Photo/Illutration Visitors enjoy everlasting summer paradise at Spa Resort Hawaiians. The water park offers a large pool, thrilling waterslides and a Polynesian show. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

Alooooo-ha, ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon!

Sing along, you all: “Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii and mine could all come true this magic night of nights with you ...”

Hawaii, a picture postcard image of hula girls, luaus, sun and surf in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Or, um, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. With some imagination, that is.

Previously known as Joban Hawaiian Center, it’s now Spa Resort Hawaiians, a theme park with Japan’s tallest water slide, hot springs, live entertainment, restaurants, hotels and shopping facilities.

Coal was discovered in the mid-1800s near the foot of Mount Abukuma, and in the 1940s, the Joban Mine became the largest coal mine in Honshu. The nation’s core industries were fueled by coal through the 1950s, which is when coal started waning as the world began shifting to oil, and the writing was on the wall.

The vice president of Joban Mine decided to do something drastic--create a resort with a Hawaiian theme in the cold rural town of Iwaki. If that wasn’t a crazy, absurd, ludicrous idea, I don’t know what is.

And getting local conservative and skeptical Tohoku people on board was a herculean feat!

The heartwarming Japanese movie “Hula Girls” depicts the successful makeover of the blue-collar mining town into one based on hospitality and entertainment. Amazingly, the Hawaii-themed park that opened in 1966 is still going strong today.

Visiting Spa Hawaiians knowing this backdrop made me appreciate it much more than if I had simply stumbled across yet another aquatic amusement park.

There’s a daily complimentary shuttle bus to and from Tokyo, Yokohama, Saitama and Chiba for people staying at one of the hotels on the premises, but I wasn’t staying overnight, so I drove.

Two hours after leaving Tokyo by car, I was showing my QR Code at the entrance and entered Hawaii. There were a lot of people, like in Waikiki, during Golden Week.

I walked around to get my bearings, checking out the water parks, gardens, live theater and stages, chilling-out areas, gift shops and more.

I decided to map out my day while lunching at the buffet restaurant Palm. The fare was nothing to write home about, but it was fun dipping mini puff pastries into a chocolate fountain and making cotton candy.

My favorite place that seemed to be the least popular, judging from how empty it was, was the excellent Hula Museum. No time for the real thing? Fukushima awaits.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the Oct. 16 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s Wanderings Around Japan," which depicts various places across the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Meiji University.

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