Yesterday (Tuesday 16th January) I went around the Conference and Exhibition Centres where the Nippon 2007 worldcon will be held. Tamie-san helped John and Peggy Rae Sapienza move from a hotel near Narita to one of the convention hotels. I met up with them and we had lunch in the Intercontinental Hotel (fairly nice but very expensive and quite small portions) then met with staff from the conference centre. They showed us many of the rooms we’ll be using for the convention, including the main theatre, the smaller programme rooms and the big exhibit hall which is where most of the elements of my division will be sited. There are some photos on the gallery, principally of the big barn of the Exhibit Hall. We were also shown the Harbour Lounges where some of the evening events will probably be taking place.

Lots of useful information about the programme rooms, which will inform our discussions this coming weekend at a staff meeting in Atami.

Exhibit Hall A is pretty close to a rectangle 80m by 45m. It has a set of toilets at the loading dock end. There’s a convenience store just outside the entrance to the hall, which is open from 07:00 to 23:00. The store contains an ATM which takes Visa and Mastercard – useful for the dealer’s room.