omg! after the picture perfect day yesterday, today was the totally opposite. the big news was the huge storm dumping rain all over the island. traffic everywhere!

so i leave the house and take the back roads around the traffic to waikiki. 15 minutes on the dot. all i wanted to do was get out of the crazy traffic so the best place was in the ocean! picked up Ambo-san and headed to the harbor.

we surfed in the thundering rain. it was raining so hard at one point that you couldn’t see anything. but hey, it’s only water right? this is the view to the beautiful diamond head. today, you couldn’t see it even if you tried your best.

we managed to get a good session in. super fun waves with only us out. want to thank Reid and Yuko-chan for giving Ambo-san every single wave he wanted. once again, he kept on paddling back out and saying “i’m so happy.” that makes us all happy too.

Ambo-san caught a years worth of waves in the past 3 days. i could see the pure stoke in him and i hope he enjoyed his hawaiian surf trip. have a safe flight out of hawaii and see you somewhere in this world! maybe Cancun or El Salvador again? we shall see.

this guy tried to steal this girls iPhone. but he chose the wrong girl. the girl happened to be a good MMA fighter so she tackled the guy and put him in a triangle choke hold until the police came. it was pretty funny watching him crying.

crazy to see all the refugee’s fleeing syria. they are pretty much running for their lives!!! and the sad thing is that no country is taking them in.

and when you see mothers and children this desperate, it gets even sadder. this world is becoming a crazy place to live.
more rain tonight, hurricanes, more storms, more flooding, and more waves. you probably got wet today but like my friend Holli says “it’s only water!”

my friend Matsu knows japan better than anyone else i know. the reason is he’s been everywhere and done everything. he knows the best places to stay, to visit, and to eat. so when we met up at his favorite unagi restaurant in ginza, i knew it was going to be good.

for those of you who don’t know, unagi is very expensive. a medium serving will cost average 2500 yen or about $21. so it’s not something you would eat for lunch everyday. as for me, i don’t really crave for unagi, but this place made me love it.

when it came, my mouth was watering. not just the unagi was good, the rice was cooked perfectly. i enjoyed every single bite.

and when you have good company, the food tastes much better. Matsu on the left, Ryosuke on the right. nice having lunch with you guys in tokyo!

i ate every single bite of the unagi, and every single grain of rice. it was excellent!

then Matsu took us for a walk around the corner to this coolest cafe. it was super japanese and super authentic. i ordered the green tea ice cream and it was by far the best i’ve ever eaten in my life.

then my last day in ginza, i got hungry for ramen. so i simply texted Matsu “hey, i want to eat some good ramen, where should i go?” ten seconds later, i get a reply with a map on where to go. i walked 4 minutes and i was at the front door of Matsu’s favorite ramen restaurant in tokyo.

i get in and order what he told me to. the charsiu won ton ramen.

omg, it was so good! authentic ramen, not too oily, very light, and very tasty. just what my stomach was craving for.

i took my first bite and thought i was in heaven. atE everything and drank all the soup. a perfect lunch!

omg, where did this photo come from? haha. last year in tohoku, we were driving home after a long trip. we drove through the toll gate and right there was a policeman that snuck up on us looking in the backseat to see if everybody was wearing their seatbelt. opps, no. so who gets the ticket? right, the driver Matsu. i didn’t even know the people in the backseat had to have their seat belts on. anyway, our perfect driver who was almost going to get his prize gold status for his perfect driving history got busted. of course we all felt so bad. i felt so bad that i had to get out of the car and take this rare photo of Matsu getting a ticket. last year we all felt bad so i kept this photo to myself. this year in tohoku, we were all laughing about it so i guess why not post it? haha.
sorry again Matsu. but thank you so much for showing me the great places to eat in the country i love to eat in, JAPAN! let’s all keep our seat belts on and enjoy the ride!

The Chinese Military. Scary!
Good morning 6am.
Chest high at Ala Moana and a little bumpy.
Head high at Diamond Head and clean.
Clouds, rain, storms, and maybe sun.
Very warm day.
Going surfing.
Have a wonderful day!