good evening. heading out of here towards osaka. for some reason, everytime i go there, i wake up with a headache the next morning. i think it’s the air. or maybe the water? or probably the beer….. see ya later….

after driving for 9 hours straight, and after 4 stops for food, 2 stops for gas, 5 stops to take a piss, and one stop to fix the boards from flying off the roof, we finally landed in wakayama. like always, kimura san opened his house for us. the beers were out, the talk started, and atsuko-san just kept on busting out the grinds. oh my gosh….. check out this baby squid caught earlier that morning. dip it in a miso sauce, or ponzu. wish you were here….

next was this fish nitsuke. atsuko-san puts ume in her nitsuke. oh my gosh… i ate this thing down to the bare bones…

then when you think it’s over, here comes a second fish out of the kitchen. oh my gosh…. this one was down to the bones too…. so good….

then here comes the speciality. i don’t even know what it’s called….. maybe i should call it “oh my gosh”…

kimura-san was telling me that there was a festival right in front of his house earlier that day. people throw mochi off a stand into the crowd and you have to catch it. if you do, it’s good luck for the year. the caught this one that says “fuku” in japanese. nice catch….

fukunaga is my last name and kimura-san told me it means eternal happiness in japanese. that’s pretty cool. i’m going to live out my name…. so i’m going to be happier and happier longer and longer than i already am. yeah, that sounds so fun…. and i’m starting from today…

we had an awesome night. good food, good fun, and good people. i love my life…. by the way, that’s terra-san on the far left. he’s the man at isounora and a super cool guy. his son’s in bali now ripping it up. just wanted to thank everybody in wakayama for the drive thru party… had a blast and can’t wait to do it again….

and last, yeah, it was time for me to sleep…. life is really goooood…….

good morning. 6am japan time. it’s sunny, calm wind, and full blooming cherry blossoms. long day ahead. going for a surf. oh shit, i forgot to hang my wetsuit up to dry last night. shit, that sucks…. maybe i’ll surf after my wetsuit dries… there is a lawson down the street with the best udon. that sounds good…. have a nice day….

this is a photo of my brothers and sister. my older brother mason is on the left. then my younger brother davis, then me, then my sister tammy. i think i was 5 years old or something. and the matching clothes we wore was made by my grandma fukunaga. we always use to wear matching clothes so nobody could figure out who was who. gosh, i wonder what the heck i was thinking smiling like that. haha….

and this is a photo of my sisters family. the moniz family. from the left is seth, joshua, isaiah, kelia, and micah. all great kids with awesome parents. you’ll hear a lot more about this family in the future. this photo is a keeper….
*and last, before i lost my camera, i took this short video clips of the yugawara boys on their first surf in hawaii. it was at kewalo’s with the joshua and seth. pretty classic….

good evening. it’s 9pm shikoku time. after leaving shonan yesterday, we finally got here. stopped by wakayama and that story coming later. first, these are some photos of our drive thru yugawara. i’m tired, jet lagged, hanging, and feel like kalua. yeah, i feel like a pig. been eating so much good food that my jeans are feeling a little tight. i jumped in the water this evening at ikumi on a paddle board and it felt good to be back in the water. the water is cold be pretty dam refreshing. it will wake your ass up in no time. anyway, got a long day tomorrow. going to surf in the morning, then jump in the car and head to osaka for the Barrel’s Surf Shop Party!!! starts at 8:30pm so see you there… can’t wait…..

check out this photo. we were in our ryokan in yugawara and there was this big cherry blossom tree right outside our window. seth and tony just got back from the hot springs with their yukata’s on. hawaiians in japan. by the way, the breakfast all you can eat buffet was unreal…

when we got to the room, there were only 2 futon’s set up. had 3 of us so seth got his own room, right inside the closet. i slept in the closet once in japan. but i wasn’t 10 years old, i was 26. haha…. here is seth with his own pad…

the waves were knee high but good enough for the boys. they surfed yugawara and had a blast. gosh, hanging out with these boys makes me feel so young. i’m only 28 years old but i’m feeling like i’m 10. haha.

we stopped by this fisherman’s port to check out the daily catch. this guy was cutting the buri kama…. i was ready to start up the barbecue. gosh it looked so good….

wavy surf is such a cool surf shop. everybody is so close and it’s like one big family. these are the kind of surf shops i love. we use to have surf shops like these in hawaii before but not anymore. and i don’t think we ever will. pretty sad….

here is another cool photo. this is tokura-san, tony, yo-chan, and me. like i said many and many of times before, tokura-san is the reason i’m living this great life. through out the years, he’s introduced me to so many people around japan. yo-chan is the owner of wavy surf shop in yugawara and i’ve know him for 16 years. yo-chan is one of tokura-san’s good friends and i’m glad i was introduced to him. he’s such a good person with a good heart. he supports the kids surfing, which means a lot. then tony is here on vacation. not to surf, but to eat. and eating is what tony’s doing. oh, kelia is in the photo too. she’s on the cover of the new surfing girls magazine tokura-san’s holding up. kelia just got back from mexico with carissa moore and scored. i just have a little message for her. sis, what’s up with your blog? people are waiting. come on girl….