Sakura Con Day 2 and Day 3 begins - I don't wanna go home!
Day 2
We founnd a nice little deli for breakfast just a few doors down from the convention center. I had a nice English muffin with ham, cheese, and egg... The only drawback was that they had no coffee, only hot tea. What kind of place has no coffee at breakfast. What kind of place in Seattle has no coffee period? We're going back this morning, but I'm hitting the Starbuck's next door first.
First thing on the agenda was Artist's Alley and the Exhibition hall - total sensory overload between the crowds and all the cool stuff for sale. We only picked up a couple of small things despite all the temptation... I'll head back today, right before we leave, to make a final decision on a couple of things though.
Brenda had a panel, so off she went and I wandered the hall for a while photographing cosplayers before heading off to mine... Which ended up to be one of the coolest things I did all weekend. The panel was titled "Anime Architechure", and it turned out the moderator was a Masters candidate in architetcture and land use planning at UW who had studied in Japan. The presentation was a wonderful one dealing with Japanese culture, how it was reflected in architecture and the built enviroment, and how that in turn was reflected both in the (visual) background in anime and sometimes affected the plot. The Q&A discussion afterward was equally awesome - but I had to bail early for a photoshoot.
The photoshoot turned out to be equally awesome... on Fri, we'd only had about four cosplayers and two photographers. We'd all decided to pass the word to other Sailor Moon cosplayers we saw in the halls on Fri and Sat to boost attendance some (since we didn't make the 'official' schedule), and we suceed beyond our wildest dreams! Almost twenty Moonies in cosplay, and it seemed to be almost an equal number of photographers. ("I told two friends, and *they* told two friends... the numbers add up!) We had to go out into the park to find enough room to shoot, and the procession drew quite a bit of attention. (Everyone knows Sailor Moon and eight Usagi's in various outfits really stood out.) The energy level was incredible... and at the end I was drained.
I met back up with Brenda, and we wandered back down to the same little deli... Between coming off the high from the shoot, forgetting to hydrate, and forgetting to eat lunch I really needed to decompress, drink, and eat. We ended up going back to the hotel and just chilling for a couple of hours.
Back to the con to wander and photograph some more, and then we went to the Cosplay Contest... many, many, way cool cosplay that the players had obviously spent many hours researching and building. I disagreed with some of the judge's choices, but I don't envy them trying to seperate the superb from the sublime. (I've judged at almost that level in the SCA, and it's *hard* to do.) We had a brief break before it was time to go get in line for Cosplay Chess, and when we saw how long it was, we though about how tired we were and bailed out. (Not only did we not want to stand in line, but the contest and the chess game both required a good lens with a long reach - which I do no have.) Instead we hit the hotel bar for a drink and wind down before heading off to bed.
Day 3
A short one today... Brenda is going to check us out of the hotel while I head over for yet another photoshoot, and then we'll head home. I think we're aiming for the 1.30PM ferry, and I don't want to miss it because the next one is at 3.00PM and I *DON"T* want to drive around. I'm too tired to drive an hour and deal with the traffic if I don't have to.
Well, I don't want to go home, but it's to head off to get coffee for Brenda and start getting organized.