good morning. 6:30 am and the waves are looking pretty fun out on the north shore. 3′ and clean with overcast skies and haze from the volcano. town is small and onshore. going for a surf, then maybe a run. have a nice day. see ya….
i threw the 2 red kumu’s in the steamer with shitake mushrooms, green onion, chinese parsley, and black bean sauce. after it steamed for 15 minutes, i poured sizzling hot peanut oil over it. ate it with some hot white rice and i felt like i was a king. sooooo good!!! and i’m eating the silver one tonight sashimi style. fresh fish equals fresh life…..
this is a kamaka ukulele. i bought one about 15 years ago from the kamaka store in town. i remember going down there, ordering one, paying $250, and waiting 3 months for it. i was so happy when it was done. it was a great investment and i kept it on my tv. sometimes i use to pick it up and start jamming like jake shimabukuro. did you know i taught him how to play? haha.. joke… anyway, a few years after i got it, my friend matchi asked me to borrow it. being the nice guy i am, i let him borrow it and take it to the north shore. well, a few days later, there happened to be the biggest swell that hit the north shores in years. so big that the waves came crashing into the dove house in front of ehukai beach. the wave came through matchi’s room trashing everything including my kamaka ukulele. OH MY GOSH!!! well, matchi had insurance so he gave me my $250 back. i was bummed but like we say in japanese, “shoganai.” matchi dried out the ukulele and salvaged it…..
fast forward 12 years…. christmas is coming so santa asked me what i wanted. ummm… a ukulele. so i went looking for the same kamaka ukulele yesterday and guess what? that dam thing cost $650 now!!! what!!! the guy told me that since the ukulele boom in japan (thanks to jake shimubukuro), kamaka ukuleles are expensive and hard to get. the bad news is that i can’t afford one. but the good news is that i’ve been told there is another ukulele that’s even better now. i walked into a little music store yesterday and happened to know the owner. yeah, we use to work at niu valley union gas station 25 years ago. small world yeah? well, he gave me a deal on the last ukulele of it’s kind. it’s made out of koa and made here in hawaii. cost as much as a kamaka but sounds a lot better. i can’t tell you how cheap i’m going to get it for. but today is the day i’m going to pick it up and i’m just as happy as i was 15 years ago when i went to kamaka….
so the moral to this story is everything happens for a reason. i get to be excited 2x on getting a new ukulele. matchi scored a deal. i’m happy. i’m sure matchi is happy. his ukulele is worth 3x more… plus, i got a deal and bumped into an old time friend that i would have never seen if i wasn’t looking for a ukulele…
and another moral to this story is: i’ll never let anybody borrow my ukulele ever again…. see, but no touch. haha…
and last, i was checking out satoshi’s blog and seen this photo. hey, i know this girl!!! do you?
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