Day 1
ToFu and me made our way down 6am, waited at the border for 1 1/2 hrs, got to the convention at 10am. The registration was absolute shit. For someone who reminded the friend to sign up for will call but didn't do it themselves is a total retard. Yes, THAT WOULD BE ME. So for the next 3
When we finally got out, we first went to meet DJ Sharpnel. After the autograph, there was the Noizi Ito panel that consisted of relatively standard questions, plus the expected confession of "I love you, will you marry me?" kind of deal. So she is married apparently. The panel nicely finished off with my friend asking about whether she was aware of the Haruhi genderbenders. Sadly she doesn't allow herself to draw them since they may be interpreted as official art. Damn, so close.
We did some wandering afterwards: dealer's, peeked into the speed dating, console rooms, Microsoft room. I somehow won the daily draw at the Microsoft room on our visit, but I regret not picking up Halo instead of a spare controller, especially considering I've been presented with a gold subscription (more on that at another time).
The registration lineup really tired us out though. We/I wanted to go to DJ Sharpnel's hour at the rave party (lol otaku rave) but it wasn't for a few hours so we tried to pass the time at random panels - AMV room and Press your Luck (some game show). As much as we tried to hang on, we finally gave up and decided to grab food at the Taphouse even though we originally considered starving until the next morning. We made it back to the convention for DJ Sharpnel. I suppose he sounds alright live but he used the same beat without much variety unlike his CD releases. Got to experience some strange otaku activities in there: girl in her underwear, strange clusterfuck jump-humping, random high people saying hi, and then the usual train dance.
After his performance, we finally decided to call it a day and not wait for the swimsuit contest (yes, swimsuit contest) so we made our way to ToFu's friend, Garret's, place. The downside of the area he lived in was the lack of public parking. We had to park on top of this insanely steep hill most of the weekend and that created an unwanted exercise routine. At his place, fortunately the two cats there did not phase me with the help of allergy meds so the sleep was peaceful, minus the angry truck that drove by early next morning.
Day 2
Garret joined us the next day. We went to a locally famous bagel shop for brunch and then it was his turn to wait for registration. His was a massive 4 hours compared to our 3. While he waited, we revisited the dealer's room and found a hidden gem table of goodies. My first purchase: $6. I sure started off well. After the quick dealer's room browse, we made our way to the Noizi Ito signing and then met up with Garret and Neku after they were done with reg.
Since I was questioned by a number of people whether I'd be going to the Touhou panel, we figured we should go take a look anyway since the turnout wouldn't be that massive anyway... or so we thought. We were wrong. The room was too small to fit everyone and there were some that had to stand outside and wait. The panel itself was nothing special: a rundown of the history of its popularity and some bogus statistics and facts that had little to no credibility.
The panel was followed by a photoshoot and some after meet which we did not attend. I forgot to take photos. They'll be around the internets prolly. Although I must say leaving early to make it to the concert that kinda sucked makes me wonder what they ended up doing. I'll need to work on my crossdresser senses though. There has been too many traps.
Back to the concert - Dazzle Vision and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR. Dazzle Vision is angry death metal but with a cute-looking vocalist. HandMC has become this strange death metal as well, but Yusuke is losing his touch or something... due to the loss of Maki perhaps? Long story short, the concert was a disappointment. I decided against getting HandMC's autograph, so we went out for food after and Mina joined us as well. It was prime food-eating time, so our choices were limited and so we ended up at the Taphouse again. [insert joystick jokes]
After some good food, we went back to the convention for the Iron Artist After Hours and of course the two artists, ToFu and Garret participated. The After Hours version was definitely a lot of interesting since the drawing contest allows such words as 'thrusting' and 'banana hammocks' and how it was mandatory to draw boobs or it's a given that you won't get voted.
Day 3
As usual, the last day's main purpose was the dealer's room. We first got breakfast from an organic market nearby and made our way to the convention for the lolita fashion show! It was quite neat.. minus the traps. The girls who crossdressed the guys outfits were so much more better looking than the actual guys in the guy clothes. :/
After the fashion show, we went to the dealer's room real quick before making our way to the Vocaloid panel. We were late to show so we didn't get entry until half way through. The vocaloid panel was also hosted by some of the Touhou crew (surprise surprise). They made us watch through one of the one-hour plus long medleys. The panel followed by a photoshoot (more traps) and then we moved ourselves back to the dealer's room. In the last few moments, I managed to get a few deals there. Safest haul yet. A side note, there are no plans on beating that record.
After the fun in the dealer's room, that was that. We sat around the closing ceremonies because there was really nothing left and we were eventually kicked out. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out at Garret's place, playing BlazBlue while waiting for Summer Wars to finish downloading. We watched that and then just chilled until we realized it was already midnight and we needed to jet. On our way back up, we stopped by Walmart and got some US-exclusive goodies. The border was dead so the way up was pretty smooth, minus the nasty rain/wind/dark weather.
I don't usually take photos at a convention, but this Cloud was just that awesome.
Strange, both the trip started and ended up with wonderful spillages. Prior to the trip, nail polish went effing everywhere (not cool). Post trip, the ice tea I got from Walmart cracked in my car trunk. Life is telling me that REALITY SUCKS, ENJOY THE FREEDOM WHILE YOU CAN CUZ WHEN YOU RETURN, REALITY IS READY FOR YOU.
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