Japan SF Convention 40, August 18 & 19, 2001, Chiba, Japan
The 40th Japan SF Convention SF2001
was held at the Makuhari Messe international convention center
in Chiba Prefecture on August 18 and 19 of 2001.
The Convention booked one whole exhibit hall for a multi-purpose floor.
An SF2001 staffer in her spiffy, convention-supplied shirt and tie uniform.
The only thing missing is a beret. And maybe a baton for management level
staffers.
The Quiz Show. All conventions should have one. Does it say question
number 228 here, though?
The Gundam Model Building Contest. The challenge was to take a stock
Char Z'gock kit and customize it for space use by cannibalizing parts from
other kits.
The convention's hourly newsletter staff. For 30 hours, they didn't sleep,
and they put out a new issue each hour. How many other conventions can
manage to do that? Notice the hard-working xerox machine in the center.
You can immediately spot a newsletter staffer from their yellow jacket/shirt.
Conops and Infodesk in front.
The 2001 Monolith stood in the center of the exhibit hall. Ape and Man
kneel in front to worship. A few otaku tried touching the Monolith themselves,
but none of them apparenlty managed to evolve into a higher form.
At one corner of the exhibit hall was the Karaoke Tent. From 8pm to 8am
was the 1000 Anime Song 12-hour Marathon.
Inside the Karaoke Tent. Behold the brave challengers of the 1000-Song
Marathon. I guess you can't see the 6-foot guy dressed as Digiko, who was
the (first?) MC of the Marathon. Elsewhere in the exhibit hall, you could
sometimes hear the whole tent sing in unison, like there was a religious
rally going on inside.
Terra Defense Force car on display? Oh yeah, it's the Art Show in the
background, but no photos there, of course.
A couple of these and some monster suits in the far end.
There were costumers, yes. Zaku II Girl and Gundam Girl.
They covered the exhibit hall floor with tatami mats and held panels there.
Red carpet floor (left) if you wanted a western treatment (take shoes off
on the carpet too).
Several panels shared the large tatami floor. Art show in the far left.
Large screen anime theater all the way in the back.
Monolith Ape up close.
The Monolith from the Ape's perspective.
SF2001 went on from 10am Saturday to 4pm Sunday non-stop for (round-the-clock
panels). Predictably on Sunday morning, the carpet area was full of dead
bodies. Apparently, the Convention didn't schedule any more panels for this
space.
On Sunday morning, the exhibit hall was filled with silver balloons.
Silver balloons filling up the exhibit hall. In the foreground is the Dealer's
"Room."
SF2001 staffers distributing balloons. How they managed to spread all over
the place.
Even the Monolith got decorated. Attendees wrote their wishes on cards
and stuck them on the Monolith in hopes their prayers would get answered.
The paper rope around the Monolith is a traditional Japanese practice down
on entities considered divine. The Spaceman is holding a traditional Japanese
priest's prayer stick. Attendees were offering prayer money to the makeshift
Monolith Shrine.
There were more traditional panels elsewhere in the conference rooms in
the convention center. These were actually more fun to attend than the gimmicky
exhibit hall events, if you understood Japanese.
Speaking of gimmicky exhibit hall events, is this a pro-wrestling ring
in the exhibit hall? Yes, it is. Take a look at the
Otaku Cosplay Death Match mini-report
for details.
One corner of the exhibit hall was the cafe area. You could buy a beverage
and sit at a table to relax. Or you could sign up for a tea party chat with
a convention guest and talk with your favorite guest, a meet-the-guest reception
type setup, if you will. You were required to buy a beverage from one of the
cafe houses. This is the Space Force PX. They mostly served shaved ice and
cocktails.
Next door was the Cafe Yes House. They specialized in western tea. Space
Force PX's other neighbor was the Chinese tea cafe Frawbow. Unfortunately,
their photo is missing.
One corner of the tatami area was dedicated to children's activities.
Near the end of the convention. Almost all 30 issues of the hourly convention
newsletter.
Your standard convention hall, used for the standard functions such as opening
ceremonies (opening animation didn't finish in time—doesn't that sound so
familiar), masquerade, and closing ceremonies.
The masquerade took place immediately before the awards and closing ceremonies
on Sunday afternoon. There were actually non-anime entries, but this is the
picture of the otaku cosplay deathmatch
troupe on stage.
The 2001 Seiun Awards ceremony. Hiroe Suga's Eternal Forest for Best Japanese
Novel. Apparently, some foreign (mostly American) authors actually care if
their work receives the Seiun Award, while others don't even know that their
work received one of the most prestegious Japanese literary science fiction
awards some year.
SF2001 Chair Yasuhiro Takeda declaring the convention to be over.
While the closing ceremonies were underway, breakdown of the exhibit hall
was already underway. Oh so sad, the party is over. See you again next year,
sniff.
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Last modified: September 1, 2001.
outis@apricot.com
