good morning. i’m still tripping out on how beautiful the beach in yoron was. the water was so clear and the color so emerald blue. i wish i had a house on the white sandy beach there…

there are these sand bars that pop out of the ocean on low tide. paradise or what? i can’t wait to go back!!!

and check out the star sand all over in the water. 1 year ago, i was researching and researching everywhere on the internet to find out how i can go scoop up some star sand. a lot of websites said that there are only 2 islands where you can go get the sand. one is taketomi and the other is iriomote island. and from what i’ve heard, many tourists from around the world go there to pick the sand so there’s not that much star sand anymore. well, all the websites were wrong. there are 3 islands where you can get star sand or “hoshizuna” and Yoron is one of them. i don’t know if it’s a smart idea to share this secret….

this is yoron’s super local spear fisheman Sabu-san. if it wasn’t for sabu-san, this whole trip couldn’t have happened. one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. sabu-san flew over from okinawa to bring us a huge piece of meat for our barbecue party. i’m so lucky to be able to meet such kind people in this world…. thanks and see you all again soon!!
**and last, here’s some info on our mentawai trip. let’s all meet at the exit of kuala lumper airport. i think all our flights are only an hour apart. i get there at 5:55 pm on JAL. if something happens and you get lost or can’t find everybody, proceed to the ground level and get the shuttle to the Concorde Airport Hotel which is 5 minutes by the free shuttle bus. it leaves every 30 minutes. i have a room so if worst comes to worst, we can all pile up in there. the next morning, our flight leaves at 7:50 am from the LCC terminal which is about 15 minutes away from where we arrive so don’t get lost. be there 2 hours early because it takes time to get the boards on the flight. if you miss this flight, you might miss the boat. as for the waves? i just checked the report and there are 2 pretty nice looking ground swells headed that way. i’m bringing a couple of 6’0’s and a 6’4. i encourage everybody to bring a tube of wasabi and a bottle of shoyu for our sashimi parties. anyway, see you all soon!!!

dove rash guard…
for mentawai…

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!!!