Greetings from Patrick Leray [ . . old age is a ship wreck! ]

I didn't want to make an old veteran's serious speech about the good old days !

Let's face reality !

At least I hope that it will make you laugh.

I wish you all the best for the party.
Cheers,
Patrick

[Admin comment :]

 Patrick seems to channeling the spirit of Marcel Marceau in this wonderfully amusing greeting.

(for best effect when viewing the clip - click the 'Full screen' button at bottom right of the video).

Hello from Alessandro and Wilma Laryn

We won’t be able to come (to Tokyo reunion), but wish you all to have a great time.

In the last months, we have successfully sold our estate to the Christchurch City Council, and have moved to Auckland, where we plan to live our retirement years devoting our time to hobbies new and old, especially sailing as we used to do in the Mediterranean many years ago (see attached 40 years old photo, surfaced during removal).

Kindest regards,
Alex and Wilma

ETP IV 35 Anniversary Reunion in Tokyo Greetings from Jos van der Valk

September 24th 1983---just arrived at Narita Airport and sitting in the limousine bus on my way to the Diamond Hotel. It's dark, rainy and the roads are congested.  I am getting my first Japanese lessons from a guy sitting next to me.  Ichi, ni, san......The endless city scares me a bit. What will the future bring?  Well, after the introduction week and the start of the lessons on Monday October 3rd a total of 20 years in Japan.  Sometimes it feels unreal but it happened.   After the ETP IV program I lived and worked for another 18 years in Japan.  I was sometimes called "hana no senkyoo-shi" (for the guys who did not pass the final examination --- "flower missionary"). I am still involved in the flower business. It brings me a regular 3 times a year to Tokyo where I usually stay in hotel "Anthony Tully".  The ETP program has formed my private life and my career.  I met Tara, my American wife,  25 years ago in Tokyo.  Since 2005 we have been living in Amsterdam.  About a year ago Cooper G joined the pack.

35 years seems long but it went as quick as the "Sakura" in the wind.  I hope to see many of you at the up coming reunion.  Let's have some nice days😇.   Tot ziens in Tokio.    Jos

Greetings for 35th Anniversary inTokyo

To My fellow ETP- 4’ers

We know that not all of you will have the opportunity to travel to Japan for the 35^thAnniversary Reunion which will be on Saturday 10^thNovember (Anthony Tully will be putting out more specific details shortly). 

One idea we have to ask ALL ETP 4 participants to submit a short Video Greeting which we will post on the ETP 4 Survivor’s Blog site. (https://etp4.blogspot.com).

Also, we plan to run a presentation of these greeting videos at the dinner on the first night of the reunion in Tokyo.  The concept will allow each of us to update our status to the group and share our personal greetings with each other.  Also, for those who cannot travel to Japan the greeting messages will serve as a digital get-together - giving a sense of a reunited ETP 4. 

You will recall that 35 years ago we had no such technologies as the internet, emails, social media etc. As a result, many of us lost touch with one another over the years. Nowadays making a short video is not so onerous or technically complicated. The approach we recommend is to keep it as simple as possible and use what’s always by your side – the ubiquitous smartphone (iPhone, Samsung etc.).  Listed below are some guidelines to keep in mind.

Finally, if creating a video message is not possible - then please send us a static message which will be a recent photo of yourself and a half page of text with your personal greeting. I can then post this on the blog site.

To help visualise what it can be - please check out my own personal Video & static Photo based greetings which I have posted to the blog. (You only need to do one or the other)

NB::   We ask that everyone submit their greetings message whether or not you plan to travel to Japan.

Guidelines for Video::
<>  The simplest way is to use your smartphone, etc. or record using the camera on your computer for video chats.
<> Small video resolution sizes of 720x486 or 640X360 will suffice (Hi def. sizes of 1080 and above would be too big and cumbersome!).
<> Keep it short. 30 to 60 seconds is all that’s needed.
<> Don’t worry about production quality. Use a selfie stick or get someone to hold the camera.
<> Get enough light on yourself and shoot without distracting background noises.

Getting the videos on to the ETP 4 Blog site.Video files are too big to send by email so you can do any of the following – 

1)   Post your video to your social media site and then send the link to me.

2)   Send the video to me via my Facebook account -
(email me for my FB address).

3)   Send the video file to me via wetransfer.com (free service)
The Recipient email will be myself – dkilloran(at) gol (dot)com

On receipt of the link or the file I can post it on your behalf.

Guidelines for Photo::
<> As the file size will be much smaller you can use normal email.
<> Email the photo and text to me – dkilloran(at) gol (dot)com

I hope you can all participate in this effort which we hope can serve as a great way to unite us all once again.   If you have any questions, please feel free to email me anytime.  

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Very best wishes to you all

Dermot Killoran

ETP IV 35th Anniversary Reunion in Tokyo [ VIDEO Greetings: Dermot Killoran ]

ETP-IV Reunion in Tokyo - Greetings from Dermot Killoran