Wearing the "Live, Love, Laught, Eat!" tee. Get it here!
1) Which Herro Hachi item do you think best describes you and why?
Of all the awesome Herro Hachi creations, the "Live Love Laugh Eat!" shirt is the one that's most like me! If you know me, you know I loooove stuffing my face with yummy foods!
2) Herro Hachi supports multiculturalism, what do you love most about where you are from and where you live now?
Although practically raised in Hawaii, I was born in Japan, so I'm "from" both. I love how it's so easy to get lost in the growing culture (past and present) of Japan--and the food is amazing! Last year during my study abroad in Fukuoka, Japan, I used to ride my bike across the city to go to my favorite 24-hour ramen place, Ichiran, at least twice a week. But Japan didn't only have great Japanese food, they had amazing Indian food too! My favorite curry place (Abashi) had the best green curry and cheese naan. While in Japan, there were so many traditional things to do as the year went by, like hanabi taikai (fireworks festivals) in the summer, mochi-tsuki (mochi making ceremonies) in the winter, and hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in the spring.
I love Hawaii BECAUSE of it multiculturalism. There are people here of all cultures you can think of and I loved being able to grow up and learn so many things in such a diverse community. Growing up, most of my friends were a mix of Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, etc. My sisters and I were the only full-Japanese kids in my town! During the plantation days in Hawaii there were many ethnic groups that did not know how to speak English very well so they developed a pidgin language (locally called "Pidgin English") using words from all their different languages. This language (now a creole) is still used today, so words from different ways of life, like "digos" ("bathe") from Filipino, "mauka" ("towards the mountain") from Hawaiian, and "sukosh" (original form is "sukoshi"; meaning "a little") of Japanese are common everyday words for locals like me! And unlike the mainland United States, here in the 50th State, we call them "slippers" instead of "flip-flops."
3) One of my favourite designs is "Live, Love, Laugh, EAT!", what is the most bizarre food item you have tasted/eaten?
Hmmm the most bizarre food I've ever eaten was probably fried frog legs! It really DOES taste like chicken!
4) I have always been encouraged to "Dream Big" and now I'd like to encourage others to do the same - what would be your dream job?
I have a few "dream jobs" swirling around in my head, but most of all, I'd love to have a career that would allow me to live in both Japan and Hawaii! So maybe I'd teach English in Japan and Japanese in Hawaii! I'd even love to promote study abroad to students in both areas, on the side of my career. Studying abroad for 10 months in Japan really made me realize how much I love the language, culture and its people and how much I want to continue to strengthen my ties with Japan. It's something I could have only gotten through studying abroad.
5) Who would you like to say "Herro" to?
All the awesome Bloggers out there in the world! We all come from so many different places, experiences and cultures, but Blogger--and Herro Hachi--bring us all together!
