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After a late night last night we got up slowly at 07:00. We had the breakfast stuff we'd bought last night, did some stretches to ease tired muscles, and got ready for the day.
We walked over to the same coffee shop where M. had a coffee yesterday morning. This time the staff pointed out that I needed to order something if I wanted to sit there with M. (which they hadn't done yesterday), so I had to get up and go straight to my meetings.
This morning we had technical discussion on: photographic vocabulary and definitions (updating the existing standard), additional presentation on HDR, and the ISO DNG format. Following this we moved into the closing administrative session, which was broken in two by lunch.
We broke for lunch by 12:15 and I met up with M. at our usual spot. I'd searched and found a couple of bakeries that we could walk to and try for lunch: Hattori Bagel, and Espresso Bar - The MARKET. We walked past the bagel place first and went on to check The MARKET. M. liked the look of the bagel place, but liked The MARKET better. It looked like a boutique bakery with small loaves of interesting grainy bread, biscuits, scones, and things, They had a lunch menu with a few choices of vegetarian dish plus the soup of the day, and also some sandwiches and focaccia, mostly vegetarian but with a couple of tuna/salmon options.
I chose the brown rice quiche and soup, while M. grabbed a fig scone and a lemon/tea scone to have with a caffe latte. We sat at a table outside on a small wooden patio, so we could enjoy the quiet street ambience. The soup turned out to be what I think was green split pea. The quiche had chunks of sweet potato and onion in it and was pretty good. The meal was smaller than yesterday's udon bonanza, but cost more - ¥1990. M. grabbed a nice looking piece of biscotti for a later snack as we left.
As we were eating it began raining, out of today's overcast sky. At least the weather is cooler today. We walked back to the Convention Centre in the sparse but heavy drops, where we parted ways again until later in the afternoon.
Back in the meeting, I assisted with drafting of the WG 18 resolutions, and then we had the final administrative session for the working group. But that's not the end of the whole meeting! We have a second administrative working group meeting at 17:00, followed by the meeting reception dinner, and then the final plenary session tomorrow.
The WG 18 meeting wrapped up by 14:00 and I returned to the hotel to meet M. After a bit of a rest we went out to the giant Aeon shopping mall across the street so I could have a look around, and also to buy a cheap umbrella which may be needed in the next few days as rainy weather is forecast. I also bought a light UV protection shirt from UniQlo, which will be very useful in hot sunny weather, and which was much cheaper here than back in Australia. We also looked at some puppies in a pet store and I checked out a couple of game and hobby shops to see if they had any interesting things. I found some Japanese Magic: the Gathering cards, but not for the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty expansion, for which I might have considered buying a few. So I saved money but not buying any!
We came back to the hotel and soon after I went back to the Convention Centre for the second administrative working group session. After this I went over to the adjacent Crowne Plaza Hotel to meet M. there in the lobby before we went to the reception up on the level 19 Sky Lounge. It was a standing buffet with a wide range of food: little fried crumbed things, prawns in a spicy sauce, pieces of steamed fish, chicken pieces in another sauce. There were several vegetarian options including roast vegetables, mini quiches, mini sushi rolls with three different fillings, salads, and some other things. They also had chefs preparing fresh sushi, served six pieces to a small wooden box, and plates of freshly fried tempura with vegetables, prawns, and fish pieces. There were also dainty pieces of three different types of cakes, and cut pieces of various fruits for desserts.
The Japanese organising hosts and the TC 42 chair gave brief welcoming speeches and then we started eating and chatting with various delegates. There was entertainment: firstly singing by Sasaki-san, then a musical performance by Yoshida-san on recorder, Paul Hubel on trumpet, and Hoshuyama-san on clarinet, with Sasaki-san and a man I didn't recognise doing some brief vocals towards the end of an original composition written by Yoshida-san. And finally after these there was a pantomime performance with a narrating drummer announcing various things in Japanese, while a dancer dressed as a samurai performed, then two dragons appeared (performed as large puppets by men inside the dragons), leading to a fight in which the samurai cut the dragons' heads off.
We chatted with various people, and it was good to hear that many are excited to come to Australia again next year when hopefully I will be hosting the WG 18 meeting in October 2024. It was a good event, and the view from the Sky Lounge was wonderful, with panoramic windows to the north and south showing off the city of Okayama and the mountains to the north, as the sun went down. The reception was scheduled until 20:00, and in true Japanese fashion the hotel staff announced it was over and ushered everyone out right on time.
We'd had plenty to eat for dinner and so just headed back to the hotel via a 7-Eleven to get some breakfast supplies. Then it was showers and bed time.
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