Worldcon day 1
Well, it is early evening on the first day of the Japan SF Worldcon. Anita and I are relaxing in our room and planning a dinner trip. Both of us are feeling the effects of jet lag, but we are going to tough it out and go to bed at the normal local time. The temperature and humidity here is high to the point of being very uncomfortable for someone used to Seattle weather. Yokohama seems like a nice city though, our hotel is very nice, and the convention center is certainly an excellent venue for the Worldcon.

Today was catchup day with a lot of old friends and meeting a few new ones. Anita and I gave out a lot of the business cards we had made up for the convention. We also did some sticker trading (a big fad among Japanese SF fans).

We went to lunch with whumpdotcom and cynthia1960 in the same food court as dinner last night, but this time we tried some 'traditional Osaka curry'. Very interesting; mildly spicy rice curry with a high sneakyness factor and a raw egg broken into a depression on the top. This was served with pork katsu and shredded cabbage. Tasty, but definitely different.

After lunch I was scheduled to sit on a panel discussion about the future of computers; it went moderately well and was very well attended. I was surprised to find I was doing the comic relief bits even though davidlevine was also on the panel. Afterwards I did some cruising around the convention while Anita tried unsuccessfully to use the Wifi in the Internet cafe of the con to do her email and whatnot. When I came back I tried to reset their router, which worked for some of the people there, but not for Anita.

In the same spot were a couple of preteen Japanese girls together with their mother, all dressed up (the girls in traditional kimonos and their mother in goth-lolita style) and all with battery powered windup keys on their backs. It was cute beyond words. (I made sure to exchange stickers with the girls, but when the others there saw my sparkley frog stickers I was suddenly surrounded by Japanese of all ages wanting them.)

Soon after Cory Doctorow showed up and talked for a while with Anita and me. He had some personal news that surprised me.

Then, while I was talking to Anita, cynthia1960, marykaykare, and an Australian woman who's name I didn't catch, we were interrupted by a Japanese TV crew who wanted to interview a gaijin fan. To the (quite reasonable) irritation of the ladies, that someone was the lone male in the group. (Me.) So tonight a fat American dude with a tie-dye t-shirt and a gray beard is on Japanese TV trying to explain why he would come to Japan for Science Fiction and what he thinks of Japanese Science Fiction.

Afterwards we had a fun time at Pat Cadigan's kaffeeklatch session and did some more wandering around.

Later tonight there are a couple of parties, but nothing serious. Tomorrow the con starts in earnest. I will post pictures soon.

Update: Opening ceremonies were long (and bilingual), but absolutely worth attending. (Note: It wasn't David Brin's fault it was long. He was actually quite brief.) Anita and I ended up in the VIP section after they opened it up for the general public. It was packed, with little other seating and nothing we could find together. So that worked out nicely.