Mericon 2026 – My first Artist Alley tabling experience!

Hello everyone!

I'm back home from the latest iteration of Mericon and oh boy, what a trip it was! So Mericon was held on the 1st August 2026 in Rauma's main library, as usual. This is the fourth time it's arranged and I've been attending every single one to date, mainly because I've been a part of the organizers and work force, although this year I took a step back and did something different – namely my first experience tabling at Artist Alley! With that said this will be an ever so slightly different con summary because I did not have, well, my usual freedom to roam around. :'D 

With that said, let's go~

My sneaky pre-con table prep.. 

My Mericon journey started already on Wednesday morning when mom and stepdad drove us down and dropped off me and Firith at Eura while they continued towards Turku harbor to take the ferry over to Stockholm. I spent a few days at Firith's parents' place and then on Friday we got a ride down to our booked hotel in Rauma, which was called Cityhovi.
I was unlucky to get motion sickness during the trip from Eura to Rauma (roughly 35 km) in Firith's dad Pekka's car – motion sickness is nothing new to me but the weird part of this is that I normally pretty much never get motion sickness in ordinary cars, just buses and sometimes trains; I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I've got motion sickness in a car before! But yeah, I was not prepared for this sudden surprise that's why I hadn't had the forethought to sit in front and yeah, I was feeling pretty sick but tried to keep it to myself as I felt awkward about bringing it up. Once we arrived at the hotel we quickly checked in and left our stuff in the room and then we headed to the library. Our presence was needed for some final Mericon preparation stuff and after that I got the A-OK by the other organizers to go and put up parts of my table setup to make the upcoming morning less chaotic.

Due to me arriving from so far away and with very limited luggage space (we had to fit the suitcases and other items of four people in a single car..) I couldn't bring my originally intended Artist Alley setup, which included one of those black grid displays. Instead I had to come up with whatever makeshift items I could scavenge from Pekka's old storage – and that ended up being a literal drawer. I just needed something stable to lean my keychain board on that would also function as something I could keep my money box and other personal items hidden in. Sometimes you really have to get creative... :-DD

With the preparations done we walked back to the hotel and lounged there for a couple hours before it was time to head to the bus station to meet up with my good old friend erikavonmars, who was coming all the way from Spain to spend the weekend with us! She had taken a bus from Kuhmoinen earlier on the day and was set to arrive at around 19:10 and we figured we'd meet her up to help her navigate Rauma, which was a completely unfamiliar town to her. We had booked different accommodations but Rauma's centrum is rather compact so everything we needed was within walking distance, including our dinner options! Our original plan was to go eat sushi, once all three of us were together, but we realized that the place we had been eyeing was on the verge of closing (inconsistent times on Google Maps and website..) and so we had to come up with a plan B. This ended up being our lucky strike as while I was scrolling on the aforementioned Google Maps what was nearby I happened to press on this restaurant called 2 Kundia and I'm the type to always check photos and reviews before I go to eat anywhere and well, I saw a whole Super Nintendo next to a food table, omfg?!? Needless to say that's where we headed because what self-respecting 90s gamer passes on a restaurant that has retro games available? I'm going there even if the food costs a mortgage and a kidney, as long as I can play lol.

Amazing burgers and fries! 

Once we walked into the place I was blown away! It was like a time capsule to the 80s and 90s – there were old super hero comic posters and official retro game posters and memorabilia everywhere, real arcade machines and yes, a Super Nintendo and a mini NES. Not to mention that the place itself was super cozy with this kind of living room meets rustic taverna vibe! The best part is that the food wasn't even expensive, it was in fact pretty affordable (aka middle-of-the-road standard pricing) for being such a special restaurant! 
I ordered a halloumi burger and after everyone else also had ordered we quickly grabbed the table next to the Super Nintendo, as it was available, and played some Super Mario All-Stars while we waited for the food to come. The burger was so good, it had a nice spicy sauce and was just a delight to eat. Very good flavors and it wasn't fatty or dry at all! Eikä tullut edes ähkyä. :D I also liked the fries and the ranch creme dip! But yeah, we weren't in a hurry anywhere and so after finishing the burgers we decided to continue hanging out and ordered some drinks. And then some more drinks, especially when I happened to see that they had Super Mario World available – I didn't know at first that they had it because it wasn't mentioned, I thought there was only Donkey Kong Country and Street Fighter II until I went to ask to change the game and the lady at the desk happened to have it in her hand while she searched for All-Stars (we had Street Fighter II on at the time). When I saw it in her hand my brain short-circuited. I have spent like forever, no joke, checking every video game room at conventions for Super Mario World, no one ever had it. And now here it was, in a random restaurant bar we had decided to enter.

A fun night was had. I still remembered the secrets. ;_;

It's crazy how memory works. It's been like 20 something years since I last played any of these childhood gems (I haven't had access to our family SNES since big sister had it with her where she lived abroad, it was technically hers) and the moment I saw those stages again something just kicked in. It was absolutely magical, like being transported back to that time when I'd sit upstairs in our old home and just play and play until I knew everything inside and out.

We were kinda lucky because when we were eating a line had formed to the desk, meaning we arrived just in time to secure one of the game console tables. :') Like I still can't believe that it was available for free and the controllers were in crazy good condition too, no worn-out flimsy buttons! There was a group of guys who came a bit after us who went to the table with the NES and I kept hearing how one of them was looking to play Castlevania but they eventually settled on Mega Man. Ah, the sounds of my people~

We stayed there for a bit over 4 hours in total, the clock was almost midnight (aka closing time) by the time we headed out, or well, me and Firith – erikavonmars had left a bit earlier as she wanted to have time to go grab some chocolate from a store before it closed.
It was very cozy to walk through Old Rauma at night, it is an Unesco world heritage site after all. Once we got back to our room it was time to shower and go sleep. But of course we were both still a bit too wired to sleep so we opened up the windows of the room to indulge in some free live music as the Poppi Pauhaa festival (sister festival to Rokki Raikaa) was ongoing almost just outside our hotel; opening our room's windows was enough to hear the music decently, hihi. Besides we needed to keep the windows open anyway since there was no air conditioning. Rauma's hotels are weird because almost none seem to have AC that we've been to, are all the buildings so old or what? :D

Oh well, I'm pretty sure that the long gaming session helped calm my nerves somewhat because I know for a fact I had been tense and nervous that whole day until we stepped into that restaurant. I also appreciated getting to hear Portion Boys and especially the Kyläbaari song. Yes it was stuck in my head for the next 24 hours lmao!

We got some Spanish energy drink as gifts! Pärr pärr

I slept decently well considering my sleeping difficulties and the awful lower back pains I've had the past few days due to too soft mattresses not supporting my spine during sleep. Hypermobility is fun, yay. One of the previous nights was so bad I almost couldn't get out of bed. Thankfully the hotel had a firm bed so at least I woke up with less pain than the previous morning. What wasn't as nice was the awful nausea I now suddenly had piling up at record speed due to anxiety and nervosity of the upcoming Artist Alley tabling – the nausea was so bad I felt like I'd throw up fr.
The hotel breakfast opened at 8:00 so we only had roughly one hour before I needed to be at the con setting up the rest of my table. I had to force myself to eat at least some breakfast because it would be a long day. My breakfast was some yoghurt with berries and a handful of grapes. 

Mericon had a pirate theme this year and that of course meant that I went dressed as a swashbuckling seafarer! This meant no cosplay and it was for the better, I mean it would have been way too much with all the stress I already had on my plate to put on a cosplay. I have really poor stress regulation and that's why I had decided to keep my outfit as simple and comfy as possible, to minimize the mental strain I knew would be present.

Mericon entrance once the doors were open.

Because Firith was part of the work force –and I was part of the Artist Alley– we were let in through the side entrance. The con wasn't officially open to the public yet. We went to put up the rest of my table together and I did appreciate the help because I was more of a nervous wreck than I visibly let on. We managed to get the table ready a few minutes before Mericon's doors were opened to the public, phew! Luckily we had done a quick try-out on a kitchen table a few days before the con so yeah, we had a general idea on how to place all items lol. You can see a short video clip of my completed table setup here.  

Mericon program list and map.

I don't think it's that noticeable but the photos are taken with my phone instead of my usual SLR camera, the reason being that I had to save space and minimize luggage as much as possible; we weren't planning on having any photoshoots and I wasn't the cosplay competition photographer anymore so bringing the camera wasn't necessary this year.

The library's info desk, which was Mericon's info desk too.

If you've read any of my previous Mericon summaries, especially the first ones, you'd know that Mericon actually started as Firith's school project that ended up becoming an annual anime convention. Since the very first Mericon Rauma's librarians (along with some outsiders like me, heh) are the actual workforce of the event – usually cons are arranged by volunteers, who are hobbyists within said subculture themselves, so having a library host (in conjunction with the town itself, of course) isn't quite as common, although not unheard of! I just adore how the library workers got so invested that they collectively decided to keep arranging Mericon after the first one. ;_; 

We had a new lobster friend. c:

Sadly I can't tell so much about the event itself since I was sitting at my table for almost the entire duration of the con but, roughly speaking, it seemed to have approximately the same amount of attendants and the overall vibe was relaxed and cozy. Mericon has always been a free entrance event so that helps keep the barrier to entry low and we see a nice variety of age groups checking it out, on top of the library's ordinary customers because the library was open for the general public at the same time as Mericon was happening. 

The library's "aula", aka main hall.

Another view of the main hall.

Just next to the info desk you could find the artisan tables, basically Artist Alley but for the more established art businesses. On previous years there used to be a few dealers in this space, like the local Pelivaari, but this year there were only artists so I can't really call this space by the common Dealer's Hall name, lol. I'm not sure what exactly to call it but you get the gist by looking at the images. :D

I personally didn't have time to browse these sellers but I know I will bump into them again at other cons in the future so it's okay! 

This was my view 95% of the con's duration. 
Follow me at @kaamoswolf

Regarding my first Artist Alley experience it... was a lot. I was so nervous but I tried to play it cool ahaha! I've always been really introverted and anxious and have a tendency to overthink everything and yeah, one of my biggest fears is being misunderstood and ostracized to the point I have to try really hard not to overexplain everything hello trauma compounded by neurodivergent struggles. ;_; Like I try to put on a happy, joking side but trust I'm a mess of crippling anxiety inside trying to decode social cues like it's a minefield I don't have a chart for. It felt like constant mindgames trying to figure out who to greet early so they don't think you're disinterested and/or dismissive of their presence and who to let browse in peace so you don't scare them away by interacting. I personally like to have the artist nod or greet me when I browse (but if they launch into a sales pitch I'm gone lol) but I understand everyone's different and it can be really overwhelming. I really like connecting with people over shared fandoms and interests though and if you're goofy I will match your goof level!
I did genuinely enjoy the experience though and I met some really fun and wonderful people. In hindsight I wish I would have asked their socials, especially this one fursuiter, but I hope I will run into them again someday. ;_; Everyone who interacted with me and said nice things about my art really made my day and gave me confidence to continue! It was one hell of a fire test to see if I can manage tabling and especially the business and social aspects that comes with it in-person (I'm disabled, to put it simply).

I gotta say though that I'm very relieved that I didn't go in costume because I was already baking in just my pirate gear! Good thing I have a habit of always bringing a fan with me so that I can keep myself cool but during the first hours I was totally sweating my ass off! It was probably my nerves doing their part of amplification but by heavens did I feel self-conscious because my loose shirt got these random sweat stains wherever it was touching my skin and I just wanted to disappear lol! I didn't even have makeup on, aside from some crude eyeliner (someone forgot his makeup sponges..) and I guess that's for the better because my makeup would have been a greasy shiny pool on the floor otherwise. When I say I can't handle stress I mean it in every way possible, starting from dysautonomia...

The entrance to Artist Alley.

Most of the time I was alone at my table handling everything but since erikavonmars was free (not part of the workforce unlike Firith whom was constantly running errands) she would pop in to watch over my table a few times throughout the day so that I could have my much needed toilet breaks and do other necessary things I needed to do, including taking all these photos for the summary lol. I also ended up being an additional judge to the drawing contest again (so many entries!) and yeah, it's so nice to have friends who will step up to help so that I could also experience the con, even if just a little!

Mmm sininen rullatorttu~

Bought it from the cafeteria that was open during the con.

Firith gave me a leftover coupon so that I could buy something small to eat during the con as we had forgot to grab edibles that I could munch on at my table. It's somehow almost ironic that the one time I forget to bring snacks it's the time when I would have needed them as I couldn't freely go and grab some whenever the crash came knocking at the door. xD I mean usually I always have a bag of candies or something spinning around at the bottom of my bag! Sokerihiiri sanoo terve. :'D Or well, technically we had those Spanish energy drinks but I was worried that I would need to urgently run to the bathroom if  I drank one (although I was tempted) because caffeine tend to have a very, khrm, effective bowel-emptying effect on me. I have chronic gastrointestinal problems and tend to be vary if I know I don't have easy access to bathrooms. Or well, technically I could just go, if absolutely necessary, but I didn't want to leave my table unattended.

General view of Mericon. Youth section of the library.

Here you could play PS4 or just play around.

While erikavonmars watched my table I did a quick walk around the con and snapped all these photos and yeah, Mericon looked like itself! Most things were similar to previous years with small differences in decorations and a few activity placements have varied throughout the year (like where the badge/pin workshop is located) but hey, why fix something that works? I really like how the vibe has remained the same throughout the years, even though Mericon is slowly growing its presence – at least based on that the followers on their Instagram account seem to rise a bit every year.

A local children's organization had made pirate stuff!

I gotta say that the decorations made by Satakunnan Lastenliitto were so cute – they were located near the info desk in a glass display and there were treasure maps, a message in a bottle, hand-drawn money bills, parrot artworks and other piratey stuff made by local kids. This was such an adorable addition that I wasn't expecting at all and I really like the idea of collaborating and bringing attention to local welfare groups like this!

The obligatory fishnet. I think Mericon has had a fishnet somewhere every year? XD

One thing I noticed was that the photography spot, aka that bright turquoise background fabric, had moved to a different spot again – this time it was located just outside that glass cube space where the kids were playing. I didn't get to see it in action but I did stumble upon this older lady who was the new cosplay photographer and it was actually a pretty funny encounter! So the story goes that she had, unbeknown to both of us at the time, randomly come over to my table to talk and we ended up chatting about everything from social injustices to personal style and then at some point she said something like "so I was asked to step in as the photographer since the old photographer is a seller somewhere" and then I was like record-scratching noises "THAT'S ME, I WAS THE PHOTOGRAPHER OLOLOLMAO" and we had a good laugh at the revelation. xD We had been talking for a good many minutes before we put the pieces together but it was positively hilarious when it clicked for us that we had been bonding before even knowing who we were talking to! She had a great energy and I hope she will go on to attend cons in the future too; it seemed like she found her people by chance and was thriving. Bless her heart, it's never too late to explore new communities!

From above view towards the stage (to the far left).

Upstairs view. You could read manga here among other things.

It felt a tiny bit weird to not be involved in the organizing stuff this year much at all, aside from the drawing contest judging and some tiny inputs, haha. This was also the first year I didn't have a worker badge but emotionally I was one of the crew still! I could still use the personnel toilet when the ordinary ones were occupied... xD #kakkaedut

The guest book and feedback forms were back!

This year Mericon ended one hour earlier than the previous years, at 16:00. I personally felt like this was a good change as the last hour tended to be a bit quiet the previous years when people were leaving early to catch their buses and whatnot. A five hours runtime feels very balanced for a chill one-day event and I would approve this change going forward as it never got boring and I don't personally feel like the con being one hour shorter took anything substantial away from it. *thumbs up* 

I was happy to notice that during the last 15 or so minutes people still came to the Artist Alley to do some last minute purchases. There were a handful of quiet traffic moments during the con's runtime, mainly during the popular programs like the K-pop dances and the cosplay contest. I felt weirdly emotional when some of the library workers came to buy from me at the last minutes because they personally wanted to support me after all the years we've been in this pond together. ;_;
My best sellers ended up being the silly Pokémon stickers, which I had pretty much expected since they're humorous (leaning into dark humor) and at a low price point. 

Once the clock struck 16:00 I started packing up my table and both Firith and erikavonmars came over to help make it smoother. We were done rather quickly (despite me fumbling because I had forgot where I put certain ziplock bags lol) and loaded our stuff into Pekka's car, whom had come together with Firith's brother Hermanni a bit before closing time to help us load all the stuff back into the car. Filling the car went rather smoothly and then we three were dropped off at a sushi place nearby to go eat dinner while Pekka and Hermanni went to Motonet and other shopping errands.

I was hungry. Sushi was good.

I ate too much. Oh my god I was so full.. but everyone knows that if you go to a buffet you eat the whole money's worth lol! The banana ice cream was banging though. This was the Tokio Sushi place we had planned to visit originally on the first day by the way, it was worth a visit. It's the same place we grabbed a takeaway sushi box from during last Mericon. :D

Once we were done eating we went outside to take one last friend group selfie (pirate edition) next to some nice old building and then it was time to part ways since erikavonmars had one more night left in Rauma while me and Firith had to leave, as we had to take the train back home on the following day. It would have been great to spend more time together but at least we're gonna see each other again before too long – yes, we have already planned the next con outing together!

Arr me mateys!

I sat in front on the drive back to Eura and the motion sickness was thus averted. Once we got back we counted our earnings after decompressing and the rest of the day floated by in a sort of brain fog, for me at least. I don't know what exactly triggered it (post-stress reactions?) but I had a really uncomfortable nauseous feeling that was very intent on not going away lol. It felt like this constant creeping nausea that just wouldn't go away no matter if I drank water, lied down, went to sauna or did basically anything to alleviate it – it was this constant feeling of having something in my throat and trying to "force air out" (I dunno how to explain but that thing you do when you try to get trapped air out when bloated etc) felt like it would be immediately met with stomach acid? This feeling lasted throughout the night and long into the next day, probably close to 48 hours. 
I was struggling to eat and it was straight up awful going to bed because I was scared I'd choke if I threw up while unconscious. Every position was uncomfortable, I didn't really know what to do; I was scared it was something heart-related because I have a genetic predisposition to those kinds of issues down the line. Eventually I figured it's maybe some kind of stress-induced heartburn... yay, didn't know I had this shit in my bingo card too. :)) Gotta catch 'em all. Or something.

Harjavalta train station. So old-school.

On Sunday we took the train back up to Kemi and beyond. We got a ride to Harjavalta during the day and had a train change at Tampere. I managed to grab a kilo(!!) of super cheap raisins from the ResQ app while we waited for the connecting train, lol. I was still feeling that nauseous feeling throughout the vast majority of the train trip so it wasn't the smoothest ride ever but at least I managed to get food down at this point, although the food in question was chanterelle chips and a green smoothie. Sometimes I wish my body would work normally even just once in a while... :'(

I think that's all I have to say about my Mericon journey, it was a great experience despite the physical and mental tolls I had to go through, both before and after the con, due to my dysregulated nervous system. I absolutely do not regret anything though and all things considered this was a very safe event to test my limits at (probably the safest I could get ngl) and try new opportunities! Everyone was so kind to me and none of my fears came through during my tabling hours either. ;_; I'm kinda always prepared for something bad to happen, like a bad encounter or some such but every interaction was kind and respectful. I have decided to continue being an art vendor, although I will keep my appearances at events low for now so that I have time to acclimatize. So yeah, know that I will be a limited edition artist for now... or should I say SSR as they do in gachas?

I'm very happy that Mericon is still going strong and I like the concept of hosting events at libraries particularly much as it promotes the library itself (reading human-written books is more important now than ever!) as well as being a very low-barrier entry event for those who need it. This type of smaller events are a great starting point to try something new, whether it be participating in the cosplay competition or being a first-time seller. I would absolutely encourage more cities to host conventions in libraries as libraries are sadly very underrated public spaces and yet one of the most important ones for humanity – if you know you know. But yeah, support your local library and yada yada~

Thank you for reading and thank you to everyone who attended!
Shiro Samurai out~

Kemin mangapäivä 2026 – Buttons, butts and bubble teas

 Hello there!

Kemin mangapäivä (aka Kemi's manga day) was held this past Saturday, on 7th March, for the second time since its revival from a decade of hibernation. Of course I was dragged went there to show my support for a local anime event and yeah, I was kinda needed as manpower too.

Let's get on with the report!

Event poster. Mascot by Nette Nikula.

I woke up early as heck on Saturday morning and mom drove me to Kemi, where I arrived roughly around 9:30. I didn't post any cosplay plans prior to the con because I wasn't set on what to cosplay and yeah, decided to just go with whatever mood I had on the actual day. I ended up choosing the comfiest, most low effort cosplay I had and packed my jedi robes with me.

When I arrived at Kulttuurikeskus, aka the con building, Firith let me in as the doors were still locked. I almost immediately went upstairs to put on my costume and after that I prepared our items for the Matsukirppis (second-hand shop hosted by Matsucon's crew), which mainly meant putting on pre-printed price tags. There were some small chats here and there to make sure all the volunteer crew knew what to do and soon enough the doors were open to the public!

Entrance view feat. Artist Alley.

Some more artist tables and a hoers~

Even though I was a worker I didn't have a specific job schedule or anything, I was mostly a stand-in to help Sanna with the pin workshop, which was a drop-in activity where anyone could make button pins – it was really popular last year and, err, a helper was requested for this year and that helper was me. :'D Some people might remember that I hosted the drawing room last year and well, due to our immense shortage of staff it had to be one or the other and yeah, that's the reason why the drawing room was reduced to a drawing corner and also why there was no drawing contest this year. Simply not enough crew you can count all of us on one hand pretty much and we had to prioritize.

Entrance to Kohtaamo, aka where the pin workshop and other activities were.

Sanna did the first hour or so of the pin workshop while I was free to explore, which mainly meant checking the Artist Alley. It was fun and giving to talk to all the different artists, everyone was so lovely! The clock was roughly 11:00 at this point and while I was browsing the artist tables the first colorful visitors had started to show up, which is always so nice to see. Me and Firith ran around taping Mangapäivä advertisement posters all over Kemi and Tornio and even all the way to Seskarö island in Sweden just a couple weeks before so yeah, it's always a relief to see that people actually knew about the event and we didn't do a lot of work for nothing. xD 

One thing that I couldn't help but notice was the boba tea stand! I had heard from my friends that there's a freshly opened bubble tea shop in Kemi centrum and it was so nice to see them having a booth at the event to promote their new shop! The actual shop is located at the market square area and I heard it was very popular during the Mangapäivä hours; they had to redirect customers to the shop because they kept running out of boba and also because they didn't have all the different flavors available on-site. There was this dude who had to run between the two locations to resupply the Mangapäivä boba booth with more drinks whenever the stash emptied!

MiSu boba's flavors. Yum!

I talked quite a bit with the owners and they were so friendly and genuinely passionate about what they were doing. Seems like it's a small-scale family business run by two young siblings and their mom and dad for support. Honestly a super wholesome bunch, I really hope they succeed! Can't tell y'all how happy I am to finally have a bubble tea shop closer than fucking 100 kilometers away. xD Especially now that the quality has dropped in the boba shop in Oulu since they changed names...

I had time to drink my strawberry boba in peace before it was time to set Sanna free and take over the workshop so she could go explore. But before I could roll in I had to get acquainted with the pin machine, which meant I had to make a prototype pin myself so that I could handle the machine and do pins for all the kids and visitors. You see, the pin workshop was always supervised by an adult and that meant that either I or Sanna took care of the machine – to keep the workshop running smoothly and to avoid anyone hurting themselves. The machine is entirely manual and works by pulling some levers and turning a metallic part around that you put the pin's upper and lower halves onto, including the artwork and a plastic sheet. It's hard to explain but it was quite easy to use once you got the hang of it, just had to be careful to memorize all steps (aka make sure you do them in the right way and in the right order) or you'd mess up and that would suck because you'd then ruin something that someone put time and effort into drawing and/or coloring and I'd hate myself for making a child sad. :'( I had to keep my anxiety at bay because yeah, I was so scared of ruining someone's artwork but luckily only one mistake happened and it was entirely the machine's fault, not mine. It's an old machine and sometimes it will have a hiccup even if the user does everything correctly...

Pin workshop with Sanna sitting at the edge.

Matsukirppis and Matsucon's organization booth.

On the photo above to the far right you can see the drawing corner – despite its shrunken size it was quite popular. Mangapäivä didn't have any panels or organized meetups this year so yeah, aside from the cosplay competition there wasn't any scheduled activities to keep track of. The activities that were available were the pin workshop, the drawing corner, a photo booth (what is 'kuvauspiste' called in English??) and there was also a Nintendo Switch one could use for free in the library's youth room, aka the same room in the back where the drawing room was last year. Matsukirppis, drawing corner and pin workshop were all in the Kohtaamo area btw so yeah, it was busy in there!

Guest book. I continued the Buttman tradition huehuehue~

Working at the pin workshop was actually surprisingly enjoyable. It was fun to see all the different personal drawings and statements people did – I mean I saw everything ranging from Kemi's city hall to boobs so how can I even begin to complain about creativity? The youth will be fine. And there's a resurgence of yaoi and yuri fans omfg. Me vanhukset muistamme.

General view. Kyösti's cafe was open and you could even get ramune!

I ran into some familiar faces too like Joni and Sallukka of course but also my former study counsellor Kaisu from back when I studied at Lappia AMK! It was so nice to see her again because yeah, it's been ages and we used to play Ingress and Pokémon Go many years ago and eat kebab together haha, fun times. She's retired now and seemed to be in good spirits, here's to hoping I'll see her more often in the future!

Once the clock was nearing 14:00 I waddled my way to the auditorium upstairs to go watch the cosplay competition. I planted my ass on a chair relatively far away from the stage which, in hindsight, maybe wasn't the best idea because the music came from the back and it was quite loud, which made it a bit hard to hear what the hosts were saying in the front. It wasn't terribly overpowering or anything but yeah, just an idea for an improvement next time because it was distracting and my neurospicy brain can't focus when there's conflicting sounds.

All contestants on stage.

As one can expect from such a small event's cosplay competition there's not gonna be a lot of entries and it's also gonna be a very short and simple show consisting of a catwalk ('lavajuoksut' as we say in Finnish) and posing and then the winners were announced. No big spectacles, intermissions or acts. Of course all the contestants were pre-judged before the competition even started – Firith and Sallukka were the judges. I was asked if I wanted to judge before the con but it was later deemed that I was better needed elsewhere because yeah, event's short on personnel and two judges were sufficient for this scope.

I think it's very important that we have these lower threshold competitions mixed in with the big ones. With small competitions the primary focus is usually to get experience and stage confidence and it's not necessarily a must to have made all parts of your costume yourself to even be able to enter. Not every contest needs to lead to high-stakes qualifiers and global championships. We need to make sure there's still a place for shy beginners to dip their feet in without overwhelming performance pressure crushing them at the doorstep.

General view.

With the cosplay competition over we were down to the last minutes of the event. I was very happy with how the day had gone and yeah, it's so nice to know that our efforts bore fruit once again and was appreciated. I might not have had the biggest hand in arranging this event but yeah, I've been there beneath the curtains helping with what I could and providing some much needed moral and emotional support to the main organizer. Huzzah!

Kääk! (inside the library, which was open normally during the event)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that at some point, when I was inside the library, Olli (spoiler alert: he's the singer of local metal band Dethropia), who was manning the desk, suddenly asked me in Finnish if I'm Jesus while I was in my unspecified aka random jedi outfit. xD I assumed he was being cheeky and referencing to that one famous Star Wars photo meme that's been floating around the internet if you know, you know and I was like "naaaahh not exactly" lolol! It was all just really silly fun even though it came out of left lane. Random moments are the best!

Random jedi patrolling. (photo: Firith)

Once the con day was over Firith went to grab our unsold items from the Matsukirppis and soon after I went back upstairs to the changing rooms and swapped back into my everyday clothes. Changing out of costume was extremely quick since I had no wig nor makeup or anything – I mean, the level of can't-be-arsedness I felt on the morning was high due to massive sleep deprivation lol. I got a ride back to mom's place where I then had the first grillikota grilled foods of the year and muurikka pancakes for dessert, heck yeah! A great ending to a great day.

Bonus pic: my beautiful button pin. 

With everything else pretty much already said I want to mention before I go that yes, the surprise announcement that was made during the end of the cosplay competition is true – there's a bigger event arriving in Kemi in 2027. ;) I might have something to do with it... *whistles innocently*

Thank you to everyone I interacted with! Thank you for reading!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

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