my little grand-nephew is the cutest. Noah just turned 5 and has a personality of his own. and a little camera shy.

look at this kid! so cute!

Happy Birthday Noah! let me know when you wan to surf! i will take you anytime!

i went up to tantalas today. it’s always pretty dam amazing up there.

do you see the white dome on the right side of the photo? that is the start of the bottom part of University of Hawaii. and see that weird triangle roof building on the left of the photo? that is the top part of UH. the break between classes were 15 minutes and i remember running from class to class. one of the biggest college campus in america? and also the most beautiful!

i wanted to say thank you to Suzuki-san, Emi-san, Nozomi-chan, and Masaya-kun for a wonderful day of surfing! you all did great for you first time surfing! keep on surfing and enjoy the rest of your trip in hawaii.

A wonderful day with the Suzuki-san family!

going to tohoku 7 times was a great experience for me. to see the progress, to see the change, and to see people moving on just inspires me every single day. i still get asked many questions about how japan is today. all i can say is that it’s still a long road ahead. some places good, some places same. but the thing that fascinates me most is the strength within the kids.

some people think the kids that lost everything are victims. for me, i think of them as survivors.

during M6, one of our main goals was to recreate memories. matsu took the photo, we printed it there, and put it into custom made frames made from the surfer girls of hawaii. all with love, all with hope, and all with smiles.
thank you again to everybody involved with our 7 missions!
photos by shinsuke matsukawa.