WorldCon

My favorite program item was these three from Henson Productions. In order from left to right is an executive producer, a writer, and a puppeteer. They had tons of great stories to tell; it was a blast.

The 2009 WorldCon bid was hotly constested. Although Kansas City put up a good fight, Montreal prevailed. The first night of the con, there was a party co-hosted by the bids. Montreal was serving up some high-class hooch...

...and also serving up some really good stew, made entirely of Canadian ingredients.

One of the Japanese con traditions is the trading of stickers. You come with a book of stickers you've had printed up with whatever you want, then you trade with other people and put their stickers in your book. Kate and David are trading stickers.

Speaking of parties, the Swedes and Norwegians threw one. I don't know why, and I don't know what the gigantic inflatable whatsis is, but it was quite the party.

The Dealer's Room/Exhibition Hall included a display of this one-person glider. The pilot lays on top of it, in the cradle.

Another area featured demos of "Manoi," a remote control robot. This model was semi-autonomous. When the robot sees the little kid's hand, he'll stop walking forward.

These guys (which are a different model), seen here dancing to some music, were basically remote controlled.

Bowing after a performance. They were clever enough to be able to right themselves after falling over, and generally remarkably flexible. They could even jump into the air a millimeter or three. Many many nifty joints.

Another bow. I'd have love to have brought one home, but couldn't justify spending 336,000 yen for one. That's a bit less than $3500.

The gaming area was only open during the day, since it shared space that held parties at night. At its peak, there were maybe eight games of some kind going on at once. There was only one dealer, but he had lots of very attractive stuff! Five games came home with me, and there would have been a sixth, but I ran out of yen.

Some kind of head-to-head fighting game. Many of the games for sale had English rules; this one did not.

This year's Hugo award, featuring "Ultraman." I think it's pretty darn cool, really.

You never know what you're going to see at a WorldCon. In this case, you're looking at some sculpture at the shopping mall next to the con. I thought it looked like Daleks with their braces locked together.

As seen in the Green Room. I wonder what the panel was?

I was not the only person wondering exactly what this room at the convention center was used for. Perhaps a staff break room? Or the boiler room? Hmmmm.

Although many parts of the con were smaller than usual, the "Fanzine Alley" was jam-packed. The English-language newsletter came out once or twice a day, but apparently the Japanese one was coming out hourly! They had what appeared to be a silk-screen style hand printing press to crank it out. I had intended to get a picture of it, but when I remembered to stop, it turned out that they had temporarily suspended operation, for reasons that seemed pretty clear from the sign laying on the equipment.

On the last evening of the con, a mob of us trooped off to the "Ramen Museum," which did have a semi-comprehensible display of noodle manufacture on the groun floor. But the main reason to go is the Disney-like dining arcade in the two-level basement. There are eight restaurants serving different kinds of ramen in this simulated retro-Tokyo environment complete with fake sky that has sunsets every few minutes.

Anita's coming down one of the "alleys."

A view from the top of the entrance stairs. Inside the ramen shop in the lower left, you can just see the back of somebody in a white T-shirt. That's Eric. Also, the sky has changed color.

Desserts and beverages were available from the "street" vendor in the courtyard.

Tom and Kate debate the merits of the ramen at Restaurant #2.

Eric and I started with the "spicy" garlic ramen in shop #8. (Once or twice on this trip, a Japanese native has warned me that some food would be spicy. Japanese food isn't spicy. Ever. At least for anybody who uses that term to refer to Thai, Indian, or Mexican food. Even the chicken with wasabi I had at a later meal would barely qualify as "two stars" in a Seattle Thai restaurant.)

The "mini" portion of garlic-y ramen. We were unable to identify most of the ingredients on the top, but it was most yummylicious ramen to be sure. One gets the mini bowls (around 500 yen) in order to have room to eat at more than one place, and sample the ramen.

Up a level. To Home Page.