The Buddhas were Awesome! Not only did I see the famous floor but I got to walk on it, cool..
Today I finally got to do the Ghibli animation studio/museum tour. It was really impressive with the first couple of rooms featuring quite ingeniuos forms of animation with the use of spinning wheels and strobe lights. Unfortunately you can`t take photos inside which was kinda dissapointing. Upstairs there is a full animation studio replica with thousands of orginal illustrations from movies like Howl`s Moving Castle. In fact I stand in further awe of the skill of Japanese animators. They also had the story books/boards for Le Guin`s Wizard Of EarthSea, so I sort of got a sneak peak of what was to come. There was also the famous Japanese robot which I was able to have my photo taken beside. Also bought something for you Nesa, which I think you`ll like...
Following my return to the Convention center I went to register before going to see Ellen Kushner and Joe Haldeman. Got their autographs and had a photo oppurtunity with Joe who was very easy to talk to. After this I decided to go see a download movie of BattleStar Galactica for a while before attending the Guest Of Honour press conference. That turned out to be quite interesting with David Brin, Sakyo Komatsu, Yoshitako Amano and Takumi Shibano giving their thoughts on SF and fielding a few questions from the local press.
Next up was a short break before the Openining Ceremony where I inadvertently bumped into Michael Whelan although there wasn`t much chance for an exchange of words. The opening cermeony was housed in the huge convention hall and it was packed in by several thousand people. It started with a short animation film depicting WorldCon 2007, attacking aliens etc.. and was quite amusing. Then the mayor of Yokohama came on stage being carried on a rickshaw which was fun. After giving a short welcome speech, the main GOH were introduced and each spoke briefly. When Komatsu came on stage there was a standing ovation which was nice for him, quite an emotional point as he`s been quite ill of late at the age of 80. Then the WorldCon was offically opened by a hammer blow before everyone filed out to attend the bid parties.
I went to Kansas City and Toronto bid parties for 2009 and Melbourne`s bid party is on tommorrow where I`ll be helping out. Toronto put out all stops hiring a couple of professional chefs to serve guests.
Just returned to my hotel and I`m a bit tired so I shall bid you all a good night..