Matsucon 2026 – Emotionally invested in a cake, I was

 Hello geeks!

I was at Matsucon earlier this month during 8-9 August and, well, I'm not gonna lie, I ended up getting sucked into Genshin Impact (I was catching up on the main story; I was in the beginning of Nod-Krai and now I'm up to date in Snezhnaya lol) and that's why this summary comes a wee bit later than my usual post-con scheduling would be. Eheh.

Let's get on with it~!

Matsucon info booklet. (couldn't find a poster :D)

I've been to Matsucon for many years now so it hardly needs lengthy introductions at this point lolol. Once again Matsucon was held in Pohjankartano, a school building (and 'monitoimitalo' I guess, whatever that is in English) in Oulu, Finland. I live fairly close, roughly a one-hour train trip away so I tend to make it a point to go to Matsucon annually to support it and also because I really like Oulu as a city – it's comfy, pretty and there's a lot of nice restaurants and park areas etc.

Just like before I applied to be a volunteer worker because why not? Always a pleasure to safeguard that we get these events in the future too, I mean if no one gave their time to cons then there wouldn't be any cons! It's as simple as that. And besides, I think the Matsucon organizers are very friendly and accommodating to my needs and that makes me want to be a part of the team every year – I feel welcome and valued.
I applied to the video game room (last time was in 2023) and got in. I've never been denied a volunteer spot at any con by the way, which I think speaks for how needed every one of us is!

As per usual I traveled down by train to Oulu the day before, on Friday, with Firith as company. Our train left Kemi 17:00 and once we got to Oulu roughly one hour later the first thing we did was immediately walk over to Pohjankartano to drop off our flea market items and to grab our worker badges in advance. Or well, Firith was not a worker but a panelist (program host). Once that was done we walked to our hotel in centrum.. but not before I grabbed a cup of bubble tea on the go. xD We had booked a room at Sokos Hotel Arina, which is basically our mainstay hotel at this point. 
We didn't stay in the room for long before we went to a nearby foodstore and, uhh, that trip resulted in me buying an unhinged amount of pick and mix candy (or 'irtokarkit' as we say in Finnish) because there was a big sale and I saw a lot of candies I hadn't seen anywhere in ages. The sale price was the pre-inflation normal price too, which now felt super cheap in comparison. After that not-so-proud moment of mine we headed straight for pizza at Pablos. Ahh, coniruokavalio. :'D 
The rest of the night we watched some National Geographic, which is a tradition by now, and then we went to bed.

We woke up around 8 or something like that, I slept relatively okay when I take in account all the shoulder pains and stiffness I've had lately. Despite not having a cosplay to put on (I went in my ordinary clothes) it took us quite a while to get con-ready due to tiredness and I also had some lowkey nausea. I ended up missing the morning info briefing but that didn't matter much as we had already gotten instructions through email prior and yeah, I'm a familiar face to the game room manager so she knows I'm capable.

Matsucon outside view, the food truck was a new addition!

My first shift for the day would start at 14:00 so by the time we arrived at the con (at around 11:45) we still had a few hours of free time. Or well, Firith needed to go to prepare the Genshin Impact panel which would start at 12:00. I went there as emotional support and to take some photos; the contents of the panel were the same as on its first outing in Terucon last year. This was essentially a rerun. 

'Seuraava Potilas!' Genshin Impact panel.

The panel tackles themes of mental health and personality disorders and features these kind of lighthearted takes and what-ifs on what difficulties and diagnoses the game's characters could be battling with based on their personalities, backgrounds and such. It's an interesting concept and there's room for a lot of reflection, education and entertainment. I also happen to know that there's a second part planned for this one in the future with a new batch of characters~

The duration of the panel was roughly 30 minutes and after that we spent the remaining free time that I had on checking out the Dealer's Hall. Mainly because I had a custom order from Si3art that I wanted to go pick up.

Dealer's Hall viewed from above, aka the main area.

The Dealer's Hall is a mix of artisans (which are basically those artists who have outgrown the Artist Alley, usually they run established businesses) and vendors like Manga Cafe and the guest of honor Nako Ichinose's booth. For those unaware the latter is a Japanese musician (singer, songwriter, and pianist).
Mastucon has always had the different vendors located in the large main hall, which means you see all the merchandise tables almost immediately upon entering the building. I like to think that this "instant shopping view" adds to how quickly my mind registers that I'm at an anime convention – it's like it speeds up the internal calibration process and gets me in the right mindspace faster lol!

Entrance to the video game room.

Before I knew it I had to head on over to the video game room to start my work shift; I would work 4 hours per day, meaning 8 hours in total during the duration of the con. I had one long shift per day, meaning I did all 4 hours in one go. Normally this length would be stressful and difficult to me to do in one sitting but as I'm already acclimatized to Matsucon's environment –and the gaming room is a very safe space for me (I know how consoles work due to my gamer background etc)– it's surprisingly doable because I guess my mind doesn't fully register it as "work" but more of a "be helpful and nice to other gamers and watch over the consoles" which is something I would do naturally in a home setting if I had a group of friends over anyway. The only thing that changes in the equation is that I don't know the people who come over to play and that I now have teammates to organize food and piss breaks with lol.

Video game room view.

Unlike the last time I volunteered at the gaming room this time the room was split by two different.. err, factions, I guess one could say? :D So Matsucon's gaming department, aka us, had three retro consoles available for use (a Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and Xbox One with retro games like Mega Man collections and The Secret of Monkey Island) while FGC Oulu provided the lion's share of the room in terms of more modern consoles with a sole focus on fighting games. It probably goes without saying that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was a popular choice throughout the day and often played on the big screen! Oh and yeah, there was an indie game dev group in the room too and you could playtest a very early version of their frog daycare game!

My work shift went without a hitch and I dare say I had pretty fun; my colleagues were nice to be around and it felt like I was a part of a merry mix of more-or-less strangers with a shared interest! During slower moments we'd talk about our experiences playing different games and Hannu would lorebomb me with Castlevania stuff and other fun facts of the gaming industry, including intricacies of the OG console war between Sega and Nintendo!

Before I knew it the clock was 18:00 and it was time to pull my ass off the chair and head back to the hotel as Matsucon was over for the day. I don't have a clear recollection of memories on what we did after the con but I know we were hungry at some point and that we went to McDonald's for dinner because our wallets were on a diet, not us. :') There's an economic reason for why I volunteer every year at Matsucon and that's to save on ticket costs lmao.
McDonald's had some new weird super green lemonade that we had to try no we're not easily affected by ads wdym but meh, it wasn't as good as we had hoped. :c It tasted a bit too synthetic for my liking. 

We went back to our hotel room after mäkkiöverit I maybe shouldn't eat a whole share box by myself next time lol and I was scrolling the ResQ app for any last-minute treats that were budget-friendly and in need of saving. Turns out that the lowkey luxurious cafeteria restaurant, that's literally on the opposite side of the hotel, had a pair of fancy apple and salted caramel cakes up. There was like 10 minutes left to nab them though before they were cooked (aka the whole place closed) and so me and my human appendages, which they also call legs, sprinted down the hallways and across the street to grab them because I was overcome by emotional investment and couldn't bear the thought of a perfectly good cake being binned because no one bought it within an arbitrarily imposed upon time frame. Yay for neurospicy hyper-sentimentality towards inanimate objects activating for a greater cause..? 

Rescued salted caramel cakes. So worth it. ;_;

By this time the clock was already getting quite late and so we ate the cakes (I can really recommend Ravintola Puistola's pastries, especially through the ResQ app to prevent unnecessary food waste at the end of the day!) and mindlessly watched the good ol' National Geographic for a bit before eventually going to bed. 

I'm not sure but I think we woke up around 8:00 in the following morning. We headed down for hotel breakfast and then it was time to pack our stuff and check out of the hotel because yeah, in almost every accommodation place you have to be out the door by 12:00 on departure day. But unlike our previous kermaperseily or well, mainly Firith's xD this time our overextended budget prevented us from calling a taxi to the con and so we walked with all our luggage to Pohjankartano. Thankfully the weather was in our favor, although the mental lagginess wasn't.

View towards the entrance feat. info desk and ticket sales point.

This time we had more free time to explore than what we had on Saturday because now we were actually early and none of us had any responsibilites until I had to go work at 12:00. This meant we could go and to our united Artist Alley run (it's more fun to browse with a friend!) and then just chill the rest of the time. 

I like how Matsucon is very upfront with the rules.

Browsing Artist Alley is one of my favorite pastimes at anime conventions and other such events because I like seeing art and creative joy come together in a shared space – I've always been a part of art communities since early adolescence and even though my spending possibilities are often really restricted I like supporting fellow artists even if it's just stickers for a couple euros. I also really enjoy interacting with people (even though sometimes I get really bad anxiety and don't know how to end a conversation or overthink and overanalyze everything I said for days after lol) and now that I've just had my first tabling experience myself I can see things from both sides a bit clearer – it is an interesting position to be in when you have experience of being both the customer and the seller.

Artist Alley view.

Another Artist Alley view.

Matsucon's Artist Alley is located on the two ends of the second floor, there's sufficient space to move around and browse, although it tends to get crowded during the initial opening and some popular hours. There was a nice variety of artists and products and I bought a few small items, mainly stickers and a wooden fridge magnet with a funny Magnemite art on it.
There were some small artists I hadn't seen in a good while and it was really nice to talk and bond with them, especially now that I'm also a part of the creator gang haha! 

General view of the main hall, as seen from the second floor.

Welp, eventually the clock would inch very close to 12:00 and that was my cue to make way towards the video game room. It was quite busy by the time I arrived but it simmered down within the first hour towards a relaxed lull of a pace. There were enough slow moments that I could sit down and game for my own entertainment, which was really pleasant and a great way to manage my own nervous system to avoid adverse stress reactions building up.

Finally someone had brought Super Mario World! 

I somehow can't help but find it a bit funny how I've spent years checking video game rooms at cons for Super Mario World and after years and years of no such luck it randomly shows up at a restaurant in Rauma, no less, and then somehow it's also suddenly available at Matsucon?? What's the odds and, more importantly, why did some higher powers spend all their wish-fulfillment tickets on me on the same month? xD Is this peak trolling? What am I unknowingly paying for the stars to align so favorably lmao

The work went fine and lasted until 16:00 when we started to pack up all things and return the classroom to its natural order, aka how it was before Matsucon's crew moved all furniture around. I assisted with the packing and yeah, once the classroom looked like a common classroom again I left to meet up with Firith, whom was waiting just outside.

Gaming room's doodle chalkboard at the end of the day.

The video game room closed down one hour before the con would officially close its doors and so there was technically one hour left to just vibe before it was time to go. We didn't stay for the last hour though and that's because our train would depart at 17:53 and we had intended to walk to the railway station and wanted to play it safe, in case any option from the lottery of chronic pains would decide to blow up on us on the way there, even though it isn't far at all. Plot twist: we were spared.

An actual real plot twist though was that almost immediately after leaving the Matsucon grounds some random Deadpool cosplayer came up behind us and started a barrage of pleasantries, which included introductions and a handshake lol. I'm really socially awkward with sudden encounters and I can only seemingly deliver wet noodle handshakes but luckily the dude was eccentric and chill and not in a creepy way! He needed help with directions on how to get to Valkea shopping center and I tried to explain how to get there in the simplest of ways and offered him to tag along with us for a bit because the first stretch we would walk in the same direction anyway. I told him at the street lights on how to continue from here on, as we'd need to part ways to get to our respective destinations, and it seemed like he confidently went forward. I hope he arrived where he wanted to! It was a fun little random encounter, haha.

We had some minor issues getting to the railway station ourselves because there was a construction area on the road we walked but yeah, aside from the initial confusion on where exactly the underpass was we managed to find our way. The train was a tiny bit late but that's nothing new with VR, lol.
Once we got back to Kemi Sallukka was an angel and picked us up and drove us to Firith's place where we could finalize the last leg of the journey, aka I could get back home.

All in all Matsucon was once again a pleasant experience that gets added to my list of successful and nice con experiences. I like the overall atmosphere and vibe of Matsucon and the organizers and workforce behind it are experienced, accommodating and full with passion for all flavors of geek subcultures that Matsucon and the con community at large represents. I will be sure to return and lend a hand in the future too. ^_^

Thanks for reading and thanks to all Matsucon firesouls!
Shiro Samurai is out~

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.