AX 2009 Con Report! ^_^v
Anime Expo 2009 Con Report!
Ahhh, Anime Expo. I had a lovely time. :) I'm sad I'm home. D: AX was from July 2 to July 5 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Day -1
I had a lot of things to take care of in the morning. Work, passing in something for school, getting home on time, all that jazz. Then my mom drove me back into Boston to take the Commuter Rail to Aarana's place. Got there on time! So we watched some anime and movies. Lupe and her fiance arrived and we had fun. It was great to meet her. :)
Day 0
So, we had to get up earlyyy. We got a ride to the airport, and then checked in. No problems. :D We flew Virgin Air. An AWESOME airline. I liked the tvs in the seats, with touchscreens. Fanceh.
So the flight was fine. We had stuff to keep us entertained. I didn't sleep much the night before cuz I was too excited. It was 6 hours nonstop, both ways. Points go to Aarana. :D
After we got to LAX airport, we saw palm trees for the first time! So we took a shuttle thing to the hotel. I loved the hotel. :) We had 2 bathrooms. Niiiice.
Then we ate at California Pizza Kitchen. I ate a whole pizza. XDD Then we wandered around a bit and people watched. Sadly I forgot my camera that time. LA is a nice city. And it was SUNNY! The weather at home was icky. >:(
So we decided to prereg at the con to save time on Day 1. It was a good idea cuz those lines were like Linecon at AB all over again. x_x They made us stand outside in the hot sun. Fail. Unfortunately, Lupe had a mini-emergency but she turned out to be fine. Phew!
Soo we all got our badges, YAY! I liked the art on them. They were paper like AB's this year, but at least there was art. The program guide was like a magazine, I liked that.
We didn't feel like waiting in ANOTHER line for the event tickets. We were gonna see Morning Musume's 1st US concert. Squeee!
Back to the room we went. We decided to get our nails done, cuz we're girls. XD We googled a salon and went there. It turned out it's a world class salon, but it's cheap. The ladies were so nice. :)
We chillaxed in the room, and then went to bed. We were up for about 18 hours. o.o Time zones are weird.
Day 1
Yay first official day! We got up and had breakfast somewhere, I forgot. Oh yeah- Starbucks. There were no Dunks from what I saw. Then we wandered in LA for a bit. Then to the con!
I cosplayed as Sailor Pluto in the morning, because there was a Sailor Moon gathering. And it turned out a lot of Moonies came! I was worried cuz it was early in the morning. I met Dark Fairy and Summoner Squall from cosplay.com cosplaying as Venus and Artemis (he forgot his moon XD). They were nice.
*Flash flash!* Pics were taken a zillion times as more cosplayers showed up. Squall shot video. We had all 4 Outers! WOOOO! Saturn arrived last, and we were like, “SATURN!!” :) We took pics for an hour. o.o The Usagi in the school uniform was a riot. Meanwhile, Aarana and Lupe were standing in the event ticket line. I scurried over there; they saved me a spot.
*melt* Standing outside in the sun is bleh. Aarana got sunburned a little. :( But Happy Ice Cream Man arrived to save the day! He got a lot of business. Good for him! And I liked talking to people in line. :) I met a girl I wanted to sit with at the Masquerade.
So we got our tickets, finally. The 2 major events we got tickets for were Morning Musume and the Masquerade.
Then we went back to the room. We didn't feel like doing much else. Oh and over the course of the day I changed back to normal clothes.
Annnd, it's important to keep in mind that Michael Jackson's memorial service will be at the Staples Center on Tuesday. News crews were everywhere. Media frenzy AHHH! And it was so stupid- they avoided saying anything about the con. They tried to cut out any congoers in their footage. Losers.
Speaking of media losers, we wanted to watch Anderson Cooper from Anderson Cooper 360 film live from the Staples Center. It said so from CNN. Turned out they filmed from Hollywood because of the con AGAIN. Ya think Fox lies?! YOU LIE TOO CNN! D:<
So we chillaxed in the room, and then bed again.
Day 2
We did a lot more that day than the day before, that's for sure. I went to some panels. I didn't cosplay that day cuz I kinda didn't feel like it. We wanted to see Hollywood and Little Tokyo at some point, but we ran out of time. :(
So the first thing we wanted to see was Morning Musume, so we headed over to the con center to face another line in the sun. D: We had breakfast at a place in the food court in the little mini mall near our hotel. Jovial Man is jovial. XD
The. Concert. Wuz. Friggin. Epic. OMG OMG I saw a famous j-pop group's first US concert!!! I was there! I witnessed it with my friends! It was my first ever concert too. :) No photography was allowed, but that made sense. The girls were so energetic and cute! OMG they were adorable. <3 I got a Morning Musume poster before we went to the concert. They were mostly promoting their new album, Platinum 9, so they sang mostly new songs. But it was awesome. We had glowsticks too. :3 Everyone was screaming and jumpin' up and down and freaking out. It was awesomesauce. Thank you Aarana!!! *hugs even though you don't like hugs XD*
So after all 3 of us dispersed for the first time. Aarana met up with her My Anime List friends, and Lupe ended up going to the room. I called my friend Rachel's bf John and we met up. I hadn't seen him since he visited Rachel in MA a year ago. :) They're long distance. How do they do it? :O It was good to see John.
Then there was a panel we all wanted to go to at 6, but it was switched around. Bummer. So I met up with Lupe and we went back to the room. She got food, I chillaxed and talked online to people. We wanted to see “Whose Line is it Anime?” at 8, so we grabbed the shuttle to the con center. Aarana saved us seats.
“Whose Line” was so fun! I love the real “Whose Line” so I knew I'd like this. The comedians were great! Afterwards I got all their autographs in my program guide. They were so sweet to me.
I had a headache from the concert (totally worth it though) so we went back to the room, chillaxed for a little bit and went to bed. We were tired and our legs hurt. XD
Day 3
I always seemed to be the first one awake. X3 It was our last day because we had to leave early on Day 4. Sadness.
We were Hollywood bound today! We took the public transport system to Hollywood Vine. LA Metro > MBTA. We saw the Walk of Fame. :) We took pics with a few recognizable stars. Then on impulse we decided to take a 2 hour tour. It was worth it. Mickey Z was our tour guide, the only native LA person in LA (so he says, hee). He was so chill (why am I saying that all the time now?). We took pics at the Hollywood sign, and stopped a few other places. We saw all the famous people's gorgeous houses. Grar. Beverly Hills, Belair, expensive store place like Chanel, etc. :)
After the tour, we walked the Walk of Fame to the Metro station. Back to the room- no, home. :)
So the only thing at the con we wanted to do was the Masquerade. I decided to cosplay again. My make up was much better that day. Thanks, Lupe. :DD
So I didn't get to meet up with John. More sadness. But I'm glad I saw him yesterday. :) Instead I walked the con a little, got stopped for pics, yay. :D The Dealers Room/Artist Alley place was closed at 6 again, NOOOOO. So I shuffled over the the Merch dude and kinda begged/charmed him into selling me a shirt. YEEEEESS. But that was my last chance to go there. TT__TT
So I met up with Lupe and we went to the Masq line. Aarana met us after a few minutes. Seating didn't take long. We were in line outside for the LAST TIME. Woot. No misting needed this time. XD
Seating was fine. We got there early, so we sat through some pretty lame preshow “entertainment.” The whole room groaned. I almost shunned away a girl and her sister because I thought I was saving seats for a Line Acquaintance (turned out she was in the row in front of us, oopz). I'm glad I didn't. She was... chill. XD I know that's gonna get annoying, ne ne?
The Masq cosplayers brought the house down. There were 54 very creative skits. Great costumes. :D I don't have a fav skit, but the “On a Boat” parody was pretty sweet. XD I went pretty quickly too. o.o A lot of walk ons, and some canceled ones. I loved the MCs. So I spent the Masq chatting with the girl next to me and my friends. :) I facebooked her.
Back hooome. Shuttled for the last time. Triple sadness. :( We packed with The Princess Bride movie playing in the background. I've never seen it. *hides from flying tomatoes* Hey! D:
Bedtime in the comfy beds one last time. :( Oh yeah, Happy 4th. I did Japanese stuff on America's Birthday. XD
Day 4
There was no Day 4 at the con. :( We had to check out at the hotel early in the morning. Then the shuttle to LAX airport came at 8:10 am on the dot. :3 I waved bye to a shuttle, bye to the hotel, and bye to the con center as we passed it. :( No, I didn't cry in case you were wondering. But I didn't wanna go home. I wanted Momusu's autographs!! *wails* K, nevermind. XD
So now I'm on the plane, Aarana to my right, and Lupe to my left. *sighs* Back to normalcy. Away from the con and my new acquaintances. I hope we become online friends and I see 'em again next year! There so needs to be a next year. I'd go by myself, dun care. XD AX > AB. *traitor* Kidding. :3 No, I'm not. Hee. ;P
Conclusion
AX was a much better time for me, partly because our rooming situation was more organized- less people, less hassle. There were no major problems minus Lupe's but she's on the plane so yay. The con was mello, people were very very chill, I had fun cosplaying, and I saw John. Wish Rachel coulda been there too. :( Dej is jealous that I was at a con instead of her. XD Chiba wished me a safe trip before I left. Arigato.
I also waved bai bai to Morning Musume as the plane took off. :'( *sniff* Wanted an autograph.........
*listening to Morning Musume Sakura Gumi* “Sakura Mankai” is a beautiful song.
Oh yeah- there were so many good quotes that I don't remember them all. Too bad. :/ Lessee... Nope, don't remember. :(
Oh yea...
Day 5
Went to work. Went to skool at 6 pm and home at 11:15 pm. Eat, sleep, rinse and repeat for the rest of the summer. Waah.
That was a joke, btw.
All my pictures are at these links: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=523331&id=1008759828#/photo.php?pid=523332&id=1008759828 (Edit: sorry that that 1st one starts with an actual photo) and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26710&id=1008759828&l=5fe73f16ed. I'm gonna make a Scrapbook of Awesome too.
Grand total of pics taken: 409. Amount of $ left: No comment.
Time spent in LA: Priceless. :)
Good lookin' out, y'all!!!!!! <3 Gan gan 3, 2, 1 Breakin Out! ^_^v
Love,
Tesh : )
Ahhh, Anime Expo. I had a lovely time. :) I'm sad I'm home. D: AX was from July 2 to July 5 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Day -1
I had a lot of things to take care of in the morning. Work, passing in something for school, getting home on time, all that jazz. Then my mom drove me back into Boston to take the Commuter Rail to Aarana's place. Got there on time! So we watched some anime and movies. Lupe and her fiance arrived and we had fun. It was great to meet her. :)
Day 0
So, we had to get up earlyyy. We got a ride to the airport, and then checked in. No problems. :D We flew Virgin Air. An AWESOME airline. I liked the tvs in the seats, with touchscreens. Fanceh.
So the flight was fine. We had stuff to keep us entertained. I didn't sleep much the night before cuz I was too excited. It was 6 hours nonstop, both ways. Points go to Aarana. :D
After we got to LAX airport, we saw palm trees for the first time! So we took a shuttle thing to the hotel. I loved the hotel. :) We had 2 bathrooms. Niiiice.
Then we ate at California Pizza Kitchen. I ate a whole pizza. XDD Then we wandered around a bit and people watched. Sadly I forgot my camera that time. LA is a nice city. And it was SUNNY! The weather at home was icky. >:(
So we decided to prereg at the con to save time on Day 1. It was a good idea cuz those lines were like Linecon at AB all over again. x_x They made us stand outside in the hot sun. Fail. Unfortunately, Lupe had a mini-emergency but she turned out to be fine. Phew!
Soo we all got our badges, YAY! I liked the art on them. They were paper like AB's this year, but at least there was art. The program guide was like a magazine, I liked that.
We didn't feel like waiting in ANOTHER line for the event tickets. We were gonna see Morning Musume's 1st US concert. Squeee!
Back to the room we went. We decided to get our nails done, cuz we're girls. XD We googled a salon and went there. It turned out it's a world class salon, but it's cheap. The ladies were so nice. :)
We chillaxed in the room, and then went to bed. We were up for about 18 hours. o.o Time zones are weird.
Day 1
Yay first official day! We got up and had breakfast somewhere, I forgot. Oh yeah- Starbucks. There were no Dunks from what I saw. Then we wandered in LA for a bit. Then to the con!
I cosplayed as Sailor Pluto in the morning, because there was a Sailor Moon gathering. And it turned out a lot of Moonies came! I was worried cuz it was early in the morning. I met Dark Fairy and Summoner Squall from cosplay.com cosplaying as Venus and Artemis (he forgot his moon XD). They were nice.
*Flash flash!* Pics were taken a zillion times as more cosplayers showed up. Squall shot video. We had all 4 Outers! WOOOO! Saturn arrived last, and we were like, “SATURN!!” :) We took pics for an hour. o.o The Usagi in the school uniform was a riot. Meanwhile, Aarana and Lupe were standing in the event ticket line. I scurried over there; they saved me a spot.
*melt* Standing outside in the sun is bleh. Aarana got sunburned a little. :( But Happy Ice Cream Man arrived to save the day! He got a lot of business. Good for him! And I liked talking to people in line. :) I met a girl I wanted to sit with at the Masquerade.
So we got our tickets, finally. The 2 major events we got tickets for were Morning Musume and the Masquerade.
Then we went back to the room. We didn't feel like doing much else. Oh and over the course of the day I changed back to normal clothes.
Annnd, it's important to keep in mind that Michael Jackson's memorial service will be at the Staples Center on Tuesday. News crews were everywhere. Media frenzy AHHH! And it was so stupid- they avoided saying anything about the con. They tried to cut out any congoers in their footage. Losers.
Speaking of media losers, we wanted to watch Anderson Cooper from Anderson Cooper 360 film live from the Staples Center. It said so from CNN. Turned out they filmed from Hollywood because of the con AGAIN. Ya think Fox lies?! YOU LIE TOO CNN! D:<
So we chillaxed in the room, and then bed again.
Day 2
We did a lot more that day than the day before, that's for sure. I went to some panels. I didn't cosplay that day cuz I kinda didn't feel like it. We wanted to see Hollywood and Little Tokyo at some point, but we ran out of time. :(
So the first thing we wanted to see was Morning Musume, so we headed over to the con center to face another line in the sun. D: We had breakfast at a place in the food court in the little mini mall near our hotel. Jovial Man is jovial. XD
The. Concert. Wuz. Friggin. Epic. OMG OMG I saw a famous j-pop group's first US concert!!! I was there! I witnessed it with my friends! It was my first ever concert too. :) No photography was allowed, but that made sense. The girls were so energetic and cute! OMG they were adorable. <3 I got a Morning Musume poster before we went to the concert. They were mostly promoting their new album, Platinum 9, so they sang mostly new songs. But it was awesome. We had glowsticks too. :3 Everyone was screaming and jumpin' up and down and freaking out. It was awesomesauce. Thank you Aarana!!! *hugs even though you don't like hugs XD*
So after all 3 of us dispersed for the first time. Aarana met up with her My Anime List friends, and Lupe ended up going to the room. I called my friend Rachel's bf John and we met up. I hadn't seen him since he visited Rachel in MA a year ago. :) They're long distance. How do they do it? :O It was good to see John.
Then there was a panel we all wanted to go to at 6, but it was switched around. Bummer. So I met up with Lupe and we went back to the room. She got food, I chillaxed and talked online to people. We wanted to see “Whose Line is it Anime?” at 8, so we grabbed the shuttle to the con center. Aarana saved us seats.
“Whose Line” was so fun! I love the real “Whose Line” so I knew I'd like this. The comedians were great! Afterwards I got all their autographs in my program guide. They were so sweet to me.
I had a headache from the concert (totally worth it though) so we went back to the room, chillaxed for a little bit and went to bed. We were tired and our legs hurt. XD
Day 3
I always seemed to be the first one awake. X3 It was our last day because we had to leave early on Day 4. Sadness.
We were Hollywood bound today! We took the public transport system to Hollywood Vine. LA Metro > MBTA. We saw the Walk of Fame. :) We took pics with a few recognizable stars. Then on impulse we decided to take a 2 hour tour. It was worth it. Mickey Z was our tour guide, the only native LA person in LA (so he says, hee). He was so chill (why am I saying that all the time now?). We took pics at the Hollywood sign, and stopped a few other places. We saw all the famous people's gorgeous houses. Grar. Beverly Hills, Belair, expensive store place like Chanel, etc. :)
After the tour, we walked the Walk of Fame to the Metro station. Back to the room- no, home. :)
So the only thing at the con we wanted to do was the Masquerade. I decided to cosplay again. My make up was much better that day. Thanks, Lupe. :DD
So I didn't get to meet up with John. More sadness. But I'm glad I saw him yesterday. :) Instead I walked the con a little, got stopped for pics, yay. :D The Dealers Room/Artist Alley place was closed at 6 again, NOOOOO. So I shuffled over the the Merch dude and kinda begged/charmed him into selling me a shirt. YEEEEESS. But that was my last chance to go there. TT__TT
So I met up with Lupe and we went to the Masq line. Aarana met us after a few minutes. Seating didn't take long. We were in line outside for the LAST TIME. Woot. No misting needed this time. XD
Seating was fine. We got there early, so we sat through some pretty lame preshow “entertainment.” The whole room groaned. I almost shunned away a girl and her sister because I thought I was saving seats for a Line Acquaintance (turned out she was in the row in front of us, oopz). I'm glad I didn't. She was... chill. XD I know that's gonna get annoying, ne ne?
The Masq cosplayers brought the house down. There were 54 very creative skits. Great costumes. :D I don't have a fav skit, but the “On a Boat” parody was pretty sweet. XD I went pretty quickly too. o.o A lot of walk ons, and some canceled ones. I loved the MCs. So I spent the Masq chatting with the girl next to me and my friends. :) I facebooked her.
Back hooome. Shuttled for the last time. Triple sadness. :( We packed with The Princess Bride movie playing in the background. I've never seen it. *hides from flying tomatoes* Hey! D:
Bedtime in the comfy beds one last time. :( Oh yeah, Happy 4th. I did Japanese stuff on America's Birthday. XD
Day 4
There was no Day 4 at the con. :( We had to check out at the hotel early in the morning. Then the shuttle to LAX airport came at 8:10 am on the dot. :3 I waved bye to a shuttle, bye to the hotel, and bye to the con center as we passed it. :( No, I didn't cry in case you were wondering. But I didn't wanna go home. I wanted Momusu's autographs!! *wails* K, nevermind. XD
So now I'm on the plane, Aarana to my right, and Lupe to my left. *sighs* Back to normalcy. Away from the con and my new acquaintances. I hope we become online friends and I see 'em again next year! There so needs to be a next year. I'd go by myself, dun care. XD AX > AB. *traitor* Kidding. :3 No, I'm not. Hee. ;P
Conclusion
AX was a much better time for me, partly because our rooming situation was more organized- less people, less hassle. There were no major problems minus Lupe's but she's on the plane so yay. The con was mello, people were very very chill, I had fun cosplaying, and I saw John. Wish Rachel coulda been there too. :( Dej is jealous that I was at a con instead of her. XD Chiba wished me a safe trip before I left. Arigato.
I also waved bai bai to Morning Musume as the plane took off. :'( *sniff* Wanted an autograph.........
*listening to Morning Musume Sakura Gumi* “Sakura Mankai” is a beautiful song.
Oh yeah- there were so many good quotes that I don't remember them all. Too bad. :/ Lessee... Nope, don't remember. :(
Oh yea...
Day 5
Went to work. Went to skool at 6 pm and home at 11:15 pm. Eat, sleep, rinse and repeat for the rest of the summer. Waah.
That was a joke, btw.
All my pictures are at these links: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=523331&id=1008759828#/photo.php?pid=523332&id=1008759828 (Edit: sorry that that 1st one starts with an actual photo) and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26710&id=1008759828&l=5fe73f16ed. I'm gonna make a Scrapbook of Awesome too.
Grand total of pics taken: 409. Amount of $ left: No comment.
Time spent in LA: Priceless. :)
Good lookin' out, y'all!!!!!! <3 Gan gan 3, 2, 1 Breakin Out! ^_^v
Love,
Tesh : )