Nekocon 2024 – I heard you like boba tea

Hello all colorful geeks!

I'm back home from last weekend's trip to the delightful Kuopio where I attended my second Nekocon, woop! This year's Nekocon was held on 13-14th July in Kuopio's Music Centre, just like the year before. I went there together with Firith and I think it's high time I get this con report on the road!

Nekocon side view of main entrance.

Our journey towards Kuopio started already on Friday morning. Me and Firith had decided to drive down but due to me being a derp and misremembering the timer of my dishwasher we ended up getting a bit delayed – it wasn't too bad though, like an hour or so behind schedule. Anyways, before we could start driving we had an urgent problem called no gasoline. And by that I mean the car tank was so empty that it was a game of chance if we even had enough to get to the nearest gas station – needless to say we were clenching our butts in nervosity for every successful kilometer rolled forward! We made it, somehow, and could officially start our journey down to Kuopio.

We drove down one of the smaller roads and aside from some tractor-induced road rage the trip went well. Our dining stop was at the lovely rustic Matin ja Liisan Asema at Lapinlahti, easily recognized by the preserved 1938's Tv1 steam locomotive outside. Honestly recommend this place, really pleasant!

Once we arrived at Kuopio it was evening, I think the clock was about 18 local time? I can't really remember, but what I do remember is that we had enough time to speed over to the con location to go claim our con tickets (and Sallukka's tickets as well since they would have arrived too late otherwise) in advance before it closed! This saves us from having to stand in line on Saturday morning to exchange tickets so it's definitely a quality of life thing to grab them the day before!

As soon as we got the tickets we continued to our chosen place to stay the weekend, namely the trusty and familiar Rauhalahti Spa Hotel, just like last year. I swear it's half the reason we went to Nekocon lmao.
This time we didn't get the Donald Duck room number but we got a room on the top floor, aka the fourth floor. What came as a surprise was that unlike last time we had a balcony!

Cosplayer hotel room means it's immediate chaos.

This was sooo nice to have! You could air out your costumes after the day.

 

The hotel room was really comfy and pleasant and, unlike last year, this time our mini bar actually kept our drinks cold, yay! :'D Yes we brought with us a bunch of energy drinks, a couple ciders and a 6-pack of beer lol. Raikasta ja ravitsevaa olutta~
Thanks to it being the weekend the spa was still open with a couple hours left and so we jumped into the pool to relax after the long drive. Honestly the super warm pool is like the best thing ever, you could literally just melt away there for hours.

Saturday morning came. We had decided the night before to not take overly much stress from being at the con early because we both were really tired and wanted to have a chance at a decent night's sleep. I think we woke up around 8:30 or something like that and after lagging around in bed for a while we walked over to have some breakfast. Fun thing is that we stumbled upon some familiar faces from Kummacon at the breakfast buffet! I had my obligatory Karelian pastries and after we were done it was time to head back to the room and put our costumes on. Or at least try to, as soon as morning brain lag had dissipated enough.

My cosplay for the day was Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo, a costume I've only worn once before many years ago and lacked any proper photo proof of. I don't remember exactly how long it took for me to change into cosplay but it was an episode and a half to get everything on smoothly! Hotaru looks like a simple costume to wear but holy moly the amount of fabric I have to stuff under the shorts and secure in place to keep all the layers from shifting to kingdom come! I'm so thankful Firith was there to help me dress, it would have been so difficult to do the kimono tucking in the back etc without any assistance. ;_; Firith cosplayed the titular character from the Ghibli movie Kiki's Delivery Service, by the way.
It took us somewhere between 2-3 hours to get ready but it would have taken even longer if I hadn't caught my creeping panic attack in time onneksi olin ottanut rauhoittavia mukaan... 

The clock was around 12:30 when we started driving towards the con and it was a beautiful sunny summer day. One of the first things we did was to take a quick tour with the camera and snap the general con photos and after that we headed straight to photoshoot our costumes because the bushes near Kuopio's Music Centre are very nice for cosplay photos! 

I'm happy I did check some character references this time around because last time when I cosplayed Hotaru I completely missed to do the kanji he has on his neck, oops!

Hotaru! You can also see the Nekocon ticket~
(photo by Firith)

 

Hotaru was a decently heat-friendly cosplay, only the midsection was a bit toast with all the layers piling up. I had all the props and parts of this cosplay with me but I wore replacement shoes around the con (stupid Pikachu flipflops gave me an awful toe blister and I don't even know how xD) and left the sword in the car after the photoshoot because it would have been cumbersome to carry around while shopping. I'm not even sure if anyone recognized my cosplay because I had zero interactions with other congoers but, then again, Samurai Deeper Kyo isn't exactly a well-known manga and was never published in Finland, so it went exactly as I assumed it would haha. Anyways, we got some really awesome photos afhsdadsgh that I will post separately! [edit: link here]

When we were done snapping photos we left the camera back in the car and then we hurried over to the Lumit building where Firith's friend had a table at the Artist's Alley. The Lumit building was part of Nekocon and also hosted at least the video game room as well.

Walking next to Lumit.

Lumit was very easy to recognize because there were always cosplayers and colorful people sitting just outside it. There even was someone dressed in a huge red inflatable Among Us costume. xD

Entrance view of Lumit.

The video game room was popular!

I would have initially wanted to watch the "Valitut Lapset: Superlataus" Digimon stage play but decided in the end not to because I knew I wouldn't be able to sit almost 3 hours alone without having difficulties (Firith wasn't interested enough, mainly due to the length, and Sallukka and Don had their own activities). Besides, it started already 12:15 and you needed to get seat tickets starting at 10:30 and we weren't even at the con at that time so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Artist's Alley.

More Artist's Alley~

It was quite crowded at the Artist's Alley on Saturday and we both quickly agreed on that it was a bit too much. The air quality wasn't the best with so many people crowded in a small area and it was quite anxiety-inducing. Not to mention sweaty. So yeah, we hurried outside after a quick glance through all the tables.

A nice collaboration Nekocon had this year was that there was this one boba tea (aka bubble tea) stand near the town square that had a deal so that if you bought a drink from them in costume you got a 20% discount. One needs to know at this point that I haven't had proper boba tea in about 9 long years. I had forgotten how delicious it could be. And because we were hot and thirsty no not like that you perv we decided to go and make use of this opportunity!

Taro milk tea with matcha swirl, heavenly!

It was soooo good! Like oh my goodness it was so refreshing and perfectly sweet and I just wanted it to last forever. ;_; I miiiight have reignited an old addiction send help. No but really, it was totally money worth, 5/5 stars no drama.

After the trip to the town square (and being subjected to puzzled normies along the way lol) we returned back to the main building of Nekocon and plowed through the Dealer's Hall and just took in the con atmosphere. Nekocon overall has this pleasant feeling, it's welcoming and the general location is inviting and very central with both greenery and the town square just outside so yeah, you're close to almost everything. Except our hotel is a few minutes car ride away. :'D

Nekocon entrance/cloakroom view.

We didn't stay the full duration at the con during Saturday, mainly because it was a very warm day and we were both still a bit tired. As much as I enjoy cosplaying I can't help but notice that I'm getting old lol, I don't have the same tenacity to withstand discomfort that I used to have. Remember when everyone used to say "cosplay ilman tuskaa on teeskentelyä" and how we'd just power through all the pain to prolong that magic con feeling? Ei helevetti, those days are long gone. If I feel discomfort nowadays then I go back to the hotel early, I'm absolutely listening to my body's needs nowadays. #millenialinsights

Besides, we wanted to take some more photos of my cosplay outside the hotel before my makeup was all messed up from the heat so yeah, that was another reason why we left a bit early. And it was the right decision because we found a really good photoshoot spot that we had completely overlooked last year!
After the second photoshoot was wrapped up we both really just wanted to jump into the spa and then have some beer and chips in the room after. I mean if you book a spa hotel you kinda maybe want to set aside some time to actually use the spa, right? :D It was really fun to just hang out and chill and play on the PS5 I had brought along for the trip (and a TV to play on) for the rest of the night. It was a great day~

Oh and I ate a delicious veggie pizza at the hotel's restaurant!

Then came Sunday. I had trouble falling asleep and so my eyebags had eyebags when I got up. It wasn't beautiful I tell you. I considered skipping doing any makeup for my alt fashion plans at first but luckily my face kinda recovered after breakfast and idling around long enough to properly wake up. Chugging an energy drink might have sped up the process. We packed all our belongings but still somehow ended up stressing to get done on time since we also had to return the room keys. I swear time blindness and estimation of time is one of my biggest weaknesses! It felt very wistful to check out from the hotel because we had so much fun and it was over way too quickly. Next year's Nekocon can't come any sooner!

Anyway, we drove to Nekocon and today we had reserved more time to actually check out the con more properly; it's just a lot easier to explore when you don't have to worry about messing up your costume. We took our time to check out the Dealer's Hall on the main floor and the artisan's tables upstairs while just vibing and soaking up the good feels. Firith also ran into some old acquaintances while I just awkward potatoed around because I don't know how to enter the chat naturally with people I don't know who are already in a conversation.

Dealer's Hall view...

... and more Dealer's Hall.

Staple sellers Manga Cafe provided the snacks.

Sunday was definitely a calmer day than Saturday, it was easier to move around and there weren't as big clusters of people around. I wanted to go watch the "Digimonien avara luonto" program but I honestly ended up forgetting what time it was because I didn't carry the con's info booklet on me with all the schedules and stuff. Oh well, no can do but I got to say it seemed like an unique concept that I haven't seen done before and that's why it piqued my interest in the first place.

Nekocon info desk next to the stairs.

One thing I did notice was that the overall layout of what was located where seemed very similar to last year's Nekocon and honestly, why change something that works? The only clearly different or improved change I noticed was that the video games area in Lumit had been expanded from being in the corner to having that big room (was it a gymnastic hall?) for themselves, which was great.

Artisan's area upstairs.

Promotional booths of other conventions, also upstairs.

A few merchandise sellers were upstairs as well.

At some point me and Firith just looked at each other and I swear our brain jellies did some sick telepathy moves because we both just went like "should we go for more boba?". Yes, we should. We should fuel this addiction while we still can.
While walking there was some older middle-aged man, clearly not a Nekocon visitor, who walked slightly in front of us and he kept staring at me and doing double-takes to the point it was like fucking penta-takes lol. It was really rude and uncomfortable tbh, I mean one shouldn't stare that obnoxiously at others regardless of how differently from the norm they're dressed – have at least some semblance of manners at your age, please... -.-

Taro milk tea with tapioca bubbles, yum~

I think after the boba tea (yes, I really like taro flavor) we did a final shopping round and then we agreed in unison that it was high time to leave because we had a long and exhausting road trip back home ahead of us.

It's legit hard to describe how fun and rewarding Nekocon was for us both, it might not sound like a lot happened but we honestly had a blast and this will probably go down as one of my favorite cons this year. We've both been in some tough and dark places lately so this trip was a much needed break from everything stressful that's been going on in life. Honestly I'm looking forward to next year's iteration already, Nekocon and Rauhalahti spa combo gives me life. <3

Oh and before I forget, here's my loot haul!

Thanks for reading, my next con will be Mericon's return in Rauma! See you there~
Shiro Samurai out.

Nekocon 2024 cosplans – took so long to decide!

 Hello hello!

I'm heading to Nekocon in Kuopio this upcoming weekend and I'm so excited! Last year I went to my first Nekocon and I had such a blast that it was almost immediately decided that a revisit was in order. It's such a comfy summer con and Kuopio feels weirdly cozy and inviting to me.

It took me ages to decide on what to cosplay, hence why this post is very late I dunno if anyone will even see it in time lol but I had difficulties okay? :'D I did consider at first rewearing my Kisuke Urahara cosplay from last year but I don't know, it feels a bit awkward to wear the same cosplay to the same con twice in a row (whiplash to my early weeb cosplay years hits hard xD) and so I had to brainstorm for another heatwave-friendly costume that was in wearable condition or wearable with some small tweaks that I could recycle. And yes, this is the kind of bizarre moments when you realize you've done 50+ cosplays and still somehow have nothing to wear?!

Eventually I came to realize I had one candidate that stood out from the rest...
*drumroll*

Character: Hotaru (Keikoku)

Series: Samurai Deeper Kyo

It's legit been 12 years since I read the manga. I honestly don't remember much at all of the plot at this point but I do remember really enjoying the series (because of its unpredictable twists and turns) and I also remember liking some of the characters like Hotaru and Akira particularly much of the lot. I still plan to cosplay Akira too at some point but currently I only have Hotaru completed. I plan to wear Hotaru on Saturday.

I made this cosplay way back in 2016 and I've only worn it once, which I'm very much not fine with lol. I honestly don't want cosplay to be like fast fashion for myself and thus I'm very positive to reusing my older costumes and fixing them up if needed. Hotaru did need a quick update because, originally, I had missed to consider the way how loosely in front he wears his outermost kimono (a simple oversight on my part) and I made it according to normal kimono width when I should have made it narrower to avoid excessive fabric bunching at the sides. This is something I've done a temporary fix on for now and will re-estimate the need for further, permanent, corrections after the con.

Oh and yes, I'm bringing his suicide shoes tengu geta although I'll only use them for photos – I will walk around the con in replacement shoes that are more convenient and safe to walk in. As badass as the tengu geta look they're not suitable for normal walking, at least not on my feet because I have slowly come to accept that I have chronic knee issues. This is also why you will likely see me having at least one of my knees wrapped in bandages (Hotaru has shorts so I can't hide it) although it's not a part of the cosplay; it's a stabilization precaution I do to prevent issues from walking up and down stairs (and Kuopio Music Centre has a lot of stairs ffuu ffuu) which, without any kind of knee support, is the worst pain trigger for me.

I did dabble on-and-off with the idea of a Sunday cosplay but I'm almost certain at this point that I will just go in alt fashion. This means that Hotaru is the only cosplay I will bring. I'm still kind of trying to ease myself back into active congoing ngl and wearing costumes in public, trying not to go too fast and overwhelm myself because I still have a lot of mental health difficulties I'm dealing with.

That's all for now nerds, stay safe and see you soon at Nekocon~!

Nekocon 2023 – Nostalgy and energy drinks

 Hello geeks of all flavors!

Nekocon was held this past weekend on 15-16th July in Kuopio, Finland. I've never been to Nekocon before but this year the stars aligned and I got a chance to visit! Oh and for those not in the know Nekocon was held in Kuopion musiikkikeskus (Kuopio Music Centre) which is familiar to many older congoers since Animecon used to be held there back when it still existed. This fit quite well with the con's nostalgy theme too, lol. But anygays, let's start from the beginning!

 

Nekocon's dates were quite perfect for me as the week before I had departed with mom and stepdad on a long road trip to southern Sweden to attend my cousin's wedding in a small city near Gothenburg. Mom had decided that, for a change of pace, on the return trip we would take a cruise liner over to Finland and drive from Helsinki back up to the north (Finland is less elongated than Sweden, so it's actually a shorter drive). This fit perfectly for me as mom could just drive through Kuopio and drop me off there while they continued the journey back to Tornio.

Seaside view inside our cabin on M/S Viking Gabriella.

On Friday morning we arrived in Helsinki and then started our 5 or so hours car trip to Kuopio. Firith had booked a hotel room for us two to share at Rauhalahti Spa Hotel, which is located roughly 6 km away from the event building. We decided that Rauhalahti was the best choice as it was about the same price (or even cheaper!) than most other normal hotels within a reasonable distance from the con and well, free admission to the spa and gym was included in the price so why the fuck wouldn't you choose it? :'D 

I arrived to the hotel before Firith (he got delayed because of neighbor's missing cat problems) but luckily I managed to get access to the room anyway. I was very much amused to find out that our room number was 313 – that's Donald Duck's car plate for the uncivilized. And within my group of friends some very special Donald Duck animations are like our holy bible – we quote them unashamedly like it's a part of our most primal DNA. 

Kääk!

By the time Firith arrived my parents had already left (they stayed to eat dinner in the hotel's restaurant) and I was just vibing alone in the room. It didn't take too long before the hotel room exploded as our cosplay stuff invaded every free surface! Ah, that organized nerd chaos took me back in time. *sniff*

We spent the night going for a quick dip in the spa, chatting, playing some Nintendo Switch and having a drink or two.

Ryyb ja pärr pärr et vanhukset jaksavat.

Then came Saturday morning. I slept quite well except for the fact that the air circulation in the room wasn't very good so yeah, at times I would wake up in the middle of the night because of sweating like a pig on a spit-roast. Thankfully morning showers clear up that greasy feeling. :))

One of the big advantages with having a hotel room over the con's own sleeping accommodation is access to hotel breakfast – my con morning isn't complete without Karelian pastries and scrambled eggs, no joke.

After hotel breakfast (and a Karen who got mad at me for having long hair) we went back into our room and changed into our costumes. I might or might not have chugged a Monster to function. Both of us had decided to honor the con's nostalgy theme – I did Kisuke Urahara from Bleach and Firith did the Just Be Friends version of Luka Megurine from Vocaloid. I'll admit that due to how pressed on time I was to finish my costume before departure I actually didn't have time to do any makeup tests prior. So yeah, I just had to improvise and hope I wing it enough to win it.

We drove to the con (it was very easy route!) and once we got there we looked around until we found one of those free parking lots as there were two different types and the other option was one that was free but only for 2 hours. We also noticed immediately that there was an absolutely massive queue to the ticket exchange booth and we both decided "fuck that shit" almost in unison and went to photoshoot our costumes instead while waiting for the queue to disperse.

 

Cosplay selfie! (photo by Firith)

I didn't keep track of time on how long we camera'd near the bushes but it worked out quite well because by the time we had wrapped up the shoot then the queue was also gone. I will post the photoshoot results in a separate blog post later, by the way. ^_^

We walked over to the booth to the right outside the main entrance to get our con tickets. It's been so long since I last had one of these on my wrist!

Nekocon con ticket.

Nekocon main entrance. Notice how the nostalgy theme is
wonderfully brought out on that billboard art.

The moment I stepped inside the building I felt a weird and wonderful sensation of new meets old – new con in an old building I had visited before. Exactly 10 years have passed since I last stepped foot here and I immediately remembered how suffocatingly hot Animecon was and that musty and moist eyepatch sweat from my Masamune Date cosplay in 2012. xD

I did immediately notice though that, although Nekocon was also occasionally crowded, it was never as crowded as Animecon was (at Animecon it literally felt like you were running out of oxygen indoors lol). I even heard that Nekocon didn't manage to sell out all their tickets so that does explain things but yeah, imo it's better when it's not overstuffed cuz that's quite anxiety-triggering.

Near the main entrance (cloak room to the right).

Upstairs you found the Artisan's Alley and some dealers.

The first thing we did was go up the stairs and check out the Artisan's Alley. I first thought it was the Artist's Alley until someone pointed out the difference to me, namely that apparently the artisans are invited by the con to sell their art while the artists have to apply through a system and hope they get chosen..? But the way they sell stuff and what they sell is otherwise indistinguishable from each other.

Artisan's Alley upstairs.

Digimon booth upstairs. I'm soooo Gomamon!

Not all booths in the Artisan's Alley area were art and craft sellers, there were a few that were organization booths like one for the local tabletop/roleplay community. There was also this one charming Digimon themed booth although I'm still not sure what its purpose was? Maybe it was some kind of recruitment booth for a future stage production or something, I really have no idea I'm sorry I'm such a pleb.

Upstairs were also a few dealers like Puolenkuun Pelit and if you went up another set of stairs you found the official photography booth and there was also a polaroid camera booth that you could use for a fee of I think 2€.

Dealer's Hall upstairs.

There weren't really any panels or lectures that interested either of us on Saturday so we actually didn't spend all that much time at the con. We mostly just checked the Artisan's Alley and the Dealer's Hall both upstairs and downstairs and then we thought we had seen enough for the day and went back to the hotel. Although if I had known already on Saturday that the other half of the con was located in the Lumit building, including the video game room, then I probably would have stayed a lil' bit longer. Please don't ask how I managed to miss that; I didn't check the con's information booklet that closely I guess and I was kind of in a brainfog all day ngl. Besides, I was quite tired (I've been on sick leave for two months because of mental health difficulties) and the idea of going to take a dip in the spa was very tempting to wind down after a hot summer day.

 

Dealer's Hall downstairs, aka main floor.

More dealers.

If you wanted books or manga there was a dealer for that too.

And there was a dealer for retro games!

Just next to the Dealer's Hall on the main floor was a cafeteria I think.

I have no recollection of what the clock was by the time we left the con but it can't have been much more than late afternoon or the early evening hours. We both just really wanted to peel ourselves out of our costumes and jump into the pools. Thankfully Urahara as a costume was pleasantly cool to wear, the samue style outfit I made from cotton fabric so it breathes well and it's not thick either. Maybe finally, in this wise and ripe old age, I have learned to not wear three layers of kimonos to a summer con.

But before we could run to the spa we had to deal with one issue – namely hunger. As we both are quite short on spending power we drove out to Kuopio centrum to look for a place to eat. We originally wanted to go to this sushi buffet place we saw online on Google Maps but when we arrived there we agreed on that it was a bit too salty for our wallets. I really didn't want McDonald's and the other places we found either looked very sus, had already closed or didn't have anything interesting on the menu for an agreeable poorfag-verified price. So we drove back to Rauhalahti, defeated and disappointed... Until we remembered that there was a Scan Burger grill at the spa. And the prices were affordable joten läskeiltiin. :D Gotta give my respect to the customer service guy (I think he was the chef too), he was so chill and funny and the food was really good too! 10/10 worth it.

After eating we jumped into the spa again and just relaxed there until it closed and then we went back up to our room.

I finally found the Käärijä drink!

It was so nice to come back up after melting away in the hot pool and the jacuzzi. We had some drinks and I tasted the Cha Cha Cha pina colada for the first time and I gotta say it was pretty tasty – it's quite soda-like and mild but you can still clearly taste the pina colada flavor. Of course a proper pina colada is better but this was very refreshing and bubbly and I would buy it again.

Sunday morning came and I was dead once more. Luckily a trip down to the breakfast buffet makes me temporarily human again. No Karen this time, thank god. Although there was a kid screaming for full lungs and I'm not sure how much better that is lol.

Once we were done eating we returned to the room to finish packing our bags for departure. And had another energy drink. We decided to leave the room a bit earlier as we needed to be at the con 11:30 anyway as I wanted to attend the Tolkuton Plays Muumimetallia music program. We ran into Sallukka and Don and the former was a sweetheart and helped me reserve a spot for the Moomin metal as I did not have Kompassi logins and was a bit paniccc as it had not been informed that one needed a ticket, thank you. ;_; 

But we were a bit early still and needed to kill some time and this was when Sallukka told us about the Lumit building, which held the actual Artist's Alley and the video game room, and so we rushed over there. Luckily it was super close, almost behind the main building.

 

Nerd alert! No but really, people played TCGs here.

Lumit is not a really spacious building, there was like one open area for all the TCG and board game enthusiasts with video games towards the wall and the other half of the area was occupied by the Artist's Alley. I was very happy in my geeky little heart to see how Nekocon had amassed quite a large variety of both new and old game consoles!

The right corner was for newer game consoles...

... while the left corner was for the beloved old-timers!

I was tempted to play a few rounds of oldie goldies but it was a quite popular activity and I didn't have a lot of time before the concert would begin so I let that nostalgic desire fade out for now and went to check what the artists were selling.

Beginning of the Artist's Alley in Lumit.

Other half of Artist's Alley.

I gotta say the air circulation in Lumit was a lot better than upstairs where the Artisan's Alley was in the main building; I didn't feel like I was running out of air and my clothes were sticking like glue to my skin. There were both new and familiar faces among the sellers and there was a pleasant vibe going on.

The clock was nearing 11:30 and I had to extract myself from my company and run to watch the Moomin metal show. I was the only one who wanted to see it (Sallukka and Don had seen the debut at another con; this was Tolkuton's second gig I think) because the others preferred to go to the guest of honor Seppo Pääkkönen's lecture about his voice-acting career.

Tolkuton to the left and Hevimuikkunen (as Hobgoblin) to the right.

MÖRKÖ! Every Finnish kid's nightmare fuel.

Tolkuton is a charismatic and funny guy and this is his one-man music project, as in that he's the only musician. Hevimuikkunen was there to make it interactive, whimsy fun and he would set the mood by appearing and disappearing in different iconic Moomin character-inspired costumes for every song – we got to see Snufkin of course, the Groke, a burglar Stinky and the Hobgoblin along with a few others. It was quite ambitious and I found the whole number entertaining and full of heart. 

Tolkuton would most usually wield his electric guitar but he would use a keyboard a few times too. Of course, because Tolkuton is the only musician, it meant that there was a pre-recorded tape that he would jam along to but it worked sufficiently well and you gotta give props to his stage presence and ambition. He would interact with the audience between the songs too and I swear to god he sounded a bit like Allu Tuppurainen's Rölli character a few times. x) I would say the whole spectacle was like 70% show and 30% music as Hevimuikkunen stole the show as you'd sit there and eagerly await what his next act would be – the Witch 'Clarissa' in spicy high heels and a corset with a C3PO face mask or a massive inflatable Hattifattener with crudely drawn eyes billowing up with the help of an air fan and then having said Hevimuikkunen in witchy drag violently puncturing it with a broom. You never knew what kind of wacky shit was coming next and that was the best part of the show. XD

The only slight gripe I had was that there was a discrepancy in the Nekocon information booklet about how long the show would last – the actual visualized schedule showed 11:30 to 12:00 while the program info said 11:30 to 12:30, but the show actually went overtime and didn't finish until 13:00. Personally I didn't mind much as I wasn't in a hurry to another panel or lecture, but for those who had other programs lined up it might have been a headache.

Once I came out from the Concert Hall I waited around a bit for Sallukka, Don and Firith to resurface from the Seppo Pääkkönen experience. Apparently it was amazing. 

We had one hour to kill before Bardic Inspiration would start, another music program. 

Bardic Inspiration!

I realized my expectations were soooo off the mark the second I stepped into Kamarimusiikkisali. I don't know why I even thought it was realistic but I was expecting like a ragtag bunch of people in LARP costumes rolling into the scene with hurdy gurdys, cellos and mandolins lmao. Instead we got a lady with a gorgeous voice in a red dress and a pianist. Not what I expected but a high-quality performance nonetheless! 

I gotta say though that I was quite disappointed because in the information booklet it mentioned Monster Hunter but not a single song from said franchise was performed (and that was lowkey the main reason I attended). :'( I didn't know over half of the songs but the singer was so good that it didn't really matter tbh. My favorites were Snake Eater from Metal Gear Solid and Weight of the World from NieR: Automata, neither of which I was previously familiar with.

Bardic Inspiration only lasted for roughly 30 minutes, as scheduled, and once it wrapped up it was time for me to leave Nekocon behind. Big thanks to Sallukka for providing the car ride back home as we live in neighboring towns. <3 The Škoda was so much better to sleep in than mom's Nissan lol!

Shit, I forgot! Here's my con loot:

Archon Zhongli charm by qpeura, Alhaitham and the
orca I'm sorry but I don't remember. ;-;

These two prints and the above same chara charms all by si3art.

 

To sum it up my experience with Nekocon was very positive. I might not have spent a lot of time at the con but the time I did spend was very enjoyable. The buildings were utilized well and the overall feeling and mood of the con was safe and pleasant. I also appreciate that there were not one but two music programs as I'm not too interested in traditional panels, lectures, AMV competitions etc but will likely jump at any concerts! This means I had something to look forward to aside from just hanging out and meeting friends. I would definitely consider attending Nekocon in the future too, especially if it stays in Kuopio as it's not too far south, hehe.

Thanks for reading, have a great upcoming weekend!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Nekocon 2023 cosplans!

Hello everyone!

I will be attending my first Nekocon this year. The decision to go started rather spontaneously but after Kummacon I've had that convention spark reignited and yeah, I'm trying to catch up with this old passion and get back in the weeb crafting groove!

Nekocon is a two-day con in Kuopio, Finland. I had quite the struggle bus experience trying to come up with what to cosplay at first because few of my older cosplays are currently wearable without repairs and I'm not in the mood to fix anything up right now. Besides, after all these years I kinda wanted to make a new costume. So yeah, after a lot of flip-flopping between cosplay candidates I ran out of gas and turned to my friends for some hivemind activation! I was then reminded by Nekocon's cosplay theme, 'nostalgy'. That's such a good theme, would be a shame not to use it!

So what is my cosplay then? 

– It's the sus hat guy. 

Character: Kisuke Urahara

Series: Bleach

This started as a half-assed suggestion, kinda. Yet it hit the right requirement buttons and thus it stuck. I mean, I'm far from updated on Bleach (I've read up to maybe the middle of the Arrancar arc, don't judge) but a lot of my first cosplays when I started were Bleach characters and yeah, the series is nostalgic to me and probably for many others too. :) And Urahara is a pretty cool guy so why not? Especially because I remembered that aeons ago I bought his hat from I think Närcon, just for fun, and now I could use it for an actual cosplay! I also wanted to make something easy (to ease back into sewing after a long break) and, most importantly, something heatwave friendly. And on top of all that I needed a costume that I could complete in a week, at most, because that's the time I had available.

Spoiler alert — the cosplay is finished but I'm going to be away from home until the Nekocon weekend so yeah, the WIP post will be posted after the con summary! 

I thought about a second cosplay too but due to my long traveling and other reasons I felt like nahh, not worth the hassle as I likely won't be at the con for many hours on Sunday before the trip back up north starts. So yeah, only one cosplay for me this time boo but at least it's something new and something I won't be stir-fried alive in! Hopefully, hehe...

That's all folks! See you at Nekocon~