At last

Beautiful morning; sun's out, not too cold, the clearest view so far this year of Mt Fuji, public holiday, first day of nearly 2 weeks off and flying to Sydney later this afternoon. First Ozzy Christmas for 6 years!

Merry Christmas to all, back in 2011...

Eddie

During one of the year's biggest swells at the Bay, Eddie took off on a nasty wave that seemed determined to kill him. Sol can still picture what happened the moment he almost lost his brother to the sea. "I remember that day. He was on the wave, it was a big one, and he wiped out. It took him right down to the bottom and rolled him across it."

After the shock of falling through the air and being slammed into the water, Eddie felt his head hit the rocky bottom. He blacked out for a moment and awoke in an underwater netherworld. Being buried under tons of churning water during a bad wipeout can feel like dying. Cut off from light and air, he looked around in a daze, wondering what had happened, where he was and which way was up. Like Odysseus in the Underworld, he felt time suddenly slow down and darkness envelop everything. Boulders the size of VW Bugs rolled around in the underwater tornado. Caught in a dreamscape between the living and the dead, he tried to escape. But like a nightmare he could not yell for help or run away as he was thrown around like a rag doll. He tried not to panic but his lungs were screaming for air, his pulse was pounding and the whitewater kept on pushing him down. For a moment, he must have wondered if his time had come. But then the ocean let him go and he swam toward the light.

From Chapter 8: Wipeout, of the excellent Eddie Would Go by Stuart Holmes Coleman. Boulders the size of VW Bugs? Think I'll put the kettle on... 

 

Ho Ho Ho

You can tell it's Christmas, all the shops selling hostess-bar girl's dresses which I suppose you could call hostesses' dresses, are full of Santa jobs.

Steve PP

Nice bit of Driftwood Art arrived in time for Crimbo from Steve PP. Nice job Steve, stay tuned for Stage 2....

Hawaii

Timing is everything. My trip coincided with, as Bill Morris from Coastal Watch - Hawaii Swell Journal put it, "three days of the flattest surf I have ever seen in Hawaii. It was pretty much unrideable which is highly unusual for these wave rich waters."



The swells need to plenty of West to get into the Big Island's Kona Coast so although not the epic surf I was hoping for, it was good to get back into some warm water.

This shot was the best day of the trip, a bit blowy by photo time though.

The Big Island

Off for a week to the Big Island tomorrow. Not much swell forecast, thank God, although even 1-2' on the Hawaiian scale is overhead and'll kick yer arse - my arse anyway. Stoked, feels like the night before Christmas!

Blue Sky Video Wall

or you could perhaps just go outside...

Crimbo

 Face Bra

Massage jobbers

Mental... nice to get home.

Tori no Ichi

This November saw two Tori no Ichi festivals at Hanazono Jinja in Kabukicho. I gave Hebi-Onna a miss this year so haven't been able to add to the three year's worth of snake-skin tucked in my wallet. 

Lots of eating and drinking though watching the punters buying bears claw (kumade) bamboo rakes hoping to rake in the money over the coming year. You can start with a tiny little starter claw about the size of a cocktail umberella but have to upgrade every year. 

Some of these folks have been coming for 40 years or more and can barely carry the bigger ones home.

A guy I know got into the buying-a bigger-one-for-luck cycle about 10 years ago, spending more and more hundreds of dollars at the same stall every year


This year though he didn't want to bother but since the stall owner had his business card the usual reminder emails started coming in a few weeks before. 


When he didn't turn up for the first festival the reminders got a lot heavier and on the final day they were basically demanding stacks of cash with threats and reminders they knew where he worked.


He caved in and paid up.

MEAT

To-Genkyo are a small design company in Kyoto who according to their website, “make a small utopia of daily life. TO-GENKYO gropes for the idea that improves living”.

Their groping around has come up with these egg-timer-shaped expiry-date labels for packages of meat. 

As the meat starts to go off it gives off more and more ammonia, which causes the label to darken making it easy to see how fresh the meat really is. 

Eventually the barcode at the bottom of the label becomes unscannable, and the shop can't sell any dodgy old meat. 

 No sign of these in the shops here yet but can't wait to see this sort of label in kebab houses on the elephant's legs.

Atami

Sunset down the coast.

Yokohama

 ...looking a tad post-apocalyptic. Now that's not a phrase you hear every day.

Shinbashi

Thirsty? Hungry? Not sure which but probably both.

Akasaka

...and talking of expensive fish: The Caviar Bar

The Price of Fish

A bit of retro comes at a price in Tokyo.

¥211,050 at today's rates is $2,750 or £1,600! 

If Edmund Surfed

from the new "Blackadder" line of surf threads.

...and meanwhile, someone had kindly half-filled my glass.

Shinrin Park

Up in Sculpture Square.

Arbos

Block of units in Jiyugaoka.