Typhoon Krovanh

Had a good catch up with mum yesterday on skype and she gave me the run down on her travel experiences in Oman and Europe. It sounds like she had a blast and met some really nice people. After that it was straight to the beach!!

We have typhoon number 11 upon us today. It is making a straight B-line for Chiba where it is expected to make landfall. As a result, I guess we'll be bearing the brunt of it. It's then forecast to turn 90 degrees north and follow the coast north up to Hokkaido before heading back out to sea and weakening.

For those in the know, we usually experience some pretty good quality waves in the day leading up to the typhoon passing us and immediately after. Yesterday was no exception!! Local pro and top Japanese surfer, Naohisa Ogawa, was ripping Maruki's left point break to bits. He was even enjoying taking off switchfoot on a few and smashing the lip!! (Sorry, no pics. Too amping to hit the water myself)

I managed to snare a few off the crowd before the tide started playing tricks as it filled in causing some backwash and inconsistency. Still, stoked to get a few great waves under the belt.

Today, however, is a different story. Here's something Dave posted on his blog;

Channel 4 news LIVE from KAMOGAWA! Surf 6-8 meters. (face height of 20-25 feet)
I went down just to take a look and it was pretty macking surf breaking way outside. The beach houses will be well pleased that they dismantled their huts during the week. I imagine on a high tide later this afternoon when the storm is expected to peak there could well be some erosion to the beach. Until tomorrow, we'll be staying inside and praying for good banks and manageable waves so that I can sneak in a surf before work tomorrow.

Here are a couple of pics from todayAbove: Can you see the concrete tetrapods on the far right on the inside? That's where the waves usually break.
Below: A BIG right peak breaking in front of the Maruki point car park...maybe tomorrow????

Chicken Pie

After a pretty mammoth session surfing on Sunday and another quick surf today, the body was feeling a bit stiff and sore so I passed up basketball for a lazy night in and decided to bake this CHICKEN PIE for dinner.
It's a dish I learned from a friend back in my uni days and is pretty simple to cook.

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 Onion
• 2 Potatoes
• 1 can of Peaches/Apricots
• Cheese (Blue/Brie/Camembert)
• Pie Sheets
• Oregano/Basil herb seasoning
• Optional Veges (Broccoli/Green Pepper/etc)

Method

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and chop the potato and onion (plus optional veges) and cook in the fry pan with some olive oil, adding herb seasoning as desired until chicken is cooked and potato is almost cooked.While it's cooking, slice the peaches (drain the juice first!) and the cheese. Grease the pie dish and lay the pie sheets (after stretching a bit) in with enough overlapping to cover the top. Once everything is set and cooked, let it cool a little then put everything in the pie, add peaches and cheese on top and fold over the pastry to cover.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees then place the pie in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Take it out, cut it up and serve. Feeds 4 adults or 2 really hungry ones.

The Outlook....SUN!!

The weather is really starting to settle now and we are experiencing almost perfect weather.

時間	0時	3時	6時	9時	12時	15時	18時	21時
天気	晴れ	晴れ	晴れ	晴れ	晴れ	晴れ	晴れ	晴れ
気温（℃）	22	21	22	26	27	26	24	23
湿度（％）	86	90	86	72	64	64	68	68
降水量（mm/h）	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
風向 風速（m/s）	北東 1	北北東 2	北東 2	東北東 2	東北東 2	東 2	東北東 2	北東 2

This is the forecast for tomorrow! More of the same. Yay!!

Hope winter is not too harsh for all you folk back in NZ

Back to School

I've been back at work this week after enjoying a rather low-key (apart from the Haka) week off for 'OBON'. Mum, do you like the tatt??? Don't stress, it was only drawn on. What do you think though? Seriously? let me know with a comment below. (English/Japanese ok)

Testing began for the second term's curriculum at school for the elementary aged kids with pretty satisfying results. We still have a few things to fine tune with regard to some of the testing materials, but it's been a progression from the first lot a couple of months back. And, as a result, the week has flown by!!!

I got home last night and there was a postcard from mum in the post!!!! I hadn't heard from her in awhile so was beginning to wonder if she had disappeared off the face of the earth!!
She's just returned from flitting around the world and despite 50 degree temps in Dubai it sounds like she really enjoyed herself, especially on the cruise. Wish i could have joined her and Aunty Val!! That lady knows how to PARTY!!!!!!

There are still lots of people at the beach enjoying the last week of official school summer holidays. Check Aiko's blog for more pics of the crowded beach!

So far I've managed to stay outta trouble and avoid any crashes with beginners, kooks and rude 'drop-in' Tokyo surfers. I may just sit it out today (Sunday) to keep that track record in tact. (hahahahaha)
Besides, there is swell forecast that should start filling in tomorrow from another typhoon. Yeeeaaahhhh!! Bring it on! Fingers are crossed for some decent size, as the bigger it is the safer it is....less people :)

Friends

This guy is pretty funny. This is his version of a Flight Of The Conchords song.
Watch the video (it's so well synched) and enjoy. J

Crocs

Never thought I'd own a pair of these, but good friend Taro S. flicked me this pair he was given as they were a size too big for him. With feet my size in Japan you never turn down an opportunity like this.Shopping with Aiko yesterday, we came across a Crocs shop and found this little "Jiminy Cricket" decal and couldn't say no.
Thanks Taro!!

HAKA

A couple of months back I was approached by a friend of mine that teaches Tahitian dance in Mobara. She was hoping to recruit a few male dancers for a summer performance in Katori City, Chiba. If you've ever witnessed Tahitian dance you'll know that it is very upbeat and involves a whole lotta booty shakin' that is, well, beyond me. I was intrigued though at the prospect of performing a Maori Haka, Ka mate, made famous by the NZ All Blacks.
And, after some research into the history, meaning and Maori language, we started to get together, Dave and I in Kamogawa and 2 young Japanese guys up in Mobara. We finally all got together this past week and ironed out any flaws over several practice sessions and then last Saturday, drove up to Katori City, near Narita, for the show.
We had no idea of what to expect and were kind of thinking along the lines that we would just be part of some kind of 'pre-event' build up. The nerves weren't bad at all, due to the fact that we knew absolutely no-one in the crowd, but we were taken by suprise a little when they introduced us as the 'MAIN EVENT'
Fortunately, we had gone the whole hog with facial and body tatts and had a good costume that Saori had put together. We went all out, tons of energy and nailed it!!! And the crowd loved it. Dave and I were inundated with requests for photos and encores after the show and the Katori City Mayor thanked us personally for our contribution.
It was such a blast. Hopefully, from the pics, you can get an idea of the day.
Enjoy...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Beach day and Donya

Had a really nice cruisy day at the beach with good friends the Nakashima's. Managed to get a bit of a tan and quick surf after spending the morning fixing dings on 2 of my boards (HOT work sanding in the sun!!)
Then we were all famished so decided to go to Donya for dinner. Great to see Ken-san and his family again. They've been pretty busy both at work and surfing! Ken-san was showing off his latest pic, taken by Shu, which looked awesome!!
We ate a bunch of dishes to warm-up including fried squid, poke salad, and sashimi. Then i tried a new dish (oysters in american eggplant grilled with cheese and some seasonal veges with a basil sauce) which was killer!!
Aiko went for her fav, the Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, which always goes down well.
Mizuki and Kona even dressed up to impress!

Gochisosama!!!

Cold and Raw

This is cool little montage of surfing around Dunners, my old stomping ground. Cold, grunty and empty!!! Imagine if this was tropical..

Out Front

Dave snapped these pics of me at Seaside today (Mahalo bro) before coming out himself and laying down one of the sickest roundhouse cutbacks I've seen in a long time!!!


The predicted swell still hadn't arrived but there was the odd one sneaking in. Some are picking that we might get a pulse from the back swell tomorrow which could thin out the numbers. Fingers crossed anyway...

Cheese anyone?

Was waiting for the tide/swell/wind and decided to clear up some space on the hard-drive and came across this little gem that Aiko's hula friend sent her awhile back.(takes a little time to load up)
I guess the moral of the story here is that no-one can resist cheese, regardless!

Chasing Rainbows!

With a forecast typhoon on the maps with swell models showing building size and sighting some promising looking swell pushing in to some beaches/reef points just north of here on Sunday, I went in search of some of that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

With good friends Dave and Jun up for it, we headed south... Perhaps we jumped the gun a bit because despite clocking up some km's and checking both some semi-secret spots as well as better known places, we came up empty.

It was however a pretty funny day given all the rain. Any surf point check involving getting out of the car resulted in what basically amounted to an instant shower!
And driving became both a little hazardous (especially for people walking on the sidewalk) and entertaining as huge plumes of water would spray on to and over fences and into people's yards as well as oncoming traffic. There was tons of surface flooding and it's expected to continue today with more heavy rain forecast. (pic:yahoo.co.jp)

BTW, got back to Kamogawa, dropped the boys off and swung by Seaside on the way home to find fun, clean (but lumpy) head-high waves with only a few out. Good for washing off a days driving.

Body Surfing

Dad was saying something about body surfing the other day which triggered a memory of these hand templates I found surfing the net awhile back when searching for info on traditional Hawaiian wood alaia surfboards.These guys look like they might be fun to make and try out. They should enable the surfer to plane along the wave a little easier.

Could it be the next project???????

Kakou

Went down on my bike to check the surf and word musta got out because every man and his dog was there. Decided to grab my board and paddle out at Kakou just to get wet. I had seen the odd set wave come thru but they were few and far between. With only Shu, his wife Yuri and a couple of others out it was super relaxed and then ..... these lefts just started reeling!!! My session was super fun!
I have got to clock up my water time this week before the hectic chaos of Obon holiday begins next week, where it might be safer to steer clear of the main beaches.

Aloha

Yesterday

pic courtesy of Shumei Hata. Arigatou!!

Surf Is Pumping!!

This was today's wave model forecast.

This is tomorrow's

Looks like waves all week!!!

A friend of mine, Shu, snapped a couple of pics which I'll post when I get :)

Surf's Up & Sun's Out!!

Had some fun waves today at Seaside. (unknown rider)

Managed to ding up 2 separate longboards :(
They'll be at Maki's getting fixed over the next fortnight or so. Funnily enough I had a dream last night that my favourite shortboard got smashed. Was it foresight?? or just bad luck??

I also ran into Nozomi (on the left), a friend from B'ball that I've known since she was about 12. She's all grown up now and was enjoying a day off work with her friends at the beach.
See ya at B'ball tonight!!

BILLY ('s) T (4) JAMES

My brother in Berlin, Billy, sent over a T-shirt for my birthday which arrived Saturday. The guy has to be, hands down, the nicest guy in the world!! We used to hang at school and still keep in touch (though never often enough). Anyway, the guy was @ BEN HARPER & the RELENTLESS 7 on or near my b'day and picked up a shirt.

Big Mahalo to B,M,L and Bump

BTW, if you were wondering about the coded title, Bily T James is/was an iconic NZ entertainer. Check out this comedy skit from the 80's off youtube. It's classic