King Kamehameha day and Hawaiian directions

June 11, 2012

Happy King Kamehameha Day! King Kamehameha the Great was the first king to unite all of the Hawaiian islands under one rule. Here are some YouTube links to the parade that was actually held Saturday in honor of this holiday. The parade horses in Hawaii are called Pa'u. Here is a Wikipedia link describing this: The Hawaiian culture also has a tradition of using elaborately decorated horses and riders in parades and festivals riders in this tradition are known as "Pāʻū riders". This tradition involves the decoration of the horse and rider in flowing garments and Leis and utilizes a great variety of flowers to decorate the animal and rider. The dominant color of the Pāʻū Rider is determined by which island they are from.

Today I did a grand total of nothing. All state offices were closed for the holiday so I had the day off.  I wasn't able to fall asleep till around 3:30am because my back and hips were hurting from standing on the pavement to watch the parade yesterday. This is moi moi a (inability to sleep). So I read and uploaded the many pictures and videos for the blog. Once I finally got to sleep I was very fatigued. Unsurprisingly, I slept all day. I would wake up for 5-10 minutes, decide I didn't need to be awake yet and go back to sleep. I did chat a but with folks back home around 10ish but then went back to sleep till 4:30. I paid my rent today, hard to believe I've been here a month already! Nikki was cooking her dinner so we chatted for a while. We shared the pickled mango I had from work and she had made pita chips. I had my red sauce/salsa hybrid and she had her veggie/egg/pinto/sausage mixture. It was a pleasant evening :)

I have no photos or anything interesting today that I did to share. So instead, I wanted to talk about directions in Hawaii. Lisa and I were talking about getting directions in Hawaii one day at work. Because it is so confusing she sent me this:

Here in Hawaii the terms that are used for directions are:

1.    Mauka – Direction pointing towards the mountains
2.    Makai – Direction pointing towards the sea
3.    Ewa – Direction towards the ewa plains or Ewa Beach, Kapolei or Waianae direction
4.    Diamond Head – Direction towards the Diamond Head area (where you are in Kaimuki)

Not sure how or why the folks here in Hawaii started using these terms but I know it goes way back in history before Hawaii became a State.  I found this link on the web that discusses these directions that Hawaii uses as well:

   http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/figuring-out-hawaiian-directions.html

A quote from this very informative website states: 
So if you ask an islander for directions on Oahu, you're likely to hear something like this: "Turn left and go 2 miles Diamond Head [east], turn at the light and go 2 blocks makai [toward the sea], and then turn at the stop light. Go 2 more blocks and turn Ewa [west]; the address you want is on the mauka [mountain] side of the street."

And this is in fact how directions are given here. It can get very confusing if you don't have the information on what these terms mean.Honestly, it can get very confusing even when you do know them. For a haole (foreigner/caucasian) like me, I normally just ask for directions by bus route number!

That is all for today. I'm going to read a bit, shower and get ready for bed. Jeff loaned me a book called Raven's Shadow Book one: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. It is very good. I don't know that I'd like his other series at all, but who cares since I'm reading this book! Off with me, goodnight folks.


E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe, (May blessings ever be with you)
~Melissa