twojapaneebruddahs.com | two japanee bruddahs | a japanese american duo writes about hawaii | keith kamisugi and kyle tatsumoto

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

HCCNC's 'Talk Story with the Akakas'

The Hawai'i Chamber of Commerce of Northern California presents on Sept. 21 "Talk Story with the Akakas" at Michael's Restaurant at Shoreline Golf Course, Mountain View.

Come Talk Story with Danny “Kaniela” and Anna Akaka as they share treasured stories to give us a Spirit of Place. Reconnect with those Hawaiian values that are the source of life and nature. Travel with them as they share their experiences of the Hokule’a voyage that sailed into San Francisco Bay in 1995 – Danny was Protocol Officer.

Learn the significance of the names of places, how names honor specific locations, Hawaiian protocol and ceremony. Journey through stories from sacred ground on the island of Hawai’i to our own place here in Kaleponi. Danny is a cultural historian, wayfinder, kahu, and musician. He and Anna will bring their very popular "Twilight at Kalahuipua'a" here to us.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Program: 9:00-3:00

Registration: 8:30

Cost: $10 students / $40 others

Visit HCCNC.com for ticket info & more.

The event offers a chance to hear two cultural historians take you on a "journey through stories from sacred ground on the island of Hawai'i to our own place here in Kaleponi."

It's a great opportunity to support Hawaiian culture and arts and learn from a real expert on Hawaiiana. In addition, you'll have a chance to meet people from the Hawai'i community in the Bay Area, including prominent members such as ex-Judge Bill Fernandez, HCCNC board member and an officer of the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Chapter of Northern California, and Laureen Kim, president of the KS Alumni Chapter.

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Two Japanee Bruddahs is a column by Kyle Tatsumoto and Keith Kamisugi (bios below) about Hawai'i that was featured in the Nichi Bei Times, the award-winning Japanese-English daily newspaper, which is closing on Sept. 30, 2009. A new nonprofit media organization, the Nichi Bei Foundation (NichiBeiFoundation.org) led by Kenji Taguma is hoping to carry the torch.

Kyle Tatsumoto, spent his formative years in Waimanalo, undoubtedly, where he honed his pidgin. His family eventually moved to Kaneohe, where Kyle attended Kapunahala Elementary, King Intermediate and finally, Castle High School ('75). Kyle received his BBA from the University of Hawai'i and MBA from the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Like others who relocated to the Mainland to further their education, Kyle's plan was to log two or three years of San Francisco work experience on his resume before returning home. Two or three years have since turned into 23 years, and counting.

Kyle is currently Vice President and Manager of the Financial Planning Department of California Bank & Trust (formerly Sumitomo Bank of California) in Oakland, California. He resides in Mill Valley with his wife, Carole Hayashino, who is Vice President of Advancement at Sacramento State University. Their son, Kenso, is pursuing his master's degree at Sacramento State University, while their daughter, Ali, is an undergraduate at the University of Hawai'i.

Kyle serves as Treasurer of the Hawai'i Chamber of Commerce of Northern California. This volunteer organization, whose slogan is "Aloha is our Business," strives to build bridges between Hawai'i and Northern California, and to promote the 50th State, its products, people and business opportunities throughout the region. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California.

In addition, Kyle was one of the founders of Nikkei Traditions in San Francisco's Japantown. The retail store, which closed in November 2004, was established in 1999 to help preserve the Japanese American heritage of one of the last three remaining Japantowns in the U.S., and featured Japanese American crafts and products including familiar Hawai'i lines such as Cane Haul Road and 'Iolani Sportswear.

Keith Kamisugi is a leading practitioner of pidgin on the Mainland. His pidgin spoken word concerts have drawn as many as five people per venue, all of whom came for the free Primo beer and spam musubi. You can catch him at Hukilau in San Francisco, begging Patrick Landeza for some mic time.

"Keet" was born and raised in Waipahu and Mililani, learning to double-chop like Kikaida, serving as Mililani Waena Elementary's first student body president, memorizing Rap Replinger's "Fate Yanagi," doing time as a rippah-wallet maker at Wheeler Intermediate, and pretending to be a drum major and school newspaper editor-in-chief at Mililani High School ('88).

Unable to give up Zippy's fried saimin (and actually because he never applied anywhere else), Keith attended the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, developing a taste for politics as student body president after an unsuccessful stint as a sports writer for the athletic department. (Jim Leahy got him fired after he forgot to change the scoreboard at a baseball game...)

After stints as an aide in the Hawai'i state Senate and in the elections office, Keith got his first full-time job in the Governor's Office a little before Gov. John Waihee finished his second term -- and then continued on as the resident computer geek when Gov. Ben Cayetano took office.

Because he was never able to take any of the 21 days of paid vacation per year offered to state workers, in 1997 Keith applied for the spokesman job at the telephone company (GTE Hawaiian Tel, Verizon Hawaii and now Hawaiian TelComm) -- and somehow managed to get hired.

Catching "rock feevah," he quit the "somber, but sincere" phone company job and packed his bags for San Francisco, joined a technology public relations firm (which closed its doors only 18 months after Keith was hired -- unrelated for sure), and then went into freelance consulting.

Keith's paternal grandfather came to Hawai'i from the Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan, making Keith a young sansei.

For more information on Keith, visit www.keithpr.com, or try and find him on www.globalpauhana.org.