kenji sahara took this photo of me standing on the beach at pipeline last year. i love it…. and when ever i see it, i start to miss hawaii. the weather, the waves, my bed, my car, and all the aloha… been in japan for 1 week. flat waves. good for the kids to surf but way to small for me even to stand up. i did 2 days of stand-up paddling and but i miss getting barreled in my surf trunks…. ahhhh… that’s the way i’m feeling right now. but once i see a big sashimi platter, or some sushi, or a nice hot ramen in front of me, i’m not homesick at all.. haha…
**i was looking at yoko furuichi’s and yuko shimijiri’s blogs today and they are both in hawaii. i’m a little jealous…. wish i was there… now i’m starting to feel a little home sick again. i’m better go eat some good food right now…. good night…
CLICK HERE FOR YOKO FURUICHI’S BLOG….

CLICK HERE FOR YUKO SHIMIJIRI’S BLOG…
**and last, check out this interview i did with legendary shaper/surfer/coach ben aipa. bumped into ben one day when i went to check bowls. he use to be my coach and taught me a lot. in fact, ben coached most of the pro’s coming out of hawaii in the days. including world champion sunny garcia…

good morning. 8:30am here in beautiful sunny shikoku. gosh, what a crazy long day it was yesterday and today. torture drive. 7 guys in a van driving to osaka getting lost. almost 5 hours later finally arriving to the barrels renewal opening party. gosh, the shop looks killer. ishino-san did an awesome job and just wanted to say congratulations again…. check out BARRELS WATER SPORTS BY CLICKING HERE… had a big party in osaka after that. so many people and so much fun. had a blast. then it was 12pm and we headed our way back to shikoku. getting lost again and finally arrived at home at 5am. gosh, tony and i were beat. i hate car rides. japanese are use to long drives but after 16 years of coming here, i can never get use to it. my ass hurts from sitting on it so dam long…. anyway, got to get ready for our surf school today at ikumi beach. a lot of kids coming so looking forward to it. oh, seen kota and kaisa yesterday at the beach. they came to hawaii last winter season and i took them out to v-land. pretty big v-land. and they handled. their surfing is only going to get better and better… well, gotta get out of here. my body’s sore, my head hurts, and i feel jet lagged again. there’s only one thing that can fix that, the ocean…. once i jump in, it’s all gone…. have a nice day…..
check out this preview of the stuff i’m shooting. coming soon…

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…….