Matsucon 2024 – I got so scared I dislocated my arm!

 Hello geeks!

Matsucon came and went and I thought it's high time I post a report about my happenings and feelings about the con! This year Matsucon was held on 10-11th August in Pohjankartano's school, Oulu, Finland, like usual. Matsucon has been held in the same location for years so yeah, why change something that works? I went there as a con worker and despite one, err, unfortunate accident, I managed to do what I was supposed to do – namely take care of the green room.

But hey, let's get this summary started!

I couldn't find the official Matsucon poster anywhere
so have the Iltabileet ('afterparty') poster instead.

So just like on the past few cons my travel companion was Firith, once again. But, unlike our usual means of traveling by car or train, this time we had to use the bus to get to Oulu. It was both for economic reasons and also because the train's time tables didn't suit us this time. We left Kemi on Friday because we had booked the hotel for two nights, it's convenient.

I don't really remember when exactly we left for the bus station but it was during the afternoon something. We had booked Onnibus because it's affordable. When the bus arrived we were concerned we would have to pay extra because we had so much luggage but luckily the driver didn't charge us anything because I said I could keep my electronics bag in my lap. In theory this was a good and sound idea, I mean I'd make sure my PS5 and my TV were safe as no one would be throwing suitcases on top of them or handling them roughly in the hold – yet, in practice, this was an absolutely ass decision because my TV is quite heavy (even for being as small as it is) so my legs kept going numb and I had really little space in front of me so I could hear the TV's leg creaking (at least it's one of those adjustable ones that you can tilt slightly but still, nerve-wrecking) whenever the bus turned and it was so much worrying lol. The thing is that just before the trip I had bought a cheap oldish monitor from a thrift store, because it was light to carry, but lo' and behold it didn't work when I tested it and so I had to resort to my trusty TV once again in a pinch. I'm quite mad at the store because I feel like electronics should by default always be tried because no one wants to buy anything that doesn't work, especially if your return policy is literally within the next day or no refunds – or at least that's what the cashier told me at the time of purchase. I have not been back there yet because I have so much anxiety over the whole thing; I absolutely dread confronting people about literally anything face to face, even if I have full rights to do so as I paid for a faulty product. I mean, when I worked at a second-hand store a few years back we had a rule that all electronics had to be tested before they reached the customer and I'm sorry but that should be the norm. It's not too much to ask.

Carrying a fucking TV on my lap in the bus was an experience and a half.

The bus ride was a bit bumpy for other reasons as well. You see, I was wearing pants that had metal chain accessories on my left side and I didn't think much of it when I sat down on the seat.. until I then heard this kind of metallic clinking sounds and realized, to my horror, that my chains had gotten stuck on that heater thingy or whatever that metallic box running across the sides of the bus were! So yeah, I spent almost the whole one hour bus trip trying to forcibly yank myself free from my prison. My hands were all red and sore from the tugging and pulling and I was panicking so much but just had to mask it (nobody wants to have a meltdown in a full bus). I really didn't want to have to break the chains but because it was just one of the three rows that was stuck I was pretty much forced to, if I wanted to keep the other two. Needless to say I had to break a chain link with brute force and I'm saddened by it because yeah, those chains were a gift and I liked using them a lot...

Sokos Hotel Arina room, 'Summer Night' theme.

After that literal strugglebus experience we arrived in Oulu's bus station. Firith called us a taxi because no way in hell were we walking through centrum with that mountain of luggage! It boggles my mind why every con trip always comes with so much baggage, I mean for real, you're literally gone for a weekend and you have like half your apartment with you wtf? xD But anygays, once we got our hotel room we dropped off our stuff and just recovered for a bit before Firith went out alone to meet up with some acquaintances who happened to be in Oulu too (not for Matsucon) while I stayed behind and relaxed. While Firith was gone I was just lying in bed and scrolling through my sketch book, lost in thought. At some point Firith messaged me that he'd be back soon and although I had seen the message just prior I must have been so deeply inside my own mindspace because I didn't hear his approaching footsteps in the corridor at all and, when he opened the door, I got so scared by the sound from the door handle slamming down that I literally dislocated my own fucking arm from the sheer fright recoil! Not even a joke bro, it really happened. The first thing Firith sees is me squirming in pain and cursing perkele between my breaths lol, it hurt like a motherfucker because I had to push the dislocated arm back in place with my other arm or the pain would get more severe for every second and I literally can't move my arm unless I fix it. Yeah I know, this is one of those things that maybe would warrant a 112 call but this has happened to me more than once before (thanks to hypermobility and accidents) and I've always just dealt with it myself because of it being such an automatic reaction. So yeah, my arm was super painful and unstable for the rest of the day but we still headed out to eat at Itsudemo's sushi buffet. It was a bit of a disappointment this year when compared to last year, especially because we had been looking forward to it for so long. :< Sushis were dry-looking on the tray and several came apart when I moved them to my plate, which is kinda a bad thing if the rice doesn't hold together, not to mention that there was next to no refills of empty trays so a lot of the options were unavailable for the whole approximately 45 minutes that we were there. Luckily I managed to snag a few pieces of my favorites immediately when we came but yeah, I would have wanted seconds ngl so it was quite a bummer.

We went back to the hotel room and Firith rescued us some donuts from Arnold's. Honestly, ResQ is such a good app – it lessens food waste from restaurants, cafeterias, hotels etc and you can save food and get great discounts. What's available changes every day because it depends on what's left over so there's always a surprise factor on what you'll find!

I don't think we did anything else noteworthy, just chilled for a while and then we went to bed.

Saturday morning was groggy as usual. I'll just accept the fact that I'll never be a morning person lol. But anyways, we went to the hotel breakfast almost immediately after waking up and I broke my tradition by not indulging my mouth with karelian pastries this time – what a foul act of self-betrayal!
After the breakfast refreshment episode it was time to put our costumes on; I rewore Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo while Firith was Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service and yes I know, exactly the same costumes as on Nekocon lolol. We weren't in an explosive hurry to get dressed because even though we both were con workers neither of us had the first morning shifts in our respective jobs so yeah, we didn't die from a stress-fueled heat death of the universe.

Matsucon entrance view.

Photoshoot competition desk near the entrance.

I can't recall what exactly the clock was by the time we arrived but Firith had signed up to be part of the cosplay competition so he had to go through some pre-judging stuff almost immediately by the time we arrived. At some point while we were walking near the cloakroom some recruiters came to ask me if I would like to enter the cosplay competition in my Hotaru cosplay because they needed more contestants (I got the impression that a lot of the originally applied contestants had ghosted due to number 13, Firith's number, being the first to enter the stage) but I kindly declined because I didn't even have my sword with me nor the proper cosplay shoes; I had intentionally left them behind to make the traveling easier. Not to mention I have extreme stage fright and anxiety and I wasn't mentally prepared to compete at all. Still, I find it weirdly flattering that I got asked lol.

Cafeteria view, except it was closed this year.

I had specifically asked for most of my work hours to be slotted into Sunday so that I could explore more freely on Saturday, another reason was because Hotaru is maybe not the most convenient costume to brew coffee etc in due to the long white kimono sleeves. x) An even bigger inconvenience was that of my recently dislocated arm, which had never really stopped being sus and hurting, and which I tried to ignore as much as I could. Yet at some point, during the first half of my shift, I figured there was a first aid room in the con (and it exists for a reason) so I had nothing to lose if I went and asked there if they could help me somehow. I was concerned I would hurt myself accidentally because even the slightest wrong or thoughtless movement made my arm wobbly and like it would luxate. I gotta say though that the people at the first aid station were extremely kind and really went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable – they even sent someone immediately to the pharmacy to fetch kinesiology tape because they didn't have any in stock. ;_;

Me with my sling in the green room while waiting to get taped.

It was kinda wild because apparently my condition did some rounds among the workers because at some point one of the organizers came up to the green room and told me they heard that a worker had an arm issue and came to check the situation and I was internally like "lawd I'm making a scene oh noes" but I appreciate the concern, I really do.
After some waiting the first aid crew came to pick me up and I got my arm and shoulder embellished with some hot pink tape. Very character accurate. It helped to stabilize the arm, slightly lessen that constant dull pain and it increased my trust in using said arm for tasks. Luckily working at the green room is quite relaxed and so I could function the rest of my work shift without accidents; I just had to be a bit more mindful of my movements than your average person.
My shift lasted from 13-16 and once I was free I informed Firith that I really really needed to leave for the hotel asap, that I needed to get my costume off because I was overheating, in pain and also uncomfortable from the poor air quality and circulation indoors. He was busy with the cosplay competition prep but still managed to call me a ride through the Menevä Taxi app, thank you. ;_;

The elevator was for worker use only. It was a godsend for me because
the impact from walking down stairs was enough to hurt my arm.

Once I got back to the hotel I yeeted myself out of my costume and then I just casually died for a while. Well, not literally but I just idled around trying to reanimate myself back into a solid human shape. Eventually Firith also came back and we might have gone on a ResQ shopping spree because Ravintola Puistola just on the opposite side of the street had some delicious bakeries up on the app just before closing time. I also got a yummy rescue sushi mix takeaway box from Sushi Bowl & More Tea that we went to pick up, along with some boba tea to fuel our boba cravings. Not gonna lie, winter melon flavor was godtier deluxe.

Rescued sushi and bubble tea~

The wind did blow us to the nearby foodstore where we might have bought some alcoholic beverages for the night, just to have a good time and unwind. I bought some cherry cocktail that I had never seen before, it was from Spain and in a glass bottle with a metallic twist cap, it was surprisingly good!

Sunday morning is always Sunday morning, filled with an impending sense of doom because you know you have to check out from the hotel and carry all your shit back to the con's cloakroom for storage over the day. My original plan was to cosplay Leon from Resident Evil 4, I even had the costume with me and everything, but we ended up with some miscalculations with time management and by the time we were done with breakfast, showering etc there simply wasn't enough time to put on a costume before we had to leave the room.

We arrived at the con about one hour before it officially opened its doors. Firith had to almost immediately bolt to his work shift so I stayed behind and tried to get our belongings stored somewhere safely. The cloakroom worker wasn't there yet so I had to go ask one of the organizers to help me out. I really did not want to drag all of that stuff all the way up to the green room on the top floor so yeah, the cloakroom was a lot more attractive choice since it was on the main floor.

Dealer's Hall and artisan's tables main floor view.

More artisan's tables.

Upstairs view of the main area.

My workshift didn't start until 14:00 so I had plenty of time to kill and I used this time to go through the sellers, artisan tables and the Artist's Alley on the second floor. I had planned to go listen to the watercolor panel held by Jasu Wonder World but when the time came I realized I wasn't in an attentive nor focused mood and I passed on it to charge my batteries before my work started. It's hard to control the flows and crashes of a neurospicy brain.

One half of Artist's Alley, second floor.

At some point slightly before my shift started Firith asked me if I wanted a second bubble tea while we still had the chance. You see, Kemi and Tornio has no place to get boba as far as we know so yeah, if we don't satisfy our boba addictions when we can we have to wait a painfully long time until we can get more boba, usually it means withdrawal symptoms until our next trip to either Oulu or Kuopio (because those are boba-certified for now).
So.. uh, I might have been tasked with walking across centrum to grab us our drugs. I might have done so very willingly, even with the looming threat of getting splashed by rain.

Never stop the madness.

It took me roughly 15 minutes to get to the boba shop and about the same to get back. It would be even quicker if the traffic lights in Oulu weren't permanently set to troll mode – I mean, first they stay red for like forever when there's not a single car in sight and the moment they turn green is when the cars show up. And just to mess with pedestrians even more they only stay green for like 15 seconds or such so I guess good luck if your walking speed doesn't rival Aladdin's flying carpet or something.

Proof my daily intake was more than just boba.

I don't really remember much of my Sunday work shift, it lasted from 14-19 so yeah, basically once it started I was in the green room until the con closed it doors along with one hour for the down-rigging. One thing I do remember is that when I had been at work for about one hour one of my coworkers (whom I had talked with quite a bit the day before when I was cosplaying) exclaimed something like "so where's this [my name] dude?" and I just replied that I've been sitting here all this time and it was kinda funny because it turned out that said coworker hadn't even recognized that I'm the same person because I wasn't in cosplay. xD Oh and yeah, my arm was still hurting but I managed.

Once the con closed I helped with emptying the green room as best as I could. Just like with Kummacon there was a bunch of leftover food, so the workers could grab what they wanted to reduce waste, which is a very nice gesture and bonus if you ask me. Once we had taken down most of the decorations and such I went downstairs to grab our belongings from the cloakroom. It was funny because I met the same organizer there, whom I had asked for help in the morning, and I was told that I was the first person to put in items in the cloakroom on the morning and the last one to take items out after the con. xD

The video game room. Here I worked last year. :3

I feel like I'm running out of things to say, lol. This year's Matsucon seemed to have a bit more hiccups than previous years – one of them being that I learned that Pohjankartano's maintenance or whatnot crew (aka not Matsucon itself) had, for some unknown reason, turned off the air circulation for the Matsucon weekend, probably an error or misunderstanding of some sort but yeah, this explains why the air quality was abnormally poor during the con. I remember several times on Saturday when I walked through the Artist's Alley I was almost knocked out by a suffocating wall of moist con funk combined with deteriorating oxygen levels, it was stifling and I felt sorry for all the artists who had to sit there the whole day. :'( But anyways, Matsucon is a worthwhile experience and it was fun this year too. As long as we have these firesouls bringing us annual cons in the northern half of the country I'm more than willing to show up and show my support in some way or another, be it as a visitor or volunteer~

Thanks for reading!
Shiro Samurai out.

Matsucon 2024 cosplans!

Hello everyone!

I'm still reeling from the wakes of Mericon, but already next weekend I go back into the cannons because it's time for Matsucon and this masochist applied to be part of the work force! It's such a busy month send help. No but really, I prefer volunteering my time at conventions because I get something meaningful to do and it feels good to help. :) This time I'm gonna be over at the green room, unlike last year when you could find me assisting over at the video games!

So, what am I cosplaying then? Well, I still haven't gotten around to going through my cosplays and making a condition check on them but I know that most aren't in wearable condition for one reason or another. But there are still a few that I can bring, thankfully. But hey, look below to find out who, woop woop!

Character: Hotaru (Keikoku)

Series: Samurai Deeper Kyo

Yep, I'm rewearing Hotaru. :'D I have already modified the costume since the last outing at Nekocon, to make it a tiny bit neater and more accurate. I undid the side seams of the white outermost kimono and sewed them back together after cutting off the excess fabric that I had only done a temporary narrowing fix on before Nekocon. I also left the side seams partly open at the hem to make the tucking in the back look more like on the references with the slit – this was a detail I had missed originally and only noticed at the hotel room while dressing for the con like "wait a second.." style. xD
I will wear Hotaru on Saturday, although for transporting difficulties I won't be bringing the sword nor the tengu geta this time because I will be arriving by bus and I need to pack as light as possible. I will wear ordinary geta as replacement shoes indoors.

Character: Leon S. Kennedy

Series: Resident Evil 4

I know, I know. I kinda said already last year that I would finally debut Leon but hey, better now than even more late, right? :') This will be like an early try-out, as in I don't have all the props and stuff done that I want to have for this cosplay – and I'm not entirely sure if I'm missing any minor parts still but anyways, it should be near complete. I will hopefully wear Leon on Sunday but, umm, just a heads up that most of my work hours are slotted into Sunday so I might not be seen much as I will be watching over the green room! There is a slight risk that I might still go casual on Sunday (if my face explodes or something) but I will try to cosplay if at all feasible!

There ya have it folks, see you over at Matsucon!
Shiro Samurai out.

Matsucon 2023 – Gamer panic and gamer bliss

Hello geeks, spooks and cheeky pumpkins!

 

I was at Matsucon this past weekend and I'm here to tell you all about my latest con trip, woo! For those not in the know Matsucon is an annual anime convention in Oulu, northern Finland, and this year's edition was held on 28-29th October – which makes it coincide with Halloween. This mashup was visible in the decorations like a Gengar plush at the info desk, pumpkins on promotional material etc and added an extra layer of fun and festive atmosphere. After all, most people with a geeky bone in their body also tend to enjoy Halloween because of reasons (dressing up, dark/creepy aesthetics, supernatural stuff etc) so there's a lot of overlap and yeah, I personally find it a good call that Matsucon incorporated Halloween elements into their set this year.

But enough ramblings so let's go~

Matsucon information booklet.

I left for Oulu on Friday afternoon and my travel companion for the con was Firith. We had booked a Sokos hotel room for the weekend and that meant I didn't hijack my aunt's apartment this time lol. The hotel room was tar themed and quite nice and we spent Friday night just destressing and preparing for the con. Oh, and eating the dinner buffet at Itsudemo aka stuffing our faces way too full with sushi and honey cake.

Our tar themed hotel room. Me like.

I had applied for a con volunteer position prior which meant I was part of the work force and I just so happened to have the first morning shift so yeah, I had to be at the con 9:30 in the morning. My original plan was to cosplay on Saturday and go casual on Sunday. Yeah I know, I didn't do a cosplay plans post before the con and that's simply because I didn't decide until last minute on what to wear. ^^" Oh well, when Saturday morning came I felt quite uncomfortable with the idea of cosplaying because of practical, physical and mental reasons and so I ended up going casual.

Thanks to my phone's GPS flipping its shit around (and messing up my efforts to use Google Maps for navigation) I ended up taking detours through Oulu's centrum while I tried to waddle my way to Pohjankartano where Matsucon was held.
I found my way inside the building, claimed my worker's badge and scurried up the stairs for the work briefing before my shift would start at 10. I had applied to work at the gaming room, which meant my shifts consisted of a lot of nostalgy-fueled sounds Tetris music rentfree in your head anyone? and assisting willing gamers in any way needed – sometimes it was just inviting curious onlookers to come play, sometimes explaining how a game works or assisting in how to play 8-bit Super Mario and other times just being there for company or playing versus games with a lone gamer. It was a very nice, feel-good job and not too stressful.

 

The gaming room, my workplace.

My first shift ended at 12 and after that I was free to roam the con for four hours before my second shift for the day would start. Somewhere around this point I contacted Firith to ask if he was already at the con because there had just been an announcement that the Saturday tickets were sold out at the door. This surprised me because of how early it happened but yeah, thankfully Firith reminded me that he had pre-ordered his tickets already a long time ago so there was no panic.

 

My original plan was that I wanted to attend the Studio Ghibli concert that started at 12 but when I found the room that it was held in a few minutes past it was already locked. That was quite the bummer as I remember other cons where you could still enter if you were a bit late. Oh well, no can do.
I went back to buzz around the main area and quickly checked through the sellers and did a first run at the Artist's Alley by myself. I did run into Sallukka and their boyfriend Dongrieg and we swapped some words and after that I soon found Firith as well. Both friends were about to participate in the cosplay competition and were waiting for their turn with the judges so I left them to vibe together while I hurried over to the Green Room. I had gamer responsibilities to do.

Near entrance view of Matsucon. Dealer's Hall area.

Dealer's Hall.

More Dealer's Hall. There was this seller with only Genshin merch!

MION's booth, the Guest of Honor. There was always a line to meet her.

Dealer's Hall view from upstairs.

Before Matsucon I ran into a huge issue. A huge dilemma for a gamer. You see, I've been playing World of Warships: Legends almost since it launched (I'd call myself a better than average player, I currently hold the world record for highest damage game in premium battleship Nassau #flex) and these past 4 weeks there had been a daily event with simple tasks that you need to do and if you completed every day without missing any you'd get an exclusive new commander and of course I had put a fair share of effort into completing these tasks... until I realized that the final two days of the event fell on the Matsucon weekend and if I missed these two then I'd miss out on the main reward and would basically have wasted 4 weeks of effort. *insert panik meme here*

I tried to think of all kinds of solutions before the con but everything fell through last minute (and I can't exactly drive 100 km home every day to go do my dailies and then drive all the way back to Oulu, especially when I don't even have a driving license) and I was desperate. So desperate I asked in the discord if I could somehow borrow a monitor at Matsucon if I brought my own PS4 with me to do the dailies during my off-time. It looked bleak at first but then I was recommended to ask Marko privately if he could bring a small screen to the Green Room. And it turns out that besides being the main technician he is also the Guardian Angel of All Gamers in Distress™ and said it was no problem to bring a monitor as he lived close. Bless his heart!

A gamer's gotta do what a gamer's gotta do.

Once I got done with my dailies I packed away my console and left it at the Narikka (cloakroom) for storage for the rest of the day. I gotta say I really enjoy being a worker nowadays because it also gives you access to the Green Room where you can go whenever to have a quick bite, drink tea or coffee and such and it just helps to make sure I don't get nauseous during cons because yeah, I have a bad habit of forgetting to drink and eat sufficiently. >_< Besides, to me it's fulfilling to volunteer because it's meaningful and so important –  if no one was willing to donate their time to make the con run smoothly then we'd soon have no cons because usually the organizations behind them are non-profit and are reliant on the goodwill of people to function and well, I find it very important that these kinds of events are held because a lot of those who have an interest in this kind of pop culture also often deal with difficulties to fit in elsewhere and might be vulnerable – cons might be their only safe spaces and where they feel they belong as their geeky, most authentic and colorful selves. This is based on my observations and experiences over the years and, although I'm not here to generalize, it does seem to me that groups that are minorities in society are the majorities in these pop culture spaces; cons seem to attract certain types of people who often share life experiences.

Okay, enough deep thinking there. Back on track!

My second work shift started at 16 and that of course meant that I couldn't go watch my friends at the cosplay competition. I did make sure to check on Firith multiple times during the day to make sure that he was okay as I knew he has been in a rough patch lately. I did hear later that Sallukka had won some honorary mention award at the competition for best accessory (I think?) so congrats to that!
My shift ended at 18 and that's roughly when the con closed and the party moved over to the night club (tickets were sold separately). I didn't have the mental energy nor interest for the afterparty so once my workday was over I met up with Firith and we called a taxi back to the hotel. Once at the hotel Firith peeled himself out of his cosplay and then we just relaxed for a bit before we met up with Sallukka and Dongrieg for a cup of coffee at the nearby Coffee House.

Lemon meringue cake, yum.

I had a pumpkin spice latte (yeah I'm slowly starting to enjoy some sweet coffees but the ordinary stuff is still yuck as fuck lmao) and a yummy cake with lemon curd! We just hung around for a while and talked about the day and such, just the whole chilling with the bros vibe ya know? After the coffee we wanted something more spicy and so went to a nearby karaoke bar and had a few drinks. Something funny happened at the bar too! So we had a table near a more quiet corner and were just having fun chats when suddenly this middle-aged lady appears out of thin air on my right side. I'm quite shook by the time I register that she's way into my personal space and she's like bending down slightly and tilting her head in this very observing-but-drunk-granny way (it's almost comical I tell you) and then she suddenly says "I have no idea who you all are, I've never seen any of you here before but I love all of you" and then she just up and leaves and we're all just sitting there like "????". XD

After the bar episode Sallukka and Dongrieg left for their hotel while me and Firith raided the Hesburger around the corner. Or more like Firith activated his unquenchable thirst for nuggets and I just tagged along. Then again, he had not eaten anything warm since the hotel breakfast so I can't blame him. xD

Back at the hotel we played on our Nintendo Switches and leisurely watched a movie on TV; it was a Finnish movie about a blind man and it was quite unsettling at times but the way they implemented the reality of blindness throughout the whole movie was genial. It's called The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic in English, do look it up if you're intrigued.

Sunday morning came and I slept rather poorly. I was quite anxious on the morning and debated whether I wanted to cosplay at all but I managed to get my shit together and cosplayed anyway. My outfit for the day is actually one of my very first cosplays but just reimagined – it's my original character Yuuto. I kept the main colors of his outfit the same (white kimono and indigo hakama) but compared to the first version I added more pieces to his outfit and changed the wig from a white bob to this silver-blue gradient wig in a similar cut. I did look for the original wig but could not find it anywhere, I think I might have sold it years ago. Anyway, this was a comfortable and simple cosplay to wear and, although I want to tweak it a little before I wear it again, I'm quite happy with the overall look. During the con I didn't wear the correct shoes though because yeah, it had snowed and I did not want to wear geta clogs in the snow.

My Sunday cosplay, OC Yuuto.
(photo by Firith)

On Sunday I also had the early morning shift at 10 but this time me and Firith could leave for the con together as he would not have to wait in the cold for 30 minutes before the doors open in a sleeveless dress that isn't even full length, like the case would have been on Saturday if we left at the same time.

I headed straight for the video games room again while Firith went his own ways. It was quite nice that some visitors from the day before came over on Sunday to play some more. But overall I can say that Sunday was a much more quiet day in the room and our assortment of Nintendo consoles also decreased by one around midday as the NES left the building, leaving the gaming room with a Switch, SNES and Wii. So yeah, there was 100% Nintendo dominance this year. And for those curious the games that were played the most were the Wii and Switch versions of the Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart series along with Tetris on the retro consoles.

At 12 my first shift ended and I had a spontaneous idea to go check out the "Kiss, Marry, Abyss" Genshin Impact program. I watched for a while while the panelist explained the rules but there were quite a lot of people and the whole setup looked rather overwhelming and so I lost interest and left. It seemed like the rules was that the room were split in three halves, one for each option (kiss, marry and kill) and you had to go stand in the right spot according to what you would do to the multiple characters shown on the screen. I was expecting it to be done by like a phone app or something and you would just click on options and then have the results shown on screen what everyone voted. Moving around the room might have worked, I don't really know cuz I didn't stay to watch how it actually unfolded but to me it looked like it would quickly become chaotic cuz there was a ton of chairs and other furniture everywhere (the room was a lecture/auditorium style room). The game's idea seemed fun though!

Artist's Alley view.

This little tip jar amused me too much!

I now did a more proper Artist's Alley run and I was so excited to find that someone actually had somehow had time to do Neuvillette merch! He's my new favorite character in Genshin and I wasn't expecting to find anything featuring him and I just afjdsfdfs when I saw the charm. ;_; I'm posting a con loot photo at the end of this post~
Artist's Alley was located on the second floor and split into two halves, one on the left side of the building and the other on the right side. I felt like it worked decently well but there was quite a lot of crowding on Saturday, hence why I did most of my shopping on Sunday as it was easier to move around and browse the tables. I also gotta say that I liked the variety in sellers – there were both familiar and new faces to me. I wish I could have bought more and supported more artists but I don't have a lot of spending money right now as I'm still unemployed.

Of course I did my dailies in the Green Room again once my shift ended (and I got the final mission reward, yay!) and at some point me and Firith went outside quickly to take some photos of my cosplay. I mainly just wanted a proof picture for now but I will do a proper photoshoot later. :)

During my second shift I was witness to the tragic human tale of a man who bought too many mystery lootbags. I bet this was the best laughs of the whole con lmao. So there was this group of guys in the gaming room (I think they were friends of the other guy who was working at the same time as me, not sure) sitting around the table in the middle of the room and at first I didn't really pay attention to their conversation until I sat on the same table and they were talking about something that apparently caused hilarious regret. And I was curious and asked what they're talking about and apparently I had now pressed the cursed button because one of them said something like "now you have to do it because you asked about it" and I was like "oh no what have I gotten myself into" and this guy then pulls out this tiny rotating fish game for kids where you have to fish up the fishies with a magnetic rod while they open and close their mouths and I just had no way to back out. I had to accept the challenge like a man. And so I fished up like half the fishes and some I got real fast, which earned me some impressed 'oohs' and 'aahs' and then I had integrated myself into the group. They then kept talking about the lootbags and how shit they were and the conversation got wilder and wilder (somehow Rovaniemi's tax money was relevant to this, I guess bro's unemployed too and that's what the sponsor joke referred to xD) and it was absolutely hilariously unhinged crylaughter-fueled regret and the guy who was the one cheated out of his $$$ was laughing like a human siren with his face turning bright red – you ever have that thing where you feel sorry for the poor soul but you just fucking can't stop laughing because he's laughing too? That was how I felt, basically schadenfreude with consent. x) At least he could see the humor and laugh at the whole situation (although it was on his expense) because yeah, not everyone is a champ like that and someone else might just have broken down in a corner because of the huge waste of precious money.

After my second and final work shift ended at 16 (it started at 14, I worked 4h/day so 8h in total) I went to find Firith again and we did a final Artist's Alley round together before we were satisfied with our con experience and then we headed back to the hotel to rest our legs and wind down. Our budgets were almost used up so once we got back to our hotel room we had to brainstorm a bit on the topic of dinner. I happened to check Burger King's website and there was a really affordable campaign and what's even better is that the restaurant was located almost just around the corner from our hotel!

Läskeillään koska soli halp. :)))

And that about wraps up my summary of Matsucon. After the burgers we just returned to our room for the night and on Monday we parted ways and our Oulu trip was officially over; Firith went back to the south and I continued back up north.
Overall I had a great time at Matsucon and would definitely visit it again. I've been to Matsucon twice before (2017 and 2019) and I've always felt that it's quite well organized and an inviting anime con to attend for anyone even moderately interested in what it has to offer. I would say it's worth your time if you live in the north and why not if you live further away as well because yeah, Pohjankartano is a solid building for this type of events and Oulu is a lovely city well worth a visit!

Here's a photo of my con haul:

Square magnets by SaQe-Art, dragon charm by Sysirauta, Beidou
by si3art. I don't know who Neuvillette was from sorry. ;-;

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!
~ Shiro Samurai

Matsucon 2019 – I play Pokémon Go everyday

Hello geeks!

Matsucon came and went and it went really fast. So for those not in the know Matsucon is an anime convention in Oulu, Finland. This was my second time at Matsucon (the previous time was at 2017) and just like last time I went as a con worker again. Matsucon was held during 3-4 August and just like all previous times (as far as I know at least) it was held in Pohjankartano, which is a great building to hold a con in.

Let's go!

Matsucon banner next to the info desk.

I went to Matsucon alone this time. I was supposed to wake up early as fuck on Saturday morning (4:30 Swedish time) but of course I had somehow not heard the alarm go off so, err, thank god I had not put on the airplane mode overnight like I usually do cuz mom called me 5:30 like "are you coming? I've been waiting outside for 5 minutes" and I was like oh fucking shit I was still sleeping! So the morning was stressful. Thank lord I had prepped everything the previous day so I basically just had to take all my stuff, feed the cats etc and then I was done. 

So I got a ride to Kemi train station. When we arrived I noticed there was no train already waiting on the rail, which seemed a bit weird seeing we were behind our schedule and the train should have been leaving within like 15 minutes. But then I looked at the actual train time table thingy and had an "of course" moment; VR (the Finnish train company) is jokingly often abbreviated to Venaa Rauhassa which translates literally to something like "wait in peace" or more freely "take your time". Almost every Finnish person knows this joke and most of us have experienced it too.. and so did I this time. Tbh I don't like joking about VR too much because my late maternal grandfather worked for them his whole life as a safety equipment installer, so it's a bit emotional for me as, when his memory failed him because of Alzheimer, the few things he would remember and talk about was his work.

Late train, supposed to originally leave at 7:25 local time.

Luckily the late train didn't screw up my work shift as I had the first shift as a ticket seller at Matsucon, which meant I had to be there at 10 for the briefing and information. The con officially opened at 11 if I remember right.
So when I got to Oulu the clock was like 9 something and I went straight to my aunt's place to eat some breakfast and dump some stuff that I didn't need at the con. I also noticed that the nearby park next to where my aunt lives had three gyms extremely close to them on Pokémon Go (I didn't play when I last visited) so I popped my mons in the gyms and then headed for my aunt's apartment. I quickly ate some breakfast (didn't have time at home) and then walked towards Pohjankartano, which was only like a 5 min walk from there.

Matsucon main entrance.

View when standing outside, facing away from the main entrance.

As a con worker I entered through a side door, not the main door pictured above. The merchandise sellers etc were still putting up their booths and I went to look for the person responsible for the ticket workers. I found my target and soon enough got my volunteer badge.
After some information on what to do at my work station I was left with another person to handle the ticket sales. Tbh I had a nightmare about this a few days before the con but luckily it was nothing like that. xD

Matsucon entrance view after opening.

I learned later that I was seemingly the only ticket/entrance volunteer as the only other person had cancelled. I also heard that Matsucon had fewer con workers this year than the previous year overall but that they still managed to run the con sufficiently; this explains why pre-con the volunteer recruitment closed and then opened again and how people were added even on the last days before the con – they really needed anyone they could get and thus I'm happy I came to help!

I was never alone at the entrance by the way, as one of the "yleisvänkärit" (general volunteers, basically workers who were put at whatever station that needed them) was always there with me, so we were 4 people during the first hours of Saturday and then 2 on the other, less active hours. The biggest rush was during the first hour of the opening on Saturday – we sold out all Saturday tickets during that first hour and it became evident very quickly that probably the double would have been needed as long after they were sold out we still had customers who would have preferred to buy just the Saturday ticket instead of the weekend ticket. And I even heard that this year more Saturday tickets were available than last year and still it was far from enough – and we actually had a lot of excess/unsold weekend tickets. :/ I can wholly understand that Matsucon wants people to come on both days and thus most available tickets were weekend tickets but to be honest, at every con there will always be a lot of people who only have interest to go on the main day for whatever reason (even on big cons, not just small ones) and often one day is enough to experience a convention to a satisfying degree (basically the "I've now seen everything and gotten a general idea/feeling of the event" feeling). Especially smaller cons like Matsucon, Kummacon etc can be "seen" in as little as a couple hours if you don't plan to attend any programs and just want to check the merchandise and the general atmosphere of the con. I'm not saying this with any ill intent, I'm just being realistic because this is typical human behavior and can be seen even on concerts, festivals etc that people just want to go on the day that they deem is either the best or fits their schedule. I'm guilty of it myself. ^^"
So yeah, I actually felt bad having to tell customers many hours after the Saturday tickets sold out that "sorry we don't have one-day tickets for Saturday anymore, they sold out already on the first hour". Many were visibly disappointed but bought the weekend ticket anyway (despite only being able to attend on Saturday) and others walked out, not buying a ticket at all. I often had to mention that the price difference is only 5 € to get a customer to buy the weekend ticket instead of just leaving. It was especially noticeable on younger people (children) because there were a few, if I remember right, who seemingly couldn't even afford the 5 € price difference between the Saturday and the weekend ticket; they most likely had been given exactly 12 € by their parents and they expected there to be one-day tickets (not gonna lie, I would have expected the same) and then suddenly didn't have enough money to even get inside. :'( Imagine if it would have been their first con...

This was my workplace for the weekend. Mikael was great company!

Our job was also to sell Matsucon merchandise.

On Saturday I had little time to actually explore the con. My only free time was more or less just enough to go see the Valitut Lapset (lit. chosen children) Digimon stage play, which I really wanted to see. Quite frankly it was the only program that I didn't want to miss and so I'm really happy that I was given time off to go see it. You see, Matsucon was the only convention in northern Finland to which the Valitut Lapset play even came to, the rest was in the far south which is out of my range. So aside from helping out as a volunteer my main reason to go to Matsucon was for the stage play.

The Digimon play lasted from 13-15 and it was in the main ceremony hall. It was forbidden to record or photograph the play so I have obviously no photos of it, but if the play is eventually recorded and uploaded on Youtube I will add the link here!
I was actually wearing a Digimon themed shirt during Matsucon (yep, I didn't cosplay and just went casual for comfort's sake) and it was funny because one of the volunteers watching over the hall's entrance actually commented on my shirt being very fitting. xD The play was really good, I loved every second of it!! It follows the story from the first season of Digimon up to the point where Angemon defeats Devimon for the first time. Of course a lot of things was omitted out of time restrictions (two hours) but it was very easy to follow, well-made, genuinely funny and just extremely nostalgic for all of us 90s kids who watched it on television during the good old days, lol.

Matsucon had this information/advertisement screen.

It showed a map of the con building, for example.

First floor view, near the entrance and stairs.

View from the stage in the main hall, first floor.

View of the main hall, seen from second floor.

All merchandise sellers were in the main hall on the first floor, just like is usual at cons held in Pohjankartano. It's the best place for merch booths, no doubt. The area is very well lit because of the massive glass windows and it's roomy because of the open design. I didn't have time to check all the merch sellers thoroughly but I noticed that there were several sellers which I had either never seen before or sellers which I recognized from bigger cons but that rarely, if ever, attend small cons. Positive surprise! I also felt like there were more merch sellers than average for a small con?

This was a local specialized tea company, never seen before!

Helmets, props and such. Not sure if info booth, commissions or display? xD

Bard & Jester leather shop, not a common sight in the north!
(I remember seeing them at big cons like Närcon)

That happy Gengar was really cute, not gonna lie.

Can we like talk about how much I secretly wanted that Magikarp?

... and that Growlithe.
But I have so many plush dolls already I'm running out of space lol.

More plushies. I heard some of the Ginga plushies are soon sold out.

Urumi had a lot of figurines and collectables as usual!

There was a table filled with keychains, gachapons and such.

Lisan Otuspaja was a new sight!

The booth above was super cool and featured dog ears, dragon tails and mermaid headpieces etc for sale. I ended up talking with Lisa, the owner, a lot and she does fursuit commissions and was really nice to talk to! Her booth was only at Matsucon on Sunday as on Saturday she was part of the Digimon stage play and that was seemingly the reason her booth even was at the con. Thankful for that, I'm heavily considering to commission her at one point as I've been wanting to try fursuiting for years now! Such a nice person. ♥

And here were mostly figures and merch of sci-fi, fantasy and video games!

No con without Pocky. Except I feel that Pocky is overrated. xD

Manga Cafe is a regular, Asian sweets and drinks.

All my purchases this year was from the Artist's Alley, which was located on the second floor in one of the, err, can I call it a corridor? There was a lot of pretty things for sale at the AA, just like always. It's often the first place I go and check once I get to a con, but because of work I only had time for a proper look on Sunday as I arrived a bit earlier to the con and thus could do my purchases before my shift started, which was at the con's start but luckily some sellers had their tables ready and could sell those 30 min before the official opening. x)

Artist's Alley general view.

SaQe-Art's table, I've bought from this artist many times over the years.
Always a pleasure to see at Artist's Alley!

Close up of the table. In love with the new unicorn merch!

A part of Elontaival's table. That Thanos glove thou.

Matsucon had a green room for all volunteers and panelists etc. It was located on the third floor. Whenever I felt hungry I went up there to eat some bananas, I almost lived on bananas tbh because for some reason I don't really like eating bread (and there was nothing I like to put on bread anyway) when at cons. The green room was pretty okay but I kinda wished there would have been candies and/or chips too and not just bread and fruit because sometimes you didn't want to actually eat but just wanted something sweet or salty. Thankfully some biscuits came later so that made my day! Olen häpeilemättä läski. :'D
I didn't see any warm food either, I think Matsucon 2017 had micro burgers? It's not a big deal but something quick and warm would have been nice because, as I've implied I had like no work breaks (save for one to go watch the Digimon play) during Matsucon's most active hours so I could not go out to eat in town either as it would have taken too long. I still managed to not be hungry though as I went to the green room to chug bananas whenever I felt the hunger start to kick in. I understand I got long work shifts (in comparison to the con's total open hours) because of the lack of volunteers so it's totally understandable but it was a bit meh to only have free time on both days during the "con is almost over for the day" last couple hours as this made it so that I felt like I had to stress, fearing some booths might start closing down before I get around to them etc. Luckily this didn't happen though and so I'm pleased enough with what free time I got, although it would of course have been sweet to be able to roam around when there was a lot of buzz, hype and cosplayers walking around.

View of the green room.

Biscuits, yum! My day was saved lol.

Still extremely thankful though that I got the last hour off from my second Saturday shift because it collided with the start of Pokémon Go's Ralts community day (which was revealed on extremely short notice when compared to previous community days), which is incredibly precious because of how meta-relevant Gardevoir is and the rarity of Ralts in the wild to begin with. So the last 3 hours of Matsucon's Saturday I spent chasing Ralts in Oulu city and thus almost all the photos, shopping and exploring had to be done on the last hours of Sunday instead.

During the community day I went quickly to my aunt's to eat warm food, drop off my bag and then I headed back out again. It was really fun to play a community day event in another city because everything was new and I actually saw a lot of PoGo players in all different ages and it was really refreshing to see how accepted it was to play in Oulu centrum. No kids screaming at me how I'm such a nerd and loser for playing Pokémon. It felt like every second person who walked past me was also playing PoGo and it made me feel all fuzzy inside, aaaaaah~

The rest of the day I watched my aunt play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Wii U until like midnight and then we went to sleep. It was so cozy!

Sunday morning I woke up with some time to spare. At least I got to sleep more than 4 hours like on the night before, lol. When I was preparing to head out I saw that there was a Rayquaza raid starting at the nearby park so I headed there before going to Matsucon. When I was done I saw another Rayquaza about to start at a gym near Matsucon so I ran over there and raided that one too with the locals, as it hatched just in time to allow me to play it and then head straight to Matsucon to start my shift.

There was a Matsu Cafe.. somewhere outdoors seemingly.

Saw this sign but have no idea what it was? Seems nice though.

Sunday was a lot more chill than Saturday but we still sold over 100 Sunday tickets, which seemed to be a new record as the ticket sale responsible was mega excited. xD There were actually surprisingly many visitors even on Sunday, a lot more buzz than I initially expected there to be! It's nice to see that even smaller cons can keep visitors interested to come on the lesser day of the two.

Matsucon had a karaoke room. Of course people were singing
the Digimon opening after the play ended. xD

Video game room. Would have liked to play a bit but oh well.

CRYO's roleplaying game room.

On the second floor was also the secondhand shop, it's basically that congoers take with them stuff that they want to sell and then the shop sells them during the con. I've thought about bringing stuff there too as I have quite a lot of items that I should sell and shortage of space is a real issue, lmao.

Matsu's secondhand booth. "Kirppis" as we say in Finnish.

The amount of uncommon Pokémon plushies in this box
surprised me! Was hesitant to buy though because not sure if fakes or real.

Once my Sunday shift ended I took the last open hours of the con to snap all these photos and check the merch sellers. At this point a lot of people had already left and so it was pretty quiet – the general con excitement mood was vanishing as I saw people packing. Well at least it made it easy to scout the shops as I didn't have to elbow my way forward or peer between people's backs. Once I was done shopping I left the con as I felt like I was too tired and out of energy to really feel like a visit to the video game room anymore.
My train left 18:30 and this time it wasn't late at least.. in fact I almost missed the train because I underestimated how long it took to walk there! I saw the train arriving to the station when I was quite far away and I was like "oh shit" and ran a fair amount of the distance. Luckily I made it on time with like 5 minutes to spare but still. That was sweaty.
Also, the train was filled to the brim with young men doing the military service. I've never seen so many on a single train at the same time, it was stupidly hard to find a free seat and even harder to find a person who wasn't wearing green camo gear. xD

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

As my closing words I want to say that Matsucon is heading in the right direction. It's a really pleasant and safe-feeling small con that doesn't feel all that much like a small con. Despite the shortage of volunteers I didn't run into nor hear of any obvious shortcomings regarding the overall quality of the con. I'm hoping that Matsucon will stay for a long time, especially now with Kitacon seemingly gone for indefinite time it's important that the north holds on to the remaining cons that we have! I will definitely attend as a con worker in the future too and help out in any way I can. I might not be as active of a congoer as I once was but at least the local events I want to support. ♥

My con loot! The items on the right side are for friends.

Thank you for reading my summaries! Take care~

Shiro Samurai out.