good morning. 6am japan time. it’s sunny, calm wind, and full blooming cherry blossoms. long day ahead. going for a surf. oh shit, i forgot to hang my wetsuit up to dry last night. shit, that sucks…. maybe i’ll surf after my wetsuit dries… there is a lawson down the street with the best udon. that sounds good…. have a nice day….

this is a photo of my brothers and sister. my older brother mason is on the left. then my younger brother davis, then me, then my sister tammy. i think i was 5 years old or something. and the matching clothes we wore was made by my grandma fukunaga. we always use to wear matching clothes so nobody could figure out who was who. gosh, i wonder what the heck i was thinking smiling like that. haha….

and this is a photo of my sisters family. the moniz family. from the left is seth, joshua, isaiah, kelia, and micah. all great kids with awesome parents. you’ll hear a lot more about this family in the future. this photo is a keeper….
*and last, before i lost my camera, i took this short video clips of the yugawara boys on their first surf in hawaii. it was at kewalo’s with the joshua and seth. pretty classic….

good evening. it’s 9pm shikoku time. after leaving shonan yesterday, we finally got here. stopped by wakayama and that story coming later. first, these are some photos of our drive thru yugawara. i’m tired, jet lagged, hanging, and feel like kalua. yeah, i feel like a pig. been eating so much good food that my jeans are feeling a little tight. i jumped in the water this evening at ikumi on a paddle board and it felt good to be back in the water. the water is cold be pretty dam refreshing. it will wake your ass up in no time. anyway, got a long day tomorrow. going to surf in the morning, then jump in the car and head to osaka for the Barrel’s Surf Shop Party!!! starts at 8:30pm so see you there… can’t wait…..

check out this photo. we were in our ryokan in yugawara and there was this big cherry blossom tree right outside our window. seth and tony just got back from the hot springs with their yukata’s on. hawaiians in japan. by the way, the breakfast all you can eat buffet was unreal…

when we got to the room, there were only 2 futon’s set up. had 3 of us so seth got his own room, right inside the closet. i slept in the closet once in japan. but i wasn’t 10 years old, i was 26. haha…. here is seth with his own pad…

the waves were knee high but good enough for the boys. they surfed yugawara and had a blast. gosh, hanging out with these boys makes me feel so young. i’m only 28 years old but i’m feeling like i’m 10. haha.

we stopped by this fisherman’s port to check out the daily catch. this guy was cutting the buri kama…. i was ready to start up the barbecue. gosh it looked so good….

wavy surf is such a cool surf shop. everybody is so close and it’s like one big family. these are the kind of surf shops i love. we use to have surf shops like these in hawaii before but not anymore. and i don’t think we ever will. pretty sad….

here is another cool photo. this is tokura-san, tony, yo-chan, and me. like i said many and many of times before, tokura-san is the reason i’m living this great life. through out the years, he’s introduced me to so many people around japan. yo-chan is the owner of wavy surf shop in yugawara and i’ve know him for 16 years. yo-chan is one of tokura-san’s good friends and i’m glad i was introduced to him. he’s such a good person with a good heart. he supports the kids surfing, which means a lot. then tony is here on vacation. not to surf, but to eat. and eating is what tony’s doing. oh, kelia is in the photo too. she’s on the cover of the new surfing girls magazine tokura-san’s holding up. kelia just got back from mexico with carissa moore and scored. i just have a little message for her. sis, what’s up with your blog? people are waiting. come on girl….

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….