ALOHA! I'm David Fukumoto. In 1962 my family began growing houseplants and training them as bonsai. The hobby filled the entire lot and I was asked to teach bonsai at Aiea High School adult evening classes. I co-founded the Aloha Bonsai Club, Hawaii Bonsai Association, and later the Big Island Bonsai Association and the Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation. I've participated and headlined conventions and over 85 of my articles published locally, nationally, and internationally. I received the 2002 Bonsai Clubs International (BCI) Writer, Photographer, and Artist of the Year Award amongst other honors.
Our eBay Store will compliment www.fukubonsai.com Our website that has been online since 1999. It's a monster bonsai resource that if printed out, would probably be over 1,000 pages! It's not fancy as I put it up with MSFrontPage. It's content heavy but does not directly allow direct payment by credit card. That's because I don't have confidence in my ability to create a secure website. We still do not accept credit cards at the Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center in Kurtistown. But we like PayPal and have been using it on our website for several years. An eBay site exposes us to more people and allows direct PayPal Payments. Our main website will serve as the primary resource with customers able to easily make simple purchases through our eBay store. I'm impressed with eBay's (and PayPal's) security capabilities which are far greater than mine. I see eBay and PayPal as the best defense to protect my customers against credit card fraud!
Fuku-Bonsai is a professional bonsai nursery committed to customer success! It emerged out of a passion to share bonsai and to provide choice prepared bonsai stock for individuals, clubs, and classes. While very young, taproots are removed and top growth drastically pruned to develop heavy trunks with low branches. We leave and encourage extra branches to give styling options. We cull out and discard the majority of the seedlings and offer only those that meet criteria. Fuku-Bonsai became the first Hawaii State certified export nursery in 1973 and shipped through the postal system. We were amongst the first to ship FedEx and ship over a ton each month! With our shipping volume and as a part of 500+ members of the Hawaii Shipper's Association we negotiated an outstanding rate that makes possible a $10 U.S. shipping charge for any plant or Micro-Lobster tank and free shipping for three or more of any mix of True Indoor Bonsai or Micro-Lobsters when shipped to the same U.S. address! So it makes sense to combine orders with friends and family. Businesses purchase quantities as amenity or Christmas gifts. We supply bonsai clubs who are attracting excited new members with their True Indoor Bonsai workshops.
Why "TRUE INDOOR BONSAI/FONT> "? Because we don't want anything to do with the questionable misrepresentations deeply embedded in the bonsai world. Years ago, bonsai magazine articles listed Japanese Black Pine as plants that can grow indoors! That's like saying that polar bears will thrive in Hawaiian zoos! It's getting better. Fuku-Bonsai is probably the most significant authority on ficus bonsai as we conducted extensive research in conjunction with the Harold Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawaii. A series of papers were published in the American Bonsai Society Journal. But we don't offer ficus because it requires a huge amount of light to flourish; much more than available within one foot of an average window.
Fuku-Bonsai has evolved into a Hawaiian corporation with mostly Big Island stockholders to assure perpetuity! Michael Imaino joined us in 1983 and is now a bonsai master in his own right. He is our senior plant manager, curator of the bonsai collection, a director of Fuku-Bonsai Inc., and president of the non-profit Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation. As I began to anticipate collecting Social Security checks, I turned over the bonsai division to Michael and began the Micro-Lobster division. We will soon be joined by Alan Squier who will become Fuku-Bonsai's general manager and we continue to build the successor management team.
We also trademarked "THE AMAZING HAWAIIAN MICRO-LOBSTERS!" There are also embedded misrepresentations concerning the Hawaiian Red Anchialine Pond Shrimp (Halocaridina rubra). Hawaii is the most isolated landmass in mid-Pacific and more isolated than Darwin's Galapagos Islands. We have the largest number of unique species that evolved and adapted to different environments. These are amazing endemic Hawaiian mini-crustaceans that are less than 1/2" long when fully grown. They have a lifespan of over 20 years in suitable environments and evolved in Hawaii's rare anchialine ponds that are near but not directly connected to the ocean. In surviving in the watertable in the cracks and openings in the lava under and around the ponds, they've developed extraordinary traits. They probably have the lowest oxygen and food requirements and can miraculously survive for years even in poor environments. They can adapt from almost pure fresh water to super-salty water if the change is made slowly.
In Hawaiian, they are known as "opae'ula." "Opae" is "small shrimp." "Ula" is the Hawaiian word for "lobsters." Some claim opae'ula means "small red shrimp." We believe it means "small shrimp that resemble lobsters" and to differentiate, we trademarked "Micro-Lobsters!" It is necessary to differentiate as there are several different types of opae'ula eco-systems being offered commercially that exploit their unique traits. They are sold in sealed glass "eco-systems" that claim to have been invented by space scientists and promoted as a miracle of art and science. In these systems opae'ula may take a year or more to die. Some place opae'ula in small cheap containers and promote them as "the perfect pets that never need to be fed." Crustaceans molt periodically and each time they come back smaller as they are really surviving off their stored body mass. They are almost lifeless and inactive. In contrast, Fuku-Bonsai creates an ideal environment and feeds 100% pure spirulina microalgae. Our Micro-Lobsters are happy, healthy, active, sociable, and they reproduce! Fuku-Bonsai's breeder tanks are the first commercial units available with a history of successful reproduction by customers throughout the US!
I invite the eBay community to check us out! If you plan to visit Hawaii, please visit us. We're located on the Big Island of Hawaii along Volcano Highway 11; 10 miles from Hilo and 20 miles from Volcanoes National Park. Consider taking a workshop and spending some time with us! There are no workshop fees and the cost of the workshop materials are the same as if purchased online. But visitors get to choose specific plants and we can ship your workshop result to any part of the U.S. for a $10 shipping fee (or free shipping if 3 or more of any combination of True Indoor Bonsai or Micro-Lobsters are sent to the same US address)! Sorry, no international shipping nor to Guam, Puerto Rico or APO addresses.
We're a corporation with mostly Big Island stockholders committed to becoming a major Hawaii value-added specialty product development and niche marketing company. With vertical integration, we control all aspects to create high-value products at fair prices. True Indoor Bonsai and The Amazing Hawaiian Micro-Lobsters are our first two specialties. Other major specialties are in the research and development stage and we will partner to market and ship other Hawaiian product lines. Fuku-Bonsai pioneered True Indoor Bonsai and Micro-Lobsters in collaboration with our customers, friends, associates, researchers, and all interested parties. We issue an email FBnews periodically and invite you to subscribe to the free email newsletter. Simply email me with your request to receive the FBnews with your full name, city and state, and email address. We do not sell, rent, or allow others to use our email lists and our website does not use cookies.
If you have any suggestions to improve our websites, questions about our plants, or want to participate in our research teams, please email me at david@fukubonsai.com I discourage and request that you not request assistance with plants purchased from other sources. Each plant in each environment requires specific care and it is the responsibility of each seller to assist their customers. We will do all that we can to help our customers to be successful! I ask for your support as we enter the eBay family!
Regards and aloha! ~~~David W. Fukumoto (May 2006)
|
) 
