You know that you’re in the right place when you see this kind of luggage cart.

and you know that you’re in Japan when you room has a warning card like the one below.

BEWARE THE CLEANING ROBOT!!!!

All in all the trip wasn’t too bad.  I’m about ready to go to bed though!  Here are a few fun pictures before I sign off.

It was nice to be welcomed to Japan, and then open my luggage to find…

a gift wrapped present from the TSA.  I guess that the way I packed up the shadowbox was a bit suspicious. 

Hey everybody.  I made it to Japan and I’ve been down to check out the convention area.  I’m going to have some photos and hopefully some videos to upload soon, so stay tuned!

Last night I walked into my neighborhood walmart to grab some ice cream.  I noticed that they had added a second red box DVD terminal.  If you’re not familiar with red box it’s pretty cool.  You walk up and look though the touch screen menu to find a DVD, swipe your card, and then you pay $1.00/night to rent it.  The line at the terminal had been getting pretty long so it made sense to put in a second unit.  Then, later that night I saw the BIG news.

This from PC world blog, the PS3 store is now offering video rentals, and purchase.  They’ve got a pretty good selection of movies and TV shows.  It looks like it costs $1.99 or so to rent, and I don’t know how long you get to “keep” the movie.  I’ll have to check it out see how it goes.

It would appear that somebody out there thinks the same what I do.  They must have seen my post about making my Trans Am into a Transformer and decided to take it up a notch.  This is an Autobot version of Batman’s Tumbler created by Jester and Jolin from Jester Pictures.  found on Autoblog

Here we are, at the end of swim team for the summer and thus the end of my sketching.  Well, not really.  I just find that sitting in the sun and waiting for my kids to participate in competitive swimming to be very inspiring.

I had an interview about my Celebration Japan Print posted on the Official Star Wars Blog, and now the artists prints are on the main site.  Go to here to read about it and to see the other art prints.

The San Diego ComicCon is right after Celebration Japan.  I have made arrangements so that I will fly from Japan right to the convention in San Diego.  I figured that after working in Japan I would just be a participant at the SDCC but it looks like that might change a bit.

My cartoon is a finalist in the Atom Fan Movie Challenge.  Friday of the ComicCon  is Star Wars day, and as such, Atom has invited me to spend a few hours in thier booth meeting fans and selling items.  I’ll get some more information about the booth location and the times I’ll be there and pass that on.

Super designer Mark Ecko is bringing his own unique style to Celebration Japan. The zipper on the trooper hoodie goes all the way up and there’s a mesh built in for the eyes.  Check it out on the Celebration Japan site.

Along with my limited edition prints, I will have about 50 blank sketch cards with me to draw on at the convention.  In preparation, I’ve done a couple of test sketches and thought I’d share.  This is the 30th anniversary of Star Wars opening in Japan, I’ve been focusing on the characters from A New Hope.