Spring break needs to be two weeks long

So as I mentioned on Thursday (Thursday?), I went to PAX East this weekend. It was a highly-fun weekend where a couple thousand gamers descended on the city of Boston for three days of gaming and gaming-related panels and music. Video games, boardgames, card games, tabletops, you name it, it was probably there. Plus, companies came to show off their new wares. Let me tell you, NVidia's new 3D graphics card (that actually does 3D) is really, really sweet.

( Yeah, I'm going to babble about the con )

Today, I decided to forgo the last day of PAX in favor of going to something else. The Tamagawa University's Taiko and Dance performers put on a show at the campus auditorium. I wasn't entirely familiar with taiko prior to today, beyond the basics, but all I can say is, if you get a chance to see them, do it. They're amazing. They're doing a bit of an east coast tour right now (I think they're going to be in DC for the National Cherry Blossom festival on 4/10, I think).

This is relevant to all my interests, apparently

One thing I belatedly realized about Avatar's world is that, despite it being phenomenally Asian-inspired, you know what I have yet to see, midway through s2?

A damn katana.

There are hook swords and dao and jian and tessen. And since the last one on that list is very much Japanese, it proves that they're not just using classical Chinese weaponry. (Which is why the Fire Nation keeps reminding me of Tokugawa Japan mixed with Han China. I'm probably wrong with those time periods too.)

If someone was carrying a katana, I didn't get a good look at the curvature to identify it. I'm just impressed that someone decided to use other swords and weapons. Although I do not expect anyone in this series to wield a nodachi...

Er, I'm a bit of a weapons geek. And now I'm wondering all about the metalworking trade and technology of the 'verse, since with benders, you could either have really, really awesome smithing techniques (crazy sword-folding and Damascus steel-level material) or crappier ones due to more emphasis on bending.

Mm...Damascus steel dao. *drools*