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Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"text":"Mr. T would pity the fool who doesn't find this funny.","type":"text"}]

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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An amazing chain of events</title>

Today's social media find comes from nailsbydanny, and it's all about the links.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An amazing chain of events

Mr. T would pity the fool who doesn&#039;t find this funny. 

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

, known for its affordable bentos, just opened its third location on Young Street. This store is in the former space of J-Shop.

U-Kitchen offers a variety of musubi, bentos, bowls and curry. The menu is the same here as its downtown Honolulu store, according to business owner Yudai Fukuda.

Popular bentos include butterfish ($13.99), mochiko chicken ($10.99) and chicken katsu ($10.99). The musubi selection ranges from salmon ($2.99) and spicy tuna ($3.19) to unagi ($4.79) and mentai mayo ($3.29).

U-Kitchen’s original location is in Kalihi; its downtown Honolulu store, which is in Topa Financial Center, is currently closed due a power outage in the building, according to Fukuda. He says the downtown Honolulu store — 

“Our peak time (at that location) was from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” he says, nothing the shop’s popularity with the downtown Honolulu lunch crowd.

He says that Topa Financial Center was supposed to reopen on Aug. 24, but says the re-opening was delayed further after Hurricane Lala.

U-Kitchen’s Young Street store is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays. Customer parking is available in the shop's lot.  

Open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, closed Sundays

U Kitchen Young Street worker 081826

<title>U-Kitchen opens a new bento and musubi cafe</title>

The business, whose original location is in Kalihi, just opened a third location on Young Street in the former J-Shop space. The business’s Downtown Honolulu store has been temporarily closed since July 23, according to U-Kitchen owner Yudai Fukuda.

U-Kitchen opens a new bento and musubi cafe

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

Within the next six months, Jed Gaines expects to take Read Aloud America’s family literacy program global, after two decades of trialing it across the Islands.

“We’re working with some great people overseas who helped build this Toolkit, which has taken over a year,” 

he told Aloha State Daily. “We’ve actually had the first draft edited and finalized, so it’s just fine-tuning everything and getting it together.”

Gaines said that The Read Aloud Program Toolkit will first be implemented in a local school to run as a pilot program. “And once they test it, then we could determine what needs to be changed, added or deleted,” he noted. “I see schools running it on their own. We’ll be there as a support system.”

The overall goal remains the same: to focus on family, and the communication and bonding that occurs through reading aloud.

He added that the Toolkit will include tips for family connection. “If you can get parents to shut down screens during dinner, so that families can talk, get to know each other and share love together, then we’re going to have a different society,” Gaines said. “Until we change the home, you’re never going to change our schools, communities, our nation or world. You’ve really got to get families to talk story, and the key is the parents.”

The Read Aloud Program offers immersive reading sessions for public school students and their families, as well as opportunities to enjoy entertainment, games and food. The program first launched in 1999 at Barber’s Point Elementary School serving 200 people. Attendance increases and a state grant in 2006 helped boost the program.

“Up until Covid-19, we had reached more than 350,000 adults and children. So why were they coming to these programs at such numbers? It

’s because they were having fun, and if you have fun, you’re going to learn.”

As gatherings ceased during the pandemic, Read Aloud America continued sharing it reading resources and lists, while pivoting to what's next.

For Gaines, the most rewarding part of this work is engaging with the families and seeing the impact. He shared the sentiment of a parent who had attended every session in a series and told him, “Jed, this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to my family.”

Gaines admits he didn’t learn to read until 7th grade. He says school was difficult for him, being dyslectic, though he we went on to attend college and grew fond of the hobby while in the U.S. Navy.

“The carrier had a library. I became a reader on my own and self-educated myself, basically,” he said. “I’m an avid reader today. That’s my escape.”

In the early ’70s, he moved from New York to Hawai’i and began cleaning apartments professionally, running the business Apartment Appearance for over 25 years. During that time, in 1995, Gaines created nonprofit Read Aloud America, whose mission is: “Through the fun of reading and being read to, parents can promote literacy, bond families, and build communities of lifetime readers and learners.”

He has passed the gift of reading to his children and grandchildren. When asked what he’s currently reading, Gaines said, “Strangers in Time” by 

David Baldacci; “The Widow” by John Grisham; “

 by Clare Leslie Hall; and “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls.

For kids' book authors, he recommends Jerry Spinell

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An amazing chain of events

Authors

ASD Staff

Reporter

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Enter for a chance to win tickets to see Disney’s live action adaptation of the animated film ‘Moana’

Hawai‘i Scene on Social meets Hawai‘i Skies

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