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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

That south side swell hit different yesterday! We’re glad someone got it on video!

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Makaiclicks south side 16x9

<title>🚧 Hawai‘i Scene on Social: South side action</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @MakaiClicks, with a prime view.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: South side action

That south side swell hit different yesterday! We’re glad someone got it on video!  Make sure you follow @MakaiClicks on Instagram! For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter!

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 isn’t your typical izakaya — and that’s not a bad thing. Chef/owner Hideki “Hide” Yoshimoto just wants customers to know what they’re getting into.

His spot is more of a permanent sushi pop-up within Osoyami Bar & Grill. Sometimes, unconventional is best — where else can you get loaded tater tots and poke nachos and high-quality sashimi at the same time?

Many customers remember Yoshimoto from his time cooking at now-closed Izakaya Torae Torae on McCully Street, where he worked for the last 10 years.

“I don’t consider myself a sushi chef — just an izakaya chef that kind of makes everything,” he says. “I started cooking at Izakaya Takonoki and also Izakaya Naniwaya, both in Waikīkī, though they’re no longer around. After that, I helped open Izakaya Torae Torae. It’s been a journey of learning by doing, staying curious and always trying to improve.”

Yoshimoto launched his solo venture about a year and a half ago. He says the timing felt right, and wanted to see if he could make it on his own.

“After working in kitchens for a while, I felt ready to take a risk and bring my own ideas to life,” he says. “The pop-up format gave me the flexibility to test my concept without the huge overhead of a full restaurant. I started small — just focusing on good food, a relaxed vibe and connecting with people.”

The izakaya menu includes a variety of appetizers, donburi, handrolls, nigiri and sashimi. Yoshimoto explains that he enjoys experimenting with different items.

“I like to create my own dishes or put a twist on common ones; I don’t stick too strictly to tradition,” he says. “I enjoy making dishes that feel familiar but still have a unique touch.”

Popular starters include tuna tataki ($20) and hamachi carpaccio ($20). The tataki features local big-eye tuna served with tobiko, sweet onions, daikon radish, wakame seaweed, garlic chips, kaiware sprouts, yuzu and garlic mayo. I appreciate the flavor and texture of the fresh fish, and the dish boasts a mix of refreshing flavor — thanks to the yuzu — and crunchy textures from the sprouts and garlic chips.

The carpaccio, meanwhile, features thinly sliced yellowtail served with jalapenos, sweet miso ponzu, chili and truffle oil.

When it comes to donburi, popular options include the negitoro ikura don ($32) and gyudon ($16). The negitoro ikura don is one of my favorites and boasts a colorful medley of chopped otoro (fatty tuna belly) topped with ikura, green onions and a quail egg over sushi rice (if you want to make it more luxe, you can add uni for $12). The creaminess of the otoro is balanced nicely with the refreshing ikura. Once it’s burst, the quail egg yolk holds everything together nicely.

If you prefer cooked dishes, the gyudon ($16) is a flavorful option. Steamed rice is topped with thinly sliced washugyu beef and onions that are simmered in a sweet soy dashi sauce. It’s topped with a slow-cooked organic egg and pickled ginger. We enjoy the beefy flavor, which is complemented nicely by the bright, pickled ginger.

“Those dishes really represent the style I’m going for: flavorful, approachable, and just a little different,” Yoshimoto says. “I wanted to be involved in every part of the process, from sourcing ingredients to washing the rice. Being hands-on with every detail lets me make sure the quality and intention are there in every dish. It’s been a lot of work, but seeing the response has been incredibly rewarding.”

Be sure to ask about any featured specials; chances are, Yoshimoto will have something unique available. During our latest visit, we got to try these ikura deviled eggs ($5 per piece), which evolved slightly and are now part of the menu as Japanese-style mentaiko ikura deviled eggs. These deviled eggs are taken to the next level with kabayaki sauce, kewpie mayo, ikura and green onions. They’re luscious, creamy and luxe with that ikura on top.

If you’re looking for extra deals, every Tuesday is temaki Tuesday at the izakaya. Handrolls are usually $6, but they’re $4 on Tuesdays. Choose from spicy ‘ahi, negitoro ikura, Hideyoshi, California and ginger scallion hamachi rolls. Since he’s a solo chef doing all the sushi, though, Yoshimoto asks customers to keep that in mind.

“We take walk-ins, and since I’m solo, it’s best to come in a smaller group and not a big party, if you can,” he says.

The izakaya also offers a daily happy hour. It’s from 6 p.m. to midnight — yes, basically all night — from Sundays to Thursdays, and from 10 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Customers can enjoy discounts on popular dishes like spicy ‘ahi rolls ($8), Jidori karaage ($9), and spicy tuna don ($16).

One of the biggest highlights from creating this pop-up has been meeting customers who genuinely enjoy his food, and staying in touch with them through social media, according to Yoshimoto.

“It’s a cool feeling when someone messages to say they loved a dish or shares a photo from the pop-up,” he says. “That kind of support and connection really keeps me going and reminds me of why I started this in the first place.

“I just want to give a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s come out to support the pop-up,” he adds. “Whether it’s your first time or you’ve been coming regularly, I appreciate it. This whole journey has been about sharing good food and good vibes, and I’m grateful for the community that’s been growing around it. I hope to keep creating dishes people enjoy — and maybe surprise a few people along the way.”

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Izakaya Hideyoshi – within Osoyami Bar & Grill

Open daily, 6 p.m.-2 a.m. (last call at midnight)

Hideyoshi Izakaya Hide photo 070925

<title>🚧 Izakaya Hideyoshi is hidden sushi pop-up within Osoyami Bar & Grill</title>

This Mo‘iliʻili gem is a one-man show — and that's how chef Hideki “Hide” Yoshimoto likes it.

Izakaya Hideyoshi is hidden sushi pop-up within Osoyami Bar & Grill

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

For Brad Baer, managing director at ‘Alohilani Resort Waikīkī Beach with Highgate Hawai‘i, his expectations when participating in Movers and Shakas' Hawai‘i Talent Onboarding Program, or HITOP, were simple.

He wanted to learn more about Hawai‘i's culture and how to best communicate and connect with his new team members.

"I feel that they accomplished that," he recently told Aloha State Daily.

Movers and Shakas is a nonprofit that runs place-based, community orientation programs. HITOP is its six-week acculturation program that introduces business leaders and executives who have recently relocated or returned to the Islands to Hawai‘i's culture, history and community.

 to help new transplants and returning kama‘āina live and work successfully here, and to help local employers retain and empower the leaders they've recruited.

[{"type":"text","text":"Baer was one of 18 leaders who recently completed HITOP's Cohort 7."}]

Originally from Phoenix, Baer moved here from San Diego after a career that also took him to different locations in Arizona, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Baer has only been here about four months. He says he has always loved the Islands and the culture, and  had been traveling back and forth to the state because his daughter attended Hawai‘i Pacific University. He also noted his admiration for Highgate, a company he says understands the importance of community and "being part of those communities that other associates live in."

While that made him a little more comfortable coming here, Baer knew, though, there would be some obstacles when moving.

As an executive in the tourism industry, Baer says he knows that tourism brings "a lot of wonderful economic value to communities and it has a lot of positive impact with jobs and really being able to showcase what an area has to offer."

But there are also concerning parts to the industry as well, he says. Coming to Hawai‘i, "I knew that would be a challenge."

Joining Highgate made that a bit easier to overcome, he says, and the company put him through Movers and Shakas right away.

"What a great way to start off to really learn a little bit more about what concerns people might have with tourism and also understand more about the history of Hawai‘i and the culture and how to navigate some of that ... to make connections with my staff, to make connections with the community," he says. "Those are essential for me to be successful in what I do. Movers and Shakas really helped to get me on a good path to being successful with that."

Baer says it was time well spent. So much so, "I would have kept going if given the opportunity."

Not only did he get to learn about about and understand the story of Hawai‘i  better, Baer says it also was a chance to connect with others who are still new to the Islands.

"I feel I came away with a lot more knowledge on the history of Hawai‘i and what the challenges we face here in Hawai‘i [are], and also I came away with just so much stronger inspiration to want to stay engaged in the community while I'm here."

, an executive vice president at Bank of Hawai‘i, was a member of the first HITOP cohort, which she joined about a year after moving to the Islands from San Francisco.

"I think it came at a really good time," she recently told ASD. "I actually don't think you could ever do it too soon because it is so important when people move here that they understand this is a very unique and different place from where they came. It is unlike any other, and you have to first start with understanding it before you can be effective.

"... I feel like you have to understand the context and you also have to understand how business is done here and how that's different," Matthews continued. "You just need to slow down, listen, build relationships [and] not expect that what worked before for you is going to work here. The great thing about HITOP is it's a condensed program where you can really just immerse in those concepts."

People who move here also face challenges in meeting people, building community and making Hawai‘i feel like home, she says.

"We all know that Hawai‘i is incredibly friendly and lovely to live in, but it's one thing to come here and visit. It's another thing to actually build community, and sometimes it's hard for people from the outside to do that."

[{"type":"text","text":"HITOP helps with that, too."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Pandemic beginnings"}]

When Movers and Shakas first launched in 2020, it was both popular and controversial.

Started by a group of local business and community leaders as a way to help the local economy and community when travel and tourism came to a standstill in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Executive Director Nicole Lim says the idea, at the time, was to bring remote workers from the continent to come help with local nonprofits.

[{"type":"text","text":"It was incredibly popular, she says."}]

She's not kidding. According to Lim, there were 90,000 applicants for 50 cohort spots when it launched that December.

"And it was equally unpopular here locally and kind of was a lightning rod, I think, for a lot of the frustrations around housing and the economy, actually," she recently told Aloha State Daily. "I was quite opposed to the program as well. Like why are we bringing tech bros here with Covid during the pandemic? They're going to drive my rent up and destroy the aloha spirit."

[{"type":"text","text":"She's not kidding about that, either."}]

Lim felt so passionately about it that she wrote an 

A few of the organization's board members then reached out to Lim and asked if she'd be interested in running the program.

"I've never gotten a job that way [before], but it remains a dream job for me for many reasons of just being born and raised here, and getting the privilege and opportunity to go to school on the continent and building a career there."

Lim went to college and business school on the East Coast, worked on the West Coast, and spent the five years before Covid traveling the world as a "hippie, analog nomad" before returning to the Islands.

Movers and Shakas is a "dream job," she says, because she gets to use her experience to "build something that benefits my home state."

"That's really exciting and a lot of what we do is about helping people build relationships, authentic relationships, in a way that benefits our state and our home."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Pivots"}]

The nonprofit offered two cohorts of the remote worker program, when the world shifted yet again.

"Remote work changed and it was less 'work from anywhere' and more of a hybrid model," Lim says. "And tourism rebounded to a large extent. I realized that in doing some of the cultural education programming, we had created a kind of Hawai‘i 101 place-based community orientation program."

She says several board members had talked about hiring executives from the Mainland who left in 12 to 18 months "because they just didn't get it. They were a bull in a china shop while they were here."

Lim had the idea to pivot — sunsetting the remote worker program and offering a new community orientation program to help employers retain new leaders.

"As we know, if you can't build relationships in Hawai‘i, you won't be very effective at your job," she says. "And if you don't have a sense of belonging, you won't feel very effective at your job either. This program became Hawai‘i Talent Onboarding Program, or HITOP."

The six-week program focuses on cultural education, community service and networking, three pillars of learn, contribute and connect that Lim says help build a sense of belonging and shared stewardship for Hawai‘i.

Since it launched three years ago, Movers and Shakas has acculturated 175 people through seven cohorts, a recent announcement noted.

The most recent cohort included executive and leaders from the likes of Bank of Hawai‘i, Booz Allen Hamilton, the City and County of Honolulu, Hawai‘i Dental Service, Hawai‘i Pacific University, Highgate Hawai‘i, Civil Beat, Kāhala Nui, Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i, Punahou School, Teach for America, TRUE Initiative, and YMCA of Honolulu.

Their program included three community work days with Ka‘ala Farm, Hale Kipa and The Pantry by Feeding Hawai‘i Together, along with leadership training workshops, networking events and talk-story sessions through partnerships with Leadership Works, ‘Iolani Palace, Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association, cultural practitioners and community leaders.

According to the announcement, surveys from past cohorts have found that 100% of participants improved their understanding of the host culture, 90% improved their sense of Hawai‘i as home, 94% improved their sense of shared stewardship; and 90% improved their work effectiveness and deepened their sense of belonging.

"We tend to see when people feel like they belong more ... they understand how their decisions impact the state and care about that impact," Lim says. "That's really the goal — to have people really understand that as business leaders, they're also expected to be community leaders and leave this place better than when they found it, which I think is something very unique to Hawai‘i that I didn't feel in the same way in San Francisco or L.A or other cities that I've lived and worked in."

[{"type":"text","text":"Movers and Shakas has piloted other formats, too."}]

Lim says she's done a one-day session dubbed Learning to Live Aloha for folks who aren't based here in the Islands, but who serve Hawai‘i customers or work with Hawai‘i teams. They also piloted a one-day Learning to Live Aloha program in Las Vegas.

"That's a format that I think we'll keep experimenting with," Lim says. "I would say things that we're expanding towards is this idea of 'Hawai‘i beyond our shores.'"

The idea, she explained, is borne out of the idea of helping acculturate people coming into Hawai‘i and people who aren't based in the Islands, looking at what it means to be connected to Hawai‘i even if you're not physically here.

Lim says that's not a firm plan yet, but where Movers & Shakas is looking to expand its focus.

For more information or to register for HITOP’s Cohort 8 in Fall 2025, visit 

MS HITOP Cohort7 Kaala Farm 3

<title>🚧 Movers and Shakas helps new transplants and returning kama‘āina learn about Hawai‘i</title>

The nonprofit got its start early in the Covid-19 pandemic, initially aiming to bring remote workers from the Mainland. Now, its Hawai‘i Talent Onboarding Program offers a six-week acculturation program that introduces business leaders and executives who have recently relocated or returned to the Islands to Hawai‘i's culture, history and community.

Movers and Shakas helps new transplants and returning kama‘āina learn about Hawai‘i

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawaii History

Columnists

Kamapuaʻa, the wild and rebellious demigod, is usually found in Hawai‘i’s lush, rain-drenched forests and valleys. Part man and part pig, Kamapua‘a is a shape-shifter whose most common form is that of a large wild hog. His restless spirit drew the fury and disdain of Pele, the fiery goddess of the volcano, but he pursued her relentlessly.

With his boundless passion, the nature of the pig god’s affinity for cooling rains and verdant lands countered Pele’s tempestuous fire and her lava’s destructive creation. The relationship between the two was filled first with anger and violence and then with wild desire. Eventually, Kamapua‘a could never tame the goddess’ flames, and Pele could not cage the demigod.

In their final epic battle, the pair realized it was impossible to destroy one another. Kamapua‘a proposed a truce, and the pair agreed that Pele would remain on her side of the island where it is hot and arid, and Kamapua‘a would remain on his side, where it is cool and lush, and none shall trespass into the other’s domain. From this ancient feud comes the superstition of carrying pork from one side of the island to the other.

Locals on O‘ahu will be quick to tell you, “Don’t bring pork over the Pali!”

This is a warning that if you should bring pork from Kailua over the Nu‘uanu Pali, you are carrying the kinolau (the embodiment) of Kamapua‘a into Pele’s territory, angering her. Personal stories of car trouble, strange occurrences, and even ghostly encounters from people who had pork in their cars reinforced this belief, with the scary events only ceasing once the pork was removed.

The story of bringing pork over the Pali is just one layer of the complex and spiritual history surrounding this place. If you ask different people why the Pali is haunted, you’ll likely get several vastly different answers, and most of those answers might be true. This haunting, spiritually powerful place has a long and violent history. It’s not just one thing that haunts the Pali; it’s many. 

In 1947, ten years before the first Pali tunnel was completed, a group of young men and women had been discussing the supernatural and learned that, under certain conditions, “spooks” could be seen at the Nu‘uanu Pali. They initially took this information as a joke and decided to test the theory just after midnight. Upon the advice of their Hawaiian friends, they brought with them some raw pork and fish. The night was very dark, and there was no moon.

Just around midnight, they drove up to the lookout, parked their car facing the plaque dedicated to King Kamehameha I, and sat there in the dark, waiting for something to happen. After a short while, one woman alerted the group to a large figure that looked like a man sitting on the side of the hill with his arms locked over his knees.

The driver turned on the car’s headlights, and the figure moved. When the lights were turned off, it suddenly reappeared in a different place. Although the night was dark, the figure was clearly visible, and the group watched in horror as the ghostly man changed his shape to that of an animal. The group tossed the pork out of the car, and in that instant, the awful odor of death and decomposition enveloped them. 

Around 12:45 am, this group of young men and women entered the police station and excitedly shared their terrifying experience with the police lieutenant on the midnight watch. Although the story may have impressed the Lieutenant, his only comment to the newspaper was, “They threw away pork at $1 a pound!”

What or who did these five young adults encounter? Could the strange figure have been the demigod, Kamapua‘a? What is your experience in bringing pork over the Pali?

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: South side action

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: South side action

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Daddy Day Care

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Man’s best friend

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Most read