**i was 16 or 17 years old when i met carrie ann inaba. i use to work at niu valley 76 gas station near her house when she use to pull in with her red toyota supra once a week to put in gas. right when she would pull up, everybody would race to be the one to put gas in for her. and of course, when it came to that, nobody could run faster than me. we ended up becoming friends and hung out for a while. we use to talk about our dreams and i remember laughing at her all the time when she told me that she wanted to become a famous dancer. carrie use to run around dancing all over the place and i seriously thought she was joking. see, back then, i couldn’t comprehend with dreams because my dream was to hang out at sandy beach drinking beers with the boys my whole life. but carrie was different. she was driven… and also from punahou. yeah, punahou kids have huge dreams and most of them come true. anyway, throughout the years, i’ve seen her go from launching records in japan, to the popular tv’s living world’s “fly girl” to madonna’s “girlie show” dancer, to hollywood movie actress, and to where she is today, the dancing with the stars icon. she’s on top of her game and it’s so awesome to see her so successful. every time i see her on tv, she looks and acts the same as she did years ago. a cool chick with a great personality. driven… that’s carrie ann inaba…

**by the way, i still have a couple photos of her back in the days in my album. if i posted it on my blog and she found out, she would hunt me down and kill me… haha.. so i won’t go there….
**CLICK HERE FOR CARRIEANNINABATV…..

**and i know not too many people in japan know carrie ann inaba so here she is:

oh my gosh, i got huge fish and nice barrels. waves are 4′ and perfect. i think i’m in paradise. no computer no cell phone. my long vacation. hope you are happy too.
text message by captain’s cell phone

tomo-san and the boys were in okinawa filming the “okinawa saiko” DVD. it was such a cool thing to go around with them watching these guys make such a happy movie. it’s good for okinawa too because you’ll be able to see the real okinawan people, and the good times they have on this island….

hey, wanted to welcome Kat again to the go-naminori guest blogs. i’ve been getting so many emails asking about her. i didn’t realize how famous she was. when i met her, she seemed like an ordinary girl living in japan. well, until she busted her guitar out and started playing…. kat’s a cool cat… check GO-NAMINORI.COM for kat’s blog….

and last, i found it!!! it was 8 years ago till the month when i went to okinawa. the waves were huge and perfect that year. there’s a place on the other side of the island called “never minds.” haha… it was the okinawa version of epic ala moana bowls. if your local and from okinawa, you know where i’m talking about. if your not, you’ll just have to find it yourself. here’s a hint: it starts with S and ends with I. got it??? i heard it hasn’t been that good since that day. score? i think so. this was the lost photo. kinsan and i looked through every slide film after that trip and didn’t see this one. then a few months later, dove wetsuits ran a center spread ad of this photo in surfing world magazine. we both freaked out. it was taken by kinsan and till this day, one of my favorite photos. why? because it’s in okinawa, and if you look good, there’s a huge smile on my face. the same smile i have every time i come to okinawa till this day. i [:?????????:] okinawa….