Can't Help but Love Hawaiʻi (Mibba's Culture Month Event)

Mission of the Day: Blog about why you love your region.

Aloha mai kākou!

Ah, what a beautiful, hot and sunny day in Hawaiʻi nei. (Actually, today was disgustingly hot, ugh.)

Typical summer weather aside, I do happen to love Hawaiʻi (despite my occasional complaints). Here are a few reasons why:

We are a chain of islands, and thus, in our own little world.
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As you can see, we aren't exactly a part of anything. We've practically got the Pacific Ocean to ourselves (except not really). We're alone, isolated. I don't think you realize how great this can be sometimes. I love this fact mainly because it keeps us islanders separate from the events of the world, particularly the US. What I mean is, when poop hits the fan in the US and riots break out, our lovely chain of islands don't really feel the backlash. If we do get affected by mainland dramas, it certainly isn't on such a large scale as the US. We get to see stuff go down without necessarily being a part of it, which I greatly appreciate. I kind of like being detached from the US. Fun fact: During a trip to Japan some years ago, we were asked which country we were from, and my mom answered, "Hawaiʻi." We weren't corrected on the fact that Hawaiʻi isn't its own country anymore.

Of course, this isolation has its downsides, like extremely high shipping taxes, like, so high that it should be illegal. I kid you not, Hawaiʻi shipping is ridiculous. Also, we're always about four weeks behind in terms of clothes and fashion since we get things later.

We are a melting pot of awesome.
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This one's a no-brainer. We've got a variety of ethnicities and cultures here. This means you get to experience a taste of a lot of different cultures through foods, holidays, or cultural fests. One of my favorite things about the fact that we're an ethnically and culturally diverse place is definitely the food. I love being able to find so many different food places if I've ever the craving for a particular dish. In addition to Hawaiian food places, we've got many Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino restaurants, among others. We've got a good number of Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, and Italian eateries as well. I think we've even got some Indian places and a Greek place. Food is to die for here. You also get to meet a lot of different people because of the diversity here, which can be a great learning experience and can open up doors to friendships and relationships you may not have explored before. I like to think that it's a bit harder to experience racism here because of the wide variety of people we have, but I'm sure other people would beg to differ.

We have great sites to explore.

ʻIolani Palace and Aliʻiōlani Hale:
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Whether it's historical sites or just eye-catching sites, we've got them all. I love revisiting the ʻIolani Palace and taking a tour of what it has to offer. It gets more and more insightful every time I go to hear the stories or learn about our history. Right across is the Aliʻiōlani Hale, another great historical site. The Bishop Museum is another great place to visit, and it's always being improved. It offers a great look into Hawaiʻi's history (beyond the Hawaiian kingdom) and artifacts. It's also got cool exhibits for other things as well. (Speaking of history, this has nothing to do with sites, but I love the myths and creation stories we've got.) I also love the different botanical gardens that we have, and I especially enjoy taking photos of all the different plants. We also have Waimea Falls, which is a treat. This is on Oʻahu alone; there are other great sites on the other Hawaiian islands (like Waimea Valley and Kīlauea).

Here's just some other things I love about Hawaiʻi:
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Stairway to Heaven (which is illegal to hike, but people do it anyway):
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As always, if you have questions or would like to discuss, please let me know!

Mahalo nui loa!
June 24th, 2015 at 05:37am