A-Kon 2005 Report and Cosplay pics
Jun. 7th, 2005 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ghostdriveWell, I'm back from A-Kon, and I have to say it was quite enjoyable for my first con. Hopefully I'll be able to go to more anime conventions in the future (There is one coming to Corpus in August, but I think its more sci fi/fantasy based. Hmmm...I wonder if there would be anything Farscape related there?). Anyway, here's my A-Kon 2005 Report:
(NOTE: this post is kind of long so you can skip it if you like. There are pictures included though. My apologies to dial-up users, since this post is a bit image heavy.)
Day 1: On the road to Dallas, the Arrival and Tenseness
It was myself and Emily (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
farfromem), along with my mom and aunt (<---I think she was there to help my mom stave off the boredom) who went on this trip. Emily decided to spend the night Thursday, and I had thought we would leave early Friday morning in order to pick up my aunt in Houston. But we didn't leave until around 10:15 a.m., which was a lot later than expected and I didn't find out until later exactly what the reason was. For the first 40 or so minutes on the road I was entertained by watching Emily (who was dozing off in the middle seat of my family's van with her seatbelt on) slump from side to side as she would alternately wake up and then nod off. She'd lean slightly to the right, then wake slightly and return to her middle upright position, and then once again lean over to the left, where she was soooo close to actually lying down on the seat, before returning back to an upright position. At one point my mom asked if she wanted to lay down, to which she replied, "No, its alright." (<----haha, she says she doesn't remember say this) This pattern cycled over and over until the monotony got the best of me, and I decided to take a nap. Shortly afterwards, Emily woke up again briefly, saw me lying down, and only then decided perhaps she'd get better rest taking off her seatbelt. I only wish I had taken pictures of her slumping back and forth to make a humorous icon.
We arrived in Houston around 1 p.m. and picked up my aunt at her job at Palais Royal. We went to her house where instead of packing up her stuff and leaving, she went back to work while we stayed at her home. Now I understood the reason for our late departure from Rockport and why my mom was so hesitant to tell me the time we were leaving; we would have to wait for my aunt to get off of work in the afternoon. GRRRRR....at this point I was a bit annoyed that we would probably get to Dallas late. So once again, me and Emily ended up taking a nap in her living room with episodes of Texas Justice and Divorce Court blaring in the background. We finally left Houston around 4:30 p.m.
The most memorable part of the day occurred just as we were leaving Houston and my brain was still foggy with sleep. As we passed a car dealership called "Peacock Nissan", there were numerous vertical banner emblazoned with that name ("Peacock" on one side, "Nissan" on the other"). So instead of reading "Peacock Nissan" on the banners, my brain decided to be selective and read it only as "Penis". ....I have a dirty mind, how lovely.
We arrived at the hotel around 8 p.m., and luckily, even though the pre-registration desk was closed, the staffers there were nice enough to take the time to give us our badges since we had our pre-reg tickets with us. Thank you A-Kon staffers. Emily and I really did nothing more than wander around for awhile since there was really nothing to do. I was VERY tense and nervous at first since this is the very first convention I've been to and because I despise big crowds. There were some loud, brash people there that made me think, "Why did I come here?", and so this coupled with a lack of interesting events was disappointing. And thus ended Day 1.
Day 2: The Joys of Sasuga Books and Cosplay
Most of this day was spent wandering the Dealer's Room and me being amazed by some of the fantastic Cosplayers walking around. There were many Naruto cosplayers there. I saw several people dressed as Kakashi (Yay!), Naruto, Gaara (Yay x 2! ♥), Itachi, Sasuke, Tenten, and even a Choji cosplayer amongst all the Naruto ones. Yet, there were no Iruka ones. What? No love for Iruka? While Naruto made up the majority of the cosplay body, Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, Bleach, and the Final Fantasy series also had a noticeable quantity or cosplayers. I was greatly surprised to see several D.Gray-man (all of which were Allen Walker) ones, but unfortunately I could not manage to catch up with any of them to take their pictures.
Actually, that was one of the problems I had; I'd see someone I wanted to take a picture of, and when I would get up the courage to ask them if I could take their pic (when Emily didn't ask them that is), either they would have completely disappeared from my sight or they walked so fast I couldn't catch up. This was the case with one particular Kakashi cosplayer. I first spotted him on Friday night, but didn't have my camera with me at the time. On Saturday, we passed by him numerous times in the Dealer's Room, but alas, he always disappeared as if he had super-human speed. Ah, he was a true ninja. He would of made Konaha proud. Then, at last, on Sunday, when we about to leave, I spotted him sitting in the main hall and finally got his picture (VICTORY! You can see his picture below). Anyway, here are some of the pics I took:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. 
7.
8. 
9.
10.
11.
12. 
1. Yuna from FFX-2
2. Kazuki (Kadzuki?) from GetBackers
3. twins from Clover (their names have escaped me at the moment)
4. Uo, Kagura, and Kyo from Fruits Basket (they looked so cute walking around)
5. Sephiroth from FF7 (loved the hair)
6. Fuu and Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth (unfortunately, their Umi had wandered off from them)
7. Booth staffer dressed in Lolita style (she changed outfits several times during the day, but I only managed to take her pic once. Her outfits were all very cute)
8. Kikyo and Kagome from InuYasha
9. Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin (haha, I am amused by the random guy behind him.)
10. Kagura from Fruits Basket (As you can tell, since this pic is different from the rest, I did not take this shot, Emily did. If you look behind the left shoulder of this cosplayer you can see one of the staffers from the Sasuga Books booth who I will talk about later. There's also a Hyotei cosplayer to the left of her. Is that Shishido I see?)
11. InuYasha
12. Kakashi from Naruto
While we stopped by almost every booth there, the Sasuga Books one is what really grabbed my attention. Holy crap, it was like I went to book heaven there. I almost squealed with delight when I saw several Kazuya Minekura illustration books there. Haha, I made repeat trips back to this booth. One of the staffers there was the most fascinating Asian man (meaning his antics amused me greatly) I've ever seen. I loved his incredibly accented english. For some reason, in between ringing up peoples' orders he would stand up on a chair holding up the credit card swiper thing he had (<---sorry, don't know the technical term). I guess the reception on it kept on going out. He was so energetic that it just made me smile (I guess you could say his energy compelled me to buy more stuff, haha). Here's a pic of the stuff I bought at A-Kon:
Not pictured are the Pocky and Hello Panda snacks, and a Moi Dix Mois cd. Oh yeah, and I also bought this neat Nintendo bath towel for my brother (with various Nintendo characters on it), that he refuses to open since he thinks its worth something. The things pictured here are:
--Salty Dog I, II, and III-Kazuya Minekura Illustrations
--Sugar Coat-Kazuya Minekura Illustrations
Backgammon-Remix-Kazuya Minekura Illustrations (<---as you can tell, I LOVE her work)
--Animation Album SMASH!-Prince of Tennis illustration book
--Uzumaki-Naruto illustration book
Illustrations of Hisaya Nakajo (name unknown, includes her work from Hana-Kimi)
--Fruits Basket illustration book
--Gaara plushie (So Cute! ♥)
--Prince of Tennis and xxxHolic pencil boards
Wah! I went crazy over artbooks! I wanted to buy some yaoi doujinshi, but I couldn't really find any with the pairings I really wanted (or maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough). I really wished I had bought that Advent Children poster, Gackt's "Mars" cd, and Konoha ninja headband (hitae-i? hitae-ate? Anyway, I have an urge to cosplay as Iruka). I guess I'll look for that stuff online. And damn, those artbooks are heavy.
Day 3: Departure & The Ice Chest of DOOM
Since check-out was at noontime, any attempted trips down the elevators were deterred by people cramming themselves into whatever space they could find. (I'm so glad we took the time to take our luggage downstairs around 10 a.m.) Its amazing how territorial people can get in elevators. At one point, Emily and I walked down the stairs from the 18th floor (where our room was) to the 4th floor , which didn't help us get to the lobby any faster. It still took about 10 more minutes for an available elevator to get to us. We spent a little time a the Dealer's Room where I had one final visit to Sasuga Books and Crazy Asian Man (I'll miss you!I'm crazy.). We left shortly after 12 p.m. (after finally taking a pic of the Kakashi cosplayer), and the trip was uneventful until....
Somewhere around the vicinity of Houston (on our way to my aunt's house) suddenly something smashed into the windshield completely scaring the crap out of everyone in the car. The truck in front of us was carrying a cooler, and the cover of it is what hit us. I believe this is the way the train of events went: The cooler cover fell of of the truck onto the road where it was run over by another truck causing it to be flung into the air and be projected at our van. The cooler cover hit and knocked off both the antenna and passenger side mirror, it left an incredible dent windshield, and it managed to hit a bird (who is presume died instantly) Poor bird. I was more concerned about the bird than the damage to our van, which was the exact opposite of everyone else. I'm more sensitive toward animals than humans I guess. Luckily, the guy who owned the ice chest was really nice, and he gave us his insurance information. So we ended up spending the night at my aunt's house, which was incredibly boring.
Alas, that is the end of the A-kon trip. Maybe I'll go again next year (perhaps I'll have more money to spend next time also ^_^). There are things that I wish I had done there (i.e. gone to several events), but overall the trip was fun.
(NOTE: this post is kind of long so you can skip it if you like. There are pictures included though. My apologies to dial-up users, since this post is a bit image heavy.)
Day 1: On the road to Dallas, the Arrival and Tenseness
It was myself and Emily (
farfromem), along with my mom and aunt (<---I think she was there to help my mom stave off the boredom) who went on this trip. Emily decided to spend the night Thursday, and I had thought we would leave early Friday morning in order to pick up my aunt in Houston. But we didn't leave until around 10:15 a.m., which was a lot later than expected and I didn't find out until later exactly what the reason was. For the first 40 or so minutes on the road I was entertained by watching Emily (who was dozing off in the middle seat of my family's van with her seatbelt on) slump from side to side as she would alternately wake up and then nod off. She'd lean slightly to the right, then wake slightly and return to her middle upright position, and then once again lean over to the left, where she was soooo close to actually lying down on the seat, before returning back to an upright position. At one point my mom asked if she wanted to lay down, to which she replied, "No, its alright." (<----haha, she says she doesn't remember say this) This pattern cycled over and over until the monotony got the best of me, and I decided to take a nap. Shortly afterwards, Emily woke up again briefly, saw me lying down, and only then decided perhaps she'd get better rest taking off her seatbelt. I only wish I had taken pictures of her slumping back and forth to make a humorous icon.We arrived in Houston around 1 p.m. and picked up my aunt at her job at Palais Royal. We went to her house where instead of packing up her stuff and leaving, she went back to work while we stayed at her home. Now I understood the reason for our late departure from Rockport and why my mom was so hesitant to tell me the time we were leaving; we would have to wait for my aunt to get off of work in the afternoon. GRRRRR....at this point I was a bit annoyed that we would probably get to Dallas late. So once again, me and Emily ended up taking a nap in her living room with episodes of Texas Justice and Divorce Court blaring in the background. We finally left Houston around 4:30 p.m.
The most memorable part of the day occurred just as we were leaving Houston and my brain was still foggy with sleep. As we passed a car dealership called "Peacock Nissan", there were numerous vertical banner emblazoned with that name ("Peacock" on one side, "Nissan" on the other"). So instead of reading "Peacock Nissan" on the banners, my brain decided to be selective and read it only as "Penis". ....I have a dirty mind, how lovely.
We arrived at the hotel around 8 p.m., and luckily, even though the pre-registration desk was closed, the staffers there were nice enough to take the time to give us our badges since we had our pre-reg tickets with us. Thank you A-Kon staffers. Emily and I really did nothing more than wander around for awhile since there was really nothing to do. I was VERY tense and nervous at first since this is the very first convention I've been to and because I despise big crowds. There were some loud, brash people there that made me think, "Why did I come here?", and so this coupled with a lack of interesting events was disappointing. And thus ended Day 1.
Day 2: The Joys of Sasuga Books and Cosplay
Most of this day was spent wandering the Dealer's Room and me being amazed by some of the fantastic Cosplayers walking around. There were many Naruto cosplayers there. I saw several people dressed as Kakashi (Yay!), Naruto, Gaara (Yay x 2! ♥), Itachi, Sasuke, Tenten, and even a Choji cosplayer amongst all the Naruto ones. Yet, there were no Iruka ones. What? No love for Iruka? While Naruto made up the majority of the cosplay body, Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, Bleach, and the Final Fantasy series also had a noticeable quantity or cosplayers. I was greatly surprised to see several D.Gray-man (all of which were Allen Walker) ones, but unfortunately I could not manage to catch up with any of them to take their pictures.
Actually, that was one of the problems I had; I'd see someone I wanted to take a picture of, and when I would get up the courage to ask them if I could take their pic (when Emily didn't ask them that is), either they would have completely disappeared from my sight or they walked so fast I couldn't catch up. This was the case with one particular Kakashi cosplayer. I first spotted him on Friday night, but didn't have my camera with me at the time. On Saturday, we passed by him numerous times in the Dealer's Room, but alas, he always disappeared as if he had super-human speed. Ah, he was a true ninja. He would of made Konaha proud. Then, at last, on Sunday, when we about to leave, I spotted him sitting in the main hall and finally got his picture (VICTORY! You can see his picture below). Anyway, here are some of the pics I took:
1.
2.3.
4.5.
6. 7.
8. 9.
10.
11.
12. 1. Yuna from FFX-2
2. Kazuki (Kadzuki?) from GetBackers
3. twins from Clover (their names have escaped me at the moment)
4. Uo, Kagura, and Kyo from Fruits Basket (they looked so cute walking around)
5. Sephiroth from FF7 (loved the hair)
6. Fuu and Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth (unfortunately, their Umi had wandered off from them)
7. Booth staffer dressed in Lolita style (she changed outfits several times during the day, but I only managed to take her pic once. Her outfits were all very cute)
8. Kikyo and Kagome from InuYasha
9. Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin (haha, I am amused by the random guy behind him.)
10. Kagura from Fruits Basket (As you can tell, since this pic is different from the rest, I did not take this shot, Emily did. If you look behind the left shoulder of this cosplayer you can see one of the staffers from the Sasuga Books booth who I will talk about later. There's also a Hyotei cosplayer to the left of her. Is that Shishido I see?)
11. InuYasha
12. Kakashi from Naruto
While we stopped by almost every booth there, the Sasuga Books one is what really grabbed my attention. Holy crap, it was like I went to book heaven there. I almost squealed with delight when I saw several Kazuya Minekura illustration books there. Haha, I made repeat trips back to this booth. One of the staffers there was the most fascinating Asian man (meaning his antics amused me greatly) I've ever seen. I loved his incredibly accented english. For some reason, in between ringing up peoples' orders he would stand up on a chair holding up the credit card swiper thing he had (<---sorry, don't know the technical term). I guess the reception on it kept on going out. He was so energetic that it just made me smile (I guess you could say his energy compelled me to buy more stuff, haha). Here's a pic of the stuff I bought at A-Kon:
Not pictured are the Pocky and Hello Panda snacks, and a Moi Dix Mois cd. Oh yeah, and I also bought this neat Nintendo bath towel for my brother (with various Nintendo characters on it), that he refuses to open since he thinks its worth something. The things pictured here are:
--Salty Dog I, II, and III-Kazuya Minekura Illustrations
--Sugar Coat-Kazuya Minekura Illustrations
Backgammon-Remix-Kazuya Minekura Illustrations (<---as you can tell, I LOVE her work)
--Animation Album SMASH!-Prince of Tennis illustration book
--Uzumaki-Naruto illustration book
Illustrations of Hisaya Nakajo (name unknown, includes her work from Hana-Kimi)
--Fruits Basket illustration book
--Gaara plushie (So Cute! ♥)
--Prince of Tennis and xxxHolic pencil boards
Wah! I went crazy over artbooks! I wanted to buy some yaoi doujinshi, but I couldn't really find any with the pairings I really wanted (or maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough). I really wished I had bought that Advent Children poster, Gackt's "Mars" cd, and Konoha ninja headband (hitae-i? hitae-ate? Anyway, I have an urge to cosplay as Iruka). I guess I'll look for that stuff online. And damn, those artbooks are heavy.
Day 3: Departure & The Ice Chest of DOOM
Since check-out was at noontime, any attempted trips down the elevators were deterred by people cramming themselves into whatever space they could find. (I'm so glad we took the time to take our luggage downstairs around 10 a.m.) Its amazing how territorial people can get in elevators. At one point, Emily and I walked down the stairs from the 18th floor (where our room was) to the 4th floor , which didn't help us get to the lobby any faster. It still took about 10 more minutes for an available elevator to get to us. We spent a little time a the Dealer's Room where I had one final visit to Sasuga Books and Crazy Asian Man (I'll miss you!I'm crazy.). We left shortly after 12 p.m. (after finally taking a pic of the Kakashi cosplayer), and the trip was uneventful until....
Somewhere around the vicinity of Houston (on our way to my aunt's house) suddenly something smashed into the windshield completely scaring the crap out of everyone in the car. The truck in front of us was carrying a cooler, and the cover of it is what hit us. I believe this is the way the train of events went: The cooler cover fell of of the truck onto the road where it was run over by another truck causing it to be flung into the air and be projected at our van. The cooler cover hit and knocked off both the antenna and passenger side mirror, it left an incredible dent windshield, and it managed to hit a bird (who is presume died instantly) Poor bird. I was more concerned about the bird than the damage to our van, which was the exact opposite of everyone else. I'm more sensitive toward animals than humans I guess. Luckily, the guy who owned the ice chest was really nice, and he gave us his insurance information. So we ended up spending the night at my aunt's house, which was incredibly boring.
Alas, that is the end of the A-kon trip. Maybe I'll go again next year (perhaps I'll have more money to spend next time also ^_^). There are things that I wish I had done there (i.e. gone to several events), but overall the trip was fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-08 04:23 am (UTC)