good morning. 7 am and once again small waves on the south shore. maybe chest high sets if your lucky. not too many guys out at bowls now. maybe everybody is getting tired of surfing small waves? when the next overhead south swell hits, i bet you there will be thousands of surfers in the water. i’ll probably be surfing all day long. see some fun 2′ waves on the north shore at laniakea. ummm…. well, i’m looking at my surfboard in one corner of my house, and my speargun in the other. it’s a tough choice….. have a great day…

if you want good food here in hawaii, you have to know where to look. just because there is a long line, that doesn’t mean that it is good. some places have long lines and when you finally get what you’ve been waiting for, you could be disappointed. i’ve seen many places in hawaii do a lot of advertising to get customers, it works, but only in the beginning. keeping the customers coming back is the key. here is the line at Romy’s shrimp on the other side of the island over in kahuku. it takes 1.5 hours to drive there, 30 minutes in line, and 30 minutes to get your food. that’s over 2.5 hours but is it worth it? heck yeah!! i love it there and go there all the time. forget all the other shrimp wagons out there, go straight to Romy’s and you won’t be disappointed…

then you have shave ice in hawaii. if you have a great location, and a lot of famous people go to your shave ice stand, you get famous. the lines are long but does it mean it’s the best? NO! i know places in hawaii with long lines and when i eat the shave ice, i say to myself “what? why?” but at Waiola Shave Ice in town, you can’t go wrong. this place is pretty hard to find and has a line all day long, but when you do, it’s worth the wait. i eat here a lot and everybody i take there agrees with me, this is the best shave ice…. oh, i forgot to mention that Island Snow shave ice in kailua is pretty dam good too. that’s President Obama’s favorite shave ice in the world…
**so here’s what i’m trying to say. just because you see a long line, that doesn’t mean it’s good. the key is too look at the line. if you see mostly tourists, it’s probably a tourist trap, meaning, not too good. tourists read guide books and go to places that have money to advertise. now look in the line again. if you see mostly locals or all locals, it’s most likely good. why? because locals know where to look for good food and eats. we don’t look at guide books so if we want to eat something good, we know where to go. well, at least i do. i’ve been living here too long to be going to tourist traps. in fact, most of the places i go to won’t be found in guide books. want to know where? i tell people to look on “Nevermind Street.” haha..


meet the newlyweds ayumu-san and his lovely wife. ayumu is a really good surfer who lives near mount fuji. it’s their honeymoon here in hawaii so it’s surf/shop/surf/shop. we surfed at kewalo’s in the morning and pretty much scored until the crowd came out later. ayumu caught so many waves and was surfing really good. after we came in, i took them to a secret chinese restaurant. a place where has a line with no tourists, and a place that is not in any guide books. best chinese in hawaii? yup… i just hope they don’t tell anybody where it is… haha… some secrets are best kept secrets…
then we went somewhere to get some cool license plate frames. that’s a secret too…. yes, some secrets are best kept secrets….

this is the infamous place the call “The Cove.” this is where one countries culture takes place. this is where the world is split up right now. this is where an activist group sneaked in and documented a one-sided movie that was unauthorized. i didn’t see it and have no desire. but if you did, you would probably hate japan, and the japanese people. by now, you all know how i feel about this topic of so called “dolphin killings.” don’t get me wrong, i love dolphins and whales. but at the same time, i love culture. that’s why i’m kind of stuck in the middle of this one and want to learn more and more about it. i don’t want to learn by watching a one-sided movie bashing the japanese, i want to learn more by learning more about the hundreds of years of culture in taiji. someday, i will. and someday, i will video the japanese side. i just want to show that culture is culture. but until then, please don’t make judgement by watching one side of the story….


the documentary that was made in taiji somehow won an oscar. now, they want to show it in japan? are you kidding me? why would you want to show a japanese bashing movie in japan? there have been so many protests and even death threats from conservatives so they called off the tokyo screenings. it’s pretty sad to see activist groups going around the world disrupting culture traditions, no matter what it is…..
**and last, i received a few emails giving me information about on how to find out my roots in japan. in a week or so, i should be able to get my great grandparents names and what city their from. then i’ll take it from there. thank you all for your help. and after thinking about it more, one of you could be my relative. that would be cool….

In the Mentawai’s!!!