ERIC JORIS ARRIVES IN TOWN



After a very long absence, Eric arrived back in Japan and there to greet him were some of the usual suspects - Anthony, David, Dermot, Eberhard & Jean Barthelemy.

You may recall that Eric used to be associated with a family business building pleasure boats, but these days Eric is moving in a very unique and creative direction.


According to Eric's website he "operates on the border between art and science, between performance art and new technology".  Eric did try to explain to us what exactly it is that he does and it all sounded very 'futuristic', (but I don't think we actually got it!) as apparently it uses multiple cameras and needs special head-up displays to appreciate this new immersive media. 

Unfortunately none of this equipment was available - so for now Eric's special brand of performing art will continue to remain a bit of a mystery - at least that is until it becomes available as a downloadable app for your iPhone.

While we were enthralled to listen to Eric's enthusiastic explanations, we were fortunate that we were in a location that could sustain us all with copious amounts of chilled beers (and other adult beverages!) to fortify us against the very humid (..and possibly heavily contaminated! ) air of a Tokyo hot summer's night. Once again the 'Failte Pub' in Shibuya was our chosen location and it has now become the established meet-up place for ETP IV survivor get-togethers.

The attached photos are witness to the great fun and the exchange of amusing (and sometimes unbelievable!) 'Berlitz' war stories from our collective distant pasts and paths.
( mmmmnne!...did we really live through all that?  ;-)

Patrick is in the house!

Patrick again did us a nice favour by bringing us together again. We spent a lovely evening, talking about old times and new times. ETP4 alive and kicking.But see for yourself....

Frenchmen have really old fashioned ties !

Another flash back... to our past but nice crazyness ! (BTW Peter how's your left ear ?)

We all look so old!

Sorry - did not make the event, but sounds like it was fun. I had a broken aircraft in Borneo and had to assembly another aircraft in Zhuhai China the weekend of the reunion. Anyone likes flying small aircraft over oceans, jungle etc. and would like a relaxing life come and join me on one of the flights! After each flight I seem to age 10 years............... a little different to my Airbus days, anyway I now speak Chinese as well as the Japanese, travel from around Asia every week and discovered there is more to Asia than Japan. Japan is still though my first home in Asia!

Pictures of the Tokyo reunion from Dermot

ETP-IV - The Next Generation.  Alyssa (Ally) Tully (9) attends the Tokyo reunion

 
Ladies table - Hiroko & Alyssa (Tully) with Kumiko (Barthelemy) & Vanida (Visscher)

' and sitting to my right ...the lovely Kumiko (wife of Jean Barthelemy)

Patrick who simply 'radiates' his happiness

 
"Double Dutch" - Herbie & Jos

Ulrike - Eberhard's wife

Hiroko - Anthony's wife

Erik who traveled all the way from Denmark

Eberhard - back on his second (or is third?) posting in Japan

Happy to be going Dutch - Vanida Visscher and Tara Van der Valk

Some more pictures of our recent get-together in Aoyama (especially of the attractive ladies who attended and made it such a memorable night!). And for all of you who could not get to Tokyo this time, don't worry - there was talk on the night of holding the next reunion in Europe some time next year (at least it was a serious discussion from what I recall - before Anthony Tully made me join him for a 'nijikai' followed by another 'nijikai' ;>).   Twenty five years on  - well some things never change!  

 

At some point, I believe we toasted our 'absent friends', but like I say, my memory is somewhat hazy, but I do remember there were many lovely ladies at the party - err.. I mean - reunion!

Cheers,

Dermot 

Pictures of the reunion

Well, we've had our reunion. 10 out of 35 were there, which is not a bad result taking into account that the event was held in Tokyo. It was nice to see each other again, hear the stories about what happened to each of us (and the gossip about the others of course) and, by the end of the evening, to realise that actually we haven't changed that much in the last 25 years. Many thanks to Tony for organising this!

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Kind regards,

Patrick