The convention for the fanatic generation
Well, it's been a couple days. Here's the more I mentioned:
After a jaunt at the airport and our arrival in Baltimore, we (softlykarou and I) met up with greyselke, her boyfriend and t3chnomag3 for the trip down to D.C. to visit jdcohen. Not much exciting on the way, just D.C. traffic. We finally got there, got ourselves situated in his apartment, then went out for sushi and some drinks in an underground bar, which helped a lot with the 95+ degree heat.
Thursday we went to the National Zoo to see the panda cup Tai Shan (a.k.a., Butterstick) after a wonderful breakfast of jalapeno-and-cheese sausages and eggy-in-a-basket. It may not have been the wisest idea, since it was 103 out, but the cub was really cute. In his nice, climate-controlled little pen with all the bamboo he could eat (...). After we got there, jdcohen informed us that the National Zoo was one way downhill, and we'd have to climb back if we wanted to leave. Fortunately, there were ice cream stands and mist sprayers on the way back up. All plans to go anywhere else were halted in order to avoid heat stroke, so we ate a late lunch, said goodbye, and went back down to Baltimore in order to get our badges for Otakon.
The badge line took maybe 15 minutes (much better than if we had waited until Friday), and then we went to the cheesecake factory for dinner, where we waited about 5 minutes (dinner at 10 p.m. FTW!). Then, since softlykarou and I wanted to get up early, we went to sleep.
The next morning, we woke up at 8 a.m. (ugh...) to go seen Densha Otoko 電車男(The Train Man). Plot summary is here (Beware of spoilers). It was the episodic version (which we didn't know at the time), so they only showed the first three episodes out of 12, but it was REALLY CUTE! Well, except the first episode, which is mostly about how being a lonely otaku who is too shy and socially inept to talk to people really, really sucks. Now we have to find the others.
After lunch, we went to the Fan Parody Panel, which wasn't as good as it was last year, but was still neat (the creators of Redeath and Nescaflowne were there). Then we went to the AMV contest (Shattered Dreams, Wedding Rings and Naruto Ball Z were all good), then dinner, then back to sleep.
Saturday morning, we woke up early (though not quite as early as before) and went to see a few episodes of Doki Doki. Plot summary: Suzuki Mika is a Japanese school teacher...except she's 5 feet tall in heels, has a baby face and a tendency to cry. Hilarity ensues. softlykarou is convinced that's going to be her when we go teach English in Japan. We watched the first episode, which was enough to convince us to get it. It looks like Azumanga Daioh, but not quite as funny.
We also saw Gankutsuou (The King of the Cave), a.k.a. the Count of Monty Cristo. And, that's basically what it is. The Count of Monty Cristo. In space. With vampires. It's really pretty, and it seems to stick to the plot pretty well. Except...it's in space. With vampires. Still, we're probably going to get that too. We can add that to the enormous backlog of anime we have to watch.
We had dinner early then, because we were going to the fan parody showings that evening. They played Redeath (which we had already seen) and Nescaflowne...which, even though I haven't seen Escaflowne, was still hilarious. Plot summary. Though, admittedly, the best part was eating the cheesecake that we got from Cheesecake Factory during the performance. ^^
Sunday, not much happened. I felt kind of sick for a large part of it, so I napped. Then, on Monday, we went home.
It was great! Though, I think, we won't get to go back next year--if we get into JET, we'll be in Japan!
After a jaunt at the airport and our arrival in Baltimore, we (softlykarou and I) met up with greyselke, her boyfriend and t3chnomag3 for the trip down to D.C. to visit jdcohen. Not much exciting on the way, just D.C. traffic. We finally got there, got ourselves situated in his apartment, then went out for sushi and some drinks in an underground bar, which helped a lot with the 95+ degree heat.
Thursday we went to the National Zoo to see the panda cup Tai Shan (a.k.a., Butterstick) after a wonderful breakfast of jalapeno-and-cheese sausages and eggy-in-a-basket. It may not have been the wisest idea, since it was 103 out, but the cub was really cute. In his nice, climate-controlled little pen with all the bamboo he could eat (...). After we got there, jdcohen informed us that the National Zoo was one way downhill, and we'd have to climb back if we wanted to leave. Fortunately, there were ice cream stands and mist sprayers on the way back up. All plans to go anywhere else were halted in order to avoid heat stroke, so we ate a late lunch, said goodbye, and went back down to Baltimore in order to get our badges for Otakon.
The badge line took maybe 15 minutes (much better than if we had waited until Friday), and then we went to the cheesecake factory for dinner, where we waited about 5 minutes (dinner at 10 p.m. FTW!). Then, since softlykarou and I wanted to get up early, we went to sleep.
The next morning, we woke up at 8 a.m. (ugh...) to go seen Densha Otoko 電車男(The Train Man). Plot summary is here (Beware of spoilers). It was the episodic version (which we didn't know at the time), so they only showed the first three episodes out of 12, but it was REALLY CUTE! Well, except the first episode, which is mostly about how being a lonely otaku who is too shy and socially inept to talk to people really, really sucks. Now we have to find the others.
After lunch, we went to the Fan Parody Panel, which wasn't as good as it was last year, but was still neat (the creators of Redeath and Nescaflowne were there). Then we went to the AMV contest (Shattered Dreams, Wedding Rings and Naruto Ball Z were all good), then dinner, then back to sleep.
Saturday morning, we woke up early (though not quite as early as before) and went to see a few episodes of Doki Doki. Plot summary: Suzuki Mika is a Japanese school teacher...except she's 5 feet tall in heels, has a baby face and a tendency to cry. Hilarity ensues. softlykarou is convinced that's going to be her when we go teach English in Japan. We watched the first episode, which was enough to convince us to get it. It looks like Azumanga Daioh, but not quite as funny.
We also saw Gankutsuou (The King of the Cave), a.k.a. the Count of Monty Cristo. And, that's basically what it is. The Count of Monty Cristo. In space. With vampires. It's really pretty, and it seems to stick to the plot pretty well. Except...it's in space. With vampires. Still, we're probably going to get that too. We can add that to the enormous backlog of anime we have to watch.
We had dinner early then, because we were going to the fan parody showings that evening. They played Redeath (which we had already seen) and Nescaflowne...which, even though I haven't seen Escaflowne, was still hilarious. Plot summary. Though, admittedly, the best part was eating the cheesecake that we got from Cheesecake Factory during the performance. ^^
Sunday, not much happened. I felt kind of sick for a large part of it, so I napped. Then, on Monday, we went home.
It was great! Though, I think, we won't get to go back next year--if we get into JET, we'll be in Japan!