and still working at home. I could probably leave in half an hour or so but I am afraid everyone would be gone...dou shiyou...

Hello -
As you all know, things will be kicking off tomorrow at 3pm at Enjoy House.
Mr. Fowler has suggested we meet at the statue of
Ebisu-ojisan at the bottom of the big escalator near the Taxi rotary outside Ebisu JR station, and I think this is a good idea. The statue is outside the west exit. The map I posted before shows the statue.
Should you be arriving later than 3pm and fail to find Enjoy!House, please call either the venue 03-5489-1591
or me
080 3483 0283
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a mail.
OK, I think that's covered just about everything - see you tomorrow!
Calum

Hi folks -
here is a nice set of directions:

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~dub/gogo/enjoy.html

Fantastic - thank you CalumR for organizing this and thanks to Julien for offering a presentation for Wordfast. Wow, a buffet AND some useful information on a CAT tool - this meeting is going to be fantastic! See you all on Saturday!

Hi everybody -
this is promising to be quite an event!
So, a few details:
There will be a buffet, the size of which will vary with the number of people, so if you're coming, let me know.
We will split the buffet cost between us, but be buying drinks separately at the bar - this system worked well at the last event I went to at Enjoy!House.
People who are unsure of the way to the venue can either speak to someone who does, or we can meet up at the station beforehand.
Julien Griffon has kindly said he will be giving a presentation on Wordfast - please note that this will be informal. I am going to bring my laptop to follow Julien's demo - interested parties can bring either their laptop or their photographic memory.
OK...
I trust you're all looking forward to this as much as me!
See you soon,
Calum

I'd be interested in a presentation of any CAT tool - be it Trados, Wordfast, MemoQ or anything else, since I'm currently not using any, but I was thinking of buying one for some time now...
EDIT: For me, it wouldn't have to be a full-blown presentation, with slides and all that - just an informal demonstration and a honest opinion of someone who is using the software instead of selling it would be much more useful.

Just to note that I have swiched from Wordfast to SDL Trados a few years back, so I would appreciate if anyone familir with the tool could do any kind of presentation if any other ones may be interested...

I'll have to leave by 7pm, but 3pm is fine for me. I'll try and prepare an informal presentation for Wordfast, but I'm not what you'd call an expert.

I'm okay with the proposed time, 3 PM is just fine!

Having considered the options and my schedule, I would very much like to attend this event as long as people don't mind me leaving so early, like 5pm! I hope I am not too late to join....

...or the like? Is there anyone in the Tokyo area that could give a talk on Wordfast? Perhaps OmegaT? (JC?)

3 p.m., Jul 26, Sat. would be ok to me, as of today.

I have another engagement at 8:30 PM in Roppongi, so any time before that works on the 26th. A 3 or 4 PM start would be fine for me.

Not good for me I'm afraid, I have to be somewhere that evening....but if lots of people prefer 3pm then please go with that!

Hello everybody -
could you please let me know what you think about the proposed time of 3pm?
Cheers,
Calum

Unfortunately 3pm onwards is not good for me, I'm not around during the evening. 12pm is good though...

I think 3pm (or even an hour or 2 later) is a decent time. Roll out of bed late, spend some time with the Prozians, and have a 2-ji-kai for those of us/you who are up to it. Still plenty of time to get home for those who aren't. That wasn't an option for the last Pow-wow, which finished at the awkwardly early hour of 4-5pm or so. I like the "kashikiri" thing too... We don't have to worry about "bothering our neighbors"

Hello all,
the place I was hoping to get, "Enjoy!House" in Ebisu, apparently opens at 3 pm... is this too late? If so, I can easily check out some other places, however, I've been to Enjoy!House before and it is really nice - http://www.bento.com/rev/2837.html - plus they can put on a buffet to suit everybody's taste and we can have the whole place to ourselves.
Let me know what you think.
Looking forward to your replies...
Calum

Lunchtime works for me - I need about 2 hours to get to Tokyo by train, but I'm an early bird anyway, so even breakfast time would be fine ;)

Hi CalumR san and all,

I'm positively thinking of attendance, but I won't probably be sure until the last moment whether or not I will be truly available on either July 26, Sat. or 27, Sun. because recently I tend to be involved with long-standing translation cases.
From the information so far, I guess it's going to be a lunch time event maybe somewhere around Tokyo districts.
BTW, about location, I would prefer the westward because of where I live...

Minoru Kuwahara

Sorry for the late reply, I am still interested for lunch on the 26th!

Hello Calum,

Thanks for your work on organizing the PowWow. I thought I'd add a few suggestions regarding location.

* Probably a large Izakaya with a large semi-private area would be appropriate.

* If possible, having several adjacent tables (versus one long skinny one) helps conversation.

* A central location like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ebisu, etc.

* Sounds like this will be a lunch / afternoon event, so I suggest skipping the "nomi-hodai" courses for the time being (leave that for the nijikai!)

* Maybe arrange for a course meal with enough veggie options to please non-carnivors.

...just a few pointers.

Good luck!

Troy

Hi folks, I'm going to book a place pretty soon, so if those who have not yet replied could let me know their availability on the 26th around lunchtime that woud be great. Thanks in advance!

I will be out of the country for work on this day.
Wait for the next chance.

Sorry I have a previous appointment. I also look forward to reading CalumR's report together with some pictures!

...since I live a one and a half hours from Tokyo. By the way, have you decided where to hold the event?

Sorry, I can't make it that weekend. I attended the last Powwow and met Henry and some of the members listed here. It was an interesting meeting. Getting to see the Proz people in real life was fun. Maybe next time ! I'll be looking forward to the report of the event later.

Unfortunately Saturdays don't work for me, so I will have to miss it. Would it be possible to have a summary of what happened posted on Proz later?

And so we have a winner,
July 26th. Thanks for getting back to me about your availability everybody.

Any preference about the time? I'm thinking of a lunchtime start.
I was thinking of getting hold of a venue where we can easily have a bit of work related chat and perhaps a wordfast demo at the start and then let things progress/degenerate from there. Perhaps a big izakaya in a central location such as Shinjuku?

If we are going to do some wordfast stuff people will have to try and bring along a laptop so we can follow the demo.
Any suggestions about this event are more than welcome, so don't hold back, especially if you've been to a powwow before and seen some things you thought were good/bad about it that could be done, or not, at this gathering.
Cheers,
Calum

I'm available on both Saturday and Sunday, but I prefer the former.

Basically I'm free on Saturdays and Sundays. I'll be there!

I would prefer Sat July 26th. If it's around 12pm that's perfect.

I vote for 26th but 27th is ok as well.

26 or 27 works for me now but this could change.

I can go to either date, but Saturdays are better for me.

Hi everybody -
great response to this powwow, should be a lot of fun.
Everybody has different dates they can come, but we've got to choose one...
How about the 26th or 27th of July?
If they are no good, I'm going to have to ask for everybody to vote for a date between now and, say, the end of August.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon,
Calum

I'm again surprised to read on Kurt's comment that there was a Tokyo PowWow a few year ago of a scale as large as 20 people attended. I simply wasn't aware of that. Now I imagine what it would have been like when 20 people got together. I thank Kurt for correcting me on the information.
I recalled the one I attended was definitely before 2001 and the location was in the China Town in Yokohama....

It would have to be a weekend for me. I have too many things going on during the week.
Based on the comments, it sounds like a Sunday afternoon might be your best shot. I think the last pow-wow was on a Sunday.

Also, I attended a Tokyo pow-wow a few years ago which had about 20 attendees. There were a couple announcements made for the whole group; otherwise, the conversation split off into groups of 3-4 people due to standard social dynamics. It was just nice to meet and talk with people who I don't normally get a chance to talk with. It also opened up a few extra business contacts for me.

I will be posisbly more available on weekends, otherwise two-three hours in evening on weekdays may be possible, depending on my up-to-date availability, of course, though.

I'm amazed to see so many members are interested in attending this round of PowWow. As an attender at the last time's PowWow, when only 4 people were present, now I'm wondering how the event would actually go on. For example, what would be topic(s) for discussion or...simple for conversation? Or would be this just a meeting occasion with the site's colleagues for chatting in any case? You never know what it's like, since as you know, there has never been this scale of PowWow held in around Tokyo so far...

Hi folks!
Thanks to all the new signups and those eagerly waiting to see when this is going to happen.

It’s looking like people are a little divided about the dates they can come, so I can’t really decide a date yet - I think we will probably have to take a vote in the end, unless we shift the date quite far forward.
If anybody else would like to sign up, please do so quickly so we can decide a date!
Thanks a lot.
See you soon!
Calum

All weekends are fine for me, but my company works during national holidays, so that's out. Decide on any Saturday or Sunday and I'm there :)

I've already got plans for July 13 and 27, and August 3 and 9, but any other day suits me fine.

Hi - sorry, the post should read end of July, not June.
Hope you can all come at the end of July...maybe if people can say what dates are definitely no good then we can take it from there. Thanks in advance!

Do you mean the end of "July?" I have another appointment on both July 19 and 20, and I want to give a birthday dinner for my elder son who will turn 15 years old on July 27. So far I am only available on July 21 (National Holiday) and 26 (Saturday)...;-)

End of June is fine, but since I work in-house, weekdays are out of the question... Saturday would be ideal for me, but Sunday works too.

Hi everybody, and thanks to all the new signups.
How about meeting up around the end of June?
Would you prefer a weekend or a weekday?
Cheers!

Hi there - just to remind everybody that the date for the event is flexible, so if you have any possible dates, just let me know.
Cheers!
Calum

Whoops, I was expecting a bit more interest in this one from fellow Prozians...