Matsucon 2025 – Cultural exchange and dab in the park

 Greetings!

Matsucon was held this past weekend in Oulu, 9-10 August, Finland. Just like on previous years Pohjankartano school was the con building this time too. It's a pretty good place to host a convention since it's close to centrum and also the train and bus station, it's also spacious and there's enough rooms for all kinds of activities!

Let's get to the summary!

Matsucon's poster/advertisement! 

As one can make out from the cake in the poster, 2025 was some kind of celebration milestone for Matsucon. Apparently "Pocky ry", the registered association or whatever it's called in English (basically the group behind organizing Matsucon), turns 10 years this year! I'll admit to being such a pleb that I didn't notice anything drastically different from the other Matsucons I've been to, aside from the birthday arts of Matsucon's mascots lol. :'D I mean yeah there were guests of honor but as far as I can remember that's been a rather expected/common feature of Matsucon? Well, regardless it was a good year for Matsucon~

But hey, let's backtrack a bit. So me and Firith traveled to Matsucon together by train the day before the con. There was a lot of uncertainty about what the weather would be like during the weekend it literally kept changing every day I checked but I had packed with me Urahara as planned, just in case. It would have sucked if the weather turned out fine in the end and I had omitted my chance at cosplaying. :-DD
Once we arrived at Oulu we came to the conclusion that we were both pretty dang hungry and so we just slid into the nearest pizzeria we could find on the way. Yes, before even checking in at the hotel first lol. I had a pizza and it was so stonks that I couldn't finish it all and had to take the last couple slices with me wrapped in tinfoil. It's good that hotel rooms have minibars but oh lord Metapod my savior did the fridge smell of my greasy garlic pizza afterwards... xD

The rest of the day went by preparing for tomorrow and the rest was random hotel bullshit and trying to wind down after all the traveling. These old millennial bones can't keep up with this one con a week schedule lmao. Thank higher beings there's a break after Matsucon.

Saturday morning came, we woke up at 7:30 and headed almost straight for breakfast. Sokos Hotel Arina's breakfast buffet is very familiar to me by now, lol. The weather seemed fine at this point too.
Once we got back to our room I started putting on my cosplay. I had intentionally left my lenses at home this time because I figured it would be an unnecessary strain on my eyes because over half of my time at the con I would sit inside the green room during my work shifts. Urahara also has gray eyes anyway and usually the shadow of his hat blocks his eyes so I figured I could skip the lenses this time as I wasn't planning on photoshooting or anything anyway and well, I just wanted to be comfy and not have my eyes acting out because of dryness or whatever. I'm very relieved I decided to go without lenses because my eyes ended up being super dry all day – it felt like I had worn lenses for hours except that I hadn't!

Well, once we were done we took a taxi to the con; don't want to sweat off all the makeup before even arriving at the con. Yeah, despite it being August and northern Finland it was still rather hot – sure, the worst heat wave has passed but it still feels like it's warmer than it should be at this time of year? We can all collectively blame climate change I guess.

Matsucon entrance.

I think the clock was something around or near 11:00 when we arrived at the con. Immediately at the entrance I got my worker's badge and then I think we first went to check the Dealer's Hall in the main hall on the base floor. It's like a big open space with merch sellers and artisan tables along with merch for the guest of honors. You could of course also buy snacks and other Japanese treats.

View directly after entering the con. Dealer's Hall to the right.

Dealer's Hall and artisans were both in the same area.

I don't know how other countries do it but Finnish cons typically separate artist's alley and artisans nowadays, although technically they are the same type of sellers. The difference, as far as I know, is that artisan's are "too experienced" to be in the traditional artist's alley in a sense; usually an artisan has a long-running and/or highly successful business with high selling volumes. I think some cons are trying to prioritize giving the artist alley spots to artists who are newer and/or less experienced because the alley tables are cheaper than merch/artisan tables? So yeah, there's a lot of overlap and the line is blurry of when someone is considered an artist versus an artisan (I mean both are independent artists selling their works) but I can imagine this distinction was made in the interest of fairness and to make sure budding artists don't get mowed over by established ones with more experienced portfolios (aka more likely to be chosen by the con), especially because the artist alley slots always fill up crazy fast things you learn when you organize a con and far from everyone who applies gets a spot.

View of the main hall from the other side.

I browsed the different sellers and overall there was a great con atmosphere. It got a bit crowded at times but nothing out of the ordinary. So many sellers were very friendly and chatty, it was fun talking to everyone! I ended up buying a few items and then I think I went to chat with the Cryo tabletop guys (had some questions about the upcoming Maracon, which I'll maybe attend) and after that I had to hurry upstairs to my work station because I had to be in the green room for some briefing 15 minutes before my shift would start.

Second floor's corridor. Cryo's room to the left.

I've worked at Matsucon's green room once before so the briefing was very, well, brief. It's basically the same rules and everything of how to do things and what the work tasks are etc. Working in the green room is quite chill if you ask me but a requirement is that you have a valid hygiene pass certification so yeah, not everyone can apply for this volunteer role. So what do I do in the green room then? Well, the most important one I'd say is to make sure that there's always fresh coffee available because everyone needs caffeine all the time lmao. Of course there's basic stuff like answering food and green room related questions that other workers might ask and to keep the place tidy. Oh, and of course make sure that only people who are allowed to enter the green room are there, aka con workers and those who provide for the con in some way (panelists, security officers, sellers, guest of honors).

Green room edibles. :D Take a pause and eat~

One thing that made me chuckle was when I was in the green room just doing random small tasks and some other worker just says out loud "should we be trusting of Urahara being in charge of our foods?". xD I mean yeah the character is highly sus but I promise I'm not sus lmao!

All my work shifts on Saturday were 2h shifts followed by 2h free time and so when I stamped out of my first competed shift at 14:00 I went to do a speedrun of the Artist's Alley on the second floor (green room was on the third floor). Just like on previous years Artist's Alley was located on the second floor and split into two halves, one half on one end of the corridor and the other on the other end. It works sufficiently well although it can be quite difficult to browse during the rush hours because the hallway is rather narrow. I mean it is a school corridor.

View of the Artist's Alley. Or well, one half of it.

I felt like most sellers in the Artist's Alley were familiar to me this year, maybe there was one or two I didn't recall seeing before, but I still enjoy checking all tables in case there's something new. I feel a bit bad that I couldn't purchase from everyone who had interesting items but I have to be careful with my budget this month. :'( I already lowkey overspent a bit but it was worth it rausku is life.

Funny "feed Naruto/Sasuke" jars at Anocado's table. XD

I don't really know what was different with this year's Matsucon but it somehow felt more cozy, more idk... united? Or at least I personally had a surprisingly good time despite being stuck literally half my total con time inside the four walls of the green room. xD I must admit I liked Matsucon's older volunteer system better where you could choose if you wanted to have shifts on both days or focused into one day and the other day free. I understand why they possibly changed that to have everyone work both days but as a long-time volunteer I used to praise Matsucon in my mind for being the one who did things differently and let the volunteer have a semblance of control of how they wanted to work. As much as I had a good time it also, simultaneously, felt like my con experience was more scattered and sprawled out than before – especially my free time because I never had more than 2h at a time so yeah, I always had to plan what I "could do" and be as "time efficient" as possible to not waste it. Feels kinda counterproductive to stress about free time lol. :') For example I gave up on going to the video game room because time blindness when getting immersed playing is too real.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that roughly during this time (around 2 PM) I had checked the activities and rather spontaneously decided to go check out the "dragon art & samurai dance" program, despite having no clue what it truly was (mainly because Matsucon's leaflet didn't have program descriptions written out, you had to check them through a QR code). I just thought it sounded interesting and I happened to be free during the time slot it was on so I went to check what it was about. I noticed immediately that the room was almost full and there was a Japanese lady in kimono standing in front doing some kind of presentation. I glanced an empty chair in front and sat my ass down and, despite my initial confusion of a mismatch in expectations (seemed like some kind of business advertisement at first lol), it was a very worthwhile experience.

Japan and Finland in unity art statement? Something like that. :3

Eventually another lady in wafuku, Shihomi, took the stage and after introducing herself and what she does I was intrigued. She's an arts and entertainment performer expressing and sharing the teachings of Japanese divinity, zen etc through various art and dance acts. I really liked the way she spoke, it was professional without being dull and heavy; there was clearly a passion of sharing her culture without making it appear "exotic" and "marketable" for westerners. I liked especially how there were spiritual and zen components weaved into the samurai dance performance (which I sadly didn't get photos of because there were people sitting in front of me and catching a good photo of a moving person is hard!) and also after when she did the calligraphy dragon art. 

Dragon scroll painting.

I can't quite explain it but during the performances, especially the samurai dance with the fan, I felt a stir of emotions that came out of nowhere. Maybe it was the atmospheric music that let the mind wander combined with her refined moves and sharp expression but something deeply spiritual felt very tangible in those moments. I rarely get watery eyes but the silent yet powerful energy of that performance moved me.

The dragon painting was also a treat to watch. She freehanded it in roughly 10 minutes, with a prayer before starting and after finishing it. It was mesmerizing in its simplicity and professionalism – of placing trust in the process. I liked the descriptions of the dragon's powers in shintoism and how the direction the soaring dragon's head is facing matters.
She mentioned that the finished scroll was for sale for 500€ (half price from normal quote/value) but that's waaaaay out of my budget. *sniff* I do hope someone who could afford it bought it during Matsucon, it would definitely be a really cool and unique home decor, along with a memory to look back on...

You could buy home lucky charms and other crafts made by Shihomi.

After the painting was done the next activity was a bon odori dance for everyone to join in on. At this point I decided to leave because I didn't see Firith anywhere in the room and I'm too awkward to dance around people lol. Besides, my knee had been unstable lately (I had wrapped it for stability) and I didn't want to take any risks to aggravate it further thankfully con workers are allowed to use the elevator.

I found Firith just outside at the cafeteria and I'm not sure what we did at this point but I think we went to browse the other half of the Artist's Alley? It's a bit hard to remember what exactly I did when because all this time I was just trying to explore as much as possible without overstaying anywhere lol, I had to optimize the shit out of my free time. 

The rest of the con day flowed by without a hitch. Or well, except that in the green room one of the two coffee brewers randomly dropped a spring from nowhere?? It still worked though and no one was entirely sure where it came from lmao. Having a malfunctioning coffee machine would have been a whole new level of disaster kahvin menekkiä ei voi estää. Oh, and at some point when I was in the green room there suddenly came a massive rainfall out of nowhere, like it was raining sideways. :'D Good thing it came when I was indoors...

On Saturday I had the last shift and so when I was done the con closed for the day. Me and Firith had some differing opinions on if we should take a taxi in case it rains again or walk back to the hotel, I voted for the latter. We ended up walking and it was a good idea because it didn't rain and the weather was actually pleasant because it had cooled a bit and so it was rather refreshing. We ended up taking the semi-classic "proof that I had a costume on" photo at the nearby park. And got goofy about it. :'D

Am I hip with the kids or cringe now?

Once we got to the hotel we peeled off our cost--, wait a sec, no we didn't. Before we got to the hotel we grabbed some bubble tea and ResQ app sushi lol. Yes, we still had the smelly pizza slices in the fridge too. xD It's kinda convenient when the hotel is in the heart of the centrum so you just have to walk a few meters to get boba, get food, go to the foodstore or the bar or anything really. 

Back at the hotel the costume flew off and into the shower I went. Firith had planned a meeting with some mutual friends at a bar in like an hour or so and so we had to get ready. We still had time to chomp down the sushi though and slurp our bobas, no stress. 
We went out into Oulu's night life and met up with Gure and Selja and one of their friends. The bar that had been chosen I personally found very uncomfortable at first; it was claustrophobic and the music was way too loud and everyone around us were drunk and loud and yeah, it was sensory overload hell for me. Luckily a spot on the terrace freed up and we quickly moved outside, which was much better because we didn't have to listen to drunks unaware of their own decibel levels. I still despise the guts of random people who start smoking right next to me and blow those cancer fumes in my face. :)

Eventually we parted ways and me and Firith went back to the hotel and watched some National Geographic and binged doritos until past midnight lol.

Sunday morning came and it was another round of breakfast and then we had to pack up everything and leave the room. I had no cosplay for Sunday and that was for the better, just didn't want to sit in the train in costume nor waste precious free time trying to change out of costume at the con.

Matsucon outside area. People hung out outside too. :)

My first work shift was at 11:00 but we arrived at Matsucon before that and so we had some time to wander around and explore. Sunday was more calm than Saturday but that's a given, it's almost always a more laid-back day regardless of the con. 

Feel Japan drop-in workshop.

Already yesterday we were curious about this Feel Japan workshop on the second floor but on Sunday we decided to check it out. You could try calligraphy (kanji on paper), I think I saw some kendama toys and there was this lovely slightly older Japanese lady, Yoko, who apparently lives in Finland and organizes cultural exchange events. You could try out kimono here and get help dressing up, which is a really nice experience offered for those who've never tried it and are curious. I ended up talking with her that I actually collect and wear vintage kimono myself (although I've had a long break on the collecting part) and she and the other lady who was in the workshop got so excited when I dug up an old photo to show them. It's been years since I last had someone so exhilaratingly beam kakkoii at me. x) Aah, so precious! I really should dress up more often, it's been a long time since I last did a proper wafuku coordination...

General view of the main area (Dealer's Hall) from above.

Sadly I didn't have that much time to talk before I had to leave because my work shift was starting. I was hoping to return later but in the end I didn't have time before they closed the workshop. :( Oh well, I hope a similar workshop will be held in future conventions in Oulu so I could check it out more thoroughly – would have liked to try the calligraphy with some guidance!

The video game room~

I took a peek into the video game room at some point but they didn't have U.N. Squadron on Super Nintendo, although there were quite many SNES games available. I hope I one day find a con that has that game available to play, I miss it so much. 

I was tempted to buy that Dragonair... ;_;

I honestly don't remember much what I did on Sunday. I just worked and existed in a daze lol? Conidarra iskee ennen kun coni ees on loppu? :'D No but really, I remember having a decent time and like idling at the Artist's Alley, checking if I missed something on my earlier runs and such. I always triple-check just in case because it feels like you always miss something somehow. 

Organization booths were downstairs, mainly other cons advertising!

I had the very last hour's shift and that meant I was in the green room packing things up, wiping tables etc when we started closing it down when there was like 30 minutes left. Once again there was a loooot of bread left over (I still remember the rieska mayhem many years ago omfg) and anyone of the workers who wanted to could take some home with them. I grabbed what I could carry before I left. xD

After we retrieved our luggages from the cloakroom we took a taxi to the train station. At the train station we saw a random pink abandoned travel bag next to the rails on the opposite of where we stood? No idea what was going on but it was unattended for the whole duration we were there (almost one hour) and it was kinda weird, not gonna lie. I hope the original owner reclaimed it. :S


Anyways, Matsucon this year was a solid experience. I liked the overall atmosphere and flow of the event and I'm happy I went to impromptu check out Shihomi's performances, those really elevated my Matsucon experience and made it more memorable as a whole; I even feel inspired now to paint more and seek inspiration from other channels in life.

My con haul! Kultainen ES on vihdoin löydetty. xD #tietäjättietää

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who interacted with me! <3

Matsucon 2025 cosplay plans!

 Hi there!

I've barely had time to recover from the long trip to Mericon and soon I'll be in Oulu at another convention! It's been a really tight con schedule this year but at least after this it'll calm down for a little bit lol. :'D So yeah, Matsucon is coming up now this upcoming weekend on 9-10 August and of course, as a north-dweller, I am attending. 

Just like the past few years I applied to be a volunteer worker again. Honestly I'm quite exhausted mentally but I got one of the relaxed jobs so yeah, it should be fine.

I thought for a while if I had the energy to cosplay but decided that I'll at least bring one of my easiest cosplays to put on – which happens to be among my breeziest ones too, in case it's hot. Which it might be considering the record heats this year. Of course my chosen cosplay has to fit the requirement of being easy to work in too and yeah, not hindering mobility because I will be watching over the green room.

Cosplay revelation ba ba boom~

Character: Kisuke Urahara

Series: Bleach

The sus hat guy returns for a second round after his debut in Nekocon 2023! This is one of my easier cosplays to move around in except perhaps for the geta clogs which can be spicy when going down stairs lol and thus perfect for the Saturday. I might just walk around in normal shoes for convenience though, will bring geta in case there's a nice photo location somewhere nearby. 

But if the weather on Saturday ends up as all over the place as it's been here the last couple days (aka constantly fluctuating between sun, rain and thunder) then I will not cosplay.

On Sunday I will be incognito in casual clothes lol. So yeah, only one cosplay for this year's Matsucon, believe it! 

That's all, see you at Matsucon!

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