S Aloha Spirit Begins on Oahu Island Hawaii Honolulu and Island of Oahu – Images by Lee Foster by Lee Foster

Hawaii’s Aloha Spirit Begins on Oahu Island Hawaii Honolulu and Island of Oahu – Images by Lee Foster by Lee Foster When the plane touches down in Hawaii, the magic of the eight major Islands in the Hawaiian group begins to infuse the sensibility of a traveler. First of all, a traveler from North America has just made a long voyage, 2,000 miles and fully five hours from western U.S. cities, or longer from Chicago and New York. After traversing long stretches of ocean, the islands suddenly appear, as improbable as they must have seemed to the first Polynesians who sailed and paddled their canoes from the South Seas to this site about 750 A.D. or possibly earlier. From out of nowhere the modern visitor alights into a fully-realized dream, Hawaii. When you leave the airplane, a lei may be put around your neck, if you are on a tour. If not, you may want to buy a lei at the airport, just to get into the spirit. Leis are sometimes made of vanda orchids or of plumeria. The perfume of the lei and the warm tropical air of Hawaii immediately bathe a visitor. A range of bright flowers can be seen everywhere, starting with bougainvillea or hibiscus, the state flower, giving a technicolor aura to Hawaii. Brightly floral aloha shirts, which appear so ostentatious on the mainland, seem immediately appropriate here. Then you begin observing people in this airport. The most striking aspect of the people is that their racial origins are diverse and are primarily from the Orient. Aside from the Portuguese, the main groups were Polynesians, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. This mixture of races has produced women of legendary beauty, with coal black eyes and olive thighs, who hula dance through the longings of the male visitor. Of course, the men are handsome also, and, as the woman visitor may eventually learn, while observing the rippling muscles of the beachboy paddling the outrigger canoe, the men were the original hula dancers. The ethnic groups that make up Hawaii are so different from the mainland U.S. racial stock that the place is truly exotic, almost a foreign country, yet Hawaii is one of our own states. Hawaii is like a foreign country where the exchange rate never varies and where the natives speak your language, plus their own. Hawaii, our most exotic destination within the U.S. and a full-status state since 1959, is the favored state for the so-called Pacific Rim Century we are now embarked upon. The history of Hawaii, a visitor soon learns, is wholly different from the story of the mainland U.S. Hawaii leans culturally toward the Pacific Basin, while the mainland leans toward Europe. In fact, the people of Hawaii flourished without benefit of any Indo- European contact or religious trappings until the 18th century. They developed their own severe and superstitious, but understandable, religious system, the kapu system, that required death for slight infringements. Like Christianity with its confessional, the kapu system provided a few sacred places where forgiveness was possible. Adding to the exotic feel of the islands are the tropical plants that grow so luxuriously in the warm, bright sun and moist air. A visitor from Minnesota, in winter, who has been thinking of the wind chill factor only a day earlier, suddenly alights in Hawaii, where the temperature at sea level varies only from 63 to 85 all year around. For many visitors, the predictable warmth and benign sun are sufficient to breathe life into the word paradise. While Alaskans suffer a dark night of the soul through the winter, Hawaiians luxuriate in sunlight and warmth. Hawaiians distinguish winter from summer by discerning that the weather is a few degrees cooler and the rains are slightly more frequent. With a snorkel mask a visitor can realize how this tropical richness extends to the world below sea level. Coral and multi-colored fish present an otherworldly offering. Only Florida, within the U.S., competes with Hawaii as a tropical landscape above and below sea level. In Hawaii there is intense color in the land, sea, and sky. Besides the coral and the fish, anticipate the pleasure of some lava-red sunsets in this land of eternal June. All visitors and natives can enjoy these sunsets from the beaches in an egalitarian celebration of nature. All of the beaches of Hawaii are owned by all of the people, all of the time. As with other destinations in the tropics, Hawaii is a relaxed place with a moderate pace. Moderate activity level is a matter of prudence in the heat of the tropics. Hawaiians have also been so steeped in a tradition of salubrious sun and abundant food from the sea, an engaging natural environment and an ease with the foreigner, that a traveler feels comfortable here. Most Hawaiians realize that they too were once foreigners. Part of the aloha spirit of Hawaii is a notion that strangers are a gift from the gods. Another aspect of Hawaii’s charm is the Hawaiian language. The language is so rich in liquid vowels that a face needs to smile to speak. Originating in Polynesia, the language is musical and sensuous, absent of gutturals and spitting consonants, soothing to a visitor’s ear. Like so much in Hawaii, this language came from the East, not the West. Moreover, many of the meanings behind the words come from the beauty of nature and the joy of life. Not only does a word sound beautiful, but when you inquire about its meaning, you are liable to hear that it means something like “a bouquet of rainbows.” The classic greeting of Hawaii, which is aloha, translates roughly as “I recognize in you the breath of life.” Could a more evocative or metaphysically profound salutation be imagined? Honolulu, Waikiki, Hawaii, Oahu, Hanauma–just say the words and try to avoid the hypnotic softness. The Polynesian Hawaiians had no written language before the Europeans arrived in the 18th century (the Europeans and Americans controlled later migration of the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Filipinos in the 19th and 20th centuries.) In the earlier Hawaii, with its emphasis on a spoken language, elders enjoyed a special role because in their minds and speech the collective culture of the people survived and passed from generation to generation. Hawaii also has an air of illusion about it. Part of the illusion is that the economy is supported mainly by unseen resources decided upon far away, namely military expenditures and tourism. Agriculture or fishing on the islands is actually minuscule compared to government spending. The military controls 25 percent of the land mass on Oahu. Because Hawaii occupies a strategic position, its future is secure, though the basis of its security is dependent on the distant military providers. As long as inexpensive gasoline or other fuel is available, Hawaii as a tourism destination looks promising. Concerted efforts strive to market Hawaii to an international audience, perhaps to the Chinese, beyond the current dependence on U.S. and Japanese patrons. The difference that distinguishes Hawaii begins to strike a traveler who turns on the hotel TV. The news will carry the important information of the day, such as the height of the waves for surfing. Possibly a surfing tournament, a form of sport here since ancient times, will be broadcast. The Japanese presence, in Waikiki, but less extensively in the outlying islands, is another major aspect of the experience. Japanese travelers have dominated Waikiki tourism when the Japanese economy is strong. All information is printed in Japanese. Excellent Japanese restaurants abound. You open your dresser in the hotel room to find both a Bible and The Works of Buddha. You open the refrigerator in the hotel room to find packages of dried seaweed and dried fish. Ethnic Japanese, who are U.S. citizens, are one of the major groups in the complex Hawaiian ethnic mix. For most of the millions of Americans who visit the state of Hawaii each year, the island of Oahu and its major city of Honolulu, with famous Waikiki Beach, is the gateway. Here the mystique of Hawaii will be felt by most travelers. For some travelers, direct flights to the state of Hawaii’s biggest island, the Big Island of Hawaii, or to the island of Maui are the initial encounter with the islands. Getting To and Around Hawaii The flight to Honolulu, as mentioned, takes about five hours from the major west coast gateway cities. Flights originate in major coastal cities, with several airlines participating in the trade. Some carriers fly directly to the islands of Hawaii and Maui as well as to Honolulu. (When departing from Hawaii for the return flight to the mainland, be sure to allow plenty of airport check-in time. All luggage must be inspected because of agricultural needs to keep pests from being imported on fruits, vegetables, and flowers. This hand checking requires time and the lines can be long.) Once in Honolulu, the airport is west of the downtown and Waikiki Beach, where most of the hotels are located. If you plan a rather sedentary vacation soaking up the sun on the beach or if you are particularly adept at taking trolleys or buses, you won’t need a rental car. The Waikiki Trolley can take you around the central area. A bus simply called The Bus makes a full island circuit for a small charge. If you wish to get around quickly and want to see the countryside beyond Honolulu, with flexibility about places to stop and take photos, a rental car makes life easier.

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