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[{"type":"text","text":"Just like a cartoon..."}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Thursday, February 5, 2026</title>

Just like a cartoon...

Daily Smile: Thursday, February 5, 2026

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Business & Tourism

From the moment she opened her first cafe in Hilo three and a half years ago, business owner Savanica Johansen of 

“The vision (for my shops) was always just bigger — opening across the Islands, maybe even opening on the Mainland,” she says. “It was always just a big vision. This was always a matter of when (not if) — when we would open in Honolulu.”

Long before Coffee Girl came about, Johansen was a sales manager for Hilton. Part of her job including traveling; the first thing she would do in a different city was to look for cute coffee shops.

“I’ve always been a coffee girl,” Johansen says. “When I would travel (for work), I would just go to a different coffee shop every day. That was what I loved to do.”

At that time, Johansen recalls that coffee shops/cafes were not plentiful in Hilo.

“If I wanted to get coffee before work, the Starbucks line was so long,” she remembers. “It was so hard to get coffee; if I went on my lunch break, everyone was also there at the same time.”

During a trip to Australia, Johansen felt “really inspired” to start her own coffee business one day.

“There are beautiful coffee shops on every corner (there),” she says. “I kept saying, ‘I want to have a coffee shop.’”

Around 2018, Johansen left the hotel industry to pursue real estate, which she says “was her first dream.” She said her goal for the longest time was to be a luxury real estate agent. When the Covid-19 pandemic happened and life slowed down, Johansen remembers coffee was still a highlight in her life — specifically, in the form of white mochas from Starbucks.

“White mocha was my thing,” she laughs. “I asked my husband, ‘Can you please buy me one of those fancy, expensive coffee machines? It’ll save money.’”

For six months after getting a coffee machine, Johansen says she “dumped everything down the drain” and still went to get her fix at Starbucks because her coffee “was terrible.”

“I’m very, very picky with my coffee, so none of them tasted good (to me)," she says. "Finally, one day, I made something really good.

“My sister, who is a nurse at the hospital in Hilo, came over and tried it,” she adds. “She said, ‘Can you bring me a coffee for my night shift?’ I started bringing her coffee at work, and her coworkers wanted coffee, too, so I started delivering.”

Johansen credits her drink recipes to a lot of trial and error. The coffee deliveries were the catalyst to officially starting her business.

“It was still around 2021; they (my sister’s coworkers) said, ‘This is really good, but you should be charging us,’” Johansen says. “I was just making it for free; I started charging $3 for the drinks.

“I wanted something to do; I’m a very social person,” she adds, noting the struggles with social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I just wanted connection. I feel like it’s so fulfilling to give somebody a cup of coffee and for them to be so happy. This (coffee) brought me more fulfillment than real estate ever did.”

At first, Johansen didn’t know what to call her business, but “coffee girl” was a suggestion from her daughter.

“I didn’t like it at first because it was just (geared) to one market,” Johansen says. “But most of my drinks are to this market — the girls who want the fancy coffees, who want the aesthetic.

“At that time, I was working for a lawyer part-time and doing coffee deliveries,” she says. “My lawyer was like, ‘This is a genius idea; a lot of people can resonate with being a coffee girl.’”

With her business name and social media account set, word started to spread about Coffee Girl, and Johansen realized having a physical location for her business was the next step.

“My business got registered; I wanted to do this right — in line with the health department guidelines — and get a shop,” Johansen says. She ended up funding her first store, located at 2100 Kanoelehua Ave., with the money from her biggest real estate sale.

“I put every single penny into my shop and opened my first location in March 2023,” she says. “It did really well; I was so happy with the response that I got.

“It was my first shop, but I wanted more; I just felt like it was made for me,” she adds. “I ended up getting the opportunity for my second shop, which is in downtown Hilo (42 Waianuenue Ave.).”

While opening in Honolulu was always on her heart, everything came together quickly this year. Johansen says she was on O

ahu for vacation in June and didn’t want to leave.

“I went home and was like, ‘I want to be in Honolulu,’” she says. “I flew back the next week, looked at spaces, and put in an offer (for this one). By the time I got the keys, it was August. We started construction at the end of August; we finished in about four weeks.

“I believe in myself so much that sometimes, I’m like, ‘Wow, girl … you need to check yourself,’” she laughs. “But honestly, sometimes I don’t want to think about it (too much) because who opens a coffee shop in 60 days?”

Coffee Girl’s Honolulu location officially opened on Sept. 26. While all of her stores are slightly different, Johansen says there are common elements in each one.

“All of my shops have roses; I love roses, they are my favorite flower,” she says. “They’re (the stores) all different colors — my first shop is pink, my second shop is a lighter shade of green, like a sage green, and this one is white and gold. They’re the same vibe, but different; I want them all to be destination coffee shops. I want people to experience all the Coffee Girls.”

She says that while her Big Island stores are inspired by French cafes, her Honolulu store features a more modern look. She says her cafes usually feature mirrors and heart-shaped straws for the drinks.

The menus across all three stores a mostly the same, according to Johansen. The café

’s signature beverage is its pink macchiato, a layered drink with white chocolate, vanilla, strawberry milk and espresso shots. Other popular options include the banana bread latte and chocolate haupia pie latte.

Johansen says, referring to the menu selection. “A lot of my drinks are inspired by my favorite desserts. I’m a big dessert person; I love sweets. I made the chocolate haupia pie years ago because I love Ted’s Bakery’s chocolate haupia pie.”

She notes that many of the drinks are designed as iced lattes, but hot drinks are available as well. Besides coffee, the menu includes frappes (blended drinks), lemonade, matchas, teas and kid-friendly options like hot cocoa and chocolate milkshakes.

“Our strawberry matcha is made a little differently here,” 

Johansen notes. “There are different products that I can get here (in Honolulu) that aren’t as easily accessible in Hilo.” 

For her Honolulu store, Johansen collabs with local bakers to feature a rotating selection of treats. Coco’s Cravings 808 (cinnamon rolls), Aloha Loaf (brown butter chocolate chip banana bread cookies) and Lyman Lattes (mini croissants) are a few of the featured vendors so far.

“I was not about to put an oven and a whole bakery in here,” Johansen says. “I was like, ‘Let me get some local bakers who want to collab and I can sell their stuff here;' it’s a win. I love what everybody does, and the hard work they put in.”

Coffee Girl Honolulu does offer a café menu, comprising dishes like grilled cheese ($10.95), chicken pesto panini ($16.95) and build-your-own avocado toast (starting at $14.95).

“I never used to do food when I started,” Johansen says. “We started with the build-your-own avocado toast, which is popular on the Big Island.

“People want a one-stop shop — they want to come in and get their coffee, get their breakfast or lunch, and maybe get a sweet treat,” she adds.

ahu store came together quickly partially because she “gets things done quick,” but also because materials were more accessible.

“When I do things, I fully commit,” she says. “All of my orders came in faster (here) than they did in Hilo. Sometimes, that’s the biggest thing; just waiting on stuff to come in. When I finally opened last Saturday, it was surreal.

“I couldn’t do any of this without God, every space, every opportunity was because of Him. He’s opened every door at the right time,” she says. “It’s definitely a lot of hard work and sacrifice, too; my kids back home sacrifice a lot. But let this inspire people who have kids; they can definitely accomplish their dreams.”

Coffee Girl Honolulu’s grand opening is this Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8 a.m. The first 100 customers will get a free goodie bag; after grand opening, the biz will be open daily from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“This location is just special because I always wanted to be on O

ahu,” Johansen says. “I love the city. Every time it’s Merrie Monarch (in Hilo), I get a lot of O

ahu customers. They’re like, ‘When are you going to open on O

“It’s finally here; it’s been talked about for years now, and it’s really been on my heart,” she adds. “I really felt like this is where I wanted to be. I made this for you guys; I made this for the O

Customer parking available at Azure Ala Moana (retail stalls available)

Open daily, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. (open from 6 a.m. after Oct. 3)

Coffee Girl owner 092826

<title>Oʻahu has a new ‘Coffee Girl’</title>

The cafe with roots in Hilo — known for its coffee, matcha and aesthetic decor — just opened its first Honolulu location on Keʻeaumoku Street at Azure Ala Moana. Its grand opening is this Saturday at 8 a.m.; customers can look forward to specialty lattes like chocolate haupia pie, banana bread and white chocolate strawberry.

Oʻahu has a new ‘Coffee Girl’

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Columnists

Government & Politics

Aloha State Daily received a press release today from a Mainland-based national interest group, U.S. Term Limits (USTL), letting us know that “2026 Hawai‘i state senate candidate, Wallyn Christian (District 13) has committed support for term limits on Congress by signing the term limits convention pledge.”

Why does this matter to that organization? “(USTL, the leader in the national, non-partisan movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering support from state lawmakers across the nation,” the statement says. “Its mission is to get 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention specific to term limits on Congress.”

Term-limiting Congress is a popular idea, and USTL cites a 

 that, “An overwhelming majority of adults (87%) favor limiting the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve. This includes a majority 56% who strongly favor this proposal, just 12% are opposed.”

The idea emerges often for local politicians, as well. Civil Beat has found public support for term limits to be as high as 70% in a 2018 poll of likely voters, a stat Honolulu Civil Beat resurfaced 

 of the lawmakers themselves to see where they stand on the idea of limiting their own time in office. “Nearly half of House members and more than a third of senators say they support term limits. There are enough undecideds in both chambers to give it a good shot if they held their position for two years,” CB found.

Respectfully, all of these people are wrong. Well intentioned, but they're aiming term limits at the wrong people.

I mean, I totally understand where the frustration is coming from. We elect people, nationally and locally, then are disappointed in their results. We could end their terms ourselves by simply not reelecting these people and yet obviously a lot of the people who say they want term limits do something very odd: They seem to reelect the lousy politicians they say they want to term limit.

You want to limit someone’s term? You’re just a month away from your next opportunity to vote for someone else!

So we’ve always had the power to fire politicians with every election, but don’t, then remain convinced that what we need is more turnover in government to make it more efficient, effective and responsive. Somebodies’ terms need limiting, but who?

Easy: The workforce. The bureaucrats. See, I want term limits, too, but I want them on the people staffing all the departments and agencies that we’re perpetually frustrated with. 

Consider, to cite just one example, how many different mayors you’ve seen over the past 20 or 30 years promise to reform the departments of planning and permitting in each county. The mayors have term limits. They come and go. Have any of them succeeded at this reform?

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has done more than any predecessor but there’s a long way still to go.

How many Hawai‘i governors — term-limited governors — have promised Hawai‘i a public education second to none? Which of them succeeded? Who is still in place, immune to reform?

What happens in real life is, candidates make bold promises of reform, we elect them, then they announce bold plans for reform and those plans run headfirst into a culture of unfirable civil servants shielded by union protections. These folks don’t even have to noisily and aggressively oppose the reform, all they have to do is … not do it. And wait. Four years later, or eight years later, their antagonist is gone, the staff remains, with its culture of job security over excellence safely intact.

[{"type":"text","text":"We, the taxpayers and voters, then sit around wondering what happened."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Hawai‘i’s"}]

What’s happened is simple: Since statehood, Hawai‘i’s people have steadily split into two camps, those who work for government and everybody else. The appeal of Government Hawai‘i is the security and benefits — lifelong employment, if you want it, totally protected from market forces and competition, with solid benefits like healthcare and retirement, paid for by the rest of us in Real Hawai‘i.

If you think the security and the bennies of government jobs are a trade-off to compensate for low pay, guess again. Government Hawai‘i earns more than Real Hawai‘i.

The annual average wage of a non-government job in Hawai‘i is 

 from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The average annual wage in state government? 

What does Real Hawai‘i get in return? One of the highest tax burdens in America for one thing, and then very little to brag about in high-quality government service. (

I would say that that two Hawai‘i’s have hardened into opposing camps, except that’s not exactly true. Government Hawai‘i drives an Us vs Them dynamic, that was never clearer to me than it was during Covid, when Government Hawai‘i showed us that it will shut the rest of down for years at a time given the slightest opportunity. It will also protect itself first, at the expense of the public is supposedly serves, as we see in the lingering effects of the schools closing for so long. That policy made no one safer, but it did mess up the kids. (And have you noticed ever since then, Government Hawai‘i takes the day off for even bad weather like it never did before, while the rest of us soldier on with our work?)

Out here in Real Hawai‘i, we grumble but otherwise settle for apathy (i.e., low voter turnout) or outright flight to states where it feels like a good life is more possible. I don’t know who Government Hawai‘i is going to tax when the last of us moves to Vegas.

With all that in mind, term limits on government service seem like the one revolution we haven’t tried, haven’t even discussed, but should. Say 10, 15 years max, total lifetime employment in government at any level. We want people to stay long enough to learn the ropes and finish things they’ve started, not so long that they just settle in and kill time until retirement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The upsides:"}]

Breaks up all the pockets of resistance to change. Turnover would occur systemwide, one person at a time, as they age out. Reformers at the top have a chance building support in the workforce among newer staff.

[{"type":"text","text":"Brings in new people and new ideas in government at every level."}]

Opens up more opportunities for Government Hawai‘i and Real Hawai‘i to trade places and live in each other’s worlds. This may be the biggest upside — more of us would get a chance to feel like we had a chance to change the system from the inside and deliver the service we’ve always wanted, while more of them would be forced to realize that Real Hawai‘i is something more than subjects to be ruled and tax cows to be milked.

Forces a revolution in how government hires. Using Mayor Blangiardi again as an example, he’s talked about how it took people six months on average to get hired by the City & County of Honolulu when he assumed office. 

, he had cut that down to three months. Compared to the speed at which the private sector can hire, that’s still an eternity, and that would have to change immediately to deal with the kind of turnover we need.

(To be fair, government is not alone on this front. In my decade at Pacific Business News, I heard executives at Hawai‘i’s larger companies talk endlessly about a labor shortage. At the same time, I knew plenty of talented people who could not land great jobs. Something is seriously broken in the hiring process, and I suspect HR, especially using automated keyword-based filters on resumes, is to blame. Make Direct Hiring by Managers Great Again!)

Loss of expertise, I suppose, but we’ve seen what the accumulated expertise gets us: A chief elections officer who thought a lauhala basket suited the dignity of a Hawai‘i electoral tie-breaker and ended getting his office sued — successfully — and 

. Scott Nago has worked at the Office of Election for nearly 26 years, almost 17 of those years as its chief election officer. As Civil Beat 

, it’s just about the only place he has ever worked in his life. Well, in the private sector, you can lose your job for bungling things so badly you get sued. Under my plan, the private sector is where he would’ve been sent years ago. Had someone else, perhaps with a wider range of life experience, been at the helm, maybe that person would've made better decisions.

[{"type":"text","text":"So, OK, there are no downsides."}]

Term limits on government service. If you like this idea, spread the word. We’d be moving a mountain to make it happen. But that’s got to be better than carrying the mountain of Government Hawai‘i on our shoulders forever.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

Term limits i Stock 517737402 16x9

People take time out of their lives to participate in the democratic process by testifying before committee hearings. Too often, the committee isn't there.

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Pipikaula Corner: Invisible Legislators

It's not getting much media attention, but the private diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been published online by Sen. Rand Paul in advance of his hearings this week into Fauci and Covid-19. What they reveal across thousands of pages is man in love with the adulation he received, who privately knew that many of things he said publicly about the pandemic were wild exaggerations.

Getty Images 2155919948

Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms</title>

It's an election year, and some people are running on the popular idea that legislators and Congress should have term limits to prevent lifers from working the system. ASD Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier argues this is a great idea, with the wrong target. What if it's actually the government workforce itself that needs a term limit?

Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Hawai‘i History

 in Civil Beat this week about the tune of “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī.” He learned that the melody served the British and the Germans, and perhaps the French, before it reached Honolulu. He felt some angst about it.

I can’t share the angst. A tune is like a coin. It passes through many hands and is no worse for the trip.

Words are different. Anthem lyrics are where a nation says what it means, and the words of "Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī" pushed out other words. Olin mentions the older anthem twice and moves on. But it’s worth more than a moment. The king’s sister wrote it, and it is the better song.

On Feb. 20, 1875, King Kalākaua stood in Kawaiahaʻo Church, five days home from a trip to America. His 

 was read in Hawaiian and in English. He told his people that idleness had thinned the nation since the days of Kamehameha. The cure, he said, was “material and social progress.” He wanted enough of it that the powerful governments then friendly to Hawaiʻi would think the kingdom worth keeping. The king placed the nation’s safety in its own industry and in the favor of stronger nations.

Then the choir rose and sang the national song, written by Princess Liliʻuokalani nine years before. It places the nation’s safety in the care of God.

Liliʻuokalani wrote the song in 1866 because Kamehameha V wanted a national air of Hawaiʻi’s own in place of “God Save the Queen.” Her 

 is a prayer to the Almighty Father. The most powerful man in the Islands appears in his own anthem as someone who needs looking after.

The English translation sings well, though it hides some of what the Hawaiian chorus says.

We recognize these words from our state motto: 

, commonly translated as “the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.”

That motto was spoken by Kamehameha III in 1843 after the Paulet affair. But Liliʻuokalani turns it from a declaration into a petition.

, in thy enduring righteousness. May the life of the land endure through thy everlasting righteousness. The motto never says whose righteousness it means, but Liliʻuokalani’s chorus does.

Liliʻuokalani’s anthem looks to God for every blessing on the nation. The first constitution, in 1840, said the same in prose: “God must be our aid, for it is His province alone to give perfect protection and prosperity.”

By the time she wrote, that sentence was gone from the law. The constitutions of 1852 and 1864 spoke of a God who gives men their rights and may be freely worshipped. That is good law, but it is not a confession. So for 10 years Liliʻuokalani’s anthem carried the faith that the constitution had dropped. At the opening of a legislature or on the birthday of a king, the kingdom stood and told God that its hope was all in him. It was the last place where the nation still said so with one voice.

Kalākaua wrote his own words in 1874. They were first sung at Kawaiahaʻo on his birthday, the day before he sailed for America. The tune was one the royal bandmaster had arranged two years earlier as a hymn to Kamehameha. For more than a year the kingdom had two songs. In 1876 the king kept 

The reasons for Kalākaua invoking Kamehameha are not hard to find. The legislature had elected him over a beloved queen, and a riot followed. He was not of Kamehameha’s line, and everyone knew it.

A shaky throne wants a song that ties it to something solid, and Kalākaua reached for the great king. But Kamehameha died before the first missionaries landed. He kept the kapu to the end, with Puʻukoholā heiau dedicated with human sacrifice. Kamehameha was a great king, but he is an odd father for a Christian nation to sing to.

Kalākaua’s mele is a different creed from his sister’s. Her song speaks to God about the king. His speaks to the people about the king, and God is not addressed at all. Hers gives the name Father to the Almighty, and his gives it to Kamehameha. She asks for peace from God. The only defense his song names is the spear. The psalmist cautioned against relying on arms for defense: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”

With the old song went the last public words that rested the nation on God. They went at the king’s whim, in favor of his own verses. 

But spears could not defend that king. Eleven years later he signed a constitution at the point of other men’s bayonets. Six years after that the throne fell, and no spear was strong enough to defend it. His sister, a prisoner in her own palace, wrote another hymn, the “Queen’s Prayer.” She asked again for peace from God.

Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī is still sung at ball games and graduations, and with special feeling at sovereignty rallies. Most of us learned it before we could ask what its lyrics said, or what they replaced.

But “He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi” is the better song, and Liliʻuokalani’s anthem is still worth hearing.

Liliuokalani i Stock 1701031086 16x9

<title>"Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī" lyrics and history: The Liliʻuokalani anthem that Kalākaua replaced</title>

For 10 years the Hawaiian Kingdom stood and sang a prayer written by the future queen. Then her brother wrote his own song. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa on the words “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī” replaced.

"Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī" lyrics and history: The Liliʻuokalani anthem that Kalākaua replaced

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

This 30-story building that rises above Bishop Street is First Hawaiian Center, the corporate home of First Hawaiian Bank and other high-end professional offices. Its dual-toned facade, meant to reflect the ocean on one side and echo the mountains on the other, sits behind an open plaza, creating a sense of space in Honolulu’s dense financial district. A replacement for earlier structures, the building’s design blends commerce and cultural presence, including rotating art exhibits in its lobby.

Before this modern tower, the block looked very different. The earlier buildings, a 1962, 18-story bank tower considered Hawaii’s first modern skyscraper, and the 1925 S.M. Damon Building, symbolized financial growth and the progress of Honolulu.

The history goes back further. Just after the turn of the century, Honolulu had three high-class hotels, the Hawaiian Hotel on Hotel Street, the Moana Hotel in Waikīkī, and the Arlington Hotel on King Street. At this time, Bishop Street did not yet exist.

The Arlington Hotel was later dismantled, and the roads reconfigured. Bishop Street was built across the large property, cutting in half what had previously been part of a private estate. But the Arlington had not always been a hotel. It began as Haleʻākalā, the coral-block home of high chief Abner Pākī.

Built in the mid-1800s, Haleʻākalā was the residence of Pākī, his wife Kōnia, their daughter, Bernice Pauahi, and their hanai (adopted) daughter, Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha, who later became Queen Liliʻuokalani. In those days, this part of Honolulu was not yet a commercial center. Instead, the area held landscaped yards, long driveways, and the early outlines of what would eventually become downtown’s street network.

Queen Lili‘uokalani described the place as “one of the most beautiful and central of the mansions in Honolulu.”

Lili‘uokalani and John Dominis were married at Haleʻākalā, and the estate was a gathering place for high society in Hawai‘i. The son of Princess Ruth Ke‘elikolani was baptised there in 1863, and Duke Kahanamoku was born there in 1890.

Just a few years later, on January 16, 1893, Haleʻākalā, the property at which Princess Pauahi and Queen Lili‘uokalani were raised, became ‘Camp Boston.’ This was the headquarters for the USS Boston’s landing force as 162 sailors and Marines came ashore and stood ready to support the American businessmen during the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy on January 17, 1893.

The home served as a boarding house for a time before operating as the Arlington Hotel. But its history lingered in the heart of Hawai‘i’s Queen as she lamented the loss of the property after it was willed to Pauahi’s husband, Charles Reed Bishop.

“This wish of my heart was not gratified,” she wrote, “And at the present day strangers stroll through the grounds or lounge on the piazzas of that home once so dear to me.”

Even earlier than Haleʻākalā, the land belonged to the district known as Kou, in the heart of early Honolulu. On the Diamond Head half of this block stood Kauanono‘ula, a loku site, where men and women of every kind gathered in the evenings to enjoy themselves. Some of the amusements indulged in there were hula, chants, the recitation of narratives in chant form, and the telling of legends. Such places were known from the distant past, and it wasn’t just the living that gathered there. Ghosts and spirits of all kinds, including the legendary night marchers, are said to visit this space. Kauanono‘ula means “the dark red rain.”

W.D. Westervelt confirms this gathering spot for wailua, or ghosts, in his book 

, and adds that the ghosts in these places made night a source of dread for all people. Several employees who work in this building say it is indeed haunted, and nights when they have to work late are especially creepy. 

About 10 years ago, I was asked by a law firm on one of the upper floors to share ghost stories as part of their team-building day. The gathering carried on the tradition of storytelling at this site, and the people in attendance were very affable and receptive to what I had to share. Although I could feel a literal “buzz” in the air, no one else seemed to notice. 

I already knew the history of this place. Stories of otherworldly encounters with ancient Hawaiian spirits in several Downtown buildings have circulated for years. So I tried to ignore the strange feeling that settled over me. However, I was still quite surprised to learn that there might be a night marcher procession passing through the firm’s offices.

A series of security videos showed an unusual column of mist that appeared at the outer wall, facing mauka, or toward the mountains. It drifted through the lobby and office partitions, and seemed to flow out through the makai (ocean facing) wall at the other end. For a while, no one had a clear idea of what they were looking at until the Hawaiian woman who cleaned the office after hours saw the videos.

Without hesitation, the woman nodded and said, “Oh yeah, huaka‘i pō. Night marchers.”

Looking back, perhaps nothing about that moment should have surprised any of us. This land has borne witness to royalty, celebration, progress, upheaval, and sorrow, and those memories do not simply vanish beneath the concrete and glass. Whether one accepts the explanation of the night marchers or views the strange mist as a trick of light, the effect remains the same: the past continues to move through the present.

The First Hawaiian Center stands today as a symbol of progress and commerce, yet beneath its polished floors rests an older story that refuses to fade. Long before office buildings and parking lots, people gathered on this ground to chant, to dance, to remember. And if the accounts of those security cameras are to be believed, they may still be gathering here.

First Hawaiian Center

<title>Huaka‘i Pō at First Hawaiian Center</title>

First Hawaiian Center remains the tallest building in Downtown Honolulu. The property on which is stands is home to an amazing — and sometimes frightening — history. Long before there was a bank, a house stood on the property, known as Haleʻākalā. Bernice Pauahi lived there, as did the future Queen Liliʻuokalani. Duke Kahanamoku was born there. And some say Huaka‘i Pō, the Night Marchers, still make their presence known there.

Daily Smile: Thursday, February 5, 2026

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Daily Smile: Thursday, February 5, 2026

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