there is a culture on Yoron Island. you sit in a circle, the head of the table, or chief pours you a drink, he passes it to you, and you have to drink it. and i mean it, you have to drink it. whether its beer, shochu, sake, awamori, or jacksan. then it just keeps going round and round all night long. that’s the Yoron Island style and after 2 nights of that, i started to get use to it…

this is tomi-san welcoming our crew. tomi-san is an amazing free diver. and not to mention, a human GPS. there is no such things as electronics on his boat. he drives, stops in the middle of the sea, throws over the anchor, and we dive. i was watching him take landmarks to find his spots and i was amazed. thanks tomi-san for your showing us your island from your boat….

right as our party was going to end, another local free diver walked in and restarted our party. oh my gosh!!!

this is another local fisherman and our Yoron Guide. Manyu-san took us all over the island and was really funny and friendly. he is the inventor of Yoron Ukon and if it wasn’t for his ukon i took everyday, i would still have a headache. thanks manyu-san for showing us around and for your awesome ukon…

manyu-san also raises fighting chickens. they fight, they lay eggs, and we eat um. yoron is an isolated island with no mountain, in fact, the highest point is only 30 meters or 90 feet? and being so far away from everything, the islanders live off the ocean and the farms they have. everything is fresh as can be. these tomatoes? so sweet!!!

itadakimasu!

good morning. gosh, how cold was yesterday? i came from hot okinawa and when i stepped out of the airplane in tokyo, i felt the chill. it must have been 8 degrees and i only had a t-shirt on. it’s mid april and it’s feeling like winter. now i wonder why so many people in japan get sick. the weather is crazy and when i was walking on the street with my t-shirt last night after dinner, i thought i was going to freeze to death. what’s going on with our world?

had a nice dinner last night with naoka, kenji, matsuo, and tokura-san. we ate sheep and it was so good! baaa baaaa….

i just seen the movie hatchi recently. did you see it? it’s about a dog that use to wait for his owner to come back to the train station everyday after work. then one day, the owner died. but hatchi kept on waiting and waiting everyday for 9 years!!! it’s a really touching story and when i found out it was true, it made me sad. the story took place in tokyo at shibuya station. there is a statue of a dog near a bench right outside of shibuya station. ever since i came to japan, that would be where i would meet people. and all this time, i had no idea what the statue stood for. now i do. gosh, i feel like going over there and petting poor hatchi. what a great movie….
**and last, did you see the final from the ripcurl bells contest in australia? kelly slater was injured and still won it. can he become world champion for 10 times? it’s going to be a wild and crazy year. check out the finals….