Anime Bostoooon!
It's a good thing I wrote most of this last Sunday because I can barely remember what I did in what order, and it's only been a week since the con. Haha.
I didn't take a whole lot of pictures (so few that about half of them are in this post XD ), but here they are anyway:
http://cosplay.hoshikage.net/animeboston11/main.php
Here's how my weekend went down in bullet points:
The Good
- Seeing/staying with thinkoverroses and meeting her friends. Thanks for letting me stay with you guys!
- Photoshoots with Pixel Studios, IndieNate, AnimeChicky, Henrickson, and TheBigTog. It was a blast! Thanks for shooting with me!
- First time in Boston! Not that I got to see any of the city. Haha.
- Stereopony concert. They were so adorable. <3
- Not having to deal with broken/super crowded elevators.
- My purchases! Totally happy with everything I bought.
- Friendly security & staff.
The Bad/The Fail
- Being perpetually tired all weekend. I haven’t gotten a good, full night’s sleep in what feels like weeks.
- The panel rooms not being big enough to fit everyone who wanted to go to them, which happened on multiple occasions.
- Not getting any decent pics in Taiga. Hopefully I’ll get some at Anime North.
- Ridiculously loud hotel neighbours even though we were in the “quiet block” of the hotel. Telling them off and calling security on them was quite satisfying though.
- The rain on Saturday kind of sucked. At least the con is an indoor con for the most part.
- This was totally my own fault, but all my costumes had heels, which meant my feet were in so much pain by the end of the weekend.
- I saw a Ginga Bishounen and Sugata (Star Driver) cosplayers run by me at one point, but I was busy so I couldn’t chase after them for a picture. I didn’t see them again all weekend. =(
The Ugly
- Fucking meme screaming. Seriously guys? That’s so 2007. While I know it’s pretty much an inevitable thing at cons, I don’t think I’ve ever been to one where it was *this* bad.
- The ride to Boston. The border guards were dicks and we were stuck there for two and a half hours, consequently making use almost two hours late getting into Boston. Thanks guys. Really.
The Random Thoughts/Comments
- I felt kind of bad for the “normal folk” who went to the Prudential that weekend thinking they were going to have a nice day at the mall. It hadn’t occurred to me beforehand just how packed the mall would be with con goers.
- I totally forgot how much of a workout you got at cons. When I woke up Monday morning, I was so sore.
- It feels so surreal going down to the lobby/the Prudential after the con is over. Everything seems too calm and quiet.
- I didn’t go a single cosplay gathering. I think that’s a first for me.
Thursday
I left the house at around 8:30 AM to catch my 10:45 bus to Boston. The bus ride was a huge pain in the ass. We ended up stuck at the border for two and a half hours since there were only two guards and they were both assholes who interrogated the crap out of every 3rd person (bringing them to the back room and all). It’s never taken me that long to get across the border and I hope it never takes that long again. To top it all off, a little girl decided to barf all over the bus floor about three seats behind me about half an hour before getting into the city. It goes without saying that the bus got into Boston about an hour and forty minutes late, and I was not a happy camper.
After a lot of running around, I finally got to the Sheraton to pick up my pre-reg. I got there at around 9:15ish and there was no line. Thanks to the barcode system, I was in and out in a jiffy.
By this point, my feet were hurting pretty badly as I had stupidly decided to wear Himawari’s heels that day to break them in. My arms were killing me from dragging a 45 pound suitcase and two bags all over the city. I almost caved at took a cab to the hostel I was staying at that night, but I was feeling cheap and sucked it up and walked.
I got to the hostel close to around 10 PM. The hostel was nicer than I thought it would be and my roomies for the night seemed nice as well. One of them was from Australia and was doing a tour of the States before meeting her friends down in Mexico. The other two were a mother and daughter looking at Universities in the city.
I spent the rest of the night just chilling.
Friday
I left the hostel I was staying at and lugged all my stuff to the Sheraton by a little past nine to wait for thinkoverroses and her friends to store our luggage until check-in. There was still a decent amount of time between the time I got there and the time that Carly and co would arrive, so I decided to change into Zuko to pass the time. Just as I was finishing up putting on my makeup, I got a text saying that they were in the lobby. That was some pretty epic timing!
After leaving my stuff with the rest of theirs, I went to get my swords weapons checked. I then followed Carly to her friends’ panel, Anime Amazons, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I had to leave about half-way through it to find the location of the shoot I was supposed to have with Pixel Studios at noon. After some running around trying to find where I was supposed to meet them (I totally failed at reading the text they sent), the shoot was a go! I had a lot of fun. The two of them were a pleasure to work with and they were both super friendly.
She was so pretty!
I’m drawing a bit of a blank as to what I did next. I think I did a tour of the Dealer’s Room. It was bigger than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. I also liked the fact that there were multiple entrances/exits which was super convenient.
She was the first Star Driver cosplayer I saw and she looked fantastic!
Next, I wanted to check out the Anime Squares gameshow/panel, but the line was so long that they filled up the room before I could get in. I was kind of pissed/sad about it because it left me with nothing much to do for the next few hours. Instead, I decided to get some food since I’d barely eaten anything all day. I think I walked around for a bit after that before chilling on one of the couch/chair things near registration.
The picture quality isn't great, but I had no clue that Sokka was making that expression when the picture was taken until I was looking through them later on. It had me in a fit of giggles. XD
At 4:00ish, I met Carly and co. in the hotel lobby and we finally checked-in to the hotel. I had a shoot at 6:00, so I changed into Clover as soon as we got into our room. There weren’t any panels at that time that I wanted to see, so I spent the next 45ish minutes just walking around. I may have gone back to the Dealer’s room for a little while during that time; I really don’t remember.
Glee cosplay! 8DDDD
At around ten to six, I went to wait in front of Au Bon Pain to wait for Nate for my scheduled shoot. The shoot was a blast. I can’t wait to see the pictures~!
I love Alluring Secret~Black Vow and I thought she did a fantastic job!
After the shoot, I walked around a bit more. I went to check out the Artists Alley. It was kind of “meh” in my opinion. Not to say that there wasn’t some pretty artwork, but nothing caught my eye and I didn’t end up buying anything from there all weekend.
I was getting a bit hungry, so I went to Starbucks for a smoothie and a piece of marble cake. With nothing better to do until 8:30, I walked around a bit more before going to wait in line for Uncle Yo’s stand-up comedy. As usual, his routine was fairly amusing and entertaining. I got a good laugh out of it.
They were the most adorable Mikado and Kida ever! <3
I was tempted to check out the Cosplay Dating Game for shits and giggles, but I was super tired, so I decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel room. I ended up finishing Taiga’s jacket before going to bed (which still ended up being at like...close to one in the morning, lolwut?).
Saturday
I had a shoot with AnimeChicky at 8 AM which meant I had to get up at six in order to be ready on time. Needless to say, I was exhausted all day. Anyway, it had been raining, so the ground was wet and the weather wasn’t great, but we went to shoot outside for a while for some nice building shots.
thinkoverroses as a super adorable Ivan~! <33
After the shoot, I went to Starbucks for breakfast. I had nothing to do until about 11:30, so I got in line for the Dealer’s Room. I picked up a copy of Eden of the East. I then walked around for a while before getting in line for the Hyakunin Kuizu (Family Feud) gameshow/panel. It was pretty amusing. Some of the answers really surprised me (and the rest of the audience). One thing that I thought was pretty funny was the top answer to “people’s favourite subject in school” was math, and that the top answer to “people’s least favourite subject in school” was, yup, you guessed it: math. People are funny that way I guess. Also, how many of you would actually guess “a bed” to the question “what would you typically find in an anime fan’s room” and “lint” to “what would you typically find in an anime fan’s pocket”?
Next, I believe I went to go and eat. I went to Au Bon Pain since it was convenient. The eggplant and mozzarella sandwich was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. After eating, I did a bit more walking around before running into Tiina. She and the rest of our roommates were originally planning on checking out the Anime (And Manga) You Haven’t Seen, But Should panel, but people were hungry, so we ended up at the food court instead. Boy, was it packed!
There was a Watanuki sitting at the table next to us! We were both super excited to see each other. XD
After everyone finished eating, I went to go change into Taiga while everyone else went back to the con. I think I walked around a bit before deciding to get in line for The Dark Side of Pokemon panel.
This is the panel where I really wish the staff had an “end of the line sign” or some sort of indication as to what your chances of getting into the panel were. I got there about an hour early and what I thought was a decent spot in line. By the time the panel rolled around, the line had to have at least doubled if not tripled. Anyway, by the time the line reached about 5 or 6 people in front of me, the staff shut the doors and told us that they’d filled all the seats and that they weren’t letting anyone else in unless people inside left. Needless to say I was super pissed. Since I’d already wasted an hour in line, I decided to wait it out for fifteen or so minutes to see if anyone would leave. I was really lucky that one person left a few minutes in and the people in front of me were in groups of 2 or 3.
The panel itself was fairly interesting/entertaining. My memory is escaping me as to everything they talked about though. I remember them discussing the more disturbing pokedex entries, the hacks in the games, the pokemon urban legends, etc.
An epic group of Kyoshi Warriors. Their fans made that satisfying swoosh sound every time they opened and closed them.
After the panel, I walked around for a bit. I hadn’t been planning on attending the masquerade, but there wasn’t really anything else to do, so I ended up going to watch it in Hall D where they were simulcasting it. I got there just in time for the start of the skits part of the competition. From what I saw, overall, I thought it was “meh”. There were a few skits that I liked such as the Persona 4 one, and the Magic Knights Rayearth/Power Puff Girls one. Other than that, it reminded me of why I haven’t gone to a masquerade in almost five years. It’s just not worth it. The fact that the simulcasting itself wasn’t without faults (sound died for a bit and the camera would focus on individuals so you sometimes missed what was going on) probably didn’t help either.
About half way through it, I left, determined to find something else to do. I ended up at the Race Matters in Amestris: Multiculturalism in FMA panel that I’d been eyeing earlier on that day. I don’t know what exactly I’d been expecting, but I felt like I was in an ethics class at school. The feeling really bugged me, so I ended up leaving half way through that as well.
From what I remember, I walked around a bit more before giving up and going back to watch the masquerade. By that time, the skit portion was done and they were announcing the winners of the AMV contest while the judges deliberated.
I was going to see the Stereopony concert with Carly at 11:00. We hadn’t planned on getting in line until about 10:00, but when I left the masquerade at around 9:15, the line was already pretty long. I quickly got in line and texted Carly who came and joined us. While waiting in line, I was super tired. I really wanted to just lie down and sleep. Thankfully, I managed to stay awake.
They started seating people about half an hour before the concert which allowed them to start on time, which was awesome (as that doesn’t always happen at cons...). Anyway, we got pretty good seats. The concert itself was great. The three of them were super adorable. They had little note cards with everything they wanted to say in English written down. The basist (Nohana) even recited the “She sells seashells by the seashore” tongue twister, in which the lead guitarist/singer (Aimi) playfully retorted that Nohana did well, but she could do it better. They also sang Green Day’s “American Idiot” in which I could actually understand some of the lyrics. Haha.
Once the concert was over, Carly and I headed back to the hotel room and everyone called it a night.
Sunday
Surprisingly, I slept like a log and didn’t wake up until Tina’s alarm went off at around 8:30. Carly, Tina, and Kim got dressed up as Azusa, Yui and Mio’s “Listen” version, while I got dressed as Rin (Himitsu Keisatsu/Secret Police version). We were out of the room by around a quarter to ten.
The original plan was that we were all going to bag check our things, but the rest of the group didn’t want to wait in line/pay for it, so I said my farewells to Carly and co. After checking my bags, I wanted to check out Cosplay Comedian Joe. I got there a bit late and sat through about 5 minutes before leaving since it really wasn’t funny or entertaining at all.
For breakfast, as per my con tradition, I once again went to Starbucks. With nothing to do until 11ish, I walked around for a bit. I then decided to wait in line for the Cosplay Photography panel. I was admittedly looking forward to the panel after having shot with the panellists on Friday. While in line, I ran into Henry and his friends. Unfortunately, the panel was cancelled as the panellists called in sick. I hope they’re feeling better!
With some spare time, Henry offered to shoot with me. We ended up shooting in the Pru Courtyard. It was quite windy, but we made it work. During the shoot a little boy and his parents came up to us and asked if he could take a picture with me. He was so adorable. <3 I asked if he wanted to hold my gun, before asking his parents if that was okay. As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I probably should have asked the parents first because the first thing out of the kid’s mouth was something to the extent of “Look mommy, I’m holding a gun!” to which the parents responded in somewhat cautious voices “Just this once sweetie.”
At around ten to twelve, I said my goodbyes as I had to meet up with TheBigTog for the shoot I had already planned for the day. We shot on this nice residential street a couple of blocks from the con center. I had a lot of fun, and he was great to work with. I can’t wait to see the pictures!
After the shoot, I decided to do one last tour of the Dealer’s Room to blow the rest of my cash since I really didn’t want to have to transfer money back to CAD. I bought this cute Jessica figure (Umineko) that I’d been eyeing all weekend. I also kind of wanted this Maria (Umineko) figurine I saw on Friday, but none of the booths I saw it at had it anymore. I was also hoping to find some new cellstraps. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I was interested in. I ended up getting a Gurren Lagann one. Finally, I ended up buying both special editions of the Toradora DVDs for $90. It set me about $70 over budget, but it was totally worth it. The box sets are really nice, and both editions came with these cute, hardcover episode guidebooks with character sketches, interviews, etc.
My purchases~!
I got out of the Dealer’s Room at around 1:30ish. I decided to check out the second half of the An International Game of Telephone: The Japanese Culture Exchange panel that I’d been thinking of going to. It turned out to be quite interesting. It was neat to see the different influences both cultures have had on each other in terms of movies, TV shows, etc. Also, Japanese wrestling sounds like srz business. Conveniently enough, the panel that I wanted to see after that, Food! Meals and Manners, was next in the same room. I thought it was nice introduction to the different types of foods and dining etiquette in Japan. Hopefully some of what I learned will be helpful for my trip this summer!
The panel ended at around 3:30, which ended my Anime Boston 2011 con experience. I went to check in to the room I was staying for the night and went to retrieve my luggage. I spent the rest of the afternoon/night just lazing around in the room. I felt kind of bad for not wandering around the city a bit, but I really didn’t have the energy.
One thing I did do that night was go to the Cheesecake Factory. This is probably going to sound a bit silly, but I love cheesecake, and one of the reasons I was excited to go to Boston/the US in general was to get some cheesecake here. This time I tried the Tiramisu cheesecake. Needless to say, it was delicious, and I was quite satisfied. I think it’s going to become a tradition for whenever I go down to the States. Haha.
CHEESECAKE!!! 8D
I didn't take a whole lot of pictures (so few that about half of them are in this post XD ), but here they are anyway:
http://cosplay.hoshikage.net/animeboston11/main.php
Here's how my weekend went down in bullet points:
The Good
- Seeing/staying with thinkoverroses and meeting her friends. Thanks for letting me stay with you guys!
- Photoshoots with Pixel Studios, IndieNate, AnimeChicky, Henrickson, and TheBigTog. It was a blast! Thanks for shooting with me!
- First time in Boston! Not that I got to see any of the city. Haha.
- Stereopony concert. They were so adorable. <3
- Not having to deal with broken/super crowded elevators.
- My purchases! Totally happy with everything I bought.
- Friendly security & staff.
The Bad/The Fail
- Being perpetually tired all weekend. I haven’t gotten a good, full night’s sleep in what feels like weeks.
- The panel rooms not being big enough to fit everyone who wanted to go to them, which happened on multiple occasions.
- Not getting any decent pics in Taiga. Hopefully I’ll get some at Anime North.
- Ridiculously loud hotel neighbours even though we were in the “quiet block” of the hotel. Telling them off and calling security on them was quite satisfying though.
- The rain on Saturday kind of sucked. At least the con is an indoor con for the most part.
- This was totally my own fault, but all my costumes had heels, which meant my feet were in so much pain by the end of the weekend.
- I saw a Ginga Bishounen and Sugata (Star Driver) cosplayers run by me at one point, but I was busy so I couldn’t chase after them for a picture. I didn’t see them again all weekend. =(
The Ugly
- Fucking meme screaming. Seriously guys? That’s so 2007. While I know it’s pretty much an inevitable thing at cons, I don’t think I’ve ever been to one where it was *this* bad.
- The ride to Boston. The border guards were dicks and we were stuck there for two and a half hours, consequently making use almost two hours late getting into Boston. Thanks guys. Really.
The Random Thoughts/Comments
- I felt kind of bad for the “normal folk” who went to the Prudential that weekend thinking they were going to have a nice day at the mall. It hadn’t occurred to me beforehand just how packed the mall would be with con goers.
- I totally forgot how much of a workout you got at cons. When I woke up Monday morning, I was so sore.
- It feels so surreal going down to the lobby/the Prudential after the con is over. Everything seems too calm and quiet.
- I didn’t go a single cosplay gathering. I think that’s a first for me.
Thursday
I left the house at around 8:30 AM to catch my 10:45 bus to Boston. The bus ride was a huge pain in the ass. We ended up stuck at the border for two and a half hours since there were only two guards and they were both assholes who interrogated the crap out of every 3rd person (bringing them to the back room and all). It’s never taken me that long to get across the border and I hope it never takes that long again. To top it all off, a little girl decided to barf all over the bus floor about three seats behind me about half an hour before getting into the city. It goes without saying that the bus got into Boston about an hour and forty minutes late, and I was not a happy camper.
After a lot of running around, I finally got to the Sheraton to pick up my pre-reg. I got there at around 9:15ish and there was no line. Thanks to the barcode system, I was in and out in a jiffy.
By this point, my feet were hurting pretty badly as I had stupidly decided to wear Himawari’s heels that day to break them in. My arms were killing me from dragging a 45 pound suitcase and two bags all over the city. I almost caved at took a cab to the hostel I was staying at that night, but I was feeling cheap and sucked it up and walked.
I got to the hostel close to around 10 PM. The hostel was nicer than I thought it would be and my roomies for the night seemed nice as well. One of them was from Australia and was doing a tour of the States before meeting her friends down in Mexico. The other two were a mother and daughter looking at Universities in the city.
I spent the rest of the night just chilling.
Friday
I left the hostel I was staying at and lugged all my stuff to the Sheraton by a little past nine to wait for thinkoverroses and her friends to store our luggage until check-in. There was still a decent amount of time between the time I got there and the time that Carly and co would arrive, so I decided to change into Zuko to pass the time. Just as I was finishing up putting on my makeup, I got a text saying that they were in the lobby. That was some pretty epic timing!
After leaving my stuff with the rest of theirs, I went to get my swords weapons checked. I then followed Carly to her friends’ panel, Anime Amazons, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I had to leave about half-way through it to find the location of the shoot I was supposed to have with Pixel Studios at noon. After some running around trying to find where I was supposed to meet them (I totally failed at reading the text they sent), the shoot was a go! I had a lot of fun. The two of them were a pleasure to work with and they were both super friendly.
She was so pretty!
I’m drawing a bit of a blank as to what I did next. I think I did a tour of the Dealer’s Room. It was bigger than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. I also liked the fact that there were multiple entrances/exits which was super convenient.
She was the first Star Driver cosplayer I saw and she looked fantastic!
Next, I wanted to check out the Anime Squares gameshow/panel, but the line was so long that they filled up the room before I could get in. I was kind of pissed/sad about it because it left me with nothing much to do for the next few hours. Instead, I decided to get some food since I’d barely eaten anything all day. I think I walked around for a bit after that before chilling on one of the couch/chair things near registration.
The picture quality isn't great, but I had no clue that Sokka was making that expression when the picture was taken until I was looking through them later on. It had me in a fit of giggles. XD
At 4:00ish, I met Carly and co. in the hotel lobby and we finally checked-in to the hotel. I had a shoot at 6:00, so I changed into Clover as soon as we got into our room. There weren’t any panels at that time that I wanted to see, so I spent the next 45ish minutes just walking around. I may have gone back to the Dealer’s room for a little while during that time; I really don’t remember.
Glee cosplay! 8DDDD
At around ten to six, I went to wait in front of Au Bon Pain to wait for Nate for my scheduled shoot. The shoot was a blast. I can’t wait to see the pictures~!
I love Alluring Secret~Black Vow and I thought she did a fantastic job!
After the shoot, I walked around a bit more. I went to check out the Artists Alley. It was kind of “meh” in my opinion. Not to say that there wasn’t some pretty artwork, but nothing caught my eye and I didn’t end up buying anything from there all weekend.
I was getting a bit hungry, so I went to Starbucks for a smoothie and a piece of marble cake. With nothing better to do until 8:30, I walked around a bit more before going to wait in line for Uncle Yo’s stand-up comedy. As usual, his routine was fairly amusing and entertaining. I got a good laugh out of it.
They were the most adorable Mikado and Kida ever! <3
I was tempted to check out the Cosplay Dating Game for shits and giggles, but I was super tired, so I decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel room. I ended up finishing Taiga’s jacket before going to bed (which still ended up being at like...close to one in the morning, lolwut?).
Saturday
I had a shoot with AnimeChicky at 8 AM which meant I had to get up at six in order to be ready on time. Needless to say, I was exhausted all day. Anyway, it had been raining, so the ground was wet and the weather wasn’t great, but we went to shoot outside for a while for some nice building shots.
thinkoverroses as a super adorable Ivan~! <33
After the shoot, I went to Starbucks for breakfast. I had nothing to do until about 11:30, so I got in line for the Dealer’s Room. I picked up a copy of Eden of the East. I then walked around for a while before getting in line for the Hyakunin Kuizu (Family Feud) gameshow/panel. It was pretty amusing. Some of the answers really surprised me (and the rest of the audience). One thing that I thought was pretty funny was the top answer to “people’s favourite subject in school” was math, and that the top answer to “people’s least favourite subject in school” was, yup, you guessed it: math. People are funny that way I guess. Also, how many of you would actually guess “a bed” to the question “what would you typically find in an anime fan’s room” and “lint” to “what would you typically find in an anime fan’s pocket”?
Next, I believe I went to go and eat. I went to Au Bon Pain since it was convenient. The eggplant and mozzarella sandwich was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. After eating, I did a bit more walking around before running into Tiina. She and the rest of our roommates were originally planning on checking out the Anime (And Manga) You Haven’t Seen, But Should panel, but people were hungry, so we ended up at the food court instead. Boy, was it packed!
There was a Watanuki sitting at the table next to us! We were both super excited to see each other. XD
After everyone finished eating, I went to go change into Taiga while everyone else went back to the con. I think I walked around a bit before deciding to get in line for The Dark Side of Pokemon panel.
This is the panel where I really wish the staff had an “end of the line sign” or some sort of indication as to what your chances of getting into the panel were. I got there about an hour early and what I thought was a decent spot in line. By the time the panel rolled around, the line had to have at least doubled if not tripled. Anyway, by the time the line reached about 5 or 6 people in front of me, the staff shut the doors and told us that they’d filled all the seats and that they weren’t letting anyone else in unless people inside left. Needless to say I was super pissed. Since I’d already wasted an hour in line, I decided to wait it out for fifteen or so minutes to see if anyone would leave. I was really lucky that one person left a few minutes in and the people in front of me were in groups of 2 or 3.
The panel itself was fairly interesting/entertaining. My memory is escaping me as to everything they talked about though. I remember them discussing the more disturbing pokedex entries, the hacks in the games, the pokemon urban legends, etc.
An epic group of Kyoshi Warriors. Their fans made that satisfying swoosh sound every time they opened and closed them.
After the panel, I walked around for a bit. I hadn’t been planning on attending the masquerade, but there wasn’t really anything else to do, so I ended up going to watch it in Hall D where they were simulcasting it. I got there just in time for the start of the skits part of the competition. From what I saw, overall, I thought it was “meh”. There were a few skits that I liked such as the Persona 4 one, and the Magic Knights Rayearth/Power Puff Girls one. Other than that, it reminded me of why I haven’t gone to a masquerade in almost five years. It’s just not worth it. The fact that the simulcasting itself wasn’t without faults (sound died for a bit and the camera would focus on individuals so you sometimes missed what was going on) probably didn’t help either.
About half way through it, I left, determined to find something else to do. I ended up at the Race Matters in Amestris: Multiculturalism in FMA panel that I’d been eyeing earlier on that day. I don’t know what exactly I’d been expecting, but I felt like I was in an ethics class at school. The feeling really bugged me, so I ended up leaving half way through that as well.
From what I remember, I walked around a bit more before giving up and going back to watch the masquerade. By that time, the skit portion was done and they were announcing the winners of the AMV contest while the judges deliberated.
I was going to see the Stereopony concert with Carly at 11:00. We hadn’t planned on getting in line until about 10:00, but when I left the masquerade at around 9:15, the line was already pretty long. I quickly got in line and texted Carly who came and joined us. While waiting in line, I was super tired. I really wanted to just lie down and sleep. Thankfully, I managed to stay awake.
They started seating people about half an hour before the concert which allowed them to start on time, which was awesome (as that doesn’t always happen at cons...). Anyway, we got pretty good seats. The concert itself was great. The three of them were super adorable. They had little note cards with everything they wanted to say in English written down. The basist (Nohana) even recited the “She sells seashells by the seashore” tongue twister, in which the lead guitarist/singer (Aimi) playfully retorted that Nohana did well, but she could do it better. They also sang Green Day’s “American Idiot” in which I could actually understand some of the lyrics. Haha.
Once the concert was over, Carly and I headed back to the hotel room and everyone called it a night.
Sunday
Surprisingly, I slept like a log and didn’t wake up until Tina’s alarm went off at around 8:30. Carly, Tina, and Kim got dressed up as Azusa, Yui and Mio’s “Listen” version, while I got dressed as Rin (Himitsu Keisatsu/Secret Police version). We were out of the room by around a quarter to ten.
The original plan was that we were all going to bag check our things, but the rest of the group didn’t want to wait in line/pay for it, so I said my farewells to Carly and co. After checking my bags, I wanted to check out Cosplay Comedian Joe. I got there a bit late and sat through about 5 minutes before leaving since it really wasn’t funny or entertaining at all.
For breakfast, as per my con tradition, I once again went to Starbucks. With nothing to do until 11ish, I walked around for a bit. I then decided to wait in line for the Cosplay Photography panel. I was admittedly looking forward to the panel after having shot with the panellists on Friday. While in line, I ran into Henry and his friends. Unfortunately, the panel was cancelled as the panellists called in sick. I hope they’re feeling better!
With some spare time, Henry offered to shoot with me. We ended up shooting in the Pru Courtyard. It was quite windy, but we made it work. During the shoot a little boy and his parents came up to us and asked if he could take a picture with me. He was so adorable. <3 I asked if he wanted to hold my gun, before asking his parents if that was okay. As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I probably should have asked the parents first because the first thing out of the kid’s mouth was something to the extent of “Look mommy, I’m holding a gun!” to which the parents responded in somewhat cautious voices “Just this once sweetie.”
At around ten to twelve, I said my goodbyes as I had to meet up with TheBigTog for the shoot I had already planned for the day. We shot on this nice residential street a couple of blocks from the con center. I had a lot of fun, and he was great to work with. I can’t wait to see the pictures!
After the shoot, I decided to do one last tour of the Dealer’s Room to blow the rest of my cash since I really didn’t want to have to transfer money back to CAD. I bought this cute Jessica figure (Umineko) that I’d been eyeing all weekend. I also kind of wanted this Maria (Umineko) figurine I saw on Friday, but none of the booths I saw it at had it anymore. I was also hoping to find some new cellstraps. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I was interested in. I ended up getting a Gurren Lagann one. Finally, I ended up buying both special editions of the Toradora DVDs for $90. It set me about $70 over budget, but it was totally worth it. The box sets are really nice, and both editions came with these cute, hardcover episode guidebooks with character sketches, interviews, etc.
My purchases~!
I got out of the Dealer’s Room at around 1:30ish. I decided to check out the second half of the An International Game of Telephone: The Japanese Culture Exchange panel that I’d been thinking of going to. It turned out to be quite interesting. It was neat to see the different influences both cultures have had on each other in terms of movies, TV shows, etc. Also, Japanese wrestling sounds like srz business. Conveniently enough, the panel that I wanted to see after that, Food! Meals and Manners, was next in the same room. I thought it was nice introduction to the different types of foods and dining etiquette in Japan. Hopefully some of what I learned will be helpful for my trip this summer!
The panel ended at around 3:30, which ended my Anime Boston 2011 con experience. I went to check in to the room I was staying for the night and went to retrieve my luggage. I spent the rest of the afternoon/night just lazing around in the room. I felt kind of bad for not wandering around the city a bit, but I really didn’t have the energy.
One thing I did do that night was go to the Cheesecake Factory. This is probably going to sound a bit silly, but I love cheesecake, and one of the reasons I was excited to go to Boston/the US in general was to get some cheesecake here. This time I tried the Tiramisu cheesecake. Needless to say, it was delicious, and I was quite satisfied. I think it’s going to become a tradition for whenever I go down to the States. Haha.
CHEESECAKE!!! 8D