KCon Day 01
I was up at 6:45 this morning. By some counts that would be sleeping in, but after going to bed at midnight it was just about enough sleep. I got up and got ready for the day. Did some Facebook stuff and waitied for the kids to get ready.
I bought a whole box of Frosted flakes for the weekend but for some reason still wanted to go to breakfast on Saturday morning. So after everyone was ready we headed downstairs to go to breakfast at McDs. On the way we took more pictures. :)
I didn't know how many pictures I would be taking today so I cleared off all the pictures from the day before and the pictures stored on the card before we headed out. I also insisted the Danielle take her camera so I could get pictures when mine crapped out. On top of that we took the "Rejection" / "LuBu" sign with us to get pictures of people with. ^_^
Ordering went fairly smoothly, the guy seemed kind of grouchy though. It didn't matter because we got our food without incident. It wasn't until I went up to get my refill that I noticed a sign stating that they you needed your original receipt to get the refill and you had to get it within half an hour of purchasing the drink. O_o. That's just penny pinching and I really hate it. Despite that they didn't give us any trouble over the refills and I even got a second one. So I guess it's mostly for people who are known to cause problems.
By the time we were done with Breakfast it was raining out pretty good. We found a group of Azumanga Daioh cosplayers at McDs and got a picture of them with the Lu Bu sign. :D Then we headed out to walk around. I suggested checking out the Square to see who might be there. I got some pictures of Danielle and my son standing on the waterfall. Then we took some pictures with the copper statue on the square. The sign we had fit perfectly in his hand so we got some amusing pictures with the two. Then Danielle and my son posed trying to kiss the statue. 9_9
I was surprised that there really wasn't anyone on the square. I had hoped for more people to be around. I showed the kids where the news station was that we see all the time at Grandma's. Now they know where it is. :D
As we started to head back to toward the hotel a girl passed us claiming to being going to the convention herself. She already had $10 and was going to get the rest of the money today. Danielle and I both recognized fleecing when we saw it and ignored her. I had to explain that to my kids though.
We headed back to the hotel after that and the kids decided they wanted to go down to gaming. We headed downstairs to where gaming was. They didn't have the escalators on for the lower levels so we had to walk down them. It was kind of weird to do that…it feels unnatural. We showed my son where the dealer's room entrance was and got a few more pictures of cosplayer's with the sign. I left the kids to the game room at that point and headed up stairs on my own. I stopped at the top of the escalators and just off to the side in a small nook designed to be out of the way of traffic. I still got yelled at by hotel security for holding up the non-existent line. O_o I just took a picture or two and moved on my way. I was wondering how this was going to work if people weren't going to be allowed to loiter.
It turns out that the policy only applied to the escalator area to keep things moving. I understand the concern but wasn't there stopping anyone or in the way. -_- I walked around the lobby and took pictures as I could. Because of the rain and clouds it was too dark to get much out of my DV so I suffered through what I could.
Then I headed upstairs to the Plaza Level. I got more pictures and some of the lobby below. After a while it seemed like there was no where else to go to get pictures so I decided I was going to head up to the room to rest before the dealer's room opened. I headed toward the elevators and got the first experience of a problem that plagued the convention all day. There was a line for the elevators. Not only was there a line but once I got in it it took 30 minutes to get not only to the front but into an elevator at all. I even had one guy jump in front of me when they had room for one person (which should have been me but he ran for it instead!). That had to be the worst really. I am glad I had water with me or I might have suffered a lot more. -_-
I have no idea what's the best way to get on the elevator either. There's the LL(Lower level), the Lobby, the Plaza Level and the 3rd floor all competing for use of the elevators. Only 7 people were allowed on at a time and there were only 4 elevators for the whole building! I will have to try the lobby line later to see if that's any better.
One guy in the elevator was lamenting about how they planned it poorly by putting gaming on the Ballroom (or basement) level and Tabletop gaming on the 23rd level making him have to bounce between the two for tournaments. I have no idea how he was going to accomplish that at all!!
By the time I got to the hotel room it was already 11pm. The Exhibitor's hall (Dealer's room) was open already but I was too tired to head straight back down. I decided to spend some time getting online and ranting about the lines. Better planning for this kind of thing will be needed. Hopefully they can find some fix before tomorrow. -_-
I checked out the pictures I had taken already and was only slightly less disappointed than I expected to be. -_- It was going to be a sad weekend if I couldn't take pictures.
Finally I decided it was time to head down and try to get through the Exhibitor's hall line. I had no idea what to expect but took my chances and got out on the Lower Level instead of the Lobby level of the elevator to find out. Turns out the line went all the way up the ramp and out onto the sidewalk. I got some pictures of the line and people in costume waiting in line. Then I got in the line myself.
I took some pictures while waiting to get in and there was a group of really cute kids a few people in front of me dressed up from Bleach. The little kid dressed like the stuffed bear was asking people for high fives. :) I managed to get a vide of that too. ^_^ I also got a picture of a sign from the parking garage that stated no pedestrians on the ramp. hehe.
As I had surmised yesterday the Exhibitor's hall was the first level down in the parking garage. I found this to be an interesting and weird choice of locations. I guess if it was all they could get then that's all they could get but it still seemed odd. The ramp down to it was pretty steep too. I am better acclimated to this from my running/walking in the mornings. I could see how someone much more out of shape would have a tough time with it. Better yet those cosplayers in platformed shoes and heals. Ugh…that had to suck for them!
Surprisingly the line for the Exhibitor's hall happened to be the fastest moving line in the convention. I got down into the room in almost no time. At first I thought it was going to be mostly manga and shirts. That seemed to be the majority of the items available.
As I wandered around more I found more things I was interested in. For instance I almost immediately found the Vocaloid Miku Figma that my son has been asking about. I bought one of two only two available and buried it in my bag incase he happened to catch up with me. At the Kinokunia booth I found a bunch of Hetalia stuff and picked up a Shitajiki (pencil board), a set of Axis Powers and Allied Powers trading cards and looked over the Len and Lin Vocaloid figma dolls. They also had Vocaloid CDs but I hate paying that kind of price for CDs that I don't know I will like or not. -_-
I wandered by a booth selling plush emots and picked up one with this face -> O_o It's so cute. I also picked up the following as magnets "T_T" "XP" ">_<" hehe. After that I hit the Uwajimaya booth for some ramune and snacks. I got a 6 pack of melon ramune because it was $6!
After an hour and a half of wandering around the dealer's room I decided to head back out. On my way up the ramp I passed my son and told him that all the Miku figures had been sold (I wasn't lying because the only other one there was gone when I checked on my way out). He was disappointed but understood it was his fault for playing the games instead of checking out the Exhibitor's hall.
After passing my son I tried to get in the Lower Lobby entrance from the ramp to the Exhibitor's hall. First hotel security and then con staff weren't going to allow it. I told them that I needed to get my daughter out of the game room and that's all. Finally they relented instead of making me go up to the lobby only to come back down both sets of escalators to accomplish the same thing.
I found my daughter and Danielle playing Soul Caliber 4. The tournament hadn't started yet but they were practicing anyway. My daughter was hungry so I gave her some of my snacks. They wanted lunch but I didn't want to get them food just before the tournament. I just left them there with some of the snacks and headed back towards the room.
This time I took the lobby elevator line and I don't think it was any different. In fact while I only waited 25 minutes this time, the line was shorter to start so I know there were more missed chances due to fully loaded elevators. Worse yet on the lobby level you could see where the elevators were. So you knew if they skipped your floor or stopped at every floor on the way down. -_-
I got in the line at 1:50 and got to my room finally at 2:15. -_- I got online for a bit but was quickly discouraged when there was no good food in the room besides snacks and I didn't want to brave the elevators again. So I laid down on the bed around 2:45. I woke up around 5pm when Danielle came back to the room. She had a been double eliminated in the tournament but the guy who beat her both times was eliminated by my son who won the tournament. ^_^
Around by 5:15 everyone had returned to the room and at 5:30 we headed out for a last run through the Dealer's room and then dinner. Getting down the elevators was no problem and we were quickly on our way to the Exhibitor's hall where there was no waiting this late in the day. We got right in and spent the last 30 minutes wandering around. We picked up more snacks for the evening and headed out just as they were closing.
We were going to head to dinner (which every one want Carl's Jr's again) but I wanted to stop by the Square again to see if anymore people were there this time around. We stopped along the sidewalk on the other side of the road from the square and before we knew what was happening this girl had run up and was petting my son. First his hat then playing with the bell collar around his neck. Then she was snuggling his backpack. He didn't know what to think of it all. I got a picture of her petting him for amusement. ^_^
After she headed back to her friend we headed over to the square. I took some more pictures and then we headed back towards dinner. The same cashier was there again, Fletcher. He was just as amusing this time around. I asked for criss cut fries for Danielle and he said they were all of those but had everything else. I commented that they had the deep fried zucchini then. He said yes! I said "I still don't wan them." Hehe. In general it was a great experience and we were glad to have been served by him again. I even put in a good comment card singing his praises because I was so impressed.
We sat down to wait for out food and who should show up but my son's stalker. The girl came up and pet his hat again. ^_^ she left him alone after that but it was still amusing and fun. ^_^
After another good dinner at Carl's Jr's we headed back toward the hotel and walked around a bit. We took all the pictures we could and then I headed back to the room. The lines for the elevators weren't nearly so bad this time around.
Once back in the hotel room I got online and worked on uploading the car photos from the last two car shows. The girls decided to go down and swim for a bit and my son just rested. I didn't expect it but I was online until 2am working on the pictures and such!! That was a LONG time online but I got it all done.
I did a few other things online before heading to bed myself. I was still wound up from the day though so it wasn't easy to sleep. Plus Tom is supposed to visit with me tomorrow so I am excited to have someone to hang out with! :)
I bought a whole box of Frosted flakes for the weekend but for some reason still wanted to go to breakfast on Saturday morning. So after everyone was ready we headed downstairs to go to breakfast at McDs. On the way we took more pictures. :)
I didn't know how many pictures I would be taking today so I cleared off all the pictures from the day before and the pictures stored on the card before we headed out. I also insisted the Danielle take her camera so I could get pictures when mine crapped out. On top of that we took the "Rejection" / "LuBu" sign with us to get pictures of people with. ^_^
Ordering went fairly smoothly, the guy seemed kind of grouchy though. It didn't matter because we got our food without incident. It wasn't until I went up to get my refill that I noticed a sign stating that they you needed your original receipt to get the refill and you had to get it within half an hour of purchasing the drink. O_o. That's just penny pinching and I really hate it. Despite that they didn't give us any trouble over the refills and I even got a second one. So I guess it's mostly for people who are known to cause problems.
By the time we were done with Breakfast it was raining out pretty good. We found a group of Azumanga Daioh cosplayers at McDs and got a picture of them with the Lu Bu sign. :D Then we headed out to walk around. I suggested checking out the Square to see who might be there. I got some pictures of Danielle and my son standing on the waterfall. Then we took some pictures with the copper statue on the square. The sign we had fit perfectly in his hand so we got some amusing pictures with the two. Then Danielle and my son posed trying to kiss the statue. 9_9
I was surprised that there really wasn't anyone on the square. I had hoped for more people to be around. I showed the kids where the news station was that we see all the time at Grandma's. Now they know where it is. :D
As we started to head back to toward the hotel a girl passed us claiming to being going to the convention herself. She already had $10 and was going to get the rest of the money today. Danielle and I both recognized fleecing when we saw it and ignored her. I had to explain that to my kids though.
We headed back to the hotel after that and the kids decided they wanted to go down to gaming. We headed downstairs to where gaming was. They didn't have the escalators on for the lower levels so we had to walk down them. It was kind of weird to do that…it feels unnatural. We showed my son where the dealer's room entrance was and got a few more pictures of cosplayer's with the sign. I left the kids to the game room at that point and headed up stairs on my own. I stopped at the top of the escalators and just off to the side in a small nook designed to be out of the way of traffic. I still got yelled at by hotel security for holding up the non-existent line. O_o I just took a picture or two and moved on my way. I was wondering how this was going to work if people weren't going to be allowed to loiter.
It turns out that the policy only applied to the escalator area to keep things moving. I understand the concern but wasn't there stopping anyone or in the way. -_- I walked around the lobby and took pictures as I could. Because of the rain and clouds it was too dark to get much out of my DV so I suffered through what I could.
Then I headed upstairs to the Plaza Level. I got more pictures and some of the lobby below. After a while it seemed like there was no where else to go to get pictures so I decided I was going to head up to the room to rest before the dealer's room opened. I headed toward the elevators and got the first experience of a problem that plagued the convention all day. There was a line for the elevators. Not only was there a line but once I got in it it took 30 minutes to get not only to the front but into an elevator at all. I even had one guy jump in front of me when they had room for one person (which should have been me but he ran for it instead!). That had to be the worst really. I am glad I had water with me or I might have suffered a lot more. -_-
I have no idea what's the best way to get on the elevator either. There's the LL(Lower level), the Lobby, the Plaza Level and the 3rd floor all competing for use of the elevators. Only 7 people were allowed on at a time and there were only 4 elevators for the whole building! I will have to try the lobby line later to see if that's any better.
One guy in the elevator was lamenting about how they planned it poorly by putting gaming on the Ballroom (or basement) level and Tabletop gaming on the 23rd level making him have to bounce between the two for tournaments. I have no idea how he was going to accomplish that at all!!
By the time I got to the hotel room it was already 11pm. The Exhibitor's hall (Dealer's room) was open already but I was too tired to head straight back down. I decided to spend some time getting online and ranting about the lines. Better planning for this kind of thing will be needed. Hopefully they can find some fix before tomorrow. -_-
I checked out the pictures I had taken already and was only slightly less disappointed than I expected to be. -_- It was going to be a sad weekend if I couldn't take pictures.
Finally I decided it was time to head down and try to get through the Exhibitor's hall line. I had no idea what to expect but took my chances and got out on the Lower Level instead of the Lobby level of the elevator to find out. Turns out the line went all the way up the ramp and out onto the sidewalk. I got some pictures of the line and people in costume waiting in line. Then I got in the line myself.
I took some pictures while waiting to get in and there was a group of really cute kids a few people in front of me dressed up from Bleach. The little kid dressed like the stuffed bear was asking people for high fives. :) I managed to get a vide of that too. ^_^ I also got a picture of a sign from the parking garage that stated no pedestrians on the ramp. hehe.
As I had surmised yesterday the Exhibitor's hall was the first level down in the parking garage. I found this to be an interesting and weird choice of locations. I guess if it was all they could get then that's all they could get but it still seemed odd. The ramp down to it was pretty steep too. I am better acclimated to this from my running/walking in the mornings. I could see how someone much more out of shape would have a tough time with it. Better yet those cosplayers in platformed shoes and heals. Ugh…that had to suck for them!
Surprisingly the line for the Exhibitor's hall happened to be the fastest moving line in the convention. I got down into the room in almost no time. At first I thought it was going to be mostly manga and shirts. That seemed to be the majority of the items available.
As I wandered around more I found more things I was interested in. For instance I almost immediately found the Vocaloid Miku Figma that my son has been asking about. I bought one of two only two available and buried it in my bag incase he happened to catch up with me. At the Kinokunia booth I found a bunch of Hetalia stuff and picked up a Shitajiki (pencil board), a set of Axis Powers and Allied Powers trading cards and looked over the Len and Lin Vocaloid figma dolls. They also had Vocaloid CDs but I hate paying that kind of price for CDs that I don't know I will like or not. -_-
I wandered by a booth selling plush emots and picked up one with this face -> O_o It's so cute. I also picked up the following as magnets "T_T" "XP" ">_<" hehe. After that I hit the Uwajimaya booth for some ramune and snacks. I got a 6 pack of melon ramune because it was $6!
After an hour and a half of wandering around the dealer's room I decided to head back out. On my way up the ramp I passed my son and told him that all the Miku figures had been sold (I wasn't lying because the only other one there was gone when I checked on my way out). He was disappointed but understood it was his fault for playing the games instead of checking out the Exhibitor's hall.
After passing my son I tried to get in the Lower Lobby entrance from the ramp to the Exhibitor's hall. First hotel security and then con staff weren't going to allow it. I told them that I needed to get my daughter out of the game room and that's all. Finally they relented instead of making me go up to the lobby only to come back down both sets of escalators to accomplish the same thing.
I found my daughter and Danielle playing Soul Caliber 4. The tournament hadn't started yet but they were practicing anyway. My daughter was hungry so I gave her some of my snacks. They wanted lunch but I didn't want to get them food just before the tournament. I just left them there with some of the snacks and headed back towards the room.
This time I took the lobby elevator line and I don't think it was any different. In fact while I only waited 25 minutes this time, the line was shorter to start so I know there were more missed chances due to fully loaded elevators. Worse yet on the lobby level you could see where the elevators were. So you knew if they skipped your floor or stopped at every floor on the way down. -_-
I got in the line at 1:50 and got to my room finally at 2:15. -_- I got online for a bit but was quickly discouraged when there was no good food in the room besides snacks and I didn't want to brave the elevators again. So I laid down on the bed around 2:45. I woke up around 5pm when Danielle came back to the room. She had a been double eliminated in the tournament but the guy who beat her both times was eliminated by my son who won the tournament. ^_^
Around by 5:15 everyone had returned to the room and at 5:30 we headed out for a last run through the Dealer's room and then dinner. Getting down the elevators was no problem and we were quickly on our way to the Exhibitor's hall where there was no waiting this late in the day. We got right in and spent the last 30 minutes wandering around. We picked up more snacks for the evening and headed out just as they were closing.
We were going to head to dinner (which every one want Carl's Jr's again) but I wanted to stop by the Square again to see if anymore people were there this time around. We stopped along the sidewalk on the other side of the road from the square and before we knew what was happening this girl had run up and was petting my son. First his hat then playing with the bell collar around his neck. Then she was snuggling his backpack. He didn't know what to think of it all. I got a picture of her petting him for amusement. ^_^
After she headed back to her friend we headed over to the square. I took some more pictures and then we headed back towards dinner. The same cashier was there again, Fletcher. He was just as amusing this time around. I asked for criss cut fries for Danielle and he said they were all of those but had everything else. I commented that they had the deep fried zucchini then. He said yes! I said "I still don't wan them." Hehe. In general it was a great experience and we were glad to have been served by him again. I even put in a good comment card singing his praises because I was so impressed.
We sat down to wait for out food and who should show up but my son's stalker. The girl came up and pet his hat again. ^_^ she left him alone after that but it was still amusing and fun. ^_^
After another good dinner at Carl's Jr's we headed back toward the hotel and walked around a bit. We took all the pictures we could and then I headed back to the room. The lines for the elevators weren't nearly so bad this time around.
Once back in the hotel room I got online and worked on uploading the car photos from the last two car shows. The girls decided to go down and swim for a bit and my son just rested. I didn't expect it but I was online until 2am working on the pictures and such!! That was a LONG time online but I got it all done.
I did a few other things online before heading to bed myself. I was still wound up from the day though so it wasn't easy to sleep. Plus Tom is supposed to visit with me tomorrow so I am excited to have someone to hang out with! :)