I Survived Otakon
I just got back home last night. I slept for almost 10 hours and I'm still exhausted. While it wasn't the best Otakon I've been to, it was still quite enjoyable overall. I thought it was a good way to end my Otakon con experience.
For all of the pictures I took over the weekend, head on over to my site~
http://hoshikage.net/cosplay/otakon10/main.php
Have some bullet points to sum up my weekend:
- The most smooth travelling experience I've ever had in all my six years going to Otakon.
- Short pre-reg line was short. Also, hot weather was hot.
- Had a private shoot for Ivan with Momokokills.
- Had a private shoot for Lady Maria with blankoo.
- Had a private shoot for Tales of the Abyss with funk_mastah_ion, morninglow, thinkoverroses, and an Ash.
- Had a private shoot for Yu-Gi-Oh with hamano_ayumi, with thedreamerworld.
- Lots of chilling and doing nothing all weekend.
- Missing a lot of early moring panels because hamano_ayumi and I took too long getting ready in the morning.
- Awesome Yugioh Abridged panel Sunday morning.
- Spent a crap ton of money (probably the most I've ever spent at a con).
- Word of the weekend: any variation of derp.
Wednesday
Steph, my mom, and I left for Otakon Wednesday morning at around 7:45. The bus ride went extremely smoothly. There was no wait at the border, nor did we run into any traffic going into New York. We had about an hour and a half before we had to catch the bus going to Baltimore, so we grabbed something to eat. The bus leaving for Baltimore left at around 5:30, so we got into the city at around 9:30, and checked into our hotel by around 10 PM. Overall, it was the smoothest trip down I've ever had.
Thursday
Steph and I spent the morning just wandering around the harbour place. We went back to the hotel around noon and spent about an hour making these really awesome 3D puzzles we bought at Barnes & Noble.
I got a red apple. :D I wanted to get the pyramid too (you know, for millenium puzzle lols) but they didn't have any. =(
We were going to go down for pre-reg at around 2:30, but it was pouring and thundering until around that time, so we didn't end up going down until 3ish. The line was ridiculously short (not that I was complaining). It took a while for the line to really start moving, but once it did, it went fairly quickly. We chilled a bit inside the building just to cool off, and I wanted to get something from Starbucks.
I ran into thinkoverroses while I was there, and snapped a picture. You're such a cute Rin! <3
When Ayu and I decided to leave, there was no line left. It was actually quite amazing. I have to commend the staff for how fast they were able to pass everyone through. I also think that opening pre-reg at 3PM instead of 5PM was a good idea.
The two of us walked around for a bit and then snapped some pictures of each other. These are some of my favorite:
Ayu as an adorable Chekov. <3
This is probably my favorite out of the ones I took.
My Jessica costume from Umineko. Photos courtesy of hamano_ayumi. This is my favorite picture of the bunch.
Then, it was time to go back to the hotel. We chilled there a bit before heading back down (sans costume) to grab some supper and go shopping. we ended up at the Gallery shopping mall which was a really nice miny mall. We both ended up buying two amazingly comfortable pairs of shoes before calling it a night.
Friday
Friday was an awesome day for me.
I kind of wanted to check out the Japan Travel Presents panel since my friends and I are going to Japan next summer, but Steph and I took longer getting ready than we originally planned, so we didn't down and into the con center until around 9:30-9:45ish. Instead, we decided to walk around for a bit and chillax since this was Steph's first time at Otakon and neither of us had anything planned until around noon.
My first time seeing a Rex and Weevil cosplay, and they looked fantastic!
hamano_ayumi as a fantastic Miria, and a Nice.
A really cute Canada cosplayer.
A preview of my Ivan cosplay. Photo credit goes to pixelatedimages.com.
Once noon hit, I had a private shoot for my Ivan cosplay. It took my photog and I a while to find each other, but the actual shoot went really well in my opinion. Her name escaptes me at the moment (which I feel really bad about), but she was super sweet, and I'm really excited to see how the pics came out. After the shoot, I met Steph in the Dealer's room. She had to change into Yolei for the Digimon shoot at 3, so we only had time to get the Baccano DVD box set from the Funimation booth before heading back to the hotel to change. I decided to get changed into Lady Maria since I was getting kind of uncomfortable in Ivan.
While Steph went to her gathering/shoot, I decided to make a quick trip to Artists' Alley to pick up an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan comic/book that I'd wanted to get. I was going to do the tour of the Alley while I was there, but I figured I'd wait for Steph since I wasn't super in the mood at the time anyway. I had a shoot at 4PM, so I decided to chill by the fountain area to kill the time I had left.
I met blankoo at the fountains before we headed off to shoot on the third floor terrace and the inside of the Holiday Inn. Of all the private shoots I had, this one was definitely my favorite, and the one I had the most fun at. She was super nice and helped me pose (which I tend to need help with). I'm super excited to see the pictures from it.
After the shoot, I headed back to the BCC and met briefly with Steph in Artists Alley. I ended up picking up a really cute Canada charm from Hetalia. I had to ditch Steph again soon after since I had the Umineko gathering at 5:30. The gathering was okay. It kind of took a while to get started and I didn't stick around for long since I was starting to overheat outside. I ended up hanging around the fountain area a bit before heading off to change since I was starting to feel really uncomfortable and crabby.
I got changed into Anise from Tales of the Abyss for the shoot I was going to have with funk_mastah_ion (Ion), morninglow (Arietta), thinkoverroses (Luke), and an Ash.
My super special awesome Abyss group. <3
I ended up changing half an hour/forty-five minutes earlier then I had originally planned so I had time to kill. I ended up doing a bit of walking before settling around the foutain area to wait since it's hard to walk around in Anise's shoes. The shoot was fun. A few of us were kind of brain dead by around half way through it, but it was great hanging out with them. It was a lot of fun. Steph met back up with me and chilled with us for a little while. By around 10ish, I was getting really tired and the two of us were really hungry, so we went to pick up some Quizno's before calling it a night.
Saturday
Saturday was a very "meh" day for me.
I had really wanted to go to the Tales of panel in the morning, but Steph and I took too long to get ready. Instead, we went to the Starbucks down at the Gallery mall before heading off to the Starbucks at the BCC to meet thedreamerworld for our Yu-Gi-Oh! shoot. The shoot went well, and I had fun. Judy was super nice. I'm excited to see the pics from it.
One of my belts fell apart towards the end of the shoot, so we headed back to the hotel real quick to fix it up and take a breather. After heading back to the con center, Steph and I decided to "get our nerd on" and try and find LittleKuriboh's booth to get our Kuriboh cards signed. Steph couldn't remember whether his booth was in the Dealer's Room or the Artist's Alley, so we did a bit of back and forth between the two before finally finding it.
Steph, LK, and I. :D I look so derpy.
I wasn't super in the mood for shopping, so we decided to hang out for a bit where the Yu-Gi-Oh! gathering would be happening in a little while. There were a few other people there, so Steph dueled people to pass the time, and I just sat and relaxed. The gathering itself was okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the location as it was small and there were couches in the way, but whatever.
Steph as an epicly awesome Jounouchi and a really cute Shizuka.
The gathering got cut short because the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the building. Steph and I ended up following a bunch of the peeps from the Yu-Gi-Oh gathering. After a lot of walking back and forth in the heat, we ended up at the Gallery food court to grab some food and chill for a little while.
One of the Kaiba's gave us brownies and took a picture to "Show my mom who I'm poisoning". Her words, not mine. XD
We stopped by Starbucks again before heading back to the BCC for a while. I hadn't done a real tour of the Dealer's Room yet, so we ended up doing that since I didn't want to leave all my shopping until Sunday. I wanted to buy a Baccano artbook, but unfortunately I didn't find any after my first tour of the Dealer's Room. I also kind of had the urge to buy a nerdy t-shirt, so I ended up buying a "Screw the Rules, I Have Money" one.
Before leaving the Dealer's room, I wanted to do one last tour of theh Kinokuniya booth. Much to my surprise and pleasure, Steph spotted the Baccano artbook, which I immediately snatched up! I was soooo happy to have found it. Thanks a buch Steph! <3
So much lulz.
My memory is kind of fuzzy on what Steph and I did next, but I believe we went back to the hotel room since I was starting to get really uncomfortable in costume. As usual, I looked like I got beat up after taking Yugi off.
This time, my puzzle decided to leave giant marks on my neck.
We decided to change into "normal" clothes. We both wore our "derp shirts". I can't remember if we went to get food or not. Either way, we eventually made it back down to the con.
Some lovely Avatar cosplayers. Probably the best Zuko I saw all weekend. I loved her scar.
We did another tour of the Artist's Alley. I ending up buying a really cute Canada print and an America bookmark. Steph and I also picked out something for a friend. We then made our way to the Uncle Yo, stand up comedy panel since I really wanted to go. I was amused and I'm glad I went.
After the panel, we went back to the hotel so I could change for the Umineko shoot. Steph wasn't feeling well, so I went back to the con center alone. I was going to check out the Saturday Night Fan Parodies to kill time before midnight, but I got bored after a few minutes, so I left. Steph came to join me for a while, and we just kind of waited around the fountain area for the gathering to start. Thank you so much for coming down and taking pictures for me! <3
They were such a pretty Bern and Lambda! I loved their troll faces too. XD
She was the most adorable Maria I have ever seen!
I kind of wish I wore Lady Maria to the shoot instead of Jessica, but whatever. The shoot took a little while to get started, but once it did, it was pretty fun.
Sooo many Umineko cosplayers! The dress!Beatrice was sooo pretty!
I stuck around until around 12:45 before heading back to the hotel since Steph looked like she was going to keel over, and I told my mom we'd be back by 1:00ish.
Sunday
For the first time all weekend, we actually managed to be ready by around 8 AM. We decided to eat a good, filling breakfast at the restaurant at the hotel. After breakfast, we headed down to the con.
A cute group of K-ON! cosplayers. My Yugi hair shadow makes me laugh.
We ended up standing in line outside until around 8:45 when they opened the con center. Once in the building, we made our way to the Yugioh Abridged panel.
The panelists.
The room for the panel was packed! The panel was a lot of fun. The most notable moments were when LK did a dance after saying he'd breakdance if the room filled out, and when someone requested he say "This card is weak" in Kaiba's voice and then rip said card up. What made the second thing funny was that he failed at ripping the card, and more than once. The panel started with a Q&A, followed by the premier of episode 48. I got a good laugh out of it. The panel then concluded with him and ShadyVox doing Yugi and Jaden's rap battle live. It was definitely a good start to the day~!
After the panel, the two of us headed back to the hotel to change, me into Liechtenstein and Steph into Miria. On our way downstairs, I realized I forgot to bring my Baccano! DVD set with me, so I went back up to get it, and met Steph in line to get Tatum's (Isaac's voice actor) autograph. The autograph line took forever and a half. There should have been a rule that people could only have one thing signed per person, and that chatting with the voice actors should be kept to a minimum. Two and a half hours later, we finally got through the line.
Tatum was super excited to see Steph's Miria costume! It was pretty awesome. He took a picture of her with his cell and asked her to twirl to see the pretty dress. When Steph asked for a picture, he got totally into it and he wanted to do the epic dancing pose.
How epic is that? :D
When we finally got out of the room, we made our way down to the Dealer's Room to do some last minute shopping.
On our way down, we ran into the cuutest Conan cosplayer. <3
Steph and I picked up some more stuff for some friends. I also bought a Hetalia book, and a Seto/Jou doujinshi. At the last minute, I spotted Umineko Episode 4 out of the blue, in which I proceeded to fangirl over and then bought it.
That pretty much concluded my Otakon. Steph ran into a Baccano group which she joined for pictures a little later on. To end my day, I got a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It was awesome. <3
All of my purchases from the con minus my shirt.
As a final, random note, Steph, we can get green tea and chai latte fraps in Canada. I got a green tea one today. :D
For all of the pictures I took over the weekend, head on over to my site~
http://hoshikage.net/cosplay/otakon10/main.php
Have some bullet points to sum up my weekend:
- The most smooth travelling experience I've ever had in all my six years going to Otakon.
- Short pre-reg line was short. Also, hot weather was hot.
- Had a private shoot for Ivan with Momokokills.
- Had a private shoot for Lady Maria with blankoo.
- Had a private shoot for Tales of the Abyss with funk_mastah_ion, morninglow, thinkoverroses, and an Ash.
- Had a private shoot for Yu-Gi-Oh with hamano_ayumi, with thedreamerworld.
- Lots of chilling and doing nothing all weekend.
- Missing a lot of early moring panels because hamano_ayumi and I took too long getting ready in the morning.
- Awesome Yugioh Abridged panel Sunday morning.
- Spent a crap ton of money (probably the most I've ever spent at a con).
- Word of the weekend: any variation of derp.
Wednesday
Steph, my mom, and I left for Otakon Wednesday morning at around 7:45. The bus ride went extremely smoothly. There was no wait at the border, nor did we run into any traffic going into New York. We had about an hour and a half before we had to catch the bus going to Baltimore, so we grabbed something to eat. The bus leaving for Baltimore left at around 5:30, so we got into the city at around 9:30, and checked into our hotel by around 10 PM. Overall, it was the smoothest trip down I've ever had.
Thursday
Steph and I spent the morning just wandering around the harbour place. We went back to the hotel around noon and spent about an hour making these really awesome 3D puzzles we bought at Barnes & Noble.
I got a red apple. :D I wanted to get the pyramid too (you know, for millenium puzzle lols) but they didn't have any. =(
We were going to go down for pre-reg at around 2:30, but it was pouring and thundering until around that time, so we didn't end up going down until 3ish. The line was ridiculously short (not that I was complaining). It took a while for the line to really start moving, but once it did, it went fairly quickly. We chilled a bit inside the building just to cool off, and I wanted to get something from Starbucks.
I ran into thinkoverroses while I was there, and snapped a picture. You're such a cute Rin! <3
When Ayu and I decided to leave, there was no line left. It was actually quite amazing. I have to commend the staff for how fast they were able to pass everyone through. I also think that opening pre-reg at 3PM instead of 5PM was a good idea.
The two of us walked around for a bit and then snapped some pictures of each other. These are some of my favorite:
Ayu as an adorable Chekov. <3
This is probably my favorite out of the ones I took.
My Jessica costume from Umineko. Photos courtesy of hamano_ayumi. This is my favorite picture of the bunch.
Then, it was time to go back to the hotel. We chilled there a bit before heading back down (sans costume) to grab some supper and go shopping. we ended up at the Gallery shopping mall which was a really nice miny mall. We both ended up buying two amazingly comfortable pairs of shoes before calling it a night.
Friday
Friday was an awesome day for me.
I kind of wanted to check out the Japan Travel Presents panel since my friends and I are going to Japan next summer, but Steph and I took longer getting ready than we originally planned, so we didn't down and into the con center until around 9:30-9:45ish. Instead, we decided to walk around for a bit and chillax since this was Steph's first time at Otakon and neither of us had anything planned until around noon.
My first time seeing a Rex and Weevil cosplay, and they looked fantastic!
hamano_ayumi as a fantastic Miria, and a Nice.
A really cute Canada cosplayer.
A preview of my Ivan cosplay. Photo credit goes to pixelatedimages.com.
Once noon hit, I had a private shoot for my Ivan cosplay. It took my photog and I a while to find each other, but the actual shoot went really well in my opinion. Her name escaptes me at the moment (which I feel really bad about), but she was super sweet, and I'm really excited to see how the pics came out. After the shoot, I met Steph in the Dealer's room. She had to change into Yolei for the Digimon shoot at 3, so we only had time to get the Baccano DVD box set from the Funimation booth before heading back to the hotel to change. I decided to get changed into Lady Maria since I was getting kind of uncomfortable in Ivan.
While Steph went to her gathering/shoot, I decided to make a quick trip to Artists' Alley to pick up an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan comic/book that I'd wanted to get. I was going to do the tour of the Alley while I was there, but I figured I'd wait for Steph since I wasn't super in the mood at the time anyway. I had a shoot at 4PM, so I decided to chill by the fountain area to kill the time I had left.
I met blankoo at the fountains before we headed off to shoot on the third floor terrace and the inside of the Holiday Inn. Of all the private shoots I had, this one was definitely my favorite, and the one I had the most fun at. She was super nice and helped me pose (which I tend to need help with). I'm super excited to see the pictures from it.
After the shoot, I headed back to the BCC and met briefly with Steph in Artists Alley. I ended up picking up a really cute Canada charm from Hetalia. I had to ditch Steph again soon after since I had the Umineko gathering at 5:30. The gathering was okay. It kind of took a while to get started and I didn't stick around for long since I was starting to overheat outside. I ended up hanging around the fountain area a bit before heading off to change since I was starting to feel really uncomfortable and crabby.
I got changed into Anise from Tales of the Abyss for the shoot I was going to have with funk_mastah_ion (Ion), morninglow (Arietta), thinkoverroses (Luke), and an Ash.
My super special awesome Abyss group. <3
I ended up changing half an hour/forty-five minutes earlier then I had originally planned so I had time to kill. I ended up doing a bit of walking before settling around the foutain area to wait since it's hard to walk around in Anise's shoes. The shoot was fun. A few of us were kind of brain dead by around half way through it, but it was great hanging out with them. It was a lot of fun. Steph met back up with me and chilled with us for a little while. By around 10ish, I was getting really tired and the two of us were really hungry, so we went to pick up some Quizno's before calling it a night.
Saturday
Saturday was a very "meh" day for me.
I had really wanted to go to the Tales of panel in the morning, but Steph and I took too long to get ready. Instead, we went to the Starbucks down at the Gallery mall before heading off to the Starbucks at the BCC to meet thedreamerworld for our Yu-Gi-Oh! shoot. The shoot went well, and I had fun. Judy was super nice. I'm excited to see the pics from it.
One of my belts fell apart towards the end of the shoot, so we headed back to the hotel real quick to fix it up and take a breather. After heading back to the con center, Steph and I decided to "get our nerd on" and try and find LittleKuriboh's booth to get our Kuriboh cards signed. Steph couldn't remember whether his booth was in the Dealer's Room or the Artist's Alley, so we did a bit of back and forth between the two before finally finding it.
Steph, LK, and I. :D I look so derpy.
I wasn't super in the mood for shopping, so we decided to hang out for a bit where the Yu-Gi-Oh! gathering would be happening in a little while. There were a few other people there, so Steph dueled people to pass the time, and I just sat and relaxed. The gathering itself was okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the location as it was small and there were couches in the way, but whatever.
Steph as an epicly awesome Jounouchi and a really cute Shizuka.
The gathering got cut short because the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the building. Steph and I ended up following a bunch of the peeps from the Yu-Gi-Oh gathering. After a lot of walking back and forth in the heat, we ended up at the Gallery food court to grab some food and chill for a little while.
One of the Kaiba's gave us brownies and took a picture to "Show my mom who I'm poisoning". Her words, not mine. XD
We stopped by Starbucks again before heading back to the BCC for a while. I hadn't done a real tour of the Dealer's Room yet, so we ended up doing that since I didn't want to leave all my shopping until Sunday. I wanted to buy a Baccano artbook, but unfortunately I didn't find any after my first tour of the Dealer's Room. I also kind of had the urge to buy a nerdy t-shirt, so I ended up buying a "Screw the Rules, I Have Money" one.
Before leaving the Dealer's room, I wanted to do one last tour of theh Kinokuniya booth. Much to my surprise and pleasure, Steph spotted the Baccano artbook, which I immediately snatched up! I was soooo happy to have found it. Thanks a buch Steph! <3
So much lulz.
My memory is kind of fuzzy on what Steph and I did next, but I believe we went back to the hotel room since I was starting to get really uncomfortable in costume. As usual, I looked like I got beat up after taking Yugi off.
This time, my puzzle decided to leave giant marks on my neck.
We decided to change into "normal" clothes. We both wore our "derp shirts". I can't remember if we went to get food or not. Either way, we eventually made it back down to the con.
Some lovely Avatar cosplayers. Probably the best Zuko I saw all weekend. I loved her scar.
We did another tour of the Artist's Alley. I ending up buying a really cute Canada print and an America bookmark. Steph and I also picked out something for a friend. We then made our way to the Uncle Yo, stand up comedy panel since I really wanted to go. I was amused and I'm glad I went.
After the panel, we went back to the hotel so I could change for the Umineko shoot. Steph wasn't feeling well, so I went back to the con center alone. I was going to check out the Saturday Night Fan Parodies to kill time before midnight, but I got bored after a few minutes, so I left. Steph came to join me for a while, and we just kind of waited around the fountain area for the gathering to start. Thank you so much for coming down and taking pictures for me! <3
They were such a pretty Bern and Lambda! I loved their troll faces too. XD
She was the most adorable Maria I have ever seen!
I kind of wish I wore Lady Maria to the shoot instead of Jessica, but whatever. The shoot took a little while to get started, but once it did, it was pretty fun.
Sooo many Umineko cosplayers! The dress!Beatrice was sooo pretty!
I stuck around until around 12:45 before heading back to the hotel since Steph looked like she was going to keel over, and I told my mom we'd be back by 1:00ish.
Sunday
For the first time all weekend, we actually managed to be ready by around 8 AM. We decided to eat a good, filling breakfast at the restaurant at the hotel. After breakfast, we headed down to the con.
A cute group of K-ON! cosplayers. My Yugi hair shadow makes me laugh.
We ended up standing in line outside until around 8:45 when they opened the con center. Once in the building, we made our way to the Yugioh Abridged panel.
The panelists.
The room for the panel was packed! The panel was a lot of fun. The most notable moments were when LK did a dance after saying he'd breakdance if the room filled out, and when someone requested he say "This card is weak" in Kaiba's voice and then rip said card up. What made the second thing funny was that he failed at ripping the card, and more than once. The panel started with a Q&A, followed by the premier of episode 48. I got a good laugh out of it. The panel then concluded with him and ShadyVox doing Yugi and Jaden's rap battle live. It was definitely a good start to the day~!
After the panel, the two of us headed back to the hotel to change, me into Liechtenstein and Steph into Miria. On our way downstairs, I realized I forgot to bring my Baccano! DVD set with me, so I went back up to get it, and met Steph in line to get Tatum's (Isaac's voice actor) autograph. The autograph line took forever and a half. There should have been a rule that people could only have one thing signed per person, and that chatting with the voice actors should be kept to a minimum. Two and a half hours later, we finally got through the line.
Tatum was super excited to see Steph's Miria costume! It was pretty awesome. He took a picture of her with his cell and asked her to twirl to see the pretty dress. When Steph asked for a picture, he got totally into it and he wanted to do the epic dancing pose.
How epic is that? :D
When we finally got out of the room, we made our way down to the Dealer's Room to do some last minute shopping.
On our way down, we ran into the cuutest Conan cosplayer. <3
Steph and I picked up some more stuff for some friends. I also bought a Hetalia book, and a Seto/Jou doujinshi. At the last minute, I spotted Umineko Episode 4 out of the blue, in which I proceeded to fangirl over and then bought it.
That pretty much concluded my Otakon. Steph ran into a Baccano group which she joined for pictures a little later on. To end my day, I got a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It was awesome. <3
All of my purchases from the con minus my shirt.
As a final, random note, Steph, we can get green tea and chai latte fraps in Canada. I got a green tea one today. :D