new banner....new topic

Welcome the new banner! I figured since I was no longer in Japan, I should change the banner from my favorite surfing town to a pic of PDX. Have a look at the old banner down below.


New topic I've decided to do is food. The wacky foods I eat will now be documented.....don't forget the chicken feet and intestines! oh boy.....

Letting go.........

I had to say goodbye to a friend today and this friend I met when I was just 22. I was still a student trying to figure out my ways. You helped me greatly, you taught me never to be afraid. I will remember your face...it is not something so forgettable. I wish there was more time. But, I will never forget the times we shared. Thank you.....

Okay, so enough dorkin around. Today, I had to say goodbye to my RX-7. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it does have a good backstory.

So about 2 weeks ago I decided to post my car up on craiglist; Portland. And yah...I got a few emails asking basic questions like....What's wrong with it? How many miles? Is the paint faded? ARRRGH!...I was only getting the questions that could speak badly about the car and nothing about the 'goods'. Uhm....... 197,750 miles on it....... uhmmm paint is a touch faded in spots.... uhmmm well there is this and that, but it works sometimes so there is nothing really technically wrong with it (shrugs shoulders). Hey what do you expect for a car almost 20 years old?

So finally I get this email from a guy that says, "hey man im really interested in your mazda rx-7, IM the guy that would take care of it. i want a 7 that i could do the TII swap in, and this car is perfect. i would appreciate it if you gave me a call me, my name is brady. 1-541-XXX-8146. thank you. the price of $2800 is firm?" So I call him and we talk and I give him tons of good information about my car and then he tells me he wants to meet up, but can't meet until next weekend because his mom is busy this coming weekend. So I agree to next weekend but I tell him this ....I says, "You know I can't promise the car will be here next week, but I'll let you know for sure and get in contact with you if I sell it." I swear I heard the cage rattling! He starts asking me if I could do him this big favor and save the car. Really? I'm thinking to myself...either this is too good to be true and this guy is gonna be a total flake.......or.......I'm gonna sell my car for PROFIT!!!

You see, back in 2000...I bought the car from fellow Vietnamese people for a mere $2k! I drove the car 8 years and put good amounts of wear n tear on it and now in 2008, I might be selling it for $2,600 dollars! So, I crossed my fingers and just hoped that this wasn't some nut job flake boy.

A week passes and guess what time it was? Yep, car selling time! Since the guy lived far away we decided to meet up at the Wilsonville FRY'S. Might as well do a lil computer shoppin too! I phone him real fast too see where he was at and the next thing I know, I'm getting waved down. The area was open and when got out of the car I saw a young freshman in highschool, a mother about my age, and two skinny white buddies and both I assume are of course .....classmates. I looked at the kid's face and honestly thought, "My God....this kid doesn't have any sort of facial hair at all! Smooth as eggs!".

I politely shook everyone's hand with name greetings and right after that, the boy wanted to know if I could pop the hood. "Yah no problem," I says. Instantly, upon opening the hood as if raising the piece of metal was magically turning on the....... "My rx7 got this removed, got that removed" comments. His friend opens his palm and puts his two hands above the engine like he was the Lord Almighty of RX7 engines! He continued rambling on about how his car had all these things taken off his engine because it robbed him of ...........4 horsepower. It was a severe list emphasized by the hastiness of his words and the serious tone in his voice.....But basically, he wanted to tell me he had nothing but the engine and alternator! That was it. 4hp increase?! Genius! I just kind of nodded along in the right places so it didn't show I wasn't interested hearing about his beat up rx7. I mean I was there trying to sell my my rx7!

I look over at the kid and he looks like he's ready to go for a test drive. I mean his palms were so wet I could smell em. Gotta make sure he likes how it drives .....right? Out of the blue he turns to me and says, "Hey are you over 25?" I wasn't sure why that question popped up out of nowhere, "Uh, yah why?" He sighed with excitement as if over enthused, "Good, cause I just got my permit and I have to drive with someone over 25 with insurance." WTF! You just got your permit? So you don't even have a valid driver's license? NOPE!!

OMG, so the kid is 15 and just barely started driving and he's about to buy my car...not what I had imagined the next owner being like. Anyways....next up.......the test drive. It's late! Time to wrap this up and sleep!

what's new......?

Being away for college and living in Japan has stolen quite a chunk out of my family time away from me. It was like everyone back home just grew up all at once in a blink of an eye. Culturally speaking, there wasn't a big huge adjustment for me moving back here. Reverse cultural shock never even set foot upon my door. Life just smoothly continues without any sort of abrupt interjections. It was like ...onne night, I close my tired eyes in Japan and the next moment I wake refreshed in America.

While I haven't suffered from culture shock, there still hasn't been a day that has gone by that I'm not surprised that I have new family members. COUSINS! For the first time in my life I find myself surrounded by young cousins I never had while growing up. The only blood cousin I had was my younger cousin, Diem, who is 4 years younger than me. Now, she's on her 3rd kid! My uncle has three kids himself, Heidi 11, Helen 8, and Hannah 4. Of course, they have cousins too so I have new cousin's by marriage and basically an extended family I'm just starting to get to know.

Family is still the same.....family, but now there is just more of them. So please say hello to a few of my cousins.

back home

Being back home here in Vancouver, WA is a lot different than being in the countryside of Japan. There is a lot to adjust to and some of the wacky American cultural differences can get to you after awhile.....just like some of the wacky Japanese cultural differences can also drive you plain loco!

Some of the bonuses about being in the States are the roads. I don't know if you have ever been to Japan before, but the roads in N.America are wide and fast! I remember that the speed limit for most of the open roads in Japan is about 40mph! So it takes a lot time to get from A to B. However, the plus side is that you were never really bored driving because you are always surrounded by Japan's natural beauty. Since Japan is so small, it always feels like you're in the heart of Japan. On the contrary to Japan, the US roads are long, straight, and very boring. The only plus is that you can blaze about 60mph - 70mph on them so you can travel great distance as long as you can stay awake. Ever try driving from Portland to Seattle via I-5? Zzzzzzzz

Another great plus about being back home is going to live shows. You've got the random live bands at bars and clubs along with a list of all different concerts and venues at your disposal. There is nothing better than seeing your favorite musicians perform live on stage in full glory and in front of a crowd of people who all share the same love of music. After being back a week, I took a trip to visit my favorite person in the whole entire world in Vancouver, BC...Yumez! We did camping, surfing, and got to check out Jack Johnson all in one weekend! It was awesome and I can't think of a better way to return back to N.America after 5 years. Thanks Yumez!

MIA ......but now I'm back

Hi everyone.....Just wanted to say that I'm back home in the United States and got my computer up and running so I'll be backlogging stories for a bit here. Had to catch up and get re-acquainted with home. It's good to be home, but of course I really miss Japan too.

First SURF & Baby Shiori's Bday

Saturday marked the first day that my good friends Mitsuru and Reiko would actually try surfing. They've talked about it for a long time and things just kinda keep poppin' up ...... like for instance, a baby. Brian met them during his first season at Hakkoda Mt. and we've been friends with them ever since. Mitsuru and Reiko are amazing snowboarders. If you have ever seen them snowboard in real life, you could attest to their ultra smooth, graceful style that comes from their dedication and love for the sport. So I was super stoked when I heard they were gonna finally try it!

Since Brian and I started surfing 5 years back, we kept telling our mountain friends to try surfing........ but no one ever did. Everyone was content with just snowboarding in winter. Ha, this is exactly how I was when my friends asked if I wanted to surf! Slowly, our snowboarding friends have started creeping to the ocean and I couldn't be more happy. Seeing their faces filled with the joys of surfing reminds me of my first unforgettable season. I couldn't paddle, sit nor stand on the board, or duck dive....in fact I couldn't even swim! Now wrap your head around this for a minute.....it takes a baby infant anywhere from a year to two years to walk. It took me almost 4 years to catch waves and ride on a regular basis!!!! I was a 25 rears old then! Sure in my first 3 years I was able to catch waves and ride, but not constantly and continuously like I can now. It's a big learning process and I can't wait till they start finding their groove as well. It's gonna be so much fun to surf with them later.

On the day Mitsuru and Reiko tried surfing, it was their baby's 1st birthday. So years from now, this day will definitely be remembered and not just I got pics...."Baby Shiori, when you turned 1 years old was the first time your daddy tried surfing!" - AWESOME!

Surf or Sports day?!

My boss, Yuya, is a good friend of mine and over the course the last 2 years I've become close to his family as well. He has a cute little 5 year old son by the cool ass name of, Yuzen. I like the name cause it's got the word, zen in it ;).

Anyways... Starting from March I've been teaching English at Yuzen's kindergarten. But before my first trip to osh-kosh-land, I remember a time when Yuya and I were having dinner at a restaurant and I was playing with Yuzen before our food came.
He tugs on my shirt and says, "Why can you speak English?"
Yuya, laughed and so did I. Kids will be kids and they say the cutest, innocent little things huh?
I responded with, "Well I'm an English teacher."
He said, "No you're not, your just a normal old man." Yuya busted into tears.
"What? I'm just a normal old man?" I replied holding back my laughter.
"Yah you're not a teacher because you're not a woman," he said with a chip on his shoulder.
I guess up until now, Yuzen's teachers have all been female and no matter how much Yuya and I tried to convince him that night he stuck to his guns and full heartily believed that I was just a 'normal old man'. That was until.......... I took my first step into his classroom. I never saw a kid's eyes so bulging big. They were like golf balls.

Anyways, to make a long story short...the kids at Kanariya Kindergarten rock! They rock so hard in fact that I skipped half a day of surfing to go and watch them at their sports day (I don't like skipping out on surfing...ever!). Sometimes you gotta make the exception and just have fun doing something other than surfing.....Of course it was very cute and tons of fun. The kids were trying soooooo hard that most of them didn't know I was there until the last half hour or so. The beauty of it all is that kids are so natural at posing. They want to have their picture taken and love it. Gotta love kids!