Trip to the Netherlands & YAYCon Report!
Yo guys!!!
Yesterday I got back from my trip to Amsterdam/Enschede to attend YaYCon, so here's a freshly baked report just for you :D
First of all, let me say that the Netherlands are a WONDERFUL PLACE.
Ok, the weather sucked and the food was quite ambiguous (LOL), and of course the lack of bidets is always a bad thing (but apparently we have those only in Italy--), but THE PEOPLE WERE SO KIND AND EVERYONE WAS SO NICE, CIVILIZED AND TALLER THAN ME, IT FELT LIKE HEAVEN ;o; !!!! I DID NOTHING BUT SAYING "Thank you, thank you..!" EVERYTIME ;o; !!!!!
Basic things that me and Teap noted during this trip:
- Holland is filled with people who look like Bunny-chan. At all ages. Even genderswitched. SERIOUSLY.
- "Dutch is the language of elves."
- We still don't know how "Enschede" is pronounced.
- I can't believe that these guys watch TV shows in English and German with Dutch subtitles ò_o Me and Teap had fun "dubbing" a reality show about the daily troubles of German policemen, LOLOLOL XD
- The Netherlands are cold ;_; Expecially at night, it felt like living on the moon T_T;
The trip went on quite smoothly.
Here's a pic on me on the train to Amsterdam Centraal XD
As for the flight, we had to wake up at insane hours, but don't you think that seeing the dawn rising on the Alps is just a wonderful experience ^_^ ?
Anyway, it just took two hours to reach Amsterdam from Rome :D
Everyone who asked us where were we from, was shocked to know that we took "such a long trip"... A long trip ò_o ? Rome to Tokyo in 15 hours was a long trip! Going to Amsterdam felt like going to Florence, actually XDD
Once we arrived to Schiphol Airport (that I still call SchipNol XD), which just looked like a wonderful playground, we got hold of a train to reach Amsterdam Centraal station, for our touristic tour.
It was a bit tricky 'cause everything (from ticket selling to luggage lockers) worked with credit cards only-- AND WE DON'T HAVE CREDIT CARDS XD
We bought our tickets "manually" from one of the ticket services of the airport and managed to pay for the luggage locker with ATM, though, so we managed to survive to our first basic tasks XD
Once we arrived to Amsterdam, since it took a while to deal with the luggage locker, we went for our basic tour; we didn't walk around the city like tourist would do, we just grabbed our Google Maps and went to the destinations that we really wanted to see :D
One episode that shocked us, about HOW UTTERLY NICE people from here are, was when me and Teap were wondering which umbrella to buy at a shop, since the weather was quite crappy-- And this old lady approached us, and told us in English "Don't buy it, the weather forecast said that it's not going to rain anymore today, so you won't need it :D !"-- AND IT DIDN'T RAIN FOR REAL!
Thank you, lady! We saved 10 euros like this ^_^ !
Anyway, the first stop was the cool Scheepvaartmuseum→ http://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl
We wanted to go there mostly because we wanted to visis Amsterdam (original name, LOL), the perfect copy of the Dutch East India Company ship :DDD
IT WAS SO COOL!!! ME AND TEAP WENT CRAZY AND TOOK A TON OF SILLY PICTURES XD
Ofter glaring at all kind of cool globes, navigation instruments, ship decorations and yacht models, we headed to our next destination, the Rembrandthuis→ http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/
It was really cool, and filled with lovely artworks!
The visit was enriched by a few "exhibitions": we assisted to an explanation on how itching worked back in the days and the one about how artists made their pigments in the XVII century :D Everything was in English, so we managed to understand them too XD
--Also, when we were about to get the audio guides the guy there decided that we were French and started to talk to us in French, LOL XD Now that I think about it, the same thing happened at the Airport too when we went to buy the train tickets-- The guy talked to us in French and Spanish and we, who approached him in English, were like "--Uh?" x'DDDD
It was past 5pm, and time was running out for our train to Enschede, so we rushed to our last stop, the tea house De Taart van m'n Tante→ http://www.detaart.com/en/home.htm
I have to say that the service was terrible ;_; We sat on this table which was still dirty (there was cream over the menu and the seats. Just-- WHO DID EAT THERE? PIGS D': ?!) and the girl who was taking care of the orders decided to ignore us the whole time ;_; I had to stand up and go to the counter to order our cake and get the warm water for the tea ;_;
--The girl arrived with the teapot after a few minutes, and our cake arrived around 12 minutes after (I can't understand why, since the cakes where already sliced and ready to get to us in two seconds).
Fortunately my "Chocolate Slut" cake was delicious XD Teap didn't like it, but I was practically ECSTATIC all over it. Mhhh, chocolate. <3
We had a few misadventures with the train to Enschede and the Bed&Breakfast that we picked for our stay.
Apparently the place was full and our reservations didn't reach them XD
Of course we wanted to die RIGHT THERE since outside was INSANELY COLD, but the owner aranged a few calls, and a minute after this guy came to pick us up with his car: he was the owner of another B&B who offered to take care of us ;o; !!
The place was totally classy and awesome and mantained by a gay couple, me and Teap kept fantasizing about the whole thing before getting asleep XD
This is the standard Dutch breakfast, apparently.
Me and Teap, that -like every good Italian- are used to have a sweet thingie to dip into our caffelatte only for breakfast, looked at all that stuff like this -> ò__o
We tried our best (expecially Teap, who dared to eat the egg) but we left the most of it there ^_^;
So, we left the B&B and headed to the Atak, the local where YaYCon was held :D
We arrived around 930am and left around 8pm... It was really fun, also if I didn't get to go around the con and enjoy the extra activities so much, since I had to take care of my stand ;_;
So, in the evening we got back to our original B&B, cursed the WiFi that didn't work, preventing us from enjoying the last episode of Gundam AGE ;_; and went to sleep.
We had another huge breakfast in the morning, then we left to Schiphol airport again :3
At the airport, we managed to have our first Dutch meal of the tour, besides breakfast (paradoxally, we had lunch at a HUGE AND TACKY Chinese Restaurant in Amsterdam and we had Chinese noodles cups at the YaYCon ^_^;), the cute, typical Dutch frites!!
I got an Amsterdam croquette, filled with potatoes, mushrooms meat and other delicious things, and Teap had something that she called "Fried Soba", LOLOL! They were good >o< ! We had a big pack of French fries with them and water (that costed like the big pack of fries, LOL, WTF) :D
Obviously, I posted more pictures about everything (expecially the full report on the Amsterdam ship) on FaceBook ;3
Here's the link to the album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.332682806792458.78397.100001522233548&type=1&l=8854a25e59
Now, onto the YaYCon!
Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the con so much as I wanted because I couldn't leave my stand for too long despite the useful Teap as my staff.
There were some troubles with the organization too, so I couldn't take part into the bento workshop that I was so looking forward to T_T (I wanted to give to Teap a Bunny-themed bento!)
So, the Ask the Artists! interview was one of the most sad and embarassing things that I ever did in my life because the other guests were all so accomplished and cool (and younger than me) that I felt like someone who didn't belong there at all XD
But it was fun, everyone was really nice and gentle, and it's been interesting to hear other's opinions about yaoi and the deal with comic-making.
An apparently stupid question from the audience gave me a hard-time, in fact I couldn't find an answer :o : "Why do you draw Yaoi?"
...I mean, seriously. I like drawing in general, so why do I draw yaoi and make comics about it? I could do hentai or shonen stuff with much more profit and the same fun, if I think about it. So.. I don't really know ;_; ..?
Seriously, I'm still thinking about it.
Anyway, I was so sorry that I couldn't come with any smart or interesting thing and that my English was so bad T_T;; !
I'm also quite sure that I came out as particularly rude and tactless here and there ;_; --I'M SO SORRY T_T;; !!!
My experience as a dealer!
The selling was quite deluding, I just sold something like 7 booklets out of 50, but it's been fun anyway :DDD !
I got to sketch lots of stuff, even my original characters to this random guy who came to the convention only because it was close to his house and he decided to give it a look-- HE EVEN BOUGHT MY EXTREMELY PORNY FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST BOOKLET OUT OF NOWHERE OHMYGOD, LOLOLOL I LOVE THE NETHERLANDS x'D !
I was quite happy and proud to have cute Anne coming to check my table, buy all my books asking me to sign them and take a video of me drawing one of her characters ;o; ..! These are the things that make me happy ToT !
I managed to meet some people from internet too! I recognized Veertje from yaoi!Gallery, who was cosplaying an adorable Snufkin from Moomin series-- SHE PLAYED THE MOUTH ORGAN FOR ME and showed me and Teap her adorable sketchbook ;_; and cute Miduyoh from DeviantART, who was coslaying as Shion from No.6, who bought my Bison booklet ;o; <3 There were other people who came buying stuff who mentioned watching me online, but they didn't introduce themselves so I can't thank 'em individually T_T; !
--I ALSO WANT TO THANK THOSE WHO ASKED ME TO SKETCH CHARACTERS SPORTING COCKS AND THE GIRL WHO BOUGHT THE BISON BOOKLET, ASKING ME TO DRAW SOMEONE SHOWING OFF THEIR NAKED BUTT ON IT (of course I picked Antonio XD) :DDDD
Then, some pictures of the cosplayers that I managed to see and stop XD
THIS IS ME WITH BEAUTIFUL REED FROM TEAHOUSE WEBCOMIC, my second favourite right after Rhys <3<3<3
ASASASFHD, SHE WAS SO TALL AND PERFECT.
Actually, it took a while to me and Teap to understand who she was cosplaying, then I had a flash and went all "OMG, IT'S THE 'TALL GUY' FROM TEAHOUSE, TEAP, TAKE A PICTURE OF US TOGETHERRRR!" XD
He was not a cosplayer, but a fan of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team XDD
As an Osaka enthusiast, I had to stop him and ask for a picture XDD Then we kept saying stupid things to each other, like "Go Hanshin Tigers!" or "Osaka for ever!", ahah XD
DELICIOUS TRAP <3
Teap told me that the character was from Macross :D
HEAD AND TAKUTO!!!
But awww, they didn't kiraboshi us at all ;_;
This was our dinner at the maid cafe of the con XD
--Teap told me that you're not supposed to drink the "soup" of instant noodles. Is it true D: ?
Isn't it a waste? I made sure to drink some of it XD Mhhh, pork broth x'DD
The Maid Cafe was animated by karaoke in the evening.
Here are two of the maids singing stuff from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic".
Me and Teap were surprised to see how much it was popular, almost everyone sang along XD and that they sang the actual original English song. Even "Pokemon"'s OP!
--These guys are so international, LOL XD
The traps singing something that I don't remember XD
When they walked towards the stage I said "Look Teap! It's the Trap Boys..!" and she chocked on her noodles XD
During this trip I came with the most effective descriptions ever.
Dutch officially became "the language of elves" after I said so while browsing a guide to Enschede in one of the B&B (cit: "Aww, Teap... Unfortunately it's all written in the language of elves...") ù_u !
I had my epic moment of shameless singing along when a trap cosplayer of Yuki from Haruhi started to sing Satsugai from "Detroit Metal City" XDD
The sketching!
Fortunately when nobody was around my stand, I managed to entertain myself with the POWER OF SKETCHING.
Here's a sketch of cute, grown-up Toshio from my SameYome webcomic :D
I profitted of the free time to show Teap the secondary characters of my new upcoming webcomic, Tra i Fiori (trad: "Among Flowers") :D
They are the cherry tree spirit Mizume and the carrion-crow Grigio (nicknamed "Guri" by Mizume who speaks in katakana, LOL XD).
I came up with the designs for the protagonists, Flavio (left) and Andrea (right) with Teap XD
Coming up with a nice hair-cut for Andrea was quite hard XD
And in the end my only buying ^_^; !
An adorable jellyfish by the girls of Tegendraads, who's already getting cozy with my octopus Paul and the cute Clara that Teap presented me XD
Aaah, and that's all!
I decided that I have to go another time to Amsterdam to visit everything up properly..! Such a lovely place :DD
--But this time I'll make sure to go during the warmer months of the year >_>; !!
This entry was originally posted at http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/478452.html ∼
Yesterday I got back from my trip to Amsterdam/Enschede to attend YaYCon, so here's a freshly baked report just for you :D
First of all, let me say that the Netherlands are a WONDERFUL PLACE.
Ok, the weather sucked and the food was quite ambiguous (LOL), and of course the lack of bidets is always a bad thing (but apparently we have those only in Italy--), but THE PEOPLE WERE SO KIND AND EVERYONE WAS SO NICE, CIVILIZED AND TALLER THAN ME, IT FELT LIKE HEAVEN ;o; !!!! I DID NOTHING BUT SAYING "Thank you, thank you..!" EVERYTIME ;o; !!!!!
Basic things that me and Teap noted during this trip:
- Holland is filled with people who look like Bunny-chan. At all ages. Even genderswitched. SERIOUSLY.
- "Dutch is the language of elves."
- We still don't know how "Enschede" is pronounced.
- I can't believe that these guys watch TV shows in English and German with Dutch subtitles ò_o Me and Teap had fun "dubbing" a reality show about the daily troubles of German policemen, LOLOLOL XD
- The Netherlands are cold ;_; Expecially at night, it felt like living on the moon T_T;
The trip went on quite smoothly.
Here's a pic on me on the train to Amsterdam Centraal XD
As for the flight, we had to wake up at insane hours, but don't you think that seeing the dawn rising on the Alps is just a wonderful experience ^_^ ?
Anyway, it just took two hours to reach Amsterdam from Rome :D
Everyone who asked us where were we from, was shocked to know that we took "such a long trip"... A long trip ò_o ? Rome to Tokyo in 15 hours was a long trip! Going to Amsterdam felt like going to Florence, actually XDD
Once we arrived to Schiphol Airport (that I still call SchipNol XD), which just looked like a wonderful playground, we got hold of a train to reach Amsterdam Centraal station, for our touristic tour.
It was a bit tricky 'cause everything (from ticket selling to luggage lockers) worked with credit cards only-- AND WE DON'T HAVE CREDIT CARDS XD
We bought our tickets "manually" from one of the ticket services of the airport and managed to pay for the luggage locker with ATM, though, so we managed to survive to our first basic tasks XD
Once we arrived to Amsterdam, since it took a while to deal with the luggage locker, we went for our basic tour; we didn't walk around the city like tourist would do, we just grabbed our Google Maps and went to the destinations that we really wanted to see :D
One episode that shocked us, about HOW UTTERLY NICE people from here are, was when me and Teap were wondering which umbrella to buy at a shop, since the weather was quite crappy-- And this old lady approached us, and told us in English "Don't buy it, the weather forecast said that it's not going to rain anymore today, so you won't need it :D !"-- AND IT DIDN'T RAIN FOR REAL!
Thank you, lady! We saved 10 euros like this ^_^ !
Anyway, the first stop was the cool Scheepvaartmuseum→ http://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl
We wanted to go there mostly because we wanted to visis Amsterdam (original name, LOL), the perfect copy of the Dutch East India Company ship :DDD
IT WAS SO COOL!!! ME AND TEAP WENT CRAZY AND TOOK A TON OF SILLY PICTURES XD
Ofter glaring at all kind of cool globes, navigation instruments, ship decorations and yacht models, we headed to our next destination, the Rembrandthuis→ http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/
It was really cool, and filled with lovely artworks!
The visit was enriched by a few "exhibitions": we assisted to an explanation on how itching worked back in the days and the one about how artists made their pigments in the XVII century :D Everything was in English, so we managed to understand them too XD
--Also, when we were about to get the audio guides the guy there decided that we were French and started to talk to us in French, LOL XD Now that I think about it, the same thing happened at the Airport too when we went to buy the train tickets-- The guy talked to us in French and Spanish and we, who approached him in English, were like "--Uh?" x'DDDD
It was past 5pm, and time was running out for our train to Enschede, so we rushed to our last stop, the tea house De Taart van m'n Tante→ http://www.detaart.com/en/home.htm
I have to say that the service was terrible ;_; We sat on this table which was still dirty (there was cream over the menu and the seats. Just-- WHO DID EAT THERE? PIGS D': ?!) and the girl who was taking care of the orders decided to ignore us the whole time ;_; I had to stand up and go to the counter to order our cake and get the warm water for the tea ;_;
--The girl arrived with the teapot after a few minutes, and our cake arrived around 12 minutes after (I can't understand why, since the cakes where already sliced and ready to get to us in two seconds).
Fortunately my "Chocolate Slut" cake was delicious XD Teap didn't like it, but I was practically ECSTATIC all over it. Mhhh, chocolate. <3
We had a few misadventures with the train to Enschede and the Bed&Breakfast that we picked for our stay.
Apparently the place was full and our reservations didn't reach them XD
Of course we wanted to die RIGHT THERE since outside was INSANELY COLD, but the owner aranged a few calls, and a minute after this guy came to pick us up with his car: he was the owner of another B&B who offered to take care of us ;o; !!
The place was totally classy and awesome and mantained by a gay couple, me and Teap kept fantasizing about the whole thing before getting asleep XD
This is the standard Dutch breakfast, apparently.
Me and Teap, that -like every good Italian- are used to have a sweet thingie to dip into our caffelatte only for breakfast, looked at all that stuff like this -> ò__o
We tried our best (expecially Teap, who dared to eat the egg) but we left the most of it there ^_^;
So, we left the B&B and headed to the Atak, the local where YaYCon was held :D
We arrived around 930am and left around 8pm... It was really fun, also if I didn't get to go around the con and enjoy the extra activities so much, since I had to take care of my stand ;_;
So, in the evening we got back to our original B&B, cursed the WiFi that didn't work, preventing us from enjoying the last episode of Gundam AGE ;_; and went to sleep.
We had another huge breakfast in the morning, then we left to Schiphol airport again :3
At the airport, we managed to have our first Dutch meal of the tour, besides breakfast (paradoxally, we had lunch at a HUGE AND TACKY Chinese Restaurant in Amsterdam and we had Chinese noodles cups at the YaYCon ^_^;), the cute, typical Dutch frites!!
I got an Amsterdam croquette, filled with potatoes, mushrooms meat and other delicious things, and Teap had something that she called "Fried Soba", LOLOL! They were good >o< ! We had a big pack of French fries with them and water (that costed like the big pack of fries, LOL, WTF) :D
Obviously, I posted more pictures about everything (expecially the full report on the Amsterdam ship) on FaceBook ;3
Here's the link to the album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.332682806792458.78397.100001522233548&type=1&l=8854a25e59
Now, onto the YaYCon!
Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the con so much as I wanted because I couldn't leave my stand for too long despite the useful Teap as my staff.
There were some troubles with the organization too, so I couldn't take part into the bento workshop that I was so looking forward to T_T (I wanted to give to Teap a Bunny-themed bento!)
So, the Ask the Artists! interview was one of the most sad and embarassing things that I ever did in my life because the other guests were all so accomplished and cool (and younger than me) that I felt like someone who didn't belong there at all XD
But it was fun, everyone was really nice and gentle, and it's been interesting to hear other's opinions about yaoi and the deal with comic-making.
An apparently stupid question from the audience gave me a hard-time, in fact I couldn't find an answer :o : "Why do you draw Yaoi?"
...I mean, seriously. I like drawing in general, so why do I draw yaoi and make comics about it? I could do hentai or shonen stuff with much more profit and the same fun, if I think about it. So.. I don't really know ;_; ..?
Seriously, I'm still thinking about it.
Anyway, I was so sorry that I couldn't come with any smart or interesting thing and that my English was so bad T_T;; !
I'm also quite sure that I came out as particularly rude and tactless here and there ;_; --I'M SO SORRY T_T;; !!!
My experience as a dealer!
The selling was quite deluding, I just sold something like 7 booklets out of 50, but it's been fun anyway :DDD !
I got to sketch lots of stuff, even my original characters to this random guy who came to the convention only because it was close to his house and he decided to give it a look-- HE EVEN BOUGHT MY EXTREMELY PORNY FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST BOOKLET OUT OF NOWHERE OHMYGOD, LOLOLOL I LOVE THE NETHERLANDS x'D !
I was quite happy and proud to have cute Anne coming to check my table, buy all my books asking me to sign them and take a video of me drawing one of her characters ;o; ..! These are the things that make me happy ToT !
I managed to meet some people from internet too! I recognized Veertje from yaoi!Gallery, who was cosplaying an adorable Snufkin from Moomin series-- SHE PLAYED THE MOUTH ORGAN FOR ME and showed me and Teap her adorable sketchbook ;_; and cute Miduyoh from DeviantART, who was coslaying as Shion from No.6, who bought my Bison booklet ;o; <3 There were other people who came buying stuff who mentioned watching me online, but they didn't introduce themselves so I can't thank 'em individually T_T; !
--I ALSO WANT TO THANK THOSE WHO ASKED ME TO SKETCH CHARACTERS SPORTING COCKS AND THE GIRL WHO BOUGHT THE BISON BOOKLET, ASKING ME TO DRAW SOMEONE SHOWING OFF THEIR NAKED BUTT ON IT (of course I picked Antonio XD) :DDDD
Then, some pictures of the cosplayers that I managed to see and stop XD
THIS IS ME WITH BEAUTIFUL REED FROM TEAHOUSE WEBCOMIC, my second favourite right after Rhys <3<3<3
ASASASFHD, SHE WAS SO TALL AND PERFECT.
Actually, it took a while to me and Teap to understand who she was cosplaying, then I had a flash and went all "OMG, IT'S THE 'TALL GUY' FROM TEAHOUSE, TEAP, TAKE A PICTURE OF US TOGETHERRRR!" XD
He was not a cosplayer, but a fan of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team XDD
As an Osaka enthusiast, I had to stop him and ask for a picture XDD Then we kept saying stupid things to each other, like "Go Hanshin Tigers!" or "Osaka for ever!", ahah XD
DELICIOUS TRAP <3
Teap told me that the character was from Macross :D
HEAD AND TAKUTO!!!
But awww, they didn't kiraboshi us at all ;_;
This was our dinner at the maid cafe of the con XD
--Teap told me that you're not supposed to drink the "soup" of instant noodles. Is it true D: ?
Isn't it a waste? I made sure to drink some of it XD Mhhh, pork broth x'DD
The Maid Cafe was animated by karaoke in the evening.
Here are two of the maids singing stuff from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic".
Me and Teap were surprised to see how much it was popular, almost everyone sang along XD and that they sang the actual original English song. Even "Pokemon"'s OP!
--These guys are so international, LOL XD
The traps singing something that I don't remember XD
When they walked towards the stage I said "Look Teap! It's the Trap Boys..!" and she chocked on her noodles XD
During this trip I came with the most effective descriptions ever.
Dutch officially became "the language of elves" after I said so while browsing a guide to Enschede in one of the B&B (cit: "Aww, Teap... Unfortunately it's all written in the language of elves...") ù_u !
I had my epic moment of shameless singing along when a trap cosplayer of Yuki from Haruhi started to sing Satsugai from "Detroit Metal City" XDD
The sketching!
Fortunately when nobody was around my stand, I managed to entertain myself with the POWER OF SKETCHING.
Here's a sketch of cute, grown-up Toshio from my SameYome webcomic :D
I profitted of the free time to show Teap the secondary characters of my new upcoming webcomic, Tra i Fiori (trad: "Among Flowers") :D
They are the cherry tree spirit Mizume and the carrion-crow Grigio (nicknamed "Guri" by Mizume who speaks in katakana, LOL XD).
I came up with the designs for the protagonists, Flavio (left) and Andrea (right) with Teap XD
Coming up with a nice hair-cut for Andrea was quite hard XD
And in the end my only buying ^_^; !
An adorable jellyfish by the girls of Tegendraads, who's already getting cozy with my octopus Paul and the cute Clara that Teap presented me XD
Aaah, and that's all!
I decided that I have to go another time to Amsterdam to visit everything up properly..! Such a lovely place :DD
--But this time I'll make sure to go during the warmer months of the year >_>; !!
This entry was originally posted at http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/478452.html ∼