And at the cultural center, 19-year-old Wataru Mino, a Kaiser High graduate and University of Hawai'i-Manoa student, was satisfied with his performance of "new enka" music in his live-audience singing debut before an appreciative older crowd.

The opportunity for trying something new, preserving tradition and promoting the future came together yesterday at the second JCCH New Year's 'Ohana Festival, which was attended by more than 4,000 people despite threatening weather.

The event lived up to the center's motto and theme of this this year's festival: "honoring our heritage, embracing our diversity, sharing our future."

Madison and Morrison, who have vacationed annually in Hawai'i for nine years, parked their car at UH and received a tip to try the ozoni on the free shuttle ride to the festival.

These sixth-graders from Wai'anae and Nanakuli, singing at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, leave for Japan Jan. 20. Every year former sumo wrestler Konishiki sponsors kids from the Leeward Coast, sending them to Japan to experience the culture there. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Madison observed, "You don't have any Asian festival where we are. It's wonderful. The dances, the foods, everything you see here."

Ethel Yang recalled when New Year's mochi pounding was a common family affair in Hawai'i. "I wanted to show the grandchildren," said Yang, whose maiden name is Takemoto. "To me, an all-day festival like this that brings families together is wonderful."

Mino, wearing a blue hapi coat, sang "Kiyoshi no zundoko bushi," an upbeat Hikawa Kiyoshi tune that he describes as new generation enka. "It's more fast-beat, more dancing," he said.

Traditional enka — Japanese "torch" songs usually about unlucky love or something nostalgic — gained popularity after World War II and are generally performed by women in kimonos.

Mino, a nisei who has lived in Hawai'i for 16 years, speaks only Japanese at home because his parents are more comfortable with it than English. "Many local people cannot speak clear Japanese," Mino said. "I went to Japanese school here for 11 years but you need to practice keigo."

Keigo, he says, is Japanese that is "clearly spoken and polite" that is used especially when conversing with an older generation that commands respect.

At a cultural festival like this, Mino can express his new generation self in song, his English or keigo in speech, depending on who he's talking to.

The diversity of the festival is unique in that it seems to have captured a flavor that embraces old and new, from music to food.

Keiko Bonk, JCCH executive director, said the festival expanded its game area for children at Mo'ili'ili Field and also increased the number of mochi-pounding demonstrations by request for the second festival. She's looking at fine tuning some things for next year.

"We'd like to include more explanations and educational events so people can see how a tradition started and is evolving," Bonk said. "It's like the tradition of (sugar plantation) camp life. New Year's was an event enjoyed in the camp. The Japanese invited everyone and the Filipinos, Portuguese, Hawaiians brought food to the celebration. That's the tradition we're trying to live up to."

Micheline Mayer, a longtime Hawai'i resident, had her first cup of sake yesterday. "It's great to experience something new," she said.

The festival's food booth served up everything from Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, an egg-battered crepe wrap with cabbage and yakisoba, prepared by Hiroshima Kenjinkai, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year by starting a scholarship fund from proceeds from yesterday's sales, to Yamaguchi Kenjinkai's iwakuni sushi rice, to laulau, adobo, pastele, pork hash and even hamburger steak.

Visitors could also learn the art of origami (paper folding) or chigirie (paper tearing), purchase good luck omamori (amulets) for houses, pets, golf and boats, and learn about bonsai and calligraphy from various cultural booths.

The festival did offer something for everyone.