Kristopher Fuchigami was born on June 5, 1990.  He was anxious to enter this world as his parents barely made it to the Hilo Hospital in time for his arrival.  He has lived in the Keaau area all his life and has attended Keaau Elementary, Middle, and High School.

When Kris was 13 years old, his mom and siblings went to visit her family in Japan for the summer and Kris was stuck at home with his dad and very bored.  He found a busted up old Walmart ukulele in his older brother's stuff and started playing with it.  He remembered his middle school music teacher mentioning something about an ukulele player named Jake Shimabukuro during the previous school year.

Kris looked Jake Shimabukuro's name up on the internet and listened to the music clips that were available there.  Kris and his dad were amazed at what they heard and Kris said, "I wanna play like that!!!"

Kris asked his dad for a better ukulele.  They went to the music shops in Hilo and were surprised to see how expensive ukuleles were.  Kris's dad told him that he would get a new ukulele if he could show that he was serious about learning how to play.  His dad actually thought that this would get him off the hook of having to buy a new ukulele.  Within days Kris was playing a few of Jake's songs on his busted up ukulele.  His dad had to keep his promise and buy Kris a better ukulele.

Kris began taking lessons from Hilo High School friend Davin Fujimoto.  These lessons lasted until the end of that first summer as attending different schools and activities pulled the boys apart.  However, Kris continued progressing on his own at an abnormally fast rate.  This prompted his dad to look for an advanced ukulele teacher in Hilo.  He found one at Hilo Guitars and Ukuleles.  Joe Marquand would be Kris's new teacher for the next couple of years.  The rest is history.

Since then, Kris has had many more experiences and many more ukuleles.  See the stories section of this website for more on this.

Kris is very thankful to his idol and friend Jake Shimabukuro for getting him interested in playing the ukulele.  Kris enjoy's playing all of Jake's music.  Kris has also learned the music of other artists and is now writing his own music as well.  We look forward to enjoying more of this from him.