Puzzle party Hakone

Puzzle party today and it was even more amazing than the one in Osaka! If that is even possible.

I took another 488 photos again today! On to the puzzle party. I had a few more hanayama I wanted to buy and ended up buying 6 more! Other purchases today were a few puzzle box kits, a couple more wooden puzzles, an old russian slide, a few paper puzzles-folding boxes, some icecream puzzles, a number of cd puzzles...I can't remember them all. At the end of the event I have added over 100 new puzzles to my collection. I'll have to count when I get back to HK.

Matt and the bug even came to the puzzle party. I saw that it was open to the public, so I made a bee-line to the room to get them before they went exploring. We all got to use a plane and shave a bit of wood. 7 microns thick I was told.

Matt looked at the wooden puzzles, tried a trick lock and loved looking at the tools used by the craftsmen.

We went up to the room so I could pack up the bags (and what a job that was!) Snap a few more photos and get ready for dinner.

Awards dinner-totally uneventful! Not. Surprise, Laurie and Ethel Berkenshire both won a prize for the puzzle rally. His and hers matching puzzle boxes.

HARMONY by Dmitry Pevnitskiy and Krill Grebnev was the puzzle of the year. It's a real beauty too. Easy to solve but very very pretty.

I'm happy to say that Pantazis ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE, as well as Bram's CAST RATTLE both got prizes. (I voted for both of them!)

My little bug got an "award" for being best announcer at IPP! I just love Nick Baxters sense of humor! Her "AWARD" was CANNIBAL MONSTERS (a puzzle in the competition) MINE!!! hahaha, she won't even let me look at it. Good thing I played it during the "judging".

Heidetoshi refused to change t-shirts with me, but he made up for it at the end of the day with a most generous gift of a puzzle! I was again overwhelmed.

When I return to HK and can put puzzles to people (with the help of the attendee list) I will endeavor to post who I got what from.

Once again it is past midnight and I've been up way too late.

I will end this blog a simple 'I LOVED IT AND CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!'