By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

This may come as a surprise but neither the Robert Louis Stevenson banyan at the Moana Hotel nor the world's largest banyan in Lahaina is the most famous tree in Hawai'i. It's a big monkeypod out in Moanalua Gardens that, I bet, you never heard of.

This tree has been made famous in Japan by a TV commercial. It is so famous there's a song written about it that millions of school children know by heart.

Last week 35 students from Sagami Junior High School near Tokyo drove out to picnic under the tree. I asked 15-year-olds Eri Natsui and Natsumi Fujimoto if they recognize the tree. They nodded vigorously and immediately began to sing its lilting song. The girls learned it in elementary school.

The students have translated the lyrics as a class exercise because one of the reasons they are here is to learn English. The translations indicate that the tree means different things to different people.

Some students were intrigued by the mystery of a tree with no name. Some come expecting to see flowers, but the tree doesn't bloom. Nevertheless, they are enchanted.

Here's an official translation by Masaharu Ezakai, 43, in charge of the education tour:

"What is this tree?
"We are curious about this tree.
"We have never seen this tree.
"So this will be the tree we have never seen."

About that time, an adult tour strolled into Moanalua Gardens and aimed their cameras straight at the tree. One person in the group, Mitsuko Nakamura, said she has known about the tree for 20 or 30 years but never saw it before. Pioneer resident in the neighborhood Dorothy Takahama, who walks in Moanalua Gardens every day, said a constant stream of tourists pose for pictures under the tree.

A park attendant said it's more than 100 years old. He estimated that 500 to 1,000 people come to see the tree every day. That makes it an attraction almost as popular as mu'umu'u factory tours.

It has the shape of an enormous, green punch bowl. I would estimate that if it was growing in the middle of a football field, its branches would hang over the sidelines.

Ezakai said this is the seventh year he has brought students to see the tree. They recognize it immediately from the long-running Hitachi television commercial that he first saw about 30 years ago. This means that only blind people of Japan's 127 million-plus population don't know what the tree looks like. But they would be able to sing its song.

"I was surprised when I recognized it immediately," Ezakai said. "I thought it was growing in Japan."

He explained that Japanese tourists should come to Hawai'i for other reasons than to shop; to learn the culture, for example.

On my way out of Moanalua Gardens, I met another tour group coming in. Tour conductor Fred Higa said, "I bring a load of tourists here almost every day. I take all the Japanese to see the tree. Generations old and small know the tree."