Here is a picture of me graduating the Chief Petty Officer Academy in March. I was in a class with 74 other people and after spending 5 weeks with them, I could not wait to get away from them. But now I miss them. We all had a really great experience and I hope to see some of them again in the future.

I just got back to Florida from 5 weeks of training in California. Being in the Coast Guard and telling people you’re going to California, they automatically assume it’s on the beach, where it is warm and beautiful. Not this training center, it is in a town called Petaluma, Northern California, between San Francisco and Santa Rosa, and far inland and up the mountains. The temperature in March was low 40’s and it rained almost every day. The training center is also on protected wildlife land, so you will see deer and turkeys daily. Somehow these animals know you cannot harm them, and they have no problem walking right up to you or making cars stop for them.

Hello everybody.
It has been some time since I last post. I’ve just been so busy with work and school. I moved from Honolulu to Key West, FL. I’m getting use to it here now, but only after 6 months. I really miss Hawaii, mostly because it was easy to meet people. Looks like I’ll be here for another 3 years. Hopefully I can make it back to Honolulu.

I went to the mainland for the holidays, a total of 21 days. I had such a great time. I started out visiting family in Arizona for a few days right before Christmas. I spent Christmas in with my immediate family in New York, then visited friends in Massachusetts just after Christmas. I rung in the new year in New Mexico and relaxed in Nevada before returning to Hawaii. So much traveling and so many stories to tell.

I only spent a couple of days in Nevada, Las Vegas. The most exciting things I did was the rides on top of the Stratosphere hotel. There are three rides; The Big Shot, Insanity and Extreme. The Big Shot was worst for me, I has to keep me eyes closed most of the time. I’ve never been on a ride that was so high off the ground. Rides are much different when they are 110 stories in the air. If anyone goes to Las Vegas and likes to go on rides, you will be very surprised how different it feels when you go on these rides compared to others. I also found Elvis on the strip, got a picture to prove it.

I went Ninniku Ya, or the easier English name “Garlic House” on Waialae ave last week, it was a coworkers birthday, so we had a small get together for her. It was 8 of us and we had a great time. The food was very good, a little bit expensive, but they gave you a lot of food on each plate. What we ended up doing is just ordering a bunch of different plates and passing them around so we got to try everything. We had plenty of left overs also. The staff overheard that we were celebrating someones birthday and brought out a slice of cake with a candle, it was a really nice surprise since nobody said anything to them and they didn’t charge us for it either. If you haven’t tried ninniku ya yet, you really should, I had a really good time and have told so many people about it already.

After getting back from my Japan trip, I still had a few days of leave and decided to take advantage of the great Hawaii weather. First stop was Bellows beach, early in the morning when only a handful of people were there. The water was so calm this day, that I floated on my body board in the water for a good 30 minutes and almost fell asleep.

After lunch, I decided to go to China Man’s Hat with a friend. China Man’s Hat is not the real name, but it does look like a China Man’s Hat, so it fits. It is about a 5 minute drive from Kaneohe Marine Base and definitely worth the trip. It is approximately a 100 yards from the shore and you are able to walk half of that because it doesn’t get very deep at all. But remember to wear water shoes and a shirt, it is very rocky and I got stung by a jellie. On the swim out there, my friend and I ran into a couple of sea turtles. They were about 20 feet from us, but very curious. They swam for a while not far and watching us, than just disappeared.

This is a small beach at China Man’s Hat.

This is about halfway up. Becareful, it is full of thorn bushes and millions of ants.

It rained just about everyday when I was there, but that didn’t stop me.

The Ueno Zoo turned out to be bigger than I thought it was. This particular day, it was raining really hard in the morning, so the zoo was nearly empty.

Now that I’m home, I can post some of my pictures. I took so many picture’s, so I’ll only post the highlights. It rained just about everyday and the last day I almost got caught in the typhoon, but was able to take off in time.

Diebutsu, The Giant Buddha in Kamakura.

The main gate at Asakusa Sensoji Temple. So many places to shop here.

This is me standing under a Giant Sandal in Asakusa.

I’m in Tokyo today and it’s been raining almost everyday since I’ve arrived in Japan. My first 4 days were spent in Yokohama and I had visited Kamakura and saw Daibutsu. I would post pictures, but unable to copy on this computer, so you’ll have to wait until I get home, will be in a few days if the typhoon doesn’t ground my plane. Today I went to Asakusa and did some shopping and visited the Kaminarimon Gate and temple. I think my favorite place that I’ve found here in Tokyo is an Irish bar called Bond’s. Like all bar’s here, they are small and only have a few select beers.

I’m having a great time, even with all the rain, and can’t wait to visit again.

I recently became a member of the Academy of Arts here in Honolulu. On the last Friday of every month, they have what is called “Art After Dark”, which is a lot of fun. Last night Tori Richards sponsored it and they had a runway show. You also have the opportunity to walk around and view all the galleries, plus they always have a live band and plenty of food and drinks. One of the most crowded exhibits was the Katsushika Hokusai gallery, which most of these paintings featured Mount Fuji or the Great Wave. I did take a bunch of pictures, but made a mistake when loading them onto my computer and lost them all. Not a big problem, I live close to the Academy of Arts, so I’ll be able to take those pictures again and post them.

I had a lot of fun and plan on going back every time they have Art After Dark. Its become very popular lately and a good excuse to get a little bit dressed up and socialize.