow a friendly community of homes, schools, and yummy restaurants; all around the feet of our tall friend, the Pu`u O Kaimuki, up behind the fire station.  .  .
 
The Hawaiians had names for every little feature and area of this `Aina, the precious land. Today we give directions by roads and buildings: human made creations. Yes, the people of old had intimate familiarity with all of nature and took pleasure in naming it, in singing, and in dancing about it. Nowhere is this more apt than here in Waikiki, the "Spouting Waters" where three mountain streams: Palolo, Manoa, and Makiki, all give themselves to the sea, creating a unique micro-climate that the ancients considered to be powerfully healing.
 
Diamond Head, or course, remains from their landscape to our own day. And at her green skirts of Kapiolani Park is a distinct area of Waikiki Beach that we call "Queen's Surf." The people of old called it "Kalehuawehe," The Open Lehua Blossom."
 
High Chiefs from every Ahupua`a, or district, came to Waikiki in season to enjoy it's special ambiance. Taro was brought to them from nearby uplands; Fish and their favorite sea-vegetables were always fresh at hand in the sea and also in the ingenious fishponds that graced our neighborhood back then.
 
One thing that even the chiefs might NOT do was to surf at Kalehuawehe.  This lovely beach was Kapu, or taboo, to any but the daughter of O`ahu's highest Ali`i: Kakuhihewa. And so it remained her private joy until one morning . . .
 
As the lovely Princess made her way to the surf that day, a handsome young chief (pure Ali`i from the right side of Manoa Valley) stepped forward to offer her a perfect lei of Lehua blossoms. Enraptured by the rich moment of their glorious youth on that exquisite Waikiki day so long ago, she accepted the lei, which was almost as beautiful as his manly smile. The unbroken custom of Aloha, of flawless reciprocation, thus placed her in his debt. So, wordlessly they joined hands and entered the surf together. And from that day the Kapu was broken at Kalehuawehe . . . The place we call Queen's Surf . . .
 
The passing generations immemorial of Ali`i have left their Mana, and sometimes their bones (their sacred Iwi) at this special place as well. Closer to our own times, King Kalakaua, the Merrie Monarch, spent happy hours beside the grand park named for his Queen Kapiolani. Then another Queen, his sister Lili`uokalani, had her beach home here: the lovely Pua Leilani or "Heavenly Flower Lei," which she in turn left to Prince Jonah Kuhio, Hawaii's first (nonvoting) representative to the U.S. Congress. He was known fondly as our "Citizen Prince." (And as Prince Cupid to the ladies ;-) Queen's Surf remained his own beloved retreat until his passing in 1922 . . .
 
 
Today, the Waikiki Aquarium is the queen of this part of the beach. It's deceptively small building houses myriad wonders as well as genuine scientists working to heal & repair the oceans. So the healing quality of Waikiki remains. Only now it extends to the oceans themselves. Come feel it for yourself. Come to Queen's Surf.
 
 And that little thing about Kamehameha landing his army here to begin the conquest of O`ahu, I mean the UNITING of the islands? It was a one-time thing, man!  Today, Queen's is a beach of peace - all back to normal. A happy normal indeed . . . when you're walking in Waikiki . . . Aloha!

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