Day 9
Winter finally came to the Olympics yesterday. It was a cold, snowy Day 9 here. The energy level seems to be cooling down a bit as well. Perhaps people are just worn out after two weeks of non-stop shopping, waiting in lines, pin trading or maybe they just partied themselves out during the weekend. Still, the festive mood and spirit of goodwill remains. It's amazing how much of a sense of community has developed amongst this gathering of people from all over and from so many different backgrounds. You see many of the same people again and again, exchanging daily updates or at least smiles of familiarity. It feels a bit like camp. The rules of 'normal life' are suspended and the primary goal becomes having fun and meeting new people. 

I had a pretty good day of filming yesterday.Got some good interiews with pin people and finished a piece on the Big Hat Girls. While I was taping one pinhead, Michael Weiss (US figure skater) came by and noticed he had a zambonie pin. He offered to trade an official US skating pin, but the dealer preferred five autographs. Everyone seemed pleased with the deal - pinhead, athlete, and the guy who got it on video. Things with the new MD-PS1 are not going so well. The batteries die quickly, it's a slow shooter, and awkward to use.I will try to return it if possible.

Remarkably, it is now very difficult to get any kind of souvenir here. I'm not just using this as an excuse to get out of bringing things back for you all. Most of the stores are sold out of T-shirts, mugs, and especially snowlet paraphenalia. Junky trinkets seem to sell really well here. The fine Japanese craft stores are still well stocked with very few customers passing through, while people wait in line at the main snowlet store to buy the remaining pieces of plastic. 

That's all for now. Stay tuned for one more update before I head back to Pusan and begin putting up Worldbridges Olympic Multimedia.

Day 1
Day 2 1/2
Day 4 
Unabridged
Photo Gallery
Days 1-4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9