L.A.con IV

[CapyBaron]

Often, I try to gather some information on some of the guests of honor. While I find the various progress reports and convention books useful, I would like to examine works by these worthies.
Being a very North-American-centric creature (I am still wary of those Inter-thingies ), I am having difficulty trying get a feel for the writings of Sakyo Komatsu and the art of Yoshitaka Amano (has Takumi Shibano done work other than translation?). I have made some preliminary explorations of the Nippon2007 website http://www.nippon2007.org/ and I assume that the Nippon2007 crew will run a table at L.A.con IV, but I wish to see if you forum folk can get me started on my data gathering.
I have several specific requests:
- other than "Japan Sinks" (for which I have an interlibrary loan request), are English language versions of Sakyo Komatsu readily available in the USA?
- are there portfolios of Yoshitaka Amano readily available in the USA?
I confess that my understanding of the Japanese language is very limited, but can people know of ways to get the original Japanese texts/art portfolios in the USA?

- also, does Nippon2007 have (or plan to have) a Forum like this L.A.con IV one?

[CapyBaron]

I realize that it is tacky to add to one's own posting, but nobody else in the forum has been supplying information on this topic
I did read Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu, though I have not found a copy of the movie (nor do I see this movie on the LAconIV schedule).
In the past, I read Kobo Abe's books Inter Ice Age 4 and The Ark Sakura. So that I would have a little more knowledge, I read the anthology The Best Japanese science fiction stories edited by John L. Apostolou and Martin H. Greenberg as well as the scholarly review Japanese Science Fiction by Robert Matthew (does anyone know this Matthew fellow?)
All of these works are from the 1980s or earlier.
How do I find something more current?
(preferably translated into english )

I admit that I am also having difficulty finding copies of some of the older translations. Could anyone assist in locating the following:

Green Requiem, Arai, Motoko ISBN: 4061860046 Publisher: Kodansha, Tokyo
Ship to the Stars , Arai,Motoko; Anderson,Naomi/t; b; 150pp;
There Was a Knock (KEL) , Hoshi,Shinichi; b; ; 105X147; ; ISBN 4-7700-2203-4
The Spiteful Planet and Other Stories, Hoshi,Shinichi ISBN 0002243539
Capricious Robot (KEL) , Hoshi,Shinichi; Matthews,R/t; b; 156pp; 105X147; ; ISBN 4-7700-2212-3
African Bomb , Tsutsui,Yasutaka; David Lewis/t; b; 148pp; ; ; ISBN 4-06-186023-2

I assume that the Nippon2007 crew will be overwhelm by the their own tasks, but if I can fathom the mysteries of the Voodoo board, I will try to post some notice to see if anyone can aid this humble Rodent in learning more.

Thanks

[sbarsky]

Please stop by the Nippon 2007 table in the Convention Center, Wednesday through Sunday. There should be someone there to help with your questions, or point you to the next step. I don't know whether there will be a forum like this, but there is a LiveJournal Nippon community.

http://community.livejournal.com/nippon2007/
_________________
Sharon Sbarsky
Deputy Division Head
L.A.con IV Member Services