Hawaii
Fukusima is well-known to non-Japanese because of the nuclear crisis; but this place holds many more wonderful memories for me and my family. One special place is Iwaki City - in that city, there is a house my grandfather loved, where is surrounded by rich nature. Also there is a place that makes you feel like you are in Hawaii: the 'Spa Resort Hawaiians (former Joban Hawaiian Centre)'. It held the water park with water slider, hot spring park, and hotel etc. And you can see the enthusiastic Hula Dance and Polynesian Show. When I was young, I visited there twice with my family. It was the first Hawaiian-themed resort facility and theme park in Japan. Hawaii was the dream islands, because Hawaii was the place most Japanese wanted to visit at that time. It was an exotic, distant place - unlike nowadays. I didn't know much about Hawaii, but the hula dance was beautiful. I also remember the beautiful shells at the shop - I'd never seen such shells before, and I wanted some of them.
The resort has a long history; it started in 1960, before my time. It was a small coal mining village, facing unemployment as oil became the new primary energy resource in Japan. The mining company developed a plan to use hot springs from the Joban Main to provide heat for the Hawaiian Centre. The Fukushima Governor authorised the Japan's first technical school for Polynesian dance (flamenco as well). It is known as a successful village regeneration. The story of the hula dancers was filmed in Japanese in 2006. 'Hula Girls' was directed by Sang-il Lee, and the film was awarded a prize in Japan. It's based on the lives of the hula girls, describing how the girls was dedicated themselves to learning hula dance, to save the mining village. Another theme is the conflict in the minds of the old people of the village against the new tropical culture.
I travelled to the real Hawaii in November 1995 with my childhood friend. It was a reasonable package tour; the flight connected Sendai Airport to Honolulu through Hokkaido. We created a plan in advance and enjoyed our holiday very much. The first thing we did was shopping, shopping for "bikini". Buying bikinis was one of our purposes in Hawaii. In fact we didn't have swimwear but had already booked a scuba diving activity for the next day. So it was a 'must' thing. We struggled to find a perfect bikini more than we expected. Each bikini was too big for me! We visited many shops and finally got fitting colourful bikinis at a boutique in the nearest hotel!
We joined the scuba diving underwater tour with our instructors the next day. It was our first diving experience, and I was excited and a bit nervous. Honestly I can't swim very much but my friend can swim very well. When I was young, I attended summer swimming school for two weeks. We had a 25m swimming test on the last day, but I felt was in pain during the test and stood up in the pool on the 20m line. I failed with only 5m remaining...
Anyway, we put on tightened sweat suits, carrying oxygen and weights around our waists (mine was heavier than others), and put on our goggles. We swam underwater; there was another world under the sea. It was very beautiful. We couldn't see rays or turtles, but we did see many beautiful fishes. When I held out my hands, small colourful fishes were dancing on my palms. It was so lovely. More people joined the tour, and we held the hand of the next in line. I had thought that the next person was my friend, but I knew later that she was near the surface with the instructor, because she couldn’t relieve the pressure in her ears at first, so it doesn't matter whether you can swim or not. Well, the next person wasn't my friend... it was a man and his arm became tangled with my breathing tube, so I compressed my lips tightly and bore up. When we got out from the sea, I couldn't stand up by myself as gravity and the heavy weights took effect... 2 or 3 men helped me to stand up, but I think I felt a little awkward...
Our hotel was like a lovely pink palace; Royal Hawaiian Hotel which is located in the waterfront Waikiki Beach. The hotel had a private beach, pool and a lovely garden; we spent a lot of time wearing new bikinis on the beach and in the pool. Our room had a garden view. It was nice - we could see tropical plants and flowers; outside the windor, tropical birds sang songs we had never heard before. We also enjoyed shopping, eating seafood and drinking tropical juices like guava, and cocktails like chi-chi at night. On the last night in Hawaii, we dressed up for dinner on a cruise ship and had a great time with a delicious dinner and music band.
After I returned to Japan and went back to work, nobody believed that I had travelled to Hawaii; even after I gave out Hawaiian chocolates, they teased that I went to Spa Resort Hawaiians, not the real Hawaii, because my skin had a lobstering effect at first - but didn’t tan very much. My family didn't believe that I had dived into the sea, because we left cameras and other equipment at the hotel room, carrying just minimal cash for the tour, so we couldn't take any picture of us in the water to prove it. That's was many years ago, I think Hawaii has changed quite a bit since then, but it is a great memory for me.
The resort has a long history; it started in 1960, before my time. It was a small coal mining village, facing unemployment as oil became the new primary energy resource in Japan. The mining company developed a plan to use hot springs from the Joban Main to provide heat for the Hawaiian Centre. The Fukushima Governor authorised the Japan's first technical school for Polynesian dance (flamenco as well). It is known as a successful village regeneration. The story of the hula dancers was filmed in Japanese in 2006. 'Hula Girls' was directed by Sang-il Lee, and the film was awarded a prize in Japan. It's based on the lives of the hula girls, describing how the girls was dedicated themselves to learning hula dance, to save the mining village. Another theme is the conflict in the minds of the old people of the village against the new tropical culture.
I travelled to the real Hawaii in November 1995 with my childhood friend. It was a reasonable package tour; the flight connected Sendai Airport to Honolulu through Hokkaido. We created a plan in advance and enjoyed our holiday very much. The first thing we did was shopping, shopping for "bikini". Buying bikinis was one of our purposes in Hawaii. In fact we didn't have swimwear but had already booked a scuba diving activity for the next day. So it was a 'must' thing. We struggled to find a perfect bikini more than we expected. Each bikini was too big for me! We visited many shops and finally got fitting colourful bikinis at a boutique in the nearest hotel!
We joined the scuba diving underwater tour with our instructors the next day. It was our first diving experience, and I was excited and a bit nervous. Honestly I can't swim very much but my friend can swim very well. When I was young, I attended summer swimming school for two weeks. We had a 25m swimming test on the last day, but I felt was in pain during the test and stood up in the pool on the 20m line. I failed with only 5m remaining...
Anyway, we put on tightened sweat suits, carrying oxygen and weights around our waists (mine was heavier than others), and put on our goggles. We swam underwater; there was another world under the sea. It was very beautiful. We couldn't see rays or turtles, but we did see many beautiful fishes. When I held out my hands, small colourful fishes were dancing on my palms. It was so lovely. More people joined the tour, and we held the hand of the next in line. I had thought that the next person was my friend, but I knew later that she was near the surface with the instructor, because she couldn’t relieve the pressure in her ears at first, so it doesn't matter whether you can swim or not. Well, the next person wasn't my friend... it was a man and his arm became tangled with my breathing tube, so I compressed my lips tightly and bore up. When we got out from the sea, I couldn't stand up by myself as gravity and the heavy weights took effect... 2 or 3 men helped me to stand up, but I think I felt a little awkward...
Our hotel was like a lovely pink palace; Royal Hawaiian Hotel which is located in the waterfront Waikiki Beach. The hotel had a private beach, pool and a lovely garden; we spent a lot of time wearing new bikinis on the beach and in the pool. Our room had a garden view. It was nice - we could see tropical plants and flowers; outside the windor, tropical birds sang songs we had never heard before. We also enjoyed shopping, eating seafood and drinking tropical juices like guava, and cocktails like chi-chi at night. On the last night in Hawaii, we dressed up for dinner on a cruise ship and had a great time with a delicious dinner and music band.
After I returned to Japan and went back to work, nobody believed that I had travelled to Hawaii; even after I gave out Hawaiian chocolates, they teased that I went to Spa Resort Hawaiians, not the real Hawaii, because my skin had a lobstering effect at first - but didn’t tan very much. My family didn't believe that I had dived into the sea, because we left cameras and other equipment at the hotel room, carrying just minimal cash for the tour, so we couldn't take any picture of us in the water to prove it. That's was many years ago, I think Hawaii has changed quite a bit since then, but it is a great memory for me.
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