Blog

2011 was our first time at Shibaricon so we weren't 100% sure what to expect. At one point it was touch and go if we'd even get to Chicago as Iceland's volcano had erupted and volcanic ash was in the air progressively closing airports in the UK and mainland Europe further and further south. We were listening to the news with interest as we drove south toward London, Heathrow and our flight. We stayed over the night in London with our friend Jon Murakawa who's surprising and delightful wooden house is an old and hidden treasure of London, in fact Murakawa san is one of London's lesser known treasures himself. We were sorry not to have more time with him. Heathrow was still open for international flights as we drove toward the airport. Once in the air we thought that our travel worries were over. We'd beaten the ash and airport closures out, all plain sailing right? Well plain flying anyway. Unfortunately not, we were to have another moment of worry as the pilot announced that  due to bad weather we might be diverted... happily however we weren't but were instead treated to a typically bumpy descent into O'Hare. We were quite excited to get to Chicago and the hotel. We'd come a couple of days early so we could have a day just looking round down town Chicago. Unfortunately the weather was foul and it rained a very rainy rain pretty much continuously. So on to Shibaricon itself... One of the things that I was most looking forward to was meeting people that we'd only ever spoken too on-line before. I'll say this, some of the guys we met were entitled to have egos if anyone was. They [...]