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….
