Next morning we met Anne and Nick in the breakfast line and
then Brian and Sue led the entire breakfast room in a round of Happy Birthday -
really not embarrassing at all… after breakfast I headed to the puzzle party
and joined the very orderly queue to be allowed to enter at 9 o’clock while
watching all those with dealer tables wandering in and setting up… or trying to
snag an early bargain before the rabble were allowed in.
I made a bee-line for Mine’s table hoping to find something
new and didn’t at first, although on some of my subsequent visits I did manage
to find a few little goodies that I didn’t already have.
Tetsuro tracked me down and presented me with a carrier bag
of some of his older exchange puzzles that he’d recently found while cleaning
out a room… and then Osho handed me another bag full of Hiroshi Yamamoto’s
designs in recognition of his recent passing - both wonderfully generous
gentlemen! Thank you!
A couple of the guys who missed the exchange the day before
now have their exchange puzzles and we all get the chance to exchange with
Namba-San and Hendrik.
During the course of the day I get to spend some time
chatting with Scott Elliott - something that’s always enlightening and
entertaining all at once. The Hanayama guys have some giant cast puzzles for
sale and I spend a while wondering how I can justify spending a fair chunk of
change on 5 big old chunks of heavy metal (10kg in total) before Ali puts me
out of my misery and buys a couple of sets of them - Two Brass Monkey heavy
metal puzzle research in action.
I decided to spoil myself with a copy of Stephan’s Moonage
M5 because I still haven’t had a chance to play with one and I decide to
nominate that as my birthday present this year.
On one of my many visits to the 2BM table Steve sneaks up
behind me and launches into yet another rousing round of happy birthday with
most of the room joining in yet again. Like I said, not at all embarrassing!
I spend a little while chatting with Yavuz and pick up a
copy of his (subsequently award-winning) Design competition entry Rhombox… and
he throws in another puzzle for no good reason at all! Jules convinces me I
need a copy of his dad’s new disentanglement with a number 42 in it… I don’t
need much convincing it turns out!
I grab a couple of interesting little goodies from George
Bell’s table, pick up another number puzzle book and spend a little while
raking through Osanori Yamamoto’s table and grab a copy of his Square Lock. I’m
somewhat taken aback when he recognizes my name badge and remarks about my blog
- it still takes me by surprise when I find out that the designers whose
puzzles I really enjoy even know about my blog.
With the puzzle party winding down I find Gill and we head
off for a milkshake and burger at Shake Tree - there’s a little concern when I
order the slider and a shake and Gill orders a burger and a shake… yes, I’m not
very hungry and she is (I’ve polished off a couple of sacks of 7Eleven snacks
for my lunch already by this time…) - both the burgers and the shakes are
excellent, albeit not particularly Japanese-y.
The afternoon lectures include memories of Hiroshi Yamamoto
who’d recently passed away, Marc did a presentation on cataloguing puzzles with
a call for volunteers to help. Miura-San gives a delightful talk on puzzle
design, being between obvious and impossible and then George gave an update on
the World Puzzle Centre.
Having learnt our lesson from the night before we asked Nick
if he had place at his table for us and then joined the throng waiting to be
allowed inside the hall at the appointed time. This time there was plenty of
space in the hall for everyone, and subsequently plenty of food for everyone
too. (All’s well that ends…)
Shoko and Esa run a game for us which allows us all to put
random messages on the screen, and it doesn’t take long for some random hamster
references to appear… followed shortly thereafter by more happy birthday
messages and a subsequent round of singing too… yeah, maybe a wee bit
embarrassing now! :-)
 |
| Wooden Tie Club |
Nick launches into the presentation of the Design comp
awards and there’s plenty cheering when Koichi Miura wins two Jury Honourable
Mentions and a Top 10 Votes Award - definitely a popular local hero! :-) There’s
even more cheering when another local lad, Yasuhiro Hashimoto, takes the top
prize for Diagonal Twins, one of the few puzzles I’ve solved and really
enjoyed!
After the awards there’s the customary thanking of the hosts
who are each presented with a giant Cast Baroq (of which these are the only two
in the world) before the committee and volunteers each receive a special
Hanayama puzzle as a thank you.
With the festivities over we allow the hotel staff to turn
around the room and we chat in the foyer for a while, saying some goodbyes and
just chatting with those who aren’t leaving yet. We end up getting to bed at a
reasonable time and take advantage of not having to get up at a specific time to not set an alarm for the first time in a while…
As it is we end up sleeping until 9:30 and missing breakfast
(see earlier comments about room snacks!) - Gill takes charge of sorting out
the packing and we get most of our stuff squared away (including most of the
puzzles and the recent fabric purchases before we head down to meet Nick, Anne,
Brian and Sue for lunch… we wander across the river and find a little noodle
bar down a back alley for a great lunch costing about £22 - for the six of us!
We do some touristing and selfie-taking before heading to
another nearby ice cream shop we haven’t tried yet… we get affogatos and iced
coffees and I can’t resist their last piece of tiramisu - it’s all great!!
On the slow walk back to the hotel we bump into Benny and
the Monkeys who’ve just surfaced and are planning to head into town for some
breakfast at 3pm - they’ve had a long night… we all agree to meet up at
breakfast the next morning, except for Brian and Sue who head out this evening
on their next leg… we fail.
We finish off the packing after breakfast the next morning
and say goodbye to Benny and the Monkeys and Nick-San before grabbing a cab
back to Haneda for the flight to Blighty.
Another wonderfully memorable Japanese IPP
thanks to a great organising committee.
After the awards there’s the customary thanking of the hosts
who are each presented with a giant Cast Baroq (of which these are the only two
in the world) before the committee and volunteers each receive a special
Hanayama puzzle as a thank you. 
