Last weekend I was at Animecon, a Finnish anime convention held in Kuopio. I went there together with Hasakitsuki and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli. My mom actually drove us all there and we started our journey on Friday morning. It took us around 5-6 hours to drive and when we finally reached Rauhalahti spa hotel we checked in for the room and after a trip to the food store we went to sleep.
Saturday
Saturday was the first con day and me and Hasakitsuki woke up at 8:00 Finnish time, put on everyday clothes and headed for the hotel breakfast. Jäätynyt Enkeli and mom came soon after. After the breakfast (mini donuts yum!) we headed back to the hotel room and changed into our cosplays - my cosplay for the day was the casual/plain clothes version (aka hakama edition) of Hakuouki's Hajime Saitou.
When we were ready mom drove us to Kuopio's Musiikkikeskus where Animecon was held. We came an hour or so after the con had opened its door and so there was no inside rush or lines at the front door.
Animecon outside entrance
We went inside and soon enough I found some familiar faces like Ri-kun, Sairu-chan and Joel who asked if I wanted some mayonnaise after exchanging brohugs, and yes, he was cosplaying Hijikata from Gintama. :D Ri-kun tagged along with us most of the time when we wandered around the con checking out the Dealer's Hall and stuff. I didn't buy anything except Tropical flavor (pineapple & mango) summer edition Pocky from the awesome Japanese guy's candy table. I just had to buy one and taste them and oh God were they yummy!
Animecon Dealer's Hall seen from above
At some point we went outside to have some photoshoots with Hasakitsuki, Sairu-chan and me. Ri-kun joined us half-way into the shoot. We took a whole bunch of photos with everyone but I will just post the ones of my cosplay.
Some hours later our group got hungry and we also found Jäätynyt Enkeli who came with us when we went out to town to eat. We had actually done a scouting round earlier when we checked where the closest food places were and so now when we actually were hungry we knew exactly where to go.. and our road took us to Hesburger. Hyvää ja halpaa paskaa, conikansa tykkää. :DD I had some chicken nuggets and the others had random hamburgers and when we were done we dragged our asses back to the con where we derped around some more, took pictures of cosplayers and stuff. I must say all the Asterix cosplayers were so awesome, especially the guy who cosplayed the village smith and roleplayed the heavy hammer thing after I and Hasakitsuki took a photo of him. xD
I don't have so much more to say about Saturday, we didn't really do anything special, just hung around with random friends and such.
Lagging on the stairs with Ri-kun as Kyo Sohma
Oh, and there were these awesome tinfoil signs places here and there and they were just too great!!
Awesome, right? xD
Mom came to pick us up a few hours after the con had closed and so me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki returned to the hotel. We didn't feel like going to Iltabileet (night party) because we are not really loud-music-alcohol-and-dance people. Yeah.
Sunday
Again we three woke up 8:00, put on everyday clothes and headed for the hotel breakfast. I couldn't eat as much today because my stomach was derping and so I left to the hotel room to take a dump before the others. When everyone had eaten we started to put on our Sunday cosplays and for me it meant debuting my rasetsu version Hijikata cosplay. I'm actually surprised I got on my contact lenses super easily this time, had pretty much no problems and it was quick too! Oh, and I'll make a review of the contacts later, didn't have time before Animecon.
When we all had dressed mom had decided to go swim and so she wouldn't drive us to the con.. which meant we had to take the bus. 10:43 or something the bus would depart and so we went to wait at the bus stop... and the bus came late and pissed Hijikata was pissed because I had realized I would have had to go to the con without my swords because they were in the car's trunk.. and mom had the keys with her aghdsaghj. I got tired and annoyed from waiting for the bus so I decided
and went back to the hotel room.. only to realize I didn't have the card key. But luckily I had forgotten to close the back door (or well, not so luckily had I taken the late bus because someone could have walked inside and stolen our stuff...) so me and Hasakitsuki could get back inside. We stayed inside and waited for mom to return and when she did she was surprised we hadn't left. We helped her empty the hotel room and take all the stuff to the car because we had to check out at 12:00. When mom went to the reception to check out it was super hot in the car so I decided to open the window.
BAD IDEA.
Why?
Because when mom came back and tried to close it the window decided to be a dick and call it quits; it made this horrid hi-gais-i-am-broken-now-sry sound and wouldn't go back up and in my mind I was all
Oh shit no...
And then mom got really angry at me because it was Sunday and all the car repair shops were closed and it would cost a craplot to fix and we had to drive back home 5-6 hours after the con and the weather had promised rain and agjfdsghj why couldn't I just have opened the car door instead? WHY DOES SHIT LIKE THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?? So yeah, I felt pretty damn bad. Like, really.
oh you fucking fuck take this and this and this and..
Oh well, mom drove us to the con and I was feeling really frustrated and hating myself for a pretty long time before I managed to get on a better mood.. so if I looked like I'd just want to disappear and kick everything then that was why. It didn't really get much better either because we couldn't have any outside photoshoots because the weather went from pretty okay to RAIN EVERYWHERE OH GOD SAVE US. Or well, at least me because I had a vintage silk kimono and I was fearing water stains like hell. We were actually sitting at the outside stairs most of the time even when the rain started. There was this roof so the rain didn't get on us at first.. until it started raining Niagara falls and I leaned backwards to not get rain on me and Ri-kun then turned into a human rain shield to protect me. They had felt like running out in the rain anyway so. We went inside when the rain got really bad and inside we walked around the Dealer's Hall again. Me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Hasakitsuki couldn't stay the whole con day because mom came to pick us up.. but at least she came just when the rain calmed down. We bid Ri-kun and Sairu-chan farewell and headed for the car and yeah.. that was Animecon for me. At least mom managed to temporarily fix the car window somehow for the journey back...
I'm a bit sad we didn't get to photoshoot our rasetsu!Hijikata and oni!Chizuru cosplays because of the crappy Sunday weather but oh well, we have time to do that at home. Because of that I barely have any photos of my rasetsu Hijikata cosplay but at least I have this one that was taken when we were sitting at the stairs before the rain started.
Photographer is Sairu-chan.
Oh, and before I end this post.. here's a cosplay video with the few pictures of cosplayers that I took:
I'm also looking for photos of my cosplays, if you happen to have
some I'd be very happy to have them. :) You can send them to my email valkoinensamurai[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks.
I've been changing my Animecon plans God knows how many times in my mind but it's about time I settle on them, preferably now. Hakuouki warning and I regret nothing!
I've had a lot of trouble coming up with who to cosplay on the Saturday but I settled now on hakama!Saitou because I have only worn this version once before and it's comfortable and looks cool. :) I've worn Saitou's shinsengumi/season 1 outfit many times already and I'd rather not get strangled by that damn scarf every once in a while heh.
Sunday
Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
Character: Toshizo Hijikata (rasetsu)
RASETSUUUUUUUU ~
Oh good lord how I've been looking forward to cosplay a rasetsu (aka fury) version!
Finally, IT IS TIME aghjdsahjg hehehehe...
By the way, I ordered red contacts here not long time ago and got them just before Skecon. It was the fastest delivery ever or something.. I had thought I'd be lucky if I'd get them before Animecon but sweet Jesus they came in like a week, if even that, from the other side of the world! I approve!!
Oh, and as far as I know some of my pals are having a Hakuouki group on Sunday so I'll go hang with them for a while too. I might be the only rasetsu but who cares.. we all can't be mad at the same time right? xD
That's it for my part, see you guys at Animecon in case I don't do any rasetsu!Hijikata preview before the con! Sayonara!~
A pleasant surprise awaited me in the mailbox today and by that I mean a letter from Urumi's store, aka my Animecon ticket order!
It is also of the fabric style (better!) and has the standard con ticket width: 1,5 cm. No megasize 2 cm like Desucon ticket. xD This ticket also has that pull-up-black-lock-to-fasten system.. when you pull
it upwards it will lock itself so that you can't pull it back.
Oh, I also noticed how very similar this year's Animecon ticket is when compared to last year's. Pretty much the same colors (except this year's has a gray inside while last year's had a more green-gray), same fonts etc.
Not so much more to say, looking forward to con summer!
Honestly, I had no plans at first to go to Animecon in Kuopio this year because my con plans looked like this for July already:
5-7 July • Skecon 2013
25-28 July • Närcon 2013
Skecon first week and Närcon last week of July. I thought that would be enough of cons for that month.. until mom mentioned she had a big interest to go revisit Rauhalahti Spa Hotel in Kuopio this year too and well, last year we were in that hotel at the same time that Animecon was. Okay, my brain quickly put things together aaaaand..
le mom + Kuopio spa hotel + (free) car ride = ANIMECON HERE I COME
YAAY
Okay, so now my July con summer plans look like this:
5-7 July • Skecon 2013 ~ 13-15 July • Animecon 2013 ~ [19-21 July •con-free weekend]
25-28 July • Närcon 2013
What to say? July is now almost filled with cons for me.. and money is sure to burn but...
First of all, this Animecon 'commercial' video has been stuck in my head for months and, after having seen it for the first time a bit before Chibicon in Oulu, it sure subconsciously dug it's way into my brain and did what it was supposed to do.. namely making me want to go to Animecon. Yeah, now the con trip to Animecon has been done and I'm back scratching my ass at home. So yeah, here is my summary of the con in Kuopio ~
On Friday around maybe 11:00 something (I dunno, later than we had originally planned at least xD) me, mom and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli started the car journey from Tornio to Kuopio. It went smooth until around mid-way when it started to rain a lot. Oh well, the rain just made us drive slower but we got to the hotel safely - Rauhalahti spa hotel. We booked the hotel pretty late because originally me and my twin had planned to go together to Kuopio by train, but err, it fucked up because when mom had decided to order the train tickets the super cheap campaign price had disappeared (around 140 € for both of us, two-way ticket) and it would have now cost 280 €. Fuck that robbery price I say.
So yeah, mom figured she could go with us and drive there because it would be cheaper and well, Kuopio luckily isn't that far away. Also mom would get some spa vacation at the hotel while me and Jäätynyt Enkeli derped at the con, a win-win situation. Oh well, when we got our hotel room (112 lol) we dumped our stuff there and soon went to eat dinner buffet at the hotel and after that back into the hotel room and chill and sleep. Oh and they showed the movie 300 on the night..
THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAA!!!1!!!11
Saturday
Saturday morning, me and my twin woke up 07:00. Well, I actually woke around 05:00 because mom was snoring like a lumber mill. -.- We quickly dressed in normal clothes and went to eat hotel breakfast. After that we went back to the hotel room and changed into our Saturday cosplays; I cosplayed kimono!Masamune Date for the first time and my twin cosplayed Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia, his signature cosplay. When we were done the clock was just past 09:00 and after having gone to the reception and learned that the busses to the square/centrum leave 08:00, 09:00, 10:00 etc fuck.. missed it by mere minutes we stood outside the hotel and looked for some people my twin knew. We didn't see them but a random English speaking tourist came up to me in front of the hotel and asked what was going on with the weirdly dressed people. I explained and he seemed interested. Oh, and one thing, it felt like many hotel visitors stared at me, mostly because I had an eyepatch. xD
When the clock was close to 10:00 a wild mom appeared and she was walking towards the car. Seemed like mom had already had breakfast and decided to drive us to the con after all. Sweet. When we were sitting in the car and I was derping with the Kuopio city map a random lady from the car in front of us came up to mom and asked if we were going to Animecon, obviously we were. lol So she said she already knew where it was and that we could just drive after her. Yay!
Soon we were at the con and I immediately found Jäärä standing with some other people. After a while of standing there I noticed someone with a FBI vest walking towards us - Ri-kun.
The rest of the con day was random walking around with friends, looking at the merchandise, buying Japanese candy and some mangas and having a Sengoku Basara photoshoot. I didn't attend any panels because I'm lazy. derp
Back at the hotel later we went to eat, again at the hotel's restaurant. This time we were too late for the buffet so we ate pizza instead. I was still in Masamune cosplay (my twin had changed to normal clothes) and when we walked to an eating table we passed by some people eating there and I heard them say something "Masamune", trololo~
Later Ri-kun came visiting at our hotel and we talked and they got to eat the other half of my pizza. xD
Sunday
We woke up 07:30 I think and this time mom ate hotel breakfast at the same time as we did. After we got back to the hotel room it was time to put on Sunday's cosplays. I cosplayed Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan and my twin cosplayed Keisuke Sannan from the same series. I had to help my twin dress in kimono, tie kaku obi and hakama and do the make-up for him too before I could start putting my own cosplay on. -.- Oh well, we were done a bit before 10:00 (con opening time) and we had also packed our luggage because we wouldn't be coming back to the hotel anymore after the con. We took with us some bags and left them at the car and mom drove us again to the con. As soon as we arrived to the con Chizuru (Jäärä) appeared and soon my double Saitou (Ri-kun) did too. We Saitous brofisted each other as promised and went on to find the others of our Hakuouki group. I must say Sunday was the better day of the con for me because I really enjoyed hanging around with all the Hakuouki peeps and the photoshoot was so hilarious and funny. XD I hope I get to see all those (drunk) gay pairing photos, Chizuru more-or-less romantic park bench photos and everything. So much fun!! :'DDD
Here's one of the photos I took during the Hakuouki photoshoot:
Because it's fun to pretend to be drunk and gay XD
(Jozo-dono as Hijikata, Ri-kun as Saitou, Chooichi as Okita and Zkitsune as Harada)
Ighjdgskgsgdksagk, I want to see the photos everyone else took! Gief them nooow! ~~
Needless to say I had a crapload of fun during the Sunday and I hope we will have Hakuouki groups a lot in the future too! <3
Oh well, everything fun ends and mom decided to be a joykiller and call me one hour before the con ended. "I'm there in 10 minutes, get ready to leave ololol". At least it didn't bother me that much this time because a lot of my friends had already left. I figured there wasn't much to do because mom didn't want to drive all night so yeah, tried to enjoy the last minutes of the con (at least my earlier lung derps had eased..) and then it was time to say goodbye to Kuopio, Mira-kunand Ri-kun and step into the car.. in cosplay. Yes. I figured half-way at the con that neither me nor my twin would be able to change back into normal clothes (as we had planned in the morning) because we both were wearing vintage silk kimonos as part of our cosplays and well, idiot me had forgotten my tatoshi (kimono wrapping paper) in the bottom of our luggage that was in mom's car's tailgate. Fail. Oh, and it wouldn't have worked anyway because I cringe of the thought of having to fold a kimono on the (toilet) floor... So yeah, needless to say the 5-7 car trip back home was in cosplay. At least Saitou cosplay is comfortable so I didn't really mind... until we had to stop at an ABC gas station/restaurant to eat and.. well, there was always someone staring at us, even when we sat down eating everytime I would look up I saw a pair of eyes looking at me. lol
Oh, and one last thing.. on the car trip back home we drove by this one small parking/resting place in the road that well... had the same name as my surname LOL. We had to stop and then Saitou (me) ran out and crossed the car road, with a camera in hand, and took some photos of the road sign and went back inside the car. XD Wonder what the people driving past thought when they saw a random kimono weirdo taking photos of a road sign...
Here is my Animecon (14-15 July 2012, Kuopio, Finland) cosplay plans!
Saturday
Character: Masamune Date (kimono version)
Series: Sengoku Basara
Ah sweet, this will be my first Sengoku Basara cosplay ever! For not too long time ago I watched the anime and I found it really enjoyable actually. Masamune and Hanbei are my favorite characters and I will eventually cosplay both of them, but for now I'll start my journey into the Basara world by doing kimono!Masamune. Small steps now and next year badumtssh armor version! I will be part of a cosplay group with some other Sengoku Basara cosplayers, both friends and new people! I'm excited!
Sunday
Character: Hajime Saitou
Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
I'm
in a total Hakuouki obsession currently! For Animecon I decided I'm
probably going to be Saitou so that he will be seen in both Sweden and
Finland at least once this year. It seems that two of my friends (who will also
cosplay Sengoku Basara the other day) will also cosplay Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan characters on Sunday so we will hopefully have a mini group. Yay!
_________________________________________________
This pretty thing arrived today:
Con ticket yayness~
I am so hyped! Now I just need to order the train tickets to Kuopio and back and then it's shalalalala~
I just ordered myself a ticket from Urumi's online shop, I'm coming ~
At first I thought I won't attend Animecon this year because I already have planned 4 other cons for the summer but... damn my awesome friends Jäärä and Zkitsune are going there and I just thought that "fuck, I'm coming too!" because I want to meet with them and see their Animecon cosplays so bad and sfhjgkfhks! Luckily pre-order train tickets to Kuopio are pretty cheap (only about 35 € there and same amount back) even on adult price...
Cosplay plan list will be up as soon as I know for sure on which day the Sengoku Basara group will be...
