Hokay, so! I've been meaning to write up on it since I came back *cough*, so here's my year old report. The whole thing compressed into one giant post. Alright, here we go~
Wednesday, June 27.
This year's travel buddies consisted of Saboo, Gar, Nina, Shi2 and myself. We got up bright and early to catch an early flight down, arriving sometime before lunch. We basically had a whole day to burn, so we decided to take the opportunity to explore the Long Beach area. We ate at Chilly's and then walked the boardwalk near the convention. That night we had Pictochated away. Nina went to join her other buds the next night.
Thursday, June 28.
That morning, we needed to stock up on munchies and misc items, so we walked to a Walmart. On our way there we also encountered a GameStop where I picked up Gurumin. At Walmart, we split up - Shi2 and myself went and grabbed some (at the time) exclusive to USA wraps (grilled chicken with salsa or something was it?) at the built-in McDix and headed to the convention. The pre-reg line was, as usual, a scary snakey thing outside the side of the building. While we lined up, we enjoyed our wraps and played whatever mobile gaming devices we brought with us.
After we got our stuffs, we decided to be even more adventurous by taking the transit in attempt to "tour" around Downtown LA. We had to transit through scary town (the place started with a C) and a really open area that, due to the speed of the train, hurt your ears like there was no tomorrow. We got off in the Financial District, assuming all the other districts were relatively close to each other. That was where we were SO WRONG! We kept walking and walking (encountering number of interesting artefacts, mind you) but decided to give up when stores began to CLOSE on us. We at least found a mall or two, and Shi2 was able to do some shopping. I think we ended up as far as reaching the edge of Jewelry District or close to the Toy District. Then we started to get pissed and decided to return back, as it was already getting dark too. What a disappointment... Not the "Downtown" we had in mind, like ours. ;(
Oh yeah, on the transit way back, I experienced something horrific. Disgusting actually. While sitting on the outside isle, the guy had to stand when clearly there were a lot of seats for him to sit on. He was rather tall and wore shorts so his crotch touched my shoulder constantly. Constantly, as the train kept moving, he used the train's movements to his advantage to ... okay, you get it. AMG. That has never happened to me before, ever. It's because it's so rare, I remember it clearly, even now. SICksicksicksick... I tried not to be conspicuous about it by leaning more and more towards Shi2, and I think she noticed what I was doing too.
Moving on.
Friday, June 29.
Finally. The registration line was lololol long. Luckily it didn't concern us anymore. We went to grab some free tickets to the SKIN concert at the ticket handing out area. Then started the day with some good ol' Starbucks before taking on the infamous AX concert lineups. However, the first thing we did (or I did) was line up for a sneak peek of the dealers room. Shi2 joined me when I reached near the entrance.
The next thing on the list was that SKIN concert. The bloody concert gets postponed by oh just a FEW EFFING HOURS. They made us line up outside on the BLOODY HOT PAVEMENT of the parking lot Poor cosplayed Gar was dying in his costume. Well, the postponed concert totally ruined all the rest of my plans of meeting other people and such. When we finally got in, they TOSSED MY NEW SPLASH WHATEVER GUM. I didn't even get to eat the bloody thing. They were soo annoying with the bag checks, it was anger worthy. I regret not sticking the whole pack into my mouth so it didn't end up being another additional freebie for the door checking people.
The SKIN concert itself was pretty crazy cool. I swear Gackt is overrated (note: I don't particularly like him). Miyabi is the funnest guy ever. I'd want to marry a fun (and cute ;D) guy like him. Yoshiki looked like a man-woman, woman-man. And I'll just leave Sugizo as he is, because with Luna Sea status, he cannot be touched! They allowed filming so I basically recorded the whole concert (just comes to show how much I was really paying attention ;b). Due to the super delay of the concert, I ended up being unable to attend the SOS-dan panel, therefore unable to meet up with the ccsbb peeps, which was where I originally planned that we meet up. For some reason, I forgot that Shi2 brought her phone that worked over on this side, so it didn't occur to me to give them her phone number. Duurrr...
That night we ate at Bubba Gumps with Nina and her fanclub. We had a Forrest Gump quiz and I couldn't remember a thing.
So when I finally came to my senses, we went back to the hotel when I busted out my PSP and hacked (lol fluke) into the hotel's internet and went on the ccsbb and posted Shi2's number. Moments later, we got a call from Ray saying ToFu just read the board (what timing!) and contacted him who was still at the convention. We met briefly and stared at the room he was crashing at which was actually in the same hotel.
Saturday, June 30.
Attended the savage genius concert that morning. The kind of room she was given was SO unforgivable! I realize they're not extremely popular, but at least more popular than, say, ORESKABAND, I THINK YES?! I felt that her concert, and her presence in general was overshadowed by all the other major artists, mainly the SOS-dan. However, that applies to all the other concerts I went to too. More on that later. The setup of the ROOM (yes it was a bloody normal meeting room in a hotel) was rather awkward... some seats on the side, and a 'stage' up front. I'm glad Shi2 joined me in the concert, cuz the lack of people were rather depressing. I tried to stand for most of it, but it was tiring (did I mention awkward?) mainly because no one else was standing. Everyone in general weren't really "active" and just sat there listening which made the whole concert AWKWARD as HELL. Doing things by myself were way too out of character for me, but I felt so bad for them. She sang most of what was on their first CD - Uta-Kata, Erementar Gerad... I love 'Forever...' to bits, so the live was GREAT. It's also great when they try to speak English. XD They're really under appreciated and it upsets me a lot.
I missed the Ishikawa Chiaki panel.
Anyways, we met up with the ccsbb crew again and took our daily visit to the dealer's room. Me and ToFu encountered the famous foldy cardboard chair/couch. Then I was like AMG I need to go line up for the savage genius autograph session, so I ditched the gang and ran to the line up area. When I got there, I noticed there was another line that formed there and it was soon revealed to be the SOS-dan autograph line. The SOS-dan had a rather ridiculous VIP-treatment (what about all the other JUST AS important guests???) and were limited to their autographage to like 30 or something (I heard). And you weren't even allowed to SEE them, you only could hand them the item you wanted signed. BULL.
Either way, I didn't care for the line and only wanted my savage genius line to start. I asked around but the staff were CLUELESS and just told me to wait around. There were a bunch of other people who were waiting for the savage genius line and ended up waiting with me. Then all of a sudden, for some reason I recognized this one peculiar person's face from The World BBS forums (duh where else really) and was like... oh that must be Kozu. I wasn't sure how to approach but I just went and approached and was like hey I know you, you know me yoyo wuzzup (something to that nature cough). I waited with him for his highly anticipated autograph and at the end, he didn't get it after all. He was pissed the whole time but I had him come get a savage genius autograph with me anyway.
I brought Kozu with me back to the dealer's room where we met up with everyone again. He then split off from us to hang with his own group to get ready for the SOS-dan concert. We got ourselves ready and headed. I recall it being not so fantastic. They had the seiyuu do their theme songs, then the English VAs came and invaded the show. Then suddenly there were technical errors and the English VAs suddenly had to make up stuff on the spot, which ended up being completely confusing for the seiyuu who didn't know wtf they were doing. The coolest part was probably the winning SOS-dan dancing groups got on and joined in with the actual cast and did the song and dance together. The end. Nothing too spectacular imho. Overhyped as usual.
Sunday, July 1.
Happy Canada Day! I remember the Ishikawa Chiaki concert was that day. It ended up being me and Kozu going to the concert (c'mon, it's all about .hack y0). There was a lack of people for sure. Once again I felt even she was underappreciated. Maybe if people knew that she was part of See-Saw, it'd fill up a bit more. There was definitely SEED (anna ni issho datta no ni??), SEED Destiny (kimi no sugata wa, boku ni niteiru~), uninstall, could be the simoun op, at least three or so .hack songs (yasashii yoake, kimi ga ita monogatari - I think, and obsession as encore).
Later that night we encountered a fountain dolphin bleeding water out of its chest. Animal cruelty I tell you.
The ccsbb crew weren't staying the last con day so they left and we said our goodbyes. Until 2009...!
Monday, July 2.
Momoi's concert! I regret not getting some of her merchandise! The grand finale was her concert and hers was the MOST unappreciated. She's the QUEEN of AKIBA and the concert hall was empty. You ended up not requiring a ticket to go in and they basically tried to get as many people as they could to go. Once again, it was me and Kozu who went and we got super close seats (well we didn't even sit at all). Her concert was probably the most upbeat and fun out of everyones. She started breaking out in tears half way but we kept cheering her on! Ahh she's so cute. I'm glad she sang some of Komugi's songs. Afterwards, we were able to sign her little AX book where we were allowed to write comments. There were a number of reports saying she really disliked her stay at AX as the staff didn't treat her well it seemed and she generally had a bad time. Awww.. I feel so bad for her :( I hope she doesn't have a bad (she probably does) impression of us people on the west side.
Oh I also got to meet 8-bit from The World BBS as well.
OVERALL.
Generally it was a fun con. The 2+ hours lining up under the blazing sun of Cali, upset guests, underappreciated guests... the location wasn't that great but it was a nice change. Meeting up with everyone and just having fun is the best part really. I've learned my lesson and will prepare more properly for the next visit. I look forward to AX09 in LACC. :]
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