IPP 33 and GZ trip final thoughts

My week and a half journey into puzzles is over and I'm back home ready to head to work again.  But before I do, I've still got the long task of posting videos of each of the puzzles I picked up.  That should be fun! It gives me a chance to play before I have to pack everything away until I get old and grey and have more time.

So today I go back and fill in some of the blanks from the previous posts.  Ill start with our trip to SZ and GZ.  I arrived at Uwe's on the Wednesday afternoon full of excitement to see old friends again.  I was eagerly looking forward to this part of the journey for months.  Oskar and Jose are phenomenal   planners and I knew about every step we would take.  

The first hiccup in the plan came when we had to meet the driver to go to the first factory. He was only about 2 hours late.  You can't do Anything but laugh.  We ended up postponing the first factory to till Friday which was good because it gave us more time at each factory than we expected to have.  

Friday was a blast because I'd never been to this factory before.  It's a big one! Again, I can't tell the name, but we saw puzzles and games from many companies here.  I was impressed, and sort of surprised to see that competing companies produce their products in the same factory.  That hadn't occurred to me before.  Of course photos are out of the question because of confidentiality issues.  

We finished our visit around 1 and headed for the SZ train station.  I'd never been to this one before so I was a bit confused.  The driver couldn't find the entrance either, and Jose questioned his ability to read.  BINGO! I don't think he could.  I gave turns and directions in Cantonese once we saw the signs, but even then we walked a bit to find the entrance.  First stop was buying tickets. As it turned out we were in the wrong line so we had to queue up and start over again.  We managed to get our tickets, but for the later train.  Nothing for it but to eat at the train station.  

We arrived in GZ and Ming was waiting as always.  He's my angel! From there we jumped a cab to the witeden offices, had dinner and watched Oskar sign a few cubes.  Separate hotels for us at the end of the night made for an early wakeup.  

Fast forward to the Saturday night dinner because I've written all I can about the day.  Dinner had around 35 people there.  As usual, we were ourselves.  Boys and toys and beer.  As I said, Oskar was the star of the show.  There were people from all over china that came in to see him.  I think he enjoyed it, but Jose I worried about.  She was the official photographer, and not being a puzzler, I could empathize. My first few trips with the language barrier were hard on me so I can only imagine what it felt like for her.

Monday saw us in the way to Tokyo. And over the next two days I was hunting puzzles in Disney.  Sadly I found none.  Not even a rubics cube!  Doesn't matter, we had a blast riding rides and just talking.  

As I said, on Thursday we went to tribox and hanayama. After we went to the Tokyo sky tree and when we came down I looked again for puzzles.  I knew hanayama had a crystal puzzle of the sky tree and Oskar managed to get one for us from hanayama as awe couldn't find any in the shops.  It's good to have friends with connections. 

Saturday was the exchange day and this year bug took photos of all exchanges for me.  Now I can put a face and hopefully a name to each of the puzzles.  It was a short one this year because of lack of participants. Which I really don't quite understand...

In the evening we had the TP puzzle meetup after the banquet.  I thought I got everyone but somehow I missed Carl. My sincere apologies. The meet up lasted past my 1 am bedtime.  But until then, I had loads of fun! 

Sunday was the puzzle party, and I really was looking forward to it.  This year though, I got very little for myself.  I'm pleased with my purchases though and made a few trades as well.  The biggest hit from me were the mini dball puzzles I picked up. I managed to get rid of all of them which meant less weight to bring back home.  Again I stayed in the lobby puzzling for a while before heading off to bed.

On Monday Dave, Bob, George and I headed off to torito.  A must for any puzzle trip to Japan.  While there, I spent a good chunk of change, but again most of it was for my friends.  I picked up the rubics brand bandaged cube, a new card case and key holder along with a wooden puzzle or two and a new puzzle ring. The others bought a few things as well.  Even George picked up a puzzle! We went for quick bite to eat before heading back to the hotel to repack our bags, change clothes and head home.  We all said good bye to Nick and jumped a bus for the airport.  

At the airport hugs and kisses were given out and we made a promise of "same time next year, different city". No tears were shed because this type of friendship extends all year long through email and forum. The reunion next summer will be all the more sweet for the absence of friends in between.  

I took a few puzzles for the flight, but managed none of them. I was dead! The guys really wore me out this year (again, not getting older!) When the stew came around with a toy for bug to play with I made her get mom the JAL 15 puzzle! Mind, the girl gave bug a notebook as well.  Nice lady. 

Once again I feel blessed to have such great people in my life.  My husband who lets me go off for these weekends without worry, my bug who has turned out to be quite the little lady, and finally all the puzzlers who have allowed me to enter their lives one weekend a year.  I love you all and can't wait till the next one!

Sunday-puzzle party

I will first start with the night before. After the banquet we had the twisty puzzles party. Most of us stayed in the lobby until around one 130. Photos follow.

I love the exchange it's great to be able to come home with 65 New puzzles. But the day that really tickles my fancy is the puzzle party.  It's one massive room full of people selling nothing but puzzles. 9-3 with nothing to do but buy toys. It's a great joy every time.

This year I had a table with Dave again. And we had the bug to wait it out for us as well. Dave and ii took it in turns to shop and run. That's really the best way to go it. 

My first purchase of the day was a $20 origami book for the bug. From there it was a massive purchase of hanayama puzzles for the guys across the border.  I Box a whole bunch of talking tile puzzles the slim ones some for the guys some for myself.  A puzzle or two from Hendrick. And really that was about all oh I did get Wil's Coke bottle.  

I spent more time selling puzzles that I did find puzzles. But that's a good thing. Because tomorrow I'm going to Torito to buy more. I got rid of most of what I brought over to sell. And I gifted away a few others.

Next up the lecture on Hanayama puzzles. Tonight is the awards banquet that should be good fun it usually is.

Have I mentioned that I'm exhausted. I've been running on empty. I think tonight I'll be puzzling in the lobby as usual. And I know I will sleep on the plane on the way home.

Saturday-day 2!

Photos first because I'm on my phone. Stay with me and read at the end. 

Exchange day. What more do I need to say? Nothing right?  Ok you twisted my arm. Ill tell you about it 

We started at 9:00 and the official end was supposed to be 3:00.  This year started off with around 100 puzzlers and ended with a mere 65. I had the cutest little bug for an exchange partner. At first she was bored but then she really got into it. 

After a while I needed a break and went out to get some air. The little vixen! Against all rules she exchanged 4 puzzles before I returned! Now my puzzle is to work out the object of those puzzles. After the exchange I stole a 1/2 hour for a bit of a kip. I'm beyond exhaustion. 

I returned downstairs to play with toys once again. 

 I immediately purchased Scott's balls I've been looking for those for over year. Of course Chilean(trillion) and fucked (pucked) up had to be added to the mix. (I just love auto correct!) And the maze that he did was equally good. 

After the exchange there were two workshops. The first was on impossible objects. And I leaned over to Scott's and said they were going to take the magic away. Even though I could see what was happening I was thoroughly mesmerized. The second was on origami. Holy crap! I didn't even bother I knew it was too difficult. And I prefer to embarrass myself in private. Of course Oscar managed to do the first two. My dear bug was devastated it was too hard for her and she loves origami. Carl did the same as I did he didn't open the pack. By this time I was thoroughly exhausted and went upstairs for a nap for a half an hour. 

Tonight's the banquet and we sat down at tables as usual I'm with Oskar his wife Dave Carl his wife and a couple from Ireland. The entertainment tonight is a magic show. The first trip was speed solving a Rubiks cube by throwing it up in the air. I'm sure he cheated, because the cube was off-camera for a while. The food I survived on bread  tonight. It seems that there was nothing except seafood. And with an allergy to that, it's difficult to eat. But hey beer has wheat in it doesn't it? I've always been a better drinker than an eater.

I'm hoping to pass around it that we have a twisty puzzles meet up tonight but I'm not sure if that will happen. As always I let the pictures speak for themselves.

Friday-day 1!

Friday saw me waking up at 1:30 in the afternoon. A full day. Three days four days of walking and exhaustion from GZ had worn me out. Of course the puzzling the night before had nothing to do with it. As usual everyone sat in the lobby and pulled out toys. 

The founders reception was Friday night. But Catherine and I didn't go. She had enough of puzzlers and then she's been so good I obliged. Dave Litwin and I had dinner together. We were later joined by Bob. And headed up to the design competition room. Everything stayed in full swing until midnight. I've not much to say about Friday because I missed half of the day. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

IPP 33

Well folks it's that time again. Katherine I got to Japan on Monday. At the airport We saw Rosemary and Harold. Together the three of us came to the hotel. When we got here we saw a few other puzzlers had a nice dinner together. And went to bed early. Tuesday's my kid and I at Disney sea. And on Wednesday we went to Disneyland with Andreas.  I know you're not interested in this part so I'll just let it pass.

Thursday was a great day we woke up in the morning and at 8:30 headed over to tribox and Hanayama. At Tarbox we looked at all of their puzzles and a cutting machine. Andrea went crazy taking photos for the twisty puzzles museum. George found a soma cube made out of a 3 x 3.  So we all had to buy one and get them signed. From there we headed off to the Hanayama offices. We looked at toys. We also saw some new products that they're coming out with but it's not a puzzle. All of us were given a gift of the cast cylinder the newest puzzle. It's a neat little thing. That has five pieces. They rated as a four out of six. Once again Andreas took photos for the puzzle museum. 

From there we had lunch. Andreas and George went back to the hotel. Jose Oskar Scott Catherine and I went on to the Tokyo sky tree. Once again I went up the tower terrified as I was but I managed. 

Later that evening we all had dinner together. And then set down to puzzle. Thursday was over.