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Cosmopolitan names Honolulu's
By Nadine Kam
Mike Mabuni as one of the nation's
most eligible bachelors
Star-BulletinBEFORE May, Mike Mabuni hadn't given much thought to relationships or his eligibility quotient as a single male. Imagine his surprise, then, when he got a call from Cosmopolitan magazine informing him that the magazine staff had voted him Hawaii's most eligible bachelor.
In this month of weddings, the magazine will release on June 27 its July issue, naming the most eligible bachelors nationwide.
Mabuni, a class of '88 Aiea High School graduate working in New York as a model, downplays his new role, accepting it with humor.
"To tell you the truth, I wasn't really looking for someone. I'm totally into my work."
He had been dating another model, a part-Hawaiian woman who grew up in Japan. She plans to move to Hawaii and he will be around to help her get established, but he assures he is available, though no more so than any other single guy.
"I'm no better than other men. A lot of it is fantasy, but people need some of that in their lives."
Mabuni's name and vital statistics were submitted to Cosmo by his modeling agency, Grace Del Marco. According to Del Marco, his name was the only one the agency submitted. "Mike's doing very well," she said.
Mabuni, who had been visiting home for a month, is accustomed to surprises. His career is one of them.
He was a novice photographer in search of advice from a pro during a model search in 1995. Instead, the event's photographer turned his lens on Mabuni and asked if he had considered modeling."He sent me to an audition for Polaroid, Japan. It was a cattle-call with 100 other guys. I thought posing would be easy, but it really wasn't. I was surprised I got the job."
He modeled locally for a while. At 5-foot-9 he was often told he was too short for jobs, but says, "being too short is more of a big deal here than in New York."
He moved to New York in August 1998, and was signed by Grace Del Marco. "Right away, you have to make a minimum of $50,000 or they're not going to renew your contract," he said.
Mabuni quickly earned his keep -- working for clients such as Macy's, Northwest Airlines and as a fit model for menswear designers -- and stayed, fulfilling one of the requirements of eligible bachelorhood: gainful employment.
He's also a Pisces who claims to be "pretty neat" around the house, leaving no pools in the bathroom and putting the toilet seat down when there's a woman in the house. And he adores children. He had intended to be home all summer because he missed his nephews -- Jordan, 9; Jake, 6; and Jace Watase, 4 -- but Cosmo beckoned. Tomorrow, he'll be attending the New York premiere of the film "Boys and Girls," a promotional event for the magazine, and his agency also wants him back.
"Being without my nephews made me feel kind of empty, because in New York it's just me without family.
"Being there made me realize how much I want to stay in Hawaii. It's my intention to get established and stay in New York about nine months of the year and come back in the summer when it's really hot there and business is slow."
A practical person, Mabuni doesn't have any illusions about finding his soulmate as a result of the Cosmo feature, even though the magazine's staff has been urging him to rent a post-office box in anticipation of a flood of proposals.
Putting some thought into the question of what his ideal woman would be like, he said qualities he looks for are honesty, trustworthiness, "someone who's a good communicator, who's not going to play games, who's sharing, but at the same time independent; a good balance. And someone who takes care of herself, healthwise."MABUNI is basically honest himself, although he admits fudging a bit on his headsheet, a model's calling card, that lists his height as 5-foot-10. And he doesn't like to tell people he's 30.
"I'm not really 5'10" but in modeling you never know a person's true height, true sizes or age. It's a given that everyone adds 2 inches (he adds an inch) to their height and subtracts 10 pounds. On paper, women's waists are smaller."
As for the age bit, he says most of the time he tries to appear older due to clients' demands for men who look 35 to 40 years old.
Given such conditions, the young-looking Mabuni can probably look forward to a long career in modeling, though he still intends to pursue his first love, photography, naming local photographers Russell Tanoue and Jason Tanega as inspirations.
"I still feel more comfortable taking pictures, but having (modeling) experience is kind of helpful; I can understand the other side."
His modeling keeps paying for new equipment, and any girlfriend of his will have to accept his ambitious, hard-working nature. He's also a personal trainer and has used his knowledge about the body to his advantage when modeling.
"It all works together -- diet, exercise and photography -- like, I won't eat a lot of salty stuff before a photo session, because that causes you to retain water, which can add five pounds.
He runs regularly, and, because he's interested in health and nutrition, he cooks. On his own, he tries to eat healthy foods. He says it's harder to do so when trying to impress someone.
"With my ex, I used to cook all the time. I'd make everything -- salad, appetizer, main dish, dessert. In fact, I'd make two desserts, like white chocolate brownies and something that would make use of fresh fruit, like raspberries I could get at Union Square, where they've got all the markets."
Mabuni says he isn't a strong believer in the notion of love at first sight, saying, "There's a lot more to it than that; a lot of work goes into relationships." But he leaves himself open to the possibility, just because life is full of surprises.
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