Bonsai and andagi

This past weekend B and I went to the Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park. We'd gone last year and watched some of the performances and shared some Okinawan soba. In the blazing heat of a late August midday. We couldn't believe how many people were there -- and truly of all ages.

This year, we poked around more and did a little shopping and checked out some of the cultural/historical stuff. I can see why they say that Okinawa is much like Hawaii -- very much a product of many influences (including Portuguese).

Half of the culture tent was dedicated to a bonsai show by the Hawaii Bonsai Association. Outside, there was a demo -- it was really fascinating. (Incidentally, the fellow doing the demo and answering questions is one of the regulars B sees when he goes boogie boarding in the morning.) It was interesting to see the special tools and wires they use (they mostly have to come from Japan, but we got a tip that you can now get cheaper wire from Vietnam). I was surprised at how very un-delicate some of the work was. Our demonstrator was really twisting and torquing his little tree, binding it with heavy, malleable wire that requires some real wrestling. (Hence the helper holding the pot.) His plan is to make the tree look like it grows where there is snow in the winter, so he is training the branches to all turn down. He has been working on this tree -- the one on the photo's right -- since 2002.

We would have stayed with the bonsai demo longer, but all that learning was making us hungry. It was, again, a blazing hot day (it's starting to look like this is typical for this time of year), but we managed to rise to the occasion and eat andagi (in the photo), which is basically the Okinawan doughnut. It's hard to go wrong with fried dough and andagi is no exception! Then we picked up some plates of food (and took it to join some friends in Manoa for a potluck lunch). We got champuru, which I'd never had (although I'd heard the word because a local Twitterer's handle is @champuru.)

Honolulu Advertiser photos from the festival here.

More of our (very amateurish) bonsai photos after the jump. These aren't great quality photos -- I think B got one just as good using his phone! -- but they do show a variety of plantings.


All of these plants are done by members of the Hawaii Bonsai Association.