February 11th, 2011
Do you know what I miss?
It's been a long time since I've actually written my thoughts down. But now that I have time, I decided to do it. I really do enjoy writing all these things down to share with my friends and to refer back to at later times. I've had a lot of thoughts in my head that I could write about but the biggest thing that hit me is what I'm about to write about today.
Anime Conventions. Yup, those huge events where hundreds of thousands of people come just to relax, shop, talk, watch, and just indulge in anime. I've been to a lot over the past year like Anime Expo, Otakon, Katsucon, and a local anime convention in my area. It's been about half a year since I've been to a convention. My last one was Otakon during the summer. Now that I've gotten back into the daily routine of going to school, working, ect... I've realized a huge thing. I miss anime conventions.
I miss anime conventions to the bottom of my heart. I really do. I miss the vendors, the people, the cosplay, the events, and just the atmosphere as a whole. One of the most depressing times for me is seeing the streets which was littered with cosplay and anime goods to a normal street. I was eating at a restaurant on the 2nd floor of a building looking to the convention center and a huge wave of depression hit me. I guess it was finally time to come back down to earth. It's always a sad feeling.
The whole atmosphere is what I miss the most. The carefree, three day, two night feeling where the only thing that's limiting you is the amount of sleep and adrenaline that you have is what I miss. I was looking through the pictures that were taken at the event and i saw a picture with one of my friends who had on cat ears, a tail, and a leash with a bell on it. I remember those times. It's hard to make those kinds of memories again. Most of them are either at a different county, different schools, or different states. But I can always look back to those times where the bonds between them and I had never been stronger.
Life right now is full of stress and disappointment. I guess you could just say that I need some time to get away from it all. Hopefully I'll be able to attend all those great events that I had been able to attend last year. Although, my goal is to save up to go to Japan. That might seem like a dream now but if I work hard enough, I think I can reach it. Oh yeah, I miss anime conventions. Did I mention that?
Anime Conventions. Yup, those huge events where hundreds of thousands of people come just to relax, shop, talk, watch, and just indulge in anime. I've been to a lot over the past year like Anime Expo, Otakon, Katsucon, and a local anime convention in my area. It's been about half a year since I've been to a convention. My last one was Otakon during the summer. Now that I've gotten back into the daily routine of going to school, working, ect... I've realized a huge thing. I miss anime conventions.
I miss anime conventions to the bottom of my heart. I really do. I miss the vendors, the people, the cosplay, the events, and just the atmosphere as a whole. One of the most depressing times for me is seeing the streets which was littered with cosplay and anime goods to a normal street. I was eating at a restaurant on the 2nd floor of a building looking to the convention center and a huge wave of depression hit me. I guess it was finally time to come back down to earth. It's always a sad feeling.
The whole atmosphere is what I miss the most. The carefree, three day, two night feeling where the only thing that's limiting you is the amount of sleep and adrenaline that you have is what I miss. I was looking through the pictures that were taken at the event and i saw a picture with one of my friends who had on cat ears, a tail, and a leash with a bell on it. I remember those times. It's hard to make those kinds of memories again. Most of them are either at a different county, different schools, or different states. But I can always look back to those times where the bonds between them and I had never been stronger.
Life right now is full of stress and disappointment. I guess you could just say that I need some time to get away from it all. Hopefully I'll be able to attend all those great events that I had been able to attend last year. Although, my goal is to save up to go to Japan. That might seem like a dream now but if I work hard enough, I think I can reach it. Oh yeah, I miss anime conventions. Did I mention that?
Posted by Lunatic-kr | Feb 11, 2011 10:07 AM | 2 comments
October 17th, 2009
My First Anicon
So yeah... it's 6 am and I cant fall asleep haha. I've always wanted to write a blog about this but I've never had the time to. But since I have a lot of time on my hands, here I go :P.
Lets see. Where do I beginning? Lets start with my first thoughts about anicons. I honestly had no idea what anicons were like. I mean, I've seen them in animes but I never had a clear image on anicons, like what you do there and ect... The reason why I was intrested to go to an anicon was the anime club in my highschool. Man, I'm glad I joined that club. I could go on, but I'll save that for another blog or something. But yeah, they started to do fund raising so we could get the club members to go to the anicon free of charge (excluding hotel/food fee/ect). In the end, we were able to get like... uhh... I forgot the number but we got a lot of people to go, hahaha.
In the anime club, I have this one friend that I basically talk to the whole time. He was basically the reason why I joined the anime club... I think. Or maybe it was the other way around. I completely forgot hahaha. But yeah, I spent I think the whole 4 days with him at the anicon, since he and I have the same taste in anime. Once I found out that I was able to go for free, I was frantically saving up for the anicon(haha I wish I could say frantically), since I had to pay for food/hotel/ect... Luckily, my friend had another friend who's mom works at the hotel so they get a room for otakon for free every year. If I didn't have that hookup, I would of probably not been able to go. Thanks again for the room Andrew, if you ever read this haha. I love you xD.
The day before the anicon, me and my friend were trying to figure out everything like rides and food and ect. By the way, the anicon was in July. We ended up playing with the food in the grocery store and talking about anime music until we had to leave. With only my backpack (yes, I packed 4 days worth of clothes in my backpack) and 80 dollars (hey, I'm a teenager, what can I say :D), we got into the car on our way to the anicon. Knowing that I would be away from my parents for a full 4 days and out with my friends was one of the best feelings I've ever felt. Usually when I'm away from my parents, I'm usually in some sort of camp or retreat. My mindset going into otakon was "even if the anicon is bad, I can still hang with my friends." When we got there, I was shocked. I mean, I've seen people in line before but I've never seen this many people in one line before. The number of people astounded me. And knowing that they're all in line for the sake of anime was even more astounding. It sort of touched my heart *tear tear*. They were in line for the pre-ticket thingy, I forgot what it was called :P/. This was also the first time I have ever seen cosplay in person. It was actually pretty cool. I'll go into detail of my thoughts on cosplay later.
So we get to the room and I was amazed. The hotel was actually REALLY nice, although the bottled water cost about 3 dollars. We start to unpack and head out into the streets. I love the city. Especially at night. The atmosphere of the city just memorizes me. Just chilling with my friends, walking in the streets of Baltimore, which is in Maryland for those who don't know ;], without a care in the world. I miss those times. Me and my friend were curious on how long the line actually was. So we started to walk. It took us about 20 minutes to actually get to the end of the line, which wrapped like a snake in the end. We were shocked, but we were happy since the president/vice of the anime club were obtaining our tickets for us (thanks Jon and Lisa :D).
We spent the whole night sitting on the tables watching the line move while looking at the cosplay. I have got to say, some of them were really good. Me and my friend were like, "OMG thats Higurashi, and thats Naruto, ANd thats TF2!" for like I'm guessing 3-4 hours. After the line was gone, (there were still people in the line) waiting for it to open in the morning), we went back into the room, where we watched the wierdest thing ever. I won't go into detail but whoever was in the room and is reading this will probably cry laughing. When we got the schedules on all the events/panels happening, me and my friend were honestly a little disappointed. There wasn't really anything that really sparked our interest. Let me rephrase that, there were no panels that struck an intrest, well to me it did. If i remember correctly, my friend thought the same thing. The only ones that I was intrest in were the 18+ panels, which I wasn't able to enter because my birthday was 5 days away T_T. But yeah, we went into the first day with low expectations. At around 12 am, we went to 7-11 to get some shin ramen. Yum... hahaha.
So here we go! First day of the anicon! Here's some info about the anicon I went to. The anicon is called Otakon. It's held at the Baltimore Convention Center down in Baltimore Harbor in, you guessed it, Baltimore, Maryland. I woke up at around I think 12 ish (yes I love sleeping in). So here we are, two newbs who don't really know anything about what to do in an anicon. We weren't really in the mood to do anything in particular so we just walked around, looking at the people walking by. I have never felt so fitted in (is that the right way to say it?) in my life. Or... maybe comfortable is better way to say it. I'm surrounded by millions of people, well maybe not millions, I'm not sure, with the same kind of obsession as I do. Usually, I don't have the opportunity to talk about these kinds of things to other people since most of my friends dont actually watch anime. But here, I felt at ease. We went to go watch a viewing of a show, I don't remember what show was but I came to a realization. I'm not the only person that laughs because of anime. I felt really strange laughing out lound because of an anime but here are hundreds of people laughing with me. Like I said before, it gave me a sense of comfort.
Later, we went into the Artist Gallery, where people try to sell their drawings of miscellaneous things. There was this picture of Mio which I REALLLY wanted but couldn't because I forgot my credit card, so I had to deal with the smaller print instead. After I ate lunch, I came to the realization that if I were to spend money on food, I would have absolutely no money to buy the things that I want. So me and my friend made a pact. We would fast so we could save money which would ultimately be spent on anime things. Sure it hurt like heck but hey, we're otakus ;].
The second day blew us away... like literally. This was the first time we went to the Dealers room, where all the dealers sell their merchandise. The dealer's room is so big that you can lauch a flight jet out of it. My thoughts when I was walking around? "I'm in Heaven." That's literally what was running through my mind when I was walking around. Everything that I have ever wanted and things that I've never knew existed were right in front of me. Figurines, manga, models, keychains, dvd's, ect... all in front of me. There, I found a new eroge translation site that I can use, so I was happy. I also stopped by the JList booth. Some of the things there were pretty whats the word... kinky? hahaha. That's the first word that comes to my mind. I was like a little kid
When I got back to the room at night, I acted like a little kid. Why? Because of my dakimakura of course. I've always wanted one ever since I learned about them. When me and my friend opened the pillows out of their casing, we started to literally do..... I don't think I really want to say this n this blog, but all I can say is that it was magical haha. Now that I had one, I was as happy as that kid who got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. Yes... I even screamed in joy... Hey, I was happy alright?
I didn't buy much, which makes me really sad now that I think about it but What do I treasure the most out of the things I bought? That would definitely have to be my Dakimakura(hugging pillow) with Haruhi. I bought it around the afternoon time so I had to walk around with it everywhere, which sorta made me embarassed but oh well, what can I say? I LOVE IT! :D What's even better is that I got it signed by none other than Yamamoto, Yukata. If you guys don't know who he is, he's the guy who produced Haruhi and Kannagi. Just search him up because he did a lot more than that. After I got it signed, I held up my head high knowing that even though other people have the same dakimakura as I do, mine was special because it was signed by Yamamoto himself.
kk well now i'm tired. i'll finish this at another time. Updated 9.23.9
Lets see. Where do I beginning? Lets start with my first thoughts about anicons. I honestly had no idea what anicons were like. I mean, I've seen them in animes but I never had a clear image on anicons, like what you do there and ect... The reason why I was intrested to go to an anicon was the anime club in my highschool. Man, I'm glad I joined that club. I could go on, but I'll save that for another blog or something. But yeah, they started to do fund raising so we could get the club members to go to the anicon free of charge (excluding hotel/food fee/ect). In the end, we were able to get like... uhh... I forgot the number but we got a lot of people to go, hahaha.
In the anime club, I have this one friend that I basically talk to the whole time. He was basically the reason why I joined the anime club... I think. Or maybe it was the other way around. I completely forgot hahaha. But yeah, I spent I think the whole 4 days with him at the anicon, since he and I have the same taste in anime. Once I found out that I was able to go for free, I was frantically saving up for the anicon(haha I wish I could say frantically), since I had to pay for food/hotel/ect... Luckily, my friend had another friend who's mom works at the hotel so they get a room for otakon for free every year. If I didn't have that hookup, I would of probably not been able to go. Thanks again for the room Andrew, if you ever read this haha. I love you xD.
The day before the anicon, me and my friend were trying to figure out everything like rides and food and ect. By the way, the anicon was in July. We ended up playing with the food in the grocery store and talking about anime music until we had to leave. With only my backpack (yes, I packed 4 days worth of clothes in my backpack) and 80 dollars (hey, I'm a teenager, what can I say :D), we got into the car on our way to the anicon. Knowing that I would be away from my parents for a full 4 days and out with my friends was one of the best feelings I've ever felt. Usually when I'm away from my parents, I'm usually in some sort of camp or retreat. My mindset going into otakon was "even if the anicon is bad, I can still hang with my friends." When we got there, I was shocked. I mean, I've seen people in line before but I've never seen this many people in one line before. The number of people astounded me. And knowing that they're all in line for the sake of anime was even more astounding. It sort of touched my heart *tear tear*. They were in line for the pre-ticket thingy, I forgot what it was called :P/. This was also the first time I have ever seen cosplay in person. It was actually pretty cool. I'll go into detail of my thoughts on cosplay later.
So we get to the room and I was amazed. The hotel was actually REALLY nice, although the bottled water cost about 3 dollars. We start to unpack and head out into the streets. I love the city. Especially at night. The atmosphere of the city just memorizes me. Just chilling with my friends, walking in the streets of Baltimore, which is in Maryland for those who don't know ;], without a care in the world. I miss those times. Me and my friend were curious on how long the line actually was. So we started to walk. It took us about 20 minutes to actually get to the end of the line, which wrapped like a snake in the end. We were shocked, but we were happy since the president/vice of the anime club were obtaining our tickets for us (thanks Jon and Lisa :D).
We spent the whole night sitting on the tables watching the line move while looking at the cosplay. I have got to say, some of them were really good. Me and my friend were like, "OMG thats Higurashi, and thats Naruto, ANd thats TF2!" for like I'm guessing 3-4 hours. After the line was gone, (there were still people in the line) waiting for it to open in the morning), we went back into the room, where we watched the wierdest thing ever. I won't go into detail but whoever was in the room and is reading this will probably cry laughing. When we got the schedules on all the events/panels happening, me and my friend were honestly a little disappointed. There wasn't really anything that really sparked our interest. Let me rephrase that, there were no panels that struck an intrest, well to me it did. If i remember correctly, my friend thought the same thing. The only ones that I was intrest in were the 18+ panels, which I wasn't able to enter because my birthday was 5 days away T_T. But yeah, we went into the first day with low expectations. At around 12 am, we went to 7-11 to get some shin ramen. Yum... hahaha.
So here we go! First day of the anicon! Here's some info about the anicon I went to. The anicon is called Otakon. It's held at the Baltimore Convention Center down in Baltimore Harbor in, you guessed it, Baltimore, Maryland. I woke up at around I think 12 ish (yes I love sleeping in). So here we are, two newbs who don't really know anything about what to do in an anicon. We weren't really in the mood to do anything in particular so we just walked around, looking at the people walking by. I have never felt so fitted in (is that the right way to say it?) in my life. Or... maybe comfortable is better way to say it. I'm surrounded by millions of people, well maybe not millions, I'm not sure, with the same kind of obsession as I do. Usually, I don't have the opportunity to talk about these kinds of things to other people since most of my friends dont actually watch anime. But here, I felt at ease. We went to go watch a viewing of a show, I don't remember what show was but I came to a realization. I'm not the only person that laughs because of anime. I felt really strange laughing out lound because of an anime but here are hundreds of people laughing with me. Like I said before, it gave me a sense of comfort.
Later, we went into the Artist Gallery, where people try to sell their drawings of miscellaneous things. There was this picture of Mio which I REALLLY wanted but couldn't because I forgot my credit card, so I had to deal with the smaller print instead. After I ate lunch, I came to the realization that if I were to spend money on food, I would have absolutely no money to buy the things that I want. So me and my friend made a pact. We would fast so we could save money which would ultimately be spent on anime things. Sure it hurt like heck but hey, we're otakus ;].
The second day blew us away... like literally. This was the first time we went to the Dealers room, where all the dealers sell their merchandise. The dealer's room is so big that you can lauch a flight jet out of it. My thoughts when I was walking around? "I'm in Heaven." That's literally what was running through my mind when I was walking around. Everything that I have ever wanted and things that I've never knew existed were right in front of me. Figurines, manga, models, keychains, dvd's, ect... all in front of me. There, I found a new eroge translation site that I can use, so I was happy. I also stopped by the JList booth. Some of the things there were pretty whats the word... kinky? hahaha. That's the first word that comes to my mind. I was like a little kid
When I got back to the room at night, I acted like a little kid. Why? Because of my dakimakura of course. I've always wanted one ever since I learned about them. When me and my friend opened the pillows out of their casing, we started to literally do..... I don't think I really want to say this n this blog, but all I can say is that it was magical haha. Now that I had one, I was as happy as that kid who got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. Yes... I even screamed in joy... Hey, I was happy alright?
I didn't buy much, which makes me really sad now that I think about it but What do I treasure the most out of the things I bought? That would definitely have to be my Dakimakura(hugging pillow) with Haruhi. I bought it around the afternoon time so I had to walk around with it everywhere, which sorta made me embarassed but oh well, what can I say? I LOVE IT! :D What's even better is that I got it signed by none other than Yamamoto, Yukata. If you guys don't know who he is, he's the guy who produced Haruhi and Kannagi. Just search him up because he did a lot more than that. After I got it signed, I held up my head high knowing that even though other people have the same dakimakura as I do, mine was special because it was signed by Yamamoto himself.
kk well now i'm tired. i'll finish this at another time. Updated 9.23.9
Posted by Lunatic-kr | Oct 17, 2009 5:10 AM | 0 comments