In many ways Nippon 2007 is one of the most enjoyable large conventions I have ever attended. I had a great time and my irritations were minor.

However, it appears I was one of the (many) lucky ones. I did hear many expressions of pain from the English-speaking volunteer staff. In the con's defense I should point out that such pain is a normal part of any convention it's just that here the pain was inflicted in places usually free of it.

How did it work as an Asian convention?

I know the numbers of Japanese attending were lower than hoped for. One clue to this was the, literally, hundreds of packages of pocket programs stacked up near Operations at the end of the convention.

The Japanese that did attend mostly didn't mix much. I'm sure that language and cultural barriers made a big difference, but I do think the con could have planned for this and done things to mitigate. (More on this later.)

How did it work as a Worldcon?

Mostly pretty good. An awful lot of people that normally go to such things didn't show up (and it really is the people that make a con), but that also happens when a Worldcon is held in Australia: The distance and cost makes a big difference.

The biggest concern I have in this is whether or not the numbers supported the budget. If Nippon 2007 is a huge money loser then the chance of another Worldcon in Asia (much less in Japan) just went down.

Would I come back if they held it again?

Short answer: Yes. Long answer? Read down to the Conclusions section.

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On to the report card...

Facilities

The Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center was as good as the committee promised in their bid: Plenty of space, nice decor, and convenient to restaurants, transportation, and secondary hotels. It is laid out a little strangely, resulting in a lot of walking and occasional cognitive dissonance when you go up one floor and find out that the rooms are numbered and laid out completely differently than the one below. (In computer programming we call this 'bad UI design'.)

The main auditorium was a little small for the opening ceremonies and the Hugos, plenty of people were unable to get seating for either. The exhibition hall was a cavernous space, larger than needed and difficult to air-condition to a reasonable temperature on a sweaty late-August day.

Overall I give the facilities a B.

Location

Yokohama is a great location for a Worldcon. Like Tokyo, the story the city tells you is a Science Fictional one; a feeling of being just over the edge of the future. Unlike Tokyo, Yokohama is small enough to see a significant part of it in a few moments stolen from the convention.

There are plenty of interesting sights and locations and the food is good. It is also close enough for day trips to Tokyo, Mt. Fujii, and Kamakura. Good destinations all.

For me, Yokohama rates an A.

Events

The Opening ceremonies were good and the Hugo ceremonies, ably toast-mastered by George Takei, were excellent. Translation was required at both, but it didn't affect things overmuch.

(Note: I didn't attend the Closing ceremonies or the Art Show Reception.)

However, considering this is the first Japanese convention and considering that many of the attendees were here to get a feel for Japan I think the committee should have scheduled one or two cultural events as well, especially if they could have turned them into mixers to get the gaijin and Japanese together.

Altogether, I have to bring a possible B down to a C+.

Programming

I am unable to comment on programming I wasn't empaneled for, because in my extreme rushitude I attend very little. Most of the commentary I have heard from those attending the English panels seemed positive, and the negatives were mostly the kind you hear at any con.

(I am even less able to comment on the Japanese programming, other than what I did see of it was even more incomprehensible than I expected.)

Certainly the programming staff worked hard and did a good job. There was a wide variety of panels and, if I had any complaints, it is that they scheduled the things I wanted to attend mostly at the same time as they scheduled me to be on a panel.

However I have one important question: Where were the panels designed to bring the Asian and Gaijin fandoms together? I know there were a few, but they should have been scheduled so that there was little other options in the timeslot, especially for the Japanese fans. There should have been programming for offsite venues like a scheduled dinner for a mixed party using a sign-up sheet to determine and limit the numbers. Unfortunately these kinds of things didn't happen on their own near enough because no-one knew how to initiate them. So the programming staff should have made them happen.

Due to this lack of attention to the special needs of a bilingual and multicultural con I give programming a C+, instead of the B+ it probably deserves.

Consuite and Green Room

We were told the Japanese were new to Consuites and Green Rooms and that certainly seemed true. Although the spaces were good (the Green Room, in particular, was much larger than required), these were extremely underfunded. The volunteers did what they could with what they had, but I've got to say that they were missing all three of what I would consider to be the minimum requirements: Good coffee (they had coffee, but bad coffee makers), Diet Coke, and peanut butter. More orange juice and breakfast cereal could have turned the whole thing around. Add in some TV's showing Anime in the Consuite and they could have had an A.

So sorry folks, these essential con services get a D-.

Dealer's Room and Art Show

I'm lumping this together because they were lumped together at the con; along with the fan tables and a whole lot of other crap. Both were small and neither seemed very interesting to me. (Maybe because I've seen all of Michael Whelan's work before.)

Add on the fact that load-in for the exhibition hall started around noon of the first day of the con and tear down started in the morning of the last day. As a result everyone there seemed to have short tempers and nothing was ever working right.

So, another D-

Parties

The hotel required that all parties be on a floor reserved for them. A floor where the air-conditioning weren't up to the task. A floor made extremely crowded, hot, and uncomfortable. This really turned what could have been a highlight of the convention into one of the things we will be complaining about for years. I'm afraid that the Nippon 2007 parties are going to attain legendary status, but not in a good way.

This is too bad, because the Japanese and the Norwegians threw some exceptional parties. The various bid parties were great and everyone really wanted to have a good time, no matter how uncomfortable they were doing it.

And those are the only things bringing parties up from total failure to a D.

Con Operations

As with any convention, the saving grace is always the volunteers on the spot cranking the wheels and oiling the gears. In this case they had their work cut out for them, as they operated under some very adverse conditions; not the least of which was the language barrier.

The volunteers did well considering and for that I would like to honor them with an A+.

Daily Zine

On the one hand the daily zine was really rather pedestrian. Pretty much just the normal stuff and not near enough of it. However the Japanese did try to put out a bilingual hourly zine as well, which unfortunately turned out to be mostly in Japanese. I'm not sure it was worth the effort, but I liked their enthusiasm a lot.

Zines get a C.

Costumes and Masquerade

I am not grading costumes because I didn't attend the Masquerade. I will note that there was a distinct lack of hall costumes, something that surprised me given the Japanese penchant for Cosplay. (Yes there was some, I just expected more and better.)

Final Grade

It averages out to a C+; close enough to making a B- that they get one for effort.

Conclusions

As stated above, I enjoyed myself. Overall I think it was a good con. Expectations I had that were not met mostly revolved around the lack of mixing between Japanese and Gaijin fans. Irritations I had mostly revolved around the lack of funding for the Green Room and Consuite and what appeared to be some mis-management of the exhibition hall space.

All of these things are fixable. If the current ConCom are still around and if they learned from their mistakes, there is a good chance Nippon 20XX will be a truly great Worldcon...

I wish them luck in that. Mostly because I want to come back!

Morning started early. Anita and I did our usual online stuff and packed everything up, checking out of our room by nine and dropping off our suitcases to be picked up by our tour company.

(For the trip we had purchased a 'tour' for the con that included airfare, con hotel, hotel in Tokyo for two nights after the con, and all transfers. This turned out to be an excellent value, partially because it included a really nice room in the main con hotel. This made it easy for Anita to go rest if she was running low on energy.)

Then off to check out the Consuite and the Green Room. No one knew anything about a dead dog party, so I left my two partial (maybe three/four fingers) bottles of single malt scotch in the Consuite. Soon enough it was time for the my last panel of the con.

The panel was 'The Singularity: How to Write About It'. This was the one where I was concerned about being a bit outclassed. I mean, I was up there with autopope (Charlie Stross), Greg Benford, and davidlevine (David Levine) for ghu's sake! However I was able to contribute a couple of good thoughts, tweak one member of the audience, and even get a couple of laughs out of Greg.

(Plus, bonus, I got to promote Kathleen Ann Goonan a little.)

After the panel several people came up to me and wanted to keep talking about it (including the guy I tweaked -- it wasn't just cheap laughs, he made a good foil for an important point), which seems like a good sign. But the thing I took as a particular compliment was Greg Benford telling me twice that it was a "Good panel."

At this point Anita and I were pretty hungry, so we said as many goodbyes as we could and went by ourselves back to Keawjal; the Thai place where we ate the night we arrived. There I, for the first time this trip, ordered by pointing to someone else's plate to indicate I would have that.

(Interesting note: For food we bracketed the con with Keawjal. For panels I bracketed it by sharing the podium with David Levine on the first and last scheduled panels.)

After lunch we had about forty minutes before our tour group was supposed to leave the hotel. We went back to the lobby and installed Anita in a chair, then I took off to see if I could get a con shirt at the last minute. No such luck, they were tearing down the dealers room already (up late and down early). However I ran into the guy selling the shirts and ended up helping him cart his wares back to the convention center where he and his wife were setting up near the entrance. This didn't lead to me buying a shirt though; they were discombobulated and near frantic from being moved around and I didn't have much time. I was assured I could order the shirt I wanted via email, so I took the info and headed back to the hotel lobby.

Just in time as it turned out. But then I offended Anita's highly developed sense of promptness by purchasing a cup of coffee from the hotel snack bar before going out front. She couldn't stand it any more and left me there while the Japanese girl made up my coffee to go, put it in a holder, and put that into a high-quality shopping bag -- the kind you get in jewelry shops and high-end clothing places. Well, the coffee did cost 400 yen...

So, out front and pile into the motor coaches and off for an hour trip through highly urbanized Japan. Only a little confusion with the room keys and we were installed into the Sunshine City Prince Hotel located in the Ikebukuro district.

A phone call to the desk and we were delivered a cable modem. Soon thereafter I had the Airport Express up and going and both Anita and I could get online. Then we had a longer wait until our luggage finally showed up.

It was getting to be early evening, so we left the hotel and wandered around the local shopping district. This struck me as being a low-rent version of Shinjuku; less high-end electronics stores, more Anime and clothing stores aimed at young people. Craving something simple involving proteins and fresh vegetables we ended up eating chili and salads at Wendy's. We also walked through a couple of shops, including an enormous Anime/Manga store called Animate. (That's right, they rate a Wikipedia entry.)

Then back to our room where I played an online game for thirty minutes and collapsed into bed instead of writing this. Today we tour Tokyo and maybe tonight I will finally get some pictures up.

Also still to-do: A review of the con with over-all impressions, as opposed to the personal daily travel journal I have been doing.

My quick take? I had a blast! But that doesn't make it the best Worldcon ever...

I started the day with an energy deficit, not surprising after putting in such a full day yesterday. Still, I managed to drag my (slightly hungover) ass out of bed by 10:00 and go with Anita to get some breakfast. (Actually it was second breakfast for Anita, she had left early while I was still snoring and came back about the time I started to come around.)

I wanted something quick and close, so we actually went to the McDonald's in Queen's Gate mall. There I got the Japanese equivalent of a breakfast sandwich meal for both of us (except I drank both coffees and ate most of both potato wedges). We ended up sharing a table there with Chris Cooper.

Afterwards we separated, Anita back to our room and myself to the Green Room where (miracle of miracles) I got a good connection to the Con Wifi. I then spent the next hour or so typing up my previous day's adventures in between interruptions as people flowed in and out and stopped to talk.

By that time my hangover was completely gone and I was ready for anything. So the thing I chose was relaxing with a book for another hour until my panel of the day: 'Free Will? Or Neurochemistry?'

Eileen Gunn was unable to make the panel because she had to get ready to accept another award. (Yeah, really! It was for a Japanese translation of her collection 'Stable Strategies and Others'. I will post details later.) However we had added Mary Kay Kare to the panel because she had practical experience with the matter. So that made up the lack.

The panel itself went fine. We ratholed a couple of times on side subjects and probably spent too much time exploring just what we meant when we said 'Free Will', but overall it worked OK. We had a good sized audience and most of them stuck it out for an hour and a half and seemed ready to stay for more if we were willing. (We weren't.)

Afterwards some of them wanted to continue talking about the subject. One sign of a good panel, I think.

Anita had caught up with me before the panel, so the two of us went to the Con Suite and then the Green Room in search of a good snack and interesting company. The former turned out more difficult to obtain than the latter.

Prior to the panel voidampersand had mentioned to Anita the possibility of a dinner trip to the Ramen Museum. This had been on my list of things I wanted to do in Yokohama, so I was enthusiastic about going. However actually putting the group together and getting the group moving took far longer than expected.

A couple of people in the original group had already left for the Ramen Museum, but we didn't know it, so some time was wasted trying to locate them. Then we had to do the herding cats thing until we got the whole group perambulating towards the subway we needed to take. By this point the group consisted of voidampersand, spikeiowa, whumpdotcom, and cynthia1960 (pretty much the same group as the previous night's excursion to the Thrash Zone) along with Anita, John Berry, snarke, and his spouse Eric. (And me.)

Getting to the subway required the same through-the-mall-and-down-the-walkway trek that Anita and I had made far too many times a couple of days ago. After a little bit of confusion everyone boarded the subway train and everything went smooth from there.

The Ramen Museum itself is pretty damn cool, but deeply weird in a very Japanese way. Basically it is a humongous sub-basement tricked out to look like a Tokyo street from the 1950's. This is very well done, with the kind of attention to detail you see from Disney and obsessive/compulsives. Even the ceiling is painted and lighted to look like the sky at sunset; and the lighting itself changed slowly the entire time we were there. (Remember, this is deep underground. Compare this to the Chinese restaurant in the skyscraper made up to look like an improvised bomb shelter we ate at the other day.)

As to the Ramen part of the equation, apparently the best Ramen restaurants from all over Japan compete to get one of the eight available slots, each of which is a tiny little space with it's own kitchen and seating around the 'street'. You buy tickets out of modern machines which have been carefully 'aged' to match the decor and you exchange the tickets for a seat and a bowl of ramen soup. Each place makes the soup in it's own particular way, so you can try regional variations for as long as you have space to tuck the noodles.

The Japanese seem to love this place! Our little group wasn't the only gaijin there, but the ramen museum was chock-full of Japanese having a great time. It was a kick to watch them come in and look around amazed, huge grins growing on their faces as they took it in. Many of the ramen shops had long lines as well.

Anita and I tried two different ramen shops and found it quite tasty, but definitely different. I also drank a couple of beers and wandered around for a while. The museum has a little candy shop selling old-fashioned Japanese candies and toys and there, for only 600 yen each, I purchased plastic model kits of a '57 Daihatsu Midget and a '58 Subaru 360. The latter is especially cool to me because I actually owned and drove a Subaru 360 in high school! It was a bizarre little vehicle with a two cylinder, two cycle engine.

By this time both Anita and I were fading fast, so we went ahead and left for our hotel; retracing our steps through the subway, moving walkway, and mall.

Not as exciting as yesterday maybe, but still a ton of fun. One more day to go of convention stuff and then it is on to the serious vacationing!

Wow! What a busy day! I'm going to have to just skim the highlights if I don't want this to turn into a Novella...

I had nothing scheduled for the Worldcon today and there was nothing on the schedule of more than mild interest except the Hugo awards in the evening, so Anita and I had planned a day trip to Kamakura. We got an early start and walked through nearly post-neutron-bomb empty streets of Yokohama to the train station. The quiet was eerie for such a big city, but then it was early morning and we did see more signs of life as we approached the main road.

Like many large Japanese train stations, Yokohama station is a warren of underground passages, parts of it lined with shops and none of it easy to navigate. We finally found the ticket office and purchased two round trips to Kamakura. However I made the mistake of not specifically asking what platform, figuring I could easily suss it out.

Heh...

So anyway, we missed the express train but caught a local within fifteen minutes. (Plus I have now memorized the Kanji for Kamakura: 鎌倉. And Anita now knows the trick of feeding your ticket into the machine and grabbing it back after the machine lets you through.) The train ride itself was uneventful, with interesting views of Japanese suburban sprawl.

Once in Kamakura we had a frustrating time finding the tourist information office, wandering in a meandering two kilometer circle before being directed to it by a friendly bicycle rental guy who damn near had to take me by the hand and guide me to it. It turned out to be a building the size of the Tardis stuck to the side of the train station. Right where we had started...

Armed with an English map of the town and some written instructions for buses, Anita and I then walked up a long commercial alley lined with shops to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine. Along the way Anita pointed to a sign in English on a shop stating they had local beer. The shopkeeper overheard this and announced in passable English that the beer in question had won several awards at a beer competition in Seattle. When we told him we were from there he engaged us in a whirlwind of conversation that somehow ended with me drinking an excellent dark beer, eating a bratwurst on a stick, trying several more kinds of sausage, and buying a whole large sausage to take away. (Did I mention that this was only one of several places we found in Kamakura which specialized in German sausages or other German food?)

Now that I had broken my fast (it was around nine in the morning) we continued to the shrine. We were lucky enough to be there while they were doing some kind of rite involving traditionally costumed musicians and a large number of chanting monks (the latter mostly out of sight inside the temple). The shrine and its grounds are marvelous and beautiful.

Afterwards we walked back via a different route (down the middle of the main drag) to the station and caught a bus from the to the Kōtoku-in Shrine, home of the Kamakura Daibutsu (or great Buddha). The shrine itself was nothing special, but we were able to actually go inside the statue, meaning that I now know what it is like to be inside of the Buddha.

Before leaving we poked around the attached souvenir shop and I ended up buying a t-shirt with the Kanji for Kamakura on it for 1300 yen. (Yes, I had learned 鎌倉 after my experience looking for it on the train station reader boards, but I checked with the ladies in the store anyway. One cannot be too careful about sporting words upon one's chest that one cannot read after all.)

Then we walked towards the beach, stopping along the way at the Kaikōzan Hase-dera Shrine. This was yet more lovely buildings and grounds, with bonus views of the harbor and a 'cave' carved out of the rock containing carved statues of Shinto gods. This latter left Anita grumbling after we had worked our way through its narrow passages.

Continuing down to the water afterwards, we eventually found our way to a working beach filled with tiny fishing boats scattered on the soft sand and wind-surfers out in the bay. We took off our shoes and walked in the gentle surf for a while and then started back up towards a small local train stop where we could catch a train back to the main Kamakura station and, from there, a train back to Yokohama. We decided to try a different route again, which ended up with us walking down narrow alleys and footpaths between the houses.

Once back in Yokohama we had lunch and then went back up to our room. By this time it was nearly four in the afternoon and Anita had run completely out of energy, so I left her there and went back to the convention. There I couldn't find a single panel I was interested in that was still running. I did listen to an inexplicably popular J-Pop/psychedelic-revival band for a while, but that was about it. In the end I decided to see if I could get seated for the Hugo awards early. As it turned out, yes I could and yes it was a damn good idea.

The Hugo awards themselves were actually pretty good as those things go. George Takei did an excellent job as Toastmaster, the skits and humor moments with Ultraman held my attention, most of the speeches were mercifully short (a good thing considering the ceremonies were bilingual, requiring much translation), and one of my friends won a rocket. (Chris O'Shea has posted some pictures of the Hugos.)

(Speaking of keeping things short; in the absence of Connie Willis, Robert Silverberg proved completely unequal to the task of drawing out his presentation to ridiculous lengths. He claims he lost his list of all previous winners.)

Just as soon as the Hugos were finished I rushed back to my room, posted here about Randy winning and put up a list of the other winners as well. I woke Anita in the process, but she was glad to hear about Randy as well.

Then it was time for the parties. I grabbed a bottle of single-malt and a case of cigars (just in case, don't you know) and made the rounds. Once again it was overhot on the party floor and once again I was unable to find someone willing to sneak me into one of the private parties; more vexing than usual because I wanted to go to the Hugo Losers party rather badly. (Plus the private parties had air-conditioning! Or maybe just less people. I could tell because there was cold air coming out from under their doors.)

The most crowded party was ran by the Norwegians. I gave them half of the big sausage we bought in Kamakura and gave the other half to the Daicon crew. The scotch was also popular, as usual. However when I found out that voidampersand, spikeiowa, whumpdotcom, and cynthia1960 were putting together a group to go to a little bar they had discovered, which had good local beer on tap, I was more than ready to get away from the heat and noise.

We managed to find a van-taxi big enough to hold the entire group and soon enough were taking up nearly the entire bar of a tiny establishment (which I forget the name of, someone please remind me in comments) on the second floor of an anonymous building somewhere in Yokohama. There we had a truly excellent and very hoppy bitter ale and a nice strong dark ale; black enough to be a porter or stout, but flavored more like a brown. A good time was had by all and I took special pleasure in rooting through the owner's collection of thrash and punk EPs, looking for bands I actually knew.

Rather too quickly it was time to split up and head back to our respective hotels. I ended up Smofing and smoking a cigar in front of the Intercontinental until nearly 3:30 in the morning.

Yes, I am still having a wonderful time.

Best Novel: 'Rainbows End' by Vernor Vinge

Best Novella: 'A Billion Eves' by Robert Reed

Best Novelette: 'The Djinn's Wife' by Ian McDonald

Best Short Story: 'Impossible Dreams' by Tim Pratt

Best Related Book: 'James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon' by Julie Phillips

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: 'Pan's Labyrinth'

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: 'Doctor Who: Girl in the Fireplace'

Best Editor, Long Form: Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Best Editor, Short Form: Gordon Van Gelder

Best Semiprozine: Locus

Best Fan Writer: Dave Langford

Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola

Best Fanzine: 'Science-Fiction Five-Yearly' edited by Lee Hoffman, Geri Sullivan, and Randy Byers

Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 2006: Naomi Novik

My friend fringefaan won a Hugo tonight for his part in the team of editors that produced the Best Fanzine for 2007: Science-Fiction Five-Yearly. Yay Randy!

Full list of winners in just a few minutes...

Tired, hot, and sweaty. Those are the relevant adjectives for me tonight. The theme today is 'moisture'...

Anita and I got up pretty early and left the hotel around seven, looking for coffee and something for Anita to eat. We found a little coffee shop in Queen's Square mall. Afterwards we decided to walk to the end of the system of interconnected malls, because I had heard that was the way to get to Yokohama's Chinatown, one of the largest and oldest such enclaves in the world.

Well, apparently it was actually the way to get to the way to get there. We eventually came out at the Sakuragi-cho train station, where we could catch a train, a subway, or a bus. In the process we managed at first to miss the remarkable moving walkways that could have saved us a bit of effort. Opting for the bus, we rode through downtown Yokohama and got off just as soon as we saw one of the 'entrance gates' to the Chinatown.

We wandered around for a while in the cool drizzly morning, in streets with mostly shuttered shops, until we found a Chinese bakery with a pair of large steamers out front. We requested two humbaos, but were rebuffed because they weren't ready yet. (The girl showed us a timer still counting down.) We agreed to wait and were rewarded with a pair of fragrant white buns still far too hot to eat. So we continued on a snakelike path through more and more narrow alleys, between walls bristling with decorations, but not alone.

There were many people working. Some were pushing carts or carrying loads on bicycles. Others were in the process of renovating buildings. (We saw at least four buildings in various stages of completion, from gutted out to the workers removing scaffolding because they were done.) It had started out drizzling with fitful bursts of rain, but the bursts were getting closer together, so Anita bought an umbrella from a little shop while I made friends with the store cat. By this time our pork buns had cooled enough we could eat them as we walked.

Eventually we found a beautiful temple, but decided against paying to see the inside. The rain had worked itself into a near downpour and I was getting seriously wet, so we started walking out the other side of the Chinatown, looking for a way back to our hotel. The further we got from the Chinatown, the less it rained until, by the time we found a place we could catch a bus back, there were breaks in the clouds. However, this just meant it was getting hot.

The bus back to Sakuragi-cho train station was packed, but it got us where we needed to be, albeit on the other side from where we had started. So we walked back through the station and the mall to our hotel, taking better advantage of the moving walkways this time. It was getting quite warm by this time and so humid you could just about grab a handful of air and wring it out.

Then it was time to saddle up for the convention, so we headed down to the Green Room and I talked to some friends for a while until one of the others on the 'Remembering Robert Anton Wilson' panel found me: The Japanese translator for the 'Illuminatus!' trilogy. Apparently it took more than thirty years for Wilson and Shea's deeply weird masterpiece to get published in Japan -- it became available here in just the last few months!

At the panel we were joined by our third panelist and three in the audience, one of them Pat Cadigan. So the six of us had a fine time deconstructing some of the most complex and multi-layred literature in the Western canon, along with the equally complex personality of the man behind it. I really hadn't expected many people to show up, but all were well informed and had something interesting to say. So the panel was a success in the only way that really matters: It was interesting. It doesn't matter if it was interesting to six people or six hundred really. It only fails if it is boring.

After was some wandering around and time in the green room. Then Anita and I went over to the exhibition center to make a quick run through the dealer's room and suchlike before I took a turn at the Seattle Worldcon in 2011 bid table while the actual bid committee made a run for party supplies. I was so thirsty from sweating that I drank a large bottle of lemon water while minding the store.

I was there until my Kaffeeklatch session, which I bailed on by sitting over in pnh's side of the room instead. It turned out they were recording his Kaffeeklatch session for a future podcast, so I had to sign a release form because I talked too much.

The previous night we had made arrangements to have dinner with voidampersand and spikeiowa at a yakitori place that specialized in shochu, to the point they had three hundred different bottles of the stuff. So the next task was to get in touch with them and find out when. That turned out to be more difficult than expected, including a couple of missed phone calls.

Finally I got a voice mail from voidampersand with the time (7:30) and place, so Anita and started walking over there. As it turns out this required walking through the malls and along the rolling walkway to Sakuragi-cho station again. We found the place and were eventually joined by everyone, which now included whumpdotcom and cynthia1960. However there was no room at the inn: We were told to expect a wait until 9:00. That wasn't acceptable, so the entire group wandered around the building looking for a replacement, eventually settling on a Chinese place with an bizarre Steampunk decor.

The entranceway of riveted metal and underlit glass floor made me feel like I should be running through it carrying a BFG. The dining area was like an ancient brick tunnel, with domed ceilings and iron pipes running along the walls and hanging over the tables. We sat down to a decent dinner, accompanied by some amazing Tsingtao dark beer, until we were interrupted by the lights flickering and a deep rumble from hidden subwoofers.

Eventually all the lights went out except some at the ends of the fake tunnel. (Remember, this is on the third floor of a skyscraper.) Then water started to pour out of a large false-perspective sewer-pipe thing at one end, flooding along the recessed floor past all the tables. Quite cool!

I was glad I got to see it because I needed to take off right then. I had also agreed earlier to help out with the Seattle Worldcon in 2011 bid party. So I rushed back along the same moving walkways and through the same malls to the hotel (sweating all the way in the heat and humidity) and rode the elevator up to my room to drop off some things and pick up a bottle of Glenmorangie. Then I rode the elevator back down to the party floor only to be met by a wave of heat and a wet pong of humanity when the doors opened: There was no air conditioning on the entire party floor.

I clutched my bottle of single malt to my chest and pushed my way down the halls until I found the Seattle party, where I was immediately put to work bar tending; my duties consisting mostly of ladling orange stuff with purple lumps into glasses. I have no idea what the stuff was and had to tell people this when they asked. Amazingly they often wanted a glass of the stuff anyway, although quite a few opted to sample my scotch instead. (My rule on SF convention room parties is simple: Always bring a known quantity with you. That way if all they have is purple stuff or blue stuff or orange stuff, you have an alternative.)

I was there several hours, getting more and more soaked with sweat. During that time jaylake finally showed up and hung around long enough to say hello before giving up and going horizontal in his hotel room. (He had spent more total hours traveling than otherwise in the previous three days.) When my kerchief became so soaked it stopped mopping up the sweat and only pushed it around my face I gave up myself and stuck my head into a couple of room parties before coming up to my (mercifully) cool room to write this. Now I will go take a shower and go to bed, yet another exhausting and moist day of the con behind me.

Yes, I'm having a great time!

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.

iPhoning.

We made it. All checked in and even have enough energy for a little exploring!

Time for a late dinner at Queen's Square. An excellent Thai place called Keawjal.

I am on the English programming track for the Nippon 2007 Worldcon, scheduled for the following panel discussions. (Note the other participants on the last item, methinks I am a bit outclassed on that one. Certainly I have published an essay on the very subject, but we are talking theory as opposed to practice...)

Thu 1300 The Future of Computers
Participants: Chris COOPER, David D. LEVINE, Jack William BELL, Mark L. VAN NAME
Computers are getting lighter and more capable every year. (The latest innovation: tie two or more onto the same piece of silicon). Is there an end in sight? Or does it only end at some point in the so called "Singularity?"

Fri 1200 Remembering Robert Anton WILSON
Participants: Jack William BELL, Lou ANDERS, Yoshio KOBAYASHI
Remembering the golden days of the geeks.

Fri 1500 Kaffeeklatsche
Participants: Jack William BELL

Sun 1400 Free Will? Or Neurochemistry?
Participants: Eileen GUNN, Jack William BELL, James L. CAMBIAS
Some behaviors (anger, violence) might be neurological in nature. If these traits can be identified and treated, what implications does this have on social interactions, legal contracts and frameworks? The social contract? The idea of individual responsibility? Could we program ourselves into becoming mindless sheep? Should we?

Mon 1000 The Singularity: How to Write About It
Participants: Charles STROSS, Gregory BENFORD, David D. LEVINE, Jack William BELL
The singularity may be the most interesting idea to come out of SF, yet may pose a challenge which may be insurmountable — how to set a story in a world which is, by definition, incomprehensible? If a singularity lurks about a hundred years after the invention of the computer: does this mean that hard SF is a contradiction in terms once it gets outside the near future? Can SF stories cope? Or should writers just ignore it and move on?