(Instrumental music) Kalaʻi Miller: Aloha, I’m Kalaʻi   Miller.

The obon or bon festival  is a traditional Japanese Buddhist   celebration that honors and remembers  those who have passed.

In Hawaiʻi,   it’s a part of our cultural tapestry.

Now besides  music and dancing, there is also the food.

And   here in Hanapēpē, the Kauaʻi Soto Zen Temple,  is the original home of a very popular sandwich.

Yeah Kalaʻi, it’s out of this world.

(Bon dance music) Gerald Hirata / Kauaʻi Soto Zen Temple President: On Kauaʻi a   flying saucer is the most popular festival food  item.

And last year we sold over 4,000 of them.

(Bon dance music) Gerald Hirata: Aloha.

My name   is Gerald Hirata, I'm the president  of the Kauaʻi Soto Zen Temple.

So,   I'd like to welcome you all to Kauaʻi but I  want to say the west side of Kauaʻi, Hanapēpē.

(instrumental music) Basically, a flying saucer is a festival food  item.

How it originated is way back in the mid   50s.

From the research that I've done, there was a  bunch of ʻEleʻele School people camping in Kōkeʻe.

So, they were sitting around the fire.

They were  making this kind of discussion and they said,   Yeah, what would that hamburger be like  if you had to grill it over the campfire?

And that's how it got started.

The flying saucer lady is Mrs. Sueko Tanigawa  who was the cafeteria manager of ʻEleʻele School.

If you speak to anyone who went to ʻEleʻele  Elementary School, they will rave about the   cafeteria food.

I mean, it was the best food  and you must remember that many of us came from   plantation homes and backgrounds.

And when we went  to ʻEleʻele School, we had a good meal.

And she   sought to it that we did because she was actually  part of and grew up in a plantation community.

And she talked about things  with Mrs. Sakiko Okihara,   who was the cafeteria manager of  Waimea High School.

So those two   were probably collaborating and chatting and  what should this flying saucer sort of be like?

What they decided to do was that this whole idea  of getting the hamburger, they figured that out.

The taste.

What you need to put in it.

And how  do you need to put it into the pie iron to grill   it.

So, it was sort of like a sloppy joe kind  of dish that you do but not really sloppy joe,   the taste is quite different.

They eventually  came up with the name flying saucer because   of the shape.

And you will see that the pie  irons are really shaped like a flying saucer Alfred Darling / Kauaʻi Soto Zen Temple Volunteer: Today we're going to show you how we make our   flying saucers for our obon dance.

First, they  put the butter on it and it's only on one side and   pre softened butter is actually the best so that  we can spread it without breaking the bread up.

Gerald Hirata: I think at that time the women were willing   to share their recipe.

I don't think it was any  big secret or so.

If you would come to a bon   dance on the west side of Kauaʻi all the flying  saucers on all of the temples would taste alike.

You know, and maybe one year I was at Kapaʻa,  and I tasted their flying saucer.

And I said,   I don't know, it just doesn't taste like the ones  on the west side.

So, there are some variations.

Alfred Darling: The bread is put together   with the butter sides like this as opposed to on  the outside.

Then Blanche is going to come over   and she's going to put a scoop of the meat in  the middle with a little tiny slice of cheese.

Then it goes over to here on top of the flying  saucer holder and the butter side goes outside.

Gerald Hirata: But the interesting   thing about the recipe that was handed down from  Mrs. Tanigawa was that when we had a younger cook,   who was in charge of our temple's kitchen, she  said I cannot do flying saucers in small batches,   because the size of the recipe was for  about 20 to 30 pounds of ground beef.

And then the measurements for the salt,  the sugar, the ketchup was in bowls.

And it was you know, not really a bowl but  in Japanese you have the chawan the rice,   the rice bowl that you eat your rice.

So, the  recipe was in chawan, four chawans of salt or   pepper, and this way.

So, she could never  just do a family recipe she could only do   large recipes for our festivals.

But eventually,  you know, some people like the Sakiko Okihara,   their daughters or their families or relations  would figure out a home recipe.

And it went out   in the cookbooks into the community.

But the main  main recipe, I haven't seen the original but we   sort of keep it yeah to ourselves.

Alfred Darling:  And then Roy will take it and he'll cut the edges  out to make it the saucer shape.

Take off all the   crust and then it goes on to burner.

So, it's  like about 30 seconds on one side and you'll   see it.

So, heat it up and start getting it going  and it's a process.

And then turn it for another   30 seconds and that starts the bread heating up  and the ingredients inside and then then after   that it'll be like a minute and a half but you  got to keep turning it so it doesn't get burnt.

Gerald Hirata: You really have   to have people skilled in doing what you need to   do to make the flying saucers because the  very labor-intensive food item to prepare.

Alfred Darling: Sometimes the top   will stick to it you know very rarely, but that's  why the timing of this is important to go through   and pay attention.

So, you can see that there's  two circles, the inner circles.

When you see all   the circles on your flying saucer, it's ready.

They’re very fragile, but they are very crispy.

Dana Lagmay / Hanapēpē Resident: Aloha, everyone.

I'm Dana Lagmay, born and raised   in Hanapēpē since 1944.

And so, ever since I've  lived here, I can remember eating flying saucers   and malasadas at the same event, usually here at  the bon dance or at some kind of church, carnival.

If you like pancake, it's got that pancake  texture.

And if you like spaghetti or lasagna,   it's got that taste in it.

And of course,   it's nice and soft and cheese, right?

You just kind of want to bite into it,   like when you bite a baby.

You just want  to keep biting it.

That's what it's like.

Sylvia Sugimoto / Honolulu Resident: We came over just to eat your flying   saucers because we did it once several  years ago, and we'll always remember   how fascinating it was, the taste, the  ambiance, Kauaʻi people.

So here we are.

Allegra Kenna Scribner / Kalāheo Resident: Umm, born here on Kauaʻi, fifth generation here   on the southwest side of Kauaʻi.

Every year we go  bon dance and get flying saucer every time.

So,   it's like every year look forward to it and  know exactly what we're gonna have for dinner.

It's one of those things where I think if you're  older and you just bought it from a store,   maybe it wouldn't mean as much, but like, it's  just the taste of family and growing up here,   and the taste of summer, the bon dance, traveling  around and being near my grandma's house,   and everything that you know, bon  dance symbolizes to us as a community.

Gerald Hirata: The thing about a small island   like this with very, very tight communities in  Hawaiʻi, we've really held on to those historical,   cultural and folk religious traditions.

We don't realize that even what we do   on our daily lives, actually is important, you  know, like, having our festival, ensuring that   we serve our guests who come to the festival,  good food, you know, and taking pride in that.

There's something about putting that  heart and that soul into what you do,   makes it extraordinary.

So  this ordinary little thing   is really quite extraordinary when you think  about the impact it has on the community,   what it has done, and just this kind of fame that  kind of sets Kauaʻi apart from the other islands.

There's something special about the west side  community of Kauaʻi that allows that to happen.

Kalaʻi Miller: Aloha shirts.

They’ve   long been a symbol of island life, but  for an Oʻahu man they’ve become his life.

For more than 40 years, he’s been collecting  aloha shirt, turning his eye for interesting   pieces into a business that’s attracted  celebrities, tourists and locals alike.

(instrumental music) David Bailey: My name is David Bailey.

I'm the founder and   co-owner with my wife, Bailey's Antiques and Aloha  Shirts.

And we've been in business since 1980.

My method is each time I sell a  shirt, I buy two.

So, at this point,   we have 15,000 shirts here and  another 4,000 at home.

(Chuckles) The way this is organized, we have the new  shirts starting at 8x and everything gets   smaller and smaller as you go that way.

Above us, we've got the shirts that were   made in the 40s or the 50s.

And then this  rack here is shirts from the 60s and 70s.

A lot of people outgrow their shirts, or they  have their grand-dad shirts and nobody wants   them.

And they can't identify the fact that  they're worth a lot of money.

And in fact,   investing in these shirts has proven  to be at least better than the stocks   I've seem to invest in, which all seem  to go down.

But that's that's just me.

I look at aloha shirts as wearable art.

The late  40s, and 50s, that's considered the golden age   of the wearable art.

And all the shirts we have  hanging from the ceiling are from that period,   although we do have a shirt back here with  the Duke Kahanamoku pro swimmer label,   which was actually designed by him, and made by  him in the 30s.

That's the oldest shirt we have   here.

We're actually asking $900 for this,  if you can get a close up of this.

It says,   designed by Duke Kahanamoku.

Made in the Hawaiian Islands.

(instrumental music) This hand painted one right up here.

It's a  very rare label.

I bought it from the widow   of a colonel up at Schofield.

It was hand painted  in circa 1950.

He probably paid maybe $3.00 for   that.

I gave her $500.

Anybody wants to make a  reasonable offer over $5000 I'll take.

I can't   tell you how rare that is.

That's the only almost  the only one I've ever seen outside of books.

But it appears to have never been  worn or possibly worn only once.

Kawaihau of Hawaii originators and  manufacturers of hand painted apparel.

Here's a couple of my favorite label shirts.

This  is extremely complicated Kamehameha shirt from   the Matson line.

You see it has the double  stitching, the horizontal button holes.

It   turns out there's 21 silk screens involved in  this shirt.

This could have been worn during   the 50s by a waiter possibly, or a greeter on the  Matson line itself.

This company started in 1936.

This is a Duke Kahanamoku Champion label  shirt.

A couple of interesting things about   this shirt are that this is in the death scene  at the end of the movie From Here to Eternity,   Montgomery Clift wears this shirt.

And so,  this is another very desirable collector's   shirt because of that movie.

In my opinion and  most collectors, the Kamehameha which is that   Eugene Savage, these ones along here are all  Kamehameha.

They made the best shirts of all.

That other black shirt there that's the  only remaining Musa-Shiya shirt that we   have.

He’s credited with making  the very first aloha shirt back   in 1928 approximately.

This one reads  Musa-Shiya the Shirtmaker Honolulu,   Hawaii with a goofy face on it.

This shirt is from the 1950s It's,   it's the their earlier labels, but any  Musa-Shiya shirt ultra hard to find.

(instrumental   music) This is a picture of Paradise Found shirt  which was inducted into the Smithsonian.

It's called red jungle bird.

And that's  actually our number one best-selling shirt.

Because the original Magnum shows are  still shown in Eastern Europe a lot.

So,   the Europeans want to pretend they're Tom Selleck.

These are all shirts that he wore on the show.

(instrumental music) I'll give you a quick tutorial on how to tell  a real old shirt.

Is that, this seam here,   the armpit seam in the side seam would be what's  called a flat seam or a print seam.

The sewing   machine actually used two needles.

So, they, they  built them to last.

Then the manufacturers by the   70s, for sure, had figured out they could save  money on thread with just one needle.

And so, the   shirt might fall apart in five years instead of 20  years, which meant they could sell another shirt,   so they all switched over.

And another  thing to look for besides the seams,   is the old buttonholes were horizontal.

Starting  in the 60s, they went to vertical button holes.

And they also added a fifth or sixth button where  the older shirts might only have four.

They will   also have an old label.

The desirable labels will  either be made in Hawaiʻi or made in California.

Of these up here the collectible  ones that are really desirable,   they're, they're rayon, but people call  them silky, but they're actually rayon.

(instrumental music) Here's a photo of the luckiest thing  that ever happened to us.

It's my wife,   myself and Anthony Bourdain, about 20 years ago.

It was when he was working for the Discovery   Channel back in about 2003.

And he came in here  and filmed.

And since then, at least a quarter   of the people that find us, find us because  of the video he made.

We survived the George   Bush recession because of that.

I'm not even  sure we'd be in business if he hadn't come in.

Well, let me just show you a picture here.

Jimmy Buffett was came in almost every year.

And he would purchase those back panel shirts.

And in fact, when he performed at Fenway Park,   he was wearing the most expensive shirt we've  ever sold, which is an Art Vogue back panel   with a hula girl on the back.

And he had  good taste.

And he was a really nice guy.

We've had three Academy Award winners.

We had  Nicolas Cage, which was probably the craziest one.

When he came in here and he goes, I'll take  that.

I'll take that.

I'll take that.

I'll   take that.

I'll take that out.

$10,000 in a  minute he spent.

And then he said, Oh yeah,   I want a purple shirt.

I said, come back tomorrow.

And I told him, Well, this one's special from my   closet.

I want $4,000.

He said okay, I'll take  that.

If I'd said $8,000 it wouldn't have made   a difference to him at all.

He was thinking you  can get a deal.

And we learned later he actually   sold some of the shirts for more money because  they had celebrity value, not just vintage value.

I’ve had a lot of serendipity and luck.

But  also, it's something I enjoy.

It's dealing   with wearable art.

And what I don't understand  one of the things I don't understand is, how can   somebody willingly wear a white shirt every day  before they go to work.

To me that’s horrible.

Aloha shirts are a lot of fun to wear.

They're  colorful.

And if you'd like pineapples,   you can get a pineapple shirt.

If you like surfing  there's all kinds of surfing ones and on and on.

If you know you're going to be stuck in a boring  meeting you can wear one with a with pictures of   Waikīkī and stuff and you can go, “I wish there,”  and kind of drift off in a daydream whatever.

But,   it's very big and important to Hawaiʻi.

I mean, there's hundreds if not thousands   of seamstresses here and hundreds of  companies and Hawaiʻi is known around   the world for aloha shirts or Hawaiian  shirts.

And it's something to be proud of.

Kalaʻi Miller: Being a kid.

Playing outside with friends.

It’s a warm  memory for many of us.

But for some keiki,   it’s an experience they rarely get to enjoy, if  ever.

A local nonprofit is trying to change that,   giving kids of all abilities an  opportunity to be part of a team.

Kris Dung / Never Quit Dreaming: Never Quit Dreaming is a local   nonprofit organization.

We were made in  Hawaiʻi for the special needs kids of   Hawaiʻi to just give a sense of normalcy.

We  will offer up to six sports programs per year:   baseball, basketball, golf,  soccer, volleyball and judo.

So today, today's probably one of the  most exciting times of our year.

So,   it is opening day that we call it  to our Firebirds baseball program.

Our sports programs are  tailored to the individual,   and we take them on a journey through  experience.

So today you'll see that,   you know, all these kids will hit the field.

They have personalized jerseys with the name   and a legacy number that they'll continue with  us throughout the lifetime of our program.

We'll   marry them up with a buddy, and the buddy  will work with them throughout the day.

Kodi-Li Alcordo/Volunteer: I like being a buddy because it's a   really good experience to get out and do stuff,  plus too, it helps with my just how I interact   with other people.

So, like teaching them, like  teaching the younger generation is really fun.

Kristin Joy Baguio/ Parent: We joined, Never Quit Dreaming   five years ago.

So, she was the first girl  on the baseball team.

It was very scary.

I   was worried because she's not, she doesn't  run as fast as other kids, but everybody's   understanding of everybody's capabilities.

She loves the goodie bags and the swag bags,   as they would call it, she gets a jersey with  her name on it, her number.

That's the same   since we've started.

There's trading cards that  they've been trading at the end of the season,   that she loves, and it just makes her feel  like she's in a team.

It's a good feeling   to know that she's happy and she's  happy being loved by everybody here.

Jonah Mitchell/ Volunteer: Never Quit Dreaming - it's   always a fun time to come out to the park  and like bond.

And I always like meeting   new people.

My favorite part was throwing  with my partner and getting to know them.

Zander Young/Participant: My favorite part was hitting   the baseball and I like running the bases.

I started paying baseball since I  was eight years old with Never Quit   Dreaming.

Now I've been growing  up to get better at baseball.

Candice Young/Parent: We've been a part of   Never Quit Dreaming since 2018.

Honestly, it's  really changed Zander's life.

I think that this   community that he has here is very special, and  I don't think that we'd find this anywhere else.

Zander has participated in several sports  with Never Quit Dreaming.

He's in baseball,   volleyball, basketball and golf, but baseball is  by far his favorite, and it's primarily due to the   fact of the Mililani Trojan boys and the special  relationships that he has formed with with them.

Kacey Miyasato/Coach & Volunteer: I'm Coach Kacey.

I'm with Mililani High   School baseball.

We are just here because, you  know, Kris called us about maybe eight years ago,   explaining that there wasn't any league that would  accept them.

Coach Mark and I kind of looked at it   where it was an opportunity to help and not just,  you know, give back to the community, but it was   a teaching lesson for our kids as well.

You know,  there's a, there's never an opportunity to teach   them this types of things, how to work with kids,  and, you know, just what it takes to get them into   a better place.

That's kind of why we started it,  not thinking that it was gonna last this long.

Honestly, we thought it was like a couple year  thing and like, you know, you know, whatever.

But   you know, after eight years, now, seven years, I  really can't imagine our program not having this.

What they take away from this with their  patience, understanding, acceptance of this   type of community.

I think it's irreplaceable.

And like, you can't, you can't teach it in the   classroom.

It's just one of those things.

Like,  you know, as crazy sounds like, if they didn't   do this, they may not treat them the same way at  school.

But like, because we started doing this,   I noticed our kids have a bigger heart, have  a bigger understanding of their situation.

You know, I'm hoping that this  experience can just, you know,   help our kids grow.

And for guys like  Zander, have, you know, an extended   family to kind of watch out for them and, you  know, teach them.

You know, how life rolls.

Kris Dung/Never Quit Dreaming: It always makes you feel, yeah, emotional.

I   think, you know, to not only take people who might  not have had a chance, but to bridge those worlds.

Hawaiʻi is such a competitive sports world that  oftentimes these kids get left on the side,   so having this opportunity for them, or a platform  where they're able to just kind of mosey on,   draw in the dirt for an hour if they choose to do  so, it's totally acceptable.

And then from there,   you know, we hope that they find a spark,  whether it's on the baseball field or a   basketball court or judo mat, that just gives  them a further sense of engagement and purpose.

Candice Young/Parent: And I think this is what truly   inclusion is about.

Like many times people think  that inclusion is just sharing the same space,   but it goes so far above and beyond that,  and that's what Never Quit Dreaming has   done for our family and for Zander,  it's actually building connections,   meaningful connections and relationships and a  community that he truly feels he's a part of.

Kris Dung/Never Quit Dreaming: So, I think that's the work that we do,   whether the outside people see it or don't - you  talk to any one of these people here, they see it.

Zander Young/Participant: Never Quit Dreaming is about   never giving up.

So, I try my best,  and never give up on any sports.

Two, three.

Go, hit it.

Good job.

Kalaʻi Miller:  Mahalo for joining us.

It is because of the  generosity of viewers like you, that we get   to share these local stories.

If you’d like to  support our mission of continuous learning, please   visit pbshawaii.org and click the donate button.

For Home is Here, I’m Kalaʻi Miller.

A hui hou.

Gerald Hirata: I wasn't a big fan of flying saucers.

And I think I began to appreciate it more after  I left home and after I moved back to Kauaʻi.

David Bailey: My pipe dream is that   I could go back to when I was a student at UH  and I could have bought these shirts in thrift   stores for under a dollar each.

But I didn't  have a clue back then.

That's life though.

Kris Dung: Most of our   individuals can be non-verbal, but  you'll see it in their body language,   right?

And you'll see today, or  any other activity, the smiles.

So,   if that is the feedback that you get from them,  then, then that's what it is.

It's the smiles.