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Comment Threads

• Bellinghman commented on Worldcon
  If you do visit Hiroshima, then I'd recommend taking the ferry across to Miyajima for the day. It's stunning, from the great Torii in the sea to the 'floating shrine'. And the view from the peak of Mount Misen is quite sensational. (The walk back down to sea level from there is rather fine, but nearly killed us. 535 vertical metres takes quite a while.)...
• Nojay commented on Worldcon
  Problem with Miyajima is it's full of bloody tourists of the foreign (long-nosed round-eyed) variety. The Torii Gate isn't so spectacular when it's surrounded by sunburned Swedes in shorts and flip-flops posing for pictures with their friends. Same with Kyoto, of course. The only place I've seen more westerners in Japan is in Yokosuka which has a giant US Naval base attached to it. A must-see in Hiroshima is the Atom Bomb memorial marker locating the hypocenter, the point directly under the explosion of Little Boy. You can't miss it, it's not far from the Peace Park in a sidestreet...
• https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkN0SsDNhDSuuZRNvB58JCZjk-1lak4b7w commented on Worldcon
  Helsinki was ahead on the first ballot, and was only edged out by 30 votes after the Orlando second preferences were added in. Spokane looks kinda interesting (it was my second choice, never exercised), but does seem to be a can't get there quickly from anywhere special. The trick is probably to fly to Seattle and stop over, with a separate return flight (saving 300 bucks) from Seattle to Spokane. Or, in the spirit of adventure, take the Empire Builder express from Chicago, travelling for days across the prairie and the majestic mountains etc etc, arriving at midnight. We'll see....
• scott-sanford commented on Worldcon
  Downside for me is that, from where I live, Spokane is roughly equidistant with, and harder to get to than, Hiroshima. (Minimum of three flights, over 20 hours door-to-door, for a not terribly exciting city[*].) I may never have mentioned this before, but I lived near Spokane for several years, in the equally boring city of Yakima. There will be one really nice convention going on. Other than that? There's no reason to go to Spokane. To illustrate, the two cities are 202 miles (325km) apart - but Yakima and Spokane are considered 'close.' This should illustrate how much empty...
• Bellinghman commented on Worldcon
  This has been announced in a number of places, but for those who may not have heard the sad news: the co-chair of the winning bid has died. I would expect this to cause a certain amount of disorganisation at the very moment that the con committee needs to be getting that new website in place and so on, so anyone who's wondering what's going on, that's the reason....