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Japan’s Love for Hawaii and Waikiki Beach
By Nick on July 21, 2008
My wife has a piggy bank, and like most Japanese women, she’s saving for a trip to Hawaii. I don’t really know why Japanese people have such a fascination for Hawaii, especially when they’ve got their own tropical island to go to, i.e. Okinawa. However, I was reading recently that 40% of Japanese couples go to Hawaii for their honeymoon, so I took a virtual trip to Hawaii to find out more!
Kannaya, in a post titled “Hawaii: The Other Japan“, summed up just how Japanese Hawaii really is:
When my family visits somewhere, they like to see much of the culture. We went exploring around the island of Oahu to find Japanese and Hawaiian culture alike. Now, I was surprised. I mean really surprised. Almost everyone on the island could speak Japanese, English, and Hawaiian. Almost every sign had kanji, and there were amazing Japanese cuisine eateries everywhere.
Japan has always been a country I have wanted to travel to, but it is really expensive (even more so now with the American dollar lowering in value) and it is a long way to fly. I’m sure many of you out there have also wanted to travel there and couldn’t find the right funds. I recommend Hawaii;
not only for amazing beaches, surfing, and whale watching, but for the Japanese culture you will be surrounded with. No, it isn’t Tokyo. It is more like Osaka, where the people are more traditional in their Japanese culture.
Waikiki beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world and is the most popular place in Hawaii for tourists. Japanese flock to Honolulu to mix with… well, more Japanese. But why Hawaii? I have no doubt the attraction of beautiful beaches is one reason, but I suspect Hawaii is more of a home away from home than anything. They get the excitement of traveling abroad, but with all the comforts of home; eating Japanese food at Japanese restaurants, staying in Japanese hotels and shopping in Japanese stores.
During the peak of Japan’s bubble economy, Janice Castro gave a possible reason for Japan’s dominance of Waikiki in her 1987 Time Magazine article, “I’ll Take Manhattan… and Waikiki“:
In a new twist on the protectionist slogan “Buy American,” Japanese firms are literally buying America, or at least choice pieces of it, from New York City high-rises to beachfront hotels in Hawaii.
Nine of the 14 hotels along Waikiki Beach in Hawaii are owned by Japanese landlords.
Kumagai Gumi, a major Japanese construction firm, started $700 million in Hawaiian projects last year, an enormous sum in a state where all nongovernment construction for 1985 totaled $862 million.
Besides this virtual trip, I haven’t actually been to Hawaii. That might well change though as my wife’s piggy bank fills up and we become obligated to follow the Japanese custom of holidaying in Hawaii.
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Posted in World | 3 Comments
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3 Responses to “Japan’s Love for Hawaii and Waikiki Beach”
Comments
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Mark Ramsay, globetrotting from an armchair in England.
2:03 pm on July 21st, 2008
Excellent article Nick, love it, I wish I could go to Hawii, maybe one day i will. You see you write about beautiful countries and i write about countries suffering with war etc. Something gone wrong there.
5:20 pm on July 21st, 2008
You’ve got the whole of Google Earth to choose from. I’m sure you’ll find somewhere nice, like Bognor Regis.
8:07 pm on July 22nd, 2008
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