It's been really hot lately

I used to go out side and play a lot as a child. Growing up in Okinawa during the summer time was like the best time of my childhood. My family lived close to an Exxon (A gas station in Oki) and they sold refreshing deserts. There was a vanilla ice cream pop and a Ramune flavored popsicle.
After playing outside all day, of course I eventually turned a dark brown.

I remember my mom say, no one is going to marry you if your dark like that. Looking back on what she said. Its obvious that my mom had a thing against people with dark skin. But I would have to agree that, girls are like a bag of M&M's. KevJumba explains this very well in this video.
I want to make an inter-racial baby someday.

ryan

The aftermath of July 4th

While everyone in my backyard sang songs about America awaiting to see the fireworks, I was playing kendama. A kendama is a wooden toy made from Japan. I bought my first in the summer of 2007. I'm going to start off this memory with a cliche' intro:

I remember it like it was yesterday...

I asked my girl friend at the time to take me to a 'Toy's R Us' in Wakayama, Japan. The Toy's R Us Japan was nothing like California's. It was so clean, the T.R.U. in Japan didn't have the smell of urine in the air when I walked through the aisles. Anyway, my time in Japan was running out, I was having so much fun that I forgot to buy presents for my family and friends back home. I remembered my siblings saying: "Kuya Ryan, get us something cool!"

My family lived in Okinawa for awhile, so I was forced to recall childhood memories of us playing together. We played with a Japanese traditional top called a koma. Because I'm the oldest of the five of us, I was the best at it (actually my brother Kris and Leo were). So I ended up buying four. I look to the right of the tops and I spied with my big eyes something red. It was two pieces of wood and a string in a plastic bag with the price of 1,000 yen (approx: $10.50). As my childhood senses were tingling, I snatched one like Jean Claude Van Damme snatching a gold fish in the movie Bloodsport. It was mine...(of course I paid for it) So after purchasing four koma, a kendama, and a five note books to practice kanji, It was time to head back.

I showed Kasumi what I bought and she laughed. It felt like I was her child, ready to go home after a long day of following me around a toy store. Was I embarrassed, heck no. Was she embarrassed?...I think this was part of the reason why we broke up (kidding). I put away the presents for my brothers and sister and busted out the kendama. It was a Cherry Red TK16, little did I know the thousands and thousands of tricks one could do with this toy. For the first few minutes with this toy, I figured out how to put the ball on the spike. I was a genius! or so I thought at the time.

Well, there is a lot more to explain about kendama but I'm parched, I will end here and continue later...hope you enjoyed my blog.

Video Note:

This is a routine constructed by the kendama association
All players must start from the "Swing Candle" and successfully land all tricks in order of the table.
If you miss a trick , then you try the same trick until the player lands it.

here are the series of tricks:

1. Swing candle
2. Around the prefecture
3. Around Japan x 2
4. Around the world x 2
5. Around Europe
6. Swing in + Earth turn
7. Bird + in
8. Jumping Stick
9. One turn airplane
10. Light house + falling in
    

The kendama association established a kyu/dan ranking system.
I qualify for the 4th Dan ranking! I'm sure I could pass the 5th Dan Ranking.
The only problem is as a 4th Dan, I would have to moshikame 5000 times...