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….

**check out this short clip i took last year in april here in japan. matchi and i were driving around the japan sea area doing promotions for tssc. it went from perfect cool weather to cold snow in a flash. the temperature was 1 degree and it started snowing. the worst thing about the situation is we were driving to the beach to go surf. i had a 3mm wetsuit with no boots or gloves. i remember sitting in the car freezing my ass off and everybody was trying to get me to go surf. shit, there was even snow on the beach. i guess it’s normal for surfers here because everybody went surfing. so felt like i had too. i remember walking on the beach and my feet were numb. then when i paddled out, i thought my head was going to fall off. talk about ice cream headaches. oh my gosh…. i surfed for 30 minutes in freezing cold water, rain, wind, and snow. that was my first time… and my last…. it wasn’t fun at all for me. but at least i gave it a try….