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 six hours run-time 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~

Lens review: I.Fairy Trinity Pink

 Hi everyone!

I'm back with a new circle lens review to share! I will be showing the I.Fairy Trinity Pink lenses today and yeah, without further yapping let's get on with it~

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16.2 mm

Water content: 55%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

This is a bold and artsy design with a really unique print, there's nothing quite like it on the market as far as I'm aware! The intricate print and large size is very on brand for I.Fairy so yeah, if you like lenses that are dolly and whimsical then I.Fairy is worth to keep tabs on lol. I'm quite fond of them myself.

One lens in.

You can see on the photo above that these lenses are very big indeed. There's no doubt they're meant to give the illusion of having really big and doll-like eyes, especially with that distinct black limbal ring framing the eyes. This is as far from a natural lens you can get without going into Halloween territory – this style is clearly meant for striking fashion styles and extravaganza.

I gotta say though that the pink color itself is not very impressive here – it's rather light in shade (on my light eyes at least) and it kinda just disappears into the busy gothic patterning of the lens, if you catch my drift? Like it's definitely not bad per se, but it doesn't stand out enough to make me think "wow it's pink!" and instead the reaction is more like a "my eyes look busy now and the color changed".

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during a July afternoon. All close-ups are free from color filters and the like and that's so that the colors would appear as true to life as possible.

Yellow room light indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Facing a window indoors. (not sun side)

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

Regarding comfort I can't really grade these fairly – some eagle-eyed readers might have noticed on one of the first photos that these lenses already expired in 2021. The lore drop is that ages ago I had bought a lot of colored circle lenses for fun and for review purposes but what ended up happening is that I had put them in a cardboard box and stashed them away, thinking I'd return to them later. Well, later ended up being like a damn decade (time blindness is real omfg) because I completely forgot about them! So yeah, I've been clearing my backlog of expired lenses for the past few years and yeah, ain't so much I can do at this point except review them in the hopes it helps someone out there. :) With expired lenses I take no risks even if they were sealed and felt normal to wear;  I always immediately discard them the moment I get the necessary photos taken – gambling with your eyes to save a few bucks is never worth it! Always wear fresh lenses to events etc and follow the usage time recommendations stated.
What little I can say is that for the time I wore these they felt thin and comfortable, like most lenses do. I.Fairy in general tend to have good quality lenses that my naturally dry eyes can handle most of the time.

All in all this is a type of lens that you'd primarily buy for the gorgeous and one-of-a-kind print rather than any bombastic color payout. The pink color does blend nicely and you get a cool, enchanting fantasy look with a lot of spiky black details to bring attention to your eyes. It's definitely worth trying if you like this kind of style, although personally I would probably go with another color because the pink really doesn't come across nearly as strong as I would have liked it to, which is a shame because I love the intricate print – it makes me think of cathedrals, steampunk, ouji style and mystical sorcerers!

Distance photo!

Want to see the Trinity lenses in another color? Check this out: Green

Short summary:

Color: 5/10

Soft glam pink color, it's calming and nice but it gets lost in the intensity of the print.
Design: 9/10

Unique and intricate gothic patterning, it's detailed and very busy up close. 
Opacity: 6/10

Decent color coverage but beware the big pupil hole in the center letting a lot of your natural eye color through. This is more a design lens than a color-changer lens.
Enlargement: 8/10

Very big lenses but hey, that's I.Fairy for you.
Comfort: 5/10

Seems to be fair comfort but I can't grade properly due to their expired status.

Naturalness: 2/10

The only natural aspect is how much of your eye color shows through the large central opening, everything else is very extra and unnatural lol.

 Thank you for checking out this review!

Shiro Samurai out ~

News! I'm more than just a cosplayer soon!

 Hello!

I have some big news to share! This has honestly been a long time in the making (and even longer in my mind lol..) but I finally gathered the courage and commitment to try my luck at making a small childhood dream of mine come true – namely selling my art and crafts, as an independent artist, at anime conventions and other events!
Some of my more perceptive readers might have noticed that over the past couple years or so that there's been some implications of something happening in the background and yes, I can now confirm that said something is that I've been slowly starting up my Artist Alley business behind the curtains.

My artist name, as some might remember from my Mericon summaries, is different from my cosplay name and I'm intentionally separating these two identities to not cause unnecessary confusion. Shiro Samurai will remain my cosplayer name and KaamosWolf is my artist name. I will, in due time, add a page on this blog for my Artist Alley information, kind of like a portfolio type of thing. :)

My new artist instagram: KaamosWolf

I made a new account to make it easier for anyone interested to follow and keep tabs on at what cons to find me, what I'm selling and so on. Please note though that I won't post direct artworks there due to several personal concerns along with my lack of trust in Meta; the account will be mainly for relaying important information!
I don't have anything uploaded yet but that's mainly due to my trusty 10+ years old Lenovo laptop suddenly dying last week (while installing a routine Windows update I've done hundreds of times before lmao) and the logical conclusion is thus that I'm currently without my own computer. Thank lord the SSD wasn't fried and so I could salvage my whole lifetime's worth of important files, literally. I had no backups rookie mistake I know and to say I was panicking is an understatement. Lesson learned: buy an external hard drive immediately.
Needless to say I'm currently writing this on a borrowed computer and yeah, this sudden setback made me unable to apply for Terucon's Artist Alley, which was one of the two conventions I had originally planned to attend as a con artist this year.  The other one, which will be my Artist Alley debut, is none other than Mericon! Probably not too surprising seeing how I've been their equivalent of a graphic designer before but hey, a perfect first opportunity for me to dip my feet in! This is already confirmed so anyone who wants to support me, and several other artists, head on over to Rauma's main library on 1.8.2026 ~

I'm still very new to this all, I'm still learning as I go and I'm making it a priority to not stress myself up over this new little side hustle. I will for now only be doing a tiny amount of events per year as I don't want to overwhelm myself too soon. You can expect me to be a rather rare occurence starting out, mainly appearing in the north. I'm doing this in a very small scale, slowly building up an inventory of various original art and fandom products from sources that bring me joy. I'm strictly a traditional artist, meaning I draw everything by hand on paper, canvas etc (after which I scan it and prepare it for production) and I also only draw things that I'm personally passionate about – I refuse to chase current trends or what's popular just to sell more; I will draw what I enjoy and hopefully my art will resonate with those who like the same things. <3

I'm doing this to finally fulfill a childhood dream I've discarded countless times (gaslighting myself into thinking it's foolish, being discouraged by society at large and urged to "get a real job" etc) and to hopefully regain some economic independence as a bonus. I haven't spoken much about it (as I'm a very anxious person often choosing privacy to protect myself) but I'm gonna be real here for a moment and admit that I've been struggling with mental health, neurodivergence, chronic pain, traumatic life experiences, constant nightmares and more for a vast majority of my life – I am effectively disabled and have been unemployed for years. I'm not looking for pity. I've tried everything, really everything. I could write a book about all my life experiences that led me to this situation but the point is that I've always wanted to be an artist, for as long as I can remember – and creating in the peace and safety of my own home is one of the few things that keeps my nervous system calm and regulated. I've never had a defeatist attitude though; I love life and I value myself and what I have accomplished, despite all hardships continuously thrown at me. By choosing self-employment I choose an act of love and that of truly understanding my needs.

This got a bit of a different turn than I initially planned for but eh, I'm no stranger to vulnerability and being human; it will never be a weakness to speak of tough experiences and those who judge such displays of inner strength are emotionally compromised fools, sorry not sorry. I've been through a lot and yes, it's terrifying to even talk about it. Yet I'm still here, I haven't thrown in the white flag. By believing in my art and my own abilities I'm now creating an opportunity for myself that I've had to carve out by silencing all those voices of naysayers I heard all my life.. to the point that I eventually internalized them as my own beliefs. This is my act of resistance – my act of choosing hope in a world that repeatedly told me I wasn't good enough as I am.

tl;dr I was always an artist but now I'm also an upcoming Artist Alley vendor. Debuting at Mericon this year!


PS. One might notice that I created a new tag for my Artist Alley experiences which will be added to con summaries where I'm vending in the future and yes, contrary to my norm I wrote the tag in Finnish. The reason is that in Finnish Artist Alley is called 'taidekuja' and 'taidekujailu' is when you're selling (or browsing/attending) at the Artist Alley so it's a very useful single word to explain a whole thing you're doing in a specific place. So convenient.

That's all for now, if this resonated with you feel free to comment your story below!
Thank you for reading~

Kummacon 2026 – Where did you all people come from?

 Hello weirdos!

I was at Kummacon last weekend (16-17th May) and, unlike all previous times, this year Kummacon was held in the University of Oulu (Oulun yliopisto). This was also the first Kummacon in 5 years where I went as a visitor and not as a volunteer worker and, in hindsight, it was the right choice. 

Let's get on with the summary~

Kummacon 2026 poster.

I traveled with Firith and we took the train from Kemi to Oulu on Friday early evening. The train ride only takes roughly one hour (it was like 20 minutes delayed though #perusvr) so one's ass doesn't have time to get flattened by all the sitting lol. Once we got out of the train station we crossed the street and went to eat dinner at a nearby Tibetan restaurant because it had a buffet and it was super close. We did have an average amount of luggage, for a con weekend, but neither of us was keen on walking any more than necessary with it. Another reason why we decided to eat in centrum instead of after we had dropped our bags at the accommodation was because the university that Kummacon was to be held in was located in a part of Oulu called Linnanmaa, which is a fair distance away from the city center and thus a bit of an inconvenience for those arriving from other towns and/or by public transport (aka you don't have a car); there's also only like one restaurant in that area so you were really limited on food options once you got there. We just figured it would be better to eat before taking the taxi to the airbnb. 

We had an... embarrassing amount of trouble finding the airbnb. The taxi took us to the right general area but it was one of those lowkey confusing residential areas with a lot of apartments clustered up and pseudo-hidden staircases leading up to the upper apartments. We were about to go up the wrong staircase (it was the only clearly visible one okay? ;_; ) when some random Finnish man came outside from the apartment just next to said starcase, who was clearly fed up with lost airnbnb bookers wandering around the area, and he asked if we were looking for the place and then proceeded to tell us where the correct staircase was along with asking us to pass along a shitty review to the hosts. He clearly disliked the couple who hired out the airbnb apartment and wanted them to lay down the whole business. I kinda got the impression that some previous guests had been nuisances, at least he raged about some previous guests parking their car wrong – I mean, the first thing he asked us was "did you arrive by car?". Ahh, getting embroiled in surprise neighborhood beefs. :'D

Oh well, we finally found our way inside the apartment, it was on the upper level. I think Mister Angry might even have been straight below us omfg. The apartment was nice and clean and there was even a sauna! A somewhat small one, but still. 
I took out some of my cosplay stuff from my suitcase and noticed that there was no ironing board anywhere. I'm not sure why I was even expecting there to be one (not even all hotels have one!) but when I unfolded my Jedi robe, and took a good look at it, I felt like I had to do something to get at least some of the worst wrinkles out because yeah, it looked like it had been thrown haphazardly into a drawer and forgotten.. which it kinda had, oops.

Desperate attempts are desperate. Go go sauna steam power!

It wasn't perfect but for an emergency solution it worked surprisingly okay. Steam does relax and soften fibers and I did notice an improvement after letting it cook in there for an hour or something. Of course I vigorously threw some water on the rocks to generate extra amounts of steam. xD

I don't think anything else of interest happened during the Friday, aside from the fact we finally finished watching the second season of the anime Bastard!! after having issues with Netflix working at home. It only took like... almost 260 days to finish it. Oof. There's a reason that whenever I start watching an anime I always try to marathon it because otherwise I forget so easily what was going on – good thing Bastard!! doesn't have a lot going on lol, it's mostly just nonsensical action with a ridiculously overpowered protagonist and a staggering amount of fanservice thrown in. I'd assume quite many would file it under that weird why-am-I-watching-this guilty pleasure folder haha. I know I did.

Fazer chocos for breakfast. Our dumbasses had nothing else.

I slept bad. Really bad. Like it-took-me-5-hours-to-fall-asleep levels of bad. The bed was outrageously soft and you just sank into the mattress like a rock once you laid down. The support was nonexistent. My lower back hurt so much throughout the night and I slept like a dog, constantly aware that I'm trying to sleep and tossing and turning non-stop. If anything it was a relief when morning finally came and it became an acceptable time to get up and start the day. Yet despite sleeping like shit I still felt surprisingly fresh? I have no idea how that worked out, the math wasn't mathing.

I had decided to do a random, unspecified Jedi OC again, just like I did in Kemin mangapäivä earlier. Although this time I put in more effort, aka I used a wig and put on makeup – which, normally, is my bare minimum but ehh, even that takes effort and energy I don't always have readily available. Life's been tough lately. After all Kummacon is a bigger event and I kinda didn't want to look like I dined with swamp trolls the night before and woke up from under a bridge lol. Donning my Star Wars getup is perfect for exploring and it's also quick and easy to put on. Besides, I've never been to the University of Oulu before so I wanted something comfy to move around in.

Boring proof pic, in questionable phone quality. Yay!

The clock was roughly 12:40 when we arrived at the university. Conveniently it was within walking distance from where the airbnb was located. The weather wasn't the most exciting though, it was very dull and gray outside and it looked like rain might come down any minute. I wasn't really in the mood to photoshoot my own costume with the cloudy dreariness but I took some photos of Firith's Darkrai gijinka (Pokémon) before we went inside.

Kummacon entrance view.

I'm not sure what exactly my first impression was when I stepped inside but I know I noticed very early how crammed it felt. Perhaps I should have expected a lot of hallways and crowdedness since it's an university building, just like Närcon and many others, but I guess somehow I was still blindsided by the sheer amount of people? I never really thought of Kummacon as a big event, I'm not even sure where on the con size scale it is nowadays; it probably has grown over the years and maybe it's not so small anymore?

General view almost immediately upon entering.

I'm quite sure that the Kummacon location upgrade had something to do with the "Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture" designation. Maybe a bigger culture budget was allocated? Would make sense at least! I'm really happy for Kummacon if that was the case, it's not unheard of that cons struggle with funding and I know several that died because they didn't get enough funding to be able to continue. 
It's just speculation but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole capital of culture thing put Kummacon on the radar for many previously unaware and that's why it felt like there were a lot more people than previous years? I mean for real, it felt like it had exploded in terms of visitors!

Continuing down that same corridor...

... eventually lead to an open, branching area.

I think one of the first things we did was to check out the Kumma Kirppis, aka Kummacon's own second-hand shop.. or flea market, thrift store or whatever else you wanna call it. Basically congoers can sign up for it in advance and have their goods sold there during the con by Kummacon personnel. It's a nice way to sell things you don't need forward to other fans. :) It was quite hidden, outside the main areas and I'm pretty sure that unless Firith hadn't checked beforehand and knew where to go I probably wouldn't have found it lol. I'm not sure if I liked the placement personally, I lowkey feel like it probably affected sales and overall awareness because yeah, I did hear from friends that they never found it. Which brings me to my other gripe – the lack of signs. In such a large building signs are paramount to a good experience and, while there were signs, I felt like there could have been more. I don't have the best navigation skills and it being a new place I kinda got the feeling that perhaps there was an assumption that most visitors would be from Oulu and thus already familiar with the university? The signs that were there were good, but most were just next to whatever they were indicating; what I missed would have been signs in other locations, especially the large open areas, pointing towards places of interest like the Artist Alley, video game room, photography booth etc. Most of these were not easy to find intuitively (aka if you had no map)! The stage where the cosplay competition etc was held was really far away from all the other used spaces and this one had a good amount of signs along the whole distance – yeah it was like a 5 min walk to the other end of the university. 

Kumma Kirppis view.

Along the path to the second-hand area, if you went down the right path (against the wall) you would pass by the video game room, the karaoke room and this little area where a local indie game developer group had a station where you could playtest a beta version of their upcoming game. I chatted with one of the makers and he seemed really passionate about the project and said that their base of operations is in Oulu so yeah, it's extremely local haha! The game is a mix of different genres including puzzle-solving and roleplaying with visual novel styled storytelling. Go support these guys!

Indie devs Runoi Games upcoming Fortune Fragments game.

I took a peek inside the video game room and I liked the retro dominance going on in there. I saw a Nintendo Gamecube, a PS2, a Super Nintendo and I think there was an older Xbox in the back. Always when I see a Super Nintendo I have to go check what games are available and I'm in particular looking for Super Mario World and U.N. Squadron (Area 88 in Japan) because those were a major part of my childhood and I miss those games, especially the latter with its banger soundtrack. ;_; Neither was available so I didn't stay to play this time, although I saw there were some other awesome games like good old Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Gamecube!

Gaming room!

I gotta give props for the gaming room having retro consoles, especially because most people who are gamers probably own at least a current gen console or a last gen console (like the PS4) but I think there's many attendants who might not have the older consoles at home, especially the younger people who didn't grow up with them back when they were new. I've noticed a shift in the age groups of attendants since a few years back – I feel like there's been a big influx of young people (school-aged children and young adults) while people my age and older have slowly dissipated or moved to being a part of the organizers and workforce. So yeah, it makes my millennial gamer heart extra soft to see older consoles accessible for those who didn't get to live that era (or those who miss that era!), especially now that the value of older games and consoles are skyrocketing and are, quite frankly, rather unaffordable for the average person without a lot of spendable income.

Chill beanbag corner. Every con needs one of these.

Our exploration journey continued. We had to pass through the main shopping area where both the Dealer's Hall and the artisans were (it's basically the same as the Artist Alley but for those deemed 'sellers', aka who have a registered business and probably do vending as a full-time job) located and holy moly was it crowded on Saturday! There were so many people it was really anxiety-inducing. Neither of us could stand to stay in there long enough to even browse, it was way too overwhelming.

General Dealer's Hall view.

Another corner of the Dealer's Hall incl. Manga Cafe.

And Dealer's Hall again but from the opposite side.

We unequivocally decided to check the Dealer's Hall the next day, in hopes it would be more manageable. I did like what little I had time to see, there was a nice variety of items for sale and not everyone were familiar faces either! 

After some time Firith had to leave for some worker responsibilities (cosplay contestant judging) and so I was left to wander on my own. I have no memory of what I did during this time, I just know that when the cosplay competition was about to start I walked all the way back to the other side of the building, only to be met by this ludicrously large queue to which I said "fuck it" and walked back to the main area. xD I mean I'm not that interested in the cosplay contest that I'd stay in like a kilometer long line, especially when my feet were killing me at this point and standing still was painful. 

I proceeded to sit down near the cloakroom-ish area and played Pokémon Go to pass the time while waiting for the cosplay competition to finish. There was conveniently a raid at a gym within distance so I played it (sent raid invites to get backup from players in Kemi) and got a perfect IV Pheromosa from it lol.

Classic paper wall where you could doodle and write con greetings.

I know that when I was in the middle of the raid Firith tried to call me and ask if I was ready to leave the con and go grab dinner with Sallukka and Dongrieg, whom we had already briefly bumped into earlier in the Dealer's Hall. I had to click away the call at first because there's a high risk Pokémon Go crashes/restarts on my phone if I answer calls. I felt so rude lol but luckily all three of them were very close so it wasn't a big deal in the end – it was more silly than not because we were so close to each other but yeah, that damn tie-dyed fabric drape curtain conveniently hid me from their point of view lmao.

Sallukka and Dongrieg had arrived with their own car to the con (a one-day trip) so we could actually drive to centrum and choose from a much larger pool of restaurants than if we hadn't all had the same idea to go eat at the same time! But before we went to eat we quickly docked at our airbnb and Firith and me removed our costumes, it's easier to eat when you don't have to worry about messing up your cosplay fr. 
We ended up going to a sushi buffet restaurant called Okiniiri and it was a nice experience to wind down for the day. Very nice dessert table with mochis, honey cake and churros! Still thinking about that random cute ladybug that was on the wall next to our table though, I hope it got out safely. :c

After we had finished eating we went to a nearby foodstore and bought some necessities for the upcoming Eurovision-watching, aka beverages and sweets. Sallukka and Dongrieg dropped us off at the airbnb after that was done and continued on their way back home. Firith went to turn the sauna on and I had just time to shower and get ready by the time Eurovision started. 
Before the show started there was this silly slip-up where I was trying to explain that dismissed call during the Pokémon Go raid earlier and that it didn't mean that I was in a bad mood or anything and yeah, while explaining I didn't even notice at first that I accidentally said "laittaa luuri koiraan" instead of "laittaa luuri korvaan" until Firith burst out laughing. In my defense I was exhausted from the day and talking on autopilot. xD It's a bit hard to translate but the phrase of 'hanging up on someone' in Finnish would, when literally translated, be like "to put the phone in the ear" and, well, I accidentally said "to put the phone in the dog" lololol.

Eurovision time! (oli hyvä lonkku. :D)

My favorites were Albania, Croatia, Romania, Sweden (the singer is the former Fröken Snusk) and Finland of course. Serbia got my hopes up with the outfits and the cool sword but the song just didn't click the way I hoped it would. I was hoping Finland would win with all the hype around it, 20 years since Lordi's first Finnish win etc but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Well at least a certain country didn't win in the end, that's all that matters. 

It was like... uhh, way too late by the time I fell asleep. And I felt it on the morning! Of course I couldn't be lucky and feel oddly fresh two days in a row with poor sleep. I think I slept like 4 hours at the very best and those hours were shit quality sleep. Once I was up and sat down in the kitchen I felt an absolutely debilitating pang of nausea building up – it felt like I'd blackout and throw up at the same time continuously and it took a lot of effort to just stay conscious. It was horrible, no cap.
It's not exactly a secret that I struggle with chronic sleep difficulties and nightmares and often am very tired on the mornings and throughout the day.. but this was an unprecedented level of sleep-deprivation nausea even for me. In hindsight I'm so relieved I didn't apply to be a con worker this year because waking up with this level of nausea on a work day would have been a death knell. There's no way I could have predicted this nor the shitty bed but I'm so glad I listened to my gut feeling this time and decided to go as just a visitor.

Eventually the worst of the nausea somehow slowly passed, don't ask me how because I didn't go back to sleep and we still had no breakfast either. I just drank some water from the tap and prayed, I guess? 

I had not prepared a cosplay for Sunday and that was a good decision – no way would I have been able to go costuming with both the lingering nausea and the feet pain! I should have taken some spare shoes because yeah, I could have fit my flip flops in the suitcase. Well at least I didn't get blisters, although at one point it looked like some could have formed.

General hall view.

We took a taxi to the con just to avoid the trickling rain and having to drag all our luggage around. The weather did clear up a bit later on but we had to be out of the airbnb by 12:00. Oh well, if one thing was immediately noticeable it was that there were fewer people around – which meant we could finally go take a proper look at the Dealer's Hall.

Various organization booths were present, mostly other cons.

I didn't buy anything from the Dealer's Hall this time, mainly because I'm painfully aware of how much stuff I have at home that I don't actually need and in fact need to get rid of due to a shortage of storage space. I've been quite a hoarder most of my life and I'm trying really hard to work on that, which means only buying things that I actually really need or really want after thinking about it – in other words: I'm trying to be more aware of my spending habits and, in particular, to lessen impulsive buying and comfort buying. It's hard because all my life I've subconsciously self-soothed by buying stuff that gave me joy, even if just for a moment. Having a broken childhood sucks.

Entrance to the Artist Alley...

... and a view inside it. 

I did buy a wooden fridge magnet in the Artist Alley though depicting a smiling samoyed. I had to buy it because for some reason I got suddenly emotional when I saw it because it made me think of our old family dog, a samoyed named Lady, whom we had in my early teenage years. Fridge magnets are useful too since I keep a bunch of notes and important papers on the fridge so that I remember them.

Kumma Kahvila sortiment.

In the same general area as the Artist Alley was the Kumma Kahvila, aka Kummacon's cafeteria. It sold sweet and salty snacks, coffee and such. There were a bunch of tables around the cafeteria so you could sit there and eat. On Saturday there was a homemade chocolate banana cake available that I almost bought a slice of but on Sunday there was no cake at all. *sniff* A little bit of ragrets.

Oh and yeah, before I forget! This is unrelated to Kummacon but is relevant to my blog at large so here goes a brief mention that I was, once again, featured on FeedSpot's Top 60 Cosplay Blogs list, hooray! It's nice to have one's work acknowledged. I mean I really enjoy blogging and I wouldn't be writing for over a decade if I didn't find a lot of enjoyment in sharing my whimsy hobby experiences with others who are like-minded! I hope this summary and all previous and upcoming posts will keep inspiring people near and far and maybe even bring a smile on a bad day. :) 

Fih.

Speaking of smiles and being whimsical I... *clears throat* .. I might not have been entirely 100% in ordinary clothes on Sunday. I wore this funny Magikarp hat my big sister bought from Japan as a gift after she made a joke to me about seeing it in passing and I answered by saying I seriously want it... which meant she had to backtrack and find the shop that sold it like two hours after first spotting it. xD Joke's on her! No but really, it's all in good fun – she knows the first generation mons (Gameboy era) but after that she lost interest, she was more into Magic: the Gathering back in the days. She knows I never grew out of being a Pokémon nerd though and pokes fun of it. We have a good relationship.

Photo booth for congoers. It's a free photography service.

My Magikarp hat generated some fun reactions including some random congoer trying to show me their Pokémon TCG collection while I was browsing snacks from the cafe. It was cute but a bit awkward because I was trying to buy something at that moment and there were others trying to browse as well (in that same small space) and yeah, it wasn't the best time nor place for that interaction. I didn't see them again after that; I hope they didn't think I intentionally ignored them. :/

Sunday was otherwise a pretty slow day for me. I didn't really participate in anything aside from Firith's book talk program. After the book talk was over we went to pick up what remained of our second-hand items, the clock was roughly 15:30 at this point. We both felt like we were satisfied with our con experience and ready to leave once we got our unsold items back and so we booked a taxi and went to wait outside. You could tell a lot of other people had the same thoughts because we saw people in droves leaving and others possibly waiting outside for a ride to come pick them up. 

Have some random eggplant display art. 

We left Kummacon around 16:00. We got a decent discount on the taxi because VR (Finnish railway company) had a deal with that particular taxi company so that if you went to the train station you got a cheaper ride, profits! 

As soon as we arrived at the train station I booted up the ResQ app on my phone to check if there was any good deals nearby but alas, there was none. We then wondered if we'd have time to go eat something before the train arrives because we were quite hungry by now. The good Chinese restaurant we'd usually frequent was temporarily closed due to fire damage so we couldn't go to our trusty place this time. It's almost literally on the opposite side of the road so that's one reason we've been regulars there haha. But yeah, we browsed our options on Google Maps for a while before we saw that the hamburger place that's in the same building as the train station actually had pretty damn good customer reviews. I was worried it might be one of those really expensive ones but we decided to take a look and thankfully it seemed to have rather normal prices so yeah, we booked our foods and sat down. 

After-con burgers om nom nom~

The burgers were a lot better than expected! I had some chicken burger with devil's jam and I certainly wouldn't mind having another the next time I'm in Oulu, hehe.

The rest of the journey home went well, I don't have so much more to say because nothing out of the ordinary happened. But in regards to Kummacon itself I'm generally pleased with the trip, although I do have mixed feelings about the building and how the location was used. It was nice how big the university was but I constantly had that feeling of it not being used to its full potential and some placements just seemed suboptimal to me, I guess? I'm also not sure if Kummacon had the whole university in their use or just specific sections of it, yet regardless it did feel inconvenient and empty that you had to pass through tons of unused space just to get to the stage – it felt so disconnected from the rest of the event. I don't know, I saw the potential and I had a good time but it also felt like it could have been even better? Of course I don't know what exactly the organizers had to work with and yeah, if they had used all sections they were given and the rest was off-limits then that's not on them and the choices made were thus understandable. :)

All in all Kummacon is a great free entrance event with a very low barrier of entry, it's very chill and relaxed. Kummacon's main focus has always been literature, popular culture and queerness and they're very visible with the latter – there's rainbow flags everyone and the safe space principle is followed – if you feel like the odd one out in everyday society then in Kummacon you will feel right at home. It's a con for all the outcasts, weirdos, queers, geeks and bookworms. I would recommend visiting if you live within the northern half of the country.

Thanks for reading and thanks to all the people keeping Kummacon alive! Stay nerdy~
Shiro Samurai out.