Tracon 7 - Chicken nuggets, bunk beds and train fails

Sorry for this slightly late Tracon summary post - let's get on with it!

My journey to Tampere actually started already on Thursday 6th September because I and Jäätynyt Enkeli had decided to carpool with some other congoers from Oulu. It was soooooo much cheaper than going by train.
The driver picked us two up from Kemi 12:00 and then we drove to Oulu where we picked up two other con people. I soon opened up to these new people and the car trip was rather enjoyable.
At night we arrived to Tampere city, got lost but then found our way to the right sleeping place. It was some kind of campground with some small cottages one could hire. When we got to the campground I got the impression that only 4 people were allowed to be in each cottage, so at first there was some talk that me and Jäätynyt Enkeli might have had to use some mad ninja skills to get a bed to sleep on.. but luckily there was no one checking the amount of people passing to the campground at least not that late so it was safe, ahaha.
I must say it was COLD inside those cottages... but maybe that's because I picked the bunk bed right in front of the door. Not the smartest choice. *shrugs* Oh well, I solved that problem by sleeping with my clothes on... and a scarf. It was extra cold too because I didn't have any duvet covers.. no one told me I needed those...

Friday morning finally came after a rather cold night (but it was cheap so I can't really complain) and I woke up and decided to eat my breads I had made yesterday for the carpool. I was worried they might have gotten moldy already but they were still fresh.
After breakfast I played some on my Nintendo DS and then everyone wanted to go to a foodstore to buy coffee and whatnot. After the foodstore trip me and Jäätynyt Enkeli got a ride to Tampere's train station where we awaited Ri-kun's arrival. Ri-kun soon came and we then started our trip to the Omenahotel. This time we had the one Omenahotel farther away because we were pretty late on booking. (last year me, Ri-kun and LittleOcean had the closer Omenahotel with the emocorner. <3)
We got to the hotel and later Mira-kun finally showed up, yay everyone is here! 
The rest of Friday evening was random hotel derping.. until it was time to go to bed. We didn't find the duvet covers for the two extra beds so we decided that everyone sleeps in the double bed! :'DD Well, it was an experience in itself, ahahah. Buuutttt. Being that close to 4 people soon turned on the sauna effect, not to mention it felt pretty crammed and whenever I managed to find a comfortable sleeping position a certain someone was moving away my legs so I always woke up.

At one point I decided I needed more room to sleep so I migrated over to one of the pillow-less and blanket-less extra beds. Again, it was cold. But I slept anyway.

Saturday morning came and when I woke up I noticed Mira-kun sitting at the table while everyone else was still in their beds. Oh well, we had our breakfast and then it was time to put on Saturday cosplays, Tracon's first day! 8D

I cosplayed Hajime Saitou from Bakumatsu Renka: Shinsengumi.

Tracon studio photo by Emilia Lahtinen.

Saturday was a rather rainy day... con weather brought to you by Desucon. lol
Most of the day our hotel group hung together and derped but we bumped into familiar faces too!
Around lunch time something we decided to go search for the ramen restaurant Hanabi. After a lot of searching we found out that it didn't exist anymore.. and I think a part of me died. No more Shingen Takeda ramen or Oda Nobunaga ramen. (yes, ramen dishes were named after famous historical persons, it was fucking epic)

I HAD BEEN LONGING TO EAT AT HANABI SINCE LAST YEAR

Oh well, we went to a Chinese restaurant instead and then we went back to Tracon. Back at Tracon, the usual wandering alone and looking at everything continued. My usual con routine because I'm too lazy to attend panels (not interesting enough and if it's something that would interest me there's one hell of a queue...) and I mostly go to cons to spend time with my friends.. even though I end up only walking around until either my feet dies or my back breaks. lol
Our hotel group decided to leave Tracon a bit earlier than usual because everyone more or less was in some kind of pain and we decided that we had already seen what there was to be seen today.. and we wanted to spend time hotel derping again. XD Although this night everyone slept in their own beds.

Sunday arrived and it was time to put on the Hakuouki cosplays! For some reason our Hakuouki group always decided on Sunday being the Hakuouki day and that also makes Sunday the main day for us. The day you look forward to the most. So yeah, on with the cosplays and it was time to dress up as Isami Kondou!

Tracon studio photo by Emilia Lahtinen.
Me as Kondou, Mira-kun as Okita.

 We had to take all our luggage with us to Tracon and check out. It wasn't so cool because my body decided to be weak as fuck already on the morning, before I had done anything WHAT_THE_FUCK again and trigger a lung derp. Wonderful. OTL Big thanks to Mira-kun for the help dragging my and Jäätynyt Enkeli's shit (aka luggage) to the con. ;A; <3
Oh well, we got to the con and soon we were trying to gather all our Hakuouki cosplay group members so that we could enter in the Välähdys cosplay photo competition. After that our group split into smaller groups again and I was hanging with Mira-kun, Ri-kun and Jäätynyt Enkeli, just like yesterday.
At one point I heard my phone ringing, it was one of those carpool congoers I had traveled with. She said they will leave 15:00. Earlier there had been some talk whether or not one of the two cars (aka the one me and my twin would take) would leave the con 17:00-18:00 but it seemed it got changed to 15:00 in the end. I think I died a bit again. Especially because this meant that I would miss the planned Hakuouki cosplay shooting and I would miss precious time to hang around with my friends whom I likely would not see again for the rest of this year...

Oh well, nothing to be done about it. I couldn't just go and take the train because it would have cost me an arm and a leg. 3 hours of extra con time is maybe not exactly worth 80 € after all. *sighs*
So the last minutes our hotel trio walked around Sorsalampi and we just had to stop to take a few quick shots like this one before we continued over to the other side to say goodbye to Jäärä, Zkitsune, Yamachu, Ellu and the rest. But. When we got there they decided to do a mega quick ALL TOGETHER NOW Hakuouki shoot. I'm so happy. <3 But I was stressed out because I knew those people were waiting for me and my twin and when we "finished" I ran like a mofo back inside. Lungs didn't like it, ahaha... It felt awesome when I noticed an Okita and a Saitou following. Totally warmed my heart. <3 We met up with the carpool people and I went and changed my Kondou wig into my Saitou wig because it was easier for travel and then I decided to take off my hakama too for the same reason. After that we left the con area, walked a bit to the cars close to the graveyard with Mira-kun and Ri-kun following even the last bit. Awwww. ;A; Some sad goodbye hugs ensued and the car was rolling........... to McDonalds. CHICKEN NUGGETS. IN THE CAR.
And then the journey up to Oulu started for real.
   On Sunday night we were at Oulu and me and my twin slept at one of our maternal aunt's place again because any trains to Kemi didn't go that late.

Monday morning came, we packed our stuff and Jäätynyt Enkeli went outside to meet up with one of the carpoolers because he had forgotten our train tickets in the car yesterday.
We got the tickets and headed straight for the train station, thinking we would be there just in time. When we got there and I looked at the train departure list something felt a bit off. I couldn't see our train's number anywhere... AND THEN I NOTICED THAT IT HAD DEPARTED ALMOST A FUCKING HOUR AGO. I HAD REMEMBERED THE TIME WRONG AND WE COULDN'T HAVE CHECKED IT EARLIER BECAUSE WE GOT THE TICKETS ALREADY TOO LATE.

I felt like I wanted to kill anything that moved when we stood there at rail 3 and waited for the next-to-depart Rovaniemi train's conductor to appear so that we could ask what the fuck to do now. The conductor came and we explained the situation without going into details and he was all "lol you can change the train tickets to this train."

BEST DAY EVAR

So yeah, we went inside the train, the conductor came and changed our tickets like nothing had happened and we went on our way to Kemi. It is during times like this when you are so fucking happy you bought the (more expensive) standard train ticket instead of the (cheaper) advance ticket because seemingly the standard ticket allowed for changes... just in case you miss a train like we now did. It saved us money in the end. <3

All's Well That Ends Well ~

Tracon, I'm goddamn coming!

Yeah, you read right. 

For the longest time I've been pending back and forth should I or should I not go to Tracon this year. Mind you, I've always really wanted to go but this time mom said she wouldn't be helping me pay for the trip like she did for Desucon and some others, so, I would have to pay for everything myself, which, well, would cost a lot of money for someone who has had no income all summer. It stings. Buuuuuuut, I figured if I don't go to Tracon this year I will later regret it a lot for many reasons (like missing my last chance to see most of my Finnish con friends this year and all the awesome cosplays they will do for Tracon) so I decided...

I CAN'T FUCKING MISS TRACON. I LOVED IT SO MUCH LAST YEAR. ;A;

So I'm coming, let it cost what the hell it wants. Fuck money, I'm coming if I so have to live on crispbread and water for the next year!! Or well, no, not really.. but you guys could maybe help me out so here comes some

~*~ SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ~*~

I decided not so long time ago to start taking traditional art commissions to fund my life and hobbies, want to help me out? Have a look, it's in a book.. almost.

• Commission information •

 And to get back on track...

I've ordered the con ticket to Tracon a few days ago like a ninja while the cheaper advance ordering was still active (it is no longer available) and today I passed the point of no return, aka Ri-kun ordered the hotel for themself, me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Mira-kun to sleep in during the con weekend.. this will be fun! 8D

Soooo, now let's spike up my cosplay plans! Man I've been waiting for this!

Saturday

Series: Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi

Character: Hajime Saitou

Yay obscurecosplays.com strikes again.

I planned at first to cosplay this to Oulun Animeseminaari but it.. yeah. So I postponed Saitou for later.. and "later" is now Tracon.

I took a picture from the manga but I will do the game/official art version when it comes to the patterns of the kimono although my kimono isn't blue-gray, it's simply gray. Oh, and yes, this cosplay will consist of half vintage wafuku and half self-made stuff. I will need to make his shirt and that glove I guess. Wieee.

Now to get off my lazy ass and start sewing...

Sunday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Isami Kondou

AWWWWWW YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Most of my friends are going to roll a western!Hakuouki group on Sunday and of course I have to be part of it. BUUUUUTTTTTT. I have no western versions myself (yet) and I don't really want to do a "double character", even though I don't really mind doubles, it's just cooler to have as many different characters as possible from the cast. *nods* So, well, Kondou has no western outfit so I'm gonna be trolling there in kimono gear and still feel right, LIKE A FUCKIN' BOSS. >8DD Besides it's awesome to fill the group with yet another character, I think we will have almost all of the shinsengumi members! This will be GREAT!

Hijikata, you can't command people anymore, boahahaha ~

I'm so excited I could puke rainbows!

Shinsengumi commander Kondou photoshoot

During the Thursday of Närcon (Sweden, 26-29 July) I debuted my Kondou cosplay and my friend Psycho Cat offered me a photoshoot at Närcon's outside grass area. There was this huge lower spot in the middle with trees and bushes and it provided an awesome background and rather cool shadows from the leaves of the trees ~

Here I present you, my Isami Kondou cosplay from Hakuouki!

 

And lastly (I think) my two personal favorites!! ~

Hjgdskjf I didn't even know I could look that badass XD

All my love <3<3<3

I'm brainfucked at how many of all the photos were actually good, and by good I mean good enough to be published online for the world to see. XD I'm used to more than half of the batch being derps but nope, pretty much all Kondou photos were either good or fucking awesome.. if I do say so myself. I'm so proud of them, Psycho Cat thanks a thousand!! <3 (and thanks Hansku for the wig!)

Oh, and for those who wants to see more Kondou goodness feel free to take a look at cosplay.com, I will spam Kondou photos there soon ~

Bye!

Närcon 2012 - Cosplay chess and tabi socks with holes

 Hellous ~

I just arrived safely at my dad's place in Bålsta after a successful trip to Närcon. I met a lot of familiar faces and some new friends too and generally had a very nice time. Now follows a rather long summary from start to finish what happened on the journey to, at and from the con ~

Tuesday (24th July)

Me and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli's journey from northern Finland to southern Sweden started. We had packed our stuff earlier and took the bus at Haparanda bus station 17:10 (Swedish time) that went to Luleå. We walked with our luggages to Luleå train station and I noticed a girl with blue-blond hair who was sitting close to the grill/kiosk/whatever who looked disturbingly familiar. Turned out it was one of my con friends who was going to work at Närcon! Me and my twin had a place at the sleeping car and my con friend, 'Ecce', had a sleeping place too although, I think, in the one next to ours. We talked for some hours in our sleeping car and some other early congoers joined in. One of them looked creepily similar to one of my Finnish con friends... and I don't even exaggerate when I say 'creepily similar' in the sense of pretty-damn-sure-they-are-twins-who-were-separated-at-birth. lol When I first saw her my brain went "Fuck, isn't that [insert Finnish friend's nickname here]?? Wait... it can't be.. it just can't... WTF IS THIS SHIT? IT TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE HER. SCAAAAAAAAAAAAARYYYYYYYYYYY." and then, for the the rest of the train trip and even at the con, whenever I saw her I was totally brainfucked for some minutes until I could tell my brain it's not the same person. Not. Not. Nooooooooooot. I'm not sure do I want to meet my doppelganger... my twin doesn't count.
One hour or so before midnight Ecce left to her sleeping car 'room' and two random strangers entered our sleeping car.. and lately one more. One con goer was there too. Luckily they didn't snore so I could sleep.

Wednesday (25th July)

Around 12:30 or something like that (late train...) we arrived at Stockholm central train station. There we noticed what an epic fail we had made when we packed our stuff at home.. why did we put all our stuff in one of the luggages and leave the other one completely empty except two decoration katanas?? So what was labeled as "my" suitcase weighed probably closer to 20 kilos and the other one like... maybe not even 5 kilos. Guess was it fun to be the one having to haul the heavy-as-fuck one? Nope. Well well, we took turns kind of hauling the heavy-as-fuck one and made it to the train that would take us from Stockholm to Linköping. Around 15:00 something (or a bit earlier, I dunno) we got to Linköping.
When I was about to go down the stairs a random girl took my Urahara hat and put it on her head and started to walk away like nothing happened. I waited like 5 seconds if she would give it back to me, but she didn't and just kept walking towards the stairs. I then took the hat back and put it on my head and asked her "Why did you take my hat?" in all seriousness and she just answered "Because it's fun" in a casual tone of voice. The fuck. I almost wanted to punch her in the face, what an idiotic answer and behavior. I know you're a congoer and I am too, but that doesn't give you any more rights to steal my hat. You're a total stranger and I am one too, where is common sense? Some people... *sigh*

Oh well, met up with Psycho Cat who had been waiting for us at the train station; we had booked a room together for the con stay. So yeah, we walked to Sky Hotel Apartments, aka our sleeping place. Actually it's more of a mini apartment than a hotel, we had our own mini kitchen! It was nice and cheap, at least I think so. So we dumped our luggages there and went to the nearby food store to, well, buy food. Me and my twin bought milk, yoghurt, rosehip soup and rhubarb soup, small Kellogg's cereal packs, candy, noodles, chips (CHEESE DOODLES!) and frozen thai/asian food. Yup, that's the con diet, cheap and unhealthy like crap. :')) <- double chin lol After that we went back to the 'hotel' and derped and awaited the next day to dawn.

Thursday (26th July)

DA FIRST CON DAY BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM ~~
Yah, morning came, on with the cosplays and let's go! So I got my Kondou wig on time (it arrived the morning we had to leave) and so I could debut him at Närcon, as planned. What I didn't plan was how long time it took to put on everything. Well, the make-up part took the most time because I used that one stuff, whatever-it-is, that takes like 9389594394 hours to dry. And I almost ragequited when my new experiment derped; stupid glue stick just peeled off when I tried to use it on my eyebrows to try to get them flat and easier to cover so I could draw on cooler brows yo. But nope, not today man. Not today. So I thought "screw this shit" and did my usual eyebrow coloring instead.
Putting on the hakama was derpier than usual too, I dunno why.. my twin even managed to kill my hakama's hera (hakama "spatula" to help keep the back in place) or well, the piece of string it hung from broke. Yipee.. Oh well, it didn't matter all that much because you can still wear hakama without it, it just makes life a bit easier. *shrugs*
Jäätynyt Enkeli cosplayed Keisuke Sannan from Hakuouki too and when we all three were done we walked to the central station and took the bus to Närcon. We saw the line of colorful people and costumes waiting to get in and went to stand where it ended. Oh, and let me say IT WAS HOT AS HELL. I kept taking my shinsengumi haori off when I stood still. So we three stood there and soon enough our friend Angie showed up. She bought a wig from me.
At 13:37 Närcon opened its doors and the line started to move, after some few hours of waiting for us. The line actually moved surprisingly fast this year. *remembers Uppcon's 4 hour lines* Soon we were inside the building and started to walk around and derp, like I usually do. Not so much to say except that during the evening I had to go to the CBG room to get information and prepare for Friday's cosplay chess -the biggest official one in Sweden- which I took part in for the first time this year. The theme was manga/anime VS games. The preparation was a let's-go-through-how-this-will-happen thing and we got to know who we would fight against and come up with our own fighting scenes. The preparation was quite entertaining if I do say so myself.. even though I wanted to go pee during the whole thing which took probably 2 hours. -.- Wonderful. My Kondou cosplay pretty much competes with my Hijikata cosplay when it comes to the current "murder when you have to go to the toilet" title...

Me, my twin and Psycho Cat went back to the 'hotel' around 22:00-23:00 something and thank god for that, my feet hurt so much. At the 'hotel' we watched the comedy movie Dumb & Dumber on TV, ate chips, showered and then went to sleep.

Friday (27th July)

Second morning of the con and time to cosplay Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki. Jäätynyt Enkeli was too lazy to cosplay Sannan again I would have had to dress him etc, takes long to get ready so he just went in casual clothes.. or well, the 2012 year's official Uppcon t-shirt. Getting myself ready today as Saitou went way quicker than Kondou yesterday. Simpler cosplay to put on. But before I put on my cosplay me and my twin cooked noodles for breakdast, mmm nutritious...
At the con it was the same usual again: look at the cosplays, merchandise, feel the happy atmosphere... until I noticed my right tabi sock had finally chosen to give in; there was a big visible hole on my big toe.

My reaction

What to do?

I went and looked at all the merchandise booths after tabi socks and I spotted a tabi and geta set. I asked the seller if they had more tabi socks and he said those were the last pair. He could sell 'em for me separately. But I looked at the geta and figured I wanted them too, especially when I noticed they fit me. So yeah, Saitou got new shoes and the day was saved.

It didn't take too long before Angie showed up and asked if I was going to take part in the cosplay chess. At that point I realized I had totally forgotten to check the time! We were running late and left for the CGB room. Almost all people from yesterday's preparation were there and they were going through the standing positions or something a last time. So I went and stood there and when I noticed people didn't really do anything that seemed like we-will-leave-at-this-very-moment signs I asked one of the people holding the chess if I had time to go to the toilet. He said if it's super fast then yes, I just answered medium fast and went on my way. lol Luckily I found a toilet very close to the CBG room, just up the corridor. When I was done someone said "Saitou Hajime!" and me, being pretty stressed (and even confused at the call because pretty much no one seemed to know who I was cosplaying) I was trying to say to her I'm running late but it just looked and sounded like avdgvsafgds so I said "Okey, fine, but make it quick" and posed and then walked fast back to the room. Back at the room people had taken their positions and then we walked out from the room in a nice line towards the outside grass area where we would start the cosplay chess. Oh, and let me tell you: back-stage was hooooooot. I joked with some people in line about the warmth and then I got nervous when people started to walk one by one to the chess playing board. It was soon my turn, as Bishop number 2 to step in. Oh, I forgot to say that I was in the anime/manga team, even though Hakuouki was first a game and I even asked about it before the con and the holder of the chess said I would be in the game team... *shrugs* Oh well, I have my theories why I got put in the anime/manga team and I don't really mind anyway ~
So err, what to say about the cosplay chess in itself more than it was awesomesauce and I certainly want to do it again! <3

We left the con around the same time as yesterday because everyone had more or less pain somewhere... and as soon as I got to my bed...

(Photo by Jäätynyt Enkeli)

NO IT'S NOT FANSERV--, MY LOWER BACK JUST. HURT. LIKE. HELL.
(I could barely stand straight.. or do basically anything... it was that bad... OTL)

A lot oh-fuck-my-back-breaks-if-I-move-anymore-today pains I managed to get my ass over to the dining table and put some freeze food in the micro which resulted in a lot of derpy 'Saitou eating food' photos. I was eating some kind of sweet chili teriyaki chicken with rice, which I had not tasted before by the way... hence why lots of weird and silly faces happened.

(Photos by Jäätynyt Enkeli)

Saturday (28th July)

On Saturday I debuted my Soujun Kuchiki cosplay at the con, mostly because Psycho Cat did Byakuya and I also wanted to attend the planned Bleach meet... so I needed a Bleach cosplay. The meet was quite nice, we did a loooong line of Bleach cosplayers and marched around the con. I remember someone saying "A lot of Bleach cosplayers-- OH MY GOD THEY'RE MULTIPLYING!!" when we walked by. xD We had a photoshoot outside and also went to the con's photo studio. We broke the con's how-many-people-can-get-photographed-at-the-same-time record for the year I think. trololo ~
Oh well, after the Bleach meet had officially been declared finished I soon went and changed cosplays back to Hajime Saitou because I had talked with a girl earlier who had told me she would be Chizuru on Saturday and that made me go "Agsjahfdsj must change to Saitou!!". So yeah, I went and changed around 13:00 something and then I spent a good chunk of the con day trying to find said Chizuru whom I had only seen early at the morning, aka before the Bleach meet. At the evening my twin called me and said that he had found her close to the entrance so I went there and there she was, yay~
I hung around the rest of the con day with Chizuru (my twin was with his friends and Psycho Cat had gone back to the 'hotel' earlier) and some of her friends, it was nice even though my lower back was -again- hurting like hell, afdghsg. Later I found my twin and told him I wanted to go home because I felt tired and yeah, pained too. Said goodbye to Chizuru and left the con building. It was raining a liiiiiiitle bit but it soon stopped. When we passed the tunnel and were close to McDonalds I couldn't resist taking a photo of the trash bin outside, it's obvious where the con goers go eat...

Trash bin explosion

Sunday (29th July)

Sunday morning came and I decided to not go to the con after all. I had planned to wear (and half-way promised) a yukata with a vine red kaku obi but I figured the trouble to get to the con wouldn't be worth it. If I wanted to go to the con I would have needed to wake up early as shit to get ready (style my hair, dress up etc) and then pack everything (in stress) and make sure I don't forget stuff and haul it to and through the whole con because the cloakroom was already full so I couldn't have dropped my stuff there and... yeah. You see what I mean. Besides my feet were so dead, my back was killing me and I just rather prioritized to sleep and then pack my belongings without too much stress and hassle. So sorry everyone who had expected to see me there on Sunday...
Mine and Jäätynyt Enkeli's train from Linköping to Stockholm and then to our dad's place left 15:20 and.. *yawn* Sweet Jesus I'm soooo tired I don't feel like writing about the train trip back to dad's place.. it's pretty boring anyway so. *shrugs* Sorry, I reaaaaaaaally should sleep now... and if there's any spelling mistakes it's because I'm dead tired and didn't proof-read before posting, oops.

Närcon was great and if anyone read all this crap then thanks for your time ~~

In which I happily wore a "skirt" + Närcon closing in!

Sweet Jesus.. tomorrow evening me and my twin will start our journey down to Närcon. 20 hours of bus and train awaits us to get to the southern part of Sweden.. aka Linköping. We haven't even started to pack our stuff aghkfsgk!

Today on the morning my mom and twin went to town and because I woke up late I didn't go with them. I stayed home, hung the laundry to dry outside and then decided to do a Kondou WIP because I have everything ready, except the wig. I wanted to test my vintage brown hakama with the kimono to see if I preferred to do the anime version (dark brown hakama) or game version (dark blue hakama) after all.

Anime version of Kondou
(NOTE: I will wear the shinsengumi haori instead of his black haori)

I tried on the brown hakama first (because I already know what my kendo hakama feels like when worn. lol) and immediately declared that "Fuck yeah, brown it is!". It felt chill to not have to lift the kimono's hem into the obi like I do when I wear umanori (split-legged) hakama with full-length kimonos. For the first time in my life I friggin' loved wearing what technically was a skirt. BADAMTSSH, BLASPHEMY!
So yeah, here's some quick wigless!Kondou photos for you.. because I'm too lazy to censor my face. lol And I'm too lazy to put on tabi too.. even though Kondou doesn't even wear socks. lol Not to mention I totally forgot my swords...

Oh well, back to the other thing I needed to inform. Houston, we have a problem.
I might be more or less forced to change my Närcon cosplay plans last minute. I can't tell until tomorrow and then it'll probably going to be too stressy for me to write a blog post about whatever I finally decided to do. So the thing is, I might not get my Kondou wig on time. It was posted on Saturday and as we all know the post doesn't move on weekends and well, I'm leaving Tuesday evening and post delivery takes (at least according to the post of Finland's site) with 1st class mail one day. So if it goes out on Monday I might get it on Tuesday before I leave, if I'm lucky and the post doesn't slack. But it's gonna be very last minute as I said.. and with my crappy luck it's probably gonna be here on Wednesday when I'm already in Linköping. :'DDDD Hohohohoho.. not.

Well well, in case I don't get the wig on time (and don't have time to report it before I have to leave) I will write my Plan B here, just in case. If I don't get my wig in time for Kondou he will be postponed for debut at Tracon in Finland instead, if I can go there which I have planned and really really want. To Närcon I will then be Hajime Saitou on both Thursday and Friday instead. And now I'll go back hoping I'll get the wig before I leave, however puny the odds might feel right now, because hey - here's hoping because I want to cosplay Kondou.

My cosplays for Närcon 2012!

Tjenare!

This is pretty late because Närcon is soon at the door but yeah, I bought the train ticket to Linköping yesterday and now I'll publish my cosplay plans here on my blog too!

Thursday

Character: Isami Kondou

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Lawdy lawd, Kondou. BADAMTSSH ~

But yeah, seriously going to happen because he's a great character and he so deserves more cosplay love than what he gets! ;_; Which is pretty much zero..

I'm going to reuse my shinsengumi haori and I have a vintage kimono that is close enough for his yellow-brownish kimono. Mine has a small grid pattern and is darker but whatevah.. it's not like so many people will recognize who I'm cosplaying anyway. XD I'm not sure should I use my kendo hakama (game version-ish) or my brown vintage andon hakama (anime version) ... I need to try brown hakamas on first because I haven't tried them yet. lol I don't think people would care if I have umanori or andon hakama so yeah. We'll see what happens but a Kondou WIP will follow shortly whenever I get my commissioned wig.

Friday

Character: Hajime Saitou

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

My Saitou cosplay, as seen in Uppcon XII and Animecon IX this year, will also be seen at Närcon! complete with a strangling scarf and sword sheaths that keeps falling whenever the sash loosens. lol I really like cosplaying Saitou because, well, our personalities are so similar so I'm pretty much in-character even when I'm just being myself (at least how I am during daily life, con me is more derp though trololo) ... anime alter-egos. 8D And it's so awesome to cosplay someone who for once is left-handed too so I don't have to worry about 'wrong hand' problems. lol

Saturday

Character: Soujun Kuchiki

Series: Bleach

So sweet not to have to make a cosplay based on pretty much only one official art of the character. OTL Obscure character choices are obscure. Oh well, at least most Bleach shinigamis wear the same generic shihakusho so it's a pretty safe bet. lol Just need to add a fukutaicho badge because Byakuya's dad was the fukutaicho of the 6th division.

I guess this will be my last Bleach cosplay for this year because I've been cosplaying soooo much Bleach the last year, need a break. xD But yeah, I want to debut my Soujun cosplay this year because I finished it ages ago (not like there was much to make. lol) and a Bleach meet has been planned for Närcon.

Sunday

Character: ???

Series: ???

I honestly don't know will I cosplay anything during the Sunday because the con closes already around 12:00. I would have to wake up very early to get into cosplay for it to be worth the hassle. It feels pretty 'meh' to put on a cosplay and only have like 1-2 hours to wear the thing. I'm also not really a morning person at all so I might very likely be very worn out on Sunday from the 3-days-in-a-row-early-wake-up-and-put-on-cosplay routine. Yeh. We'll see if I will be there on Sunday at all.. and if I am I might just wear a random kimono.

That's it, ciao!

Chikage's collar and Kondou's kimono

Some time ago I had randomly found out what that particular pattern Kazama has on his haori's collar is called after having seen it on random Asian stuff (including dish cloths in a Thai food store lol) during my life time - sayagata. I had typed it and searched on Google for fabrics but didn't find anything with the right color for Kazama.. until I saw a thumbnail of an Etsy auction selling a vintage kimono collar. It was labelled as 'moss green', but looked darker gold on the photos, so I took the risk and ordered it. Today I found a small package from France in the mailbox and figured it must be it and well... for once luck was on my side when it came to colors, it do indeed look gold!

Oh, I also went and biked with Jäätynyt Enkeli all the way to town to pick up two packages from the post office. One of them was the vintage kimono I will use for my coming Isami Kondou cosplay for Närcon in Linköping. Oh, and yes, it's Kondou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. Yes, I will cosplay him because he is such a bro to Okita (codename: Konbro! xD) and deserves some cosplay love. Especially considering what he did to save all the shinsengumi and yeah, I kinda adore his sense of honor and I loved that scene in the anime where he gave his black haori to sick Okita. ;A;

Kimono (in plastic bag) and collar

Collar close-up

Besides, speaking of Närcon.. a cosplay plan list will appear any day here on my blog so stay tuned if you're going there!