Dear MMDers,  The final competition of the International Karakuri
Contest (IKC) will be held at the 2005 Expo in Aichi prefecture,
Japan, on 18th September 2005.  "Karakuri" means the mechanical device
in Japanese.  See http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/karakuri1.html 

The following contestants have passed the second examination of the
IKC and have been invited to the Expo.  You might find your friend's
name in the list.

Those foreign contestants will demonstrate their works in the hall of
the Expo in September 18th, and compete with Japanese contestants.
(Seventeen Japanese passed the classic category and three Japanese
passed the modern category.)  The winner of the Grand Prix will get
one million yen (9,090 US dollars).

Classic category:
  Franka Sachse (Germany)
  Fischer Reiner (Germany)
  Wolfgang Brommer (Germany)
  Francois Junod (Switzerland)
  Walter Dahler (Switzerland)
  Neil Hardy (United Kingdom)
  Handiwirman (Indonesia)

Modern category:
  Philipp Strasser (Germany)
  Marcel de Vries (Netherlands)
  Lluis Ribas Duran (Spain)
  Claire Watkins (USA)
  Michael Kontopoulos (USA)

As I will watch the demonstration of them at the Expo hall, I will
report on the final result of the Contest.

With best wishes,
Kazuo Murakami
Otsu-city, Shiga prefecture, Japan


 [ Visit  http://www.karakuri2005.com/en/index.html 
 [ The 150-year-old karakuri Writing Doll is described
 [ at  http://www.karakuri2005.com/en/data/a01_01.html 
 [ -- Robbie