Maracon 2026 – The shoes that disappeared!

 Hello nerds of all shapes and sizes!

Me and my crew went to Maracon last weekend and although the event ran through the whole weekend, 16-18 October, we went on a day-trip on Saturday only. Maracon technically has no dealers nor an Artist Alley but I happened to see that they advertised free tables for anyone interested to sell something and so I took my chance. :D I got a table and soon after Firith messaged them asking about an promotional table for Kemi's upcoming new Sampocon event (which we both are organizers at). The request was also accepted and with that we roped in Joni for company and a less malfunctioning car and headed towards Oulu.

Maracon promotional poster.

This is my second Maracon experience (with the first one being last autumn) although one can see on the poster that, based on the mind-boggling Roman numbers, that this is the 55th Maracon. That's a lot of Maracons! Although, in the defense of other conventional hehe anime conventions, Maracon is held four times a year, aka once every season. So yeah, technically I should name this post something like "Autumn Maracon" because there's more than one Maracon in 2026 but I figured since I'm only attending one a year for now that it shouldn't really add too much confusion about which one I'm talking about lol.

I should mention that Maracon is not an anime convention, despite the ending. A lot of people seem to think that anything ending with con is by default a cosplay and/or anime event but that's not really true! Maracon is dedicated purely to board games, roleplaying games and TCG enthusiasts, aka the classical "western geek interests". There's no cosplay competition, no Dealer's Hall, no karaoke, no anything that's a staple at anime conventions. That's not to say that cosplayers aren't welcome, just that you won't really see any here except for the occasional odd one out. :D

Maracon view upon entering.

Our lot arrived in Oulu at around 12:00 local time, pretty much as planned. I immediately went to find any organizer I could get a hold on to ask about the promised tables. I gotta admit here that I was worried it would be a really small table because Maracon didn't return to me about table sizes pre-con but when Samuli, Cryo's chairman, pulled out the table I was quite relieved – it was of a sufficient size.
We immediately got to work and started putting up our table, which took roughly 30 minutes. Now you're maybe thinking that shouldn't it be two different tables? Well, yeah kinda, but the Sampocon booth needs so little space (it's basically just handing out flyers) that we figured we might just as well combine our tables since the table we were provided was enough for us both. And I got the impression that maybe there wasn't another one, or place for it in the area we got? Anyways, I need Firith to assist me anyway (and I can do my part of Sampocon infodumping lol) so it's a win-win situation.

Table is almost ready, save for a few tweaks.
(KaamosWolf on Instagram)

Almost as soon as we got our table up and running an announcement was made about bad parking in the nearby parking lot, encouraging those who had arrived by car to go check their placement so that more cars could fit. This affected us so Joni, who was free to roam as he pleased, went to go check how our orange car was doing. Or so we thought. Turns out he came back almost immediately and with the most sudden sentence in tow – "my shoes are gone!". I think my brain just did a reboot and I was like really? I mean sure, Kaijonharju's nuorisotalo (lit. 'youth house') that Maracon is held in has a rule that shoes are dropped off at the entrance but who accidentally puts on someone else's shoes? Surely everyone recognizes their own shoes regardless of how basic they are and how many other similar ones are there? It has to be a honest mistake and not some planned theft, right? But nope, Joni couldn't find his shoes and so we went to look and I didn't see anything that matched his description in the sea of black sneakers either. Weird. :S 

Oh well, the car still needed to be checked and, luckily for us, all three of us happen to have roughly the same shoe size so Joni could borrow Firith's shoes to check the parking lot.

General view of the lobby area.

With the sudden twist of Joni's shoes vanishing, which was humorous for the first few minutes but quickly grew serious when we learned that his shoes were almost brand new and yeah, with only two pairs of shoes and three people we had some logistic rescheduling ahead. This also of course meant that Joni would return to check the cloakroom area time and time again in hopes that his shoes had reappeared. We even had a bit of a running joke that whenever we went outside he would inspect people's shoes – shoevestigating skill unlocked. xD I mean you gotta make fun of an unfortunate situation or it's gonna consume your mind.

Bro is a bit crispy.

As the day rolled by we had our dumb jokes during silent moments, especially once we ran into Ina it's been a common occurrence these past few cons lol who ended up staying with us almost the whole event! Our shared table was at a really nice spot (same corner, next to the stairs, where the flea market and miniature figure booth were last autumn) so we had a nice overview of the event and all the people who attended because basically everyone passed us by at some point. Probably. 

Obviously we weren't free to participate and play games, aside from Joni and Ina, so me and Firith couldn't really explore the event fully. But that's okay as it looked very much identical to the one last autumn, down to the placement and everything. Only the decorations were different to some degree (more Halloween stuff this year, although I think Maracon might have no part in those and it's from the youth center) and the activities were not the same. I saw no figure painting contest on this day maybe there was one on Friday or Sunday, can't know but instead there was a throw-a-dice-down-the-stairs-and-try-getting-the-best-score game which seemed really casual and fun! At least it brought on a lot of cheer and excitement!
I also heard from Ina that one fun thing with Maracon is that it's pretty much always a surprise what'll be there because on some years there might be a flea market (including Matsucon's Matsukirppis) and on others there might be something completely different, like me with my one-man Artist Alley lol. I think it's pretty awesome to have that one element of surprise of "what's gonna be in the corner this year", haha. It keeps things fresh, that's for sure!

Main board game and TCG room.

Someone had left a whole suitcase with board games to share.

After a few hours had passed we all noticed that we were in fact rather hungry, and it wasn't just food noise. I got up and went to ask the people around the cafeteria area if the deal Maracon had last year with the nearby pizzeria still existed but instead I was told that it's currently closed for renovations or something. Welp. The follow-up question was whether we had access to a car and after saying yes I was told of this one pizzeria, a short drive away, with really large pizzas and soon enough several people chimed in to praise it. I mean when someone says their ordinary pizzas are closer to family size than standard it's probably worth it, right? xD

We decided in unison that me and Joni will go out to grab the food while Firith stays behind to watch over the table. I was sweating bullets because my phone had been very low on battery the whole day (and there was no socket conveniently placed near our table..) but I had at least enough battery to navigate us to the pizzeria and back. It was a 10 minute drive but even that ain't short enough to not spur at least one road rage over how absurd Oulu's street markings are. Why can't they be like in other cities?? :C #oulussaajaaminenonperseestä

Mission accomplished!

After getting our orders from Pizzeria Lila (it seemed popular, there was constantly new customers walking in) we returned to Maracon. This time we didn't have to do any additional maneuvers due to crap signage. C:

When we returned to the same parking lot we had left from we were worried for a second that it was now full, but then we spotted a couple friendly blokes who did hand signs to us pointing towards a free corner spot next to their car, thank you~

You can see the cafeteria in the back. We sat and ate there.

Okay, they weren't kidding when they said the pizzas were huge; I swear even the cardboard box was larger than average and still the pizza had its corners folded in. Apparently some locals can recognize them by looks alone because the second we opened our boxes a lady beamed "Lila's floppy ears!". :'D I'm not gonna lie, I swear that thing was half a meter across! I can usually finish a whole pizza by myself but I ate half of this one and I couldn't have done a single slice more – good thing Firith and me had decided to share to save costs. So yeah, I can definitely recommend that place and will probably return next year, haha. Even Joni, who hadn't had time for breakfast, couldn't finish his pizza and his stomach is a black hole on some days.

Cozy beanbag chairs upstairs.

The rest of the day flew by fine, Maracon has a really relaxed and welcoming atmosphere so it's easy to feel at ease; I have my mental health struggles but it's easy to just exist here. I also feel like the organizers are very helpful and the average attendee is good-mannered. I'm always worried of getting bad encounters when tabling but once again nothing happened and, speaking of which, I feel like I had pretty okay sales considering that there was zero marketing of any vendors being available (I don't count my own marketing on Instagram because 30 followers means my reach is dead af) and I can only assume that most visitors were unprepared and/or unaware. I was prepared to bomb and originally applied primarily to gain experience, as well as for visibility. I'm too chickenshit to go to any bigger events just yet so these small local ones help me build up my courage to be visible and socialize. I made a sum closer to one hundred than to zero so it's a win in my meager book. :')

Towards the later evening we decided to pack up our tables at 19:00 as interactions had grinded to a halt and the overall influx of new visitors had slowed. I find it funny that the moment I went away to grab the pizza that's when there were three sales lmao. We also had Joni's shoe problem to solve – which was fixed by him doing a solo trip to Tokmanni while we packed our stuff. He came back soon enough with some budget felt shoes but, before we left, I made sure to inform Samuli about the current shoe situation, aka that they're still missing and that we'll be leaving now and to please keep an eye out.
Plot twist: on the following Monday after the Maracon weekend I got sent a photo of a pair of shoes on Discord asking if these are the ones that went missing – Joni recognized them as his own when I showed it to him! Now we just need to arrange how the shoes are transported 100 km to their owner...

All in all Maracon was a fun little excursion on what would otherwise have been an uneventful weekend. I really recommend checking it out if you're into or at least curious about tabletops, card games, board games, Dungeons & Dragons and the like – it seems like every year there's varying activities and I'm also getting the impression that it's easy to befriend people even if you'd show up alone; there doesn't seem to be a clique mentality going on and people seem open to expanding their company should anyone approach them interested in whatever they are doing.
Maracon is also nice because it's free and you don't need to be a member of Cryo to attend either, which is nice because it means anyone is welcome. It is very male-dominated on a quick glance though (unlike anime conventions that skew closer to fifty-fifty) but that's to be expected with the focus being on a subset of nerdy hobbies that have historically been more associated with men.
I want to note that the overall vibes always felt friendly and safe and I didn't see any questionable behavior, in fact Firith was witness to the opposite – when I was away my keychain board fell off the table and before Firith had time to react a whole slew of random people nearby had rushed to help pick up all the fallen stuff and return it safely. ;_; That kind of helpfulness, especially unprompted, is a rare trait and speaks of good character. All too often you see people around any kind of accident or injustice just ignore it, even though they saw it play out. Maracon restored my faith in humanity and I will definitely attend it in the future too in some shape of form. It's especially worth it if you live within reasonable distance to Oulu, like I do. :)

That's more or less all I had to say, thanks for reading! Thanks to Cryo for arranging Maracon!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: Chromaview Silver Mirror

 Hello hello!

I'm back with a new colored contact lens review and today we'll be going over the Chromaview Silver Mirror lenses! This is a kind of special effects (or sfx in short) lens so it's not a circle lens, just something to keep in mind because not all colored lenses are circle lenses by design. :)

Let's go~

Base curve: 8.6 mm

Diameter: 14 mm

Water content: 42%

Life span: 30 days

It was exceedingly hard to photograph these lenses because they're quite literally a metallic, semi-transparent shiny color so yeah, they merge into the blister packs like two sneaky lens-shaped chameleons – illusion 100!

I bought these almost two years ago just for fun and because I think this kind of shiny metallic design is among the coolest types of crazy lenses on the market. In fact, many years ago I already had my first experience with this kind of reflective lens, namely the Kronos, and I remember being obsessed with the effect! Unfortunately the Kronos lenses, along with almost all other lenses from that particular brand/series, has been discontinued eons ago and it's been really hard to find a similar lens since. So when I came across the Chromaview Silver Mirror lenses I immediately recognized them as something similar to what I had been looking to re-experience!

One lens in.

You can see on the photo above that there's essentially no size enlargement, not on my eyes at least. A fun fact is that not every person has the same iris size so the enlargement effect of any particular contact lens is always individual, to some degree.

It's, uhh, kinda hard to explain what the lens looks like because it doesn't have a design in the traditional sense of the word? xD It's quite literally just a semi-solid silvery glittering foil effect with the same bright silver hue all throughout it – there's no patterning to speak of, there's no limbal ring, no blending towards the central opening, nothing. It's just 100% metallic sparkle effect with some slight soft blur towards the edges if you look really closely. It doesn't suffer from pixelation or uneven coverage. It's really good at what it does though, the provided effect is extremely eye-catching and mesmerizing!

These lenses have a rather small central opening, meaning that your vision will likely be somewhat obstructed in surroundings with weaker light conditions, particularly indoors and in dim environments.

I personally didn't experience the classic 'colored corners effect' but I did notice that these lenses blurred my vision somewhat, although nothing serious that inhibits normal functioning. The lenses are otherwise thin (although I could feel the lenses sitting on my eyes, as in I felt the outer edges) and a bit on the floppy side when it comes to handling and inserting. It's also surprisingly difficult to tell the wrong side and right side apart as the lenses look identical and the curve difference is minimal and can thus be challenging even for an experienced user to tell apart. I had to do double-takes.

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during a September afternoon with an almost clear sky. All close-ups are free from color filters etc so that the colors would appear as true to life as possible.

Natural room light indoors.

Yellow room light indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Outdoors, facing the sun while under a shadow.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun.

You might notice that my right eye (watcher's left) looks teary and irritated – that's because that lens was really awful to wear! You see, I originally had planned to wear these for my outfit at Koacon last month but the comfort turned out to be so unbearable right of the bat that I skipped the lenses altogether. I thought back then that maybe I just had some stubborn dirt on my finger or something because I tried to reinsert the affected lens three times before I gave up as my eyes got too agitated. When I tried these again at home, for the purpose of taking photos for this review, the exact same lens was painful once again and with the exact same kind of sensation – that kind of persistent scratchy feeling (on a specific area of the lens) that's extra stingy every time you blink. I tried to reinsert, clean the lens and my hands several times but it was always the same feeling when I put the lens back in and so I came to the conclusion that it's probably defective. It sucks but it happens. You can't always see that a lens is visibly defective even if you try to inspect it closely either, it's just bad luck.

I want to note here that the left lens (watcher's right) was okay to wear, it did not irritate my eye in the same way; only one lens was bad. Overall comfort seems to be below average for me though – it could be because the water content is on the lower end and that coupled with my naturally dry and sensitive eyes isn't exactly a match made in heaven, lol.
I couldn't wear even the good lens for long before I started to feel it drying and simply feeling it more in my eye. Although I can admit that I'm not a neutral baseline standard for measuring comfort and especially moisture retainment as my eyes dry so often and so aggressively even on day-to-day life (no lenses) that I have to use a ridiculous amount of eye drops just to be comfortable sometimes. :'D

A disclaimer here, for those who may be concerned, that as soon as I got the photos taken I removed and discarded the lenses; there's absolutely no reason to wear something uncomfortable any longer than absolutely necessary (even if it's brand new) and preferably not at all, although, in my case, 'necessary' entailed getting these photos taken to document this pair. Psst, you can sometimes get a refund for lenses that arrive defective, it's worth checking with customer service of the site you ordered from!

These lenses are not currently available at the store I bought them from, namely Coloured Contacts (this review is not sponsored), and when I checked today there was a pop-up front and center about their European warehouse having closed in March 2026, oh no! Such a bummer as I used to buy sfx lenses from this site as they had good deals and used to ship directly from the Netherlands. It seems like they have dismantled all the storefronts except the US and UK ones, so I assume only people residing in those countries can order (even Canada showed no available items) from here on out. I will have to find another trustworthy site within EU for my needs moving forward. :/

All in all to sum this up I want to say that, in terms of aesthetic impact and overall coolness factor, I can't fault these in any way, they're excellent at delivering a look that matches their namesake – 'silver mirror' is indeed a perfect description of what these look like. But as much as I'm disappointed over not having been able to wear and enjoy these to the extent I anticipated, due to one lens being defective, I still really love these and I would purchase them again in a heartbeat if I get the opportunity!
This is such a unique lens for any alt baddies, fantasy costumers and generally anyone who enjoys standing out and looking positively otherwordly.

There's only one tiny little thing I want to mention and it's that, depending on how the light reflects into the lens, there is a risk of looking temporarily cross-eyed. Nature doesn't care about symmetry. :'D

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 10/10

Beautiful, highly shimmery silver color. It's elegant and exactly what you'd want!
Design: 10/10

It's a single, essentially solid-color lens with no artsy touches, just a holo glitter effect. But that's all it needs. You also don't notice spinning as there's no patterning.

Opacity: 9/10

Amazing yet refined coverage, I didn't expect it to block out my eye color as well as it does!
Enlargement: 1/10

I don't notice a difference on my eyes at all, if there is it's of such a small margin it's negligible.
Comfort: 3/10

I feel them despite them being thin when inserting. Blurs vision and was overall below average wear on sensitive, extra dry eyes. I probably can't wear these for more than a two-hour outing.
Naturalness: 2/10

The sparkly effect itself is far from natural, but the size is not. It doesn't look as freaky as some bold Halloween lenses but it's definitely outlandish for casual wear.

What outfit would you wear shimmery metal lenses like this with? Tell me in the comments!

Shiro Samurai out~

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 (eww) 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 mission of leaving without it becoming awkward which is nigh impossible 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 mulled over our newfound supernatural housemaid 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, heh. 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~