salemat pagi! after our first nightmare day, we finally got here to the
mentawai islands and guess what? the waves are good! surfed lances
lefts, bintangs, ht’s, and macaroni’s. it’s day 5 of 11 days and so
many good waves have been ridden, and so many experiences happened.
here is a sneak peak of some photos i took so far. yeah, i shot over
2000 photos. like usual, it’s been really busy here for me. surfing,
shooting, diving, and talking. not too much time for naps and so far,
my body feels like going and going! no stop!
here are some captions for these photos.
photo 1: Ayaka Suzuki. this was our first session at Lances Rights.
i’d call this wave 6-8′ hawaiian scale. big wave for such a young 16
year old girl. this girl charges!
photo 2: it’s these 4 young girls first time to mentawai, and first
boat trip ever. the first night, their faces didn’t look like this. it
took a day and a jump in the ocean to overcome their sea sickness. from
now on, it’s all fun!
photo 3: toda-san was the first japanese stand up paddler ever to come
to the mentawai’s. he looks pretty comfortable out on this giant set!
photo 4: i remember pushing this young girl into waves at kewalo’s on
her first trip to hawaii. Reika Noro surely grew up into a fine young
surfer. at 17 years old, her career has just started. i bet anybody
this girl will be japan’s champion in the next few years. watch out.
photo 5: we caught 2 big fish by the fishing pole, and about 10 or so
on our speargun. sashimi everynight? yes, and poke too!
photo 6: this is the favorite part of my day. watching the sunset,
eating sashimi, sipping on a bintang, and talking to the coolest people
in the world. yes, we come from all ages and all walks of life, but we
are all here for the same reason. to surf, relax, and have fun!
photo 7: scored some clean water at bintangs for some underwater
fisheye. super cool world which i love!
anyway, sitting here at macaroni’s resort buying wifi. after i send
this blog, i’m back to the boat and pulling into one of the most perfect
left barrels in the world. great life! be back at next wifi spot.

every time i go up to tantalus, i have flashbacks of my high school days when we use to up there at night to listen to music. i’ve been up there over a hundred of times and each time, all the memories come back. then when i see the beautiful UH Manoa Campus right in front, it reminds me of my college days. i still can’t believe i actually went to school there. those years went by so fast because i was in a hurry to graduate and make my move to japan. probably one of the biggest accomplishments of my life by far, but i wish i enjoyed my college days a little more. i had the opportunity to meet amazing people from around the world, i had the opportunity to absorb so much information into my brain, and i had the opportunity to graduate with a diploma in business. that was exactly 20 years ago. up until 10 years ago, a lot of people around me thought i wasted my time and money going to college because i didn’t use my degree. yeah, the normal way is to get your college degree, make a resume, and try to get into a company. for me, it was different. my college degree is in my brain for every road in my life. i use it everyday. and looking back 20 years, i think i made a lot of good decisions in my life. some bad, but i never look back, never regret, and always move forward.

i was a young boy that just finished a very hard, demanding, and strict business program at UH. the weird thing is i don’t even remember this day. good thing somebody took this photo of my mom and me. check me out holding that big Asahi beer can. haha. one week after this photo, i moved to japan and stepped into a whole new world. a world i’ve been loving for the past 20 years of my life. and even though i don’t remember this special day in my life, i want to thank all the special people who came by to congratulate me. and thanks to my family and friends who supported me and believed in me. and i even want to thank the people that didn’t believe in me because it’s all because of you i tried even harder. yeah, it might sound weird, but when people tell me i can’t do something, i like to prove them wrong. everything in life is possible and don’t forget it!
my grandpa osaki once told me “kirby, education is key in life. if you have a good education, you can do anything.” he was absolutely right! thanks grandpa!

i hate infomercials and think they are all fake. but one days i was at my sisters house, she had one of these Iron Gym bars hanging on her door. so i tried it and could only do 5 or 6 pullups. the next morning, i felt some muscles hurting like i’ve never felt before. that means it works! so i go online and buy a used one for $15.

take it home, and been using it everyday since. i do 4 sets of 10 pull ups, total 40. then do 4 sets of 50 pushups, total 200. it takes me 10 minutes a day and it gets my blood pumping. ever since than, i feel healthier and stronger. it’s funny how $15 can turn me into a healthier life. this thing is amazing.

then i put it on the floor and do push ups. who ever thought about this is a genius, and also a millionaire.

speaking of millionaires, las vegas has many. i came back up to my penthouse room after watching the maywheather fight and felt like a millionaire too. the only thing was, i only had $130 in my pocket. haha. but i took this photo of the big city that i will probably never go to again.

and speaking of millions again. i have my first $1M dollar bill! i just hope the dam thing is real. haha.