Nekocon 2024 – I heard you like boba tea

Hello all colorful geeks!

I'm back home from last weekend's trip to the delightful Kuopio where I attended my second Nekocon, woop! This year's Nekocon was held on 13-14th July in Kuopio's Music Centre, just like the year before. I went there together with Firith and I think it's high time I get this con report on the road!

Nekocon side view of main entrance.

Our journey towards Kuopio started already on Friday morning. Me and Firith had decided to drive down but due to me being a derp and misremembering the timer of my dishwasher we ended up getting a bit delayed – it wasn't too bad though, like an hour or so behind schedule. Anyways, before we could start driving we had an urgent problem called no gasoline. And by that I mean the car tank was so empty that it was a game of chance if we even had enough to get to the nearest gas station – needless to say we were clenching our butts in nervosity for every successful kilometer rolled forward! We made it, somehow, and could officially start our journey down to Kuopio.

We drove down one of the smaller roads and aside from some tractor-induced road rage the trip went well. Our dining stop was at the lovely rustic Matin ja Liisan Asema at Lapinlahti, easily recognized by the preserved 1938's Tv1 steam locomotive outside. Honestly recommend this place, really pleasant!

Once we arrived at Kuopio it was evening, I think the clock was about 18 local time? I can't really remember, but what I do remember is that we had enough time to speed over to the con location to go claim our con tickets (and Sallukka's tickets as well since they would have arrived too late otherwise) in advance before it closed! This saves us from having to stand in line on Saturday morning to exchange tickets so it's definitely a quality of life thing to grab them the day before!

As soon as we got the tickets we continued to our chosen place to stay the weekend, namely the trusty and familiar Rauhalahti Spa Hotel, just like last year. I swear it's half the reason we went to Nekocon lmao.
This time we didn't get the Donald Duck room number but we got a room on the top floor, aka the fourth floor. What came as a surprise was that unlike last time we had a balcony!

Cosplayer hotel room means it's immediate chaos.

This was sooo nice to have! You could air out your costumes after the day.

 

The hotel room was really comfy and pleasant and, unlike last year, this time our mini bar actually kept our drinks cold, yay! :'D Yes we brought with us a bunch of energy drinks, a couple ciders and a 6-pack of beer lol. Raikasta ja ravitsevaa olutta~
Thanks to it being the weekend the spa was still open with a couple hours left and so we jumped into the pool to relax after the long drive. Honestly the super warm pool is like the best thing ever, you could literally just melt away there for hours.

Saturday morning came. We had decided the night before to not take overly much stress from being at the con early because we both were really tired and wanted to have a chance at a decent night's sleep. I think we woke up around 8:30 or something like that and after lagging around in bed for a while we walked over to have some breakfast. Fun thing is that we stumbled upon some familiar faces from Kummacon at the breakfast buffet! I had my obligatory Karelian pastries and after we were done it was time to head back to the room and put our costumes on. Or at least try to, as soon as morning brain lag had dissipated enough.

My cosplay for the day was Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo, a costume I've only worn once before many years ago and lacked any proper photo proof of. I don't remember exactly how long it took for me to change into cosplay but it was an episode and a half to get everything on smoothly! Hotaru looks like a simple costume to wear but holy moly the amount of fabric I have to stuff under the shorts and secure in place to keep all the layers from shifting to kingdom come! I'm so thankful Firith was there to help me dress, it would have been so difficult to do the kimono tucking in the back etc without any assistance. ;_; Firith cosplayed the titular character from the Ghibli movie Kiki's Delivery Service, by the way.
It took us somewhere between 2-3 hours to get ready but it would have taken even longer if I hadn't caught my creeping panic attack in time onneksi olin ottanut rauhoittavia mukaan... 

The clock was around 12:30 when we started driving towards the con and it was a beautiful sunny summer day. One of the first things we did was to take a quick tour with the camera and snap the general con photos and after that we headed straight to photoshoot our costumes because the bushes near Kuopio's Music Centre are very nice for cosplay photos! 

I'm happy I did check some character references this time around because last time when I cosplayed Hotaru I completely missed to do the kanji he has on his neck, oops!

Hotaru! You can also see the Nekocon ticket~
(photo by Firith)

 

Hotaru was a decently heat-friendly cosplay, only the midsection was a bit toast with all the layers piling up. I had all the props and parts of this cosplay with me but I wore replacement shoes around the con (stupid Pikachu flipflops gave me an awful toe blister and I don't even know how xD) and left the sword in the car after the photoshoot because it would have been cumbersome to carry around while shopping. I'm not even sure if anyone recognized my cosplay because I had zero interactions with other congoers but, then again, Samurai Deeper Kyo isn't exactly a well-known manga and was never published in Finland, so it went exactly as I assumed it would haha. Anyways, we got some really awesome photos afhsdadsgh that I will post separately! [edit: link here]

When we were done snapping photos we left the camera back in the car and then we hurried over to the Lumit building where Firith's friend had a table at the Artist's Alley. The Lumit building was part of Nekocon and also hosted at least the video game room as well.

Walking next to Lumit.

Lumit was very easy to recognize because there were always cosplayers and colorful people sitting just outside it. There even was someone dressed in a huge red inflatable Among Us costume. xD

Entrance view of Lumit.

The video game room was popular!

I would have initially wanted to watch the "Valitut Lapset: Superlataus" Digimon stage play but decided in the end not to because I knew I wouldn't be able to sit almost 3 hours alone without having difficulties (Firith wasn't interested enough, mainly due to the length, and Sallukka and Don had their own activities). Besides, it started already 12:15 and you needed to get seat tickets starting at 10:30 and we weren't even at the con at that time so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Artist's Alley.

More Artist's Alley~

It was quite crowded at the Artist's Alley on Saturday and we both quickly agreed on that it was a bit too much. The air quality wasn't the best with so many people crowded in a small area and it was quite anxiety-inducing. Not to mention sweaty. So yeah, we hurried outside after a quick glance through all the tables.

A nice collaboration Nekocon had this year was that there was this one boba tea (aka bubble tea) stand near the town square that had a deal so that if you bought a drink from them in costume you got a 20% discount. One needs to know at this point that I haven't had proper boba tea in about 9 long years. I had forgotten how delicious it could be. And because we were hot and thirsty no not like that you perv we decided to go and make use of this opportunity!

Taro milk tea with matcha swirl, heavenly!

It was soooo good! Like oh my goodness it was so refreshing and perfectly sweet and I just wanted it to last forever. ;_; I miiiight have reignited an old addiction send help. No but really, it was totally money worth, 5/5 stars no drama.

After the trip to the town square (and being subjected to puzzled normies along the way lol) we returned back to the main building of Nekocon and plowed through the Dealer's Hall and just took in the con atmosphere. Nekocon overall has this pleasant feeling, it's welcoming and the general location is inviting and very central with both greenery and the town square just outside so yeah, you're close to almost everything. Except our hotel is a few minutes car ride away. :'D

Nekocon entrance/cloakroom view.

We didn't stay the full duration at the con during Saturday, mainly because it was a very warm day and we were both still a bit tired. As much as I enjoy cosplaying I can't help but notice that I'm getting old lol, I don't have the same tenacity to withstand discomfort that I used to have. Remember when everyone used to say "cosplay ilman tuskaa on teeskentelyä" and how we'd just power through all the pain to prolong that magic con feeling? Ei helevetti, those days are long gone. If I feel discomfort nowadays then I go back to the hotel early, I'm absolutely listening to my body's needs nowadays. #millenialinsights

Besides, we wanted to take some more photos of my cosplay outside the hotel before my makeup was all messed up from the heat so yeah, that was another reason why we left a bit early. And it was the right decision because we found a really good photoshoot spot that we had completely overlooked last year!
After the second photoshoot was wrapped up we both really just wanted to jump into the spa and then have some beer and chips in the room after. I mean if you book a spa hotel you kinda maybe want to set aside some time to actually use the spa, right? :D It was really fun to just hang out and chill and play on the PS5 I had brought along for the trip (and a TV to play on) for the rest of the night. It was a great day~

Oh and I ate a delicious veggie pizza at the hotel's restaurant!

Then came Sunday. I had trouble falling asleep and so my eyebags had eyebags when I got up. It wasn't beautiful I tell you. I considered skipping doing any makeup for my alt fashion plans at first but luckily my face kinda recovered after breakfast and idling around long enough to properly wake up. Chugging an energy drink might have sped up the process. We packed all our belongings but still somehow ended up stressing to get done on time since we also had to return the room keys. I swear time blindness and estimation of time is one of my biggest weaknesses! It felt very wistful to check out from the hotel because we had so much fun and it was over way too quickly. Next year's Nekocon can't come any sooner!

Anyway, we drove to Nekocon and today we had reserved more time to actually check out the con more properly; it's just a lot easier to explore when you don't have to worry about messing up your costume. We took our time to check out the Dealer's Hall on the main floor and the artisan's tables upstairs while just vibing and soaking up the good feels. Firith also ran into some old acquaintances while I just awkward potatoed around because I don't know how to enter the chat naturally with people I don't know who are already in a conversation.

Dealer's Hall view...

... and more Dealer's Hall.

Staple sellers Manga Cafe provided the snacks.

Sunday was definitely a calmer day than Saturday, it was easier to move around and there weren't as big clusters of people around. I wanted to go watch the "Digimonien avara luonto" program but I honestly ended up forgetting what time it was because I didn't carry the con's info booklet on me with all the schedules and stuff. Oh well, no can do but I got to say it seemed like an unique concept that I haven't seen done before and that's why it piqued my interest in the first place.

Nekocon info desk next to the stairs.

One thing I did notice was that the overall layout of what was located where seemed very similar to last year's Nekocon and honestly, why change something that works? The only clearly different or improved change I noticed was that the video games area in Lumit had been expanded from being in the corner to having that big room (was it a gymnastic hall?) for themselves, which was great.

Artisan's area upstairs.

Promotional booths of other conventions, also upstairs.

A few merchandise sellers were upstairs as well.

At some point me and Firith just looked at each other and I swear our brain jellies did some sick telepathy moves because we both just went like "should we go for more boba?". Yes, we should. We should fuel this addiction while we still can.
While walking there was some older middle-aged man, clearly not a Nekocon visitor, who walked slightly in front of us and he kept staring at me and doing double-takes to the point it was like fucking penta-takes lol. It was really rude and uncomfortable tbh, I mean one shouldn't stare that obnoxiously at others regardless of how differently from the norm they're dressed – have at least some semblance of manners at your age, please... -.-

Taro milk tea with tapioca bubbles, yum~

I think after the boba tea (yes, I really like taro flavor) we did a final shopping round and then we agreed in unison that it was high time to leave because we had a long and exhausting road trip back home ahead of us.

It's legit hard to describe how fun and rewarding Nekocon was for us both, it might not sound like a lot happened but we honestly had a blast and this will probably go down as one of my favorite cons this year. We've both been in some tough and dark places lately so this trip was a much needed break from everything stressful that's been going on in life. Honestly I'm looking forward to next year's iteration already, Nekocon and Rauhalahti spa combo gives me life. <3

Oh and before I forget, here's my loot haul!

Thanks for reading, my next con will be Mericon's return in Rauma! See you there~
Shiro Samurai out.