The IBMWR gathering in Chiba on Nov. 30th was initially planned to welcome President Mike Dulany (mdulany@netcarrier.com) who was going to is visit Japan on business.As the nurses in my ward was planning an outdoor party on the day on the bank of the River Edo, I thought it a great chance to have an IBMWR gathering in Chiba with them. The party site was the dry river bed of the river bordering Tokyo and Chiba. Between the bank and the river itself, there are some baseball parks and soccer grounds as you can see in the photo. Between them, there are some vacant spaces for such outdoor parties. Far from the roads, a railway crossing the river about 500m away. There were some people fishing in the river.
The party was held in a traditional Thanksgiving style in Japan, I-mo-ni-ka-i, which literally means a party to boil Japanese taro. We put a large (21 liters) pan on a charcoal BBQ stove. The pan contained sliced beef, Japanese taro, Chinese cabbage (Haku-sa-i), carrot, Japanese mushrooms (Ki-no-ko) and kinda leek (Ne-gi), and flavored with soy sauce, salt and Sake. It took well over 2 hours for the large pan to come to a boil. Most of the attendees had already had plenty of other food and/or drink, and nearly half of the content remained in the pan, although it tasted and smelled great.
President Graham Smith kindly sent me the Banner from down under by FedEx at the last moment when he was about to send it back to the States, and it made a safe arrival in Japan on 28th. The Banner fit the back of a nurse's small SUV, and here's a photo with the printed paper SA's names on it and with the *Gerbil*.:)
See the large lid of the pan Misato holds in her hands.:)
Those in the photo are (from left to right):
Here's the final list of 15 spiritual attendees:
Mike Dulany mdulany@netcarrier.com Souderton, PA Ingemar Luttu Ingemar.Luttu@tull.lin.lio.se Sweden James Chen jmchen@photosb.com Santa Barbara, CA Butch Hays hays@znet.com San Diego, CA Brian Curry bmwbrian@voicenet.com Chester Springs, PA Mike Lough daedolon@sprynet.com Hoffman Estates, IL FXRSJOAN FXRSJOAN@aol.com Apple Valley MN Lee Freedman freedman@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu Lone Tree, IA Carlo Ratzersdorfer caratz@net4all.be Antwerpen, Belgium Elsie Smith EMSBMW@aol.com Arlington, VA Paul M Hounslow Paul@triagonl.demon.co.uk Reading, England Alessandro Zorat zorat@cs.unitn.it Trento, ITALY Barry P. Blank PsychB@concentric.net Roslyn Heights, NY Stephen Anderson anderson_s@mediasoft.net Spotsylvania, VA Dale Blanchard bolero@accessnv.com Henderson, Nevada Hey, you were there with the Banner and the *Gerbil* !:)
This was taken when an IBMWR president, Neil Kirby, visited my home in Kashiwa, Chiba, 30 km north-east of Tokyo, on Oct. 22nd, 1995, with special guests of my wife, Erika and my daughter, Ai (10-month old). This was the first IBMWR get-together in Japan.
This photo was taken in the 22nd evening at my home. We had an enjoyable chat over cups of Oolong tea. I'd like you to pay attention to my left knee where you find a BMW roundel patch.
This photo was taken at the 3rd Tokyo-IBMWR get-together on Dec. 16th, 1995. Although there were only three of us, Matthew Balding, myself and MASAHIRO Taguchi (right to left), the time we had really was a joy. We also welcomed 22(!) spiritual attendees via the IBMWR list. Here's the last updated list of our spiritual attendees;
Carlo Ratzersdorfer - Antwerpen, Belgium
Dan Arnold - Kennewick, WA USA
Pat Roddy - Buford, GA USA
Mark Foreman - Oklahoma City, OK USA
Dave "Yane-san" Roof - West Columbia, SC USA
Paul E. Proue - Plantation, FL USA
TERRY-Miami - Too Famous, FL USA
Alden Hingle - Fredericksburg, VA USA
Frank Williams - Cairns, Australia
Phil Crossland - Kansas City, KS USA
Rik Steenwinkel - Digital Equipment Co.
Tom Coradeschi - Picatinny Arsenal, NJ USA
Paul M Hounslow - Reading, England UK
Michael M. Cornett - Chicago, IL USA
Russ Schubert - Harriman, TN USA
Tom Keen - Dayton, OH USA
Caroline Hoets - Cape Town, South Africa
Rick Landi - Orlando, FL USA
Joe Denton - USA
Steve Anderson - Leesburg, VA USA
Phil Rose - USA
Lee Freedman - USA
We raised a special glass of Sake specifically to the safety of Dan-san's son, David. The Sake I chose for this very opportunity was Yorokbino-Izumi, Kiwami, from Okayama prefecture. The name of the Sake literally means "Springs (or Fountain) of Joy, Supreme". This is the Sake which I used in my wedding party 3.5 years ago. We have a traditional ceremony of celebration (Kagami-Biraki) in Japan to break the top lid of a Sake-barrel with a wood hammer and offer the Sake therein to the attendees. I hope Dan-san will soon be able to make Kagami-Biraki welcoming David's safe return home.
This photo was taken right before the dismissal of the Tokyo Dinner, Dec. 16th, 1995. Matthew Balding and myself with my RS on the Hongo-dori(Av.), near University of Tokyo.
Another photo of the Tokyo Dinner. It shows TAGUCHI Masahiro, his FJ1200 and myself also on the Hongo-dori.
This photo is from the second IBMWR gathering in Japan with President Jon Diaz on Nov. 9th, 1995 in Kashiwa. It's a photo that was printed in the December Oil Rag but in B/W.
