jumped on the Nankai Ferry yesterday evening. a nice relaxing 2 hour ride except for all the kids running all over the place. a kid even came up to me and stole my pillow when i looked the other way. he and his friends were laughing at me. classic. reminds me of myself at that age. haha.

happy people in shikoku! keep on surfing dudes!

i woke up this morning to a nice fresh bowl of shirasu on the table. so happy!

my Yamari power breakfast.

then played with the kids for a little while. amazing how fast kids grow up.

then went for a surf around 8am. super magical place and super locals only surf spot. waves overhead and barreling. i’m not going to say i’m lucky anymore, i’m going to say i’m dreaming because this can’t be real???

Kimura-san and Hatabo-san hanging out at the locals surf club. such a cool place.

this spot is very very shallow so if you ride too far in, you will hit the reef. Kimura-san smashed his board into the rocks.

as soon as i smashed my hand into the reef, the first thing i did was to check if my board was ok. board ok, hand not ok. freaking stinging all day!

why would a surfer light himself on fire and go surfing? i really don’t understand this.

if you’ve ever been to the mentawai’s, you probably saw the Rip Curls Search boat. not anymore. this beautiful boat sank during a recent charter so the boat sits on the bottom of the indian ocean right now. everybody survived.

now it’s time to go backwards. it was exactly a week since i took off in hawaii. i remember leaving the runway thinking to myself “i wonder how the waves are going to be?” well, the past 3 days answered that.

hope my motorcycle is still at the airport waiting for me. and glad i put in gas on the way to the airport because when i get back, all i want to do is go straight home, grab my board, jump in the truck, and go surfing.

$4.97 to fill up the tank. the cheapest way to get to and from the airport. a taxi would cost me $100 round trip. i pay less than a dollar.
anyway, great trip. can’t wait to get on the flight and go into a deep sleep. want to thank each and everyone that made this one week feel like a year full of wonderful experiences. thank you al from the bottom of my heart and hope to see you again for typhoon 13? haha.

High Return
OMG. Itai!

gosh, seems like yesterday was a year ago. time just flies when you’re having fun. anyway, better document yesterday before i forget about it. started off with the golden colors of the land of the rising sun. so beautiful!

we passed by a few spots on the way to our destination. this perfect left point had 5 surfers out, too crowded for us.

i was walking around the road checking things out. started talking to the grandma’s waiting for the bus. they were so cute! the only thing is i couldn’t understand what they where saying??? country japanese dialect.

dried squid. good for the bbq.

and dried fish, good for the beer.

coming all the way to japan from hawaii and getting good waves is a huge gamble. a gamble i’ve been taking for many years and will do for the rest of my life. pulling up to this empty lineup yesterday morning was like winning the jackpot. i still can’t believe how lucky we were!!!

near where i stay, there is a little restaurant that serves the best and cheapest lunch. i always ask the lady to read off the amazing menu for me.

this day, i ordered the saba and shrimp tempura teishoku.

it was amazing! and can you believe everything on the menu is only 500 yen or $4? the cheapest and healthiest lunch in japan! if we had this back in hawaii, i’d eat here every single day.

then went to a little snack shop to buy my dessert. mugi tea with mochi filled with azuki beans.
jumped on the ferry and came to wakayama last night. going to surf the swells here and head to the airport tonight. heard there is a high surf advisory for the south shores of oahu for the next 3 days. omg, wave magnet!!! have a wonderful day!