Better Than Juku

While in Hawaii I spent a day hanging out with my nephew. It had been a long time since I spent quality time with him; he’s also my godson, which means that I could be his guardian if something should happen to his parents. No worries---he’s fourteen, fairly intelligent, and seems to be always sleeping, so any custodianship shouldn’t be overly burdensome.

My nephew is an only child. On the plus side, his parents have the resources to provide him with a private-school education, music lessons, tennis lessons, and all the tutelage that will lead to an enriched existence. But the drawback is that he rarely has time to call his own.

He was enrolled in juku (Japanese-style cram school) during the August hiatus between summer school and the start of his sophomore year. He leapt at the chance to play hooky on a Thursday.

We headed over to the Ward Center on Auahi Street, a block from Ala Moana Boulevard. It was a little early for lunch, so we idly perused the wares at the comics store across the street. The familiar DC and Marvel titles had been moved to a back corner; near the entrance were manga, alt-comics, anime videos, adult comics, role-playing games, posters, cards, and action figures. Son, this isn’t your father’s comics store anymore.


At Big City Diner, an expanding Island chain that serves comfort food with an Asian-Hawaiian twist, I ordered the kimchi fried rice. Kimchi (also “kim chee”) is the peppery fermented cabbage that locals use to spice up a bland dish, as ubiquitous as salsa or Tabasco in California. It’s tasty going down, but the less said about the aftermath the better. I could only finish half of the fried rice, so I took the leftovers into the movie theatre.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is a hoot. Filled with special effects action sequences, heart-pounding music, Johnny Depp’s shameless mugging, and with hardly any romance to bore the boys and boys-at-heart, the movie’s 2 ½ hours went quickly, a good value for the matinee price of $6.50. (This was the second time I had seen the film and enjoyed it just as much.)

About a half hour into the movie, the odor from the kimchi wafted up from under my chair. Affecting a puzzled expression, I looked around from side to side so that other moviegoers wouldn’t think it was me. What’s that smell? Nephew, control yourself!

After the movie we moved next door to Dave & Buster’s, a Chuck E. Cheese for the older set. D&B has pool tables, a menu that’s a cut above hamburgers and pizza, and a videogame arcade. The machines had the same audio-visual reinforcement stimuli as their Vegas counterparts and dispense coupons instead of money. My nephew had success with a machine that flipped tokens onto a rotating wheel with colorful targets.

$30 and one hour later we had accumulated 1,000 points, enough for a baseball cap. He decided to store the points on an electronic card---only 79,000 to go for a videocamera. About as rewarding as Vegas, too.

We walked back to the McCully area in half an hour, a trek that seemed much greater 40 years ago. I told my nephew that I had once traversed that distance carrying a school bag laden with books, and there were no rollers or straps to ease my burden. He was unimpressed. When we got back, I put away the leftovers, which his dad would scarf up the next morning. My nephew thanked me for the outing. At least it was better than juku. © 2006 Stephen Yuen

Diamond Head as seen from Ala Moana Park on the walk back from our outing.