Koacon 2026 – A ghost by the bedside and more tabling!

Hello geeks both big and small!

I am back home from my first Koacon experience! Koacon is a fairly new one-day anime convention in Kokkola, Finland, that was held on the 22nd August. The location for the event was the Musiikkikeskus Snellman building and it was free entrance to boot!

Let's go~

Koacon entrance.

I had tried my luck already earlier and applied to be part of Koacon's Artist Alley, especially because they had an extremely simple and beginner-friendly application form, which made it possible for me to apply despite the baby shoes I'm still wearing in terms of my art business lol. I just haven't been able to make a portfolio or any dedicated art page yet and honestly it feels like a jungle to try and figure everything out (I'm easily overwhelmed) while also trying to get my socials up and running at the same time. So yeah, thanks to Koacon not requiring a dedicated portfolio the newbie that is me managed to secure a spot! 

As soon as I got the confirmation, which was literally the day after Mericon, I started mentally preparing for my second outing. Now I had some experience to go on and knew what to expect – I also had a hum on where my biggest struggles and weaknesses were and that's very much why I asked Firith to be my helper, although I didn't really need to ask as there might have been an intention to help out by default.. xD Especially now that neither of us was tied down by other responsibilities, as was the case in Mericon. So yeah, needless to say Firith was my assistant and travel buddy!

We left for Kokkola by train on the Friday before the con; our train departed from Kemi 10:40 and roughly three hours later we arrived in Kokkola, also known as Karleby to the Swedish-speaking Finns.
I gotta say here that I've actually never properly been to Kokkola before, we always only ever drove right past it during roadtrips – though last year we did stop here to grab some dinner while heading home from Mericon and that was simply because Kokkola just so happened to be the next town coming up when we were hungry and needed a break from driving. 

Because we were on a budget we had booked a room at Hotel Seurahuone, one of the cheapest options available, which also happened to be conveniently located very close to the railway station. I could tell by looking at the facade of the building as we got closer that it was old but I had no clue at the time that it was built in 1894, meaning it was well over a hundred years old!

We checked in and got our room keys – room number 515. On the fifth floor. I walked up and down a lot of stairs this weekend because the elevator was of the kind that triggers my fear of elevators. :') We got to the room and it was pretty decent aside from some surface wear and tear (small dots of peeled paint on one side of the wall, yellowing in the faucet etc) and a hazardous power socket that was hanging out the wall with the cables exposed, lol. Good thing there were other functional sockets elsewhere in the room.

Our room was simple but cozy in its own nostalgic way.

It was a surprisingly hot day – it felt like summer had returned out of nowhere! I was boiling in my Sonata Arctica hoodie by the time we got to the room because I had prepared for the same rainy, cold weather we've had in Lapland the past weeks. We immediately opened the windows to air out the room as there was no air conditioning. Yet surprisingly the room never got stifling hot nor uncomfortable. Except that we noticed that our large Toblerone chocolate bar was all soft when we opened it after it had been lying around the room all day... xD

We were quite hungry and started to check on Google Maps and ResQ what food options we had. There were surprisingly few considering we were basically in the heart of the town we even had a couch Pokémon Go gym lmao.
Because we were tight on money we decided to take a calculated risk and so we waited and waited in the hopes that something decent would appear on the ResQ food waste app. Firith was really hungry and there might have been some sort of a silent mental battle of wills commencing in the room while we tried to reason whether it was worth waiting or if we should cave and go to the newly opened restaurant just across the street with the AI slop logo just because it had inexpensive chicken kebab...
Luckily our gamble paid off and, much to our excitement, a restaurant named Lucky Cat that was nearby had put up several 12 piece sushi box offers on ResQ and so we could get one each! What makes it even better is that Lucky Cat is the exact restaurant we went to last year and so we knew that it was good.

This is how I eat my takeaway sushi at a hotel. :D

We successfully found our way to the restaurant and were surprised to learn that at Lucky Cat you get to pick what pieces you want on rescued sushi, which we've never come across before! It has always been pre-prepared in all other places we've bought from through ResQ. This meant that Firith didn't have to worry about getting a lot of raw salmon sushi (salmon's so common and Firith has a consistency aversion to raw fish that rarely sees exceptions) and we could both pick our favorites. Satisfied with our sushi hauls (6,90€ each) we waddled back to the hotel to eat them.

After we finished eating it was time to do the preparation work for my Artist Alley booth, which mainly meant writing and cutting out last-minute price signs for all my different products. I had learned from Mericon and various posts on Instagram that clear prices at every item is a must-have and, in hindsight, having a list might have affected my sales because not immediately seeing what something costs (even if the price list is visible) might deter some potential customers. I know I'm nervous of asking what something costs out of fear that I can't afford it and will then have to undergo the awkwardness of leaving, lol.

Oh well, once we got all that prep work done it was time to slow down for the night couldn't watch National Geographic this time lol and go shower and do the face washing routines. Unluckily for me I've had some issues with skin breakouts a lot this year and yeah, it's one of the reasons I haven't felt comfortable cosplaying much this year because it's impossible to predict and I don't know why it's been so often this year. Stress? Whatever the case I had blotchy, uneven red skin now too and it made me feel rather self-conscious. :c Not so much I could do about it except accept that it's there for now...

Once I was done with my night prepping I went to bed and put a pillow between my knees like I usually do to support my knees and minimize hypermobility pain. I can't sleep on my back without that extra pillow. I thought I'd just drift off to sleep like normal but alas, how wrong I was!
And this, my friends, was when the most intriguing thing of the whole Kokkola visit happened, namely my paranormal encounter, aka ghost experience. 
I gotta put an immediate disclaimer here though and say that, while I'm not a particularly superstitious nor spiritual person, I have still had a small handful of unexplainable encounters before but that's about it – I don't actively practice any faith or spirituality aside from having an affinity for pretty rocks and a general interest in the larger topic. I am a curious, deeply feeling person by nature though and I believe that those who passed can sometimes, due to various circumstances, linger in the fabric between life and death and make themselves known to living persons who meet certain unknown conditions, whatever those may be at any moment.
As I laid on my back I eventually drifted into that weird intermediate state between wakefulness and falling asleep (apparently it has a name: hypnagogia) and I clearly recall seeing the view of the hotel room from where I was lying, and as I was looking right in front of me one second there was nothing out of the ordinary (except that somehow the room looked older?) and then, the next second, there's suddenly a very bright white silhouette of a young lady standing perfectly still just next to the edge of the bed. The white light radiating from her body is almost blinding; I couldn't make out her face or anything except that her hair was tied back and she was wearing the attire of a last century working class housemaid based on the general outlines of the apparition (I studied fashion/sewing back in the days and have an interest in history, hence why I could immediately recognize what I saw). The apparition didn't speak and neither could I move or do anything but be a spectator. I saw her calmly extend her right arm towards me, palm upwards, and that's when I had that nauseous split-second feeling when it feels like your head is being pulled down through the bed and into some weightless abyssal void and that sensation jolted me wide awake in a burst of panic.
I didn't say anything and went back to sleep.

The following morning I told Firith about my weird experience and I learned that I wasn't the only one who had seen that exact same thing?? We compared details and everything matched, even the timing of our encounters was almost exactly the same, down to what hour of the night it occured on, despite both of us being unaware that the other one experienced it too. Firith had even noticed my spasm but had chosen not to say anything at the time. There is no way we could have influenced each other in any way before this occured; it's not like we told creepy stories or watched or listened to anything unsettling that could have made our imagination more susceptible to animate a ghost encounter into the subconscious mind.
What makes it creepier is that it wasn't until this morning that Firith got curious and decided to look it up online and we learnt that, in fact, this hotel is indeed haunted (one Youtube channel even claimed it's the most haunted hotel in Finland) by an early 1900s ghost called Elsi.. and she was a young maid. Ding-ding-ding! According to the story Elsi was a servant girl who fell fiercely in love with the owner of the hotel but her love was forbidden, due to them belonging to different estates, and apparently her immense disappointment bound her soul to roam the hotel upon her death.
I felt no hostility emanating from her presence during my brief encounter; she was more curious if anything? According to those well-versed in paranormal lore the color of ghosts can signal their energy, emotions or what type of spirit they are – with white commonly representing purity, peace or a harmless, benevolent spirit. Exactly the vibes I got.
So yeah, I learnt that this residential ghost maid has frequently been observed by other guests through the years in the form of lights flickering, the elevator moving on its own and stuff like the coffee maker suddenly turning on. I didn't hear invisible footsteps in the corridor during our stay but it wouldn't surprise me if someone else has. One of my other paranormal encounters from a few years back involves invisible, logically unexplainable footsteps in a house where everyone else was sleeping except me.

Once we had briefed our newfound supernatural housemaid visitor's knowledge to a satisfactory conclusion we moved our focus back to the con day at hand. The breakfast downstairs opened at 8:00 and we headed down to eat soon after. I noticed that there was a different receptionist at the desk. I can't remember that yesterday's receptionist would have told us about potential of a spooky lady when we checked in, unless she mentioned it briefly in passing while I was zoning out. 

My breakfast. Yay for cantaloupe melon slices!

Not gonna lie, I was excited to see a waffle iron available and immediately followed the instructions listed to make a waffle.. only to notice that the iron was stone cold. It wasn't turned on for some reason and now I was stuck in an awkward waffle humiliation limbo because I couldn't just abandon the quest and leave the dough in there for the next person to find and wonder how long it has been there... xD So yeah, I stood parked in front of the thing for what felt like forever and waited for said waffle iron to heat up so that I could get my damn waffle. At least I wasn't the only victim of this unfortunate fate as a middle-aged woman ended up doing the same mistake soon after me, lol. And she kept impatiently lifting the lid so that her undercooked gooey waffle got stuck on the lid and tore all over the place lmao. Worst part is that the waffle didn't even taste like anything when I finally got it out. :c

Once we were done with breakfast we headed back up to the room to do our makeup. I wasn't cosplaying but I still had a wig and some alt fashion accessories with me to change things up. Thankfully blasting my mug with foundation and some powder hid the worst of the awful breakout signs. I felt experimental and somewhat whimsy and so I did my makeup look a bit more extra than usual~

View upon entering Koacon. Cloakroom to the right.

We took a taxi to the con with all our Artist Alley stuff in tow. Once we arrived at the con venue at around 10:15 we noticed that there was a handful of people guarding the entrance but it was easy to get clearance by just telling them that we were Artist Alley vendors, which probably was pretty obvious anyway with all that luggage and me carrying a bulletin board lol.
We were guided to an available table by a friendly dude who was courteous enough to apologize for a mistake on their end – you see, a few days before the con I had messaged Koacon about the possibility to reserve one of the few in-between sized tables (the small ones would be borderline too small and I didn't want to take the largest ones from someone who really needed those due to big vertical displays etc) and I had been told that it was possible and with an implication that it will be handled. But when we arrived those odd-sized tables had been taken by others already, meaning Koacon's crew forgot about it.
Luckily though there was one big table left, which we claimed.

Me and Firith started putting up the table and it at least felt faster than last time? We had a general idea on where to place things, although it wasn't all that different from the Mericon setup as the only difference in merchandise was that I now had two new InuYasha character keychains. The table itself had a slight improvement though because now I had a table runner with my logo on it instead of just a laminated A3 held up by masking tape. :'D I also had a single grid box to lean the bulletin board on instead of a random drawer lmao. You can see a quick video of my table display here.

Technically Artist Alley people were allowed in already as early as 9:00 but we knew we didn't need two hours to get the table up and it would have been very tight to arrive that early anyway as the hotel breakfast only opened at 8:00 and after that we still had all the getting ready stuff to do.

We were in the clear by the time a volunteer came over to inform everyone that con visitors will start arriving at 11:00 and that hopefully everyone has their setup completed by then. 

Turriperseet väsymyksestä huolimatta valmiina päivään.. (◕‿◕)

I remember one of my early feelings being that of some kind of "oh shit" mixed adrenaline and the former was because, strategically speaking, having a table at the far corner is one of the not-so-good placements, especially when the intended walking route is to veer off towards another direction just in front of said table. I noticed this a lot in action by just watching; you'd see a fair amount of people throughout the day browsing the opposite side and not even realizing that there was one more table left behind them before moving on to the next section of the room. And I'm not gonna lie, it was quite disheartening at first; the first two hours were so slow I started to fear I wouldn't even get the table cost back (which was 25€). A part of this stress was in relation to my Mericon selling experience where the first hours were the best ones and that was, at the moment, my only point of reference to go on.
I did notice though as the day went on that the pace picked up, not just to me but to other nearby tables as well – and I guess I can attribute this to people first making a round through all tables and taking mental notes before deciding on what to buy. I guess I tend to do the same sometimes so it makes sense, unless of course I see something that I absolutely need in my life.

One of the Artist Alley rooms and the one I was in.
See Firith at the far back for our placement, lol.

As the day went on the prospective outlook steadily got better. Of course there were silent moments during popular activities like the cosplay competition and the various k-pop dance shows etc but these breaks in traffic were also a good opportunity to eat your snacks and go to the bathroom, lol. Especially now when we remembered to bring edibles with us! Coconut mochi and energy/electrolyte drinks sustained us...

For obvious reasons neither of us attended any scheduled activities, mainly because there always needed to be someone at the table and it's just not as fun to go watch something alone. I know I wouldn't be able to focus on leisure time without feeling that tinge of guilt, aka "I should be at my table in case there's a situation I'm needed at right now". :'D
Surprisingly enough it never got boring to sit behind the table (thanks to various interactions and of course banter between us two) and I didn't get too antsy although I had my anxiety cranked up to eleven. At least I had been smart and taken my anti-anxiety medication before arriving, to stay calm better. And I did have my sketch book with me that I was drawing on to regulate myself when my mind got loud. I'm not sure if I imagined things or not but it sure felt like people came closer and lingered more when I was focused on drawing and looked busy...? xD Maybe other anxious people deem you more approachable when you aren't actively looking in their general direction? I know I get uncomfortable if someone looks at me lol, although I do actively try to not look people directly in the eyes when they're approaching because it personally makes me feel pressured if someone does it to me, haha.

Throughout the day I ended up selling out some of my embroidered hand towels, in particular all the Dark Souls themed ones. I wasn't prepared for their popularity because they didn't sell that well at Mericon and so I bought less of my total stock with me this time, leaving some at home to make the carrying load a bit easier to deal with in public transport. Towels take up quite some space, after all.
Koacon clearly had the Dark Souls fans because I sold several sun bro keychains too – he was my most popular design. :') Never underestimate how passionate some gamer fandoms can be! The funny thing is that before I did my first event I had thought that Solaire of Astora would be one of the least popular ones because there's an increasingly bigger percentage of younger generations at cons and they probably don't play soulslike games lol.

Artist Alley corridor area, aka what you first saw.

I gotta say though that when I went on my first bathroom break (that's also when I took these summary photos with my phone btw) it dawned on me that Koacon is basically 50% Artist Alley.. or something. I did not know prior to arriving that there would be such a focus on artists and it was quite a shook moment because my assumptions before I left home was that it would be a tiny con with just a dozen tables at most. I'm pretty sure there were upwards of 30 tables present; there was the whole corridor pictured above along with two, or was it three, classrooms? It was quite a lot when put in proportion to the overall size of the event venue, although I obviously don't complain because Artist Alleys are my favorite things in anime conventions. :D I just wasn't expecting this amount at all!

Due to my Artist Alley obligations I didn't have time to properly explore; I have no idea how the con flowed outside of the room I was in and I'm sure I missed to even see all the things Koacon had to offer because yeah, based on their program schedule there were board games and an accessory workshop (ears and jewelry) in some other rooms I don't think I ever saw during my quick walkthrough? It's not like I could have participated anyway but I like documenting and mapping out events to have a full idea of what they offered. :) I even heard afterwards that there had been a kendo display at some point although I didn't see any mentions of it being a thing? 

I feel like this summary is harder to write than usual because I basically only experienced one part of the con (aka being a vendor) and that makes it harder to imagine what it would have looked like from the eyes of a visitor who gets a more complete picture, if that makes sense? Obviously I would never regret being in the Artist Alley – I loved the experience and I had some really lovely and memorable interactions once again. ;_; Few things in life give me as much joy as seeing people feeling seen by my art and crafts!
I realized, after the fact, that I interrupted a few chatty and nice customers by talking before they had finished their sentences and I absolutely didn't mean to talk over anyone – what actually happens is that my brain works so fast that I end up blurting out my thoughts before I forget what I wanted to say; I'm just too excited to connect and to show that 'I understand' aka can relate to what you're telling me. This is one of my more prominent struggles with being on the spectrum and I'm legit terrified of someone thinking I'm intentionally and maliciously interrupting them sometimes to the point I stay silent and avoid contact in my day-to-day life. My brain runs like Sonic at all times and if I don't say what's on my mind the second it spawns in it will fade away quicker than a fart in Sahara.

Towards the end of the con I noticed other artists starting to pack up early, aka when there was like 30 minutes left of con time – Koacon closed at 19:00 but I heard that the doors would stay open after that due to some other program being held in the Snellman building. I figured we might as well start dismantling because the last hour was basically dead anyway.

Free-for-all boffer soft combat outside the entrance.

A little bit before all artists started packing up this one blonde guy came over and made a purchase at my table (he had showed interest before but was probably busy running errands, he seemed to be one of the con workers) and on the same go mentioned that a boffer foam combat activity would soon be starting outside and asked if we'd want to join. I've wanted to try this kind of soft weapon combat for years but always been either too shy to participate or had unsuitable clothes on. But as we finished packing away our stuff I got so sweaty the back of my shirt was soaking wet eww (dysautonomia fucking sucks) and yeah, the exhaustion hit hard once we got out of the room and so we didn't really have the capacity to take part. The disappointment in his face when he came over to remind us (we were waiting for our taxi) made me feel so guilty. :'( Next time bro!

Back at the hotel I yeeted my shirt off and soon enough it dawned on us that heck, we're hungry! Unfortunately for us the clock was already around 19:30 and some restaurants would already be closed or close to closing. We were starting to worry if we would even get budget-friendly dinner tonight unless we went to the AI slop place which was open to 5:00 on weekends and then I had the idea to check ResQ just in case, even though we had already mentally ruled it out for the night, expecting all the deals to be gone by now. You can guess my surprise when I saw that Lucky Cat was still there and there were sushi boxes again.. except that there was 15 minutes left to claim and pick up anything. Shiiiiiiii--!

Boba fruit teas tasted so good after a long hot day.

Needless to say we bolted out the door and speedwalked over to the shopping center in which Lucky Cat was located. We made it in time and even ordered some bubble teas as the money saved on the sushi allowed us to get something nice to drink. :') And no, eating sushi twice in a row wasn't a problem at all, especially when it's of decent quality!

The rest of the night we counted the cashbox and overall profits and then repackaged everything more properly because yeah, during the con we just put stuff wherever it fit as the space we had to work with was crammed. We had some head-scratching moments at first with the amounts not matching up but we found the error and, luckily, there were no mistakes!

Not gonna lie about one thing though – we were nervous to go to bed after the spookiness of last night lol! Firith wanted to sleep with the lights on but I said no as the main lamp would have been right in front of my face. xD There was another, less distracting, lamp near the bathroom though which we decided to keep on. And I don't know if the lights mattered or not but I saw no Elsi ghost that night – just one of my regular, deeply unsettling nightmares. Would have preferred the ghost, ngl.

Morning came and so did departure day. We went to eat breakfast again this time no waffles because I saw that the power was turned off before I committed lol and then we chilled in the room until it was time to leave. When we checked out we briefly mentioned the ghost experience and the receptionist answered in such an unbothered "ah, she's doing her antics again" way which made the whole thing sound so familiar and normal, haha. We also learned that Elsi has her own private room at the hotel, a mysterious space with a balcony that you can actually see.

We walked over to the train station and while waiting for the train to arrive we did a couple raids on Pokémon Go (there was a Psyduck with a cute swim ring outfit). The rest of the trip home went fine, nothing out of the ordinary. We did kinda lament that we hadn't had the forethought to buy an extra box of sushi that we could have saved and consumed in the train.

All in all I was positively surprised by Koacon my brain still wants to autocorrect to Kokkocon lmao and it was a great experience, even though it was a different kind of nervosity to go to a new con directly as a seller instead of doing a "normal visit" first to check what it's like – into the deep end I went, yolo! I went in with rather low expectations and I was even mentally prepared to take the L and to see it as a valuable learning experience if worse came to worst, but Koacon delivered!
Of course since it's still a new event (this was the second Koacon, first one was last year) they are still finding their groove and footing – and that makes it hard to know what choices were deliberate and what were down to inexperience, you know? One thing in particular is how the artist tables weren't assigned by the Koacon team but available on a who-claims-it-first-on-site-gets-it system, which is unheard of, from what I know at least? I can see both pros and cons with this approach, generally speaking – it adds a lot of stress and pressure to be among the earliest to grab a "good spot" although, in its favor, you could argue that at least everyone technically gets a chance (assuming they're fast enough) instead of being outright handed a "bad spot" by the organizers because well, someone inevitably will get that spot. :D
Another thing I would be concerned about is that this kind of the-fast-eat-the-weak system only functions on the assumption that those who are early are also self-aware of how much space they truly need and are also considerate of the needs of others – so far my experience is that the artist community is super supportive and understanding of each other but, if we play the gritty realist for a second, then you only need a few rotten apples, in theory, and the whole foundation of this kind of seller-picked allocation system will come tumbling down; it's very dependent on everyone following unwritten rules and being good samaritans. Having the organizers choose the placements before the event lessens the risk of potential drama and the build-up of bad blood down the line.
A disclaimer here that I'm not mentioning this because I would have distrust in the maturity of the art community nor some beef with my table placement or anything, in fact I'm very happy with my overall sales! It's just that personally I think I would lean towards preferring table spots to be handed out by the organizers by whatever allocation system they deem fair (lottery, time of application, popularity, size needs etc). :)

Oh, one more thing! I can't help but feel that 25€ for a table at a small, not yet established convention is a tad on the high end. For comparison Terucon's table fee was 15€ this year while Mericon and Kemin mangapäivä are both free. I also heard that Tracon's 'taidepolku' fee was 30€ last year so yeah, that really puts things in perspective. I don't have knowledge about other conventions than those mentioned, and so I don't have enough stats to do a well-rounded observation. I do know though that in other countries Artist Alley booths are ridiculously expensive (can go up to hundreds of euros) and I really fucking hope Finland never ever goes down that same route because yeah, a sad reality is that a big chunk of artists don't break even after a con weekend. :'(

I hope this doesn't sound overly critical or anything as that's not my intention at all! I had an astoundingly great time at Kokkola and selling my art products at the con – I would absolutely return next year, if possible! Koacon felt warm and welcoming and there was a sense of community in the air and in the interactions between people. This is in fact one of my favorite con trips so far, for this year, and it gave me a good booster shot of confidence to keep nurturing my art dreams. Slow and steady wins the race~

Thanks to the Koacon crew and everyone who interacted with me!
Shiro Samurai (aka KaamosWolf) is out~ 

Matsucon 2026 – Emotionally invested in a cake, I was

 Hello geeks!

I was at Matsucon earlier this month during 8-9 August and, well, I'm not gonna lie, I ended up getting sucked into Genshin Impact (I was catching up on the main story; I was in the beginning of Nod-Krai and now I'm up to date in Snezhnaya lol) and that's why this summary comes a wee bit later than my usual post-con scheduling would be. Eheh.

Let's get on with it~!

Matsucon info booklet. (couldn't find a poster :D)

I've been to Matsucon for many years now so it hardly needs lengthy introductions at this point lolol. Once again Matsucon was held in Pohjankartano, a school building (and 'monitoimitalo' I guess, whatever that is in English) in Oulu, Finland. I live fairly close, roughly a one-hour train trip away so I tend to make it a point to go to Matsucon annually to support it and also because I really like Oulu as a city – it's comfy, pretty and there's a lot of nice restaurants and park areas etc.

Just like before I applied to be a volunteer worker because why not? Always a pleasure to safeguard that we get these events in the future too, I mean if no one gave their time to cons then there wouldn't be any cons! It's as simple as that. And besides, I think the Matsucon organizers are very friendly and accommodating to my needs and that makes me want to be a part of the team every year – I feel welcome and valued.
I applied to the video game room (last time was in 2023) and got in. I've never been denied a volunteer spot at any con by the way, which I think speaks for how needed every one of us is!

As per usual I traveled down by train to Oulu the day before, on Friday, with Firith as company. Our train left Kemi 17:00 and once we got to Oulu roughly one hour later the first thing we did was immediately walk over to Pohjankartano to drop off our flea market items and to grab our worker badges in advance. Or well, Firith was not a worker but a panelist (program host). Once that was done we walked to our hotel in centrum.. but not before I grabbed a cup of bubble tea on the go. xD We had booked a room at Sokos Hotel Arina, which is basically our mainstay hotel at this point. 
We didn't stay in the room for long before we went to a nearby foodstore and, uhh, that trip resulted in me buying an unhinged amount of pick and mix candy (or 'irtokarkit' as we say in Finnish) because there was a big sale and I saw a lot of candies I hadn't seen anywhere in ages. The sale price was the pre-inflation normal price too, which now felt super cheap in comparison. After that not-so-proud moment of mine we headed straight for pizza at Pablos. Ahh, coniruokavalio. :'D 
The rest of the night we watched some National Geographic, which is a tradition by now, and then we went to bed.

We woke up around 8 or something like that, I slept relatively okay when I take in account all the shoulder pains and stiffness I've had lately. Despite not having a cosplay to put on (I went in my ordinary clothes) it took us quite a while to get con-ready due to tiredness and I also had some lowkey nausea. I ended up missing the morning info briefing but that didn't matter much as we had already gotten instructions through email prior and yeah, I'm a familiar face to the game room manager so she knows I'm capable.

Matsucon outside view, the food truck was a new addition!

My first shift for the day would start at 14:00 so by the time we arrived at the con (at around 11:45) we still had a few hours of free time. Or well, Firith needed to go to prepare the Genshin Impact panel which would start at 12:00. I went there as emotional support and to take some photos; the contents of the panel were the same as on its first outing in Terucon last year. This was essentially a rerun. 

'Seuraava Potilas!' Genshin Impact panel.

The panel tackles themes of mental health and personality disorders and features these kind of lighthearted takes and what-ifs on what difficulties and diagnoses the game's characters could be battling with based on their personalities, backgrounds and such. It's an interesting concept and there's room for a lot of reflection, education and entertainment. I also happen to know that there's a second part planned for this one in the future with a new batch of characters~

The duration of the panel was roughly 30 minutes and after that we spent the remaining free time that I had on checking out the Dealer's Hall. Mainly because I had a custom order from Si3art that I wanted to go pick up.

Dealer's Hall viewed from above, aka the main area.

The Dealer's Hall is a mix of artisans (which are basically those artists who have outgrown the Artist Alley, usually they run established businesses) and vendors like Manga Cafe and the guest of honor Nako Ichinose's booth. For those unaware the latter is a Japanese musician (singer, songwriter, and pianist).
Mastucon has always had the different vendors located in the large main hall, which means you see all the merchandise tables almost immediately upon entering the building. I like to think that this "instant shopping view" adds to how quickly my mind registers that I'm at an anime convention – it's like it speeds up the internal calibration process and gets me in the right mindspace faster lol!

Entrance to the video game room.

Before I knew it I had to head on over to the video game room to start my work shift; I would work 4 hours per day, meaning 8 hours in total during the duration of the con. I had one long shift per day, meaning I did all 4 hours in one go. Normally this length would be stressful and difficult to me to do in one sitting but as I'm already acclimatized to Matsucon's environment –and the gaming room is a very safe space for me (I know how consoles work due to my gamer background etc)– it's surprisingly doable because I guess my mind doesn't fully register it as "work" but more of a "be helpful and nice to other gamers and watch over the consoles" which is something I would do naturally in a home setting if I had a group of friends over anyway. The only thing that changes in the equation is that I don't know the people who come over to play and that I now have teammates to organize food and piss breaks with lol.

Video game room view.

Unlike the last time I volunteered at the gaming room this time the room was split by two different.. err, factions, I guess one could say? :D So Matsucon's gaming department, aka us, had three retro consoles available for use (a Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and Xbox One with retro games like Mega Man collections and The Secret of Monkey Island) while FGC Oulu provided the lion's share of the room in terms of more modern consoles with a sole focus on fighting games. It probably goes without saying that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was a popular choice throughout the day and often played on the big screen! Oh and yeah, there was an indie game dev group in the room too and you could playtest a very early version of their frog daycare game!

My work shift went without a hitch and I dare say I had pretty fun; my colleagues were nice to be around and it felt like I was a part of a merry mix of more-or-less strangers with a shared interest! During slower moments we'd talk about our experiences playing different games and Hannu would lorebomb me with Castlevania stuff and other fun facts of the gaming industry, including intricacies of the OG console war between Sega and Nintendo!

Before I knew it the clock was 18:00 and it was time to pull my ass off the chair and head back to the hotel as Matsucon was over for the day. I don't have a clear recollection of memories on what we did after the con but I know we were hungry at some point and that we went to McDonald's for dinner because our wallets were on a diet, not us. :') There's an economic reason for why I volunteer every year at Matsucon and that's to save on ticket costs lmao.
McDonald's had some new weird super green lemonade that we had to try no we're not easily affected by ads wdym but meh, it wasn't as good as we had hoped. :c It tasted a bit too synthetic for my liking. 

We went back to our hotel room after mäkkiöverit I maybe shouldn't eat a whole share box by myself next time lol and I was scrolling the ResQ app for any last-minute treats that were budget-friendly and in need of saving. Turns out that the lowkey luxurious cafeteria restaurant, that's literally on the opposite side of the hotel, had a pair of fancy apple and salted caramel cakes up. There was like 10 minutes left to nab them though before they were cooked (aka the whole place closed) and so me and my human appendages, which they also call legs, sprinted down the hallways and across the street to grab them because I was overcome by emotional investment and couldn't bear the thought of a perfectly good cake being binned because no one bought it within an arbitrarily imposed upon time frame. Yay for neurospicy hyper-sentimentality towards inanimate objects activating for a greater cause..? 

Rescued salted caramel cakes. So worth it. ;_;

By this time the clock was already getting quite late and so we ate the cakes (I can really recommend Ravintola Puistola's pastries, especially through the ResQ app to prevent unnecessary food waste at the end of the day!) and mindlessly watched the good ol' National Geographic for a bit before eventually going to bed. 

I'm not sure but I think we woke up around 8:00 in the following morning. We headed down for hotel breakfast and then it was time to pack our stuff and check out of the hotel because yeah, in almost every accommodation place you have to be out the door by 12:00 on departure day. But unlike our previous kermaperseily or well, mainly Firith's xD this time our overextended budget prevented us from calling a taxi to the con and so we walked with all our luggage to Pohjankartano. Thankfully the weather was in our favor, although the mental lagginess wasn't.

View towards the entrance feat. info desk and ticket sales point.

This time we had more free time to explore than what we had on Saturday because now we were actually early and none of us had any responsibilites until I had to go work at 12:00. This meant we could go and to our united Artist Alley run (it's more fun to browse with a friend!) and then just chill the rest of the time. 

I like how Matsucon is very upfront with the rules.

Browsing Artist Alley is one of my favorite pastimes at anime conventions and other such events because I like seeing art and creative joy come together in a shared space – I've always been a part of art communities since early adolescence and even though my spending possibilities are often really restricted I like supporting fellow artists even if it's just stickers for a couple euros. I also really enjoy interacting with people (even though sometimes I get really bad anxiety and don't know how to end a conversation or overthink and overanalyze everything I said for days after lol) and now that I've just had my first tabling experience myself I can see things from both sides a bit clearer – it is an interesting position to be in when you have experience of being both the customer and the seller.

Artist Alley view.

Another Artist Alley view.

Matsucon's Artist Alley is located on the two ends of the second floor, there's sufficient space to move around and browse, although it tends to get crowded during the initial opening and some popular hours. There was a nice variety of artists and products and I bought a few small items, mainly stickers and a wooden fridge magnet with a funny Magnemite art on it.
There were some small artists I hadn't seen in a good while and it was really nice to talk and bond with them, especially now that I'm also a part of the creator gang haha! 

General view of the main hall, as seen from the second floor.

Welp, eventually the clock would inch very close to 12:00 and that was my cue to make way towards the video game room. It was quite busy by the time I arrived but it simmered down within the first hour towards a relaxed lull of a pace. There were enough slow moments that I could sit down and game for my own entertainment, which was really pleasant and a great way to manage my own nervous system to avoid adverse stress reactions building up.

Finally someone had brought Super Mario World! 

I somehow can't help but find it a bit funny how I've spent years checking video game rooms at cons for Super Mario World and after years and years of no such luck it randomly shows up at a restaurant in Rauma, no less, and then somehow it's also suddenly available at Matsucon?? What's the odds and, more importantly, why did some higher powers spend all their wish-fulfillment tickets on me on the same month? xD Is this peak trolling? What am I unknowingly paying for the stars to align so favorably lmao

The work went fine and lasted until 16:00 when we started to pack up all things and return the classroom to its natural order, aka how it was before Matsucon's crew moved all furniture around. I assisted with the packing and yeah, once the classroom looked like a common classroom again I left to meet up with Firith, whom was waiting just outside.

Gaming room's doodle chalkboard at the end of the day.

The video game room closed down one hour before the con would officially close its doors and so there was technically one hour left to just vibe before it was time to go. We didn't stay for the last hour though and that's because our train would depart at 17:53 and we had intended to walk to the railway station and wanted to play it safe, in case any option from the lottery of chronic pains would decide to blow up on us on the way there, even though it isn't far at all. Plot twist: we were spared.

An actual real plot twist though was that almost immediately after leaving the Matsucon grounds some random Deadpool cosplayer came up behind us and started a barrage of pleasantries, which included introductions and a handshake lol. I'm really socially awkward with sudden encounters and I can only seemingly deliver wet noodle handshakes but luckily the dude was eccentric and chill and not in a creepy way! He needed help with directions on how to get to Valkea shopping center and I tried to explain how to get there in the simplest of ways and offered him to tag along with us for a bit because the first stretch we would walk in the same direction anyway. I told him at the street lights on how to continue from here on, as we'd need to part ways to get to our respective destinations, and it seemed like he confidently went forward. I hope he arrived where he wanted to! It was a fun little random encounter, haha.

We had some minor issues getting to the railway station ourselves because there was a construction area on the road we walked but yeah, aside from the initial confusion on where exactly the underpass was we managed to find our way. The train was a tiny bit late but that's nothing new with VR, lol.
Once we got back to Kemi Sallukka was an angel and picked us up and drove us to Firith's place where we could finalize the last leg of the journey, aka I could get back home.

All in all Matsucon was once again a pleasant experience that gets added to my list of successful and nice con experiences. I like the overall atmosphere and vibe of Matsucon and the organizers and workforce behind it are experienced, accommodating and full with passion for all flavors of geek subcultures that Matsucon and the con community at large represents. I will be sure to return and lend a hand in the future too. ^_^

Thanks for reading and thanks to all Matsucon firesouls!
Shiro Samurai is out~

Mericon 2026 – My first Artist Alley tabling experience!

Hello everyone!

I'm back home from the latest iteration of Mericon and oh boy, what a trip it was! So Mericon was held on the 1st August 2026 in Rauma's main library, as usual. This is the fourth time it's arranged and I've been attending every single one to date, mainly because I've been a part of the organizers and work force, although this year I took a step back and did something different – namely my first experience tabling at Artist Alley! With that said this will be an ever so slightly different con summary because I did not have, well, my usual freedom to roam around. :'D 

With that said, let's go~

My sneaky pre-con table prep.. 

My Mericon journey started already on Wednesday morning when mom and stepdad drove us down and dropped off me and Firith at Eura while they continued towards Turku harbor to take the ferry over to Stockholm. I spent a few days at Firith's parents' place and then on Friday we got a ride down to our booked hotel in Rauma, which was called Cityhovi.
I was unlucky to get motion sickness during the trip from Eura to Rauma (roughly 35 km) in Firith's dad Pekka's car – motion sickness is nothing new to me but the weird part of this is that I normally pretty much never get motion sickness in ordinary cars, just buses and sometimes trains; I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I've got motion sickness in a car before! But yeah, I was not prepared for this sudden surprise that's why I hadn't had the forethought to sit in front and yeah, I was feeling pretty sick but tried to keep it to myself as I felt awkward about bringing it up. Once we arrived at the hotel we quickly checked in and left our stuff in the room and then we headed to the library. Our presence was needed for some final Mericon preparation stuff and after that I got the A-OK by the other organizers to go and put up parts of my table setup to make the upcoming morning less chaotic.

Due to me arriving from so far away and with very limited luggage space (we had to fit the suitcases and other items of four people in a single car..) I couldn't bring my originally intended Artist Alley setup, which included one of those black grid displays. Instead I had to come up with whatever makeshift items I could scavenge from Pekka's old storage – and that ended up being a literal drawer. I just needed something stable to lean my keychain board on that would also function as something I could keep my money box and other personal items hidden in. Sometimes you really have to get creative... :-DD

With the preparations done we walked back to the hotel and lounged there for a couple hours before it was time to head to the bus station to meet up with my good old friend erikavonmars, who was coming all the way from Spain to spend the weekend with us! She had taken a bus from Kuhmoinen earlier on the day and was set to arrive at around 19:10 and we figured we'd meet her up to help her navigate Rauma, which was a completely unfamiliar town to her. We had booked different accommodations but Rauma's centrum is rather compact so everything we needed was within walking distance, including our dinner options! Our original plan was to go eat sushi, once all three of us were together, but we realized that the place we had been eyeing was on the verge of closing (inconsistent times on Google Maps and website..) and so we had to come up with a plan B. This ended up being our lucky strike as while I was scrolling on the aforementioned Google Maps what was nearby I happened to press on this restaurant called 2 Kundia and I'm the type to always check photos and reviews before I go to eat anywhere and well, I saw a whole Super Nintendo next to a food table, omfg?!? Needless to say that's where we headed because what self-respecting 90s gamer passes on a restaurant that has retro games available? I'm going there even if the food costs a mortgage and a kidney, as long as I can play lol.

Amazing burgers and fries! 

Once we walked into the place I was blown away! It was like a time capsule to the 80s and 90s – there were old super hero comic posters and official retro game posters and memorabilia everywhere, real arcade machines and yes, a Super Nintendo and a mini NES. Not to mention that the place itself was super cozy with this kind of living room meets rustic taverna vibe! The best part is that the food wasn't even expensive, it was in fact pretty affordable (aka middle-of-the-road standard pricing) for being such a special restaurant! 
I ordered a halloumi burger and after everyone else also had ordered we quickly grabbed the table next to the Super Nintendo, as it was available, and played some Super Mario All-Stars while we waited for the food to come. The burger was so good, it had a nice spicy sauce and was just a delight to eat. Very good flavors and it wasn't fatty or dry at all! Eikä tullut edes ähkyä. :D I also liked the fries and the ranch creme dip! But yeah, we weren't in a hurry anywhere and so after finishing the burgers we decided to continue hanging out and ordered some drinks. And then some more drinks, especially when I happened to see that they had Super Mario World available – I didn't know at first that they had it because it wasn't mentioned, I thought there was only Donkey Kong Country and Street Fighter II until I went to ask to change the game and the lady at the desk happened to have it in her hand while she searched for All-Stars (we had Street Fighter II on at the time). When I saw it in her hand my brain short-circuited. I have spent like forever, no joke, checking every video game room at conventions for Super Mario World, no one ever had it. And now here it was, in a random restaurant bar we had decided to enter.

A fun night was had. I still remembered the secrets. ;_;

It's crazy how memory works. It's been like 20 something years since I last played any of these childhood gems (I haven't had access to our family SNES since big sister had it with her where she lived abroad, it was technically hers) and the moment I saw those stages again something just kicked in. It was absolutely magical, like being transported back to that time when I'd sit upstairs in our old home and just play and play until I knew everything inside and out.

We were kinda lucky because when we were eating a line had formed to the desk, meaning we arrived just in time to secure one of the game console tables. :') Like I still can't believe that it was available for free and the controllers were in crazy good condition too, no worn-out flimsy buttons! There was a group of guys who came a bit after us who went to the table with the NES and I kept hearing how one of them was looking to play Castlevania but they eventually settled on Mega Man. Ah, the sounds of my people~

We stayed there for a bit over 4 hours in total, the clock was almost midnight (aka closing time) by the time we headed out, or well, me and Firith – erikavonmars had left a bit earlier as she wanted to have time to go grab some chocolate from a store before it closed.
It was very cozy to walk through Old Rauma at night, it is an Unesco world heritage site after all. Once we got back to our room it was time to shower and go sleep. But of course we were both still a bit too wired to sleep so we opened up the windows of the room to indulge in some free live music as the Poppi Pauhaa festival (sister festival to Rokki Raikaa) was ongoing almost just outside our hotel; opening our room's windows was enough to hear the music decently, hihi. Besides we needed to keep the windows open anyway since there was no air conditioning. Rauma's hotels are weird because almost none seem to have AC that we've been to, are all the buildings so old or what? :D

Oh well, I'm pretty sure that the long gaming session helped calm my nerves somewhat because I know for a fact I had been tense and nervous that whole day until we stepped into that restaurant. I also appreciated getting to hear Portion Boys and especially the Kyläbaari song. Yes it was stuck in my head for the next 24 hours lmao!

We got some Spanish energy drink as gifts! Pärr pärr

I slept decently well considering my sleeping difficulties and the awful lower back pains I've had the past few days due to too soft mattresses not supporting my spine during sleep. Hypermobility is fun, yay. One of the previous nights was so bad I almost couldn't get out of bed. Thankfully the hotel had a firm bed so at least I woke up with less pain than the previous morning. What wasn't as nice was the awful nausea I now suddenly had piling up at record speed due to anxiety and nervosity of the upcoming Artist Alley tabling – the nausea was so bad I felt like I'd throw up fr.
The hotel breakfast opened at 8:00 so we only had roughly one hour before I needed to be at the con setting up the rest of my table. I had to force myself to eat at least some breakfast because it would be a long day. My breakfast was some yoghurt with berries and a handful of grapes. 

Mericon had a pirate theme this year and that of course meant that I went dressed as a swashbuckling seafarer! This meant no cosplay and it was for the better, I mean it would have been way too much with all the stress I already had on my plate to put on a cosplay. I have really poor stress regulation and that's why I had decided to keep my outfit as simple and comfy as possible, to minimize the mental strain I knew would be present.

Mericon entrance once the doors were open.

Because Firith was part of the work force –and I was part of the Artist Alley– we were let in through the side entrance. The con wasn't officially open to the public yet. We went to put up the rest of my table together and I did appreciate the help because I was more of a nervous wreck than I visibly let on. We managed to get the table ready a few minutes before Mericon's doors were opened to the public, phew! Luckily we had done a quick try-out on a kitchen table a few days before the con so yeah, we had a general idea on how to place all items lol. You can see a short video clip of my completed table setup here.  

Mericon program list and map.

I don't think it's that noticeable but the photos are taken with my phone instead of my usual SLR camera, the reason being that I had to save space and minimize luggage as much as possible; we weren't planning on having any photoshoots and I wasn't the cosplay competition photographer anymore so bringing the camera wasn't necessary this year.

The library's info desk, which was Mericon's info desk too.

If you've read any of my previous Mericon summaries, especially the first ones, you'd know that Mericon actually started as Firith's school project that ended up becoming an annual anime convention. Since the very first Mericon Rauma's librarians (along with some outsiders like me, heh) are the actual workforce of the event – usually cons are arranged by volunteers, who are hobbyists within said subculture themselves, so having a library host (in conjunction with the town itself, of course) isn't quite as common, although not unheard of! I just adore how the library workers got so invested that they collectively decided to keep arranging Mericon after the first one. ;_; 

We had a new lobster friend. c:

Sadly I can't tell so much about the event itself since I was sitting at my table for almost the entire duration of the con but, roughly speaking, it seemed to have approximately the same amount of attendants and the overall vibe was relaxed and cozy. Mericon has always been a free entrance event so that helps keep the barrier to entry low and we see a nice variety of age groups checking it out, on top of the library's ordinary customers because the library was open for the general public at the same time as Mericon was happening. 

The library's "aula", aka main hall.

Another view of the main hall.

Just next to the info desk you could find the artisan tables, basically Artist Alley but for the more established art businesses. On previous years there used to be a few dealers in this space, like the local Pelivaari, but this year there were only artists so I can't really call this space by the common Dealer's Hall name, lol. I'm not sure what exactly to call it but you get the gist by looking at the images. :D

I personally didn't have time to browse these sellers but I know I will bump into them again at other cons in the future so it's okay! 

This was my view 95% of the con's duration. 
Follow me at @kaamoswolf

Regarding my first Artist Alley experience it... was a lot. I was so nervous but I tried to play it cool ahaha! I've always been really introverted and anxious and have a tendency to overthink everything and yeah, one of my biggest fears is being misunderstood and ostracized to the point I have to try really hard not to overexplain everything hello trauma compounded by neurodivergent struggles. ;_; Like I try to put on a happy, joking side but trust I'm a mess of crippling anxiety inside trying to decode social cues like it's a minefield I don't have a chart for. It felt like constant mindgames trying to figure out who to greet early so they don't think you're disinterested and/or dismissive of their presence and who to let browse in peace so you don't scare them away by interacting. I personally like to have the artist nod or greet me when I browse (but if they launch into a sales pitch I'm gone lol) but I understand everyone's different and it can be really overwhelming. I really like connecting with people over shared fandoms and interests though and if you're goofy I will match your goof level!
I did genuinely enjoy the experience though and I met some really fun and wonderful people. In hindsight I wish I would have asked their socials, especially this one fursuiter, but I hope I will run into them again someday. ;_; Everyone who interacted with me and said nice things about my art really made my day and gave me confidence to continue! It was one hell of a fire test to see if I can manage tabling and especially the business and social aspects that comes with it in-person (I'm disabled, to put it simply).

I gotta say though that I'm very relieved that I didn't go in costume because I was already baking in just my pirate gear! Good thing I have a habit of always bringing a fan with me so that I can keep myself cool but during the first hours I was totally sweating my ass off! It was probably my nerves doing their part of amplification but by heavens did I feel self-conscious because my loose shirt got these random sweat stains wherever it was touching my skin and I just wanted to disappear lol! I didn't even have makeup on, aside from some crude eyeliner (someone forgot his makeup sponges..) and I guess that's for the better because my makeup would have been a greasy shiny pool on the floor otherwise. When I say I can't handle stress I mean it in every way possible, starting from dysautonomia...

The entrance to Artist Alley.

Most of the time I was alone at my table handling everything but since erikavonmars was free (not part of the workforce unlike Firith whom was constantly running errands) she would pop in to watch over my table a few times throughout the day so that I could have my much needed toilet breaks and do other necessary things I needed to do, including taking all these photos for the summary lol. I also ended up being an additional judge to the drawing contest again (so many entries!) and yeah, it's so nice to have friends who will step up to help so that I could also experience the con, even if just a little!

Mmm sininen rullatorttu~

Bought it from the cafeteria that was open during the con.

Firith gave me a leftover coupon so that I could buy something small to eat during the con as we had forgot to grab edibles that I could munch on at my table. It's somehow almost ironic that the one time I forget to bring snacks it's the time when I would have needed them as I couldn't freely go and grab some whenever the crash came knocking at the door. xD I mean usually I always have a bag of candies or something spinning around at the bottom of my bag! Sokerihiiri sanoo terve. :'D Or well, technically we had those Spanish energy drinks but I was worried that I would need to urgently run to the bathroom if  I drank one (although I was tempted) because caffeine tend to have a very, khrm, effective bowel-emptying effect on me. I have chronic gastrointestinal problems and tend to be vary if I know I don't have easy access to bathrooms. Or well, technically I could just go, if absolutely necessary, but I didn't want to leave my table unattended.

General view of Mericon. Youth section of the library.

Here you could play PS4 or just play around.

While erikavonmars watched my table I did a quick walk around the con and snapped all these photos and yeah, Mericon looked like itself! Most things were similar to previous years with small differences in decorations and a few activity placements have varied throughout the year (like where the badge/pin workshop is located) but hey, why fix something that works? I really like how the vibe has remained the same throughout the years, even though Mericon is slowly growing its presence – at least based on that the followers on their Instagram account seem to rise a bit every year.

A local children's organization had made pirate stuff!

I gotta say that the decorations made by Satakunnan Lastenliitto were so cute – they were located near the info desk in a glass display and there were treasure maps, a message in a bottle, hand-drawn money bills, parrot artworks and other piratey stuff made by local kids. This was such an adorable addition that I wasn't expecting at all and I really like the idea of collaborating and bringing attention to local welfare groups like this!

The obligatory fishnet. I think Mericon has had a fishnet somewhere every year? XD

One thing I noticed was that the photography spot, aka that bright turquoise background fabric, had moved to a different spot again – this time it was located just outside that glass cube space where the kids were playing. I didn't get to see it in action but I did stumble upon this older lady who was the new cosplay photographer and it was actually a pretty funny encounter! So the story goes that she had, unbeknown to both of us at the time, randomly come over to my table to talk and we ended up chatting about everything from social injustices to personal style and then at some point she said something like "so I was asked to step in as the photographer since the old photographer is a seller somewhere" and then I was like record-scratching noises "THAT'S ME, I WAS THE PHOTOGRAPHER OLOLOLMAO" and we had a good laugh at the revelation. xD We had been talking for a good many minutes before we put the pieces together but it was positively hilarious when it clicked for us that we had been bonding before even knowing who we were talking to! She had a great energy and I hope she will go on to attend cons in the future too; it seemed like she found her people by chance and was thriving. Bless her heart, it's never too late to explore new communities!

From above view towards the stage (to the far left).

Upstairs view. You could read manga here among other things.

It felt a tiny bit weird to not be involved in the organizing stuff this year much at all, aside from the drawing contest judging and some tiny inputs, haha. This was also the first year I didn't have a worker badge but emotionally I was one of the crew still! I could still use the personnel toilet when the ordinary ones were occupied... xD #kakkaedut

The guest book and feedback forms were back!

This year Mericon ended one hour earlier than the previous years, at 16:00. I personally felt like this was a good change as the last hour tended to be a bit quiet the previous years when people were leaving early to catch their buses and whatnot. A five hours runtime feels very balanced for a chill one-day event and I would approve this change going forward as it never got boring and I don't personally feel like the con being one hour shorter took anything substantial away from it. *thumbs up* 

I was happy to notice that during the last 15 or so minutes people still came to the Artist Alley to do some last minute purchases. There were a handful of quiet traffic moments during the con's runtime, mainly during the popular programs like the K-pop dances and the cosplay contest. I felt weirdly emotional when some of the library workers came to buy from me at the last minutes because they personally wanted to support me after all the years we've been in this pond together. ;_;
My best sellers ended up being the silly Pokémon stickers, which I had pretty much expected since they're humorous (leaning into dark humor) and at a low price point. 

Once the clock struck 16:00 I started packing up my table and both Firith and erikavonmars came over to help make it smoother. We were done rather quickly (despite me fumbling because I had forgot where I put certain ziplock bags lol) and loaded our stuff into Pekka's car, whom had come together with Firith's brother Hermanni a bit before closing time to help us load all the stuff back into the car. Filling the car went rather smoothly and then we three were dropped off at a sushi place nearby to go eat dinner while Pekka and Hermanni went to Motonet and other shopping errands.

I was hungry. Sushi was good.

I ate too much. Oh my god I was so full.. but everyone knows that if you go to a buffet you eat the whole money's worth lol! The banana ice cream was banging though. This was the Tokio Sushi place we had planned to visit originally on the first day by the way, it was worth a visit. It's the same place we grabbed a takeaway sushi box from during last Mericon. :D

Once we were done eating we went outside to take one last friend group selfie (pirate edition) next to some nice old building and then it was time to part ways since erikavonmars had one more night left in Rauma while me and Firith had to leave, as we had to take the train back home on the following day. It would have been great to spend more time together but at least we're gonna see each other again before too long – yes, we have already planned the next con outing together!

Arr me mateys!

I sat in front on the drive back to Eura and the motion sickness was thus averted. Once we got back we counted our earnings after decompressing and the rest of the day floated by in a sort of brain fog, for me at least. I don't know what exactly triggered it (post-stress reactions?) but I had a really uncomfortable nauseous feeling that was very intent on not going away lol. It felt like this constant creeping nausea that just wouldn't go away no matter if I drank water, lied down, went to sauna or did basically anything to alleviate it – it was this constant feeling of having something in my throat and trying to "force air out" (I dunno how to explain but that thing you do when you try to get trapped air out when bloated etc) felt like it would be immediately met with stomach acid? This feeling lasted throughout the night and long into the next day, probably close to 48 hours. 
I was struggling to eat and it was straight up awful going to bed because I was scared I'd choke if I threw up while unconscious. Every position was uncomfortable, I didn't really know what to do; I was scared it was something heart-related because I have a genetic predisposition to those kinds of issues down the line. Eventually I figured it's maybe some kind of stress-induced heartburn... yay, didn't know I had this shit in my bingo card too. :)) Gotta catch 'em all. Or something.

Harjavalta train station. So old-school.

On Sunday we took the train back up to Kemi and beyond. We got a ride to Harjavalta during the day and had a train change at Tampere. I managed to grab a kilo(!!) of super cheap raisins from the ResQ app while we waited for the connecting train, lol. I was still feeling that nauseous feeling throughout the vast majority of the train trip so it wasn't the smoothest ride ever but at least I managed to get food down at this point, although the food in question was chanterelle chips and a green smoothie. Sometimes I wish my body would work normally even just once in a while... :'(

I think that's all I have to say about my Mericon journey, it was a great experience despite the physical and mental tolls I had to go through, both before and after the con, due to my dysregulated nervous system. I absolutely do not regret anything though and all things considered this was a very safe event to test my limits at (probably the safest I could get ngl) and try new opportunities! Everyone was so kind to me and none of my fears came through during my tabling hours either. ;_; I'm kinda always prepared for something bad to happen, like a bad encounter or some such but every interaction was kind and respectful. I have decided to continue being an art vendor, although I will keep my appearances at events low for now so that I have time to acclimatize. So yeah, know that I will be a limited edition artist for now... or should I say SSR as they do in gachas?

I'm very happy that Mericon is still going strong and I like the concept of hosting events at libraries particularly much as it promotes the library itself (reading human-written books is more important now than ever!) as well as being a very low-barrier entry event for those who need it. This type of smaller events are a great starting point to try something new, whether it be participating in the cosplay competition or being a first-time seller. I would absolutely encourage more cities to host conventions in libraries as libraries are sadly very underrated public spaces and yet one of the most important ones for humanity – if you know you know. But yeah, support your local library and yada yada~

Thank you for reading and thank you to everyone who attended!
Shiro Samurai out~