AX report - Days 1, 2, and 3
-slumps- I am finally back home from LA after a long day. Who knew when I was making these plans that 1. A VERY famous music star would have his memorial service 8 blocks away from the hotel I would be staying at and 2. that I would have such an amazing time.
The first day I got brought to the airport early, so I hopped on an early flight that left right pretty much immediately after I got through security. ^_^ After getting to LA, I got a cab and traveled to the Westin. Man, that place is epicly huge! I got so turned around but still, so nice having a hot breakfast from the food court! XD After that, I wandered downtown a little and took pictures. When I came back, I wandered the hotel and to the YMCA to take more before crashing in my room. I was sooo tired from working so much so it was kinda nice to just be able to relax and catch up on sleep.
The next day, Andrea and Buffie showed up bright and early and we all took a cab to the beautiful Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens. It was an amazing place and so beautiful. I am so thankful that Andrea suggested it... it was truely breath-taking. I took lots of pictures and some came out better than others but meh. The decent ones I put up on deviantart and the rest I just saved for myself. I would love to go back there and see things maybe again in the Spring since I am sure the Cherry Blossoms would be in bloom in the Japanese Gardens.
After that, we went straight over to the convention. That... was terrible. We had to wait HOURS in the blazing sun to get our prereg badges. Poor Andrea got sunburned something awful and I just felt light-headed from the heat. It got so bad that they started handing out sunscreen. But once we were inside, it all ran smoothly. The check-in process is done on computer and you do it yourself, so its pretty fast once you finally get in! Once we finally had our badges, we started back to the hotel... but not before stopping at an ice cream shop for some quick treats. YUM! Once back at the hotel, we ate some pizza in the hotel food court and then headed back up to the room where Andrea and I watched Winter Cicada. It was so nice to have someone watch it with the same enthusiasm for the story and the characters that I do! ^-^ So much fun!!! Late that night, around midnight, my other friends finally showed up and passed out in the room. After such a long day, it was easy for me to fall asleep. Zzzzzzzz....
The next morning, Andrea and I dressed in our Junjo Romantica costumes. I was THRILLED with the way they came out. She made an absolutely wonderful Usagi!
We got to the convention right when things started, but to our suprise.... there was no DMP panel! :( Still, we got to see Yun Kouga's panel (the mangaka for Loveless) and hear her answer questions about where she found her inspiration and such. She also asked about our opinions on a Yaoi doujin.... :D HECK YEA! Lose those ears, Ritsuka!!! (I'm bad, I know!)
After that was the panel for Toshiyuki Morikawa. OMG -swoon- For you that don't know, he is the voice of Sephiroth among a SLEW of other things. He even has done LOTS of dubbing for Japan of our shows. Its kinda comical to me that he has been Ennis (Heath Leger's charactrer) in Brokeback Mountain. Srsly... look it up. But since he IS the BL king over there, my big thing I wanted to seem him for was of course due to his work on Winter Cicada and Embracing Love as my BLfavorite character of all time. He was so entertaining and a great sport as far as catering to ANYTHING fans asked. I had an amazing time watching him work. At the end of the panel, they handed out these little blue tickets that allowed you a chance to get his autograph. -squee-
After the panel, we walked the dealer's hall. OMG HUGE! Its like, four times the size of A-Kon's and that thing was big! They even have ATMs in there... its absolutely insane! I think we only got a little less than a third of the way around before we all started feeling the need for grub. So we ditched the con to go back to the hotel via the shuttles and proceeded across the street to Johnny Rockets for food and fun.
On the way back, we stopped at this giant statue a nearby bank had outside. It was PERFECT for our Junjo cosplay. If you have ever seen the manga or anime, you know there is a part of the story where Misaki gets sent statues of bears with salmon. Well, this is exactly what the statue was! So Buffie agreed to kindly take pictures of us in our cosplays by the statue, which became some of my favorite ones.
After picture time, it was time to head back to the convention. The Gurren Lagann movie was debuting there and we wanted to get good seats. It was a bit dark in there, and that made me drowsy, but once it started... it was awesome! Andrea talked to me about cosplaying Yoko... might have to look into that! XD Thats pretty much it. After the show ended, we headed back to the hotel and I crashed. Soooo sleepy.
The first day I got brought to the airport early, so I hopped on an early flight that left right pretty much immediately after I got through security. ^_^ After getting to LA, I got a cab and traveled to the Westin. Man, that place is epicly huge! I got so turned around but still, so nice having a hot breakfast from the food court! XD After that, I wandered downtown a little and took pictures. When I came back, I wandered the hotel and to the YMCA to take more before crashing in my room. I was sooo tired from working so much so it was kinda nice to just be able to relax and catch up on sleep.
The next day, Andrea and Buffie showed up bright and early and we all took a cab to the beautiful Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens. It was an amazing place and so beautiful. I am so thankful that Andrea suggested it... it was truely breath-taking. I took lots of pictures and some came out better than others but meh. The decent ones I put up on deviantart and the rest I just saved for myself. I would love to go back there and see things maybe again in the Spring since I am sure the Cherry Blossoms would be in bloom in the Japanese Gardens.
After that, we went straight over to the convention. That... was terrible. We had to wait HOURS in the blazing sun to get our prereg badges. Poor Andrea got sunburned something awful and I just felt light-headed from the heat. It got so bad that they started handing out sunscreen. But once we were inside, it all ran smoothly. The check-in process is done on computer and you do it yourself, so its pretty fast once you finally get in! Once we finally had our badges, we started back to the hotel... but not before stopping at an ice cream shop for some quick treats. YUM! Once back at the hotel, we ate some pizza in the hotel food court and then headed back up to the room where Andrea and I watched Winter Cicada. It was so nice to have someone watch it with the same enthusiasm for the story and the characters that I do! ^-^ So much fun!!! Late that night, around midnight, my other friends finally showed up and passed out in the room. After such a long day, it was easy for me to fall asleep. Zzzzzzzz....
The next morning, Andrea and I dressed in our Junjo Romantica costumes. I was THRILLED with the way they came out. She made an absolutely wonderful Usagi!
We got to the convention right when things started, but to our suprise.... there was no DMP panel! :( Still, we got to see Yun Kouga's panel (the mangaka for Loveless) and hear her answer questions about where she found her inspiration and such. She also asked about our opinions on a Yaoi doujin.... :D HECK YEA! Lose those ears, Ritsuka!!! (I'm bad, I know!)
After that was the panel for Toshiyuki Morikawa. OMG -swoon- For you that don't know, he is the voice of Sephiroth among a SLEW of other things. He even has done LOTS of dubbing for Japan of our shows. Its kinda comical to me that he has been Ennis (Heath Leger's charactrer) in Brokeback Mountain. Srsly... look it up. But since he IS the BL king over there, my big thing I wanted to seem him for was of course due to his work on Winter Cicada and Embracing Love as my BLfavorite character of all time. He was so entertaining and a great sport as far as catering to ANYTHING fans asked. I had an amazing time watching him work. At the end of the panel, they handed out these little blue tickets that allowed you a chance to get his autograph. -squee-
After the panel, we walked the dealer's hall. OMG HUGE! Its like, four times the size of A-Kon's and that thing was big! They even have ATMs in there... its absolutely insane! I think we only got a little less than a third of the way around before we all started feeling the need for grub. So we ditched the con to go back to the hotel via the shuttles and proceeded across the street to Johnny Rockets for food and fun.
On the way back, we stopped at this giant statue a nearby bank had outside. It was PERFECT for our Junjo cosplay. If you have ever seen the manga or anime, you know there is a part of the story where Misaki gets sent statues of bears with salmon. Well, this is exactly what the statue was! So Buffie agreed to kindly take pictures of us in our cosplays by the statue, which became some of my favorite ones.
After picture time, it was time to head back to the convention. The Gurren Lagann movie was debuting there and we wanted to get good seats. It was a bit dark in there, and that made me drowsy, but once it started... it was awesome! Andrea talked to me about cosplaying Yoko... might have to look into that! XD Thats pretty much it. After the show ended, we headed back to the hotel and I crashed. Soooo sleepy.