It’s Bounenkai season in Japan, which means that friends and co-workers are scrambling to coordinate their schedules so that they can get together for dinner or drinks one last time before the end of the year.
Obviously, with all the obligations that everyone has, that isn’t always possible and, unfortunately, it is looking like it won’t be possible for all of us here at SteemCityNiigata to get together one last time before 2018 comes rolling in—hopefully with more raging crypto markets and lots of good news for all of us. But, hey, you never know.
At least some of us did manage to get together last weekend for dinner and drinks, and also for something even more special, to welcome a visitor into town, a fellow Steemian, @rt395. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that he came all the way from California just to meet us, but it would be stretching the truth a little. Being partially based in Tokyo, @rt395 took some time to travel the two hours it takes by bullet train to come and meet those of us who were available, and we had a great time. I can only imagine what those of you who attended Steemfest must have felt. Just having one new person in the SteemCity with similar interests was very exciting.
We definitely could have used a few more hours, or maybe even days, to finish talking about all the things we had to talk about.
Hopefully, there will be more chances to talk and meet up in 2018, not just with the other members of SteemCityNiigata and @rt395, but with other Steemians traveling through Niigata as well.
Compared to last December, when Steem felt like a little iceberg adrift in a big, open sea, this year it feels like a growing glacier, slowly picking up strength and speed in Japan and the world over. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what happens in 2018. I hope you are too.
A “Man-Sized” High Ball
If you have any predictions for the new year, please feel free to share them in the comments below.
@rawselectmusic, and 
@musingsltd being photobombed.
