Ultraman and the Hugos!

[furtech]

OMG! I just found out that Ultraman (big silver guy, fights big rubber monsters) opened the Hugo ceremonies at the Japanese Worldcon! He fought monsters and gave out Hugos with a tiny facsimile of himself as part of the award! First time I've regretted not going to the S.F. Worldcon this year! Yow!

Does anyone know of any video footage of this on the net?!?

[Edit: found some!]

So Cool!!!

There was an artist known as "Kato" whose paintings apparently normally go for the tens-of-thousands of dollars that participated in the Whelan-Eggleton "paint-off"-- anyone know who this is? I'd like to find some of his work online.

Man, talking to Elayne reminded me that I want to go back to Japan again soon. My dream trip would first involve a visit the Tsubaraya Studios and grope Ultraman Kaiju see the monster warehouse again. Then, a walking tour on a stretch of the road from Kyoto to Tokyo, staying at ryokans when I feel like stopping for the day. Someday!

Comments

[graafen]

Wooo Ultraman! :D

I need to go to Japan myself sometime, although I hadn't thought of trying to visit Tsubaraya Studios. Do they give tours? :D

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Tsubaraya doesn't have official tours, but if you can initiate contact with them (I have a friend over there who works for a media mag), you can visit. If you're an American tourist-type and just show up at their studio, often they're impressed that you found them at all and will show you around if they're not busy.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I loved Ultraman as a small kid!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Aya Kato?

Fumihiro Kato?

Ah, it was Naoyuki Kato.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

How do you find these things?!? I spent nearly forty minutes just trying to confirm his name! You are STILL Teh Search Master!

Also, check your email!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I put"Kato" and "worldcon" into google, and found this link: Html version of a pdf or if that doesn't work, here is the pdf.

Will check email now!

[brokkentwolf.livejournal.com]

As you get older, you get more perverted.

I remember watching Ultraman as a kid and then again, when they decided to make that Australian-you-only-got-30-seconds-of-power-because-of-the-polluted-atmosphere series.

... AND... I also watched Ultra Seven! :)

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

Awesome XD
I did not get to watch Ultraman and such since they did not show that where I lived except for a VERY short period oftime (as in a few weeks). I did love the big monster-thrashing-cities movies that they occasionally played late at night. I adored getting to see Godzilla movies but again they played those few and far between as well. I feel like I got cheated as a kid on my doses of such stuff :P

Do many folks do backpacking tours of Japan like they do Europe? If so I think that would be the most fun one could have. Japan is very high on my list of places to visit but I would want to learn some of the language first. :/

There is nothing wrong with groping monster costumes ^.^ Really.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

They don't do backpacking tours as much as we do per se, but some do. There are sites online showing the road to Kyoto and the cities and inns along the way.

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

Cool! I found a few after this post when I went looking. The last time I was in Japantown I found a magazine about hiking trails around Japan and the places they showed were breathtaking! Moss covered stairwells leading up mountains into the clouds, bamboo covered pathways leading along farming valleys and such. Some of it might have been photography, say, hiding the traffic and monstrous city that loomed 5 degrees to the right but still.. must go check it out some day!

[renniefox.livejournal.com]

How much fun would it be playing one of those rubbery monsters? *rawr!*

[jovino.livejournal.com]

Holy WOW! It's even better than Kaiju Big Battel.

[hoshikage.livejournal.com]

Heehee, I posted about this some time ago. ;) I linked to a couple of photo galleries too, here: http://hoshikage.livejournal.com/485333.html

I actually was at the paint-off thing for a while, it was pretty neat. :) I heard something about the pieces they worked on going to some kind of charity auction, but I don't think I ever heard what became of the paintings after that...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Mea culpa! I so totally missed that post! Such a cool Hugo ceremony!

[ruggels.livejournal.com]

That's the coolest con skit I've ever seen. They even had the right Music.

Scott

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Well, it -was- done by the actual company that created/makes Ultraman! And they brought out their really cool costumes, too! (They have different quality of costumes depending on the type of event-- from really skanky bad ones to nearly-production level ones like these!)