After dozens of hours of copious, nail-biting research, I have deduced that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between Respect for the Aged Day and the ending date for Gathering 2004, except that vigorous dancing has been medically proven to reverse the aging process.
OK, so there is no hard evidence of that. Nonetheless, spending the third Monday of every September dancing high up a mountain somewhere with 9,000-plus young people seems like a groovy yet ironic way to celebrate the end of another open air party season. And to think we scoffed at Nagata-cho when they cooked up the "Happy Monday" scheme.
And so it goes. The seventh incarnation of The Gathering is set for Sept. 18-20 at the spacious Palcall Tsumagoi ski resort in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture. Advance tickets are on sale now for 11,000 yen. About 4,000 tickets will be sold online.