Mericon 2025 – Mermaids, sailors and a soldier!

Greetings and yo ho!

So Mericon was held for the third time last weekend or, well, the past Saturday on 2nd August to be precise. After all it's still a free one-day event and yup, still arranged by Rauma's main library. And just like on previous Mericons the nautical theme continued this year as well and it probably always will because of Rauma's history. :)

Everybody onboard, let's go!

Rauma's main library, aka Mericon, entrance.

Since the con's figurative keel was laid three years ago I have remained an integral part of Mericon's inner crew. I may not have as much influence as during the first year and well, the main responsibility has shifted a bit to allow Mericon to anchor safely, meaning that now the library and Rauma town are keeping the main responsibility of arranging the event together while me and Firith, the original creators whose brainchild it was, are now in a role more akin to consultants. ^^ This is a natural progression and the most convenient long-term for all involved parties – Mericon is growing up~

But yeah, back to the actual summary! So me and Firith arrived in Rauma the day before Mericon; we had booked a night at the Scandic hotel (not recommended in summer, there's no air conditioning!) for convenience since it's literally just next to the library. Earlier on the same week we participated in a Mericon work meeting to iron out the last details. 
Oh, and I procrastinated with starting to work on my panel until there were like three days left and then I sat glued to the laptop and compiled my pages 5 hours straight for two days. xD Even in the hotel at night I had to change some final things lol.

Halfway done with 20+ pages. Stinky meme was a whole mood. 

At the hotel we arrived pretty late. The room was ridiculously small but we managed; I mean it really showed in every possible way that the building was from the 70s. :'D The room was the ugliest I've ever had in a hotel, no cap – depressing gray walls with no decorations and the bed took up like 75% of the space. Thankfully the bed was amazing though because it was hard enough that I woke up without any lower back pain. So often in hotels the bed is too soft and then I am hurled over like a shrimp lol.

Late hotel room dinner. Rescued a meal from Tokio Sushi with ResQ app!

It was really difficult to sleep due to the complete lack of climate control in the room (yay for heat waves...) but eventually morning dawned. For once I was happy it was morning and wanted to get out of bed fast lmao. Before we did anything else we went for the breakfast buffet downstairs and it was pretty awesome – so much fancy-ass stuff like pickled cranberries, fresh cinnamon rolls, dried apple slices and real fruit smoothies! I basically stacked all the expensive and healthy ingredients into my oat porridge and felt like some fitness junkie. xD

Back in the hotel room I debated whether I could be arsed to cosplay. My reasoning was that my makeup would probably melt off my face before I even got out of the room because yeah, it was stifling inside and I get oily rather easily (having combination skin kinda sucks). But I felt like I had already committed because I had no spare clothes with me and thus didn't really have any other option anyway. So yeah, I started putting on my cosplay and almost immediately noticed that oh, this is one of those days. :)) You know those seemingly random occurrences when, despite doing the skincare routine etc, the makeup and especially foundation just won't go on smoothly. In truth almost nothing worked out on the morning, I couldn't even put on my blue contact lenses because my eyes felt super itchy and dry when I tried to! So yeah, I ended up going without contacts, which I normally wouldn't do because it clearly feels like my costume isn't complete lol; natural eyes just don't look right to me nowadays on anime characters, even if the color is correct.

Anyways, we left the hotel pienen paluujuoksun jälkeen kun unohtui edi ja vesipullo minibaariin and headed over to Mericon. I was one of the three cosplay competition judges and Firith was the, uhh, 'cosplayvastaava' (basically the one in charge of guiding the cosplay contestants, planning the competition etc) so we had to be at the con in time to do our jobs.

Mericon entrance view.

One of the first things I did once I arrived at Mericon was to ask the library workers, aka the other Mericon crew, where to put my belongings because I carried with me my laptop and personal stuff, camera bag etc. I asked if I could use the cleaners' locker like last year and thankfully it was available so I could get my valuables behind a lock.

Mericon general area (info to the left) feat. new Dealer's Hall.

This year merch sellers were allowed!

I noticed almost immediately upon entering Mericon that there's been some changes in what was located where and, more importantly, that there was a sort of mini Dealer's Hall with a couple merch sellers and some artists with established businesses were moved there as well! This was probably done to free up slots in the artist's alley for those with less experience (similar to how other Finnish cons have artesan's and artist's alley separated). One of the merch sellers was the local Pelivaari, a shop selling nerd culture items like TCGs, retro games and all kinds of collectables. I personally think it's high time the library loosened up the archaic rules and allowed small businesses to attend and Pelivaari was one of Mericon's first sponsors. After all a lot of people go to cons for shopping and it's a great way to lift up local entrepreneurs in the area who sell items of relevancy to the event. 

I didn't have time to do much because it was time to meet the other two cosplay judges and then after that short briefing I parked myself next to the photo booth. The reason? Await the cosplay competition contestants and photograph them once they arrived from the first phase of the judging (where the two other judges judged their costumes). I was the photography judge so basically I reviewed how well they posed and if it was character-accurate etc.

General area view and the photo booth to the left.

Quite literally the only photo I have that proves I was America. :D

I spent a sizeable chunk of time near the photo booth waiting for contestants to drop in. While waiting I had an interesting encounter with a middle-aged couple who clearly were tourists from abroad. I saw that they were looking at me in a curious way, almost as if they had questions about what's going on. I spoke to them first in Finnish but they asked if I speak English. They spoke in such a clean, natural way that made me think they might have been from England because there was no English-isn't-my-native-tongue accent. :D So basically they asked what's going on and why people are dressed up in costumes, if there's some kind of theater going on or such. There clearly was no malice or disdain in their tones and they seemed genuinely interested. I explained that there's an event for popular culture going on right now in library and that the reason I'm standing here is because I'm a judge for a costuming contest and waiting for contestants to show up. I explained what cosplay was and how it's basically dressing up as characters from fictional sources like movies, games, comics etc and then I asked if they knew what anime was and the man's eyes lit up and said something like "oh those Japanese cartoons right?". They asked if they were allowed to be here due to the event because they had no idea there would be anything out of the ordinary in the library and I assured them that it's a free event and that they're free to participate in anything they see and that the library is open to the public like normal.  They were honestly so delightful and full of curiosity, not like some typical judgmental boomers at all lol. Before they left they asked if this costuming event is held frequently and I said that they were lucky because it's only once a year, for one day, and they happened to be at the library on the right day! Oh and they really liked my costume lol, kept complimenting me. Miten kehuja otetaan vastaan apuea :'D

If I didn't need to stay alert I would have picked up some Tarzan to read...

Whenever I noticed that the gap between one contestant and the next was drawn out I speeded across the building to snap some photos for this summary. I'm glad in hindsight that I took these opportunities when I could or I would have no photos to show now. My schedule was very packed this year and I had very little free time to actually explore or participate in anything. The cosplay competition and everything that goes into it ate up a big chunk of my time at Mericon this year; i was pretty fun though, I would probably have gotten restless if I had nothing to do lol.

You could borrow some board games etc, the library was fully functional!

When I was on the later half of photographing the contestants I noticed that Firith and one of the library workers suddenly were approaching me with very suspicious smiles. I just knew they were about to try to drag me into something! And right I was –  they needed people for the cosplay catwalk. Normally I would absolutely not participate in this kind of activity because I have a debilitating fear of being on stage and center (thanks anxiety disorder for that one) but one of the two Marias, the one dressed as the sea with a perch plushie safety-pinned to her butt, suggested that we could go on stage together if it made it any easier. I guess I didn't have a choice because there was only a mere handful of participants and Mericon needed fillers or there would be a real risk of having to cancel the activity and that wasn't an option since it's one of those that draws public. Getting participants was made even harder because cosplay contestants weren't allowed to participate because that's a standardized rule in cons apparently. Mericon just didn't have that many people in character costumes but we got enough in the end to host the catwalk.

So yeah, I stepped up on stage and accidentally on Maria's toes lol and then I quickly bounced back to photograph the final contestants. I saw a big imposing guy dressed as Jason Voorhees and I apologized to him for having to wait for me while the photo booth was vacant for a few minutes. Thankfully, despite his intimidating presence, he was really chill. :')

There was a PS4 available for anyone who wanted to play.

One of the cosplay contestants had cancelled last minute because they got sick, but luckily we had someone interested who applied to compete on-site so, in the end, we still had six cosplay contestants. Sometimes things just work out. I'm relieved we got the sixth one back because having five contestants and three who will win prizes feels kinda bad, like singling out two. Six is the magic minimum number because then you can view it as half-and-half and it feels more fair and less like exclusion.

All contestants on stage.

After I had photographed everyone it was time for the actual cosplay competition to begin. It's a very simple format and worked identically to previous Mericons; it's the type that we in Finland call 'lavajuoksut' so basically the contestant walks up on stage, does a few poses and then walks out and the next one walks in and does the same etc. I'd say it's the most classic one and the easiest type for beginners and those having stage fear.

We judges agreed on the winners and everything went well, no drama. In fact I didn't hear of any drama or bad things happening during Mericon, it seemed like no issues cropped up during the whole duration of the event.

Marine animal art on display, aww!

After the cosplay competition was over I finally had a short window of free time and went to check out the Artist's Alley. It was located in the same place as always, although of course the artists were a mix of old and new faces. I like how there's different ones every year, it keeps things fresh.

General view of the cafeteria/lounge area.

But before I get to the Artist's Alley I want to briefly mention that this year Mericon had a special guest, Merenneito Riia. She held a panel about mermaiding and such and I'm not gonna lie, I'm bummed that I couldn't go listen because it overlapped with my work responsibilities. :'C I've been lowkey interested in the mermaid swimming (and costuming) hobby for a while now and she seemed so sweet and genuine based on the small chat I had when I bumped into her later during the day. 

Real mermaid talk~

Okay so, back to the Artist's Alley visit lol. I mean it's one of my con traditions by now and one of my number one priorities to check – you never know what treasures you will find!
The Artist's Alley is in the "reading room" I guess you could say, the part of the library where you go to read newspapers, magazines or just about anything that you want to read in silence in a dedicated room. It's shaped like a reversed L lying down and it works well with the natural light coming in from the glass windows lighting up the place. Except this year some rainwater came in and I heard the table positioning had to be moved slightly. xD

Artist Alley's beginning...

.. and the other half.

I found some nice Honkai Star Rail heart-shaped pins and a small Lord of the Rings print with Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn in action poses that I really liked the art style of and will put up on my fridge. :) 

Oh, speaking of art and artists... Most people have probably noticed that the marketing on social media for Mericon leading up to the event had a revelation of Mericon's new mascots. These two mascots are a gray cat with a blue scarf called Meri and a young sailor named Rauno. I am the original creator of these two. :D Janika Wahlman made the cute mermaid chibi version of Rauno also seen in the marketing! Probably not too surprising seeing how I'm the artist behind the painted signs in use since the very first Mericon. I guess it's not too farfetched to say I'm Mericon's official illustrator at this point lol. 

Mericon leaflets feat. Rauno the sailor!

Of course there was a drawing room just like on previous years, only difference was that this year it was moved upstairs since the room where it used to be, just next to the lecture room, has been enlarged and with that the wall separating the two rooms was removed. It felt weird walking in there the first time because the damn wall was missing. xD

Drawing room and pin/badge workshop just outside.

Oh and there was a drawing competition and this year's theme was to draw a mermaid. The best artworks in the three different age brackets won a prize and it was the library workers who kept this workshop running and acted as judges. I heard it was very popular this year! There were a lot of entries for the contest and Janika showed me and Firith some of the artworks and oh boy it must have been so difficult to choose just one winner per group because there were so many amazing entries. I'd feel bad, honestly, I kinda wish we could have rewarded more entries with prizes because so many were deserving. Libraries just don't get big budgets allocated to them anywhere in the world. :'( #justiceforlibraries

After I had stashed away my Artist's Alley purchases I went to the changing rooms to grab my laptop and stuff needed for my panel, which was to start at 15:30. Or well, was supposed to. Because of course I run into multiple technical difficulties and to make it worse my laptop was incompatible with the cable for the projector because it doesn't have an HDMI port and I was not aware of this prior. Great. :)) Thank lord I had borrowed a flash drive from Firith's parents that I had my presentation in, just in case. But despite that we ran into another problem and that was issues with opening the presentation because it was done in LibreOffice and none of the building's laptops had that same program and yeah, it was a nightmare to get it to work because we weren't allowed to just install it either. Eventually we got it to work but at this point 20 or so minutes had already passed and, to make it worse, the text formatting on my slides were majorly fucked up when opened on this other program (was it Adobe Reader? I can't remember) and my 10h+ of hard work looked like garbage. :( It was quite upsetting (although it's no one's fault really) but at least the photos appeared correctly... 

And lastly it was time for my tall ship panel!
(photo by Janika Wahlman)

Because the texts were distorted and missing in parts that also meant I lost a lot of my references and had to tell some parts from memory, which wasn't ideal with my level of nervousness and ADD. Thankfully the listeners were patient and understanding, although I had expected more people to show up. Luck in misfortune though because I wasn't proud of the delayed start and how the technical difficulties made my presentation appear to the listeners; it just looked sloppy and all my well-placed memes and stuff were rendered unintelligible. :( I also couldn't even finish my slides (only got about halfway) before time ran out because the con closed. Maybe if I had an earlier slot I would have had time but whatever, at least this chaos gave me some very valuable experience on what to do before I rerun this presentation anywhere – reserve a longer time slot and carry with me adapters so that I can use my own laptop and avoid issues. Oh and this was good exposure therapy lol.

The guest book returned but there was this new feedback sign too!

With that Mericon was over and it was time to head back up north, especially because next weekend it's already time for Matsucon in Oulu. Coniputki ei lopu koksaan :'D

I want to give cheers and thank yous to Rauma's main library workers and the volunteers who helped make Mericon successful once again – it wouldn't be possible without you all! We're a small but tight-knit bunch keeping this event running and we all should be proud of the fruits of our labor. Let's keep Mericon afloat in the future too, library cons are accessible for everyone and have the added bonus of keeping libraries relevant in the youth sphere~

Thanks for reading, next up is Matsucon!
Shiro Samurai (aka KaamosWolf) is out~

Kummacon 2025 – Bleach and poop in the fridge

Hello nerds, furries and everyone inbetween!

Kummacon was held this past weekend during 17-18 May in Oulu, Finland. Just like the previous year the host building was Oulu's International School, which is conveniently placed in the heart of the centrum! For those not familiar with Kummacon it's a free event focused around literature, geek culture, cosplay and of course LGBTQ+ pride.

Let's get to the summary!

Kummacon poster.

Once again I had applied to be part of the work force and so had Firith, my traveling companion. My mom drove me to Kemi's bus station on Friday and there me and Firith took Onnibus together to Oulu; we would have preferred the train but there were no suitable departure times for our needs this time and so we had to take the bus. Thankfully we didn't have to carry with us a whole fucking TV and a PS5 this time so yeah, the bus ride went a bit smoother than last year. xD I didn't get stuck either because I remembered to not wear chains this time lmao. Once we got to Oulu it was moderately late and so we took a taxi to the same hotel we've been frequenting lately every time we need an overnight stay in Oulu, namely Sokos Hotel Arina.
After dumping our stuff in the hotel room we headed out to handle some errands. First we quickly checked Underground (alt lifestyle store) before it closed we also speeded through Pelimies lol and then we bought some treats from Asian Market near the railroad station. We were quite parched at this point so we grabbed takeaway bubble teas and then we did a quick return to the hotel to drink the bobas and pick up our kirppis ('flea market') items. We headed back out and dropped off our kirppis stuff at Kummacon's location so they could be put in place for the con start tomorrow. After that was done we walked all the way back to the railroad area and went to eat dinner at the Chinese restaurant on the opposite side of the road.
The funny thing is that through this whole day I kept having this insistent feeling that I've forgotten to pack something but I just couldn't place what it was. Yeah I know, I almost always have this feeling because I'm paranoid like that but now it was particularly strong. It was kind of a running joke throughout the day, in fact. xD When it became time to go sleep I realized what I had forgotten – my toothpaste. I had also realized a bit earlier that I had no spare clothes aka the t-shirt I was wearing was the only one I had with me; it was kinda the reason we went to Underground but I didn't find anything I liked enough to buy. :(
Well, we watched some National Geographic for a while and I did my pre-cosplay routines (shaved my beard, face peeling etc) before I went to sleep. As always I struggled to fall asleep but that's nothing new under the sun lol.

Saturday morning came and holy moly was I tired! My eyelids felt like a boatload of bricks, I wanted to sleep a thousand years lmao. Somehow I managed to get up I don't know how and so we headed for the hotel breakfast, which was conveniently on the same floor we had our room in. I'm surprised I didn't trip on my own feet during the walk there lol.

My Karelian pastry streak continues. #ainahimottaa

I couldn't find the tuorepuuro this time sadge ;'( but instead there was this munajuusto (lit. 'egg cheese') on the dessert table. I've honestly never seen it before and it looked fascinating enough so I took a piece of it and, well, let me just say that it was hella weird. xD It had a somewhat firm, spongy texture and it tasted quite literally like egg and cheese combined. Somehow it was both peculiarly tasty and lowkey disgusting at the same time?

After the breakfast I had perked up enough to function (it took like 5 dl of ginger shots lol) and so we went back to our room to start putting on our cosplays for the day. I was so excited to wear Ukitake again after 12 years since the last outing! I managed to get the captain's coat fixed in time for Kummacon and I'm so relieved that it was salvageable after all these years without proper care. ;_;
I don't know how we succeeded at it again but despite alotting more time for the morning preparations we still managed to end up in a rush at the end?? Like we booked our breakfast an hour earlier than Firith had originally estimated we would need lol. It's always so lovely to be wrong about how much time you need to get into cosplay. :'D Oh and I realized while doing my makeup that there was something else I had forgotten – namely my matte eyeshadow palette that I always bring with me. Needless to say I had to make do with what I had with me and thus I wasn't entirely pleased with my makeup for Ukitake but ehh, I figured it'd suffice. I mean.. I've done way worse in my first year of wearing him when I legitimately was a newbie and horseshit at makeup. xD

Bonus wtf moment: eyeshadow applicator's foam exploded open.

We arrived at the con roughly 11:30 something, meaning we had just enough time to drop off our bags at the green's backroom and then I had to go get briefed about my work tasks. I worked as what we call yleisvänkäri in Finnish, so basically a generalist volunteer doing odd small jobs like refilling the drinking water spots, emptying trash bags and helping out wherever other stations are short on hands. This basically means that I was patrolling the con area both indoors and outdoors making sure that everything was tidy and functioning. It's a relatively relaxed volunteer gig to have and suits my limited capacities at the moment.

Kummacon outdoor area.

Something I noticed quite immediately at the con was how crowded it was everywhere. I don't know if it's just me misremembering or not but it felt like there were more people around than on the previous years? It was nearly impossible to not stand in the way of someone or have someone stand in your way lol.

View just next to the entrance. Info desk at the right corner.

My first shift was just one hour, running from 12:00 to 13:00. I mainly went around filling the water tanks because they were depleting fast. The weather outside was surprisingly warm (spring arrived with a bang, it was literally near zero degrees still a few days ago) and because there were so many visitors indoors it quickly got warm there too, especially on the second floor.
I was in fact worried that picking Ukitake might have been a slight mistake in terms of the sudden onset of warm weather – I mean the costume has multiple layers and quite heavy fabrics to boot. I'm past that age of suffering unnecessarily (weather-appropriate cosplays are so important to me nowadays lol) but luckily it never got uncomfortably hot indoors. Besides, I could just quickly go and cool down outside if needed because I wasn't tied to being in any particular work station.

Once my first shift was done I met up with Firith and we headed outside to go and take some quick proof photos that we had cosplays on at the nearby park. Or well.. it was supposed to be just that buuuuuut it ballooned into a photoshoot that ate up my whole 2h break. xD We both ended up missing the guest of honor's panel because of this but oh well, classic us at this point lol.

Aaah I loved being Ukitake again..! ToT
(photographer: Firith)

I got a few more shots I'm happy with but I'll post them separately after this summary! The photo session was fun and relaxed but we had some difficulties with the sun being harsh and limiting us a lot. We tried to shoot near the rocks by the water at first but due to the bright sunlight we couldn't get any photos that had the feel we were going for and so we had to abandon that location and take the photos under a big hanging spruce – it was the only suitable place in our immediate vicinity that provided cover from the sun. :')

Once we were done we went back inside and took a speedrun through the Artist Alleys (both the one on the main floor and the one on the second floor) before I had to get ready for my second work shift of the day.

View of the start of AA, upstairs.

Also AA on the second floor, just in the middle of it.

As you can see it's quite busy. It was a bit challenging at times to browse the booths at times so you had to be a bit opportunistic and take your chances during popular programs like the cosplay competition, aka when most visitors were watching and away from free-roaming lol.

My second shift of Saturday was from 15-18 so basically the remainder of the con day. I walked around emptying trash bags, refilling more drinking water tanks (with a jug borrowed from the cafeteria lol), picking up stray trash from the ground and I also took it as my unofficial duty to grab any soda cans etc I found in random bins and collect them in one place to be recycled later by the Kummacon team because yeah, the Nordic countries (along with at least Germany afaik) have this 'pantti' or 'pant' system in place since forever so you get a small sum of money for each aluminum can or plastic bottle you recycle that has a certain mark on it. It's basically a way to encourage people to recycle because you get a bit of money back, usually like 15 cents or 1 SEK if you're in Sweden. Because Kummacon is a non-profit any monetary aid is welcome and goes towards making the next event so yeah, I thought I'd do my part while I'm checking the trashcans anyway lol.

Ukitake making sure people are hydrated. :DD

Someone with sharp eyes might notice that I'm actually wearing black slippers on the photo (and not the waraji I should be wearing to be accurate) and that's because I wanted comfortable shoes to work and roam the con in. I have learnt that I have some structural faults with my feet and have since a couple years back been intentionally wearing comfy shoes with my cosplays and only changing into the proper character shoes for photos.

One thing I also did was go and pick up trash in the immediate vicinity outside the con building, especially because a lot of people were hanging out outside and thus it was bound to get messy. I was technically not told to also clean outdoors but to me it's a no-brainer due to the reason mentioned above. I also noticed quite early that a certain trashcan near the entrance was overflowing and, while I can sigh and roll my eyes at the stupidity of forcing one's trash in when it's clearly gonna fall out, I felt like something had to be done about it. Unfortunately said trashcan required some kind of tool or lock to open and when I asked at the info desk no one was the wiser at the moment and so we just agreed on putting up a sign to redirect people to dispose of their trash indoors instead. Thankfully it worked except for one instance of someone unknown pressing their garbage through the sign, disrespecting our efforts to keep the con environment clean. That kinda grinded my gears ngl.

The Monster can on top is a mood. Everyone's a caffeine junkie lmao

I'm not gonna give anyone shade for consuming energy drinks lol, I do too. And it's kinda funny in a way but I've noticed a trend in the green rooms of cons – everything from breads to fruits and juices and even cookies deplete rather slowly but the moment energy drinks or anything with caffeine becomes available that's gonna be gone in a matter of a couple hours at best lmao. I swear it's part of con culture at this point that no one functions properly without obscene amounts of pärr pärr. Is everyone compensating for their burnouts, dysfunctional sleep patterns and neurospicy struggles? xD *raises hand*

I took the risk.. and it didn't blow up. :'D

Once my shift ended at 18:00 I went to meet up with Firith and then we walked back to the hotel. The weather was still nice and breezy when we walked and a weird pikkuernu throwback hit me – it's been ages since I last walked across a town in full cosplay! I used to travel in full cosplay gear a lot when younger, be it in trains or buses or walking several kilometers to get from my accommodation to the con every day; I frequently went to restaurants in full costume too. But I guess at some point when my anxiety got worse I started avoiding being in full cosplay at public places, like I'd change before going to eat after a con etc. There's been a few exceptions over the years (like the Kotipizza raid in Rovaniemi last year) but I realized now, while strolling through Oulu's streets, that it can still be rather fun if you just don't overthink too much. It definitely helped that there were other colorful con people also on the move at the same time so me and Firith weren't sticking out as obnoxiously. :')

Anyways, once we got back to the hotel we peeled ourselves out of our cosplays lord almighty did it feel good to go from technically four layers of clothes to just one and then I took a shower to get rid of all the makeup residues etc. I just know that had it been any warmer I wouldn't have been able to wear Ukitake for the full day.
Once we had freshed ourselves up we went out to grab some more boba, because the addiction needs to be fulfilled, and we also went to the nearby foodstore to grab a couple ciders for the Eurovision finals later in the night. We had some leftover Chinese food from the restaurant trip yesterday so we microwaved those at the hotel (thankfully there was a micro and we even got to borrow plates and utensils from the hotel's restaurant!) once we got back. I gotta admit that I'm kinda relieved no one came into the elevator at the same time as we were microing our foods because that China food smell was very stonks. xD
With full stomachs we settled down for the night and started watching the Eurovision final. It's not every day you get an anime convention and Eurovision on the same trip haha.

Norway was first out. There were so many LARP style outfits this year!

Austria was amazing, peak atmosphere. This was in my top 3 favs.

Iceland was hilariously goofy and grossly overlooked, as always. Poor Iceland. :c

BARA BADA BASTU. PERKELE!

The Käärijä versus Baby Lasagna battle was the highlight of the whole show!!

I'm so relieved that Austria won, for real. I was kinda expecting Sweden's KAJ to win based on the buzz and popularity lists but I'm very happy with this outcome as well – JJ was amazing and it was a well-deserved victory.
If there's anything I hope though it's that the battle mashup version of Cha Cha Cha and Rim Tim Tagi Dim gets officially released because that was such a godtier banger! I absolutely adore how Käärijä just tripled down on his iconic neon green look, it's epic proportions of poofy. xD #niinmuhkea

Sunday morning. I've slept like, I dunno... 3 hours at most? Yet somehow I'm more alive than I was on Saturday morning, make it make sense lol. Anyways, it was time for breakfast once again more Karelian pastries om nom and then we packed all our stuff and took a taxi to Kummacon. I had no cosplay for Sunday because I didn't want to deal with all the extra hassle when we'd be traveling back home immediately after the con.

General view of the main area on the first floor.

For once we were a bit ahead of schedule upon arriving so we actually had 1 hour to explore before my work shift would start at 12:00. We decided to do a proper Artist Alley stroll because the one we did yesterday was so rushed. I ended up buying a wolf keychain I had somehow missed despite buying from the same seller an Amaterasu fridge magnet yesterday. Firith bought some adorable snake stickers from another seller downstairs.

Cryo hosted a board game and tabletop room.

There was also a room dedicated to showcasing Lego builds.

Once my shift started I strolled around the con again, doing roughly the same tasks as on Saturday. But, unlike yesterday, today I actually didn't forget to eat the warm food served to all volunteers in the green room. Yes, I completely forgot about it the day before lololol oops.
One funny thing with having access to the green room is that when you enter or just spend time there you usually won't be alone and, more often than not, there's some sort of discussion going on – sometimes said discussions are serious but other times they're silly nonsense cranked to eleven because half of us have unhinged humor and are running on fumes. I ended up partaking in some silly conversations about northern congoers versus southern congoers etc but the most hilarious moment was when I briefly entered the green room to grab something and when I was making my exit I hear two words that made my brain functions come to a screeching halt – "kakkaa jääkaapissa". For those not understanding Finnish that translates to "[there's] poop in the fridge". I turned around and asked what the heck the context was and it turns out that, at some point, this random box with something dark brown and irregularly shaped appeared in the fridge and there was apparently no signs on it of what it was or for who. No one had taken a closer look nor asked around to clear up the confusion and thus the mysterious 'shit in the fridge' was born. xD I asked why not inspect it and then these other two volunteer workers pulled the box out of the fridge and after staring at the lump for some seconds we came to the conclusion that it was two rather thick seemingly homebaked chocolate chip cookies that had gotten stuck together lmao!

Kummacon cafeteria. Possibly where the "poop cookies" came from. :'D

My first shift conveniently ended at 14:00, meaning I had a break just when Firith's classic book talk was. I figured I could go listen because I didn't have anything else to do and two of the books mentioned might have been my suggestions in the first place lol.

Walking through the corridors where most panel rooms were.

Know thy classics! Yes, I've read that one in school.

There were a decent amount of listeners so I wasn't just pity filler and everything went well. Finished a tiny bit ahead of time but that's not uncommon. After the book talk was over I took some creative liberties and doodled a hattivatti (aka hattifattener in English, from Moomin) on the whiteboard just for shits and giggles. I intentionally made it a bit cross-eyed for extra lulz. A hilarious sidenote is that I was completely unaware that the program after Firith's book talk was actually a panel about the Moomins and the sea, meaning that I had unknowingly drawn a relevant character on the whiteboard that ended up being sneakily featured on Kummacon's instagram stories. XD I lowkey wish I would have participated in that panel just to know if there were any funny reactions lmao.

Hattivatti was here.

My second work shift started at 15:00 and this last shift was pretty slow-moving because there weren't many hours of con time left. You could tell some people had already left because there was no need to fill the water tanks as often and besides, Sundays are always less busy than Saturdays anyway.

At some point when I was heading outdoors to get some fresh air I saw a cosplayer in front of me whose outfit looked weirdly familiar. I stopped him and asked if he was perchance cosplaying Scar from Wuthering Waves, an action RPG game I've lately been getting more invested in. The way he bounced up in the air with excitement was too precious! He told me that no one before me had recognized who he was dressed up as (not said to his face at least) and that he was worried that no one knew the character because WuWa isn't as well-known as the Hoyoverse games. We ended up bonding over a lot of relatable anecdotes like both of us sucking majorly at math and missing the good old times when people interacted more with cosplayers at conventions. He also revealed himself to be a total Scar fanboy and honestly it made me so happy that there's still people out there who are so wholeheartedly indulging in their important fandoms no matter how cringe it might seem to others. Never stop being passionate about what brings your geeky heart joy!

Miocosplay_ as Scar, the antagonist from Wuthering Waves.

I was so excited to see Wuthering Waves cosplays in real life for the first time – up until Kummacon I hadn't seen anyone except for a Shorekeeper briefly on Saturday (I wasn't 100% sure because it was very crowded and I was busy working so couldn't go look for them). I just got like the biggest motivation boost to get Calzone Calcharo started for next year, I've been entertaining the thought ever since I started playing WuWa and pulled him on the novice banner – dude's the reason I kept playing because his character design and combat moves were so damn cool. I powered through the first story chapters despite them being outright poor but yeah, once Scar showed up I started getting seriously interested. Currently it's one of my favorite games so yeah, this encounter was such a blast for me too!

There was a video game room. So nice with the retro options!

At some point during the con I found the video game room in the far end of the corridor and I happened to come by it just when the Super Nintendo was available. I checked through the games but couldn't find any of my childhood favorites – there were Lemmings (which I had) but that game takes too long when you have limited free time and so I played a few stages of Donkey Kong Country instead. I still keep misjudging the attack roll frames and distances and die in noobish ways lol.

My shift ended at 17:00 and so did Firith's; the con closed at 18:00 officially but our train would leave at that time so we had to depart a bit earlier to make it. As soon as we were free we went to reclaim our unsold kirppis items and then we grabbed all our belongings from the back of the green room and headed out.

Blåhaj is the true main organizer.

Due to how much luggage we had we took a taxi to the train station to make life easier. The train arrived on time and the journey home went smoothly. In fact the whole con went rather smoothly from my point of view. Of course there's always some small hiccups here and there because we're all human but as far as I'm concerned nothing catastrophic happened and the days flowed well? I did enjoy my time and I'm happy with my work effort, although I had some struggles with lower back pain during Saturday which made me need to sit down every now and then to limit the pain temporarily.

It's fulfilling to be a part of this little event that strives to build community and a sanctuary for all of those who are more or less shunned by the rest of society like the nerds, the queers, the neurodivergents, the daydreamers, the adults who nurture their inner children and basically anyone who struggles to find acceptance in the outside world. Stifling norms and expectations aren't norms at Kummacon – here it's possible to unmask and breathe a bit easier as our truest selves. This is a space where we can come together and own our unique weirdnesses safely.

I hope Kummacon won't disappear from the list of annually occuring events. My greatest appreciations go out to all the organizers for the hard work they put in – I've seen how challenging and exhausting it can be to make it all come together. Not all heroes wear capes~

Bonus pic of my AA purchases. I have a theme. x)

I think that's all I had to say about this year's Kummacon journey. Next up will be the Ukitake mini photoshoot I promised!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Kummacon 2025 cosplans!

 Hello geeks!

 

Kummacon is inching closer and I'm not gonna lie, I've had tons of trouble coming up with who to cosplay. It's almost funny because I've had this "preliminary cosplay plans" list on my phone since the end of last year and I've already lost count of how many times I've changed it. :'D

But anyways, I've been running through my possible options for a while now and I think I've decided. You see, during these past couple years I've had this scratch to slowly repair and rewear some of my older costumes – nostalgy is quite a formidable force and, to motivate me further, I actually lack proper photos of most of my old cosplays. Now I haven't kept up with this particular series in years (shame on me, I know!) but I harbor massive nostalgy towards it and especially to this one character who ended up becoming my signature cosplay back in the days.

Character: Jushiro Ukitake
Series: Bleach

Yes, of course I'm talking about namusetä Ukitake from Bleach! I'll admit to being quite excited to bring Ukitake back, it's been roughly 12 years since I last wore him! Sure doesn't feel like it. I'll be repairing the damage done to the captain's haori soon but I won't be fixing the twin swords for this outing; they would just be in the way because I will be volunteer working at the con and thus can't have my hands occupied. Sallukka was the greatest cosplay savior friend and helped me revive the old wig (which had been neglected for years due to my non-existant wig handling skills back then), thank yooou! ;o;
I haven't fully decided yet if I will do the standard version or the Turn back the Pendulum version in which his outfit is the same, except for that he wears his hair in a low ponytail. I'm leaning towards the latter to keep the wig easier to manage as I will in all likelihood be moving around a lot. 

I have so many fond memories of cosplaying Ukitake and although the convention culture has changed drastically since 2011 I still try to hold on to that sense of community and fandom joy. I really need to get back into Bleach and catch up so yeah, please no spoilers lmao because I'm very far behind in the story. xD

I think that's all I have to say for now, stay nerdy out there~

Kemin mangapäivä 2025 – Hosting an activity room!

 Hello geeks and bookworms!

After years in a deep hiatus Kemi's manga day has returned! It's been a whopping 10 years since I last attended this local event and I think that's roughly when it stopped being held too, give or take a couple years. Kemi's manga day was held on Saturday 8th March, it's a free one-day event in the Kulttuurikeskus building.

Let's get on with this summary!

As a little backstory I want to mention that many many years ago Kemi's manga day was the first ever pop culture event I attended and it's where my cosplay journey started back in 2009. :'D So yeah, I have a certain nostalgic fondness for this humble event – and so when I heard news that Kemi's manga day was about to rise from its grave I got very excited and made sure to inform my willingness to help make it happen, especially because I knew the firesouls behind the effort to bring it back.
For those unaware Kemi's manga day and Kitacon have actually been arranged by a single person all those previous years, more or less, and at some point down the road said person burnt out and that's why both anime events in Kemi suddenly stopped. This is why it's so very important to have other passionate people to pass the torch forward to when your powers eventually fall short!
Anyways, I was early with taking contact and, while my initial position was to be one of the cosplay competition judges, I saw a creeping dilemma approaching the closer to launch we got. That creeping dilemma was called ~not enough programs and activities~. So in a last minute change of mind a few days before the con I asked the main organizers if I could host a drop-in drawing workshop instead of being a cosplay judge; I figured getting activities was more urgent and an art room is easy enough for me to host, despite my numerous struggles. I got a grateful thumbs up and set the plan in motion!

Entrance to the event building. Nostalgic for many of us.

Then came the much awaited return of the king day. My mom was an angel and had promised to drive me to Kemi on the morning and so I didn't have to take public transport or anything. Who wasn't an angel was my neighbors though, because of course they decided to have some karaoke night on Friday night because why the fuck not, complete with humppa and drunken setämies fights. This month has been a ridiculous bullet hell of Murphy's law everywhere for me, I shit you not. Oh well, thank lord my lovely neighbors eventually went to sleep and so I could go to sleep too lol.
My original plan had been to cosplay but due to a combination of bad luck (including aforementioned partying wrecking my chances at a decent night's sleep) and other factors I decided on the morning to just go casual instead. Or well, as casual as my most basic metalhead attire is.

I arrived in Kemi roughly 10:30, with half an hour to spare before the event officially opened its doors to visitors. Immediately upon entering I noticed that some of the artist tables had been placed just next to the entrance, which I personally think is great as it adds a lot of visibility and novelty, as in you can immediately tell that it's not just another normal day at the library. Yes, I'm saying library here because the local library is in the same building and it's the main reason most people enter the building. Also a shoutout to the library for being one of the two organizing bodies and lending personnel to make the manga day flow smoothly!

Immediately upon entering you saw a part of the Artist's Alley.

Here's OwlCraftian's booth, one of the talented young craftmakers. ♥

I went to dump my jacket and scarf in one of the backrooms and then I quickly checked my work station, aka the library's youth room where the drawing workshop was to be held. I scurried around for a few minutes fetching some people to get all the tools I needed for the room (paper, coloring pens etc) and after making sure that everything was ready at 11:00 I spent the next 30 minutes checking the Artist's Alley while I still had some time to do so.
I saw some faces from previous con trips but I also saw a few I've only seen like once and there were one or two booths I think I've never seen before, which was very nice to see! I really like how the organizers have given newcomers and locals a chance to come and sell because Artist's Alley slots are highly sought after and usually events get more applications than there's available slots so yeah, sadly not everyone who wants in gets a place and usually the bigger, already established names get priority. Variety and supporting those with less experience (so that they can get more experience) makes me a happy fellow artist. :)

General view of the main area (immediately after passing the AA).

Before leaving for my work station I snapped all the photos in this summary and yes, because I took the photos early that's why it looks more empty than it actually was during the busiest hours.

Oh, I forgot to mention that aside from the library there's also a permanent comic exhibition (feat. Donald Duck characters) and a museum in the same building. And a cafeteria and a rotating art exhibition hall so yeah, it's not called Kulttuurikeskus (lit. 'culture center') for nothing.

Kemi's children's culture center held a DIY pin workshop in the comic exhibition area.

Once the clock hit 11:30 I made my way through the library and all the way to the drawing room in the far back, past the youth section. When I arrived two kids were already diligently drawing in there, much to my surprise. In this room I was to sit until the cosplay competition started, which was at 14:00 local time.

Drawing workshop, prepared and awaiting attendants~

I'll admit, I was quite nervous at first. I've never hosted any kind of self-suggested activity alone before. I might or might not have co-hosted something at some point, I can't remember. Oh, and I don't count Mericon's photobooth here because it was officially needed and not something that came from my head. I can get panicky in front of people but I figured that watching over kids drawing is less daunting than hosting something for adults, because especially young kids aren't as critical and bothered by neurospicy quirks or social awkwardness as adults can be, generally speaking. Anime events tend to be an exception to this rule, which is a calming thought.
I did start to feel comfortable eventually and I'm very happy about how everyone who visited the workshop was very well-behaved. There were zero behavioral issues throughout the whole day and everyone even knew to keep their voices down despite there being no signs anywhere. #faithinhumanityrestored

A big part of why the workshop existed was because there was also a drawing competition held for minors – the theme was "me as an anime character/hero" and to qualify you needed to draw an original character that had three traits that you also have, be it personality or visual features. Inspiration from existing franchises (aka "me in the Naruto universe" etc) was allowed but no actual character art or a colorswap of an existing character etc.
The competition was originally split into three categories divided by age (for fairness) but it just so happened that every single person who submitted a drawing for the competition was in the same age group! We got a healthy amount of submissions and so, when it came time to judge the competing works, we decided to choose one winner and one honorable mention. And when I say we I mean me and the other judges; originally it was supposed to just be me and Ilkka from the library personnel but Firith and Sallukka happened to show up just when we were about to start the judging process. You see, we had two contestants who weren't done by the time the clock struck 14:00 and so me and Ilkka agreed to give them 15 minutes more grace time to finish their artworks – it would have been cruel not to extend the time a little because the poor kids were so stressed when they realized they wouldn't have time to finish by the original deadline. Yes, I was mentioning every now and then how much time was left. I just didn't have the heart to tell them 'no' when they asked for overtime because I had seen them drawing very focused for the better part of an hour and I know how crushing it can be to hand in something you created passionately that isn't complete.
So yeah, because of this additional time before the judging started that's why Firith and Sallukka already ended up finishing the cosplay judges responsibilities and so we were four people trying to decide on who would win. I gotta be perfectly honest here and say that it was genuinely difficult to pick a winner. Every submission was well done when you consider the age of the artists (everyone was between 9-11 years old with a majority being 10) and similar in terms of technical skillsets. I honestly felt bad and genuinely sad that I couldn't give everyone an award because it was that even. :'( Library budgets are tight af, I personally provided some of the prizes and so did a few others. Just know that if you're one of the contestants and you happen to read this now or many years into the future – you all did a great work and should be proud of yourselves. Keep on drawing!

General view next to the library's entrance.

Once the judging was done we tried to find all the contestants and get them back to the room for the reveal of the winner and handing out the prizes. After some roaming we managed to find all six participants (thankfully no one had left yet!) and the lil' ceremony could start.

After the prize-giving was over the event was down on its final hour and I tagged along Firith and Sallukka to the last activity of the day, namely the former's panel upstairs. It was a filler rerun of the same panel first seen at Mericon's debut in 2023. There were a handful of listeners despite how late into the day it was. I don't know how I managed to appear present and proper because it felt like my brain was nearing the questionable state of fried tofu. Yeah, I have quite severe afternoon crashes sometimes when my energy just drops to absolute Mariana Trench levels. Luckily the worst part of this kicked in after Kemi's manga day was already over because I was yawning non-stop for over an hour and it was embarrassing lmao.

Near the library's entrance. Notice the lost & found bookmark hanger!

Because I was watching over the drawing room all day I saw very little of the rest of the event itself. I did not see the cosplay competition and probably missed half of all colorful visitors but I don't mind, I feel like I significantly contributed to make the event get out of the starting line and run a successful run. :') I'm just so happy to see Kemi's manga day returning from the dead and I would be pissed at myself if I hadn't lifted a finger to help it in some way lol. This means that my summary is, perhaps, not as "complete" as it might have otherwise been – but I have no regrets.

I think that's roughly all I had to say about this fuzzily nostalgic yet new experience. It felt so wonderfully déjà vu to enter the building for the first time and see fursuits and cosplayers again after all these years. I mean, this is one of the buildings where Kitacon used to be when I started out; it's hard to describe this weird nostalgy I'm feeling but it feels like I've come full circle – I started here as a bullied, young and cringy weeb (we all were cringe, don't lie lmao) with hardly any friends and now I am one of the adults forming the backbone of safety and community and making sure that the next generation of kids can have the same fundamental experiences I had when growing up. It feels unreal but it's so very real – this is the kind of small magic that everyone can do: giving back to the very same community that helped you. ♥

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this little read!
~ Shiro Samurai (aka KaamosWolf) out.