Euran mangapäivä 2017 – The event that time forgot

Yo yo peeps ~

I'm back home from my quick trip to southern Finland. Time flew by really fast and, despite sitting for almost 20 hours in a bus (and one hour on a train!) in total, for the sake of attending this 4-hour event, I dare say that it was worth it. Euran mangapäivä (Eura's manga day) might not have been big and impressive by any means but it was fun.
For those who missed it I mainly attended this little "mini-con" to help out a good friend in need, namely Firith, who was the main responsible for the event and also the one who resurrected Euran mangapäivä from the dusty hole it had been playing dead in since 2013. If not for him Euran mangapäivä would still belong in oblivion's hand...

Now let's get to the summary!

The event schedule and poster.

I started my journey southwards alone on Thursday, 20th April. I woke up early as shit on the morning, took my luggage and walked to the bus station on the other side of town. I swear I'm still not –and I'll never be– a morning person. I just don't understand how someone can wake up early and go to work all fresh and lively; my bed is the best place on Earth on the mornings...
The bus took me all the way to Oulu and there I stepped into another bus, Onnibus, where I'd sit for the next 8+ hours. I managed to grab a seat in the far back of the bus, which meant that I could lower the seat to maximum without having to worry about whoever was behind me being irritated by the course of action that I took – because there was no seat and thus no one behind me. #buscomfort

17:35 local time the bus arrived at Rauma, where Firith picked me up. I always imagined, for some reason, that his Ford was red but it's totally not red... my life is a lie. D: We put my stuff in the car but before we headed for his place we went to eat at the Hesburger next to the bus station, mainly because I hadn't eaten since like 04:00 on the morning/night (non-stop sitting in a bus) and was pretty much starving. Sometimes even a simple cheeseburger tastes godly.

Actually, we didn't go directly to Firith's home. He had some kind of boxing practice at a nearby gym so we headed there first. But guess what? On our way there we got some close encounters with a couple mooses – a female moose suddenly crossed the road a few meters in front of us, with a second younger one staying in the trench. Now that was nerve-wrecking! Thank lord the calf(?) didn't come or it would have bombed into the flank of the car. It's not like the first time it happens to me but it's always scary because mooses are some big-ass animals...
But yeah, we got to the gym safely. Firith started his practice while I basically just sat in a corner and watched him punch people meanwhile old Nightwish songs were blasting from the speakers and I was singing them from memory.

Once we finally got to Firith's place I dropped my stuff upstairs and I think the remainder of the day we just talked randoms and went to sleep. I got to sleep on his bed while he took the couch because it's so narrow. Good thing, because even in the bed I tossed around so much in my sleep that I hit down several items that were lying on the bedside table. Twice. I sleep like a starfish.

On Friday Firith was stressing like hell about the event. He's one hell of a stresser in general and I was just there like "chill dude, it'll be fine". I understand the pressure because he's had to do like 95% of all the things to make this event work in the span of a single month – that's pretty damn insane, especially because he's never been assigned this kind of role as a main organizer before. But yeah, my arrival meant that at least he could take one load off his shoulders, namely the photographer part.
To get some other things to think about Firith took me to the stable, where I got to ride a wagon pulled by a horse pony for the first time – freaking awesome experience! We also speed-visited a few of his friends, finished sewing the event banner and watched an episode of Vain elämää, mainly because it was Olli Lindholm's (Yö's singer and front man) day. The night we spent playing some Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and then we went to sleep... a little bit too late perhaps. Oh and yeah, we also visited a haunted house... or so they say.

Saturday morning was stress hell. :'D I underestimated the time it took to do my cosplay makeup for Itachi, my chosen cosplay for the event. We had to be at the library ("con building") one hour before the manga day would start and we also had to pick up Firith's friend Gure, who would also help with the event. I also couldn't find my violet nail polish anywhere, even though I was sure that I had taken it with me. Firith also had some cosplay stuff missing and oh lord, what a mess it was. xD We had to leave before I even had time to eat breakfast!

Everyone in our trio put on their costumes once we got to the library. There was a little cloakroom in the back entrance where we dressed. I helped Firith put on his original kimono Sasuke Uchiha cosplay – he had never worn hakama before and had no clue how to put them on. I borrowed the clothes for him so that we'd have matching traditional outfits for our Uchiha brothers.

Fun fact: Firith forgot* his tabi socks and I had accidentally taken two left foot tabi. xD Bad sock day, lol. Sukka irti. It felt really weird to have a left tabi sock on my right foot...
I also forgot** my nail polish at Firith's home meanwhile Firith forgot to remove his nail polish from his toes, which resulted in tabi- and shoeless Sasuke with colored toenails and Itachi without his signature dark violet nails.
* = they weren't actually forgotten. He had them with him, it's just that for the whole day they were hidden under Gure's bag in the cloak room. xD We only noticed it after the manga day was over.
** = or that's what I thought – it was in my bag all along (the same one the costumes were in), I just didn't search hard enough.

Uchiha bros.

Some kind of outfit selfie jutsu.

I guess most seasoned congoers would have been bored within minutes but for me this little anime event was a refreshing change of pace and a reminder of my first cosplay years – it felt at times like I had time-traveled back to 2009. Like, for real.
This kind of simple and unpretentious events have turned into a rarity in today's pressure-filled and all-the-more-ambitious con culture; I think I realized now how much I actually like these humble litttle events; there might not be much going on but it's the relaxed atmosphere that I seek.

The main entrance, seen from the inside.

Pretty much as soon as I had my costume on I needed to get out there and start photographing. I was under Firith's responsibility and my main task was to photograph the cosplay contestants and the event itself. Priority was given to photograph the cosplay contestants as soon as they showed up.
We actually had some sweaty moments because we got information that one of the cosplay contestants had cancelled during the day but, luckily, Firith had predicted this and we could still hold the cosplay competition. The remaining contestants all showed up – and this is where I felt the nostalgy. You see, we only had three contestants and they were all first-timers on the scene; for some this was their first anime event ever. ;u; Some of the costumers were so excited and/or nervous to be in front of a camera... and an audience, although reaaaaaally small.
I could barely keep myself in check and not just stand there and smile like a nostalgic old goon on pink fluffy clouds. I mean: no bigger-than-life armor cosplays required to stand a chance in the competition, no cosplay snobs, nothing – just young kids and teens trying cosplay for the first time.
100% pure joy.
I was not a very believable Itachi at times. I admit.

As you can see it was quite obviously a library.

Some shelves were pimped with anime figure cut-outs.

I'm a bit sad that I missed Firith's lecture about cosplay and bullying but truth is that just then I suddenly got interviewed by a local newspaper – I had not prepared for that! I was a bit nervous but it went fine I think; I felt a bit awkward afterwards... but I always do. I saw a photo of the newspaper in question afterwards, they even took a group photo of all the people who were dressed up back then. I guess whenever something different happens there will be a reporter somewhere.

Some manga to read ~

For those used to bigger conventions Euran mangapäivä doesn't have much to offer – there's no video game room, no anime karaoke and no shops whatsoever. But, because it was in a library, there was a shitlot of manga to read. I think I heard somewhere that the library had borrowed a lot of different manga series from other nearby libraries and also that some private persons had lent the library stuff from their own collections for the duration of the event. The manga selection was thus really large and, honestly, if I hadn't been working for all the 4 hours I would have been more than happy to just sit down on a sofa and read manga non-stop; there was so much to choose from and even some rarer titles!

Some improvement ideas for future Euran mangapäivä events would be a video game room and Artist's Alley – those are the ones that I value the most at conventions, especially smaller ones. ^^ Of course merchandise sellers are always nice too, although the library (assuming it would be held there in the future as well) would likely run into a problem called lack of space. Regarding video game rooms I love it when there's retro consoles to play.

"Adult manga" part of the library.

This reminds me that I need to watch the Wolf's Rain anime...

There was something for everyone. :D

The manga seemed to be mainly in either Finnish or English. I actually didn't have time to do anything but my photographing work because time went by so freaking fast! Nevertheless I enjoyed my time more than I'd thought and it was fun meeting some new people. Actually, at small events like this where there's only a handful of attendants it's easier to socialize with strangers – it's more close-knitted and thus comfy. I'm not sure how many attendants there were in total but I don't think there was much more than maybe 50 at most? Just a wild guess, of course.

They even had Samurai Deeper Kyo. ♥

I want to talk a little bit more about the cosplay competition: Firith asked me to help him with the judging of the cosplay competition and so I acted as a second judge. There was no pre-judging of the contestants (or whatever it's called in English, "ennakkotuomarointi") or anything – it was all really simple. The three cosplayers just walked to a particular spot at the library, posed and walked away. There wasn't even a scene or anything, it was in the middle of the library, lol. Then again, because of the low amount of entries and of attendants in general anything fancier would have been overkill. ^^" Before Euran mangapäivä started Firith had been asked to consider canceling the cosplay competition but he kept to it, saying that it was possible to hold if we got at least three competitors, which we got.

The cosplay competition judging standards weren't the usual ones that you see in the cosplay scene. We judged by these three requirements: character recognizability, character faithfullness and ingenuity/creativity when it comes to problem solving and prop making etc.
The competition was geared for first-timers and cosplayers without much previous experience, hence the different judging standards. It was allowed to participate in an outfit that was bought and/or not self-made, unlike on pretty much all other cons. Fun fact is that two of three competitors cosplayed with their real hair and one was a closet cosplay; in my mind I had time traveled all the way back to Kemin mangapäivä 2010! And, just to compare, I want to mention that on any convention nowadays –even small ones– it's pretty much required to have a self-made armor cosplay, a cosplay that lits up or anything else advanced to stand a chance in the cosplay competition by today's standards, even for a beginner. Cosplay has evolved so much since I started that Euran mangapäivä felt like a case of "the place that time forgot". And no, I absolutely don't mean this in a bad way and I also don't mean to bash the cosplay evolution – I think it's amazing how the skill level of cosplay has increased (thank internet) but I also think that it's really fascinating how Euran mangapäivä somehow wasn't affected by it, especially because it's so permeated even in all cosplay social medias etc. If you get my drift? It's worth cherishing – a reminiscent of the past.

You could borrow youth movies and cartoon series. :D

Of course there was Naruto manga.

An attendant reading manga in the "youth corner".

"Youth manga" in the corner. :)

It was really nice in a way because the target audience for the event was children around 7-15 years and we actually hit that really well. There were several young anime fans who had never been to any kind of convention or anime event before – I'm sure that Euran mangapäivä served as a safe first stepping stone for them. ♥ Some of the younger kids even came with their parents (incl. the youngest cosplay contestant) and it was really heart-warming to see how supportive the parents were of their young's interests. ;A; I mean, I know from experience that liking things such as anime, manga, Pokémon etc during shool years is often considered "different" from the norm and can lead to bullying if you're unlucky, like it did in my case. So yeah, seeing parents being so encouraging when their children want to dress up in dorky costumes really makes my day.

A part of the library.

Among the geeky attendants there were some ordinary library visitors as well, mainly old folks – they might have been surprised by the colorful kids walking around! In a way it was funny to see how everyday and event mixed together.
Of course it was quiet because duh, a library, but it was really comfy nonetheless. There was never a crowd or hard to move and, as you can see from the location photos, it was mostly empty. There was this one little separate room where some J-pop music etc was playing and there were some smaller shelves with manga (yes, manga was everywhere) and, in that room, there were often at least someone chilling and reading. Euran mangapäivä wasn't a flop in any way, it was just really slow-paced and modest.

Two of the cosplay contestants talking in the background.

Gure was in charge of the drawing workshop, which opened one hour after the event started. The event held a drawing competition and we actually got several entries! The competition was split in different age categories.
I'm a bit sad about that I missed out on photographing the drawing workshop when kids where actually drawing there; it was the most active during the first hours of the event when I was busy photographing the cosplay contestants. After the cosplay competition the workshop was quiet and when I got there Gure had already collected all the entries and was grading them.

Drawing workshop, aka "piirustuspaja".

Drawing contest entries. ^.^

Before I had time to sit down and chill Euran mangapäivä was already over. It feels like I just got there and then it was time to change out of costume again. :'D I remember especially well that Link cosplayer who was really fun to talk to!
After the event we drove back to Firith's and he told me that he was so relieved that the attendants liked it, even though he personally felt like he should have done more for the event. He had to hold the tears in when some of the kids and cosplay contestants personally came up to him and said things like "thank you for holding this event". I admit, I was taken aback by the genuine appreciation as well. ;_; It might not be anything big for the Finnish con scene or anything but for these young kids the experience was irreplaceable. That special feeling you get when you know that you helped a budding cosplayer to gain confidence and get a positive first experience of the hobby. ♥

I personally feel like Firith pulled it off really well, especially considering the sudden host improvisations he had to do for the cosplay competition etc. I mean, before the event he didn't even know that he'd had to host the competition, he learned it like a few minutes before the competition started – I would have freaked out, to be honest. He also had to arrange it all in a really short time frame so yeah, I'm proud that he didn't get a breakout and even prouder that we pulled through without any issues; I saw him fretting about it and really stressing himself up before the event so I was legit worried that he'd flip, good thing he didn't. I can understand though that because of his personality he feels like he underperformed but come on dude, this was your first time doing anything of the sort and the attendants, even though they were few, were more than pleased. If I were you, Firith, I'd give myself a big tap on the shoulder. You deserve it.

Firith told me to look for Okita... I found him! :D

After mangapäivä was over we were screaming for food – I saw pizza slices in my eyes. We went to fetch some take-away pizza from what Firith said was the best pizzeria in Eura; Gure also did a run to Alko to buy some white wine for them and a pineapple Breezer for me. Party hard! No but really, the pizza was pretty damn good. Sad thing it had time to cool down before we got back to Hinnerjoki. *sniff*
Actually Firith owed me a pizza because I untangled Gure's wig, which was actually Firith's long blue wig that Gure borrowed. xD

Late on the same night, at 22:55, I had to leave for my long trip back home. Sleeping on a bus is so damn hard and thus, once I arrived at Oulu 07:05 on Sunday morning, I was tired as shit. My train to Kemi wouldn't leave until 12:27 and so I ended up walking to the train station (one of the few places open on Sunday morning) and there I spurgu'd for a couple hours. For those not in the know, the word "spurgu" is Finnish slang for a drunk and/or homeless man and sometimes they can be found sleeping at train stations and the like. So yeah, I got my first spurgu experience and it was... interesting. xD

Yes, that's pineapple. On our pizza. Deal with it. 8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, what can I say? :D Euran mangapäivä, although only a 4-hour event that came back from the dead, was a really pleasant experience that laid the foundation for some kids that might be the future generation of cosplayers. It wasn't anything special for a seasoned congoer but for me it was a reminder of my first encounters with anime events – back in the old days I started with small humble events just like this one. It felt like I had time traveled back to the days when you could enter a cosplay competition without a wig and makeup and still potentially come out as the winner. It felt so surreal and amazing at the same time, like a blast from the past. A remainder of how far the cosplay scene has progressed and a look at what the roots once were – and in Eura we found the roots, untouched. 

Euran mangapäivä is what a first cosplay experience looks and feels like in a small town – a safe entry point to the much bigger cons on the other side of the field. At times it felt more like a cosplay meetup than an actual event and yet it never felt dull and boring. The atmosphere was relaxed, free from any kind of pressure and just simply precious.

In the future I hope that perhaps some of the (then former) first-timers will take the torch and carry it on, especially once Firith moves away. I sincerely hope that it will stay untainted from the pressures, cyber bullying and whatnot of the darker side of the cosplay community. Everything has a dark side. Euran mangapäivä felt so pure and free of worry – I haven't felt so relieved at an anime event for a long time. And even though I got paid for photographing the overall feeling of the event felt charity-like and humble. I enjoyed it and I would go there again. 

Ihanan vaatimaton ja hyvällä tavalla alkukantainen pikkutapahtuma. ♥

Thanks for reading!

Shiro Samurai out.

Euran mangapäivä 2017 – Plans!

Hello peeps!

So I got asked by my friend Firith –on short notice– if I could come and help him out with arranging the second Eura's manga day (Euran mangapäivä, in Finnish) or, more accurately, come as part of the work force. The first one was held way back in 2013 and, sadly, kind of fell into oblivion until Firith managed to bring it back into the light again. I figured why not help out a friend, and a budding Japanese culture event, in need? ♥

Event schedule & information.
Made by Firith.

So yeah, just like Kemi's manga day (Kemin mangapäivä) this is a small one-day event with free entrance. It's held on Saturday, 22nd April 2017, in Eura's main library. I got asked to come work as the con/event photographer, although I might have some other jobs to do as well, I don't know yet. :'D I'll know better once I get there! There was some talk that, if we get enough participants, I'll maybe join Firith as a second cosplay judge...

Oh and yeah, regarding what I'll cosplay it seems like I'll bring out my latest costume again – Itachi Uchiha from Naruto, kimono version. ^_^ Yes, the same one I wore at Matsucon where I, coincidentally, also worked as a con photographer.
I'm really hoping that lots of people will show up to this little 4-hour event! Come come ~

This is gonna be fun and yet another work experience under my belt. Early tomorrow morning I'll leave for the south so now it's high time that I start to pack my stuff! Good thing that the municipality will compensate my traveling expenses because otherwise it wouldn't be possible for me to go and help them with the event, seeing how far away I live. ^^" I'm really thankful for this opportunity ~

For more information about the event, check out Firith's blog post (in Finnish): http://shinigamiuchiha.blogspot.com/2017/03/euran-mangapaiva-ensimmaista-kertaa.html

Let's roll! inb4 sitting countless hours in a bus, lol.

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Matsucon 2017 – Rieska mafia

Hello people!

A while ago I attended Matsucon in Oulu, Finland. This summary is quite late (at least in my standards) but I'll try my best to write down what I remember from this new convention in the north. ^^ Okay so, Matsucon was held for the first time during 4-5 March and the con building was Pohjankartano, which, in my opinion, is the best place to host a convention in Oulu. 

I went there as a con worker and, to be more precise, a con photographer. My main tasks were to photograph certain panels, lectures and workshops.

Now let's start the summary!

Matsucon information booklets.

Matsucon is a new convention to grace the lands of Oulu. It's not like Oulu has a lack of conventions by any means (Animeseminaari, Kummacon, the new Matsucon and the occasional place-shifting Chibicon), especially when compared to other towns and cities in northern Finland but hey, I'd say that the more the merrier!

I had been thinking about attending Matsucon ever since I first heard of it but once it drew closer I got unsure if it would even be possible for me to go (school, economy etc). I decided to try and apply for a con worker and I got a spot as one of the con photographers – being a part of the work force would give me free entrance to the con and that already helps a lot and, besides, I want to get more job experience anyway.
Some days before the con my friends had decided to also attend Matsucon with me. Firith happened to be visiting in the north and got interested and of course Sacchan tagged along – and so did her little brother, Joni. Sacchan and Joni also applied to be a part of the con work force and they both got in as well!

We packed our stuff and left for Oulu on Friday afternoon. Much to our misfortune the cheap bus tickets, which we had been eyeing for the past few days, had gone up in price now that the departure date was close. We all felt incredibly dumb and frustrated – we should have ordered them earlier because they were at half price! Some of our company were about to call it quits because they couldn't afford to pay the full bus price. We started looking into other bus companies and, after some desperate googling, we found a site selling bus tickets to Oulu and there were some really limited "online prices" left, aka cheaper rides – our saving grace! I need to mention that this was less than 24 hours before we would have to depart and thus it was super hard to find anything that wasn't full-price. The thing is that this site showed and sold tickets to many different bus companies and we, sadly, had to split up to be able to get cheaper rides for everyone because there weren't enough cheap tickets for the same bus. So yeah, me and Sacchan took one bus (it had two cheaper tickets left) and Firith had to take the next one (only one cheap ticket left) that arrived 30 minutes after ours. Joni took the train.
Luckily there wasn't that much of a time difference and once me and Sacchan arrived at Oulu we just sat down and waited for Firith to show up. Time went by rather quickly and once we all were gathered (except Joni, who took a later evening train) we had to walk with our ridiculous amounts of luggage to our sleeping place. I had five bags to carry, I shit you not – my standard shoulder bag, my big main bag, two camera bags and a tripod bag. My shoulders died.
Later on Joni arrived by train and we all went out again to meet up with him, so that he wouldn't get lost. We found out that the con's sleeping accommodation wasn't available for the night between Friday and Saturday (aka where Joni was supposed to sleep) and so we had no choice but to sneak him into our sleeping place as well. :'D It worked out fine.

Matsucon's main hall (aka Dealer's Hall).

Saturday morning came – the first con morning of this year for me!
I had previously switched my cellphone's clock to Finnish time because otherwise it would be hella trippy; I mean, Swedish time is one hour behind and it's my default time that I live by. So yeah, with my clock showing the proper time it was easier to function on the morning. I can't remember when exactly I woke up but I remember that Sacchan's first work shift started earlier than mine and thus she left first.

Good thing with Matsucon is that even the con workers were allowed to cosplay, at least as long as your con badge and your face was visible at all times. I had experienced huge indecisions when it came to deciding on who to cosplay, hence why I didn't post any cosplay plans prior to the con; my original plan was to cosplay Satoru Kamio from Gingitsune but that costume's debut will be post-poned for a later event. I decided, very last minute, to get some use for my Sharingan lenses and threw together an original kimono outfit for Itachi Uchiha from Naruto. Before deciding on Itachi I had gone through all possible candidates but most got ruled out because of one reason or another – most commonly being either too warm, too bothersome for a small con, too cold or in need of repairs and/or update.

Dealer's Hall seen from above.

Once Firith and Joni were ready we all left for Pohjankartano. Good thing we had done some exploring the past night and so we found our way there easily... almost. It took us some time to find the front entrance because we had to go around the building.

Inside Matsucon I went straight for the info desk and received my worker badge. My first work shift would begin at 11:30 local time and I had some time to spare before that; I went around to check the layout of the con, to get an idea where the workshops and panels could be etc. I must say that Matsucon felt well arranged and the building's potential was used well too. Despite being a small first-time con it didn't feel slow and dull. I was quite impressed.

My con worker badge.
Note: photo was taken on Sunday, hence casual clothes.

I had to photograph 3 different lectures/panels and after that I was free for the day, which means that after 13:30 I could reunite with my friends and finally go and check out the con more properly. Being a con photographer was pretty fun and well-suited for me, except that it was quite hard to get good photos sometimes because the panel rooms were either dark (no lights on), had shitty yellow lights or too harsh sunlight coming in from the windows. Oh well, you do what you can with what you have.

The Dealer's Hall was located in the big open main hall of the building and it was in the best possible place. There were the usual merch sellers you'd expect (a candy/ramune seller, plush sellers, figurine sellers etc) but also some stands that sold books and such and yes, I mean normal books, not manga. I went to Matsucon with the mindset that I wouldn't buy anything... but I bought stuff anyway. Oops.

A part of the Dealer's Hall seen from above.

I don't remember doing anything out of the ordinary on Saturday, except maybe for eating pancakes in the Green Room. Seriously, con pancakes were like the best thing ever! Oh and yeah, speaking of the Green Room – this was my first time ever being in one. You feel like a VIP when you enter that room. :DD There's food for the con workers and panelists there and it's a place to relax and store some of your stuff in; I left my winter shoes there while I put on my geta for my costume, for example. I didn't spend much time in there, except for picking up occasional snacks whenever I got hungry. I'm a bit sad that I missed both of the big group pizza orders, lol.

Matsucon's second floor, with a view over the main hall.

Most of the activity rooms and workshops were on the second floor – the karaoke room, rhythm game room, video game room, drawing room and so on. The Green Room, the Matsucon second-hand stand and the Artist's Alley were also located on the second floor. Also, at least one of the smaller panel rooms were on the second floor as well and I had to spend quite some time there during my work shifts.

The rhythm game room.

Me and Sacchan went to the gaming room at some point, just to see what consoles and games they had to offer. It was filled when we went there and I saw people playing both familiar and completely unknown games to me. The consoles ranged from the old to new – I must admit that I was really surprised to see a Super Famicom in there, aka a Japanese Super Nintendo!
We tried playing the original Turtles game on NES, since it was free at the moment – can I just say that it was salty? It was horrible, the game crushed us no matter what we did. xD

A small part of the video game room.

People playing the newly released Zelda game, Breath of the Wild!

Most of the Saturday we just chilled, played our StreetPass games on the 3DS and joked around and just, well, had a good time together. I forgot to attend one of the panels that interested me but oh well, no can do. We also met Karri outside the con and chatted for a while, too bad he couldn't come inside because he didn't have any money to pay for the con ticket. :'( It was mildly freezing to stand outside in a corner and talk but at least his company makes it worth it and hey, I got back my wool blanket! You see, during Närcon last year Karri was with us and we camped at the con's camping area; after the con when we packed everything up Karri took my blanket into his rucksack because everyone else were out of space. Of course we forgot about it once we got back home and Karri ended up going home to Oulu with my blanket still with him. *thumbs up*

Cafeteria area.

I remember the first time I entered Green Room – I overheard something. You see, I just casually went inside to make bread for me and Sacchan (who were on her working shift) and as soon as I stepped into the room I heard a woman's voice saying something along the lines of "ja sä kuulet miten häpyhuulet lepahtavat." :'D I have no idea what the fuck the context was but it was hilarious nonetheless. Oh and yeah, for you non-Finnish peeps it translates to "and you hear how the labia is flapping." It stayed as a running joke with our group for the rest of the convention... even though we still didn't know the context.

Yeah, we understood that we're at Matsucon.

If I recall right, once both mine and Sacchan's working shifts were over for the day we went to have a quick photoshoot outside. Figured why not take some proof photos that we were in cosplay and do so while our makeup hasn't fallen to the floor yet. Sacchan had actually forgotten her planned cosplay at home and so we had to come up with an emergency cosplay out of stuff that I had in my closet. It was quite hard because of our height differences but I realized that I basically had the stuff needed for one of Kaoru's outfits from Rurouni Kenshin so yeah, that's what Sacchan cosplayed instead.

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (Itachi Uchiha)
Photographer: Sacchan
Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

Once it got dark outside we decided that we had seen enough for the day and went back to our sleeping place. We didn't stay all the way until the con closed – most of us wanted to take off our cosplays before that and no one felt like returning for the last hours once we were out of costume. I must say that it was a relief to get the makeup off my face and lie down in the bed! Oh and yeah, everyone except me (because my back was hurting) went outside to go get some hamburgers.
We tried to go to sleep sorta early so that we'd be fresh and lively on the morning; it was especially important for Joni to go to sleep early because he was working in the sleeping accommodation and got the worst possible working hours, from 03:00 to 10:00. I was hoping he'd be fine because, after all, he's the youngest of us all.

Sunday morning came. I didn't feel like rewearing Itachi again and I had no other costume with me so yeah, casual gear it was. Sacchan also went casual for the same reasons as me but Firith wore Ayame Sohma from Fruits Basket, mainly because he had a Furuba themed panel to hold.

Matsucon's second-hand stand. 'Matsukirppis'.

Second-hand manga pockets for sale.

Once we got to the con I was drowning in work shifts, like, no chill. At worst I had three overlapping panels/workshops that I had to photograph during the same time frame (30 minutes for the panels, 1 hour for the workshop). It was really stressful and, to put it bluntly, it looked like most of Sunday was poorly scheduled because almost everything was my work shifts. I mean seriously, on Sunday I originally had to photograph 9 panels/workshops (every single one overlapping with at least another one) out of 13 in total. What the heck, who thought this was a good idea?
It didn't feel fair at all and I went to complain to the person responsible for making the work schedules. The schedules got changed so that I had 2 panels less but yeah, one of those got cancelled anyway so it didn't really help me much, to be honest. ._. Oh well, I did my 7 remaining panels with honor, although it was really stressing me out at times – mainly because getting good, sharp photos in those less-than-stellar light conditions isn't a given and it makes matters worse when you have really limited time, aka approximately 10-15 minutes per panel before I had to move to the next one or I wouldn't have enough time to photograph all two/three panels before they'd end. I'm also that kind of careful person who wants to do things properly and as perfectly as possible so yeah, I felt like I was almost forced to underperform/lower my standards to have enough time. :/
I must mention that Saturday was more evenly balanced when it came to photographer work shifts. Sunday, not so much.

Books for sale in the Dealer's Hall.

A majority of Sunday I was occupied with photographing panels. I was done after 14:30 and then I didn't have many con hours left to enjoy. Oh well, it was enough for me to splurge and buy a Ginga Densetsu Weed Yukimura plush – it was too cute to resist. I also went to take a more proper look at what the Artist's Alley on the second floor had to offer. The earlier times I had only quickly passed it by, without really focusing on what there was to buy.

Artist's Alley corridor.

One of the Artist tables. :)

Close-up of some of the merchandise.

I ended up buying that blue "lucky Omanyte" from the seller above – it was super adorable! It was the last blue one; I soon enough went to tell Sacchan about it and she asked me to please go fetch the pink one for her (she was still stuck on her work shift). I ran back to get the pink little tentacle Pokémon for my friend and stayed to chat with the artist. I got to know that the amazing bigass Gyarados plush that I saw a con attendant carry earlier was made by this seller! If I only had known earlier I would have bolted up to get one as soon as the con opened, omg. ;_;

Dealer's Hall merch. Notice the Pokémon cards.

I'm not sure if those Pokémon trading cards pictured above were from the seller's personal collection or not but I found some older cards in there of interest. I mainly collect the earlier Pokémon cards (especially gen 3 cards) and so I bought two on Saturday and a final one on Sunday – I'm happy to expand my collection. ♥ Now I'm not really a picky collector, meaning that I don't mind slightly bent corners, scratches etc and thus it didn't bother me that most of the cards weren't in pristine flawless ultimate collector condition, if you know what I mean. The prices were fair too. I want more like this in future cons!

Dealer's Hall merch.

Firith's Fruit Basket panel was one of the last panels on Sunday and of course, as a friend and as someone who enjoyed the Furuba manga, I went to watch it. It was an entertaining interactive panel, I don't have so much more to say. :) It was years ago I read the manga so I've had plenty of time to forget the smaller details of the story but yeah, glad I got some refresheners about the plot and its characters, haha.

Big wall scrolls. The Ōkami themed ones tempted me.

Dealer's Hall stand selling really mixed stuff. Notice the Ginga plushes.

I must admit that I'm tempted to buy more of the Ginga plushes... they're all cute and I'm a dog lover, okay? The Jerome plushes disappeared really fast and I didn't see any new ones up on Sunday, only on Saturday. There were some derpier ones that were sold for cheaper (25 €) but sadly no Weed one when I looked. The seller said that they had several different characters with crooked legs, derpy eyes or other smaller flaws but that they had sold almost all of them earlier; when I came by there was only a derpy Kyoshiro and a Hougen left. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll keep bringing some cheaper non-perfect ones to future cons, cheaper options are always nice.

A merch stand also sold video games!

I regret that I didn't pay attention to the video game seller earlier. I've been thinking about buying Pokémon Sun for a long time now but haven't done it yet because I'm waiting for a chance to get it cheaper. I noticed too late that this seller in the Dealer's Hall were selling the ordinary copies of Sun and Moon for 35 € each, which is the cheapest I've found so far (incl. online). Too bad that all the normal versions of Sun were sold out when I got there, but there was a single copy left of the fan edition for 40 €. I wish I had been there earlier... *sob*

Before we knew it the con was ending – the first Matsucon was over. I don't remember whom it was in our group who first got word of it but someone, perhaps Joni or Sacchan, heard that once the con closed con workers could go and take home leftover bread bags from the Green Room. Of course, as a poor and constantly hungry student I went up there and hauled several bags of rieska with me; Joni did the same because fuck yeah rieska!! 8D Rieska is one of the best breads ever, lol. It's a Finnish flatbread, often made by barley. And yes, this is totally why this summary's title is rieska mafia – me and Joni were the glorious rieska mafia. Sacchan was a filthy bread roll peasant because she went too late, aka all the rieska were gone. :D

We headed back to my aunt's place, packed our stuff, played some Mario Kart 8 (or more like, watched Joni play and rage) on Wii U and soon enough we almost ran late for the bus and had to powerwalk to the bus station. Sadly Firith had to leave for the south on Monday and stayed in Oulu because he had an early morning train back. Miss you!

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Okay so, Matsucon was a pleasant experience. A small con that didn't quite feel like a small con, in a good way. It was well arranged in general (save for my crappy work schedule on Sunday, lol) and everything seemed to run smoothly, at least from what I could see. Of course some panels were cancelled at the last minute and such but that's never really the con's fault. There were plenty of activities and stuff to do if you got bored and Pohjankartano's facilities were used cleverly. I don't have much more to say, I'm looking forward to future Matsucons and to see how they'll evolve. One of the better small cons in the north, in my opinion.

Before I end this post, here's my con loots:

Yukimura plush, Pokémon cards, a wolf magnet
from the Artist's Alley, a 'lucky Omanyte' and some
free Pokémon Go team pins, also from AA.

Thanks for reading this summary! ^_^
Shiro Samurai out.

[Sponsored] Lens review: GEO Animation CP-S1 (Sharingan)

Hello to everyone!

Today I have a really rad lens up for reviewing that I'm sure a lot of anime fans have at least heard about! It's no less than the immensely popular Sharingan (lit. Copy Wheel Eye) lenses from the Naruto universe and, more specifically, the GEO Animation CP-S1 – which is the fully matured three tomoe (comma) Sharingan that is used by several members of the Uchiha clan, including Sasuke Uchiha. It's the most versatile and well-known of all the different Sharingan eyes. These lenses are also known as GEO Crazy CP-S1.

This pair was sponsored by a very trusted and known lens shop based in Malaysia, LensVillage. Be sure to check out their store by clicking the name – they have a lot of lenses (both crazy and circle lenses) available! ♡ My lenses arrived within 2 weeks ~

Be sneaky at checkout and use my discount code "SAMURAI15" to slash 15% OFF storewide at LensVillage!

This review contains 100% my honest opinion, even though these lenses were sponsored for review purposes.

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm

Water content: 42%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

These lenses are a part of GEO's Crazy Lens series, aka Animation. GEO has made several different Naruto Sharingans exclusively for cosplayers and this pair is one of them. Also, GEO is the most popular circle lens brand and always should come with green anti-fake stickers that you can check up online, to prove that your received pair is authentic and safe to wear. LensVillage sells genuine lenses.

For those not familiar with the Naruto series Sharingan is one of the Three Great Eye Techniques (the other two being Byakugan and Rinnegan) and is a special type of doujutsu (pupil technique) that naturally occurs in all members of the famed Uchiha clan. The Sharingan's first and most well-known ability is to copy any technique that it sees. It can copy and thus memorize ninjutsu (ninja techniques), genjutsu (illusionary techniques) and taijutsu (hand-to-hand techniques) of opponents with perfect accuracy and allow the user to use said techniques. Sharingan wielders also have the ability to predict an opponent's movement, as well as being able to track fast-moving objects with great precision, along with some other things. 

Needless to say I think I'd be pretty right in guessing that many Naruto fans have a knack for the Sharingan and, at least once, fancied the thought of having these iconic eyes with great powers... – now you can! Sharingan contact lenses look like the real deal and are a great asset to cosplayers as well as any fan!

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As with any lenses (no, Sharingan is not an exception) I put these to soak the night before wearing them. Just by looking at the lenses it's clear that these will be highly pigmented. I was honestly super excited to try out my first Naruto themed colored contact lenses!

One lens in. I have light blue-gray eyes naturally.

Okay so, my first impression when I saw myself with these lenses on was "wow dang, these are hella rad! 8D". I must mention too that they were super easy to insert and as soon as I put them in I didn't even feel them in my eyes! Sure that the corners of my vision are slightly red (especially in poorer lights) but it's to be expected seeing how the pupil hole is small – which is a good thing in this case because it makes it so that your real eye color won't show through much in the center.

Regarding the design I definitely have no complaints because these look like the real deal, just like in the anime! The color coverage is amazingly opaque and the vibrant red shade is intense and really noticeable – I seriously love these lenses. This is definitely one of the coolest colored contact lenses that I've ever had! The color is so impressive and bright that it will show up as a true red no matter what your real eye color might be.

These Sharingan lenses are not too big either – there's a very slight size increase but it's really nothing big enough to look weird on anyone.

Lens photos incoming!
All photos taken by me during a November afternoon with a cloudy sky.
There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

White-ish corridor light.

Yellow light in the staircase.

Outdoors, back against light. (aka facing the wall)

Outdoors, facing the light. Cloudy sky.

Regarding comfort these are really good! I can easily wear them for 7 hours with pretty much no issues. I actually went out in town with these on and completely forgot that I was wearing them... until I noticed people staring at me, lol. This one adult man who couldn't stop staring though, even after he walked past me his face rotated around just to stare a bit more. xD Oh and yeah, these lenses don't blur my vision, sting or do anything else that's uncomfortable. Here I should perhaps also note that I normally have rather sensitive and dry eyes so yeah, these Sharingan lenses really don't let me down on what's important during a long convention day – comfort.

And lastly I have some distance photos!

Of course, to match the theme, I decided to do an Itachi Uchiha makeup/costume test, my first one ~

The Akatsuki cloak is borrowed from Firith.

By the way, I'm honestly starting to think that I really should cosplay Itachi...
What do you think?

So to sum it all up: I honestly can't find anything negative to say about these lenses. It's really the perfect pair for all Naruto cosplayers and yes, they're visible even from afar. These lenses will complete any Uchiha cosplay and also characters like Kakashi Hatake etc. I can whole-heartedly recommend this pair to virtually anyone who wants to try them out and no, you don't need to like Naruto to appreciate how awesome these red eyes are. ;) I'd totally repurchase these in a heartbeat!
So, basically – if you ever wanted to try out Sharingan effect lenses then the GEO Animation CP-S1 are definitely worth your money.

Remember, use my discount code "SAMURAI15" to enjoy 15% OFF at LensVillage – take your costuming to the next level!

Short summary:

Color: 10/10 

Amazing red color. Extremely rich, highly visible and perfect for cosplay!

Design: 10/10 

Great attention to detail. Looks like the real deal, what more could one ask for?

Opacity: 10/10

Perfect color coverage.

Enlargement: 3/10 

Slight enlargement effect.

Comfort: 9/10 

Highly comfortable. I don't feel them in my eyes and can quite easily wear them for 7 hours with no problems. Gives me red corners in my vision field, but that's to be expected with this type of lenses.

Naturalness: 0/10 

Unless you're born an Uchiha, no.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions then leave a comment! ^.^

Thank you LensVillage for making this review possible! ♡

~ Shiro Samurai out.