Woohoo! After many, many hours of flying (1 hour to Sydney, 8 or so hours to Osaka, then a nice, relaxing over-night stay... followed by 11 or so hours to LA!) I got to go to my first convention! Yay!! After AX-ing and being a tourist (Disneyland, Universal Studios and an LA Tour), I got to go home again... (another fun 10 or so hours to Tokyo, a lovely 6 hour stay at the airport, then an 8 hour flight back to Australia! Plus the 1 hour flight back to Melbourne.) Read all about it, and see some of the more interesting photos that were taken ...
Waah! I want another holiday!!! This time, a little longer than two weeks would be good!
So....... I've finally been to my first convention! Yay!
(Went via Osaka, so I got a nice day there, after sleeping at the hotel which was paid for by JAL. Went to a nice little place called Rinku Park, which was an amusement park. My pen pal, Hiroe, showed us around, and we met up with Yasu, my last boyfriend. So that was pretty cool... the way home, we were stuck in the New Tokyo International airport at Kansai for 6 hours. That really sucked, but they had nice massage chairs in the rooms you could hire out, and I got to watch some weird Japanese TV shows! The coolest thing to happen at an airport, though, was in the Osaka/Kansai International airport - while waiting to board the plane, the TV started playing Ranma 1/2!!! Yay!!)
Now... on to the con!
It was a little strange at first... but it was interesting. Lined up late on the Friday, so I didn't actually get into a huge queue, so that was pretty good. But then I went to the dealer room - boy, was that packed!! But I managed to get a kawaii P-chan soft toy! ^_^
There was a lot of trying to find stuff... rather dull that bit, all that walking around to actually find things, because the maps weren't really matched up with the list of things going on, so I had to look at two pieces of paper all the time. Then there was the cancelled stuff - my sister really wanted to see the Ranma 1/2 showing in one of the video rooms, and I thought that I'd drop her off while I went to go find out about
the panel. During the hour or so that I was away, the video got cancelled!! So I had to eventually drop her off to watch El Hazard, which she thankfully liked. Though I still thing that it was rather lame how they couldn't even organise showings.
Eventually I met Damon (of the Fanfic ML) and various other people going to a lunch before the Fanfic panel. I'd forgotten all about it, and had already eaten, but my sister and I went along anyway. It was an amusing lunch, though, even if I just had a Coke to drink. (As an aside, American Coke is very different to Australian Coke - when American Coke goes flat, it's undrinkable!!! Don't know what it is... must be the cane sugar that's used in Australian Coke that lets people drink it after it's flat! ^_^ )
Then it was time for the panel. Hmm... I was pretty stupid to ask to be part of the panel, since I hate talking in public. Ah, well! I was there, and was on the panel. Didn't really end up saying too much, mostly because the questions that I could answer were already answered by someone else... but I was rather amazed when people cheered when I said that I was Kun-chan!! (Then again, after I said that I never checked fanfic voting polls because no-one would vote for me anyway, someone called out 'I'd vote for you!' and they all cheered again!)
The only real problem with that panel was that there was this guy who just _stared_ at me through the whole thing. Even when other people were talking! Geeze, that boy needs to learn manners!! He didn't even come up and say anything at the end, like other people did. Feh, the word 'pervert' springs to mind, for some reason. Met another of them at the 'con - one guy at the parties run by Toshi Yoshida just kept following me and my sister around, hanging right near us and never saying a word. *Shudder* He even followed my sister when she went out for a smoke. Thankfully she went with two normal guys! Bleh, perverts just scare me.
Well, to change the subject - something fun! I liked the dance! Though the music wasn't all that good, IMO, it was still fun being able to dance. (Though I'd have rather more of the music along the lines of the Village People and other fun disco songs that you can dance to!!) I went to the dance with lots of cool people I met after the panel (and some at the lunch) ... I've got a mind like a sieve, so please forgive me if I can't remember names. The party that I ended up going to afterwards didn't help with making me remember things, either. Too many people!!
Though I do remember Foxtrot, Jennifer, Mikado@AnimeMUCK and Shige-chan@AnimeMUCK. Sorry to the rest of you guys... names just go in one ear and out the other!
Hmm... also had someone try to pick me up at the dance, too. A little tip for the guys - when you're hitting on a woman, do NOT be heavy handed when you first meet her! It'll just scare her away, unless she's used to that kind of thing! Ah, well...
Going to the parties was really fun... got to meet quite a few cool people (apart from that one creepy guy) there! Mr. Barman (Toshi), Other Mr. Barman (Besh), various Viz people, Margaret Lum (gee, the muscles on that delicate-looking girl!!), Cabana Boy (Brad - he really DOES dance if you throw nickels at him!), and many others who's names slipped in one ear and right out the other.
Basically, due to the parties, my sister and I just slept in and so missed many morning events that were on at the convention. The problem is that on Sunday morning, we arranged to meet Foxtrot and her fiancé at the Viz panel. Geeze, bad mistake. I was half asleep during the panel, and the whining from the guy a few rows behind us drove me insane. (No, I wasn't hung over! My sister and I seem to share the same genes that don't give you hangovers... even though I stupidly drank one of Toshi's mystery shot glasses, I was feeling quite normal the next morning, thank goodness!) Anyway, we met them and just had to say goodbye, as they were leaving. So at least we were there on time to say farewell!
But we met up with Brad and Besh, and we all went to the Hilton pools together. That was pretty cool, hanging out at the spa in the sun. Who cares about the events on at the 'con when you can be in a spa all day?! I even got one of those funky Midori margarita cups with the lizard on it, at the pool...
Eventually Toshi and Trish Ledoux turned up, and most of the Viz people were going to go to Disneyland. Leanne and I had to go that day, as we had a 5 day pass, which had to start on the Sunday, so we went with them. I think the party ended up with at least 11 people in it - Julie, Kit, Bill, Urian, Randy (all from Viz), and of course myself, Leanne, Besh, Brad, Toshi and Trish. It's actually fun to go around Disneyland in a large group! You get set aside while small groups get on the ride, then you get the next one to yourself, mostly!! ^_^ It's also really good when you're going with people who actually know where things are!
Too bad there wasn't another party that night... I couldn't have done with one! Oh, well. We all went to Denny's afterwards, and ate dinner.
And that was the end of the 'con for us ... I'm a night person, and like staying up late and waking around 11am or so... they should change the con events to cater for that! What was with all that early morning stuff, anyway?!?!
But, all in all, I had a lot of fun. After that, my sister and I just went and did the normal tourist stuff - Disneyland and Universal Studios... we'd already done the LA tour (on Saturday morning), but that sucked because the tour company didn't have a clue as to what was going on. They didn't even slow down for photos. Feh.