IPP42 (Part 2)

 

On Tuesday Gill and Sue head off to Shinjuku and Brian and I head off to Torito. Brian does an ace job of navigating and we pretty much just went straight there - no detours like we normally have when I’m navigating! We find Tim and Carol already at Torito (we’ve arrived shortly AFTER opening after all and I get in a little bout of laundry, topping up on my Hanayamas (minis and disentanglements), a couple of new puzzles from Teddy and Kofuh, and some Japanese number puzzles. The Luxembourg contingent arrived in full force and proceeded to shop seriously. Brian and I settled down and embarrassed ourselves trying to reassemble a bunch of random Hanayama puzzles scattered around the play table… between us we manage to reassemble two or three…but we’re suitably embarrassed.

From there we headed across town to Shinjuku where the girls had found a spot in Memory Lane for lunch - Google got us more or less to the right place and Gill found us and took us upstairs into a tiny little hole-in-the-wall that did some really nice meat and veg skewers. After lunch we headed off to a wonderfully swanky department store where we window-shopped a while before heading across the road - devoid of cars due to the public holiday - to grab an airplane adapter for Brian’s noise-cancelling headphones - success when a wonderfully helpful sales assistant worked out precisely what was needed and found one for us.

Back at the hotel we meet Shoko, Esa and Iwahiro for a final planning meeting for the Fabric & Fibre tour the next morning - they really don’t need us as Shoko’s done a brilliant job of organising it all already… final details agreed we find Louis and Patrick fresh off a plane and they join us and several others on a trip out to Asakusa for some gluten-free (and well-glutenated!) pizzas and pastas. Iwahiro is sporting his 2BM IPP41 shirt – making a serious fashion statement.

Next morning we grab our usual breakfast before getting the F&F gang sorted and onto the bus before a few of us head upstairs to help Nick set up the Puzzle Design Competition entries… Brian and I sort out the solution sheets while Chinny and Nick unpack the puzzles and then we distribute them around the room before sitting down to test things. We manage to get a couple of hours playing in before we all feel the need to head off and find some lunch. After a couple of false starts we end up sitting on the floor in a traditional restaurant - the creaking and complaints getting down onto the floor are nothing compared to the noises when we have to get back up about an hour later - we hobbled back to the hotel…

Frank needed to try and find a charger and we decided we needed to go in search of some puzzles at a toy store in Ueno - we’re joined by Chinny and Benny and the Monkeys (a new J-Pop band?) and at the toy store Ali gives Steve some money and Steve gives him crabs.

Our attempt to source a charger for Frank fails abysmally and we end up wandering back to the hotel via the underground. 

There's heaps of hilarity when Steve brings out a box of surprises for the SOAPs in the form of customised deely boppers (I think that's what they're called!) that he's christened SOAP-finders - making it easier for the SOAPs to find one another in a crowded room... inital tests in the lobby are promising. 

The guys decide to head off to a nearby Tiki Bar and when another 9 of us follow on later we’re met by some patrons leaving in a huff remarking about the stressed-out bartender… up the stairs we find said-bartender who works himself into a bit of a froth at the fact that another bunch of rowdy puzzlers has just rolled into his bar and want another 9 seats… we decided it wasn’t worth trying to convince him we’ll be fine just grabbing chairs and end up deciding to head off in search of dinner - we duly end up back at the local Chinese who happily accommodate 9 of us in one go (it’s a tiny joint!), and then another 9 when the boys follow on a few minutes later… we’ve virtually filled the place in one foul swoop and they handle it superbly… right up until one of our friends insists he hasn’t received the rice he ordered… we order him some and he’s happy, we think, but it’s hard to tell…

I grab an ice cream on the way back to the hotel and we crash early ahead of a long trip to Hakone in the morning.

There’s a massive throng of excited puzzlers in the lobby waiting for the four buses to Hakone in the morning. I hook up with Nick and Anne as Gill and Sue are heading off to a traditional tea ceremony and some shopping. Nick and I end up on the number three bus between Matt, John, Yacine and Clive… there’s a chunk of puzzling and a lot of banter… probably more than planned given we end up in a bit of a traffic jam on the highway due to an accident that seems to come neatly between our four buses… Nick spends a long time working on a new design from Andreas and I toil on Minima Bi-cubes - it takes me ages to get the pieces out of the frame before I can even start… in the end it literally takes me several hours before I finally manage to push everything into the little 2*2*3 box… another goodie from that man Boucher!

The excitement builds on the bus as we climb up the hills heading into Hakone and there’s a rapid exit as the bus empties and Izumiya fills up. I stop for a chat with Mine who’s recovering from surgery and when I have a look through his boxes of wares he politely informs me that I already have everything he’s brought along to sell today… it turns out he’s right - he promises to have new things in Tokyo…

We head up the road to the closed Karakuri museum and the largely-emptied Maruyama before heading back to fetch Anne from her somewhat productive shopping trip to Izumiya. We pull up a couple of tables of puzzlers at a tempura joint which feeds us well in plenty of time for our bus onwards. We head through the scenic countryside to Gora where the puzzles have largely already been purchased. We enjoy the scenery that only gets better and better as we ride the funicular up the hills - on the Honeymoon train - I try not to think too hard about that name.

The bus collects us at the top and we wend our way down the mountain and onto the motorway back to Tokyo - the traffic isn’t as bad this time and we have a short break at a rest stop where Otis and Nick grab a selfie at the same Starbucks they took a selfie at exactly 6 years earlier. Somewhere around here Nick finally manages to solve Andreas’ project and declares it worthy…

Matt brings out a Giiker Super Slider and demonstrates it and then lets Nick have a go on it… we’re all a bit surprised when the machine gives up on Nick and turns itself off, presumably because it’s gotten bored waiting for him to solve the puzzle.

We eventually get back to the hotel and Gill tells me about the tea ceremony she and Sue have been at (and the shopping side trip) - a bunch of us head out for ice creams rather than dinner and the Monkeys join us having completed their trains, planes and automobile rally around Hakone under their own steam - they’ve had a fantastic day and Steve’s managed to find an absolute treasure of a puzzle along the way.

Back at the hotel Gill heads off to bed and I spend a few hours in the design comp room not solving much but enjoying catching up with a few folks - Stefan gives me a copy of his gift puzzle: a micro-scale four-piece rhombic dodecahedron that requires assembly - the fact that I have a full-size copy at home to crib off might make assembly almost possible… I witness a lovely moment when Stefan introduces himself to Iwahiro and gives him a copy too, at which point Iwahiro exclaims “Ah, you’re are THE GUY!” - I think Stefan’s already made a massive positive impression at his first IPP!

Soon after that I head off and crash.