Hawaii vs California

I read one interesting news on the internet. TIME reported the news that Hawaii came out on top: the annual Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released on Feb 27th.  The island state still ranked highest in well-being in the nation - for three years in a row.

The report also said that Hawaiians were the most likely to say they smiled or laughed a lot "yesterday" and the least likely to report daily worry or stress and to have ever been diagnosed with depression. Residents' good eating and exercising habits and lower smoking rates earned them the distinction of having the best healthy behaviors in the nation.

I have been living in Southern California for three years and I've never been in Hawaii.

I feel living in California is really comfortable, so I was surprised that California was ranked out of top 10 in this ranking.

Then, I became interested in which one is better; California and Hawaii

I tried to investigate and described my opinion below.

Generally speaking, both states have a nice weather and beautiful beach.

Both state are also known as expensive place to live.

As for advantage of California, there are a lot of cultural and sports events. People who live in California (especially Southern California) enjoy famous rock star concerts, art events, sports events and shows.

Job availability and college situation are probably better especially in city area like LA. It's easy to access to other states by air or car.

California is given for the large number of national parks, giant trees, mountains and waterfalls like Yosemite.

California is also known for mixed-race and mixed-culture state.

That means there are many chances to meet different types of people and culture.

Also, locals are very welcoming to new residence compared to Hawaii.

As for advantage of Hawaii, it has better easy going and relaxed atmosphere than California. Hawaii has beautiful nature and really convenient city area.

There is no gang problems,(once you are out of Honolulu).

There is also no smog, no polluted waters, no tornados and no floods.

Sales tax is only 4% and it's much cheaper than 8% in California.

Food and drink situation are much better compared to California.

These are general comparisons with Hawaii and California.

I think that California has a lot of different faces like SF, LA, Sun Diego and Santa Barbara. Some areas are nice & safer.

So, I think one of big attractiveness of California is wide variety.

If you want to success in acting, you can go to LA.

If you like nature, you can go to beautiful national parks.

If you want to stay and relax, you can live in Santa Barbara.

On the other hand, the attractiveness of Hawaii is much simpler.

Nice weather, beautiful beaches, safer, good food,,

These attractiveness brought a lot of people to Hawaii.

Meanwhile, as for Japanese, both states are easy to live and comfortable.

Especially, Hawaii is much better for Japanese.

Many people can speak Japanese and there are a lot of Japanese restaurants and super markets. Also, Hawaii is bit close to Japan.

In conclusion,

I think it's difficult to decide which states is better, because it depends on what aspect you are looking at.

All I can say is that

For young people, I recommend to live to California.

For elders, I recommend to live to Hawaii.

Written in Mar 6th and revised Mar 20th