Wikky Wikky WACK
Eventful? I think not...
So I had my first taste of an Anime convention... Wow. That's all I can really say. The only reason I went was to see Versailles play. My friend Tamie who was supposed to go with me totally forgot to request that night off from work, so I ended up going alone.
To save gas and time trying to find parking, I decided to take the Metro commuter train from Springfield to Crystal City (Arlington) and take the Hyatt shuttle to the Hyatt hotel where the convention was being held. I knew it'd be okay because the concert was scheduled to begin at 10pm and the signing session at 11:30pm and the Metro stops running on the weekends at 2am. I would be fine!
Tamie let me borrow her car to drive to the Metro since my car shouldn't really be driven that far and because she felt bad I had to go alone. I brought my iPod and the book I was reading, "Norwegian Wood," by Murakami Haruki, to read on the metro to and from the con. (Just finished the book tonight, btw. It was touching!)
On the shuttle to the hotel, I started seeing a strange flow of strange people and then when the crowd was large and colorful and bad wigs and plastic home-made replicas of anime weapons abound, I knew I had reached my destination. Wow. People actually left their houses like that...
Anyway, once inside, I saw all sorts of Lolita-wannabes and anime cosplayers. Some were cute, some were decent, but most were just simply UGH. I only saw ONE Lolita who was amazingly gorgeous. And she wasn't asian! I took her picture, but I only had my cell camera, so it turned out really dark. Oh, and for the record, I wore a simple black and red dress and my 7-inch platform boots and my way cute little hat. This was too last minute to find something better to wear.
I found the Versailles goody table and bought their tour t-shirt and poster. Apparently I was standing right next to Peelander-Z, but didn't notice until they walked away. Oh well. I'm not a HUGE fan of their music, but I'm sure they put on an awesome live.
I always picture the PEOPLE at anime conventions to SUCK (as well they did), but I at least thought the vendors would be decent, selling authentic merchandise and whatnot... I admit, I am a Naruto fan and was hoping to buy *something* but no, every table in the joint was crappy people selling their crappy crap. I was unamused.
I noticed a small line beginning to form near an empty table that had a sign next to it that said "Autographs" so I walked over to see who people were starting to wait for and I almost jumped with glee!!! I had NO idea SiSeN was there!!! OMG he's way more adorable in person than I thought <333 He was only allowed to sign official merchandise, which I didn't know until I was already in line, but pictures were allowed, so I waited, gave him a big hug and had someone use my phone to take a pic. I thought the pic didn't turn out very well, so I bought a mini poster for $5 and hopped back in line ^___^ Well, the lil poster was already signed, so when I got to him he kinda asked what he wanted me to do/write, so I told him he could write on the back. He asked me my name and wrote it in hiragana. It made me happy because I always wondered how a Japanese-native would write my name by how it sounded and he wrote it exactly how I thought! It's the little things in life that make me smile with glee ^_^
Anyway, I asked him if I could take another pic with him and he cheerfully posed with me again. My hand was shaking really bad (not because of nerves, I'll touch base on why in a minute), so that pic didn't turn out well at all. Poo. But he thought my phone was really cute! It made me happy again! Getting home, I realized the first pic was actually really good, haha! Oh, and it's a good thing I wore my big boots... If not, I would have come to his chest because he, of course was wearing huge boots too, lol.
Anyway, after I was happy about that, I realized it was getting close to the "seating" time that was supposed to start at 8:30pm for Versailles. I headed down to where I knew the line would be forming. When I got there, it was a large mass of horrible cosplayers spilling out of the room where the concert was going to be held. There was a cosplay show in the same room before the concert... I think they could have planned things a little better, and you'll understand why in a bit. Anyway, they were all filing out when it was done, causing a huge crowd in the small area where the line was going to form. They told us we all needed to clear out of the area, so we did as best we could.
The line began forming around 9pm, but it was still horribly large and had no order to it at all. They ended up splitting us all up and taking us, in line, up a large stairwell and back down. People behind me were probably not happy because of how slowly I had to climb and descend the staircase because of my boots, but I sure as hell was not going to fall down a flight of stairs so people could hurry up and wait. Eff that, yo.
We stood in the stairwell for a good 20 minutes. That's when I realized I had forgotten my water bottle in the car back in Springfield! I was starting to sweat a cold sweat, so I sat down and also realized I was locking my knees too. That would have been bad... To fall down a flight of stairs, not because of the boots, but because I was dehydrated! lol, so that's part of the reason I was shaking when I took the pic with SiSeN. There's another reason I'll mention when it fits in the story of when I realized it later, lol.
Finally, the line was moving! We all got excited and ran (once we were out of the stairwell, of course), just to find yet ANOTHER line to stand in, back in the area we first cleared out of. Doop dee doo~ we were standing... Standing... Standing... I felt cold sweat and realized I was locking my knees again, so I sat down. You could hear Versailles sound-checking, so you knew it'd be awhile. Around 10:30, the staff of the con were apologizing for the dely and so on and so forth. I remembered I brought my book and iPod, so I got those out and drifted off in another world. I could still feel the vibrations of the drums during the sound-check, so I wasn't worried about it missing anything.
I could sense a commotion, so I took off my headphones and that's when they made EVERYONE sit down and was making sure people were hydrated, running around with cups of water because the place was getting really stuffy and hot. Apparently the sound check wasn't going well and it was around 11pm by then, but they just asked us to stay seated and try not to move around too much and keep hydrated. I went back to my iPod and book.
I randomly made small-talk with a girl who was next to me in line. She was also alone. Well, she was alone in line, lol. She didn't know Versailles other than what she heard at the booth where they sold the goods and thought they sounded good. She was only at the con because her boyfriend worked the A/V control room. So I got out my phone and let her hear some more Versailles and Kamijo's wondrous Engrish in "The Revenant Choir." She was like, "He said, 'Stay Away,' but that's all I understood!" (The song is mostly english).
SiSeN came out, mumbled some super-cute engrish into a megaphone and then danced around to amuse the crowd. He's adorable.
I lost some time here and there reading, but then my stomach growled. O___O Well holy shit, I realized at 11:30pm that I had been awake since 2pm and had not eaten a THING! So not only had I forgotten my water, but I also hadn't eaten! Wow, I did really well. That fully explains my shaking while holding my camera!
Finally, 11:45pm, the line started moving! I got inside and it was nice and cool and stood in the crowd. Remembering all of my past in-crowd concerts I'd attended, I realized very quickly that I needed to get out of the crowd, especially in my weakened condition. It'd be inevitable that I'd pass out and like hell I'd want that to happen, so I looked back and the room was large and I realized you'd see the stage just as well (if not better) from way in the back, so I quickly got the hell out of the crowd.
I was excited because as soon as we walked into the room, they were playing "Nightmare," by Brainbug, a song they used to play at the goth clubs I went to in San Diego. It took me back, so I was happy. Then, the next song was by Ayria, another goth/industrial song. Then a song by Combichrist, a song by Das Ich, a song by Prodigy... Industrial song after Industrial song. I wasn't bothered by it all because I loved all of the songs, but I realized time just kept on passing! I pulled out my phone and realized it was after midnight.
SiSeN and some dancers were up on stage dancing to the music. As stated before, he's so damn adorable... It made me smile.
I went and got some water and sat down on the floor where I was standing before. OH! And holy shit the people who were playing random videos to go along with the music decided to play some clips during Prodigy's "Firestarter" song that had fire and explosions in them... HOW FUCKING DISTASTEFUL were they to play clips of an ATOMIC BOMB blowing up buildings, frying people's skin off and turning people to bones at a concert for a JAPANESE band... I was angry... (And chatting with other fans later, I realized I wasn't the only one to find that distasteful)
Around 12:45am, I decided I should cover my bases because the likelihood of making it back to the Metro by 2 was nil. I texted a friend I knew didn't live too far away and asked him if he might be able to pick me up and take me to the car in Springfield. I didn't have service in the concert room, so I put my phone back in my purse and went back to my designated standing area.
The concert began around 1am. Kamijo in all his super elegant gorgeousness came out and introduced the band after they took the stage... Of course, he had to do so in english because there were a lot of people in there who had NO clue who they were. And because of some fag american band of the same name, Versailles had to change their US Territory name to Versailles ~Philharmonic Quintet~ so, in his wondrous engrish, he introduced the band:
"Wee Ahh Berusa-ee Feeru-haamoniku Kuweenteto fwum Jyapan!"
I almost melted. Engrish excites me. His engrish was really understandable... To me, at least. He eventually gave up and began speaking Japanese. I still understood him, which surprised me.
Even though the sound check took forever, I still think it was WAAAY too loud for the size and layout of the room, but the concert was still amazing.
They pretty much played the entire Noble ablum, starting with Aristocrat's Symphony, if I remember correctly. They finished without playing The Revenant Choir. I knew they wouldn't forget that song and know that EVERY Japanese band does an encore, so I just took there waiting and chanting "VERSAILLES" with everyone else...
They came back out, Kamijo spoke to us some more in engrish and Japanese explaining as best he could the feel for their new single Prince and hushed the crowd for the soft beginning of the song. The crowd still went crazy though, of course. Gorgeous song, and after that was The Revenant Choir. My arms and legs almost fell off during that one, lol.
That was the last song. We all filed out and began wondering where the line would form for the autograph session. And of course, we were led all over the place just to wait and wait. My friend told me he'd come get me, but it'd take him 30-40 minutes to get there. I told him it'd be fine because I was still waiting for the autographs.
When I finally got to them, Yuki was the first to sign my poster. He signed, passed the poster to HIZAKI, shook my hand and said, "Thank you," with a smile. HIZAKI did the same.
When I got to Kamijo, though, he did the same, but when he shook my hand, he slowly and gently took my hand in both of his, looked me deeply into my eyes and said with what seemed like every ounce of sincerity he possessed, "Thank you SO much," very sweetly and smoothly, then said thank you two more times while bowing his head and still holding my hand in his. Holy shit. I felt like melting into a puddle, right then and there. He has this incredible aura about him that I swear he stole my heart and that short moment felt like it lasted hours. He can make anyone fall in love with him with just a look. Maybe it's his age. Just wow.
Next was Teru... He's just as adorable as I knew he'd be. He signed the poster, smiled this HUGE cheesy smile, shook my hand and said thank you while still smiling that incredible adorable smile of his... *sigh* And last was Jasmine You. He is a silent one, but you could see in his facial expression that he was just about as sincere as Kamijo when he spoke his soft thank you to me.
From there, I floated up the stairs and out the door just in time to see Rozik pulling in front of the hotel. Damn good timing, I must say!!! It was 3:30am. I fell into his car and must've been babbling like a crazy person and not making much sense because he asked me if I'd be okay to drive home, lol... We searched for a place to grab something to eat, but couldn't find a place that was open near the Springfield Metro station at frickin 4 something in the morning! He and I had a nice conversation, making fun of each other because we always seem to wait 4 months between meetings... But this was a way short meeting, unfortunately. I wanted to make it last longer by grabbing a bite to eat, but it was late and he and I both needed to get some sleep.
Somehow I made it home. I stopped at the rest stop right before my exit because I wanted a cigarette really bad and Tamie doesn't smoke. I got home at 5:30am.
Wow.
So I had my first taste of an Anime convention... Wow. That's all I can really say. The only reason I went was to see Versailles play. My friend Tamie who was supposed to go with me totally forgot to request that night off from work, so I ended up going alone.
To save gas and time trying to find parking, I decided to take the Metro commuter train from Springfield to Crystal City (Arlington) and take the Hyatt shuttle to the Hyatt hotel where the convention was being held. I knew it'd be okay because the concert was scheduled to begin at 10pm and the signing session at 11:30pm and the Metro stops running on the weekends at 2am. I would be fine!
Tamie let me borrow her car to drive to the Metro since my car shouldn't really be driven that far and because she felt bad I had to go alone. I brought my iPod and the book I was reading, "Norwegian Wood," by Murakami Haruki, to read on the metro to and from the con. (Just finished the book tonight, btw. It was touching!)
On the shuttle to the hotel, I started seeing a strange flow of strange people and then when the crowd was large and colorful and bad wigs and plastic home-made replicas of anime weapons abound, I knew I had reached my destination. Wow. People actually left their houses like that...
Anyway, once inside, I saw all sorts of Lolita-wannabes and anime cosplayers. Some were cute, some were decent, but most were just simply UGH. I only saw ONE Lolita who was amazingly gorgeous. And she wasn't asian! I took her picture, but I only had my cell camera, so it turned out really dark. Oh, and for the record, I wore a simple black and red dress and my 7-inch platform boots and my way cute little hat. This was too last minute to find something better to wear.
I found the Versailles goody table and bought their tour t-shirt and poster. Apparently I was standing right next to Peelander-Z, but didn't notice until they walked away. Oh well. I'm not a HUGE fan of their music, but I'm sure they put on an awesome live.
I always picture the PEOPLE at anime conventions to SUCK (as well they did), but I at least thought the vendors would be decent, selling authentic merchandise and whatnot... I admit, I am a Naruto fan and was hoping to buy *something* but no, every table in the joint was crappy people selling their crappy crap. I was unamused.
I noticed a small line beginning to form near an empty table that had a sign next to it that said "Autographs" so I walked over to see who people were starting to wait for and I almost jumped with glee!!! I had NO idea SiSeN was there!!! OMG he's way more adorable in person than I thought <333 He was only allowed to sign official merchandise, which I didn't know until I was already in line, but pictures were allowed, so I waited, gave him a big hug and had someone use my phone to take a pic. I thought the pic didn't turn out very well, so I bought a mini poster for $5 and hopped back in line ^___^ Well, the lil poster was already signed, so when I got to him he kinda asked what he wanted me to do/write, so I told him he could write on the back. He asked me my name and wrote it in hiragana. It made me happy because I always wondered how a Japanese-native would write my name by how it sounded and he wrote it exactly how I thought! It's the little things in life that make me smile with glee ^_^
Anyway, I asked him if I could take another pic with him and he cheerfully posed with me again. My hand was shaking really bad (not because of nerves, I'll touch base on why in a minute), so that pic didn't turn out well at all. Poo. But he thought my phone was really cute! It made me happy again! Getting home, I realized the first pic was actually really good, haha! Oh, and it's a good thing I wore my big boots... If not, I would have come to his chest because he, of course was wearing huge boots too, lol.
Anyway, after I was happy about that, I realized it was getting close to the "seating" time that was supposed to start at 8:30pm for Versailles. I headed down to where I knew the line would be forming. When I got there, it was a large mass of horrible cosplayers spilling out of the room where the concert was going to be held. There was a cosplay show in the same room before the concert... I think they could have planned things a little better, and you'll understand why in a bit. Anyway, they were all filing out when it was done, causing a huge crowd in the small area where the line was going to form. They told us we all needed to clear out of the area, so we did as best we could.
The line began forming around 9pm, but it was still horribly large and had no order to it at all. They ended up splitting us all up and taking us, in line, up a large stairwell and back down. People behind me were probably not happy because of how slowly I had to climb and descend the staircase because of my boots, but I sure as hell was not going to fall down a flight of stairs so people could hurry up and wait. Eff that, yo.
We stood in the stairwell for a good 20 minutes. That's when I realized I had forgotten my water bottle in the car back in Springfield! I was starting to sweat a cold sweat, so I sat down and also realized I was locking my knees too. That would have been bad... To fall down a flight of stairs, not because of the boots, but because I was dehydrated! lol, so that's part of the reason I was shaking when I took the pic with SiSeN. There's another reason I'll mention when it fits in the story of when I realized it later, lol.
Finally, the line was moving! We all got excited and ran (once we were out of the stairwell, of course), just to find yet ANOTHER line to stand in, back in the area we first cleared out of. Doop dee doo~ we were standing... Standing... Standing... I felt cold sweat and realized I was locking my knees again, so I sat down. You could hear Versailles sound-checking, so you knew it'd be awhile. Around 10:30, the staff of the con were apologizing for the dely and so on and so forth. I remembered I brought my book and iPod, so I got those out and drifted off in another world. I could still feel the vibrations of the drums during the sound-check, so I wasn't worried about it missing anything.
I could sense a commotion, so I took off my headphones and that's when they made EVERYONE sit down and was making sure people were hydrated, running around with cups of water because the place was getting really stuffy and hot. Apparently the sound check wasn't going well and it was around 11pm by then, but they just asked us to stay seated and try not to move around too much and keep hydrated. I went back to my iPod and book.
I randomly made small-talk with a girl who was next to me in line. She was also alone. Well, she was alone in line, lol. She didn't know Versailles other than what she heard at the booth where they sold the goods and thought they sounded good. She was only at the con because her boyfriend worked the A/V control room. So I got out my phone and let her hear some more Versailles and Kamijo's wondrous Engrish in "The Revenant Choir." She was like, "He said, 'Stay Away,' but that's all I understood!" (The song is mostly english).
SiSeN came out, mumbled some super-cute engrish into a megaphone and then danced around to amuse the crowd. He's adorable.
I lost some time here and there reading, but then my stomach growled. O___O Well holy shit, I realized at 11:30pm that I had been awake since 2pm and had not eaten a THING! So not only had I forgotten my water, but I also hadn't eaten! Wow, I did really well. That fully explains my shaking while holding my camera!
Finally, 11:45pm, the line started moving! I got inside and it was nice and cool and stood in the crowd. Remembering all of my past in-crowd concerts I'd attended, I realized very quickly that I needed to get out of the crowd, especially in my weakened condition. It'd be inevitable that I'd pass out and like hell I'd want that to happen, so I looked back and the room was large and I realized you'd see the stage just as well (if not better) from way in the back, so I quickly got the hell out of the crowd.
I was excited because as soon as we walked into the room, they were playing "Nightmare," by Brainbug, a song they used to play at the goth clubs I went to in San Diego. It took me back, so I was happy. Then, the next song was by Ayria, another goth/industrial song. Then a song by Combichrist, a song by Das Ich, a song by Prodigy... Industrial song after Industrial song. I wasn't bothered by it all because I loved all of the songs, but I realized time just kept on passing! I pulled out my phone and realized it was after midnight.
SiSeN and some dancers were up on stage dancing to the music. As stated before, he's so damn adorable... It made me smile.
I went and got some water and sat down on the floor where I was standing before. OH! And holy shit the people who were playing random videos to go along with the music decided to play some clips during Prodigy's "Firestarter" song that had fire and explosions in them... HOW FUCKING DISTASTEFUL were they to play clips of an ATOMIC BOMB blowing up buildings, frying people's skin off and turning people to bones at a concert for a JAPANESE band... I was angry... (And chatting with other fans later, I realized I wasn't the only one to find that distasteful)
Around 12:45am, I decided I should cover my bases because the likelihood of making it back to the Metro by 2 was nil. I texted a friend I knew didn't live too far away and asked him if he might be able to pick me up and take me to the car in Springfield. I didn't have service in the concert room, so I put my phone back in my purse and went back to my designated standing area.
The concert began around 1am. Kamijo in all his super elegant gorgeousness came out and introduced the band after they took the stage... Of course, he had to do so in english because there were a lot of people in there who had NO clue who they were. And because of some fag american band of the same name, Versailles had to change their US Territory name to Versailles ~Philharmonic Quintet~ so, in his wondrous engrish, he introduced the band:
"Wee Ahh Berusa-ee Feeru-haamoniku Kuweenteto fwum Jyapan!"
I almost melted. Engrish excites me. His engrish was really understandable... To me, at least. He eventually gave up and began speaking Japanese. I still understood him, which surprised me.
Even though the sound check took forever, I still think it was WAAAY too loud for the size and layout of the room, but the concert was still amazing.
They pretty much played the entire Noble ablum, starting with Aristocrat's Symphony, if I remember correctly. They finished without playing The Revenant Choir. I knew they wouldn't forget that song and know that EVERY Japanese band does an encore, so I just took there waiting and chanting "VERSAILLES" with everyone else...
They came back out, Kamijo spoke to us some more in engrish and Japanese explaining as best he could the feel for their new single Prince and hushed the crowd for the soft beginning of the song. The crowd still went crazy though, of course. Gorgeous song, and after that was The Revenant Choir. My arms and legs almost fell off during that one, lol.
That was the last song. We all filed out and began wondering where the line would form for the autograph session. And of course, we were led all over the place just to wait and wait. My friend told me he'd come get me, but it'd take him 30-40 minutes to get there. I told him it'd be fine because I was still waiting for the autographs.
When I finally got to them, Yuki was the first to sign my poster. He signed, passed the poster to HIZAKI, shook my hand and said, "Thank you," with a smile. HIZAKI did the same.
When I got to Kamijo, though, he did the same, but when he shook my hand, he slowly and gently took my hand in both of his, looked me deeply into my eyes and said with what seemed like every ounce of sincerity he possessed, "Thank you SO much," very sweetly and smoothly, then said thank you two more times while bowing his head and still holding my hand in his. Holy shit. I felt like melting into a puddle, right then and there. He has this incredible aura about him that I swear he stole my heart and that short moment felt like it lasted hours. He can make anyone fall in love with him with just a look. Maybe it's his age. Just wow.
Next was Teru... He's just as adorable as I knew he'd be. He signed the poster, smiled this HUGE cheesy smile, shook my hand and said thank you while still smiling that incredible adorable smile of his... *sigh* And last was Jasmine You. He is a silent one, but you could see in his facial expression that he was just about as sincere as Kamijo when he spoke his soft thank you to me.
From there, I floated up the stairs and out the door just in time to see Rozik pulling in front of the hotel. Damn good timing, I must say!!! It was 3:30am. I fell into his car and must've been babbling like a crazy person and not making much sense because he asked me if I'd be okay to drive home, lol... We searched for a place to grab something to eat, but couldn't find a place that was open near the Springfield Metro station at frickin 4 something in the morning! He and I had a nice conversation, making fun of each other because we always seem to wait 4 months between meetings... But this was a way short meeting, unfortunately. I wanted to make it last longer by grabbing a bite to eat, but it was late and he and I both needed to get some sleep.
Somehow I made it home. I stopped at the rest stop right before my exit because I wanted a cigarette really bad and Tamie doesn't smoke. I got home at 5:30am.
Wow.