Aloha!
During the Summer 2024 session, students shared their travel & study tips for future students. It will be a great resource for prospective international students. Enjoy!

From Ayaka

• You have to bring a national car license if you want to use a rental car. Also, check your rental car carefully for scratches and dents and take pictures before you drive away with it so you will not be responsible for them.
• Make sure you purchase the full insurance for the rental car.
• You should bring a raincoat or an umbrella.

From Taro

• When you go to restaurants, you should pay tips to the staff. Tipping is a very important part of American society. You must tip taxi drivers, hairdressers, waiters, doormen, bellhops.  The minimum is  10-15%*. I was so surprised when I heard about this system because I had never heard about that before I was confused about how much should I pay. (* changes from time to time)
• You don’t see people separate trash into different types like in Japan, but there is some recycling, so please try to recycle.
• You can’t drink alcohol on the side of the road, in parks, or at beaches. The police will give a fine. In Japan, many people drink in the park or at the beach, but not in Hawaii. Also, there are no beer vending machines, and you must be 21 to be able to drink.
• Study tip: We can ask peer mentors questions, and they will answer them.

From Fumi

• Buses are free in Hawaii Island (as of Aug 2024), but they are irregular and there are not many. There are bus stops, but you can wave them down along the roads and ask the driver to drop you off anywhere.
• There are no trains and free buses are not convenient in the Big Island, so you must have a car or get a bike.

From Zhengyu

• This is a huge cultural difference. When I arrived in Hawaii, the supermarkets here were different from Asian countries. American supermarkets include various things. But there are different types of supermarkets in Asia: such as tool stores, vegetable stores, bicycle stores, and electronic equipment stores.  This is different from supermarkets in Asian countries.  Bring your own reusable bags.
• Study tip: Sometimes you use e-mail to contact to professor, not face to face. You can make an appointment to see your professor.
• Packing tip: You need to bring spices from your home country. For example, Udon, Japanese noodles, and Chinese sauces. There is a Japanese grocery store: KTA and Asian Market. Bring your favorite snacks.
• Shopping tip: KTA has various types of meat. For example: there is Korean beef. Also, it has the best poke. Safeway has discounts on Fridays.

From Hami

• Packing tip: Pack some favorite food and summer clothes. There are KTA, Asian Market and farmers’ markets.
• You don’t drive your car on the left side. You need to be on the right. Also, be careful when making a turn that you go in the correct lane.  Also looking in the rearview mirror will confuse you.
• Locals drive their car with “aloha”, which means they are polite and will stop and let you go first, even though the law says it is their turn to drive. They will flash their lights to tell you to go or to turn.
• Get your haircut in your home country. It is difficult to get your haircut the way you want it.

From Koto

• Shopping tip: Safeway is the best store for food because it has $5 sales every Friday.
• If I bring my student ID, I can pay half price or free when I go to an astronomy center (ʻImiloa Astronomy Center) and can watch UHʻs sports games at the UH gym/community gyms & baseball fields for free.
• Packing tip: Pack enough clothes for school, volunteering, or festivals.

From Seiyu

• You should be careful walking alone after 8 pm. Also, Hilo’s sidewalks are narrow. There are some homeless people on the street.
• If you drink some beer with local friends, they might recommend getting chewing tobacco. Chewing tobacco is just as dangerous as smoking, and causes mouth and tongue cancer.
• If you drive, you should be careful with road workers when there is road work. You could get a double fine.

From Ai

• Shopping tip: I recommend Ross Dress, Walmart, Farmers Market, and KTA.
• Shopping tip: Sign up for discount membership at stores. They give you a card and you use your phone number. After that, you just give your phone number to the cashiers for a discount.
• Purchase a health insurance.
• Ask your apartment owners, if there are any free bicycles that someone left behind.

From Hiromi

• Shopping tip: At Walmart, people can get most things, Like food, clothes, home electricity, and more! Also, everything is cheaper than in any other shop.
• Make friends. It prevents homesickness. Make friends to study with them and get better at communication.
• Find your favorite café so you can catch free Wi-Fi like Starbucks, or McDonald’s.
• Packing tip: Buy noise-canceling headphones.

Thank you to all the students who shared their tips!