Thanksgiving Day, Nagisa Style!

Nagisa is a visiting scholar at the University of Hawaii. She completed an English intensive course at Palms earlier this year and continues to improve her English by taking elective classes whenever she can. She's a regular visitor to the school and a very welcome and friendly addition to the ohana. Her first thanksgiving in America inspired her to write the following:

Thanksgiving Day is a very famous national holiday celebrated primarily in America and Canada as a day to give thanks for the blessing of the harvest.  This was my first thanksgiving, and I was invited to attend two different celebrations.

First, I joined a "pre-thanksgiving" dinner at Govinda's Vegetarian Buffet on November 22nd. This event was organized by the vegetarian society of Hawaii, and I decided to join because I am very interested in the relationship between food and mental health. There was a lot of healthy, peaceful, and delicious food; their “Tofu Turkey”, something I had never seen before, especially surprised me. Since the vegetarian population in Japan is smaller than in America, it was interesting for me to see and experience so many unfamiliar ingredients and shops in Hawaii.

On Thanksgiving Day, I spent an enjoyable morning playing the ukulele with my friends. The person sitting next to me is interested in opera, and he has a beautiful voice. I love his voice! While singing, a beautiful bird flew towards us and joined in. Afterwards, a Chinese friend of mine invited me to thanksgiving dinner at her house, where we ate delicious Chinese food and turkey. The turkey was very big -- almost 12 pounds! We had a great time. At first, I wanted to post a picture I had taken of the whole turkey, but then I remembered my beautiful ukulele singing bird and felt sorry for the turkey.

My first thanksgiving in America was a lovely and wonderful day!