At the annual Nishihara and Gaza club picnic, a group of octogenarians hover over a pile of scattered vegetables lying in the grass. As the whistle blows, they make a slow dash to pick up as many carrots, onions and bittermelon as their hearts’ desire — as long as they can carry it.
The veggie circle at Ala Moana Beach Park in Honolulu is a beloved tradition of the picnic. The day is filled with quirky games like this one for dozens of club families. Earlier, kids ran across the tiny coned part of the park with golf balls on spoons and raced a large empty tin can with a cane.
“ They made up a lot of games,” Clifford Goya, a member of the Nishihara Chojin-Kai, recalled. “Before they had carpentry. Games where you had to pound the nails in wood. It evolved [but] some things stayed the same.”
A tradition started by Issei
While these clubs are best known in their community for the summer picnics, they weren’t founded on games and prizes…