Anyway, cho long post GO!
Wednesday July 1 (Day 0)
It was 1am, July 1st - Happy Canada Day - waiting on Sty to get online so we can settle on some plane seats. When we were finally done, it was 3am but I decided to try and least get a few hours of shut eye. FIVE came like nothing and out the door we went and headed to the airport. We checked in, had A&W breakfast and then loitered inside. The domestic side of the airport was pretty crap and the vending machines refused to work, forcing us to buy from the counter lady who we suspect was the one who broke the vending machines deliberately.
7am, we left YVR. ~9am, YYC? The connecting flights directions were garbage but we saw some cool terradactyls. We also saw cheap booze so we decided to pick one up as a present for when we arrive. We got to LAX at 1pm, met up with Rei, and a ride from Steph's friend, Ken, who drove a - oooh - beamer. Traffic then held us up for about 2 hours before we arrived at the Westin. When we got there, we checked in and then dumped all our stuff to head out again for food at a mini mall in Little Tokyo. Before food though, we got sucked into Kinokuniya where I already began loading up on stuff - basically the essentials I'll be buying eventually anyways. It was also then I found out I forgot to bring my list of awesome things to buy which made me feeling somewhat lost during most of the convention shopping experience. I did the best I could from the top of my head... :(
Between the Curry House and the said-super-spicy ramen restaurant, we settled with curry just to see how good (said Rei) the curry really was. Ok, so the curry wasn't that spectacular so we were rather disappointed. After food, we headed back to the convention to grab our badges and meet up with ToFu who was in line. Unfortunately for us he was already way inside the registration building so there was no way we could've joined up with him at the time, so instead we had our fair share of waiting under the awesome hot sun. The actual process of getting the badges were really quick with the self check-in pc terminals and printing on the spot machines.
When we finally got out, we brainstormed things to do since the night was still young. Highlight #1: I was tapped on the shoulder and was asked for a photograph. The dude thought I was dressed up as someone (loL!?!?) but when he found out I was just myself, he complimented on my attire and still followed to take a picture. But now that I think about it again, I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing. I guess I look like an anime character without much effort.
After a while, we finally decided on a late night snack at some honger cafe, Cali style, in the honger area after dropping off Steph. We indulged on some late night french fries and salted fried chicken while the two guys went all out and ordered themselves full blown out meals. We finally called it a day come 11pm to wake up for the main event(s) yet to come. Highlight #2: Rear-ending (just a light tap really but enough to feel it bump) some old guy's car, and then he fled like there was no tomorrow.
Thursday July 2 (Day 1)
Panel day. Headed for Kouga Yun's panel at 11am. Tofu was kind enough to accompany me (even though he had no interest in the awesomeness that is Kouga Yun) while the other two snoozers kept sleeping. It was super packed when we got there so we got somewhat crappy seats but that's ok. We also confirmed there are guys who loves Loveless too... which they themselves announced for the world to know during the Q&A session.
After getting an autograph ticket, we walked right back into the hall for the next panel - Morikawa Toshiyuki aka. Morimori~ Ah~ Seiyuu panels are so much more interesting to attend. If only people didn't request so many personal voice acting lines... but I must admit, some lines were pretty funny to hear. We grabbed ourselves another autograph ticket after that panel and finally headed to the dealer's hall to see what's in store for us this year. When we got there, Sty and Steph were already done browsing the whole place so we got busy as well.
We managed go through about half of the room before we had to leave for the Gurren Lagann staff panel where we met up with Kozu. The panel itself was not bad, minus the typical silly questions and the le gasp question that should have not been asked (re: episode 4). Kozu didn't get the chance to ask his knee/thigh socks question either. After the panel we got our autograph tickets and sped to the designated autograph room to get our Imaishi & Nishigori's sigs. About an hour later, we finally got our autographs and I then met up with Kouru for the first time on our way back to the other side of the building. We stopped by the Main Events Ticketing booth to grab our Morning Musume tickets before we headed out for dinner.
The 8 of us had all you can eat Korean BBQ at Manna, which was basically a meat lover's heaven. The restaurant was more or less "outside", feeling almost like a street restaurant you'd find in HK, however the open roof did not help with the strong Korean BBQ smell that lingered in your clothes afterwards. We were split into two groups for the eating fest (each their own grill) but our team couldn't keep up with the Korean BBQ-eating pros in the other party. One absolutely awesome and unique feature about this restaurant was the birthday celebration where the birthday girl/boy got sprayed with two bottles of champagne. For some reason there were a lot of birthday people that night so the atmosphere was especially high in spirits.
Hm I think the dinner wouldn't have been so awkward if Kouru didn't make it so awkward for himself. Hm I don't think he reads this so I'll be frank - he didn't leave a very good impression on us as he apparently tried too hard TO impress. I don't blame him, it was partially my fault for placing him in the middle of a group of people he was not familiar with at all. Even though it was strange, he said he had fun so I hope that at least was true or I'd feel even more bad.
Later that night we played FAILURE EROGE where you thought you were playing an eroge but THE ESSENTIAL ERO PART WAS MISSING.
Friday July 3 (Day 2)
Ishiwatari and Mori of Guilty Gear/BlazBlue fame panel early morning. I left early from that panel to start lining up for the Morikawa Toshiyuki signing and there was already a line forming by the time I got there. Morimori was pleasantly surprised when I brought him an Omaera no Tame Darou event DVD for him to sign and he even had his manager take a picture with us and the DVD. :D
Right after the first signing, I rushed next door for Kouga Yun's autograph signing which had an even more massive line since I was already considered late (I got #147 D:). After waiting about 2 hours, we were informed that Kouga Yun had to leave and everyone who were waiting in the room were dismissed. No follow-up autograph signing was announced at that time so it was frustrating to hear. They also locked us in the room we waited in so the guests of honor were able to leave without our (smelly otaku?) presence.
By that time, I was late for the Morning Musume concert so I did a mad dash to the concert hall. On my way there, they were staff trying to get rid of the Morning Musume concert tickets. I suppose the concert wasn't as hot as I originally thought - the front sections were all packed with people but the back rows were empty. The concert overall wasn't bad though I felt a disconnect considering I didn't know any of their songs except for their classic song Love Machine. It didn't help that I was surrounded by people who didn't get into the concert mood, though I didn't mind. There was also an annoying guy who as in front of us who couldn't stand still, but he wasn't dancing to the music either. The girls' costumes were cute though!
I think we did some more exhibitor's hall wandering after the concert. Then the party split and us four (me, Sty, Steph, Rei) then decided on filling up on ramen. We headed to a neat little ramen restaurant (via car) called Shinsengumi. Apparently Rei's a regular to the store so but he was treated like a VIP. :D The waiter's were all so nice (especially the chubby one! he reminded me of Yoshi but cuter and plumper haha) so the service was exceptional. We also ended the meal with a drink with the waiters (delicious Orion beer :3) and very, very yummy tiramisu made in their own style.
I also loved how the waiters all shouted in unison. They made me giggle/smirk everytime XD~ I think it was my inner fangirl acting strange... ahem, GOOD FOOD GOOD TIMES!
Okay so there's two versions of what happened that night:
#2: THERE WAS NO CARDS ANYWHERE. When we got back to the hotel, we were eager to get started with the drinking and then follow that with drunken karaoke at the open mic. We also lacked games to play while drinking (no cards, no good eroges, no one knew how to play the honger hand counting drinking game). So the super cheap booze we bought at the airport was DISGUSTING. Mango-flavoured DISGUSTING! I've never been so disappointed with Absolut until now. Maybe that's why you can't buy that flavour up here. Anyway, that DISGUSTING was followed by other drinks which all didn't taste that great either. I was offered a toned down version of the DISGUSTING which was basically mixed with Sprite but didn't taste toned down at all. If anything, it was just as DISGUSTING.
By that time, I couldn't stand up straight but we still needed to karaoke so we marched downstairs. Half way down, I didn't feel so good D: so we went to the washroom. Upon entering the washroom, the fresh sanitary smell completely relieved me of my puking urges so alright! I was feeling good again! Let's do karaoke! After I came out, it was back to my normal ugh not so good self but I was extremely thirsty so we headed back upstairs. While waiting on the elevator, I totally saw and greeted a Morning Musume girl (the mixed one) who was also waiting for the elevator. Lol, she must've thought
So the rest of the night was tame... I just zoned out on the bed while continuing whatever conversation we had at the time.
There was also a particular someone who wouldn't shut the f up all night. Now that I think back, I wonder why (being the mean drunk that I am) I didn't just punch him in the face.
Even though I was annoyed with the annoying bee that kept hovering around my face all night, I was apparently pretty entertaining. AND I WAS RECORDED WTF.
I apologize for being a total retard! I'd like to thank my awesome friends for being awesome as they are! The night was a complete mess but it was amusing to no end! I'll just leave it at that! I LOVE YOU GUYS! ;_;
Saturday July 4 (Day 3)
Free time day! Though it was a rather uneventful. There was Ishiwatari and Mori (BlazBlue) signings in the afternoon which we lined up for. I had my brother's Blazblue Hori arcade stick "tips" mini poster signed for him. I think there was a visit to the exhibitor's hall again before the group split up. I ended up napping at the hotel right after because there was nothing else to do. When I woke up it was getting late and there was still no response from people so we initiated a food conversation. Sty, Steph, Rei and I ended up eating at one of the restaurants in the hotel which was just, meh, mediocre.
After food though, we made paper planes and threw them down from the third floor to see who's plane would fly the farthest. I made my Macross Frontier style and it surprisingly flew the best haha. The worst plane sunk into the fountain but it lasted through until Monday!
We met up with most people again afterwards for a 2nd attempt at karaoke. The lineup for a single song was TWO HOURS when me and Kozu put our names in. We wanted to sing a duet, or at least a super fun song that wasn't over sung (e.g. Lucky Star, Haruhi, etc) but their song list could not provide. So instead! We decided to try and get our hands on the karaoke version of "Lion" from Macross Frontier. If not, I had the full voiced version as backup. Since there was the two hour wait, we took a stroll to the corner store (Fanima!) for our liquid needs. We returned an hour later and took the last hour to mad dash to Kozu's apartment where we had to sneak around the sleeping beauties in his room. It was a good and frustrating half hour of trying to download Lion off of mIRC with an extremely unstable wireless connection but we still managed to pull it off at the end.
It was around 3am by then and we were sitting around in the karaoke room listening to the good and bad karaokers until it was our turn. The song was played rather quietly so we ended up singing quietly too. There were a few cheers in the audience when they recognized the song, so it wasn't all too weird. We retired to our room afterwards where Kozu and Tofu played Vanguard Princess until 5am rolled around and we realized we probably should sleep.
Sunday July 5 (Day 4)
I woke up to head to the Open Autograph session to take my chances on Kouga Yun showing up. I got out of the hotel at 9:30am to just miss the bus by mere minutes, causing me to wait for the next bus which left at 10am. When I got there, the lines were already well formed... I knew I should've woken up even earlier but luckily I still managed to get my autograph. I only just had to sit under the bloody hot sun for, oh, just 3 hours. Luckily I had my scarf with me to shield off most of the heat but the hard cement floor was unavoidable.
I made it to the 1pm eroge mini concert held at the dealer's room. I got there and met up with Kozu and his friend Jessica where we waited around for Kase Aina, miru and yozuka* (!!) to begin their show. The ratio was us two girls (me & Jess), versus 50 guys but we showed them! The audience somehow had this "fixed" dance routine than we somehow managed to follow, as awkward as it looked/felt while doing it. Following the mini concert was some rounds of Jan-Ken with the artists and the CEO of Circus to win goodies. Even though we didn't win the awesomest prize of an eroge bedsheet, Jess and I managed to win posters.
With about an hour and a bit left to mad shop on the last day, I went through the aisles again and still didn't manage to get much. Haruhi Gekisou, where art thou? I couldn't find her at all. Someone also bought my Meiya on the first day, leaving my Muvluv Alternative set incomplete. I'm not sure if I should be disappointed with the exhibitors or myself. Their inability to stock up on my wanted items or the fact that nothing I saw really caught my interest (besides the stuff off my want list)? Anyway, I'm still satisfied with what I brought back.
We finally said our goodbyes to the con, dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then headed to the IMAX theatre to watch Transformers. The mall we went to was neat: the parking lot was managed by an AI where the system sensed whether a car was parked in the stall and then would tally the number of available parking spots in the area. You'd then follow the digital signages that tell you how many available spots there are in whatever direction. Very cool.
Before the movie, we took a bite at a pink taco first because we were all hungry from the lack of food. If only we knew we weren't able to do any normal shopping for the rest of the trip, we probably would've shopped first and ate later. Either way, we basically shopped at one store before everything closed on us. With nothing else left to do, we entered the threatre early to get seats. I followed to spill all my popcorn on the guy in front of me moments before the movie. Good times.
Monday July 6
SIX FLAGS! I was excited and horrified at the same time. We ended up having trouble waking up in the morning so we got there after noon. The first ride we decided to tackle was the Goliath. I swear it's the scariest ride out of all of them with that deadly first drop. My favourite was the Scream. The painfulest was the Viper. I ended up getting a giant bruise on my back from that one. X2 kept breaking on us so we didn't get to ride that one.
Another weird thing was, root beer wasn't readily available at all soda pop refill locations. I only saw it once and never again did I see root beer. Americans don't like root beer?!
I also lost my cartilage earring on a ride. I completely forgot to remove it in the morning. I was a big sadface for a bit considering it was something my mom gave me, but it can't be helped.
That night we had Outback just for the blooming onion appy as it has somehow become tradition. After food we headed to Rei's place for a bit to bum around and get our plane seats dealt with.
On our way back, MJ's memorial service preparations were already in motion, blocking off streets everywhere. A bit of an annoyance so we cautioned to leave earlier the next day.
Tuesday July 6
K so we ended up sleeping in a bit later than planned as it was hard to wake up. We got our stuff together and headed straight to the airport where Rei brought us In-N-Out for lunch. Now I can proudly say I've tried it.
The plane ride back was pretty smooth sailing. Calgary was nothing special. Sty was ecstatic to see Timmy Ho's again.
OVERALL: Surprisingly I was able to get all the autographs I came to get. My loot was lacking but so did the time we had. LACC was really nice, though I was disappointed they didn't use the Nokia theatre this year... I would've wanted to see it. LACC lacked convenience to both food and hotel. I still think Anaheim was best for both. Next time though, we'll just have to give ourselves even MORE time to do more than just convention stuff.
Maybe we'll do something different next (next?) year and head east to a la Otakon or Anime North.
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1 comments:
something different? but you haven't even completely checked out LA yet!
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