Japanese Cultural Center Hawaii

On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of visiting the Japanese Cultural Center in Honolulu Hawaii with my "Hawaii During WWII" history class. This is a great place to check out if you are in the area. I would suggest using one of your "rainy days in paradise" to visit here, especially if you have no idea about Japanese Culture. I found it a great learning experience.

By the way, I have to comment on this because parking is horrible in Hawaii, but the Japanese Cultural Center has their own parking garage facility and they even validate your parking so it's free. Try finding that at any other building in Hawaii.

As soon as I walked out of the elevator from the parking structure I was overwhelmed by activity. The first thing I saw as I exited the elevator was a bunch of teenagers and children practicing Kenshikan Dojo. Honestly, I don't know anything about it but any activity that keeps these kids off the streets of Honolulu gets an A+ in my book.

Also, there was a group of lively Zumba dancers by the entrance which I thought was pretty random but made the space really "come alive".

The video above really shows the part of the Japanese Cultural Center our class focused on, the history of the Japanese in Hawaii. This part of the Center can be emotional. Just thinking about what all these immigrants had to go through with the discrimination during the war is really heartbreaking; and yet, the Japanese don't complain because they want to honor their families.

The Japanese Cultural Center is a great learning experience no matter what ethnic background you come from.

A book AND theatre review- Night at the Pahala Theatre

Ok, I am going to start off with the book review.

Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre is written by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. Yes, I am sorry folks, another Yamanaka piece of work. This book is actually a story that takes place within several different poems. The book is yet another "coming-of-age" tale. Out of all of Yamanaka's works, I would suggest reading this one first only because she uses parts from this book in her novels. I found that when I was reading this I was kind of bored only because I felt like I had read it before with all the references to taxidermy (Heads by Harry), the molester by the school ground (Blu's Hanging), and the bullying of family (Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers). Like all of Yamanaka's works, this book uses the Pidgin dialect. I feel like out of all of her novels this one really incorporates Pidgin the most, so if you have a hard time reading Pidgin I would not suggest this book.

Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre is about a young 12 year-old girl, Lucy, who lives on Hilo who has to deal with certain obstacles in her life, including a 19 year-old "boyfriend" or basically child molester. Lucy's family is abusive (like Yamanaka's other fictional families) mentally and physically. What sticks out in my mind the most is the poem with the iron hanger. In one part the mother beats her child with a golf club. Pretty serious stuff.

On the plus side, the collection of poems is very short and makes for a quick read. I would suggest perhaps taking Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre on the beach. It's a very good beach book because it is enjoyable and short and easy to pick up where you left off.

Saturday February 26, 2012 I attended a play at Kumu Kahua Theatre for the showing of Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre.

I have never been to Kumu Kahua for a performance yet, so I was unsure of what to expect. As I walked in the theatre I noticed almost all of the seats were taken. I squeezed myself between a tough looking local guy and a group of old white tourists. Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre really brought in a variety of audience members.

The stage was very small, and I give props for the crew for adapting to the amount of space they had for such a complicated play, but they made it work by not using a lot of props and not resetting the background. The only bad thing about the stage set up was that from the middle of the audience it was hard to see a lot of scenes, especially if the actors were sitting down which they did often. I missed a few scenes because of this.

The acting was phenomenal. Seriously, these actors have serious acting skills.

Bouncing off that, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre was "Meh". To me, it seemed too long and the tone for Kumu Kahua's rendition really ruined the message Yamanaka wanted to display in her original work. It actually made me believe Pahala is horrible place to grow up in with the bullying and the molesters. Also, I felt that the characters were way too "over-the-top". There was one point where the actors dispersed throughout the audience and started screaming in various members faces. They were screaming so loud that I felt I couldn't understand what they were saying, let alone know what was going on in the play, and what the excessive screaming had anything to do with the overall message.

Also, I felt like I could have wrote a better play version of Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre. I felt like scenes were rushed. The transition of comical scenes and a serious scenes were rushed, causing the audience to not feel any sympathy for the very serious matters that were occurring, like child molestation. The audience was laughing at child abuse. It was very concerning, and really ruined the play for me.

Would I go see it again? MAYBE, to see the actors perform again just because they were so good. But, most likely no.

#132 Learn How to Cook- Sausage Lasagna

I have finally cooked my way into the intermediate level of cooking. By the way, don't mind the broken stove. For some reason our new electric stove's clock has gone crazy, missing some important lights. GE product...go figure. Ok so this Lasagna...it's ok, it was a little runny but I think that is just because I cooked it with foil over the entire time in the oven. Next time I am going to try to cook half without any kind of cover and hopefully it reduces the amount of water in the dish.

What you need:

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomato. I used crushed tomato with basil
• 1/4 cup dry red wine. I used our wedding wine
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, plus 2 whole sprigs
• 3 cloves garlic, minced yahhh
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (16-ounce) container low fat cottage cheese
• 1 (15-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 bag of baby spinach
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 8 ounces of Italian sweet sausage
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 9 sheets of lasagna noodles
• 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (6 ounces)
• Olive oil

Order of events:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
• Start boiling water for lasagna noodles. When boiling add noodles. I would suggest added a little more then you need just in case one or two get destroyed in the cooking process.
• In a small pot bring the tomatoes, wine, whole basil sprigs (I chopped mine), garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper, to taste, to a simmer. Cook until slightly thickened about 10 minutes and set aside.
• Meanwhile, puree the cottage cheese in the bowl of a food processor until smooth. Add ricotta, spinach (use however much you think you need), 1/4 cup chopped basil, nutmeg, and salt and pepper and pulse until just combined. Or, if you have a mini food processor like mine, mixed in a bowl.
• Coat a large non-stick skillet with olive oil and cook the sausage and onion, breaking it up into small pieces, until the meat is brown and the onion is tender. About 10 minutes.
• Next it's time to assemble our lasagna. Mist a 13x9 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray (or olive oil). Spread tomato sauce so it covers the bottom of the pan, use about 1/2 a cup. Top the sauce with three noodles and on top of the noodles, half of the cheese mixture, half the sausage and top with mozzarella cheese. Repeat for the next layer. Top with remaining noodles and sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until the noodles are tender and the sauce is bubbling about 1 hour.
• Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese and continue to bake until melted, about 10 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes. 
• Serve and lick your plate.

Book Review- Heads By Harry

Out of the three Yamanaka books I have read, Heads By Harry is definitely the most "mature". By mature, I mean the characters are more matured. I don't know if this is just because her main characters in Heads By Harry are older, but I didn't find myself cringing at every thing.

Heads By Harry focuses around a family whose line of business is taxidermy.  That fact alone makes Heads By Harry unique. Whenever there is a problem it seems as if the main character, Toni, rips apart the skin of an animal to make herself feel better, which I thought was interesting. In the family the reader is introduced to three teenagers, Sheldon the girly mahu, Bunny the slut sister, and Toni the sidetracked tomboy slacker. Unlike Blu's Hanging and Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, Heads By Harry has a supportive family structure. The parents always seem to be around, and not high or drunk or dead, and make pretty decent money. But, Yamanaka proves that even the most stable family has problems.

I particularly like the predicament that Toni gets herself into. It make me chuckle a few times, making me feel like a horrible person.

I give Heads By Harry 4 stars. It was actually really good. I enjoyed it. If you want to read a less shocking novel by Yamanaka I would choose Heads By Harry over the other two I already reviewed for sure.

This Vs. That

This...

Or...

A Pet Owners "Pet-Peeves"

What is one thing in this picture that would bother you as a pet owner? I have been meaning to blog about this for a while because honestly every time I walk my dog I curse at the wind. Blocking the sidewalk with your vehicle is illegal, but yet, no one in Hawaii cares. Except me. I care. I care because the sidewalk is public property. I should be able to walk my dog without weaving in and out the road. This street is the worse. I would say every 5 houses or so the sideway is completely blocked causing me and my dog to reroute into the road. There have been a few instances that my dog has almost been hit by a speeding car. This is dangerous, no?

I was thinking about just throwing my dog's poop in these people's yard to make a statement. But, I fail because I am too nice.

So instead I am writing to the city board to see if something can be done about this. When I asked my brother for his advice (a non-pet owner) he said that he would rather have people blocking the driveway then parking in the road.

What are your opinions? Is writing a complaint going too far? Am I being too serious about this? Or is this not a big deal?

What are some of your "pet-peeves" as a pet owner?

A Hard Decision

(A picture from today. Flower in mah hair- feeling the Hawaii love today for sure!)

If you follow my other blog you probably know by now that I am merging my two blogs. It was just too much keeping up with two blogs. You see, I created my other blog to leave my personal thoughts/wishes separate from this "more structured" blog.
But I realized that this "strategy" was hurting me rather than helping. My narrative voice seems to be a lot stronger on my other blog because it's more personal. But this blog has more "Umff". So, I have come to the decision that I am merging them together. Dun- Dun- Dun!!!
Hopefully this gives me time to blog more often instead of picking one blog over the other.

So, just in case all that wasn't clear, I will only be blogging on this website from now on. Oh and let me add a story from yesterday...

Today, while getting gas at the local ghetto-ass gas station down the street, the homeless guy who lives on the corner flashed his "goods" at me.

First off. The guy was wearing no pants today with just a hoodie. And BAM, out of no where just opens his jacket to flash his cash and prizes.

Then, he proceeded to POUND a bottle of liquor. And when I saw pound, I mean this guy just took a bottle of liquor to the FACE like it was kool-aid on a summer day.

This is not the same homeless person who digs through my trash.

Book Review- Bastard out of Carolina

I had to read Bastard Out of Carolina for my "Gender and Sexuality in Literature and Film" course. After that statement I will add that Bastard Out of Carolina is not a book that will preach "Woman power!". In fact, Bastard Out of Carolina explores the family unit in the south. I will guess the time period would be in the 1980's or 1990's.


Bastard Out of Carolina is about a young mother who is so in love with the idea of the perfect family that in the end her dream destroys what she actually has. The mother, Annie, has her daughter Ruth Anne when she is only 16. The father runs away to God knows where (typical movie/book detail) leaving Annie all sorts of screwed up in the mind. Annie becomes obsessed with having the typical family unit so much that she can't see that what she is doing (or not doing) is really hurting her daughter Ruth Anne.

The book is sad/liberating. From what I read, the basic message seems to be that families go through a sort of "cycle", but you can allow yourself to break that cycle if you really want too. You can't let who your family "is" determine your future.

Overall I give Bastard Out of Carolina 3 out of 5 stars. It was easy to read; I read it in 2 days. The story line was good, but something we have all seen/heard hundreds of times through lifetime movies. Wait, what? Oh this book was made into a lifetime movie? Ok. If you enjoy lifetime movies, you will probably LOVE Bastard Out of Carolina.

#132 Learn How to Cook: Chicken Macaroni

To my followers, I told you that for the next week there will be a lot of recipes and book reviews! Here is another recipe. This is REALLY good. I would recommend putting this recipe in your recipe box. This dish serves 6-8.

What you shall need:

• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 6 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
• 3 Cups Chicken Broth
• Around 1 pound of Chicken Breast
• 2 Cups Elbow Noodles
• 1 Cup Frozen Peas
• 1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs OR Planko Crumbs (Japanese Crumbs) mixed with about 2 Teaspoons of butter
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

The Process:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cut chicken breasts into small pieces. Coat the bottom of a medium or small frying pan with olive oil and cook chicken pieces. I would suggest not letting the chicken turn brown.
• Meanwhile boil a pot of water and cook macaroni.
• When chicken is cooked place on the side.
• In a medium pan melt your 6 tablespoons of butter. Blend in flour and salt and pepper until smooth and bubbly. Gradually add chicken broth over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils slightly.
• In an appropriate sized baking dish (I used 9x13) place chicken, peas and macaroni. Next, pour your chicken gravy on the chicken mixture.
• Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.
• Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until the top becomes nice and crusty.

#106 Eat something that I have grown

Well I haven't ate anything yet, but my plants have finally started to grow! On the top is my raspberry bush.  I have had this sucker since the beginning of January. When I first got it, it was just a bunch of roots and a little branch sticking out of a bag that I bought at Lowes. At the same time I picked up one of those "greenhouses for children" kits. That is what is in the little pots below. The bigger leafed ones are basil, the smaller leaf ones are oregano and the ones that are barely growing is parsley. 

So the top plant, I have had to pour on a liter of water on it a day which seems to be working. There is also a palm tree root right next to it, so I figured it's competing with the palm tree for water so a liter really isn't that bad. I don't know how long it is going to take for my bush to bear fruit. I am going to assume about a year? That sounds reasonable right? It could also bear fruit before that too because I am pretty sure it was a good sized bush before Lowes cut it down to sell it.

And those little buggers, they have only been growing for about a couple of weeks now. They just get a little spritz of water and direct sunlight and they are good to go. I figure I will be able to use them in about a month or so, when they are big enough to use. I poured the left over seeds in an empty flower bed I had, so if they start growing I might have to put more pictures of them up.

But since I haven't tasted anything from my amateur garden, I can't cross this off my bucket list yet.

Book Review- Blu's Hanging

I absolutely love this book.
I don't know if I like it more because it's currently not in print anymore. I have no idea why it's not currently in print anymore, because this book is really good. Once again Yamanka uses pidgin to make her characters come to life. She really uses cultural references to native Hawai'i throughout the book. One of my favorite is the spirit of the animal. The family has a dog named Ka-san and the dog is metaphorically their mother throughout the story. The same characteristics apply to their cat- that Black Cats cure sadness. The father is one of the many victims who was sent to Kalapupu to be isolated from the rest of the world because he has leprosy.
The book has a harsh reality to life. The theme centrals around the family unit, but not exactly a "coming-to-age" tale. It deals with the family's grief over the death of the mother and how each character is dealing with the death alongside of a very traumatic sub-plot. It's definitely a "page-turner"