By Da Two Japanee Bruddahs
Kyle Tatsumoto and Keith Kamisugi
January 2002, Nichi Bei Times

This time of year means the consumption of mochi, a lot of mochi. We eat 'em with kinako, broiled with shoyu and sugar, in ozoni or just plain. I especially like da kine filled wit an, da sweet bean paste. What? You say dats not mochi, dats manju. Huh?

Again, da kotonks purposely trying fo' confuse us guys.

On the mainland, mochi refers to rice cakes without filling, while manju is anything with filling, regardless of what the outside is made of.

In Hawai'i, mochi refers to those round treats made of steamed and pounded rice. Some get filling, usually an, inside, some no mo', but da main ting is dat gotta be soft and chewy and made from rice. Manju, on the other hand, is made of wheat flour and is baked, generally with some sort of sweet filling. In other words, no matta if get stuff inside or not. Da soft steamed rice kine is mochi, the baked kine is manju.

If all steamed rice cakes are called mochi, how do we distinguish between the ones without filling and the ones with filling? We jus' call em' "plain mochi" or "mochi wit stuff inside." Simple.

Small kid time, kagami mochi, the traditional New Year's decoration used to be fo' real kine. Two large flat mochi (da plain kine without filling), stacked, one on top of the other and topped with a tangerine or orange. This is another one of those traditions that has now transcended ethnic boundaries, and has been adopted by many non-Japanese families in Hawai'i.

While the tradition lives on, now days, everybody stay lazy, eh, so they all buy da plastic kine from Daiei or Shirokiya. Auwe! Not da same!

As kids we used to call the kagami mochi "mochi snow man" because we nevah know da real name fo' da decoration. Da orange on da top was always sweet and juicy. What? You say we wasn't supposed to eat em?

Da mochi snow man usually sat on top of a paper with a picture of traditional Japanese seven gods. My favorite was always the one with the big belly, Daikoku, god of prosperity. Rub his opu fo' good luck.

In Hawai'i, the New Year also signals the start of the new legislative session. Unlike the California Legislature, Hawai'i politicians only get to make trouble from January to May.

As offices at the Hawai'i State Capitol re-open, many of them will feature a kadomatsu and kagami mochi in addition to many other New Year's decorations. More importantly, however, these offices will soon be packed with food for the mid-January opening day of the legislature.

Of course, only in Hawai'i does food play such an important role in the Legislature's Opening Day tradition. Tons of food will make its way into the more than 76 offices in the State Capitol where legislators invite practically everybody to eat free food and listen to Hawaiian music. Plenty - I mean uku-plenty - people show up for the spreads that rival even the most lavish Las Vegas buffets. Most of the guests could care less about hotel taxes or school funding. They just want their free kal bi, sushi, macaroni salad, beef sticks, musubi, you name it.

And upstairs, above the food frenzy, on the fifth floor of the State Capitol sits Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono. This is the last of her eight years in that office and she's been in the news recently about her decision to abandon her run for Governor, choosing to run for Mayor of Honolulu instead. She will have a tough time either way since both races are very competitive.

The power of the ethnic vote in Hawai'i, especially the influence of Japanese Americans, has declined dramatically since the post-WWII days, when the Hawai'i Japanese community played a pivotal role in the Democrat's takeover of state and local government.

Still, the ethnic communities are still a significant factor. Hirono, by moving into the Mayor's race, will face former City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro who is strongly supported by Hawaii's Okinawan community.

Some political observers suspect that Hirono, Kaneshiro and another mayoral candidate, Mufi Hanneman, will split the Japanese/Okinawan vote.

Hirono was in the Bay Area last year to meet with Asian Pacific Americans and was well-received by most accounts.

In any case, we're seeing the beginning of the decline of the Japanese American political force in Hawai'i - and the changing nature of the Nikkei community.

Let's hope that Mazie get da real mochi snow man in her office.

Kyle Tatsumoto wen go Castle. Keith Kamisugi wen go Mililani. So wot?
Two Japanee Bruddahs is a monthly column in the Nichi Bei Times.

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