Alan Suemori
Special to The Hawai‘i Herald
If you wander along the backroads of Wai‘anae Valley, there is an unpaved country lane that will take you to a quiet farm that is always filled with the soft music of laughter and activity. In a secluded corner of the farm within the shoulders of a towering mountain hillside incongruously sits a fishing boat, as if a great tide beached her deep in this ancient valley during a once-in-a-century storm. Guarding the boat are a slender lychee tree and a mango tree that are still too young to bear fruit or provide shade. Together, the mountain, the boat and the two trees keep each other company in the sunlight, like a quartet of old friends who have finally reunited after a long separation.
“My son once told me that all he needed was a boat, a lychee tree and a mango tree to make him happy,” says Linda Fujikawa, a much-beloved and highly decorated professor of Japanese language at Kapi‘olani Community College, who recently retired after a 30-year career in teaching. “With a boat, he could always be on the ocean and he’d never be hungry with a lychee tree and a mango tree.”
You can read this story in its entirety in the print edition of The Hawaii Herald, which is sold at:
- Times Super Market – Kahala
- Times Super Market – McCully
- Marukai – Dillingham
- Marukai – Ward
- Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii Gift Shop
- Hawaii Herald/Hochi Offices (917 Kokea St.)
Or, please consider subscribing to the Herald — $54 for two issues per month (24 issues per year). Send your check, payable to The Hawaii Herald, along with your name address, city, state, zip code, phone number and email address to:
The Hawaii Herald
917 Kokea St.
Hon., HI 96817
