Residents find comfort, strength in aloha spirit

TOKYO » Seiko Shimizu, a hula dancer who owns hula schools throughout Japan, expected business to drop after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Instead, 40-year-old Shimizu saw her business grow 20 percent as some of the grieving turned to hula for support. While the dance has been popular in Japan since travel overseas was liberalized in the 1960s and Hawaii became a favorite destination, many observers in Japan say hula has morphed recently from exotic entertainment into a spiritual activity that sustains them.

The influence of the Fukushima Hula Girls, who have become a symbol of Japan’s recovery, has contributed to hula’s overall growth, Shimizu said, as has the post-tragedy trend of healing pursuits.

"We’re busier than ever," Shimizu said. "I think people have become more interested in things like hula and yoga that are soothing."

In the aftermath of the country’s carnage, some young women have chosen to follow the lead of the resilient Fukushima Hula Girls.

The 33-member dance troupe kept dancing and spreading Japan’s own brand of aloha despite an 11-month closure at its venue, Spa Resort Hawaiians, which sustained serious damage during one of the many aftershocks of the March 11, 2011, earthquake. The dancers, who were depicted in the 2006 Japa­nese cinematic hit "Hula Girls," mounted a nationwide campaign after the tragedy to improve their own situation and to raise others’ spirits.

"People started saying that we are the symbol of recovery and we were in the spotlight," said former Hula Girls leader Yukari Kato, who along with other displaced dancers performed for months at relief centers throughout Japan.

"Some fans came to every performance," said Masashi Yama­guchi of Spa Resort Hawaiians’ office of sales and planning.

Indeed, Tomoka Takasaki, 24, and Kanae Kurita, 24, love hula so much that only the resort’s temporary closure and their own suffering in Ibaraki kept them from making the monthly pilgrimage to Spa Resort Hawaiians that had become their habit over the years.

"We were also hit by the earthquake. Water stopped and houses collapsed and it was all we could do to make sure that we survived," Takasaki said. "Some people ran out of food."

Despite their difficulties, the young women’s passion for hula ensured that they were part of the hula girls’ audience just three days after the resort’s Feb. 8 reopening. They were back again in the spring.

Sachiko Sato, 35, of Chiba also traveled to the resort recently. Sato said she and her husband brought their family of four to the resort as a gesture of support.

"It’s been featured on TV a lot these days. I thought here I’ve been married to a guy from Fukushima and I’ve never been," Sato said as she watched her 10-year-old daughter, Aya, try on a colorful muumuu at a shop in the resort’s Aloha Town, which resembles Kauai of the 1960s.

Such support is a sign of hula’s importance as a healing art in the Japanese culture, Kato said.

"It proves that hula has that kind of power and what we have been doing is quite powerful," she said.

Spa Resort Hawaiians, a hot-spring and Hawaiian-themed park in Iwaki City that opened in 1966, attracted about 1.45 million visitors and 400,000 overnight guests in 2010, the year before the disaster closed it for 11 months.

Takashi Wakamatsu, the deputy director of Spa Resort Hawaiians’ sales department, said that while Iwaki tourism has dropped 70 percent since the tragedy, the resort has seen a great surge in business since reopening in February.

If the results continue to be positive, the resort could be back to normal by 2014, he said.

"We are doing better than we had expected due to the media attention and all the support. It’s beyond our imagination," Waka­matsu said. "But, this could be something of a recovery bubble, so we’ll have to see how it goes."

Wakamatsu said he hopes the surge in business will help the attraction triumph over the $11.6 million deficit that mounted after the disaster.

Chieko Soga, 76, was one of about 15 senior citizens who made an 11-hour trek from Gifu to Iwaki City to take hula lessons at Spa Resort Hawaiians.

"Spa Resort Hawaiians is quite far by our standards, but it is the next best thing to Hawaii," said Soga, who wore the vibrant red, orange and yellow muumuu that overnight guests at Spa Resort Hawaiians favor over the traditional yukata found at other hot springs.

But Japan’s hula craze is not just for seniors.

Masaki Yajima, 9, of Tokyo has visited the resort about four times a year since she was a toddler.

"When the resort was closed, I missed coming here," said Masaki, who ran up on stage to perform with the Hula Girls when they called for volunteers.

The family visits so often that the Hula Girls know her by name, said Masaki’s father, Daisuke Yajima. "When we first started coming here, we thought she would enjoy the water park," Daisuke said. "Hula became her attraction. She likes it even more than swimming."

Farther south, the organizers of the Tokyo Hula Festa have seen proof of Japan’s hula phenomenon, too. Organizers thought they might have to cancel their 2011 event because it fell just a few months after the Great East Japan Earthquake. However, about 2,600 performers from 94 teams showed up last year, said Masayoshi Saiki, president of the Toshima City Tourism Association. The event attracted a record 320,000 attendees, Saiki said.

"People wanted to support tourism and events that promoted healing," Saiki said. "This summer event has become a new trademark of Toshima City."