Happy Aloha Friday, my friends!

It’s a very quiet & cool morning here in Manoa – not a cloud in the sky and the winds are absolutely still.  There’s still some vog, but not much since it’s been pretty breezy and it rained a bit last night.  The trade winds are supposed to return this weekend but we’ll see …

My Thursday golf outing turned into quite an adventure since the southerly winds blow in the exact opposite direction from our normal trades.  The course played totally different and everyone struggled trying to make adjustments, including me.  A scary thing happened to me on the driving range – I was hitting some iron shots when all of a sudden I got the shanks!  For some reason, my swing totally left me and I started hitting the ball like a hockey puck!  You can’t believe the feeling of utter panic when you’re about to play a round of golf with a bunch of degenerates and your swing decides to take a vacation!  I immediately stopped and tried to calm myself and forget about what just happened … luckily, once we were out on the course my swing reappeared – whew!

I was privileged to be a guest of my good friend, Wayne Miyao, and Wayne Ishihara, president of the HJCC, who hosted a small dinner at Cafe Miro for Mr. Kenzo Tsujimoto and his wife.  Kenzo is the chairman of Capcom, one of the largest video gaming companies in the world (Street Fighter, Dungeon & Dragons series etc.).  He also owns Kenzo Estates, an exclusive winery located in the eastern mountains above Napa.  We enjoyed some fabulous dishes by chef Shigeru Kobayashi paired with (naturally!) Kenzo winery’s sauvignon blanc “Asatsuyu” and meritage “Rindo”.   “Asatsuyu” means morning dew, while “Rindo” is a purple flower similar to the color of the wine.  It was a great evening spent with some very special people and I want to thank Wayne and Wayne for allowing me to be a part of it!

And now, from fine dining to beach bar … ManoaDNA is back at Lulu’s tonight from 6 to 9pm!  See you there!

Aloha, “Pops”