Kemin mangapäivä 2015 – I was there!

Hiiii ~

Yesterday, on 21st March 2015, I attended Kemi's manga day – the small local 4-hour event that has free entrance. Normally I would have made some kind of cosplay plans post prior to the event, but I thought it useless seeing how I didn't even plan to cosplay there. So eh, this time you'll just get a short summary and that's exactly what I'm gonna write now!

So, on Saturday morning me and Hasakitsuki woke up, dressed and headed for Jäätynyt Enkeli's place, where mom would pick us up and provide us a free ride to Kemi, huehuehue.
When we got to Kemi and saw the Sauvo-talo building from the car it seemed... weirdly dead. The clock was a bit past 10:00 Finnish time and there was not a soul to be seen on the outside. We got out of the car and walked up to the door; some guy with a security vest opened it and told us that there were some problems with the door – it was locked even though the rest of the building was open. So yeah, during the whole duration of the event there had to be someone holding the door open so that people could get in and out.
Inside Sauvo-talo we put away our jackets and noticed that very few were actually there. At first I thought that maybe people decided to come a bit later but then a bit later it hit me – I had remembered the time wrong and the event actually started first at 11:00. Oh well, it wasn't really a problem because the guy did let us in. Some people were putting up the selling tables and such and our trio quickly decided to go out in town, to fetch some snacks and provisions for the day.

...

But before that – we put on our Monster Hunter Tigrex plush hats and turned into the crocodile Tigrex bros!

Yo man, Immah eat your hunter ass!

Yep, none of us three could be bothered to cosplay this time because well, laziness struck – I mean, it kinda feels like a waste to wake up hours earlier to put on a cosplay to a 4-hour event were most people just go to hang out with friends. :-D Very few cosplay at Mangapäivä to begin with; most just go in their geeky casual clothes, do some kind of comfy/easy cosplay or do this kind of thing when you wear a character's wig and makeup but otherwise wear you normal clothes. Cosplaying feels a bit overkill, in other words. Unless you plan to compete I guess. So yeah, we all just rolled with wigs, circle lenses and our fabulous Tiggy plush hats!

Well well, let's move on.
We first headed for Citymarket because it was slightly closer than Lidl but, while there, both Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli had made up their minds and they wanted to go to Lidl anyway. Me and Hasakitsuki did buy My Little Pony chocolate eggs from Citymarket – Hasakitsuki has been trying to get all the three different rings from the surprise eggs to use for kawaii fashion styles. We had already gotten the Twilight Sparkle one twice but none of the other two. So yeah, we took one each and then we headed for Lidl!
At Lidl we bought some of the fresh bread and pastries, something to drink and some new Angry Birds crisps.

Back at the event we noticed that now there were a lot more people and most selling tables were up and running by now. I checked the one and only merchandise table at the second floor and found a small box with fluffy cat ears. Ever since I borrowed Moonbeam's ears at Desucon Frostbite I had been wanting to buy a pair for myself too; the ears they were selling were half price of the ones sold at Frostbite omg cheap and so I bought a pair of white ones with mint green on the inside. These had black satin ribbons and bells hanging too!

The merchandise table also had cool Pokéballs!

The clock was around 12:00 or something when we saw that the street fashion display thingy had started and so we went to watch it; it was mostly different lolita styles but also hime-gyaru, visual kei and some boy-style (ouji?) often done by girls. The outfits were really nice – ah, how I wish I had the money, time and dedication to dress in some street fashion style!
The display was over very quickly and most people stayed seated because the cosplay competition was to begin next. My trio wasn't really interested in watching the competition so we went and checked the Artist's Alley, which was placed in the cafeteria.

This shows what Kemin mangapäivä had to offer
and what happened where.

In Artist's Alley there was this one seller who had her table the farthest away from the entrance and she was selling prints and such but also some self-made anime themed decoration scarfs – there was Luna the cat from Sailor Moon and Haku's dragon form from Spirited Away. At first I didn't see that it was a scarf because both of them were folded in nicely, but when you took it up it was kinda obvious. I really liked the Haku dragon one, it was so adorable! I love dragons anyway in general and the movie is great too! I kept looking at it for a while, thinking the "should I buy it or not?" in my head over and over again. I left it there for a while to think over it, but I swear that as soon as I stepped out of Artist's Alley it was all over my mind. Whatever I went to do I kept thinking about it and so I came back some time later to the same seller and went all "I'll have this one" – I couldn't resist anymore. ;_; I'm sure I would have regretted it if I had left it there; it was telling me all along to buy it uguu. The Luna one had been bought by now already, by the way.

Artist's Alley tables in the cafeteria.

We had spotted Olli watching both the street fashion display as well as the cosplay competition but I had decided to wait until it was over before I went to say hello. Soon enough he showed up, we talked the talk oh god his jacket story was glorious! xD and then he wanted a pic of our trio because of the Tiggy hats. I then went outside to photoshoot his improved Bean Bandit cosplay again, while my other company stayed inside.
We decided to go to a different spot than last time and at some point we found a fitting car "prop" in the parking lot. But oh man was the wind freezing cold! D: My hands hurt to the point I couldn't really hold the camera properly and so we went back inside.
Getting back inside into the warmth felt so good. With Olli I went up to the second floor and there I found Hasakitsuki and Jäätynyt Enkeli sitting at a table. We went to sit in the cafeteria and Olli bought something to eat and treated me to a cup of tea.

The cafeteria also had some special bakeries!

There we sat then the remaining hour of the event and talked about a lot of things. But while we were chilling there I started feeling that my left lens was being a bitch; it had started making my eye red and teary and it kept feeling like there was something in the lens that stung my eye. Already when we got back inside after the photoshoot it had started derping but now it was to the point I couldn't stand it anymore and so I went to the bathroom and took it out. I inspected it quickly for damage but didn't see anything – the right lens had felt perfect all along so I don't know why the left one was such a bother. *shrugs*
Oh well, I went back to the others –without cool blue eyes– and then we played some Monster Hunter. Hasakitsuki and I were showing Olli the game and then we went to kill a Khezu with our trio. But before long he had to go eat with his friends and so our Bean Bandit left. :'( Well, at this point there were only maybe 10 minutes left of the event anyway.
Me and Hasakitsuki ate our chocolate eggs and seemingly Kemi is our lucky town – we got both the pony rings that Hasakitsuki was missing! :'D I got the Fluttershy one and she got the Rarity. I happily handed mine over so that her collection would be complete since they are too small for my fingers anyway -kid size- and I wouldn't have use of it. She's a much bigger MLP fan than me, haha; I'm just helping her out and getting my dose of chocolate on the go. xD
After this we slowly went down to the first floor, called mom to pick us up and then Mangapäivä was wrapped in and over for us this time.

All in all I think this time Kemin mangapäivä was a bit bigger than before – they had both floors of Sauvo-talo in use and it felt like perhaps there were more attendants than before, but I'm not sure. Then again, the main hall on the first floor was blocked. Whatever it was I found myself enjoying the event more than usual – it was comfy and even though Mangapäivä provides very little entertainment I didn't find that I got bored at any point, which normally happens after 30 minutes lol. Then again, having a new friend to talk to and company is a great way to stay entertained. Also, going casual saved me all the worries that comes with cosplay; it was a good decision.

In the end – have a photo of my purchases!
A Haku dragon form decoration scarf from the Artist's Alley and
a pair of white-green cat ears from the merchandise table.

That's all for this time, bye bye!