good morning. 6am here in japan and sweating. must be 100 degrees already because my tshirt is soaked with sweat. how do people sleep here? it’s been too hot for me and waking up in the middle of the night sweating is the worst… i miss the cool tradewinds of hawaii… well, been waking up to flat waves for a while and think it’s about time to move on. going to hit the road in search of something surfable. i’ll even settle for a knee high wave right now…. have a nice hot day…

i was stuck in traffic so i took a back road. ended up getting totally lost and ended up in the mountains. passed by this little stand and the watermelons caught my eye so i stopped by to investigate. there are stands like this all over the place in the country side. grandpa’s and grandma’s harvest their little gardens and sell their fruits and vegetables on the side of the road. i stopped by and bought some watermelons and vegetables. so fresh!!!

the cool thing is these little shops work on the “HONOR” system. usually nobody is there. just pick your fruits and leave the money in the little can. this will never work in hawaii. people will stop by to pick up the money can, rather than the fruits. wait, they would probably take the fruits too… this is the part i like about japan the most. honest people….

this is pretty cool. recycle….
**it was the day before the kewalo’s go-naminori grom contest. shun wanted to get a practice session in so i took him down there in the morning. he was focused and wanted to surf all day. so happen, another grom named elisiah came down so i took the two boys to the side and let them go man on man in 15 minute heats. game on….

ok, been getting a lot of emails from people all over japan sharing their secret eating places. this one is different. this hidden secret came from kaneohe. yeah, wendell kong sent me an email a few months ago telling me about this chicken katsu place in shonan. he said it’s the best in japan and guys like pat rawson and wake tokoro say the same thing. i pass by this place about 50 times a year and didn’t even recognize the place. so after wendell gave me directions, i went to check it out this time…

it’s pretty old school style. middle age married couple running this place probably for generations. i liked the feeling when i got inside…

wendell told me to try the chicken stuffed with cheese katsu. i wasn’t in the cheese mood so i took the pork katsu, or “tonkatsu”. 750 yen or $7. not bad…

when i check someplace out, i check everything. they had the sesame seed grinding machine, hot mustard, and sweet sauce…

all this for $7? what a freakin deal!! and when i took my first bite, i was like “ummmmmmmm.” the lady was looking at me and laughing. why? because i was by myself.. haha…

wendell was right. this place is probably the best katsu restaurant in japan. and now that i know where it is, i’ll be back for sure. it’s called SAGARA and you get there by taking route 134 toward hiratsuka. once you go over the banyu bridge, you will see a denny’s on the right. take the right at that light and SAGARA is right on the right side. the phone number is 0463-22-6336 if you get lost. try it, you’ll like it…

kelia and my sister worked really hard on this design on her new longboard. kelia told me not to put it on my blog because somebody might copy it. haha… so to everybody out there, please copy it… haha…
**wanted to give DAVID YI from california a plug. david sent me a pretty cool email about a month ago. when i started my blog, i told myself that if i could make people happy through it, it’s all worth it. getting email from people around the world makes me super happy and makes me want to share more and more. it’s like an addiction. yeah, i’m lucky and living a dream. but the thing i want everybody to understand is, SO CAN YOU….. CLICK HERE FOR DAVID YI’S BLOG….

**this is youtube part 2 of my wonderful day in yugawara. when i was driving back there, it was really sunny and hot but i was seeing lightning bolts in the clear sky. the kind of lightning bolts coming down onto the ocean and streets. it was nuts and i was freakin scared. the lightning here in japan kills surfers all the time. and i didn’t want it to kill me. especially when i’m driving a car. anyway, we had a barbecue on the beach, got to watch some japanese style lifeguard training, and had a great time. check it out…