good morning. 6:30am here in wakayama. after a 9 hour drive, we finally arrived at kimura-san’s house late last night. took a lot of photos and videos on the way. things are moving to fast so let me first rewind to the day before yesterday. which already seemed like a long time ago….

i woke up at matsuo’s house early in the morning in chigasaki and was freezing cold. thought i’d open the window to let some sunlight in. then this is what i saw…. shit, mt. fuji staring right at me. i stayed at matsuo’s house for 10 years and it’s the first time i looked out the window of my room. this is what i was missing all this time. i felt like an idiot. but not that i know what it’s like so i’ll be looking out that window more often….

then i dropped by the dove factory to pick up my new wetsuit. i tried it on and once again. perfect fit…… always a perfect fit… i’ve been with dove wetsuits for over 16 years. probably the best 16 wonderful years of my life….

i thought i’d grab a wetsuit for seth too. haha…. just joking, seth isn’t this small…..

i was on the way to the airport to pick up tony and seth. i usually use the freeway but decided to use the beach road. and i’m glad i did… this is one of the prettiest site i’ve ever seen…. mt. fuji in back of enoshima island. i didn’t have time to stop so i snapped this while i was driving….

then it was lunch at sekiya’s. all this for $8… i would eat this everyday if we had it in hawaii…. can somebody make one please…

this is the drive back to shonan. mt. fuji covered with snow is the bomb. everytime i look at mt. fuji, i think about my grandma and grandma fukunaga. they climbed to the top of this mountain and have the stamps to prove it. before i even went to japan, they use to tell me all the time that they climbed it. i was too young to understand what it really meant. but after seeing mt. fuji all the time, now i realize what an awesome goal it was for them. to this day, my grandma and grandpa have 4 photos of the 4 seasons taken of mt. fuji, and the sticks they used with all the stamps. before i die, that’s one of my goals too. one of my goals inspired by my grandparents….

then it was back to rise and shine to pick up my stuff for this long journey ahead of us. this is my family and friends…
**just wanted to thank everybody we’ve met and have been meeting on the way. the people of japan are the nicest people in the world and everywhere i go, they make me feel comfortable. just like home. i was talking to tony last night about the people here. i asked him if he was me, would he trade the life i live for anything. he said “no way”. not any material thing or not any amount of money could give me the friends and happiness i have all around me. this is the stuff money can’t buy. trust me, because i don’t have money… haha… so just wanted to thank everybody i’ve met along these years. “OKAGESAMADE” that means, i am who i am because of you…..
**i took some awesome video and once i have some time, i’ll post it. but right now. too dam busy having too much funnnnnnn……. life is good….
**and thanks everybody for the emails and stuff. give me some time to get back. like i said before, i’m busy having too much funnnnnnn…. life is good…
**and thanks taro ishizaki for the call the other day. it was good to hear from you and can’t wait to sit down, grab a beer, and talk about the good old jpsa contest days in niijima. remember? haha….

konichi wa. left shonan at 11am to head to narita airport to pick up tony and seth. gosh, it was such a beautiful day. not a cloud in the sky and you could see mt. fuji from everywhere. picked them up at 3pm, and was back in kamakura by 4:30. that was pretty dam fast but i knew it was too good to be true. as soon as we were talking about how fast we got back, there it was, brake lights…. shit, traffic all along the beach road and we got stuck right in the middle of it. so while creeping along, we were staring at mt. fuji and the sun setting right behind. i had to stop and take a photo because it was too beautiful. then creeping along, we see this little miniture car with 2 longboards on the top. it looked so cool that i was going to grab my camera to get a photo. then i seen somebody waving from the pasenger seat, it was pro longboarder yuji yoshikawa. we were laughing at eachother as we drove by. what a small world… what’s up yuji!!! then creeping more along, we see another longboarder pro, jun ikeda. what’s up jun!!! gosh, it’s amazing how small the surfing world here in japan is. not to mention when i was at the airport, i seen womens pro surfer sumie-san. she just got back from hawaii. i think she’s the last of the japanese on the north shore. she looked so happy and i guess i would too if i just got off the plane from paradise….
then we drove thru shonan. stopped by rise and shine to see matsuo and naoka. matsuo met tony about 25 years ago in niijima for the marui pro. and tony remembered him. tony stayed at yojibay minshiku with the tomita family. gosh, deep roots….
then we drove thru yugawara. had dinner with the yo-chan and the yuguwara groms shun, ryota, and ren. had an awesome tempura dinner. unagi, oysters, and the best broccoli i’ve ever eaten. seth and the boys were getting along fine. boys will be boys… oh, then we came to check in to our “ryokan”. it’s like high class hotel with a big hot springs pool on the bottom. seth and i checked it out late last night. and of course, seth went in with his trunks. hawaiian style…
anyway, i’m still at the ryokan looking out my window at this cherry blossom tree in full bloom. this is japan paradise. going to eat a killer breakfast, jump in the hot springs again, and go check the waves. probably head down south later. drive thru japan day 1 was awesome and there will be more awesome days coming. got some photos but not time to download them. i’ll do it later. but in the meanwhile, i’m just going with the flow….
have a great day….
**seth got his look at a traditional japanese toilet last night. he tripped out…. haha…. i remember the first time i seen one too. i was in niijima back in 1990 and used the toilet the wrong way. yeah, i was squatting the wrong way facing the door and use to think why are japanese weird by putting the toilet paper in the back. it found out why in 1993. so i was using the toilet backwards for 3 freaking years… haha…
**be back as soon as i get hooked up to the internet again…

ER has been a top series on NBC for years now. i haven’t watched it before but know a lot of people hooked on it. anyway, the reason why i’m talking about a show i’ve never seen before is because my cousin wrote the story and script for an upcoming ER show. it airs april 17th on NBC and that’s going to be the first ER i will ever watch. i hope i don’t get hooked because i’m the kind of person that will stay home all day and watch the whole series on dvd. haha… but just wanted to say congratulations to my cousin Shannon Goss for such a big accomplishment. that’s pretty awesome….
CLICK HERE FOR THE ER WEBSITE….