We had an enthusiastic turnout for our meeting on Monday, July 20. The principal focus continued to be on the "Boulder Trade Fair" planned in Yamagata on October 31 and continuing through November 3.

Our usual attendees were joined by a number of crafts people from the Boulder area. They described items that could be sold in Yamagata including photographs, Native American crafts, etc.

The new participants came because our press secretary, John Shaw, managed to place a large article about the Fair on the front page of the Daily Camera's business section last Sunday. Our compliments to John!

Many of the committee members had also obtained goods and price lists from Boulder merchants, which they described. All in all, it was an impressive display!

Kei is working on the package to transmit to Yamagata City for their consideration. He will likely use some combination of web-site displays and samples of actual products. Thank you, Kei!

SOBA Makers Coming to Boulder

Many of you may know that Yamagata has a tradition of making "Soba" noodles that goes back centuries. It is truly fascinating to watch these craftsmen roll the buckwheat dough to what looks like paper thinness, fold the dough and cut it to make noodles -it is a fascinating show!

At our invitation, Yamagata City is looking for two soba enthusiasts to come to Boulder and demonstrate this ancient craft. We will have to arrange demonstrations at local restaurants and some natural food stores to raise enough money for their traveling expenses and local costs and provide homesites while they are in Boulder. The reason for selecting this time of the year is a reporter from the Yamagata Newspaper and a cameraman from the Yamagata Broadcasting Co. are planning to come to Boulder on the way to the Buckwheat Harvest Festival in New Jersey. The soba makers can travel with them and we feel the opportunity of getting some publicity back to Yamagata is good for the Boulder Fair in November. The planning dates for the soba demonstration are Sept. 20 through 27.

We need committee members to get some sponsors such as restaurants and the natural food stores. And QUICK!

Suggested places are:
Whole Food Market
Alfalfa Market
Pan Asia Restaurant
Cooking School of the Rockies
Peppercorn Store
Flagstaff House Restaurant
Laying this contact plan out will be a focus of our coming meeting.

YAMAGATA E-MAIL LIST IS OPERATIONAL

Tom Wilcoxen has established a listserve for this group. To suscribe:
Send an e-mail to : listserve@lists.bouldercousa.com and in the body of the message SUBSCRIBE yama-list.

To post messages to the group:
Send message to yama-list@lists.bouldercousa.com

In the future, all meeting notices and other activities will be sent on the listserve.

HOME STAYS REQUIRED

Keith Maurice, director of the CU International English Center is looking for Host families for 27 students from the Tokyo Denki University this month.

Date: August 26 to September 13: Compensation of $420 per student will be provided. Please contact: Keith Maurice at the CU International English Center - Tel: 492- 5548

See you at the meeting,

Charlie and Yoko

P.S. I f you can't make the August 20 meeting, the next meeting will be on Sept. 8.