Friday, April 13, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Day 1
Again, if you don't like reading a lot, you're in the wrong place. Go vote on the poll and write a caption on the front page instead if this is not your thing . . .

. . . by the way, I'm Chinese. "Icecore" is the Filipino one . . .


I got up from my pillows and patch of hotel floor at about 4:50am - someone's watch alarm was beeping. Scanning around the dark room, everyone else was still completely asleep. From a pile next to my head I grabbed my metal LED flashlight and watch to see the time. Like I had said earlier, we had all stayed up way too late and most likely needed all the sleep we could get. I knew another alarm would go off sooner or later, so I laid back down and waited quietly. 5am, Axel's cell phone went off, playing the battle theme from FFX. At that point I could see "Kisuke" reaching over to the night stand trying to either find the phone or turn on the lamp. I was standing up by this point, so I turned the lamp on for him and after a bit gave him the phone; he promptly turned off the alarm and flopped back to bed . . . I'm not lying, the man was unconscious the second his head hit the pillow.

So there I was, pretty much awake in a room of five other sleeping people freaking out about what to do: they definitely deserve the sleep, but we also had to register . . . after about ten minutes of thinking, I finally decided to wake up "Icecore" so at least the two of us could head off and nab a point in the line for everyone. So we got up, I set the phone alarm for 5:30 (later I wish I had put it to 6am), and left a note. "Icecore" and I dressed in "half-cosplay" of Shinsengumi haori, forehead protector and jeans and started heading out. "Yoruichi" stirred up just before we left, so I filled her in on what was going on and we were out the door.

"Icecore" and I actually got a really close-in point in the line-up, so that was alright. Mostly we just sat on the floor, eyes closed (or in "Icecore's" case, playing a DS). "Yoruichi" eventually met up with us while the rest slept or got ready. I could probably elaborate more, but the gist is that the phrase "fucking otaku" came up many a time in that early morning queue . . . yeah . . . . . but, we registered alright even after "Yoruichi" had to argue herself out of waiting in another line (again, more of that guardian/minor type stuff that drove her nuts the day before). But, we finally registered, felt good about it . . . as we left we saw the others from our room in the registration line-up at about 20-30 minutes away from the end. So that was good . . .

Back to the hotel to freshen up, possibly shower (I think I used yesterday's t-shirt as a towel), gel my hair with that ridiculously messy coloured hair gel, and REALLY change afterwards. Well, "Yoruichi" cleaned up a lot quicker than the rest of us and was dressed up in a sort of "chick pirate" dealie that involved some knee-high high-heeled boots and stuff (which I never got a picture of, sadly). While she was out, the rest of the guys piled into the room so they too could get ready ("Kisuke" had a lot of hair stuff to work with). Well, just as "Icecore", "Souji" and I finished getting our samurai clothes on, "Yoruichi" comes back into the room to change - seems her ridiculously badass boots are also impossible to walk in and had already hurt her! So, she was now finally officially "Yoruichi" for Sakura-Con . . . but she still had to put all her stuff together and do the finishing touches. So, "Icecore", "Souji" and I headed off to the con' and to soak up some early morningness.

We kinda just chilled, going up and down the escalators, taking a few pictures here and there, getting our pictures taken here and there . . . saw Big Chris dressed up as Afro (SO good . . .) . . . eventually "Yoruichi" made her debut in full garb and we joined our little party of Shinsengumi members. We eventually headed upstairs to where the main convention areas were once again and saw some familiar faces from Vancouver, so we went over to talk. Now, "Zack" who had actually won the "AE Bishounen Walkoff" in Vancouver was actually a Seattle native, but all the same he was an old face willing to chat for a bit.
Yeah, "Zack" is a good guy . . . gave me directions to Denny's.)

Oh yeah, it was during this late morning period where I saw a familiar face: Gail!!! Hugged her, said hello, had a good chat that probably bored everyone else I was with . . . but hey, it's cool to finally meet theOers, y'know? So yeah, Gail rules . . . and I love her laugh . . .

(Back to the hotel and back . . .)
I forget exactly why, but we went back to the hotel once again . . . probably to grab "Kisuke" and Axel, who were still putting themselves together - well, "Kisuke" more so . . . again, lots of hair products and flat irons and stuff. But we headed back, took some pictures . . . it was a bit before noon, before everything opening: Opening Ceremonies, Dealer's room . . . in our specific case, a Shinsengumi photo shoot . . .

(The other Shinsengumi squad . . .)
We found our other team waiting outside the line-up to go to the opening ceremonies. It goes without saying that once six uniforms were all together, there was a desparate need for photos. When a Kenshin cosplayer came by, well . . . it goes without saying that there was a desparate need for photos. So yeah, we got our pictures taken. Good times.

At noon we went to the "official" meeting place for our photo-shoot in case there were actually other Shinsengumi cosplayers there (of which there weren't). At that time, "Yoruichi", "Kisuke" and Axel went to the dealer's room to get stuff. We eventually went outside in the courtyard to take some more pictures under trees and stuff. Uhhm . . . there's really nothing more I need to add to that. We took pictures, took video of us charging the camera . . . then we were done.

Headed back in, ran into "Yoruichi", joined up with her, walked around some more . . . ran into "Kisuke" who had found an Ouran blazer in the dealer's room and was now Tamaki (and remained so for the rest of the con' . . . for our purposes, I'll keep calling him "Kisuke", though). From here on I think we pretty much just hung out all around the place, taking pictures, talking to other people . . . we eventually went to the "Host Club Panel", where Ouran cosplayers would try to entertain customers . . . heh. "Kisuke" was bored of watching it and left, while "Yoruichi" was hosted by "Kyouya" (whom she instead weirded out with weird discussion topics, apparently). Yeah, it sounded like the SCon Host Club was a bit of a bust . . . heh, and their Rangiku was scary.
("Yoruichi gets hosted . . . poorly, according to her . . .)

Well, eventually in the mid-afternoon it was time for the Bleach photoshoot, which "Yoruichi" obviously had to attend . . . we walked through the Final Fantasy shoot first, though, where I got some very important pictures: Zidane headbutting someone in the chest, and a picture with Rinoa (who also happened to be really hot. At some point during this I also took some pictures with some girls who later glomped me and stuff, saying something about how I was nice to let them do all that. My response, "It makes sense, I'm Canadian." Immediately they go "So are we!" Then we all geeked out and had a Canadian group hug . . . yeah, good times.

(One of many Bleach group shots)
But yeah, I took a LOT of Bleach pictures. There were a lot of them, after all (OVER 9000 of them!!!). And if they weren't of Bleach cosplayers specifically, they were of "Yoruichi" hanging out in trees. Heh, it worked, what can I say? Anyways, the other Shinsengumi guys came by and we talked some more . . . for you see, we had evil intentions . . . "crash the Bleach photoshoot!"

The five of us ("Souji" was off elsewhere somewhere, probably not according to plan) shouted and charged through the masses of shinigami . . . it was funny. And it sparked off ideas . . . I posted a link to the video before, but I'll post it again:


(Panda and Monkey Orange)
Also during this time I ran into Gail again as she was all decked out in Unohana cosplay. I also called her "Madam" to her face for the first time ever . . . she cracked up, I commented that she must have found it weird to hear it for the very first time ever . . . good times. But yeah, Gail and John are awesome people, and I can't praise them enough . . . but I'll do more of that tomorrow. Meantimes, I'll also mention that I met all of Monkey Orange's people . . . now, they were cool because they were all cosplaying from different shows, so when you went for the picture they all had very unique looks and poses . . . loved it!
(Monkey Orange's people . . .)

Anyways, after that shoot it was getting later, and there was a Masquerade Ball I wanted to go to - y'know, formalish dance stuff. So, we all headed back to the hotel to refresh and change (out of cosplay, as the case was for many). At this point I dressed into a suit as sort of a nameless Turk or something . . . in any case, it turned out that I didn't go to that, being that the person I wanted to go with wasn't quite as interested anymore. Dang. Again, just more walking around and stuff . . . "Kisuke" had apparently been kidnapped by the

We went for food after that, though. It was myself, "Icecore", "Yoruichi", and a couple new friends that "Yoruichi" knew from a previous year. A "Byakuya" cosplayer and his friend/relative (I never quite figured that out). In any case, we grabbed an electronic Queue thing from the Cheesecake Factory (again!) and began our 1-hour wait . . . while we waited we just talked, pissed off the Link cosplayers some more because it just worked out so well this time around because since it was really late most of the convention doors were now locked . . . so they were rattling wrong doors while we shouted "Hey! Listen! You're going the wrong way!" Oh, quick tangent . . .

So yeah, all convention - and I mean ALL convention - every time we saw a Link cosplayer, we let him have it. "HEEEY! WISSEN!!!!" Nonstop. We were horrible. And I think we also started a fad . . . but damn, we were horrible . . . anyways, back to Cheesecake Factory . . .

At about the 40 minute mark, "Yoruichi" couldn't hold it anymore and bought a crepe from a place behind us that looked incredibly delicious; thus, she killed her own appetite. What a girl . . . but, they buzzed us in finally, we sat down, ate some cheesecake and stuff . . . felt good . . . apparently Monkey Orange saw me in there in my suit . . . . .

After supper, we met up with a couple of "Yoruichi's" other convention friends. "Byakuya" and his friend/relative hauled ass at this point, being that it was getting beyond late. So now where are we . . . it's myself, "Yoruichi", "Icecore", and two new people. Well, we walked around downtown at night . . . again . . . ended up walking around in a circle . . . yeah. "Icecore" decided there was no more sense to this (especially since he was probably feeling awkward about it all) so he headed back to the hotel; the rest of us went to Pike Place Market. At night.

(Myself posing with my penny from yesterday)
I found my penny! And the gum behind it was still soft! So yeah, I got my picture finally. Eventually "Yoruichi" convinced people to go down to the waterfront area where there were other late-night denizens hangin' around . . . the other two were less impressed by this idea . . . poor things . . . again, like I said, "Yoruichi" is an adventurous person . . .
(The three of them riding a pig at Pike Place Market . . .)

The two girls had enough late night hill-climbing, so back to the hotels we went. Everyone else was already home, chilling, eating crackers, watching tv and such. "Souji" threw a plushie at my head, saying that was punishment for ditching her at the con' (she also didn't have a room key so she was stuck outside for a while . . . I felt bad about that). Nevertheless, there was one true saving grace to the night: we didn't have to wake up early for anything anymore! We could actually sleep tonight!

I showered but didn't wash my hair as I still had all that ridiculously messy coloured hair gel in my hair. Further, I was actually running out of coloured hair gel, so I figured I'd skimp on a day and sleep on my stomach that night. Yeah . . . more on that for tomorrow, though.


The alarms were set for maybe 9am or something like that. In any case, I was gonna have a less fun night face-down in my pillows on the floor . . . . .


[TO BE CONTINUED . . .]
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