Year of the Tiger.

It's 2010. Happy New Year everyone!

I'm writing this while hidden alone in the staff room at the Suntory
Museum in Tempozan, Osaka. Thanks to everybody, the "Last Manga
Exhibition (Osaka Chapter)" opened on time today. We had been preparing
for the exhibit ever since the last half of December. I'm extremely
thankful to the staff, who gave up their valuable New Year's vacation,
including New Year's itself. I'm very thankful that our support group
came out from Ueno and from Kumamoto. It gave us confidence. Atonsu,
everyone!

The space is different, and there are also drawings exclusive to Osaka
(take a look to see which ones they are), so I think that the atmosphere
here is different from both Ueno and Kumamoto. I finally completed
everything at 5 AM the morning that it opened! (It happened again...) I'm
nervous and excited to see what all the
visitors think.

I watched the opening, and I'm going to fix some things tonight that we
discovered then (there already are some of things to fix -- a Manga
Exhibit is really a living thing), then return home. I'll take a short
break, then start working on the chapters that will come out in magazine
issues at the end of January.

2010 is Real's 10th Anniversary and its 10th volume. Vagabond is hitting
its 12th Anniversary, and it will probably be its last year... It should
be. It will be. The Chinese zodiac has come full circle (it's been a
long time), which is a good place to stop. The manga exhibit that
started in Ueno in 2008, which is now showing the "Osaka Chapter", will
have it's "Sendai Chapter" in May. And that's a good stopping point.

It will certainly be a very busy year on many levels. But I don't want to
treat it any differently. I hope to have your continued support for the
coming year.

I pray that it will be a good year for everyone.