Ka Makana Ali‘i shops and restaurants will come together with a special event to unite lovers of shopping and sips for a sparkling evening. Various shops will feature exclusive deals and a selection of restaurants will provide a curated menu of light bites to pair with your drink of choice.
Whether you’re seeking the latest trends or preparing for the holiday season, you’ll find the delightful treasures to meet your needs. Live music will keep the vibes flowing as you sip and shop around—it will be a sparkling evening you won’t want to miss.
Snag your spot for this fun and unique opportunity to indulge in drinks, eats, live music, and shopping all under one roof!
Get your tickets now for Sip, Shop, & Sparkle presented by Ka Makana Ali‘i.
Exclusive Discounts: Participating merchants will spread holiday cheer with special promotions and offers just for event attendees.
2BDesired: 20% off any regular priced 2BDesired brand item. (Does not apply to other brands). Receive a free reusable bag with a puchase of $200 or more.
The Blessed Life: Visit our Sip & Shop DIY Pen Bar! Design your own custom pen, and put your personal stamp on everything you sign!
Cookies Clothing Co.: 10% off your purchase
Cosmic Beauty: Visit our Cuticle Cocktail Bar and blend your own custom scented cuticle oil to take home. Plus receive 10% off your next mani pedi when you book your appointment during Sip & Shop!
Cosmic Beauty: Elevate your look with our Haute Hair Edit! Enjoy a complimentary 3-minute consultation with a master stylist and receive 10% off your next hair appointment when you book during Sip & Shop!
Glow Golf Hawai‘i: Sink the Shot, Treat the Kids! Sink a hole-in-one and claim an exclusive Junior VIP Pass for a complimetary round of neon mini-golf — the ultimate gift or reward for your little champion. (Valid through Dec 20, 2026).
Missing Polynesia: Enjoy 20% off regular-priced items (excluding hand-painted pieces), plus receive a complimentary headband or reusable bag with any purchase of $150 or more.
No‘eau Designers: Lucky Cork Pull! Sip, Shop & Pop! Pick a lucky cork at checkout to unlock mystery discounts, bonus points, or free prizes. Every cork is a winner!
Reyn Spooner: Take 20% off one item
Sakura Japanese Restaurant: An invitation to savor. Receive your $10 dining credit toward your next culinary experience of $50 or more, through the end of the year. Presented with our compliments. Some restrictions apply.
Sugar Caddy: Upgrade your golf wardrobe with 15% off your purchase. Then give it your best shot at our Sip & Shop Tee Count Challenge! Guess the number of tees in the jar for a chance to win a Bumpboxx Slapstik speaker!
TAV Pacific: 10% off for all event participants. Plus, enter for a chance to win a small TAV handbag with no purchase required to enter (and 5 extra entries for guests who make a purchase).
Kimchi Festival returns to Makiki District Park Field for its 4th year, commemorating the 123rd anniversary of Korean immigration in the islands. This year, you can enjoy live music and performances, a kim chee class and a series of competitive contests for prizes! Of course, if you’re just looking to crunch on some tasty kim chee, local restaurants and vendors have you covered.
Editor’s Note: Though the spelling of “kim chee” is commonly seen in Hawai‘i and HONOLULU Magazine, we will use “kimchi” when referring to the festival and day.
The Kimchi Festival is a celebration of Korean culture with food vendors as well as an all-day entertainment schedule of music and dance performances, a kim chee class from a former professional chef and a variety of contests, including a best hanbok contest, a won bok toss tournament and an eating contest with kim chee, kim chee pancake and Buldak spicy noodles.
Photo: Courtesy of Kimchi Festival
When and Where
The Kimchi Festival will be on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Makiki District Park Field, 1527 Ke‘eaumoku St.
How Much It Costs
Entry is free. Food and goods are available for purchase with cash or card.
Where to Park
Free parking is available at the Makiki District Park parking lot (1527 Ke’eaumoku St.) and Hawai‘i Christ Church (1639 Ke’eaumoku St.).
What to Eat
Photo: Courtesy of Kimchi Festival
Kim Chee
The following types of kim chee will be available for purchase at 4 lbs. for $15 and 8 lbs. for $25:
Original kim chee
Cucumber kim chee
Green onion kim chee
Radish kim chee
Sliced kim chee
Bok choy kim chee
Photo: Andrea Lee
Food Vendors
Christ United Methodist Church
Grace & Grindz
Hangane
Korea Garden
The United Korean Association of Hawai‘i
Waba Snacks
What to Do
Sign-ups for all contests will be available on the morning of the festival, with the exception of the Kim Chee Class, which requires an online RSVP. For the most up-to-date contest and class times, visit the Kimchi Festival website.
Kim Chee Class: Sign up in advance to attend Chef Daniel Kim’s kim chee demonstration, with helpful tips and techniques straight from the former professional chef. You must RSVP online in advance to attend.
Won Bok Toss Tournament: Bring a partner and toss a won bok back and forth at increasing distances using a shallow washing basket.
Best Hanbok Contest: Bring your own hanbok or rent one at the festival. Three winners will be eligible for a special prize!
Eating Contest: Skip breakfast and bring your best appetite for Kimchi Festival’s eating contest, featuring kim chee, kim chee pancakes and Buldak spicy noodles!
A keiki zone will also be available with face painting, archery and Yut Nori, a traditional Korean board game.
Photo: Courtesy of Kimchi Festival
Entertainment Schedule
9:40 a.m. Opening: Hawai‘i Korean Farmers’ Music (Nongak)
David Suh, Consul General of the Republic Of Korea
Councilmember Scott Nishimoto
Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam
Representative Linda Ichiyama
Councilmember Matt Weyer
Senator Donna Mercado Kim
12:30 p.m. Hula Performance – Kumu Pike
1 p.m. Taekwondo Demonstration – Taekwon Do Center Honolulu
1:20 p.m. Arang GoGo Janggu Hawai‘i
1:45 p.m. Best Hanbok Contest
2:30 p.m. Kim Chee-Making Demonstration – Chef Daniel Kim (online pre-registration required)
3 p.m. Korean Song Contest
4 p.m. Eating Contest: Kim Chee, Kim Chee Jeon & Buldak Noodles
5 p.m. K-Pop Dance Performances feat. Allie & Liyah, Josh and Pierce Saja Boys
6 p.m. Hanbok Contest Winners Announced
7 p.m. Closing & Mahalo
Photos: Courtesy of Kimchi Festival
Tips
There will be a covered seating area on the field, but you may want to bring your own mats and chairs in case it fills up.
Bring reusable bags or coolers to keep your food fresh and take your kim chee to go.
If you have your eye on a particular vendor or type of kim chee, try to arrive early, as vendors tend to sell out within the first few hours of the festival!
Kimchi Festival, Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Makiki District Park Field, 1527 Ke‘eaumoku St., Makiki, kimchifestivalhi.com, @kimchifestivalhi
Alexander Pang is a contributor to HONOLULU Magazine and Frolic Hawai‘i.
This season, ’Twas the Light Before Christmas on Ice presented by American Savings Bank isn’t just a festive experience — it’s a celebration packed with special mini-events that make every visit feel unique.
Sip and Skate Pau Hana Specials
Wednesdays starting at 4 p.m., enjoy live entertainment from 4–6 p.m. while sipping your favorite holiday drinks.
12/2: Johnny Stahley
12/9: Sienna
12/23: IZIK
12/30: Kiarra Young
American Savings Bank Buy Local Marketplace
Select weekends feature local vendors offering unique gifts, treats, and holiday goodies.
Character Skate by Storybook Entertainment
Fridays from 6–7 p.m. and Saturdays 11-noon, glide the ice with beloved characters:
12/4 from 6-7 p.m.: Friends of Arendalle
12/5 special time from 6-7 p.m.: Festive Elves
12/11 from 6-7 p.m.: Sugar Plum Fairy and Winter Fairy
12/12 from 11 a.m. to noon: The Grinch and Cindy Loo
12/18 from 6-7 p.m.: The Grinch and Cindy Loo
12/19 from 11 a.m. to noon: Friends of Moana and Tinker Fairy
12/26 from 11 a.m. to noon: Jasmine and Ariel
1/1 from 6-7 p.m.: KPOP Trio
1/2 from 11 a.m. to noon: Friends of Arendalle
Selfie with Santa
Weekends from 10 a.m.–12 p.m. through Dec. 20, grab a memorable photo with Santa.
Holiday Spectacular Stage Show
Catch dazzling performances on the rink stage:
Saturday Dec. 19 and Sunday Dec. 20 starting at 12 p.m.
Elf Yourself Face Painting
Sundays at 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., kids can enjoy festive face painting station.
Special Themed Nights
Ugly Sweater Contest with KSSK: Dec. 11 from 6–8 p.m.
Light the Night Glow Party: Dec. 12 from 5 p.m. to close
Breakfast with Santa: Dec. 13 at 9 a.m.
America’s Got Talent’s Nyjah Music & Zyah Rhythm– Live performance: Dec. 17 at 4:30 p.m.
These mini-events are designed to make every visit a fresh experience. Whether you’re planning a romantic date night, a family outing, or a festive gathering with friends, there’s always something special waiting inside.
With immersive light displays, real ice skating, and rotating holiday programming, ’Twas the Light Before Christmas on Ice transforms a simple night out into a full holiday adventure.
Thanksgiving menus are flooding the digi-verse as the big feasting day approaches. This Part 2 adds to our mammoth, 75-menu Part 1, published last week. We’ll keep adding new menus to Part 2, so check back!
Happy 6th Birthday to Jack, the hotel dog at The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club! Celebrate around the pool with a furry friend’s costume contest for a chance to win a staycation, a Pup Market with pet-focused products for sale, a watercolor painting workshop ($10) and live DJ beats.
Family-friendly, free and open to the public, The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club, 412 Lewers St., Waikīkī, surfjack.com, @thesurfjack
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, an organization dedicated to preserving the island of Kaho‘olawe, with an evening of live music under the stars. The concert will feature artists and musicians who have created songs inspired by the island, including Kimié Miner and Kumu Hula Snowbird Bento, alongside testimonials from community partners. All proceeds will benefit Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana.
Family-friendly, $35 general admission, $10 seniors and youth, free for children age 10 and under, Bishop Museum Great Lawn, 1525 Bernice St., Kalihi, bishopmuseum.org, @bishopmuseum
See trash transformed into wearable art at this fashion show fundraiser for Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i. Admire the upcycled looks by local designers, jam to Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winning musician Izik and DJ Max High, browse the opening of a new art exhibition, Everyone Has a Coastline, plus enjoy a mix of local food vendors, creators and community partners.
Saturday, Nov. 14, doors at 5 p.m., movie at sunset
Plan a family-night at an outdoor movie screening of Disney’s Moana 2, presented in the Hawaiian language. Bring a blanket or chairs, a picnic dinner and popcorn (with kakimochi!) to snack on as you watch the island-favorite animated feature. Food will also be available for purchase.
Family-friendly, free, $10 cash parking, Kekai Place Lawn, Ko Olina Resort, koolina.com, @koolinaresort
Photo: Courtesy of Honolulu Museum of Art
Community Sunday: Bayanihan
Sunday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This month’s Community Sunday program at HoMA is a celebration of Philippine culture in Hawai‘i. Local residents can enjoy free admission to the museum, make traditional star lanterns, watch contemporary tinikling dance, listen to a children’s storybook reading, play Filipino games, eat lumpia and more.
Family-friendly, tickets available here, $25 general admission, free kama‘āina admission, free for ages 18 and under, Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., Makiki, honolulumuseum.org, @honolulumuseum
In addition to Black Friday and Small Business Saturday deals at retailers across the island, local craft fairs and holiday markets ramp up in November and December. Expect to find wares from across the state, from Native Hawaiian-owned and mom-run brands, local snack companies, apparel, jewelry and much more. Skip the big-box retailers and online marketplaces to keep your dollars in Hawai‘i and support the small makers who pour their hearts into every individual piece. Happy shopping!
This fair will include participation from schools in the area, so you’re supporting student groups as well as the community. Expect crystals and jewelry, pet treats, home goods, plants, snacks and collectibles.
When & Where:
Nov. 7, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Kaimukī High School, Kaimukī
Dec. 5, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Kaimukī High School, Kaimukī
Admission: Free entry, $3 parking as a fundraiser for students
Created to mālama Hawai‘i’s small local businesses, this pop-up features local artists, makers and designers, plus live music and food and drink vendors.
When & Where:
Nov. 7, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Koko Head Elementary School, Hawai‘i Kai
Nov. 14, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Ala Moana Center, Mauka Wing, Level 2, Ala Moana
Nov. 27, 10 a.m.–3 p.m., Ala Moana Hotel, Hibiscus Ballrooms
Dec. 5, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Koko Head Elementary School, Hawai‘i Kai
Dec. 12, 11 a.m.–4 p.m., Waialua Community Association, Hale‘iwa
Shop small businesses around Kailua while enjoying light bites and sips and live music. The first 100 people to spend $100 or more and submit their receipts will receive a limited-edition Kailua Town tote bag and 2027 Good Vibes Calendar from Lauren Roth Art.
When & Where: Nov. 12, 4–7 p.m., Lau Hala Shops, Kailua
The Japanese fall festival traditionally celebrates the end of the rice harvest, but there’s so much more, including food and drink, holiday crafts, keiki kimono photos, and performances and demonstrations from Aloha Hawai‘i Brother Sister Duo, Hawai‘i Okinawa Creative Arts Shishimai (Okinawan lion dancing), Singing Sensei and Somei Taiko.
When & Where: Nov. 14, 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, first floor courtyard and breezeway, Mō‘ili‘ili
Help raise money for Noelani Elementary’s music and PE teachers, enrichment activities, and facility improvements by picking up handmade crafts and enjoying a day out with the family. While admission is free, you can buy a Keiki Fun Pass for access to the bouncy house, obstacle course and games for $25 in advance or $30 day-of. Scrips will also be available for purchase.
Along with discovering a plethora of food, drinks, plants, clothing, accessories by kānaka-owned businesses, you can look forward to a lei workshop, prize raffles and free bread and eggs (while supplies last).
Shop for the holidays with exclusive deals at participating retailers, plus enjoy unlimited tastings of a wine or mocktail and light bite at each stop. Your ticket comes with a commemorative wine glass and an exclusive event tote bag. Guests who spend $125 or more can pick up an Aloha Collection accessory case and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Stick around for the prize giveaways at 7:45 p.m.
When & Where: Nov. 21, 5 to 8 p.m., Kāhala Mall, Kāhala
Celebrating its 50th year, this fair showcases the handmade goods of Senior Club vendors, including crafts, jams and jellies, baked treats and pottery, as well as secondhand treasures, plants, and fresh produce.
Shop handmade gifts from up to 30 local artisans at this community celebration. You can also participate in a cookie decorating station and watch a live hip-hop performance by Na Maka Hawai‘i.
When & Where: Nov. 21, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., ‘Ewa Town Center, ‘Ewa
More than 250 craft and food vendors draw upward of 20,000 attendees to this expo that started back in 1987. Come for the shopping, keiki activities, entertainment, contests, giveaways and more.
Hawai‘i Handweavers’ Hui, the Glass Fusion Collective and the O‘ahu Potters Association bring their wares to this fair along with demonstrations and hands-on workshops for kids.
When & Where: Nov. 28, 8 a.m.–1 p.m., Washington Middle School, Mō‘ili‘ili
Make it a Shop Small Saturday to remember at Bizia, where a number of local vendors will gather with baked goods, handcrafted jewelry, vintage clothing, art, drinkware and more.
When & Where: Nov. 28, 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Bizia Surf & Coffee Shop, Wahiawā
The neighborhood shopping festival will include a pop-up holiday market at Ali‘iōlani Elementary School, where you can snag goodies from 40-plus food and retail vendors, plus take photos with a giant snow globe.
Find made-in-Hawai‘i gifts such as glass artwork, jewelry, pottery, woodwork, artistic silk scarves and photography. More than 40 vendors will participate in Honolulu’s oldest craft fair.
When & Where: Nov. 28, 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m., Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, Downtown
More than 170 local vendors offering books, apparel, and artisan crafts will be in attendance. Come experience live entertainment, a petting zoo and a Keiki Wonderland.
When & Where:
Dec. 5, 10 a.m.–7 p.m., former Toys R Us building at Pearlridge Center, ‘Aiea
Dec. 6, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., former Toys R Us building at Pearlridge Center, ‘Aiea
More than just a craft fair, this event will showcase holiday-themed cars, photos with Santa, live entertainment, food trucks and giveaways. Bring new, unopened toys to center stage.
When & Where: Dec. 6, 4–8 p.m., Ka Makana Ali‘i, Kapolei
Pearl at Kalauao goes big for the last night market of the year with 100+ local vendors, including a special selection of Kamehameha Schools alumni-owned businesses.
When & Where: Dec. 9, 5–9 p.m.., Pearl at Kalauao, ‘Aiea
Curated by the team behind local womenswear boutique Here, this holiday market brings together independent makers, designers and collectors. 100% of proceeds will be donated to a local charity or nonprofit.
When & Where: Dec. 12, time TBA, The Barn at Salt, Kaka‘ako
Enjoy live music, food, coffee and festive spirit at The Silos at the Waialua Sugar Mill while shopping art, ceramics, jewelry, leather goods, clothing, bags, plants and more gifts.
When & Where: Dec. 12, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., The Silos at Waialua Sugar Mill, Waialua
Say thank you to the teachers in your keiki’s life by donating school supplies at this fair, where you’ll also be able to find plenty of stocking stuffers.
When & Where: Dec. 12, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Ka Makana Ali‘i, Kapolei
Special Events Hawai‘i brings hundreds of vendors together with unique locally made wares. Plus, check out the Hawai‘i ‘Ukulele Festival in the Pīkake Room from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days for free.
30 local vendors are popping up at YWCA’s inaugural Christmas market, which will also feature YWCA Benefit Sale secondhand treasures. Plus, decorate cookies from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Annabelle Ink is a former HONOLULU editorial intern and now a contributor.
Andrea Lee is the digital editor of HONOLULU Magazine.
T hirty-four restaurants are putting their best dishes forward for Honolulu Restaurant Week, which starts Saturday and runs through Nov. 15. That means serious discounts on specials and course menus featuring everything from wagyu to paella, butterfish to coconut lū‘au stew. Plus a loaded teishoku. Spicy Mongolian skewers. And all kinds of steak and pasta. The best part is you get to sample a range of each chef and restaurant’s offerings at prices discounted significantly for this nine-day event.
Honolulu Restaurant Week comes during a lull in the restaurant world, after summer visitors have gone home and before the holiday season heats up. It’s a win-win for eateries and diners, especially those hungry for deals. Scroll below for a sampling of menus from neighborhood eateries to fine-dining destinations. For the complete lineup of 34 menus, photos and more info, check out the lineup at hnlrestaurantweek.com.
At ‘Olili Waikīkī, part of Foodland’s family of restaurants, a three-course prix fixe starts with bluefin tuna carpaccio topped with soy-cured egg and rice puffs, then progresses to a kalbi and Kaua‘i shrimp surf and turf before finishing with a mini halo halo featuring Maui-style guriguri, mango boba and mochi, all for $65.
On Kapahulu, newish steakhouse Adez starts you off with smoke meat marinated with Hawaiian Sun guava jelly on sautéed onions, choice of soup trio or watermelon caprese salad and a choice of 8-ounce Korean-marinated rib eye coulotte or 5-ounce wagyu with side dishes and dessert. It’s all $85 with the rib eye, $90 with the wagyu.
Like Adez, Botanico’s been open just a year. The high-end Italian restaurant is offering a five-course, $150 menu for two people. Highlights are a local corn and crab pasta with fresh uni, pan-seared catch with portobello mushrooms and roasted American wagyu flatiron steak.
Photo: Courtesy of The Dotted Line
Downtown inside the AC Hotel, The Dotted Line has become a favorite of office workers looking for dine-in service at a good price. The Honolulu Restaurant Week menu here is $42 for three courses: choice of appetizer, a main dish of short ribs with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and haricots verts or the fresh catch with mango beurre blanc and ali‘i mushrooms, and for dessert, Basque cheesecake or tropical crème brûlée.
El Cielo’s special tasting menu is always richly flavored and intricately crafted. This year’s opens with a trio of pinchos including an octopus buñuelo fritter and tapas of changurro Spanish-style crab; its highlight is a duck paella tinged with cacao and black truffle. The four courses are $75.
Han no Daidokoro’s $99 menu is a showcase of A5 wagyu: eight courses including A5 wagyu sushi, five assorted cuts of A5 wagyu, A5 wagyu filet mignon, sukiyaki with kim chee and stone bowl garlic rice. Get this at lunch or dinner at both Kaka‘ako or Waikīkī locations.
At Heavenly Island Lifestyle Waikīkī, where organic and local ingredients frequent many dishes, each part of the $40 three-course menu offers multiple choices: three appetizer offerings, eight entrée choices and five desserts. Entrées include a surf and turf of six-ounce steak and garlic shrimp, beer-battered fish and chips, the Heavenly loco moco with local beef and 10-grain rice under a ginger-soy glaze, yuzu miso ‘ahi poke bowl and a wagyu bolognese spaghetti.
Kaimukī Shokudo, a frequent contender for Honolulu Restaurant Week’s best value menu, has a loaded $22 teishoku lunch of mini kakuni fried rice or mini chirashi bowl, teriyaki kampachi or miso-grilled salmon and choice of sashimi plus tofu salad, miso soup and rice.
Photo: Courtesy of Kapa Hale
In Kāhala, Kapa Hale’s offerings span lunch (three courses for $36), dinner (three courses for $75) and weekend brunch (three courses including a spread of pastries for $40). Lunch features a five-choice Noodle Bar with choices like oxtail pho, pork belly spicy miso ramen, duck vermicelli and chorizo tagliatelle. Dinner entrée choices include ‘Ewa sweet corn and truffle risotto and seafood paella; desserts are chocolate mudslide pie on an Oreo crust or lemon semifreddo with liliko‘i curd.
Moku Kitchen, one of Peter Merriman’s casual eateries, has as the centerpiece of a $68 three-course menu a 10-ounce pork chop with coconut lū‘au stew. Full stop.
MW, the James Beard Award-nominated Kaka‘ako restaurant, built serious discounts into its $75 three-course menu. Entrée choices are Hudson Valley duck à l’orange, Japanese sea bream or a surf and turf of Brandt Beef tenderloin and lobster mashed potatoes (add $10); desserts—for which the restaurant perpetually wins Hale ‘Aina awards—are Coffee & Cream, with coffee tapioca, Ka‘u coffee ice cream and shaved Vietnamese coffee; the classic Brûlée of liliko‘i tapioca, custard, liliko‘i gummies and haupia tapioca; or a Japanese soufflé strawberry cheesecake.
Photo: Courtesy of Ruth’s Chris
At both its Waterfront Plaza and Waikīkī locations, the special menu at Ruth’s Chris gets you a starter, entrée, choice of side dish and dessert. It’s $75 if you want the 6-ounce center-cut fillet with three large shrimp, $85 if you choose the fillet and a cold-water lobster tail.
At Pier 38, the three-course menu at seafood-centric Thirty Eight features best-sellers for $49. If you need a rec for appetizers, get the shrimp toast (you’re welcome); the entrée is a choice between the bo kho Vietnamese stew short ribs with pomme purée or the miso butterfish with squid ink risotto on crispy leeks (our pick).
Honolulu Restaurant Week starts Saturday, Nov. 7, and continues through Sunday, Nov. 15. Find more information at hnlrestaurantweek.com.
A U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagle takes flight over Lē‘ahi. Photo: Senior Master Sgt. Chris Drudge
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye wrote to President John F. Kennedy expressing his concerns about the military’s push to secure long-term $1-a-year leases for large “maneuver areas” on O‘ahu and Hawai‘i Island. Inouye questioned why the military needed the land for its exclusive use, precluding the community from recreational access, and suggested short-term leases would be a better fit.
A year later, despite Inouye’s objections, the state gave the military 65-year leases for thousands of acres in Mākua and Kahuku on O‘ahu and Pōhakuloa on Hawai‘i Island, and those sites would quickly come to serve as centerpieces of the military’s training activities in the Islands. Live-fire exercises were permanently halted at Mākua in 2023—roughly two decades after being paused—but they continue on the approximately 23,000 acres of state lands at Pōhakuloa Training Area.
Davis Price, co-founder of ‘Āina Aloha Economic Futures, invoked Inouye’s letter recently when discussing the future of those training area leases and others, the first of which are set to expire in 2029. Advocates like Price see the military land-lease talks, happening now, as a chance to start a broader conversation about the military’s presence in Hawai‘i, and its overall costs and benefits to the state.
Price, an attorney, says for too long the armed forces have been “above reproach,” their responsibilities as tenants and neighbors—such as explaining how they’re using land, allowing community access and cleaning up—an off-limits topic. “The common narrative and framing here is that’s just the way it is,” he says.
“So how do we start to address the bogeyman at the state level to hold them accountable? What are the negative economic impacts that they’re having? We need to start really changing the starting point, but we can’t have a conversation about the military paying its fair share if we only consider the positive,” Price says.
Davis Price, co-founder of ‘Āina Aloha Economic Futures, says the armed forces have been “above reproach.” Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Mixed Feelings
The military has long had a fraught relationship with some groups, from environmentalists to Native Hawaiian activists, even as it has enjoyed largely favorable public opinion in the Islands. That still appears to hold true. A state survey released at the beginning of the year found 6 in 10 residents “feel positively” about Hawai‘i’s military presence, and 74% said the military strengthens the economy.
At the same time, there have been growing calls for a new chapter in the state’s relationship with the military, building in stronger pledges aimed at mitigating the environmental, economic and social impacts of the military’s outsized presence in Hawai‘i. Gov. Josh Green has embraced that “reset” language, proposing a federal investment of $10 billion as part of the land-lease negotiations. In an October 2025 letter to then U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Green proposed federal funds for transportation infrastructure improvements, environmental cleanups and the construction of new housing units and conversion of a lot near Schofield Barracks for workforce housing.
Backgrounding negotiations, however, are concerns that President Donald Trump’s administration could invoke so-called “friendly condemnation” of the military training lands it needs, usurping any opportunity for a deal. That was certainly a threat last year for the state leased lands at Pōhakuloa Training Area, which the military argues is its only option in the Pacific for troop readiness and live-fire training. Seeking a swift resolution, military officials reportedly pursued avenues for taking control of the training lands without a negotiated lease. Congress stepped in to block the move, and military leaders now say they’re committed to good-faith talks.
Laurie Moore, executive director of the state’s Military and Community Relations Office, says major questions in those talks remain regarding compensation, cleanup, stewardship, accountability, community benefits and more. But, she added, the footprint of the military in Hawai‘i is already shrinking: The Army plans to retain about 450 acres of leased land on O‘ahu out of the more than 6,000 acres it currently operates on.
“That’s a sea change, and we welcome it,” she says. “In community conversations, we keep hearing the same priorities: Return land that is no longer needed in a condition that allows for safe future use; reduce the footprint to what is actually required; improve cultural and community access where it can be provided safely; and strengthen protection of cultural and natural resources.”
Lia Young Hunt is CEO and president of Goldwings Supply Service Inc., which specializes in solar and airfield lighting and navigational infrastructure. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Difficult Conversations
Still, while there may be some broad agreement that the state’s relationship with the military must change, and public acknowledgments from the military that concessions are required, what that change looks like in the short and long term is less clear.
“It’s a very difficult conversation,” says Lia Young Hunt, CEO and president of Goldwings Supply Service Inc., which specializes in solar and airfield lighting and navigational infrastructure. As a military contractor, she says she’s apprehensive about the military land-lease talks and the future of the military in the Islands.
“I do believe there is unfinished business between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the military,” says Hunt, who is Native Hawaiian. “But how do we move on while being empowered? That’s where I feel like we can be strategic. I look at it through a long-term lens. The decisions that we make now are for 100 years from now.”
Hunt says there’s no sugarcoating the missteps the military has made over the decades. Among them: The 2021 leak of the World War II-era Red Hill fuel storage tanks. Thousands of people, mostly in the military community, were sickened by tainted water and the crisis threatened O‘ahu’s largest aquifer. It also harmed public trust in the military, with many—including government agencies—roundly criticizing the Navy’s immediate response to the leak, saying a lack of transparency and attempts to downplay the scale of the disaster threatened people’s safety. A costly environmental cleanup continues, and some warn that’s falling short too.
“When you look at Red Hill, everyone suffered,” Hunt says. “It was their own. It was the people of Hawai‘i and our water resources. It was everyone.” But Hunt is skeptical of those calling for a drastic shift in the military presence in the Islands. She prefers incremental changes and says it’s important that that change starts at home. “These collaborations are super important, but we have to remember that this is a huge ship and that it really does benefit from everyone doing their part,” Hunt says.
The Military’s Extensive Reach
Few states have a military presence as large, concentrated and consequential as Hawai‘i’s. Across the state, the military owns or uses about 221,000 acres, half the size of Maui. And about 44,400 members of the military live in Hawai‘i, the highest concentration of military personnel per capita in the nation. With dependents—about 51,000 spouses and children—the military population accounts for 9% of the state’s population. Meanwhile, the civilian workforce for the military tops 20,000.
The state and military have long pointed to military spending as a central support in the “three-legged stool” driving Hawai‘i’s economy, alongside tourism and construction. They estimate direct military spending at upward of $10 billion annually, which includes military salaries, housing allowances, contract spending and grants. It’s the state’s second-largest economic sector after tourism, officials say.
A report released this spring, “The True Cost of the U.S. Military in Hawai‘i,” questioned that oft-cited analysis, however, calling the figure exaggerated because it includes spending on contractors located outside of the Islands. The direct spending estimate is closer to $7.2 billion, the report concludes, which means other sectors (like healthcare, real estate and retail) represent larger or equivalent shares of the state’s gross domestic product.
Several local and national organizations, including Price’s ‘Āina Aloha Economic Futures, the ‘Īlio‘ulaokalani Coalition and Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, partnered to put the report together, saying their aim was to bring a skeptical eye to claims about the military’s benefits to Hawai‘i, which they say have been unexamined for too long. The report also spotlighted the military’s impact on Hawai‘i’s housing market, concluding that military housing demand in 2024 spurred rents to increase by about 7%. For the average renter, that translated to about $154 more per month.
Price, for his part, says he isn’t calling for dramatic changes to the economy or military presence in the near term. The study, he says, was about “creating the space to talk about building an economy that aligns with our values as a place. We shouldn’t have to accept bombing and depleting because we need it to survive economically. Like anything, it’s going to take work, but we can start it.”
He says the question is a simple one, even if the answer is anything but: “Are the benefits the military brings worth the costs borne from their presence and activities?”
“The military is very important, good and bad,” he says. “Yes, they have a large impact on the economy. You can’t just remove any element of our economy and not expect to have a lot of pain, and that’s not what we’re proposing here. But I think there has to be a reckoning. There has to be some type of rebalancing.”
Laurie Moore, executive director of the state’s Military and Community Relations Office, says the military’s footprint has already been shrinking. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
The Risks of Reduction
Moore’s office, meanwhile, has cautioned that even a 10% reduction in the military force because of federal spending cuts, a deployment or a major unit realignment would be devastating, triggering a $1.7 billion annual loss in direct spending to Hawai‘i’s economy. “The military is important to Hawai‘i. It is a major employer, it plays an important national security role, and military families are part of our communities,” Moore says.
But, she adds, “Hawai‘i’s people, and the state’s responsibilities to our land and resources, have to come first. What does Hawai‘i need from this relationship, and how do we make sure it works for our communities as well as the military? For too long, Hawai‘i’s interests have come second to the military’s. That needs to change.”
The Military’s Response
For its part, the military appears to be listening to that message.
In 2024, the Pentagon established a dedicated Hawai‘i office to work with communities as land-lease negotiations move forward. Its stated purpose: to bolster communication, foster trust, and protect natural and cultural resources. Noe Kalipi, a Hilo native and senior adviser at the office, says her work includes providing key military decision-makers with “local context, history and cultural perspectives.”
“We recognize that there are many diverse opinions about the military’s presence across the state. Supporters cite economic benefits, including jobs, innovation and workforce development, along with the national security importance of Hawai‘i’s strategic location in the Pacific, roughly 2,500 miles from the U.S. mainland.
“For others,” she adds, “concerns about the military’s presence are deeply rooted in history, culture, land and past experiences. These concerns cannot be resolved through a single conversation and trust cannot be assumed.”
Talks Continue
Alongside the community listening sessions and pledges of collaboration, however, is the reality of the military’s stated operational need for training lands, skeptical onlookers say. They’re not so convinced that friendly—or forced—condemnation of state lands for military training is off the table. The U.S. Army Pacific, meanwhile, says it’s “focused on balancing key national defense priorities, resource management and addressing community concerns.” In a statement, an unnamed U.S. Army Pacific leader says, “The Army remains in close communication with all stakeholders.”
Air National Guard Maj. Gen. Christopher K. Faurot, mobilization assistant to the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, adds that training lands are important to the Hawai‘i National Guard, too. “Ultimately, these lands help us maintain forces that are ready to defend the nation and ready to support the people of Hawai‘i when they are needed,” he says.
State Rep. Ikaika Hussey has long supported demilitarization. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
A Better Relationship Is the Goal
It’s not clear when the talks might wrap up, and the state says the terms of any agreement are more important than a deadline. Summer Sylva, Office of Hawaiian Affairs interim chief administrator and CEO, says while the negotiations won’t tackle everyone’s grievances with the military, they’re a starting point. “There is ample room for improving the military’s relationship with our community,” she says.
OHA is not directly participating in the negotiations, a point of contention for the semiautonomous state agency, but Sylva does sit on an advisory council the governor has assembled, and she says OHA has developed a list of non-negotiables: no land transfers or condemnations, no more destructive live-fire training, and compliance with environmental laws.
State Rep. Ikaika Hussey, a member of both the House Finance and Tourism committees, has long supported demilitarization and self-determination for Native Hawaiians. He says the lease negotiations shouldn’t be an endpoint, but a beginning. Like Price, he points to Inouye’s 1963 letter as evidence a shift in perspective is needed.
“There’s the question about what happens with the leases and then there’s the question about all the other land that the military controls, worth billions of dollars, that have essentially been lost to the people of Hawai‘i,” Hussey says. The lawmaker has called for a full economic analysis of military-controlled lands in the Islands and says military-owned lands under the Hale Koa Hotel in Waikīkī should be returned to the state.
His contention is that the state’s relationship with the military has been an uneven one, focusing on the economic benefits of salaries and contracts and playing down the disruptions to the housing market, the environmental impact, and the use of services. “I don’t believe the math that the military offers up,” he says. “For too long, we’ve been ignoring the other side of the balance sheet. There’s got to be a better way.”
Tiffany Vara
Tiffany Vara is a U.S. Army veteran, mom and community volunteer. A few years ago, after learning about the Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative’s Rediscovering Hawai‘i’s Soul initiative, she jumped in to be part of the group’s Military and Community Hui, which gathers monthly to tackle questions about the military in Hawai‘i.
My role is as a facilitator. I don’t have a voice here; I hold the space for the conversations rooted in something called “stretch collaboration,” bringing people together to work on issues that matter to all of them. What I have witnessed in our hui is that hard things can be said and hard things can be heard and people remain in relationships. We can listen without defensiveness because we’re not expected to align.
Our hui has about 25 members, all senior leaders. They’re members of the military, community leaders, and people with different viewpoints. Some of them have a foot in both worlds. They have a heavy load to carry, and they’ve been incredibly valuable in our circle.
This process has taught us that we have to be comfortable with things not being resolved right away. It calls for patience while the world feels like it’s on fire and that’s a big ask. But the hui members are challenging themselves to talk with purpose. Let’s talk with a goal and the goal may be deeper understanding.
Looking forward, I’m hoping we can continue to diversify the people in our hui and continue to have disagreements. We’re trying to meet the moment in the moment, rooted in history and looking toward the future.
Courtesy: Moses Kaoiwi Jr.
Moses Kaoiwi Jr.
Moses Kaoiwi Jr., who serves on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs technical advisory group for the military land-lease negotiations, approaches the topic from multiple perspectives. He’s Native Hawaiian, a retired brigadier general with the Hawai‘i Army National Guard, a former Hawai‘i Island police officer and the owner of INDO-PAC Strategic Consulting. He says ensuring the military can continue training in Hawai‘i is important, and it’s also important that people educate themselves on the issue.
I was born in Mākaha, but raised in Kaiwiki Homesteads above Hilo. Climbing cliffs, catching ‘ōpae with bamboo nets, it prepared me for the infantry in the military, to understand the terrain and the environment. I joined the National Guard in 1983 and from ’83 all the way through 2017, I would consistently go up to Pōhakuloa Training Area. I understand the concerns about the training at Pōhakuloa. A lot of people are worried about the live-fire bombing, and from a Native Hawaiian perspective I can understand that. But it may not be as devastating as some people think; the military has an environmental and archaeological program there. They’re propagating endangered species, and nobody is using high-explosive rounds.
For me, it’s about balancing different needs. Do we sacrifice Pōhakuloa, get the military out, but at the same time lose the Guard training capabilities we need? We have a relatively small state. If Missouri needs help, they can reach over to Kansas. But we’re all we’ve got. If the Guard gets reduced, we’re not going to have that capability. Look at all the times the Guard has responded to natural disasters. No matter what your position is, it’s better to understand the facts. You don’t want to go latching onto something because it fits your narrative and then find out it’s wrong.
Courtesy: Kyle Kajihiro
Kyle Kajihiro
Kyle Kajihiro is an assistant professor of ethnic studies at UH Mānoa and the former Hawai‘i program director of the American Friends Service Committee, where he worked for years to advocate for demilitarization in the Islands. He says conversations happening now about the impact of the military presence in Hawai‘i will have generational consequences.
Questioning the military presence in Hawai‘i, it’s been one of those forbidden conversations for so long. But amid the military land-leases conversation, where these leases are expiring, we have this window of opportunity to ask, what are the alternatives? Who benefits from this economy? Who is disadvantaged?
The problem with the typical calculations around the military’s impacts on the economy is that the costs that are externalized are never really factored in, such as the cost to the environment. But these costs get passed down to communities that can’t speak for themselves or for future generations. That’s not fair or ethical.
Ultimately, we’d like to see economic priorities shift to investing in the long-term restoration of lands and in our communities. We want to invest funds into education, healthcare, into a workforce that can help restore Native ecosystems.
This might be a generational process, returning these lands and restoring them, but if we do it thoroughly and we do it right, we may have different outcomes. It’s about repaying the debt and making reparations on the harm that’s owed. It’s not a one-time settlement of this whole problem. It’s a process. And I don’t expect it will happen in the short term or even in my lifetime, but we’ve already seen tremendous change happen just in recent decades. I think people are realizing that we really need to have those conversations.
Mary Vorsino is a contributor to HONOLULU Magazine.
Are we in a state of sleep crisis? Mention sleep issues to any group, and chances are a good number of people are struggling with one type or another.
That’s borne out by the numbers. About 44% of adults always or frequently have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, according to a 2025 survey commissioned by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Among women, the percentage is 48%. That’s not counting the 34% more people who report occasional sleep problems.
According to the academy’s 2024 survey, 12% of Americans say they’ve been diagnosed with chronic insomnia—defined as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or waking up earlier than desired, at least three nights a week for three months or more.
Chronic insomniacs can feel like zombies, with significant daytime tiredness and trouble doing basic tasks like driving. But the implications of poor or insufficient sleep—a pillar of health that’s vital to well-being—can be even more dire. Not getting consistently good rest long term can increase our risks for depression, anxiety, dementia, cardiovascular problems and other debilitating issues. It can weaken immune systems, make us less smart, and ultimately shorten our lives.
So yes, many are in sleep crisis. We asked the following experts for advice.
Dr. Kimberly Kho
OB/GYN,
Hawai‘i Pacific Health
Dr. Keisuke Miyamoto
Internal medicine physician, assistant clinical professor of medicine,
John A. Burns School of Medicine
Courtnee Nunokawa
Primary care, lifestyle medicine and neurotherapy nurse practitioner
Julie Takishima-Lacasa
Clinical health psychologist, behavioral sleep medicine specialist
Dr. Halley Tsai
Pulmonologist and sleep specialist,
The Queen’s Health Systems
How much sleep do we need?
“A recent study came out in Nature, one of the world’s top science journals, and the conclusion was that the sweet spot is around 6.8 to 7.4 hours. We used to say eight hours or longer, but now, it’s around seven. We don’t want anyone to sleep less than six hours because you’ll have more health risks, but we don’t want anyone to get more than nine hours either. Some people say five hours of sleep is enough for them; they can just drink coffee and be perfectly fine. But you can perform better if you have an optimal amount.” —Dr. Keisuke Miyamoto
What exactly is quality sleep?
“There are several measures for quality sleep. One is sleep efficiency or how long you were in bed divided by how long you were able to sleep. If the sleep efficiency is 85% to 95%, it’s good. Then we look at how much REM (rapid eye movement) sleep you have; usually, we want patients to have around 20% to 25%. (REM sleep is the state where the most vivid dreaming takes place. It plays a significant role in helping the brain process new information and ensure better mental concentration and mood regulation, according to the National Sleep Foundation.)” —Dr. Keisuke Miyamoto
When do sleep problems become serious?
“I ask patients whether it’s taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, or whether they’re experiencing disruptions that are hard to go back to sleep from. If you’re getting up to go to the bathroom but then get back in bed and immediately fall back asleep, I’m not worried. But if it’s taking longer than 30 minutes to fall back to sleep, that’s a significant disruption. I also ask patients whether they’re waking up feeling restored. Even if they’re falling asleep well and staying asleep, but every single day, they’re waking up with no energy, that would be worrisome. I start getting worried about any issue that happens multiple times a week and persists beyond a month. It’s normal to have sleep disruptions after jet lag or major stress, but it’s when it pushes past four weeks, your body is habituating poor sleep patterns.” —Courtnee Nunokawa
If you wake up frequently in the night but can get back to sleep, is that OK?
“It depends on how you feel the next day. We all go through sleep stages. We hit light stages of sleep, then go to deep stages and slowly come back out of it. So fragmented sleep could be normal as you’re coming out of those cycles. If you’re able to get back to sleep, even if it’s fragmented, and you feel rested when you wake up and can function fine, it’s probably OK. It becomes an issue if you have fragmented sleep and you feel like you’re not fully rested. You may be getting interrupted out of deep stages of sleep, and you’re not completing your sleep cycle. You need to understand what is waking you up from deep sleep. Is it sleep apnea and snoring? Or is it your environment, like chickens outside making noise, or it’s too hot in the room? Cooler temperatures are always going to be more comfortable for sleep. You need to be aware of your sleep environment.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
Who should you talk to about your sleep issues?
“I would start with a primary care physician because there are things medically we need to make sure aren’t going on. For instance, for perimenopausal or menopausal patients, their sleep issues could be due to hot flashes or just hormonal changes, and they can consider hormone replacement therapy to address their symptoms. But if after routine labs and general interviewing, we don’t find medical issues or pain that could be waking a patient up, then the primary care doctor can think about sleep-specific interventions, which would mean a referral to a sleep center or for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
“When it pushes past four weeks, your body is habituating poor sleep patterns.”
—Courtnee Nunokawa
What is the first-line therapy for insomnia?
“It would be cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, looking at the behaviors of our lifestyle. What time are we going to sleep? What are we doing before bed? How are we building sleep pressure during the day? Then really trying to change our lifestyle and our behaviors to support a healthy circadian pattern, sleep pressure and sleep drive. For those who haven’t slept well for years and their circadian pattern is really disrupted, we may go with pharmacological approaches to help the person reset their cycle so they can have some normalcy in the circadian patterns. Then we’ll focus on the behaviors around the circadian pattern and supporting that 24-hour clock. CBT-I is highly effective, but it takes a lot of effort and motivation. It can be really hard. For instance, one of the strategies of CBT-I is no screens and no TVs in your bedroom. It’s very effective, but it can be challenging to stick to it.” —Courtnee Nunokawa
Have you seen good results with CBT-I?
“I definitely have. If you give someone a pill, they can always fall asleep, but they’ll build tolerance to it, it will stop working and they’ll be back at square one. Whereas with CBT-I, it’s a lot of work to go through that program, but they are left with better tools to keep insomnia at bay.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
What are the options if CBT-I is not working?
“CBT-I is not just a one-shot thing. If you fail one time, you can repeat a program of CBT-I later on. The next best option is to supplement CBT-I with a sleeping pill, to do it in tandem. And the reason for that is that you can ideally work with a sleep coach to notice patterns of when you may need the sleeping pill in the week more than other times, so you’re not relying on the sleeping pill every single day, because that can lead to a faster incidence of tolerance. But using those in conjunction can help make CBT-I more effective. Apart from that, you should also look into medical issues, if you haven’t done so already, that could be contributing to the problem.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
Are there any new sleep medications available?
“If you have tried everything, all the lifestyle suggestions, there are some new medications, but they’re expensive. One is called Belsomra, which is an orexin receptor antagonist. Belsomra has a very good profile with fewer side effects compared to other medications like Ambien, so that’s why it’s getting popular. Ambien can sacrifice sleep quality in the long term. It’s always better to continue with the lifestyle part because even if medicine can help you get better sleep initially, at some point, probably, the medicine will not work anymore. So it’s better to develop good sleep habits.” —Dr. Keisuke Miyamoto
If you take a power nap during the day, will that compromise your nighttime sleep?
“There are many sleep disorders, and napping recommendations can differ between them. For those who suffer from insomnia, the general recommendation is to avoid napping because it can reduce your nighttime drive to sleep. While napping is a perfectly understandable strategy for trying to combat the consequences of poor sleep, it often becomes a self-perpetuating factor in the insomnia cycle, where napping is maintaining the poor sleep. For other types of sleep conditions, we may utilize longer, more frequent, or regularized napping as an intentional intervention.” —Julie Takishima-Lacasa
“CBT-I is highly effective, but it takes a lot of effort and motivation.”
—Courtnee Nunokawa
Is taking melatonin helpful?
“Understanding what melatonin does and does not do is usually helpful for patients who are interested in it (or very commonly, frustrated that it is not fixing their insomnia). Melatonin is not a sedative or a sleeping pill, and it does not create sleepiness. It is a hormone that tells your body that it is nighttime. As such, it helps to signal sleep timing but does not influence sleep quality or quantity. It also does not address the actual cause of chronic insomnia, which is conditioned hyperarousal (nervous system overactivity). This is why there is little medical evidence to support the use of melatonin for chronic insomnia, and U.S. sleep guidelines recommend against melatonin use for insomnia. Based on the research, the only defensible role for melatonin for otherwise healthy adults is as a circadian tool for jet lag, shift work disorder, or sleep-wake phase disorder, and prolonged-release in adults 55 years or older, the only insomnia population with reasonable randomized clinical trial evidence supporting melatonin use.” —Julie Takishima-Lacasa
What supplements would you recommend?
“There are no OTC supplements or alternative sleep aids that have strong enough scientific medical evidence for long-term insomnia benefits without significant risks and side effects for me to directly recommend, but there are many products that my patients ask me about. So I have informed discussions with them about the current evidence pertaining to, and the pros and cons of, whatever they are curious about.” —Julie Takishima-Lacasa
“I always tell my patients that no supplements are FDA-approved. So you may be consuming something that sounds organic, but we don’t know what else is in there and how they formulated the pills. One supplement that I do generally recommend is magnesium glycinate. There are various forms of magnesium, but magnesium glycinate is the one supplement that’s well studied for sleep, is generally very safe and well tolerated and could be helpful.” —Dr. Kimberly Kho
How much alcohol is it OK to drink if you have sleep issues?
“Alcohol is not healthy for sleep in general, whether you have insomnia or not. However, a lot of people who struggle to fall asleep use a drink or two (or more) before bed to help them fall asleep, and because alcohol is a sedative, people think it is helping because they are mistaking sedation for sleep. Sedation is not sleep because when your brain is sedated, it is not generating as much of the big, slow waves necessary for deep sleep. To add insult to injury, the metabolic byproducts of alcohol disrupt the production of REM sleep. These crucial stages of your sleep architecture are fragmented, resulting in lighter and more fragile sleep that is more easily disrupted, and as alcohol is metabolized, it activates your sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system, causing more frequent wakenings. This means that the trade-off of being sedated into a light sleep at bedtime is giving up much of the nourishing, restorative quality sleep throughout the night (and impaired growth hormone release for cellular reparation and repair). That is why people do not feel refreshed, restored and rested when sleeping after drinking alcohol.” —Julie Takishima-Lacasa
Why do so many women struggle with sleep?
“Sleep disturbances are prevalent, and they don’t just start in perimenopause. We see it also among women who are taking care of small children and their sleep is disrupted. There’s something very physiological happening, and it starts with the thermostats in our brain that regulate temperature, which sit next to areas of our brain that monitor sleep. All of that gets twitchy around the time of perimenopause. A lot of it has to do with estrogen declines and a lack of consistent estrogen. It impacts the thermostats in our brain, and that’s why women sometimes have hot flashes. But outside of hot flashes and night sweats, it impacts sleep because it impacts the area of the brain around sleep and wakefulness. The signals in our body are starting to change, and that can become dysregulated.” —Dr. Kimberly Kho
Should women consider hormone replacement therapy for sleep disturbances?
“It’s a great thing to discuss with your physician, starting a conversation and getting to the cause of the sleep disturbance. Frequently, it can be attributed to hormonal changes, but not always. When it is, hormone therapy can be really helpful. One of our nurses who sees me said, ‘I’ve been spreading the gospel of my great sleep.’ I started her on HRT, and she’s proselytizing about hormone replacement therapy.” —Dr. Kimberly Kho
Is there a cutoff age for when women can start HRT?
“With HRT, you want the lowest dose of hormones for the shortest amount of time, and 60 was generally thought of as when we should start transitioning women off of it. I think that’s becoming more nuanced. The Women’s Health Initiative came out in the early 2000s and made everyone worried about the long-term and short-term impacts of HRT. Now, we’re swinging to this other place. I want to emphasize that HRT during menopause and perimenopause isn’t for everybody. The rules about who can and cannot have it, when you should start it, and when you end it are really nuanced based on individual risk profiles, needs and symptoms. There’s no hard rule on age. The beauty is that there are so many different kinds of estrogens and progesterones, and we can titrate and customize them.” —Dr. Kimberly Kho
While there’s no “hard rule” on when to begin HRT, at what age is it most commonly or safely prescribed?
“There is a healthy and safe window to start menopausal hormone therapy, and that’s usually in that perimenopause attrition transition to early menopause. When we start to take it in the 60s and 70s, which is what they studied in the Women’s Health Initiative, we see higher risks of stroke and other catastrophic events. Women who are in their 60s and super vital and living a great life may not be on it because their doctor said no to them 10 years ago. And now they ask if they can get on it. It’s hard because the risks increase if you have not been on it.” —Dr. Kimberly Kho
Why is there such a focus on sleep issues?
“People are more aware of their mental health and sleep hygiene. From a medical standpoint, even for sleep apnea, there’s a lot more awareness. So there is a bigger movement to look at sleep. I do get the sense too that anxiety in general is becoming more of an issue. And those two are linked. So as people become more aware of their anxiety and mental health issues, sleep issues come up.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
“As people become more aware of their anxiety and mental health issues, sleep issues come up.”
—Dr. Halley Tsai
Should people struggling with sleep turn to AI and Google for information?
“My general opinion is to stick with guidelines from the National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Those are good, evidence-based, major societies whose websites provide good studies and well-known data. There’s always going to be something that pops up on Instagram about some new intervention, but I’m always skeptical.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
What is your take on wearables and tracking devices that measure sleep?
“Sometimes, the more we think about insomnia, the worse it gets. If you notice that a device gives you more anxiety about your sleep, I would not wear it. My approach to wearables is that you won’t really know if you’re having deep sleep without brain-wave measurements, which none of these wearables do. They listen to sounds and take your vitals from your heart rate and oxygen level. They use that information to make their best prediction. Wearables are good if you want to compare how you’re doing if you apply sleep hygiene, for instance. But I wouldn’t use them specifically to measure the amount of deep sleep.” —Dr. Halley Tsai
Principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (Sleep Hygiene)
Keep a highly regularized sleep schedule: Go to bed and wake up at exactly the same time every day, even on weekends, and do not sleep in or go to bed earlier the next night after a poor night’s sleep.
Upon waking, as soon as possible, stand in direct sunlight (or very bright light if the sun is not up yet) for 10–30 minutes.
Eat meals and exercise (even a short brisk walk, light yoga or tai chi offer notable sleep benefits) at around the same times every day, and do not exercise vigorously within a few hours of bedtime.
Avoid napping, but if you do, limit it to 20–30 minutes or less before 2–3 p.m., and do not make it a habit.
Work to manage stress and anxiety effectively throughout the day as best as you can, with professional support if needed. Make space to work on worries during the day, so your mind does not need to work on them at night.
Dim the lights as much as possible in the evenings.
A very light, high-protein, low-carbohydrate snack 30–60 minutes before bed can help regulate blood sugar during the night.
Engage in a habitual bedtime wind-down routine that is the same every night, at the same time. Ideally, this should include a few minutes to identify loose ends from the day. Write down your plan to address them, minimize screen time (especially screens that are closer to your eyes), avoid activating content, and find ways to relax (e.g., mindfulness activity, very light movement/stretching, warm bath).
If you still feel very alert, awake or worried after your bedtime routine, extend your routine until you are sleepy.
Keep your bedroom environment as quiet, dark and cool as possible.
Only use the bed for sleeping or sex. If you can’t fall asleep after 20 or 30 minutes, get out of bed and do something calming and pleasant, and do not go back to bed until you feel sleepy.
Do not check the time during the night.
If you suspect you have sleep apnea, get tested and treated.
Source: Julie Takishima-Lacasa
Diane Seo is the editorial director of HONOLULU Magazine.
Lori-Anne Inouye stocks the deli display case ahead of the
5 a.m. opening. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Japanese delis are a Hawai‘i phenomenon, thriving holdovers from plantation days when women sold home-style lunches to field workers. Chow fun, hot dog, mochiko chicken, vegetable tempura: At okazuya today, customers pick out favorites for DIY lunch plates and pay by the portion. The timeless simplicity belies every okazuya’s midnight bustle. From 4:30 a.m. to noon, we went behind the scenes at 87-year-old Fukuya Deli.
Portions of miso butterfish, a top seller, get prime positioning. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
4:30 a.m.
It’s still dark when the deli lights at Fukuya flick on. Behind the display case, Lori-Anne Inouye brings out platters of bread hash, fried akule and tofu patties, one by one. From outside on South King Street, quiet this early in the morning, the scene feels like a Honolulu version of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” But Inouye’s solitary figure carrying the homey melamine plates belies the bustle in the kitchen, which has been going since midnight. Fukuya’s space used to be a racing car parts factory—its kitchen would rival some high school cafeterias in square footage.
In one corner, Rodrigo Corrales Jr., who came to work at midnight, stir-fries chow fun in a wok. It will turn out to be one of the rare moments when he’s not marinating, wrapping, battering or frying Fukuya’s fried chicken variations: mochiko chicken, nori chicken, garlic chicken, plain fried chicken. On Saturdays and days with large catering orders, Fukuya will prepare 1,500 pieces of mochiko chicken alone—all in a small pressure fryer that handles just 50 pieces at a time.
Despite the scale of production, cooks at this 87-year-old okazuya still make everything in very small batches. Today, Thanh Hoa Khieu needs to prepare 100 orders of egg omelet. And so, with two square pans over two burners, she makes the omelets one by one. Fukuya’s version of scaling up is a tabletop machine that can roll makizushi, and a musubi mold that presses three rice balls at a time.
Servicing a regular: Fukuya owner Arrison Iwahiro estimates only 5% to 7% of customers are first-timers. Photos: Aaron K. Yoshino
4:56 a.m.
When the display case is fully stocked with about 30 different items, the front door is unlocked. Customers immediately file in: a woman in a floor-length mu‘umu‘u in regal blue, a postal worker who has been stopping in on her way to work two to three times a week for 25 years, a construction worker who’s come daily since a high-rise condo broke ground nearby. One couple has been driving in from Mililani “maybe once a month” for 20 years. “It’s so good,” one of them says. “We’d come more, but the gas is expensive.”
In the kitchen, Daisy Saupan uses a bowl to scoop nishime into a deli pan. Whether she’s pressing potato hash into hockey-puck shaped molds or spreading hot rice to cool by the fan for musubi, she keeps a watchful eye on the windowed door to the deli. When she sees customers waiting, she jumps behind the deli case to help Inouye.
Left: On busy days, cooks prepare 1,500 pieces of fried chicken. Right: Ilano Cambia wok-fries chow fun. Photos: Aaron K. Yoshino
6 a.m.
Takeout containers line the counter for 50 bentos that will be picked up at 7 a.m. It’s one of two catering orders for Punahou today, along with two funeral orders to be delivered to Hosoi Garden Mortuary.
6:45 a.m.
Hot dogs line the flattop, nests of vegetable kakiage tempura bubble in the deep fryer, green beans swirl in the wok, and then it’s time for another round of chow fun as sugar and shoyu reduce in a pot for long rice. Another batch of mochiko chicken goes in the pressure fryer for about four minutes, then nori chicken, then it’s on to wrapping even more marinated boneless chicken thighs in strips of seasoned seaweed.
“When we first started making nori chicken, we only made one batch a day,” says Arrison Iwahiro, Fukuya’s fourth-generation owner. He introduced it to the menu sometime in the 2000s, after hearing about it from the daughter of family friends who owned Hilo Lunch Shop. Intrigued, Iwahiro experimented with the idea until he was satisfied with his own version.
“They make it different” in Hilo, he says. “They make it really small—I’m guessing a good size thigh deboned, they get two or three pieces. I’m not wrapping all of that. That’s too much time.” It’s easy to forget how quickly seconds add up when producing 500 pieces of nori chicken. If it takes 10 seconds to wrap each piece, a cook could spend nearly an hour and a half on the nori alone. At Fukuya’s, one piece of nori chicken is a whole thigh.
The success of the nori chicken scares Iwahiro about introducing new menu items. “When you start something, you gotta kind of think ahead, right? Like if this catches on, is it feasible, you know, time-wise, to do this?”
Kakiage mixed-vegetable tempura bubbles in the deep fryer. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
8 a.m.
A woman in her 20s gets out of a car in Fukuya’s parking lot. “We come twice a month for seven, eight years. We get nori chicken—there’s not that many other places you can get it. And we like their poke, the spicy ‘ahi poke.”
Fresh ‘ahi is another item Iwahiro introduced. On Fridays, he picks up a whole fish from the auction at Pier 38 and breaks it down for poke and fried ‘ahi on the weekends.
“I learned to cook from old-timers, my grandparents,” Iwahiro says. His great-grandparents started Fukuya in 1939, just down the street from where it is now. By age 5, he was hanging around the okazuya. By intermediate school, he was helping to cut vegetables for nishime and namasu. By high school, he could drive and make deliveries and cook shoyu chicken and chow fun. His parents took over in 1975, five years before Fukuya moved to its current location at what used to be Kupacha Racing Parts. His father gutted the shop and designed the kitchen and storefront—he preferred construction over cooking.
Daisy Saupan cooks omelets one by one. Photos: Aaron K. Yoshino
Assorted fried chicken and tempura fill the deli case first. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
8:15 a.m.
Past the kitchen and a cluttered space that looks like it could have been his father’s repair shop (there are tools, ladders, WD-40) is the bakery. This is where Fukuya’s cookies and mochi are made. Eriko Nagano arranges mochi platters with chichi dango and mochi stuffed with peanut butter or azuki.
In the corner is a stone rice-pounding machine that Iwahiro guesses is nearly a century old. It’s used solely for kagami mochi at New Year’s. (Everyday mochi is made with rice flour.) Iwahiro remembers when Fukuya needed 5,000 pounds of rice for the holidays; now, the shop pounds less than a third of that. “The tradition is dying,” he says.
Fukuya’s mochi and cookies are made in its on-site bakery. Photos: Aaron K. Yoshino
9 a.m.
At the front counter, a customer collects a 72-piece mochi platter. “My mom ordered it,” he says. “It’s actually for my dad’s service—celebration of life party.”
Of visits to Fukuya, he says, “It’s either birthday or funeral, right?”
Sweetly vinegared cone sushi caps off a DIY lunch plate. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
9:30 a.m.
Iwahiro loads the van for a 10 a.m. delivery to Hosoi. Platters of sushi and mochi and a pan of namasu are stacked in a custom wooden box with shelves, made by a family friend. Foil-wrapped pans of hot food—including baked ham with extra glaze, egg omelet, beef teriyaki and tofu fish burger—go into a metal rack, also custom made. For a gathering of 75, the organizer has ordered 20 different dishes. In contrast, another funeral order in the evening has just eight different items for 200 people. Iwahiro can tell when regulars order. “Maybe it’s the deceased’s favorite stuff. It’s not a standard catering menu,” he says.
How did Fukuya come to be known as a funeral caterer?
It wasn’t always that way. “We used to do a lot of weddings,” Iwahiro says. “Back in the day, weddings were all done in churches, or we used to do a lot at Blaisdell. As time went on, it became less and less as people went to hotels.”
Iwahiro’s father started giving the mortuaries menus, and the business there “really took off.” Other okazuya also catered funerals, but over time, many have closed: Hisago and Ebisu in McCully, Honda Delicatessen in Liliha, Kaneda’s in Nu‘uanu.
We lay out the platters of nori-wrapped musubi and maki rolls and pans of simmered pumpkin and shoyu chicken at Hosoi. “These are our favorites,” one of the organizers says in delight.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
10:15 a.m.
Back at Fukuya, a woman with two small children laughs when asked how often she stops in. She’s been a customer since her parents started bringing her as a child. “How often do we come here?” she asks her kids.
“Every day!” yells the younger one, a boy.
“No, not every day. Maybe once every couple weeks.” She often picks up for her son’s sports events. “You can call in your order. They always answer the phone,” she advises.
“They already know their orders. What’s your order?” she asks the kids.
“Chow fun, hot dog, mochiko chicken, vegetable tempura,” the older one recites.
“The fried one!” says her brother.
The vegetable tempura,” translates the mom.
The little girl waves to an elderly man waiting on the side as they leave, and someone by the door opens it for them.
10:30 a.m.
More rice is washed and poured into rice cookers that can steam 17 pounds at a time. Still more batches of chicken go into the fryer, and an army of shrimp tempura is arranged in a deli pan. Both are headed for the display case—an intercom lets the kitchen know what items are running low in the front.
When Fukuya opened, it was just Iwahiro’s great-grandparents. Workers at the quarry by UH—many of them Japanese—were the main customers. “Back then, the two of them would cook in the morning, and then the two of them go out in the front, sell it out, and that’s it.”
Not potato hash: Fukuya makes a single daily plate of bread hash for old-timers who miss the long-ago treat. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Noon
The kitchen stops preparing food for the deli and starts prepping for the next day’s okazuya items and a catering order in the evening. Meaning, as anyone who’s shown up after 12 has found out: Get here early lest your favorites run out.
Iwahiro has told me about the bread hash, one of the oldest items on the menu. But when I look for it at the counter, it’s long gone. The cooks usually only make one plateful a day. “It’s really old school. I don’t think anyone else makes it,” Iwahiro says. Sometimes, he wonders about keeping it, but he hates disappointing people, even if it’s only a few. He scoops a few balls of the bread hash and drops them into a cast-iron pot of hot oil so I can try it. The mix is made with bread soaked in water, corned beef and instant mashed potatoes. “My thinking is that back in the old days, our grandparents, they were very thrifty. So they wouldn’t want to waste the bread.”
The warm bread hash tastes like deep-fried stuffing, a cross between andagi and Thanksgiving. As I leave, a young man escorts an elderly woman, perhaps his popo, inside. I suddenly think of what Judy Foster Long, the owner of Anyplace Lounge, once told me: that she kept her bar going because she wanted a place where Old Hawai‘i still existed, where people still looked each other in the eye and said hello. It occurs to me that Fukuya is one of those places—that all day I have seen customers caring for each other through the smallest of gestures: holding open the door, helping to carry items, being patient. When we were here, for even the shortest of moments, we were looking out for each other.
Martha Cheng is the former dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine and now a contributor.
Cars drive over a washed-out road on the North Shore on March 21. Photo: wilz94/Shutterstock.com
When Kona low storms dumped torrential rains across the state in March, Melissa Ka‘onohi-Camit checked on her family, assessed minor flooding at her house, then headed out “in a little rusted school bus” to help her neighbors.
By day, Ka‘onohi-Camit is a special education teacher in Kahuku with 27 years of experience. She’s also a founder of the Lāhui Foundation, among the small nonprofit organizations that sprang into action amid the storms, which caused an estimated $1 billion in damage.
On O‘ahu—the hardest-hit island—devastating flooding overwhelmed streams, homes and vehicles, prompting multiple rescues in Waialua and Hale‘iwa. With funding from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, the Lāhui Foundation delivered water, food, pumps and emergency supplies to neighborhoods in need. Volunteers from the organization also transported people to healthcare facilities, stocked community hubs, and connected businesses to those who could get supplies and equipment to affected areas.
The Hawai‘i Community Foundation activated its Stronger Hawai‘i initiative, building on what it learned in the aftermath of the catastrophic Lahaina fires. HCF swiftly awarded close to $1.54 million to 16 organizations, including the Lāhui Foundation, to support more than 8,400 individuals in conjunction with the Kona low storms, says Keanu Lau Hee, the organization’s vice president of community resilience and strategic implementation.
“I think what Hawai‘i’s community does best, and we’ve seen this in every disaster, is they don’t wait for someone to tell them they need to stand up and they need help, especially those local/hyperlocal community organizations,” Lau Hee says. “They respond to the needs that are obvious in their community. I think those are some of the values that make the people of Hawai‘i so unique.”
With a background in government emergency management, Lau Hee, who lives on Maui, witnessed the speedy community response to the wildfires and Kona lows. By nature, government tends to move a little slower, bound by procurement laws and other issues, she says.
With less red tape, HCF can help a community progress through four phases: risk reduction and rapid response in the early days and weeks, followed by recovery and rebuilding resilience, Lau Hee says.
Melissa Ka‘onohi-Camit, a founder of the Lāhui Foundation. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Rising from Need
The Lāhui Foundation was launched in 2019 by five community members who felt that residents’ voices weren’t being heard. Ka‘onohi-Camit describes the group’s grassroots origins as “four moms and one kāne.” During the flooding in March, they knew how vital it would be to reach out to the rural Ko‘olauloa communities connected by Kamehameha Highway.
It wasn’t their first storm. They remember walking door to door to check on people after heavy rains flooded homes in Hau‘ula in 2021 and hearing a faint call for help. “We went in and there was a kupuna, and she was on the ground. She was like that for two days, and there was no one there to help her,” Ka‘onohi-Camit says, her voice breaking. “This is our kuleana. This is part of our journey in this life.”
As they helped the woman to safety, they resolved to keep working together to assist the community during natural disasters.
Lau Hee points to KEY Project and Wahiawā Health as additional examples of community-based organizations that rise up after disasters. “They are led by really dynamic community leaders who don’t really ask, ‘Should I?’ They just go for it, and I think there’s some bravery in that, and there’s something admirable about being able to just take off of work and support your community,” she says.
Rainbow Uli‘i-Akina, executive director of KEY Project. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Communities Respond Fast
The Ko‘olau Resilience Hub Network, established in 2024 by Vibrant Hawai‘i, is a coordinated network of 15 nonprofit and community-based organizations serving Windward O‘ahu communities, says Rainbow Uli‘i-Akina, executive director of KEY Project. Originally known as the Kualoa-He‘eia Ecumenical Youth Project, the organization was founded in 1968 through the collaborative effort of churches, residents and social service agencies. Today, it provides a wide spectrum of services to keiki, kūpuna and everyone in between.
In March, KEY Project and four other partners—the Lāhui Foundation, Ho‘āla ‘Āina Kūpono, Hale Ofa and Nurture Cultivate Inc.—led a community-based response during the severe weather. While rain was still falling 48 hours into the Kona lows, Uli‘i-Akina says the network distributed $42,000 in Foodland gift cards to more than 150 families. The effort not only got help out fast, but allowed the nonprofits to assess the most critical needs right away. Her takeaway: “Community-based networks are serving as the first and most trusted layer of response, particularly in hard to-reach areas,” she says.
Along with HCF, the state distributed $175 million in aid and sought federal assistance. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Hawaiian Council also provided a community-based recovery hub on the North Shore, which remained open after the city’s Community Assistance Center closed.
In late August, OHA reported that more than $1.5 million in assistance had been distributed or approved for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries from the organization’s Kona low relief programs. In partnership with the Hawaiian Council, the I Ola: Kona Low Disaster Relief program approved assistance to 130 people and disbursed nearly $1.1 million statewide. The same partners provided assistance to Native Hawaiian farmers and agricultural producers through the Māhi‘ai Microfund, distributing $101,000 to 21 beneficiaries, with another $89,000 pending.
And OHA reported that the ‘Īna‘i Kōkua Gift Card Program distributed 190 Home Depot gift cards totaling $380,000. Ninety-seven of the cards were delivered on O‘ahu, 29 on Hawai‘i Island, 31 on Maui and 33 on Moloka‘i. In August, the OHA board voted to redeploy the program’s remaining $30,407 to Kōkua Ka‘ū to assist with Hurricane Lala response.
The nonprofit Holomua Collective gave $580,000 through its Waialua-Hale‘iwa Homeowner Recovery Grant Program, providing $10,000 each to 58 families to help with immediate needs. Holomua board chair Mike Pietsch, president of Title Guaranty, rallied his company, local banks and philanthropists to provide funds for repairs, building materials, temporary housing and insurance deductibles. Holomua’s mission is to make Hawai‘i more affordable to working families.
Keanu Lau Hee, vice president of community resilience and strategic implementation at Hawai‘i Community Foundation. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Photo: Courtesy of Wahiawā Health
Meanwhile, Wahiawā Health—which serves Wahiawā, Waialua, Mililani, Schofield Barracks and Kunia—deployed its mobile health bus after the Kona low storms, targeting Waialua, the hardest-hit area, says CEO Bev Harbin.
After the Department of Health confirmed the presence of harmful bacteria in mud samples, Harbin says the center mobilized the bus to provide emergency medical care and to “meet the community where help was needed most.” Centrally located Waialua Elementary School allowed the bus to park on its campus.
“Listening to what the community needed and working with local partners on the ground allowed us to respond quickly and in a way that was meaningful to the people we were trying to help,” Harbin says.
That’s what happened when the Kona lows flooded parts of Kahuku High and Intermediate School, destroying band instruments and uniforms. A Lāhui member and Kahuku band parent helped get the word out and community donations poured in to replace what was lost.
“We are able to see the impact that we make,” Ka‘onohi-Camit says. “We’re your neighbor.”
Wahiawā Health mobile health bus. Photo: Courtesy of Wahiawā Health
To learn more about these nonprofit organizations, go to:
Visit givebighawaii.com to make an impact starting Nov. 23 through the end of the year.
Robbie Dingeman is a longtime Hawai‘i writer and editor and contributor to HONOLULU.
The centuries-old game of chess is alive and thriving in the Islands. Hawai‘i players from 6 to 80 are holding their own against masterminds from afar. Earlier this year, Team Hawai‘i won back-to-back national titles in the U.S. Team Chess League’s online competition. Nine local players also made their mark at this summer’s U.S. Open tournaments in Michigan, with two of them placing first in their divisions.
Image: Envato
So what’s behind our state’s chess success? Scott Middleman, president of the Hawai‘i Chess Federation, credits the nonprofit’s ongoing opportunities, as well as Guy Ontai, a chess coach and enthusiast who has run monthly scholastic tournaments for the past 30 years, with helping to build a strong chess community here. “Our current adult players started playing in organized tournaments as kids,” Middleman says. “Now, we have a deep pool of players who are all pretty good.”
While the traditional game has long been popular, online chess has helped Hawai‘i players take their skills to the next level. Travel to other states and international tournaments can be costly and time-consuming, but virtual play provides instant access to high-level competition and plenty of opportunities to sharpen strategy. “Online chess democratizes the game. It’s accessible to all, and the tools to learn are widely available,” Middleman says.
There’s no shortage of ways to get in the game on O‘ahu, virtually or in-person. The Hawai‘i Chess Federation offers online team play, tournaments for K–12 players, neighborhood meetups at community spaces and adults-only gatherings at local bars.
Hawai‘i aesthetician Kecia Littman is on fire. She’s done makeup for movies, including Jason Momoa’s Wrecking Crew; recently launched her first makeup line; and won the 2026 Mrs. Elite United USA pageant in Atlanta.
What was your biggest takeaway from winning Mrs. Elite United USA?
I found my platform and mission, which was to help women navigate through grief. I lost my mom in 2021. Finding resources and community spaces to connect, there weren’t many options. I started with a small retreat at the beginning of 2026. We talk about internal and external beauty. They’re feeling like they don’t really have time to be energized through a daily ritual like just putting on moisturizer. I break it down and help them with baby steps. I work with a therapist to help them through whatever might be triggering.
You started a line of tinted lip oils recently. What was behind that?
I launched Lei Wai Beauty in May in honor of my mom. She was supporting me in creating my brand, but she passed away. It all fell into place when I talked about who I am and serving others. I wanted something that’s good on the skin and moisturizing. The base oil has kukui nut and macadamia nut. It’s almost like a skin care that has a tint to it, very sheer pigments that you can use with a fair to a darker skin tone. It’s cruelty-free and vegan, and good for you.
But as a Native Hawaiian, you don’t get a lot of support in finance or investment. That is a hard truth. So to have the financing support of [nonprofit Indigenous business incubator] Kūkolu, of being in a cohort that supports Indigenous women and know that you can plant your seed here and be grounded in Hawai‘i and create a business as your legacy, that’s huge. It shows you should keep dreaming and not let go of that passion. You just have to go for it.
Mari Taketais the dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine and editor of Frolic Hawai‘i.
When you think of ‘ukulele music, names like Iz, Taimane and Jake Shimabukuro may come to mind. There’s another deserving a spot on that list: Brittni Paiva, who honors the traditional instrument while taking it somewhere new on her first album in 14 years, Through the Chaos.
Photo: Genine Hirata
The album was co-produced by TheBrewz, and where lyrics would typically be sung over other instrumentation, ‘ukulele music is played instead. “Anyone can interpret a song. Original music is different. It’s the record of what you actually went through,” Paiva says. “This album is the first time I’ve put out a full body of work written from my own life since my last record.”
“Say When” conjures the pop stylings of Imagine Dragons and Carrie Underwood, while “Never Let You Fade” is reminiscent of electronic artist Illenium. Tracks like “I Am” and “To the Moon and Back” are gently uplifting, embodying Paiva’s growth as she’s worked to overcome struggles with mental health and addiction.
Originally from Hilo and now based on O‘ahu, Paiva was named Most Promising Artist at the 2005 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards. She has played alongside artists such as Carlos Santana, collaborated with Grammy winners and produced music for others. Now she’s stepping into her own again. “Every version of myself I had to grow through is in these songs. That’s why original music isn’t a category to me. It’s the core of what music is for.”
Enter Kursten Brewer’s Hawai‘i Kai home, and a world of tea awaits. Tucked amid Koko Marina’s waterfront townhomes, Brewer’s tea library is replete with an extraordinary collection of Chinese teas, teapots and other rare teaware acquired over the years. He’s amassed more than 200 kinds of pu-erh, a fermented Chinese tea, and an equally impressive selection of liu bao from Guangxi province. Brewer shows me cakes of pu-erh harvested in the 1980s. “Twelve or 13 years ago when I bought these, they were quite affordable—now they’re like $5,000 per cake,” he says.
His teaware collection is likewise museum worthy. He handles a pot made from rare, wood-fired purple clay, and another that’s more than 200 years old from the Qing dynasty. “You could spend a month drinking out of different pots and cups and exploring the same tea, and you would have different experiences with each one,” Brewer says.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
A few days earlier, I attended a “meditation + tea” gathering at his house. We sat on cushions at a low table as he meticulously prepared and poured four courses of tea. We savored the scents and flavors, starting with rosebud, then moving on to a bold pu-erh, followed by an earthy liu bao. We ended with refreshing chrysanthemum. Brewer told us how the teas work together harmoniously. Some expand us; others sink into us. Some warm the body; others cool it. He encouraged us to contemplate the feeling of each.
While not as trendy as Japanese matcha, Chinese teas have become more popular in recent years. In China, modern teahouses are booming, and the U.S. has seen a surge of new Chinese tea establishments. Brewer’s mission is to provide opportunities for people in Hawai‘i to experience what he describes as the “life-changing mindfulness” of preparing, pouring and drinking tea.
Brewer’s foray began 15 years ago when he lived in Colorado. While at an artist friend’s studio, his friend poured him a pu-erh. As day turned into night, Brewer had what he describes as an “inner-worldly” experience, an awakening. “We were drinking out of these little cups, from the same pot of tea, and each cup, each layer, took me to deeper levels of experience,” he says. “The lights were turned on—something shifted.”
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Within a week, he traveled to Oregon to study with a tea master—and returned to Colorado with a teapot, teaware and inspiration to cultivate his own practice. He found himself slowing down and being more present. He started meditating and practicing yoga, qigong and tai chi, a stark change from his previous life. “I came from a lifestyle that was the harder you work, the more you will earn,” says Brewer, a former electrical engineer who worked 70 hours a week. “I didn’t have time to pause or enjoy my life.”
He began traveling to festivals, retreats and other events to share the experience of tea. He built a library, acquiring quality teas and teaware for his personal collection but also to sell to others. He became known as “the tea guy,” with plans to expand a business he was building with a partner. Then, life took a dramatic turn.
In 2023, Brewer was diagnosed with Stage 4 multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. He was given four months to live and sent home in hospice care. While that prognosis would send most spiraling, Brewer didn’t despair. “I was able to see its purpose almost immediately because of the self-knowing and understanding, instead of rejecting or blaming,” he says.
He prepared to die, spending time with friends and making plans to give away his massive library. As a Tibetan Buddhist, he dropped into a deep spiritual practice of acceptance and surrender while going through chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Five months after his diagnosis, he was cancer free. “It was like getting 30 more tokens to have adventures,” he says. Although he later relapsed then had a stem cell transplant and more chemotherapy, his current condition is stable. Amid all the ongoing medical appointments, he doesn’t dwell on the unknowns.
Brewer moved to Hawai‘i about a year and a half ago, getting out of Colorado’s high altitude and dry, cold air. Since then, he’s been building Jade Frog Tea, a Honolulu-based business. Along with selling tea and teaware to people around the world, he’s organizing classes and events at his tea house.
He describes the offerings as “a modern expression of Chinese gongfu tea—where quality aesthetics and the art of contemplation come together in a distinctive tea experience.” The events include morning tea meditation, a monthly tea gathering and private tea experiences. He also offers what he calls an “open tearoom,” where guests come and order tea, and Brewer prepares it for them.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
His hope is to bring tea to the masses, creating a simple ritual where people sit around a table, slow down and connect to others. “It’s a way to help people listen, gather and enter a doorway of contemplation and be present,” he says. “I want to inspire people to begin their own tea practices, to cultivate the art of contemplation so they can shift, change and grow. When we sit down and have a pot of tea, we start observing, listening and sensing.”
Many have already told Brewer that tea likewise changed their lives. “It’s a spark,” he says. “You catch a flame.”
Diane Seo is the editorial director of HONOLULU Magazine.
Photo: iStock Photo
For more than six decades, Sea Life Park Hawai‘i has been a destination along the picturesque Waimānalo coastline for residents and visitors eager to explore marine life. Over the years, Fat Freddie the penguin and the park’s famous “wholphin”—a crossbreed of a killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin—have become woven into the memories of many local families.
Now, the park is entering a new chapter. The Hawaiian Council, a Native Hawaiian advocacy and community development organization, acquired Sea Life Park from Herschend Family Entertainment in August.
“Under Hawaiian Council’s stewardship, we have an opportunity to look at the park through a different framework, one that reflects Native Hawaiian values and a deeper sense of responsibility to the animals in our care, the ocean, this place and the community we serve.”
The acquisition is part of the council’s broader effort to expand Native Hawaiian leadership in Hawai‘i’s cultural landscape. Through Kilohana, its tourism division, the nonprofit has been investing in projects to uphold Hawaiian culture and the Islands’ natural resources.
Christina M. Leos, a former member of the park’s leadership team, has returned as general manager to help guide its future. “This is a significant new chapter for Sea Life Park,” Leos says. “Under Hawaiian Council’s stewardship, we have an opportunity to look at the park through a different framework, one that reflects Native Hawaiian values and a deeper sense of responsibility to the animals in our care, the ocean, this place and the community we serve.”
The park’s new stewards say they plan to improve animal habitats and the guest experience itself, while incorporating Native Hawaiian culture, mo‘olelo, and ‘ike more deeply into its educational programming. As the park evolves, Leos says there’s still value in holding on to beloved experiences. “There is a lot worth preserving, particularly that sense of discovery, education and connection with marine life,” she says.
The goal is to make Sea Life Park a resource for local families, schools and the Waimānalo community, with expanded educational programs, community events and opportunities for residents to return throughout the year.
“I hope people leave Sea Life Park with greater respect for the animals, the ocean, Hawai‘i’s culture and the responsibility all of us share to care for them,” Leos says.
Kayla Luke Colon, the 2026 summer editorial intern for HONOLULU Magazine, is a journalism student at UC Irvine.
Every donation, big or small, helps Hawai‘i’s nonprofits continue their work in communities across the Islands. Through Give Big Hawai‘i 2025, hundreds of donors came together to support 45 local organizations and the programs and services they provide, with more than $64,000 raised. Here’s how five of last year’s participating nonprofits are putting those contributions to work.
Photo: Courtesy of Mālamalama Waldorf School
Mālamalama Waldorf School
Mālamalama Waldorf School focuses on nurturing the whole child through academics, creativity and hands-on learning. Donors contributed $8,672 to the school through Give Big Hawai‘i 2025, with the funds going directly to Mālamalama Waldorf’s tuition assistance and scholarship program. The donations helped make a Waldorf education more accessible to families that might otherwise be unable to afford tuition, while supporting a diverse community of students and families.
Hawai‘i Fi-Do Service Dogs trains accredited service dogs for people with disabilities across Hawai‘i. Through Give Big Hawai‘i 2025, the organization received $3,000 to help support the intensive multiyear process of raising, caring for and training service dogs. The funds helped cover veterinary care, preventive health treatments, nutrition and equipment, and specialized mobility and assistance training. Donations also helped offset costs of bringing trained teams to schools, veteran centers and senior care facilities for therapeutic outreach.
Aloha Harvest works to reduce food waste by rescuing quality surplus food from local businesses and redistributing it to community organizations and families across O‘ahu. The organization raised $2,718 through Give Big Hawai‘i 2025, which helped support food rescue and distribution efforts. The funds allowed Aloha Harvest to continue collecting and delivering fresh, nutritious food to people in need while keeping that food out of Hawai‘i’s landfills.
Photo: Courtesy of Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra Society
Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra Society
The Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra Society brings music education and performances to Hawai‘i Island communities, including through programs at local public schools. The organization raised $2,351 through Give Big Hawai‘i 2025, which supported its education programs for the 2025–26 school year. Members of the orchestra not only perform for the students, they teach them how to play instruments, too.
The Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawai‘i works with youths, families and communities across the state to promote drug prevention and healthy choices. Through Give Big Hawai‘i 2025, the organization raised $2,100. The funds helped cover educational materials, community outreach and staff compensation, allowing the organization to extend its prevention programs and respond to emerging needs.
Visit givebighawaii.com to make an impact starting Nov. 23 through the end of the year.
Kayla Luke Colon, the 2026 summer editorial intern for HONOLULU Magazine, is a journalism student at UC Irvine.
There’s a lot of content on social media these days (at least in my feed) about Generation X—those who were born between 1965 and 1980—and how gritty, self-reliant, skeptical and misunderstood our generation is.
Image: NapoliRoma
As a Gen Xer who grew up in Honolulu in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s been reassuring to see how similarly aged people have had similar experiences, even if we came of age thousands of miles from each other. When I meet fellow Gen Xers, I feel a bond, like we were cut from the same acid-washed cloth. While we may have had nothing in common back then, we’re now completely aligned in this confusing era of existence.
One influencer, @alex.abrandt, who posts Reels and other Instagram content focused on Gen X life, recently had this to say about why so many of us in our late 40s and 50s are feeling discombobulated in the current AI- and TikTok-driven world: “We grew up without phones and turned out fine (mostly). We sent our first email in our twenties, at work, terrified of the send button. We faxed things. Google, it was not an option. We learned every job before LinkedIn, Google or YouTube tutorials existed. We just figured it out. We are the last generation that remembers work before the internet, and we STILL adapted to every wave since. … And here’s the crisis nobody’s naming: We’re the most experienced people in every room and the first line in every restructure. We are not young potential anymore. We’re sandwiched.”
Google’s AI came up with this one-sentence summary: “Generation X faces a heavy mix of financial stress, midlife caregiving demands, and career burnout as they enter middle age and approach retirement.”
Geez.
I graduated from high school in 1985, when chunky IBM computers were appearing in school libraries, but they were curiosities that “brains” gravitated toward. We went to the library to research and write reports, scouring books found in the card catalog. We used typewriters, and if we had to make an edit, we used Liquid Paper, sometimes a lot of it.
When I was starting out as a newspaper reporter covering town meetings for the Shoreline Times in Guilford, Connecticut, I used a Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 “laptop,” if you can call it that. I transmitted my stories via a nearby pay phone using “cuppers.” Sometimes, I had to wait upward of an hour for stories to go through. I felt so high-tech mastering this clunky machinery.
A few years later, at a much larger media company, we all had desktop computers. Then the internet arrived and email followed, along with smart phones, wi-fi and all of the other technologies that are now ubiquitous. While I always kept up with the latest in tech and gadgets (I waited in line at the Kāhala Mall Apple Store for the first-generation iPhone), and got on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram early, I’ve been feeling the pain of being too old to be young and too young to be old. It’s like being on a treadmill and running comfortably, but then suddenly, it speeds up, and you’re clutching the handles to stay on.
Plus, I like a lot of things from the past that are being discarded or deemed old-fashioned, and I don’t like a lot of things that have taken over. I’m finding myself asking frequently, are we advancing and is life getting better? Or are we just adopting without evaluating the merits of an advancement?
I know this sounds like something an old person would say. And yes, I don’t care! (Gen X is notoriously obstinate.) It’s just how I’ve been feeling lately: nostalgic for the past—yet not wanting to go back in time—and wary of the future. Anyway, thank you for indulging my musings this month, and to all my fellow Gen Xers out there, I’m with you.
Diane Seo is the editorial director of HONOLULU Magazine.
When my cat deposited a petrified but intact baby bulbul in my living room, I did what most of us would: I turned to Google and ChatGPT. Reach out to Hawai‘i Bird Rescue was the top suggestion. Within minutes came a reply to my plea on the nonprofit’s Facebook page. “I can help,” it read. “Would you be able to transport baby to me in Pearl City?”
If a white tern chick falls from a tree that’s an active nesting site, a blue ribbon tied around the trunk tells you to call the Manu-o-Kū Hotline. And years of PSAs have taught us to look out for fallen ‘ua‘u kani or shearwater fledglings disoriented by urban lights. But what about nonnative birds? Who helps when a mynah, turtledove or other bird of distant origin is orphaned or hurt?
Betty Kanai feeds a baby bulbul at her home in Pearl City. Neurologically impaired, it will be with Kanai for life. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
It turns out invasive species have their saviors, too. Take Betty Kanai of Pearl City. A volunteer with Hawai‘i Bird Rescue, Kanai cares for about 50 rescued bulbuls in peak summer breeding season. Some are injured, others newborns with their eyes still shut; many, like my Chicky, are replacing baby down with new feathers and can’t yet fly.
“Hi Mari! Chicky is doing well,” Kanai messages a couple of days later. “He’s getting an antibiotic and pain medication. I’m guessing the cat did puncture him and some of its saliva did get into him.”
Kanai evaluates, warms, hand-feeds, monitors and administers basic medicines until the chicks can perch and eat on their own. At that point they go to fellow HBR volunteer Katherine Shun, who cares for them in a large cage in her ‘Aiea Heights yard until they’re ready to fly into the neighboring forest.
HBR is one of several O‘ahu nonprofits dedicated to wild birds, all run by trained, self-funded volunteers in their homes. Others include Aloha Bird Rescue and Wild Bird Rehab Haven. Kanai says thousands of people have signed on with HBR, though fewer than 100 are active members. The most avid become de facto specialists—like Kanai with her bulbuls and Shun with her adolescents. Kanai’s friend is a mynah specialist; someone else is good at splinting broken legs and wings.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
“Hi Mari! Little Chicky is so much better,” Kanai messages later. “I used to be able to spot him immediately because he looked lethargic. This morning, there was not a lethargic bird to be found! I put a drop of nail polish on his back toenail yesterday. Thank goodness I did that. He’s looking great!”
In Kanai’s permanent care are Lā‘ie, a bulbul from Polynesian Cultural Center grounds whose entangled foot had to be amputated; and Miracle, who recovered from internal injuries after falling from a tall tree. Miracle refused to eat in Shun’s care because he missed Kanai. Two blind bulbuls have also become Kanai’s pets. All of O‘ahu’s wild bird nonprofits aim to rehabilitate their charges for lives in the wild—and rehome those who can’t survive on their own.
Mari Taketais the dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine and editor of Frolic Hawai‘i.
Andrew Castro recalls how during the COVID-19 lockdowns, people turned to online games to connect with others. He remembers thinking, why can’t we play kōnane this way? “Kōnane is a traditional Hawaiian game that’s been around for centuries, but there’s never really been a good online platform to play it,” he says.
Image: likonane.org
Castro, who is Native Hawaiian and a student of Windward Community College’s remote Hawai‘iloa program, was born and raised in California. He began playing kōnane, often referred to as Hawaiian checkers, in 2017 as a way to connect to his culture. With a background in mathematics and statistics, he started working on a free web version of kōnane in 2020 as a passion project. This past July, Likōnane debuted, modeled after sites such as lichess.org and lidraughts.org.
Users log on to likonane.org and play against the computer, a friend or someone at random. Within the first three weeks, there were about 500 unique visitors to the site and about 1,000 games played. “We have users in South America and Europe that play it now,” Castro says.
The website has sections for learning the rules, puzzles that can help you figure out moves to win the game, and forums to chat with other players. Castro loves the sense of community it creates. “If you’re Hawaiian, or you grew up in Hawai‘i or anything like that and you’ve now moved somewhere else, you can connect over this game and find other people who are interested,” he says. “You also have the people who maybe are not super familiar with Hawaiian culture but they’ve been able to learn a little bit about it through this game, as well.” There’s even a club in Chile that plays kōnane regularly.
After graduating from my California college in May, I spent much of the summer in the kitchen of my childhood home in Mililani. It wasn’t what I had envisioned for myself. I thought I’d be renting a New York City flat, frolicking around the Big Apple, or walking along San Francisco’s hilly streets, living a big, glamorous life like the 20-something influencers I follow.
But alas. Despite my initial thirst for an Instagrammable city life, it’s not what the postgrad gods had in store for me.
Instead, I was drawn back to O‘ahu, as I have been every summer, by the promise of home: real beaches, double rainbows, Foodland chicken, my grandmother’s mango tree. I decided to spend a few months on the island, enjoying all of that while also interning at a local media outlet.
After moving back into the home I had grown up in, I fell back into the familiar rhythm of my teenage years, which had been largely defined by baking.
During early mornings and late nights, it was just me, my thoughts and a boiling saucepan of hot sugar and rhubarb. Or a pan of sage and lemon shortbread, slowly turning golden in the oven. Or a tray lined with madeleines, each one waiting patiently to be doused in sugar.
After four years in college housing with no kitchen appliances except for an often-broken microwave, I felt I had the entire world at my fingertips. Everything I had dreamed about baking, I baked. My kitchen became my palace.
In August, I set out to make milk bread cinnamon buns for my childhood best friend—the same thing I baked for her when we started high school. It was her birthday, and my plan was to tier the buns so they resembled, however vaguely, an actual birthday cake.
Photo: Courtesy of Annabelle Ink
As I began kneading the dough, pressing the heel of my hand into its thick, pillowy surface, my mind went quiet. And it stayed that way for the next 20 minutes as I folded the dough. I couldn’t remember the last time my world had been so quiet. And then, suddenly, I could.
Every sheet of cookies, chocolate tart or strawberry hand pie I’d baked over the years gave me that quiet. When I bake, I don’t text my friends or scroll through photos of other people’s lives or scoff at their AI-generated LinkedIn posts. In the kitchen, my hands are far too sticky for scrolling.
So there I was, left with just being present. And I found that being present isn’t quite as horrifying as I thought. The chance to escape the constant stream of stimulation that awaits us all on the internet is precisely what brings me back to the kitchen every weekend.
Because it’s only when I’m present and everything is quiet that I can hear myself—that I remember how lucky I am to be spending time at home with my parents. Or how much I hated Manhattan when I visited last spring. Or how much I truly love the place where I grew up.
My friend loved the cinnamon buns. We ate them at China Walls, sitting in a little nook in the rocks and watching people being obliterated by the waves. As we pulled at the sweet tower of bread between us, squinting out at the bright midday sun beating down on the clear blue water, I knew there was nowhere else I’d rather be.
Annabelle Ink is a freelance writer based in Honolulu. She interned at HONOLULU in the summer of 2025.
Photo: Chanelle Schmid
Art Ala Carte
Artists of all ages will light up at this studio with an “all-you-can-make art bar” full of beads, ribbons, feathers, shells, glitter and various other crafting materials. Entry is $22 with no limit on time or supplies.
Sister to Single Double in Chinatown, this vintage shop sources clothing, shoes, home goods, vinyl records, ceramics and more gems from the ’50s and later from around O‘ahu.
The designer toy shop that rose to global fame thanks to Labubu has opened its first location at Ala Moana Center, offering blind boxes and accessories featuring original characters and those from well-known brands like Sanrio and Disney.
This grocery store has reopened in the heart of Waikīkī, offering affordable local-style eats—including make-your-own poke and loco moco bowls—alongside pantry and household staples and exclusive market merch.
Photo: Courtesy of Waikīkī Beach Marriott Resort & Spa
‘Ohana Entertainment Center
Inside the Waikīkī Beach Marriott Resort & Spa is a 6,000-square-foot space dedicated to family fun with more than 60 arcade games, virtual reality adventures and four bowling lanes, plus prizes to claim with ticket winnings.
Round out your fitness routine with Lagree, mat Pilates and barre all in one spacious studio that also sells activewear and offers coffee and beverages.
The Westman Group, known for restaurants like Shokudo and Paris Hawai‘i, has opened a new business with two private outdoor contrast therapy spaces, each with a sauna and cold plunge. Towels and bath amenities are provided.
Native Hawaiian-owned Waiwaolani has taken over the former Fighting Eel space at Kāhala Mall, bringing breezy apparel patterned with native flora to the Maui clothing brand’s first O‘ahu location.
Explore the beauty of Waimea Valley during golden hour, learn about the cultural and botanical significance of the park, and be the first to take a dip in the waterfall.
O‘ahu’s only Latin American market has opened a second, larger location with even more imported and locally made groceries and goods, including tortillas, quesos, salsas, snacks and liquors.
At the Kailua bottle shop’s second location at Koko Marina, you can have a glass of wine with light bites or desserts while perusing the old and new world selection and local gourmet finds. Plus, keep an eye out for events like tastings and book club meetings.
After closing in Kaka‘ako last year, Idea’s Music and Books has been reincarnated at Nā Lama Kukui Lifestyle & Design Center. Find the store at the back of the first floor with shelves of new and secondhand vinyl records, CDs, cassette tapes, books and comics, plus other collectibles.
Nā Lama Kukui Lifestyle & Design Center, 560 N. Nimitz Highway, #119A, Iwilei, @madplatterrecords_hawaii
Photo: Courtesy of Echoa Ridge
Echoa Ridge
Wet ’n’ Wild Hawai‘i is now home to a state-of-the-art outdoor performance venue with a 7,400-square-foot stage and more than 60,000 square feet of lawn space primed for concerts, festivals and other big events.
The Dirt Bike Experience at Coral Crater Adventure Park
Thrill-seekers age 9 and up can rev up electric dirt bikes to traverse a jungle and grassy terrain. The beginner-friendly 90-minute experience starts at $99 per person.
The once popular spot in Waikīkī has reopened in Ward Village, bringing its signature brunch dishes like soufflé pancakes and wagyu loco moco to an open-air bistro fronting Victoria Ward Park Mauka.
This Korean grocery store has taken over part of the former Ross space on Ke‘eaumoku Street with an extensive selection of produce, banchan, snacks, drinks, souvenirs and meal kits, some of which you won’t find elsewhere.
Longevity is the name of the game at Lawa, a wellness studio bringing innovative diagnostics and treatments to Kaimukī. With a blood or urine test, you can learn about everything from your biomarkers and hormones to your nutritional needs and genetics. Recommended services will be tailored to your results.
Here, the care is comprehensive and the treatment options extensive. To recover physically and mentally, enter the Ammortal Chamber, with therapies involving light, sound, electric fields, molecular hydrogen and breathwork. Boost your vitality with Precision Formulated IV Therapy, which delivers what your body needs based on your test results. And VSEL Cellular Regeneration directs your body’s stem cells to other areas, where they facilitate healing and new growth; this therapy is said to address a wide variety of issues, including chronic pain, neurodegenerative disorders and skin aging. If you have aesthetic concerns, the studio’s Alma Lasers can provide customized treatment to rejuvenate your skin.
Many more services are available that can be booked individually, or you can join the club for continual care. Lawa’s membership starts at $4,700 and comes with priority booking, all testing options, regular treatments and access to private lounges.
At this studio in the Coral Commercial Center, you can achieve your fitness goals with a range of beginner-friendly classes. Take barre for a low-impact, high-intensity experience that tones and strengthens muscles. Go for HIIT (high-intensity interval training) to burn fat with bursts of cardio and strength exercises. Yoga and sessions focused on strength, mobility and form are also offered.
Drop in for a class and take advantage of intro specials to try something new. Gear is provided; just wear grip socks. Ready to commit to a regular routine? Sign up for a membership or class pack.
Cat Café Moff Ala Moana’s new class will have you feline good: It’s an hourlong session of yoga with instructor Mami Furutani, plus time to hang out with and give treats to the resident cats, for $39.
Ferron Haryanto of Padel Hawai‘i plays a game in Indonesia. Photo: Courtesy of Padel Hawai‘i
It’s the fastest growing racket sport in the world. Wait—haven’t we heard this already?
It’s not pickleball. The latest racket sport generating buzz is padel, which originated in Mexico in the late 1960s and has exploded in popularity throughout Latin America and beyond. (It’s the second-most popular sport in Spain after soccer and may be included in the 2032 Olympics.)
The game is a combination of squash and tennis and requires specific equipment: balls that are slightly smaller and less bouncy than tennis balls, and perforated rackets. Teams of two hit a ball back and forth over a net within an enclosed 66-by-33-foot space bounded by walls.
“It’s like pickleball on steroids,” with additional strategic components because of the walls, says Kelly Yamamoto, a former NCAA Division I tennis player and founding member of Padel Hawai‘i. Yamamoto, who grew up in Kona, has been competing in Indonesia and is hoping to establish the sport locally. There are only three padel courts in Hawai‘i, she says, none of which are on O‘ahu, and all are privately owned.
Ferron Haryanto of Padel Hawai‘i plays a game in Indonesia. Photo: Courtesy of Padel Hawai‘i
Together with partners, “we’re going to bring the first courts” to Honolulu, she says, installing them in high-traffic areas and making them accessible. As of late this summer, three courts were in the works, with hopes of opening this fall. From there, the group will work with interested partners to bring padel to resorts, tennis facilities, golf clubs and other sites.
Married couple MG Bagalso and Jen Nguyen have traveled the world playing everywhere from San Diego to Valencia, Spain; now, they look forward to playing in their own backyard. Nguyen has experience in the real estate world, “so translating those skills over to building this destination would be a dream come true for me,” she says.
Padel Hawai‘i founding partners Jen Nguyen, Kelly Yamamoto and MG Bagalso with Javier Salamanca (second from right), director of Flyte Padel in San Rafael, California. Photo: Courtesy of Padel Hawai‘i
The Padel Hawai‘i team hopes its members’ combined experience and the relationships they’ve built with other players and the companies that sponsor them will contribute to padel taking root here.
“I want to see this court by court, player by player, community by community grow and just follow through into the Islands,” Bagalso says, “because I think it’s the right place, it’s the right time, and Hawai‘i needs it, and we’re ready.”
As the sun rises and before much of Downtown Honolulu has begun to stir, a team from the city’s Downtown Honolulu Business Improvement District is moving through its streets.
Sporting pink polo shirts, the Aloha Ambassadors sweep sidewalks, discard litter and remove graffiti from public spaces. On Tuesdays and Fridays, they arrive as early as 5 a.m. to prepare Fort Street Mall before vendors set up for the morning market.
But cleaning our streets is only part of their job.
If they spot people who appear to be in crisis, whether from houselessness or something else, they first determine whether they need help. “If they’re willing to take help and they need help, we get them help,” says Brooke Klejnot, president and executive director of the group, which is funded through assessments from commercial property owners.
BID, as the business improvement district is known, works alongside The Institute for Human Services, a nonprofit focused on ending homelessness, and the city’s Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement team, as well as other social service providers, to connect those in need with medical care, housing support and other services.
It’s part of a bigger effort to make Downtown and Fort Street Mall more inviting while preserving their character and personality. This means cleaning up the streets and making them safer, but also giving people more reasons to visit Downtown, including the Fort Street Mall Open Market, which BID organizes.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Every Tuesday and Friday morning, vendors set up tables and tents to sell produce, prepared foods and other goods along the pedestrian walkway, and night markets feature food and entertainment after work hours.
BID is also reaching out to artists, businesses and event organizers to find new ways to activate the area. One event that came from that effort is Books, Brews and Beats at Drip Studio HNL, located on Fort Street Mall. Along with a book exchange, artisans and musicians showcase their art and provide entertainment.
Maia Mayeshiro, creator of Books, Brews and Beats, hopes to make the event quarterly to foster a sense of community. After moving to Chinatown at age 17, she says she’s always seen potential in Fort Street Mall and was surprised more wasn’t happening there.
Then she started seeing the people in pink. “When I saw them popping out with their pink shirts and like cleaning the space, I’m like, this is so serendipitous and perfect,” she says.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
The ambassadors’ presence encouraged her to organize the event, which she says she couldn’t have done without BID’s guidance. She says bringing people to Fort Street Mall isn’t about making it something different, but rather to give more people the opportunity to experience what’s already there. “I’m really just trying to create the neighborhood that I want to live in,” she says.
