 I'm Marcia Joyner and today is flag day so I'm wearing my flag and welcome, welcome to navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices for the end of life and to assist people to talk about their wishes. It's time to transform our culture so that we begin to talk about these issues, to have conversations about your wishes, your desires, your options, your choices. And today we are going to talk to a dear friend of mine, a person I have known for, okay, more years than we can count. Stop going to. Jimmy Toriyama, as most of you know, he has been a part of the community for forever. Yeah, long time. Long time. Welcome Jimmy. Thank you. I met Jimmy when he was with the Democratic Party. When it was 21. When we were 21. Yes, when we were 21. Yes. And he has worked for, we had the best time when he was chair of Oahu County. And we did, speaking of navigating the journey, what did we do? We did a book, remember? We gave books, brand new books to all the children in schools that would other not was get books and they would new books. And the legislator from that district had to go and sit and read to the children. You remember, Jimmy? That's wonderful. It was. It was one of the best things I've ever done. Thank you, Jimmy. We did a lot of good things back then. We did a lot of good things. And most people don't think of the Democrats that way, but we did a lot of good stuff. But in line with navigating the journey, you are the creator, founder, president. What's the right title? Mindful Hawaii. Tell us, what is Mindful Hawaii? Mindful Hawaii was created, started, at least the idea was germinated from about four years ago. And it's been steadily growing. And Mindful Hawaii today is an organization that tries to grow the mindfulness in our communities and encourage individuals to get involved in mindfulness practice. And we'd like to move mindfulness practices into organizations and communities and, of course, society in general. Because we believe fundamentally that when more and more people start meditating, there will be a shift in the way we are as a society. So living mindful or mindful living is? Mindfulness is actually a state of being, which is actually developing a capacity to be present in the moment, to live in the moment and to be actually living in the moment uncritically, which is unjudgmentally. And I think when we begin to arrive at that level of presence, if you will, I think we become more empathetic and more compassionate. And we become more open to other people, including yourself, by the way, which all of us are not aware of the dynamic that goes on inside of ourselves, our inner journey. And I think mindfulness helps us to be in touch with that journey. So we become more aware of who we are as an individual. And so how long have you been doing here in Hawaii? Mindfulness? Mindfulness. Your organization here. My organization has been around since three years ago at least, at least three or four years ago. And so as part of the organization, do you teach meditation? I'm glad you asked that question. If I could say, OK, I want to be a member, what will happen? Because we encourage people to get into the practice, which is really mindfulness practice, which is meditation at its core. We don't teach meditation, per se, although we bring in different people who teach different styles of meditation to kind of let our community know what goes on in terms of the meditation world. But we also recommend places where they can visit and maybe get involved in and start the practice. And by the way, I am a believer that although meditation practices are a very efficient, effective way of getting in touch with yourself, I also think there are other ways in which you can do that simply by sitting quietly every day and drawing that space with yourself. Or just taking a walk in the park in the quiet and the peace and the beauty of the day and soaking all of that in. And that will somehow create a space within you, which I call that mindfulness space, if you will. But we are an organization that's not in there for teaching mindfulness, per se. What we do is we try to organize the community so that we begin to organize and leverage the many people who are actually involved in mindfulness practices today into a kind of movement, if you will, that will impact our Hawaii in a better and greater way. Now I've heard some time ago that there was a legislator, congressman, who wrote a book on mindfulness. Tim Ryan. What's his name? Tim Ryan. Tim Ryan. Is he still in Congress? Yes. He is currently serving in Congress. And the latest rumor that I heard is that he may be running for governor in Ohio. Ohio? Yeah. I don't know, but I wish he would stay in Congress as well. Oh, we need him. We need him there. So he was saying about in the schools. He thought that starting in the schools were children for bullying, for playground, for all of those things. And he had great success. Naturally, by the time they show it on television, you've had success. His mindfulness advocate in Congress, if you will, and he has done a lot to generate programs throughout the country, of course in Ohio as well, in education, in public safety areas like police, TSA-type employees, for example. They need a fair stressful. So mindfulness practice can help them to de-stress, decompress, if you will. So the response to the public is much better. Now, talking about Tim Ryan, you know that he wrote that book, right? Yes. It's called Mind Formation. And he is now in demand all over the place where people want him. So we want to bring him to Hawaii as well. Oh, great. I've been in touch with his office and we've been having discussions. But I noticed that since the outcome of the presidential election, he has... And in the dynamics in the House of Representatives, he has become a very important person there. And he's been speaking all over the place. Well, I'm sure... Especially in the Midwest. Today with the shooting of the congressional people today, I'm sure he's in demand. Yes, he is. Because they've got to calm this down. And, well, that was just so horrible this morning. But anyway, let's get back to Hawaii. So in the schools, mindfulness in the schools. Well, Mindful Hawaii has, for example, a... Well, in order to move mindfulness into various sectors of our Hawaii, we have organized or beginning to organize committees that work in these sectors. And one of them is an education committee. So when we look at mindfulness in education, it's a growing proposition. There's a lot of schools that are now interested in doing this alongside what they call habits of mind schools, which is also very powerful and has, I think, at its base in mindfulness practice. Oh, there you are. Oh, is that me? That's you. So I have learned that late-yarding school is a completely mindful school. And St. Andrew's Priory is another one that's also... And Punohou and Yolani have classes that use mindfulness practice. A public school system, there are mind... For example, Waikiki Elementary School. They're a well-known school and they're habits of mind school. And that movement is also growing. With the new superintendent, and she comes from the mainland and where they do all kind of interesting things, do you think it will make a difference? In terms of... Mindfulness and throughout the system, as opposed to just one school saying, I can do it, do you think that having a new superintendent... I think for her, she really wants to ride the wave of something that could make a big difference in the school system. I think she should look very seriously at promoting mindfulness throughout the school system. I say promoting because I don't want to say mandate because once you get it, that's a surefire way to make it not happen. But I think it would be a good thing because the research has been shown, has been showing that school classes throughout the country that have been involved in mindfulness practice have better classroom climates. And then the school climate too is influenced by the fact that their students are more calm, less stressed and more involved in their own lives in relationship to school. And I think that's a very positive thing. I mean, it's not something that you can measure like 2 plus 2 equals 4. It's just that it's there and it contributes to the well-being of the students and the community. We have to go to a break. But when we come back, let's talk about what I really want to talk about, the red dirt storytelling. It sounds like fun to me. Red dirt storytelling. We'll go to a break and we'll be right back. We all play a role in keeping our community safe. Every day we move in and out of each other's busy lives. It's easy to take for granted all the little moments that make up our everyday. Some are good, others not so much. But that's life. It's when something doesn't seem quite right that it's time to pay attention. Because only you know what's not supposed to be in your everyday. So protect your everyday. If you see something suspicious, say something to local authorities. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, Hawaii's leading digital media platform for civic engagement, raising public awareness on tech, energy, diversification, and globalism. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Hey, we're back. And it's flag day and so I'm wearing my flag. For those of you that... Anyway, forget it. Nice on you. Yes, Jimmy Toriyama is a dear, dear friend. And he is a leader in the Okinawan community. Was. He didn't stop being Okinawan, did he? No, wow. Okay, so you're a little... It's a long story. So some time ago you did a Red Dirt Storytelling Festival. The name is intriguing. Tell me about the Red Dirt Storytelling. I'd be happy to. Well, before I talk about the name, before we got to Red Dirt Storytelling Festival, we did small storytelling sessions throughout our community because I believe when I was chairing the cultural committee there, I believe that storytelling was a wonderful way to ignite the imaginations of people about their culture. So we started doing that activity. And then a friend of mine, I mean, you know him too, Go Arakawa of the Arakawa Story fame, came in and we had this conversation, we were talking, starring. And he said, oh yeah, you know, there's a whole lot of stories from way back when, you know. And he says, country days. And then finally it dawn on us that maybe we need to do a festival of some kind. So we created this thing called the Red Dirt Festival because it was in Waipahu. Then we were in. The Red Dirt. Red Dirt. And so we called the Red Dirt Festival and we drew to the festival, I guess what they call concert level storytellers. The storytellers, you can see it tell stories to really large groups of people. So we had the festival, we had storytellers that could do the storytelling. And we talked about stories of old Hawaii, stories of modern Hawaii, stories that involve other cultures, Celtic cultures, for example. You know, a guy came in, he played the harp and he told stories. It was just a beautiful one. So we had this for two nights, I remember one or two nights. But it was such a wonderful event. And people felt so thrilled just being there listening to the story. And then there were some obakis stories as they used to call them. Of course. You can't tell without obakis stories. Yeah, you gotta have obakis stories. So we had obakis stories and people were just like, wow, this is something. And then I think what happened, one of the results that came out of that was that the Coachell Center started offering workshops on how to be a storyteller. People used to write their own stories and that kind of thing. But it was aimed at developing stories around their experience with the culture. So that way the imaginations would come alive and they would tell each other and the interests would develop and increase. So I think that that mindful, that storytelling festival was such an important thing that happened back then. I don't know what's happening now because I haven't been around. For anybody that is not old enough to have experienced our power's general story. That was an experience and it's too bad that it's gone. That store on Waipahu Deepa Road had every kind of gadget known to mankind. And some that I didn't know about is the only place you could go and find that little whistle that goes on the top of the pressure cooker. Because you know before if you lost it you had to go buy a new thing. They had everything and it was such an experience. And they knew where everything was. Hundreds, thousands of little things. So it was a real experience just being part of that. And it's kind of sad that all of that's gone. It's too bad that paces or stores like our colors with that kind of personality It's not around anymore, you know. But there are pookers, you know, you go around and you talk to people and you see interesting things happening through. So tell us a little bit more about the Okinawan community. Well I think it's very, it's thriving. Oh it is. With the governor. Well it goes way beyond. No I'm saying that now that we have a governor people are aware that there is an Okinawan community. Well he's the pride and joy of the community obviously. But the Okinawan community is doing very well. I think it broke ground on a shopping complex that they're going to build right next to the cultural center. Where is that? That's in Okeshi in Waipio. Waipio? Yeah. So it's a beautiful piece of property. And when it's fully developed it will be a cultural store. I think there will be some Okinawan retail stores I think over there. And some eateries and that kind of stuff I think. Yeah, again real quick. Most people don't know this. The Americans gave the island of Okinawan to the Japanese because they didn't know that there was a difference in the culture. The Americans. And so we have people today that still don't. Give us a really short, the difference in the Okinawan community and mainland Japan culture. I mean here people marry and get all mixed up. Yeah, I'd be happy to. I mean I'm not an expert on that. But one of the fundamental differences is that Okinawa was a place by itself. It's separate, isolated. And it grew and developed its own culture, unique culture. Even the language is different. And so they were very proud of who they were. And when the Japanese samurai, the Shogunate, began to invade Okinawa and started to dominate it. They were very not happy about it at all. And some of that feeling still persists today actually. And in Fekipiro Okinawa you see a lot of sentiments that says, well, why are we connected? And one of the targets is the military bases today, I think. Oh, they've been trying to get rid of those for what, 15, 20 years now? You should see the land that they control. Oh, that's everywhere. It's great. Just like here, the land that they control, yeah. It's like Hawaii, really, when you think about it. But here, when they came into Hawaii during the plantation days, did they come with the Japanese or was that a separate? No, a separate. They weren't granted immigration status for a long, long time. And it was a fellow by the name of Toyama Kyuzo, as a matter of fact, a relation who went to Tokyo and he convinced the government to allow Okinawans to immigrate to different parts of the world. And once that was approved, the flood gates were opened because economically it was not easy living back then. So they moved out and many of them came to Hawaii. But actually, when I was doing a story, I wrote an article about the Higa family and when they immigrated from Okinawa, one of the things that they talked about was that Okinawa wasn't granted immigration status simply because the Japanese government felt that they weren't proper enough to represent them in the world. And I was thinking to myself, wow, that's pretty terrible. But eventually they overcame that and a lot of the feelings that was engendered back then kind of carried forth to Hawaii. But we have kind of blended very well. Oh yeah, because I was reading that even on the plantation they had Okinawan villages and Japanese villages. Oh yes. Yes. That they were separate. And it was only the Americans that couldn't tell the difference. Well, that's their problem. But the plantation actually was a great integrator of cultures. And in fact, I'm going to our big island reunion come September and I will be doing a little keynote address there. And I will be talking about the plantation being a tremendous force for integration. And I think it's kind of like the foundation for a low spirit causing the melding of all that. And that language that came, a pigeon that came out of all of those people trying to communicate with each other. Because there was this interaction, if there was no interaction there was no need to talk pigeon, right? So I think all of those kinds of things played into what we are today. You know, in the lowest state. I think it was just absolutely wonderful to... Now I've read all kind of different things but the ever plantation from what I've read was wonderful in that they provided schools, hospitals, medical care, everything including a library for all of their workers. It wasn't slave labor. Yeah, it was hard work but they still provided for their people. It was paternalistic. They cared for everybody. But because they wanted to ensure that there were concentrations of labor within areas that they needed them, you know, ever. Like at the plantation, the grow by growing sugarcane as well as refining it, the harvesting and refining it. So, you know, to ensure that labor forces there, they had to do all those kinds of things. But the outgrowth of that is that the benefit of that was that people integrated. They came together. They married each other. They married each other. They played with each other. They shared each other's food. To me, that's the beauty of living here is how every culture is willing to share with each other. Now, you said you're going in September. Yes. Will you come back and tell us all about it when you get back after September? Actually, he's going to be in Las Vegas. You don't want to hear about Las Vegas. I want you to do the storytelling. Of course I do. Of course. Well, let's talk about it back when he comes. When you come back. Okay. Thank you, Jimmy. It's been a pleasure spending this time with you. And we really look forward to you coming back and telling us all about it. I had a lot of fun this morning. Thank you, Marsha. Thank you. Aloha, and we'll see you next week.