Desucon 2013 - Friends, foes and a gourd that shits everywhere

Desu Desu Desu Desucoooooon ~

I'm pretty sure you all know what is coming next, am I right?
The Desucon summary of course!

I will write about all days in one single post so be prepared for a wall of awesome (and a wall of photos) coming in. You have been warned.

Thursday

Yes, my Desucon journey started already on Thursday. I didn't advance far though, just from my home to Oulu by train. I had contacted my aunt living in Oulu beforehand and asked if it's okay if I come by and sleep at her place the night between Thursday and Friday. It was okay so there I was in Kemi train station around evening time with all my con stuff in a blue suitcase and a swordbag on my back. The train trip took about one hour and I played on my Nintendo DS to pass the time. When I got to Oulu I just walked to my aunt's apartment, chilled and went to bed. Nothing special so let's get on with the Friday!

Friday

Friday morning arrived and the first rays of Desucon feels, carried by the sunshine rainy clouds, spread across one apartment in northern Finland and awakened a glimpse of con hype in an otherwise almost dead shell.. also known as a human who didn't get enough sleep.

I woke up around 07:00 in the morning and got ready to leave. I had decided with the carpoolers that we would meet at Oulu's train station around 08:00. Luckily my aunt had work starting the same time so she drove me there. At the train station I soon enough spotted the red car in the car park that was going to take me to Lahti. So I bid my aunt farewell, crammed my stuff into the car and went inside and so the ~more real~ journey to Desucon started!

About the car pooling I have nothing special to say actually, I mostly just alternated between sleeping and playing Nintendo DS and occasionally getting out of the car when the others had decided to eat or such along the way. Oh well, before I knew it Lahti didn't seem that far away anymore and so I texted Ri-kun a few times along the way to check if they were already in Lahti and when to pick me up from Sibeliustalo, also known as in front of the building Desucon would be held in.

So came the time when our red car found its way into one of Desucon's parking places and I would switch from one car into another.. namely into Ri-kun's. I said the goodbyes to the carpoolers while Ri-kun appeared to show me the way to their car - after the obligatory hugs of course.

MAH FRIEND

I and Ri-kun had booked a hotel room for us two for Desucon and so now when we were gathered we headed straight for the hotel, still having a few hours to waste before Desucon would open its doors. 10 minutes or so later we had found our hotel, called Salpakievari, nicely "disguised" as a Thai restaurant. Err, well, it seemed more like a restaurant with hotel rooms than a hotel with a restaurant anyway. If that even makes sense. xD

le hotel restaurant
(photo taken on Sunday, hence Ri-kun's western!Saitou cosplay :DD)

Inside the hotel we went to the reception desk thingy to check in and get the hotel room keys but we happened to be there at a time when their boss were soon to visit or something so, eh, we were told to wait a while in the restaurant until the visit was over. Oh well, we weren't in a hurry so we didn't really mind the extra wait and besides, we got free tea!

Free stuff is always good, heh

Before long we got the keys and our room number was 3. We walked a corridor and found our room, almost last as always. Inside the hotel room we opened our suitcases, spread out our stuff everywhere and then we changed into our Friday cosplays. We chilled in the hotel past the con's opening time (17:00) on purpose so that we wouldn't have to stand in line while it was raining outside. Kimono and rain ain't good friends man.. sure I had my umbrella but rain is still eww. We went to the con, hmm, I think it was around 45 minutes after the start and that was a good decision because when we got to Desucon we could easily walk in. Oh, and my cosplay for the day was Kazuma Sohma from Fruits Basket and Ri-kun accompanied me as Kyo Sohma.

Photo by Kyuu Eturautti

At the con we just walked around together, met some friends and had our photos taken more than we both had expected. Oh, and of course I took photos of some cool cosplays too.
There really wasn't that much to do on Friday because the Dealer's hall was closed and stuff so yeah, we went back to the hotel when we felt we had seen everything for the day.

I LIED

We actually went superspeed to a random foodstore just before closing time to buy cheese doodles before we went to the hotel. Yeah. Everybody's gotta love those yellowish shapes of crispy cheesy goodness ~ But for some reason we didn't even end up opening the bag on Friday, I ate my leftover travel candies instead.. fail. x)

Hotel room night chillaxin' [feat. stuff everywhere]

At the hotel we changed out of our cosplays and spent the rest of the night talking and eventually falling asleep on the very comfy beds. I swear the temptation to jump on the beds was much greater than normal...

Saturday

And so Saturday dawned. After some lagging I managed to get up and to our joy it wasn't raining outside, which was definitely a good thing. We quickly put on random everyday clothes and headed for hotel breakfast. I must say there really wasn't much to choose from but hey, here comes the "but it's free food" so of course I would eat some yoghurt, bacon, bread and drink some juice and milk. After having had breakfast we were back in the hotel room and putting on our Saturday cosplays. For me it was shinsengumi time!

Saitou dressing in progress

While I turned into a samurai Ri-kun turned into a hobbit - Bilbo Baggins. We had decided to have a quick Bilbo photoshoot in the hotel backyard's foresty area around the car park before heading to the con. Now the photos were taken with Ri-kun's camera so I don't have them but Ri-kun posted some of them at their Desucon summary blog post, so go check it out man!

Oh well, we arrived at the con around 10:00 or something and walked around again, spotted some familiar faces and just generally chilled. I was excited when I found out I wasn't the only one cosplaying from Hakuouki; there were these 4 guys cosplaying as Saitou, Hijikata, Okita and Ibuki and ahgjfdsghj! I was really happy haha.

le Ibuki cosplayer ~
(a cosplay video with the rest of my Desucon photos is at the end of this post!)

After some hours I realized I was hungry as fuck and so a samurai and a hobbit made their way into the nearest food place! Turned out everyone else had thought the same thing at the same time as we so there were a lot of people waiting in line to Kotipizza to well, order a pizza. Me and Ri-kun quickly changed plans and headed for the foodmarket next to Kotipizza instead and I ended up just buying a small banana flavor milkshake instead. I would have bought Moomin lemonade but it was sold out! I had to try the banana one because all my life I thought Power Cow milkshakes only existed in strawberry and chocolate, god so wrong I was.

Yum ~

We then derped around some more at the con and then, well, I was hungry again. Not a wonder seeing how my last warm/proper meal was back on Thursday mid day... Back to Kotipizza we went and this time there wasn't an overlong waiting line so we headed straight inside. Seeing how Ri-kun wasn't as hungry as I was we decided on just buying one pizza and I'd give a part of it to the not-that-hungry hobbit. Our pizza of choice ended up being a pepperoni pizza with tuna. Actually, it's exactly the same one I ordered back at Desucon Frostbite 2012 that I waited forever for and when I got it in my hands my Sprite exploded all over the pizza and it was a.. former pizza. :DD This time I had better luck though, bless that. Oh, and speaking of lemonades, I went to grab myself a Mountain Dew Supernova while Ri-kun waited for our pizza to get ready because hey, Mountain Dew is yummy and I wanted to taste this new flavor.

This was taken by Ri-kun after I had returned from my buy-a-drink trip.
Notice how there's a Saitou, aka me, in the background with a perfectly placed lamp reflection face censor. xD

Waiting for pizza..

As soon as we got our pepperoni tuna pizza we headed back to Sibeliustalo to try and find some empty sitting places. Turned out there were some nice bench table things outside, next to the dock area.

Pizza tajm!

At some point I found the Kenshin cosplayer I had been looking for and so we headed out to take some crossover photos while Ri-kun went to hang around with some other peeps for a while. It was windy as hell but at least we got some pretty cool photos. I must say Anniilaugh is the best Kenshin ever. <3 It was fun to be your shinsengumi enemy of the past, heheh... ~
Oh, and I totally dumped my scarf at some point because it was a major pain in the ass to keep on; it kept smothering me, flying everywhere, sliding over my shoulders and just being a nuisance.

Photos by Tubbsen.

lolol I did some improvisation Gatotsu.. xD
I couldn't take a more proper feet position because the wind was raging and I don't approve of kimono feet flashing..

After the crossover photoshooting I rejoined with Ri-kun and before long we bumped into Zero dressed as Rokuro Unno from Brave 10. We chatted for a while about a lot of things, like Närcon and stuff. I got so much more motivation to put fire on my ass so that I will finish my Masamune Date cosplay on time for Närcon now because damn, Zero will be a sad Yukimura if I don't! Can't let that happen!

Motivation boost!!

After Zero had to go I and Ri-kun walked around some more and when we were at the dock area we decided to have some photoshoots.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai
Photographer: Ri-kun

And because Ri-kun is just so adorable and great as Bilbo.. <3

Oh, during the photoshoots we also bumped into Jäärä, Zkitsune and the rest! It was nice to see you guys again!

Hellou Jäärä!

After the photoshoots we two just walked around some more and enjoyed the con atmosphere. When it got late we decided to leave for the hotel and spend the rest of the night hotel derping as it has become a sort of tradition to us by now. :D Oh, and Ri-kun's coolness factor increased by 100% when Bilbo put on the sunglasses unts unts unts ~

Driving, like a boss

Oh, guess what we did at the hotel this time? 

Oh you crispy cheesy goodness, how I've been waiting to eat you ~

...

 Ehrm. Yeah.

Sunday

And so arrived the last con day and again we woke up at 08:00 and headed for hotel breakfast. My stomach filled with the same bacons and yoghurts I changed into kimono!Rokuro.. but only for a quick photoshoot. I had figured earlier that if I would end up sitting in cosplay during the car pool back to Oulu wearing a black kimono would be less sensitive to dirt and shit than an off-white one.. and having both my eyes available would save me from eventual hazards. So yeah, I just wore Rokuro for a quick shoot in the hotel's backyard and then switched back to Saitou for the con.

Cosplayer & edit: Valkoinen Samurai
Photographer: Ri-kun

We didn't shoot for long and soon enough I was Saitou again and Ri-kun western!Saitou. Double Saitous heading for the con aaaawww yeeeah!
But before we left I just had to try on the Waluigi cap I bought on Saturday at the Dealer's hall for Jäätynyt Enkeli, who couldn't go to Desucon because his school's closing ceremony or whatever was on 14th June, aka Desucon's first day.

So cool bro, yo

When we arrived at the con my Saitou ponytail hairtie had derped and so Ri-kun retied it for me. We stood close to the entrance and at some point a group of Japanese girls had approached Ri-kun and asked for a photo. I didn't see when they came because I was turned facing the other way but when I did turn around they noticed I was cosplaying Saitou too and yeah, photo time! We changed a few words in English and then came the ~awesome moment~ which made me smile like a dork for the rest of the con and even now! :'D Turned out they were big Hakuouki fans and had with them this drawstring bag with random Japanese Hakuouki gashapon figures and they gave us one each ohmygodohmygod I died so much. <3 I got this adorable western!Okita. ;w;

B'awwww <3

After enough ahghdshj-ing me and Ri-kun went to the Dealer's hall again to check if there was anything new today and yes there was. One of the things I bought was this fabulous Wario t-shirt for myself:

WAHAHA
Because Wario is DA MAN >8D

Later on we went back to the dock area and I was being the cameraman again, this time photoshooting Ri-kun's western version of Saitou. Yes, I really like photographing!

photographer!Saitou at your service ~
(photo by Jäärä, taken on Saturday)

Even though I was the photographer I won't upload any of the photos here; some of them can be found at Ri-kun's blog post.. which I already linked to earlier so just scroll up a bit if you're interested!

Oh well, we ran into Ellu, Joel and their company and decided it's better if we go pick up those free cosplay parts now when we all were together than to wait until later. So everyone crammed themselves into Ri-kun's car and off we headed to city to pick up free cosplay stuff from an apartment of someone we didn't even know. :DD The whole car ride was so much fun and absolutely hilarious things were said, you guys are awesome!

The people at the back seat having fun ~

Uh, about the free cosplay stuff thing.. this one person wanted to give away their stuff for free to anyone who wanted them because otherwise they would be going to be trashed. They had informed about this at Aniki forums and I had reserved some parts for an Inu no Taisho (Inu-papa) cosplay from InuYasha because hey, my first manga and the thought to cosplay him has been stored in my brain long enough already so, eh, why not make it happen someday?
While there I also grabbed a Gaara (Naruto) gourd because no one had reserved it and hey, it was cool and deserves a second life much more than being trashed. Sure it was cracking and a bit heavy but the cracking should be fixable. It's likely I'll let my twin have it though because he has mentioned an interest in cosplaying Gaara.

Well well, back at the con Joel took some photos of us. After that we parted ways and again me and Ri-kun derped around. We went to eat some more cheese doodles outside when I felt my stomach roaring for food... yeah, cheese doodles pretty much count as food for me at a con. I know, con nutrition is the finest thing ever ~

western!Saitou and crispy cheesy goodness..

We just hung around the rest of the time and walked all over the place, chilled and talked with people we knew. When Desucon started to near its end we both started to feel laggy and sat down and awaited the con ending ceremony to finish. I would maybe have gone watching the ending ceremony had there not been a huge waiting line for it.. I don't know really but whenever there's a long line to something it pretty immediately drains out my interest to go check it out. Huge lines just puts me off somehow. *shrugs*

Laggy Ri-kun leaning on my shoulder

And so the ending ceremony finished and people started leaving Desucon... but something decided to arrive too, namely the notorious "Desucon weather" which means rain, rain and more rain. Oh, and did I say rain? :DD Yeah, it started raining a lot just when the con ended and that wasn't cool man! I then realized I would have no choice but to change out of kimono unless I wanted to brutally murder it along the way. Seeing how my suitcase was in Ri-kun's car there wasn't much to do than go get it and well, I couldn't do that myself unless I wanted to sacrifice parts of my cosplay. So well, Ri-kun being as awesome as they are went and got it for me. ;^; They came back half-soaked and I went turboo into the roomy handicap toilet to change into casual!Saitou more like my everyday clothes with Saitou's wig and make-up before the con would order everyone to get the fuck out of Sibeliustalo and out to enjoy (not) the Desu weather. They even said in the speakers "Sään tarjoaa Desucon." which translates to "Weather brought to you by Desucon." <- Yes, it's that notorious. Go figure.

I bid Joel, Ellu and the rest farewell and went with Ri-kun to their car with all my stuff in and we then drove to the other parking place to find my carpool company. We found them and then we had to move my OVER NINETHOUSAND stuffs over to the carpool car and avoid the water pools that were everywhere while we were at it. The most interesting mission was to get the Gaara gourd safely into the car. Luckily seeing how there were only two people in the backseat the gourd could be put in there and it was totally put between the couple oops. But they said it was okay because had I kept it in my lap I could barely have moved...

Gaara gourd is a bitch and it's on its way to a new home ~
(yes, that black thing is a car safety belt lol)

Oh, the gourd decided to shit out "Gaara gourd was here" cracked pieces all over the place.. there's pieces of it in Lahti, Oulu and Kemi and around my apartment... lol

On our way to Oulu

I spent most of my time sleeping and playing Nintendo DS again during the trip back to the north. Oh, and as you can tell from the photo I sat in the front, but obviously not in front of the driving wheel or we would have been swimming in one of Finland's thousand lakes. :DD 
The two people in the backseat left at Jyväskylä and so me, the driver and the Gaara gourd was left. We also ate hamburgers at an ABC station along the way. I then slept some more and before I knew it we were in Oulu and there was a pretty sunset going on too!

I'd so want to have a cosplay photoshoot in a sunset like this someday..

We arrived at Oulu past midnight and I dragged my stuff to my aunt's place again where I would sleep the night. On Monday morning I woke up early and took a morning train to Kemi and well, I was a bit in a hurry to get to the train in time but I managed (read: it was late) nevertheless. Oh, and I must say people stared at me so much in the train station because of the gourd, oh god. 
Well well, I bought a ticket at the train (I normally always buy tickets online) and something weird happened; when I said I wanted to buy a ticket to Kemi the train conductor asked if I was a junior.

What the hell...

I probably did that very same expression and said my age and the conductor just silently gave me a normally priced adult ticket... now when I think back at it I should just have pokerfaced and lied because he didn't check ID I would probably have gotten a lot cheaper ticket. Damn.

~~~

Alrighty then, that sums my Desucon journey up. All in all it was awesome and the only thing I can think right now is agjhdshja I want to go to a con again! ;_; Luckily there's Skecon coming up on early July so I will survive.. now to return to working on my cosplays...

Oh, and here's my cosplay photo video from Desucon:

If you want your photo just tell me at what time you are and give me an email adress or something to send the photo(s) to and I will. :)

Thank you for a great con and to everyone who interacted with me! It's always such a fun surprise when someone tells me they follow my cosplay blog at a con. :'D Oh, and if anyone survived this textwall then major creds to you! 8D

...

 Wait.
This is the last thing, I promise.
I'm also looking for photos of my cosplays, if you happen to sit on some I'd be very happy to have them. You can send them to my email valkoinensamurai[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you! ~

Rokuro preview + My Desucon journey starting soon!

Today soon after I woke up I figured this day is my last chance to do a Rokuro preview before Desucon. Sure, the eyewrap thingy isn't done but who cares? :'D  Besides, I noticed some things when I put it all on.. namely that the eyewrap isn't as long as I thought it would be; I could wrap it 2-3 times around my head which led me to the conclusion that if I was to finish it (read: fold it in half and use a straight stitch to close it) I would lose half of the original width.. and this is not so good because of the thing not wrapping as many times around as I had thought so I need the extra width to make sure it really covers my eye. Yeah. With that said I think I'll keep it "unfinished" for now. I might go buy more fabric to add length to it another time

By the way I've finally got the mirror mounted into the new apartment so now I could take some preview photos alone. Sorry about the photos being mirrored (everything is reversed..), the mess in the background and the yellow lighting. Oh well, enough rambling, le photos coming in!

I still just see Saitou with a damaged eye lol

Very chill cosplay to wear.. and everything for it is from my kimono closet w00p!
Oh, and one thing - Rokuro sports violet eyes but because of this being a Sunday cosplay I don't think I'll bother with using contact lenses. The reasoning? It would be a hassle after the con is over because I will be traveling back home north and yeah, I don't gusta the thought of wearing contacts during a long car trip or alternatively removing them in a) a crammed con toilet b) in some random gasoline station or whatnot stop along the way. Just.. no, especially considering I'm still pretty new to using contact lenses and it's so important to have clean hands and stuff. Just not worth the trouble I think.. but I will for sure wear contacts whenever I have a proper photoshoot with this cosplay someday.

Well well, seeing how my Desucon journey starts already tomorrow evening I guess it's safe to assume I won't write any more blog posts until after the con sooooo..  

SEE YOU ALL AWESOME PEOPLE AT THE CON! :DD

And now, I'm outta here. Nose turned to the south and on my stomach in 3.....2......1.......

How I switched sides - Desucon 2013 cosplay plans change

There's now under a month left until Desucon (hype!! 8D) and the con carpool search seems to be slightly on the brighter side; I've found two people whom I could tag along with but I have yet to make sure 100% which one it will be because one of them informed me, about one week ago, that he might not be able to go to Desucon after all. Oh well, if he can't go there I do have that other person to check carpooling possibilities with. We'll see, I'll probably make a post when it's settled.

Oh well, the last few weeks or so I've been bouncing back and forth between changing my Desucon cosplay plans slightly and it seems I've got turned over to the "yes, I will change my plans" side now. Worry not, it's just one cosplay that got changed! My current cosplay plan list is now as follows:

Friday

Series: Fruits Basket

Character: Kazuma Sohma (manga version)

Kazuma ain't going nowhere because I've already planned a pair cosplay with Ri-kun as Kyo and I'm looking forward to it quite a bunch haha. Besides he's pretty much finished.. err, except for that random not-very-traditional haori tie... I might add it though.

Saturday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Hajime Saitou

 This is where my plans changed. I originally planned to go as Kenshin (OVA, Battousai version) but.. plans changed. Basically, I switched from being a big enemy of the shinsengumi to, well, being a shinsengumi. xD Also, fun fact: one of Kenshin's toughest enemies and coolest is Saitou. Then again, Rurouni Kenshin's Saitou is that much more BAMF than Hakuouki's taciturn bishie Saitou. xD I hope I run into that Kenshin cosplayer I heard will be there, crossover photos herpderp ~
I also realized that by cosplaying Saitou I would get somewhat less stuff to take with me -which is good because heavy luggage is not so gusta and both carpool possibilities aren't space wonder cars- and that's because several parts of the cosplay would be used for my other Desucon cosplays as well - namely the wig, shoes and juban as well as some smaller stuff. Also I've been longing to get a chance to wear Saitou again ever since I bought a new black authentic kimono that fits me better. And besides I've been sort of obsessed with playing Hakuouki Musouroku (aka Warriors of the Shinsengumi) lately...

Sunday

Series: Brave 10

Character: Rokuro Unno

kimono!Rokuro as seen in Brave 10 anime's last episodes stays on the list as a rather chill Sunday cosplay.

Nothing else to say, see ya at Desucon!

Desucon 2013 - Problems solved and cosplay plans!

I have now solved the how-to-travel-to-Desucon-and-back problem; I will seemingly travel with a group of con goers from Oulu and hey, in a motherfucking camping car to boot! <3 So much awesome! 8D I'm very happy about this!!

Oh, and I kind of half-promised earlier that when I solve the travel problem I will reveal my Desucon cosplay plans. Here goes!

Friday

Series: Fruits Basket

Character: Kazuma Sohma (manga version!)

I'm not much for shoujo manga but Fruits Basket is one of the few exceptions. It was a friend who got me to read it and while I found the first few volumes.. well.. boring.. until Kazuma appeared the story started for real. I've wanted to cosplay Kazuma for a while now (I can't find anyone who has cosplayed him by the way :S) and when Ri-kun said they could do Kyo -if I did Shishou- I was excited because hey, Kazuma is awesome and all but he just looks like a generic kimono dude and probably wouldn't be recognized without Kyo. :'( But it seems I will have a Kyo so AAAAAWWW YEEEAAAAA, this will be so much fun!

Saturday

Series: Rurouni Kenshin

Character: Kenshin Himura (Hitokiri Battousai)

Kenshin, you don't need more reasons to cosplay him than that he is AWESOME. I will cosplay the Tsuiokuhen/Trust & Betrayal OVA version, aka when he was still a hitokiri. Yeah, it's the same one I debuted at Närcon Vinter last month. Kenshin was super comfortable to wear and fun so I can see myself cosplaying him a lot more in the future and the future means that the next stop is Desucon!

Sunday

Series: Brave 10

Character: Rokuro Unno

I've been going back and forth on who to cosplay on Sunday the most but when I figured I could use Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan Saitou's wig... their hairstyles are super similar - hairtwins! I'd also get more use for my violet contacts if I did Rokuro so well, it got pretty set. Okay, while I admit I think his default outfit is more awesome I really don't have the confidence or body.. hahaha.. ha to pull that one off so I have to settle with the second (third?) best.. aka kimono!Rokuro seen during the later half of the anime. Chill cosplay except that I'll be half blind so why not? Also, eyewraps are boss and Rokuro is one of my top favorites in Brave 10 anyway. Sure the anime wasn't all that great but hey, I really enjoyed most of the characters!

 Yeah.

These plans are not 100% set yet, there's always the possibility I might change something but I feel pretty sure about these.