Summer Vacation 2005

Hope you enjoy your time out there.

Have a good trip Westbay-san.

Have a great trip, Michael.

Hey big guy, have a fantastic trip. You deserve the best. Thanks for doing a great job again.

I'm missing your moderating skills already! Most of my posts are typed quickly in spare moments at work so the spelling isn't always 100% - damn typos!

However it will be an interesting experiment to see how things unfold without moderation.

Hope you have/had a good break.

Best wishes for a great vacation. Sounds like a terrific plan. And thanks for everything.

Don't even think about this site for two weeks - enjoy your time away. Thank you for all your work!

Dear Westbay-san,

I hope you have a nice summer vacation. Your first summer vacation in 8 years is amazing! You are really turning Japanese. Don't you sometimes miss your parents and family in the U.S.?

I understand that Summer Festival is Matsuri. Do all the companies in Japan have their own Matsuri or does each city or town have their own Matsuri?

Take care.

Thank you all for your well wishes.

It was an incredible adventure down the Missouri River with my Dad, uncle, and little brother. My Dad brought his dug-out canoe that he built himself a couple of years ago after Hurricane Isabel knocked down a tree in his back yard. Louis and Clark's "The Core of Discovery" inspired him to build the canoe, and then to plan the excursion. The area of Montana down river from Fort Benton is truely beautiful, and the "Louis and Clark buffs" you'll meet along the way are very friendly. I learned more about the Core of Discovery in the five days floating down the Missouri than I did in years of American history in school.

Anyway, I still haven't gone through all of the threads, but have been very pleased at how little fighting and vulgarity has been submitted on the threads that I've read through so far. (Nichi-Bei tends to get the worst of it, and I haven't gotten there yet.)

I'd like to thank Brooks-san, Eng-san, and Christopher who have all been busy answering questions and submitting news. I know there were more names that came up often (Mijow, Torakichi, etc.), but these three seemed to come up most often in the threads I've seen so far. Of course, all questions and opinions (even from Yankee fans) make the forum what it is, so no single post is more important in my eyes than any other.

Not only do I have a large number of threads to read through, but two-plus weeks of Nikkan Sports and three issues of Shukan Baseball as well. It may take me several days to catch up. Naturally, this is all after work, which has its own long list of things that need to be done last week.

Anyway, it's good to be home, with the BayStars on the tube. I see they have new hats, darker blue on the main body, than when I left. Also, no names on the back of their home jerseys. I don't remember them doing that earlier this season. Did I just not notice until now?

Regarding matsuri, many, but not all, communities put on a festival. While not all of them have an omikoshi (a shrine carried on shoulders), I don't think that any place doesn't celebrate obon (most often with the bonadori - dance for the dead). These are all good keywords to give a Google to if you're interested in more local culture. Combine the keyword(s) with a region (like "Tohoku" or "Kansai") and you'll find a great deal of variation in the types of festivals put on throughout the country.

Thanks again to everybody who has kept things going while I was away. You're as important a community to me as the one I live in.