Didn’t think you could go to congress? Well, Merry Christmas, now you can…and stay with the Hackers on a Plane as a bonus!

Due to some last minute cancellations, we have 11 extra 28c3 ticket + hotel spaces available. For €313.37, you get:

• Gender-separate lodging on the Hackers on a Plane floor from 27 December – 1 January (5 nights)
• Standard all-days ticket to the 28c3
• Invitation to all the Hackers on a Plane parties!

We’re staying at the Pangea People Hotel and Hostel that’s just on the other side of Alexanderplatz from the bcc.  It’s only a 5 minute walk!

When payment is confirmed, we’ll get your details to forward to the hotel.  You can pick up your 28c3 ticket when you check in at the Pangea.

Upon arriving at Camp and noticing that Nick Farr was a bit overwhelmed and a tad understaffed, she semi-reluctantly took the proverbial ball and ran with it. Pitching in wherever necessary, she primarily took on the job of shuttle driver/runner, but also assisted with some minor camp organizational duties, that year, as well.

After realizing how much fun she had working with Nick, despite the fact that the trip had turned into a “working vacation”, she decided to accept Nick’s offer to join in organizing future HoaP endeavors.

Banasidhe brings 18 years of event production experience to HoaP in planning, logistics, production, operations and security. She has run security for BSides San Francisco and Las Vegas, (2010-present) as well as BruCon, in Brussels, Belgium.

Banasidhe is also the Technical Director for the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, an annual holiday tradition, in San Francisco, CA, USA. Probably best known in the hacker scene for her three year stint (06, 07, 08) as “Vanna Vinyl” for DefCon’s Hacker Jeopardy, as well as her appearance in the Ashley Schwartau documentary, “H4ck3rs are People, Too” (2008)

Banasidhe is excited to be involved in yet another endeavor that allows her the opportunity to “pay it forward” to the hacking community that she has considered her tribe and family since the early 1990′s. She hopes to meet you on the next HoaP flight!

After a somewhat hectic week in Tokyo, we decided against Osaka and opted to shift our base of operations to the Kyoto.  While it involves an extra transfer to most of the places we’re going to see, we’re already enjoying the slower pace and rich environs of this ancient capital of Japan.

Our updated schedule is as follows:

• Day 9 / 14 November / Explore Kyoto
• Day 10 / 15 November / Kyoto Imperial Palace & Explore Osaka
• Day 11 / 16 November / Historic Monuments of Nara (UNESCO WHS)
• Day 12 / 17 November / Hiroshima & Mirajima
• Day 13 / 18 November / Free Day – Rail Pass Extravaganza!
• Day 14 / 19 November / Return to Tokyo and fly back to the USA

We’re now off to enjoy the fall colors at night in some amazingly lit temples here in Kyoto.

Just a quick note, we’ve still got a few tickets left for HoaP 10 to the 28c3 and Berlinsides.  But they’re selling pretty quick, better jump on it now!

Of course, this didn’t stop the important work with Safecast that’s always going on at the Tokyo Hackerspace.  The above picture, as you probably guessed, was not something that ended up on the menu.  While we were grilling meats and veggies, others were hard at work making a lead shield for some radiation testing equipment.

Now it’s off to Kyoto!

Art & Beauty were in full force on our Day 7 journey to the Tokyo DesignFesta.   Thousands of hackers, artists, crafters and makers of all sorts gathered in the Tokyo Big Sight convention center built on reclaimed land in the Tokyo Bay.

Lots more pictures below, and at our Flickr pool.

We’ve actually got a suitcase of stuff we could bring back to the USA, Austria or Germany…so if you’ve got a request for something from Japan, let us know! Just tweet at @hackersonaplane and we’ll see what we can do!

While Day 7 looks like it’s going to be a great, sunny day for a trip to the Design Festa, the rain on Day 6 made a trip to the mostly indoor Roppongi Hills area seem like a great idea.

The second wave of postcards pictured above comes from the incredible “Metabolism: The City of the Future” exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in the Mori Tower.  While we couldn’t enjoy the views from the tower’s Sky Deck on account of the weather, the exhibition was a spectacular visual feast covering the Metabolist Movement.

For dinner, we made reservations at the Kimono Wine Bar, an excellent restaurant run by Lauren from the Toyko Hackerspace.  On the walk over from Roppongi Hills, we passed by the first bits of Graffiti we’ve seen here in Japan along with some interesting warnings we’ll post to our Flickr pool.  We then went back to Roppongi to catch some of the legendary nightlife there, managing to stumble back to Ikebukuro just before the last train.

And now we’re off to the mailbox to drop off these postcards and catch some more great art in Japan.  If you’d like a postcard, just e-mail us with your address and we’ll send one right out to you.

Nick went to the last day of PacSec while the rest of the crew walked around Shinjuku.  Complete pictures of the day over at the HoaP 9 flickr pool.

Lots more pictures over at the HoaP 9 Flickr Pool

This first wave of cards is from the Tokyo Imperial Palace, stamped on site!