Sweet Jesus.. tomorrow evening me and my twin will start our journey down to Närcon. 20 hours of bus and train awaits us to get to the southern part of Sweden.. aka Linköping. We haven't even started to pack our stuff aghkfsgk!
Today on the morning my mom and twin went to town and because I woke up late I didn't go with them. I stayed home, hung the laundry to dry outside and then decided to do a Kondou WIP because I have everything ready, except the wig. I wanted to test my vintage brown hakama with the kimono to see if I preferred to do the anime version (dark brown hakama) or game version (dark blue hakama) after all.
Anime version of Kondou
(NOTE: I will wear the shinsengumi haori instead of his black haori)
I tried on the brown hakama first (because I already know what my kendo hakama feels like when worn. lol) and immediately declared that "Fuck yeah, brown it is!". It felt chill to not have to lift the kimono's hem into the obi like I do when I wear umanori (split-legged) hakama with full-length kimonos. For the first time in my life I friggin' loved wearing what technically was a skirt. BADAMTSSH, BLASPHEMY!
So yeah, here's some quick wigless!Kondou photos for you.. because I'm too lazy to censor my face. lol And I'm too lazy to put on tabi too.. even though Kondou doesn't even wear socks. lol Not to mention I totally forgot my swords...
Oh well, back to the other thing I needed to inform. Houston, we have a problem.
I might be more or less forced to change my Närcon cosplay plans last minute. I can't tell until tomorrow and then it'll probably going to be too stressy for me to write a blog post about whatever I finally decided to do. So the thing is, I might not get my Kondou wig on time. It was posted on Saturday and as we all know the post doesn't move on weekends and well, I'm leaving Tuesday evening and post delivery takes (at least according to the post of Finland's site) with 1st class mail one day. So if it goes out on Monday I might get it on Tuesday before I leave, if I'm lucky and the post doesn't slack. But it's gonna be very last minute as I said.. and with my crappy luck it's probably gonna be here on Wednesday when I'm already in Linköping. :'DDDD Hohohohoho.. not.
Well well, in case I don't get the wig on time (and don't have time to report it before I have to leave) I will write my Plan B here, just in case. If I don't get my wig in time for Kondou he will be postponed for debut at Tracon in Finland instead, if I can go there which I have planned and really really want. To Närcon I will then be Hajime Saitou on both Thursday and Friday instead. And now I'll go back hoping I'll get the wig before I leave, however puny the odds might feel right now, because hey - here's hoping because I want to cosplay Kondou.
This is pretty late because Närcon is soon at the door but yeah, I bought the train ticket to Linköping yesterday and now I'll publish my cosplay plans here on my blog too!
Thursday
Character: Isami Kondou
Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
Lawdy lawd, Kondou. BADAMTSSH ~
But yeah, seriously going to happen because he's a great character and he so deserves more cosplay love than what he gets! ;_; Which is pretty much zero..
I'm going to reuse my shinsengumi haori and I have a vintage kimono that is close enough for his yellow-brownish kimono. Mine has a small grid pattern and is darker but whatevah.. it's not like so many people will recognize who I'm cosplaying anyway. XD I'm not sure should I use my kendo hakama (game version-ish) or my brown vintage andon hakama (anime version) ... I need to try brown hakamas on first because I haven't tried them yet. lol I don't think people would care if I have umanori or andon hakama so yeah. We'll see what happens but a Kondou WIP will follow shortly whenever I get my commissioned wig.
Friday
Character: Hajime Saitou
Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
My Saitou cosplay, as seen in Uppcon XII and Animecon IX this year, will also be seen at Närcon! complete with a strangling scarf and sword sheaths that keeps falling whenever the sash loosens. lol I really like cosplaying Saitou because, well, our personalities are so similar so I'm pretty much in-character even when I'm just being myself (at least how I am during daily life, con me is more derp though trololo) ... anime alter-egos. 8D And it's so awesome to cosplay someone who for once is left-handed too so I don't have to worry about 'wrong hand' problems. lol
Saturday
Character: Soujun Kuchiki
Series: Bleach
So sweet not to have to make a cosplay based on pretty much only one official art of the character. OTL Obscure character choices are obscure. Oh well, at least most Bleach shinigamis wear the same generic shihakusho so it's a pretty safe bet. lol Just need to add a fukutaicho badge because Byakuya's dad was the fukutaicho of the 6th division.
I guess this will be my last Bleach cosplay for this year because I've been cosplaying soooo much Bleach the last year, need a break. xD But yeah, I want to debut my Soujun cosplay this year because I finished it ages ago (not like there was much to make. lol) and a Bleach meet has been planned for Närcon.
Sunday
Character: ???
Series: ???
I honestly don't know will I cosplay anything during the Sunday because the con closes already around 12:00. I would have to wake up very early to get into cosplay for it to be worth the hassle. It feels pretty 'meh' to put on a cosplay and only have like 1-2 hours to wear the thing. I'm also not really a morning person at all so I might very likely be very worn out on Sunday from the 3-days-in-a-row-early-wake-up-and-put-on-cosplay routine. Yeh. We'll see if I will be there on Sunday at all.. and if I am I might just wear a random kimono.
First of all, this Animecon 'commercial' video has been stuck in my head for months and, after having seen it for the first time a bit before Chibicon in Oulu, it sure subconsciously dug it's way into my brain and did what it was supposed to do.. namely making me want to go to Animecon. Yeah, now the con trip to Animecon has been done and I'm back scratching my ass at home. So yeah, here is my summary of the con in Kuopio ~
On Friday around maybe 11:00 something (I dunno, later than we had originally planned at least xD) me, mom and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli started the car journey from Tornio to Kuopio. It went smooth until around mid-way when it started to rain a lot. Oh well, the rain just made us drive slower but we got to the hotel safely - Rauhalahti spa hotel. We booked the hotel pretty late because originally me and my twin had planned to go together to Kuopio by train, but err, it fucked up because when mom had decided to order the train tickets the super cheap campaign price had disappeared (around 140 € for both of us, two-way ticket) and it would have now cost 280 €. Fuck that robbery price I say.
So yeah, mom figured she could go with us and drive there because it would be cheaper and well, Kuopio luckily isn't that far away. Also mom would get some spa vacation at the hotel while me and Jäätynyt Enkeli derped at the con, a win-win situation. Oh well, when we got our hotel room (112 lol) we dumped our stuff there and soon went to eat dinner buffet at the hotel and after that back into the hotel room and chill and sleep. Oh and they showed the movie 300 on the night..
THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAA!!!1!!!11
Saturday
Saturday morning, me and my twin woke up 07:00. Well, I actually woke around 05:00 because mom was snoring like a lumber mill. -.- We quickly dressed in normal clothes and went to eat hotel breakfast. After that we went back to the hotel room and changed into our Saturday cosplays; I cosplayed kimono!Masamune Date for the first time and my twin cosplayed Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia, his signature cosplay. When we were done the clock was just past 09:00 and after having gone to the reception and learned that the busses to the square/centrum leave 08:00, 09:00, 10:00 etc fuck.. missed it by mere minutes we stood outside the hotel and looked for some people my twin knew. We didn't see them but a random English speaking tourist came up to me in front of the hotel and asked what was going on with the weirdly dressed people. I explained and he seemed interested. Oh, and one thing, it felt like many hotel visitors stared at me, mostly because I had an eyepatch. xD
When the clock was close to 10:00 a wild mom appeared and she was walking towards the car. Seemed like mom had already had breakfast and decided to drive us to the con after all. Sweet. When we were sitting in the car and I was derping with the Kuopio city map a random lady from the car in front of us came up to mom and asked if we were going to Animecon, obviously we were. lol So she said she already knew where it was and that we could just drive after her. Yay!
Soon we were at the con and I immediately found Jäärä standing with some other people. After a while of standing there I noticed someone with a FBI vest walking towards us - Ri-kun.
The rest of the con day was random walking around with friends, looking at the merchandise, buying Japanese candy and some mangas and having a Sengoku Basara photoshoot. I didn't attend any panels because I'm lazy. derp
Back at the hotel later we went to eat, again at the hotel's restaurant. This time we were too late for the buffet so we ate pizza instead. I was still in Masamune cosplay (my twin had changed to normal clothes) and when we walked to an eating table we passed by some people eating there and I heard them say something "Masamune", trololo~
Later Ri-kun came visiting at our hotel and we talked and they got to eat the other half of my pizza. xD
Sunday
We woke up 07:30 I think and this time mom ate hotel breakfast at the same time as we did. After we got back to the hotel room it was time to put on Sunday's cosplays. I cosplayed Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan and my twin cosplayed Keisuke Sannan from the same series. I had to help my twin dress in kimono, tie kaku obi and hakama and do the make-up for him too before I could start putting my own cosplay on. -.- Oh well, we were done a bit before 10:00 (con opening time) and we had also packed our luggage because we wouldn't be coming back to the hotel anymore after the con. We took with us some bags and left them at the car and mom drove us again to the con. As soon as we arrived to the con Chizuru (Jäärä) appeared and soon my double Saitou (Ri-kun) did too. We Saitous brofisted each other as promised and went on to find the others of our Hakuouki group. I must say Sunday was the better day of the con for me because I really enjoyed hanging around with all the Hakuouki peeps and the photoshoot was so hilarious and funny. XD I hope I get to see all those (drunk) gay pairing photos, Chizuru more-or-less romantic park bench photos and everything. So much fun!! :'DDD
Here's one of the photos I took during the Hakuouki photoshoot:
Because it's fun to pretend to be drunk and gay XD
(Jozo-dono as Hijikata, Ri-kun as Saitou, Chooichi as Okita and Zkitsune as Harada)
Ighjdgskgsgdksagk, I want to see the photos everyone else took! Gief them nooow! ~~
Needless to say I had a crapload of fun during the Sunday and I hope we will have Hakuouki groups a lot in the future too! <3
Oh well, everything fun ends and mom decided to be a joykiller and call me one hour before the con ended. "I'm there in 10 minutes, get ready to leave ololol". At least it didn't bother me that much this time because a lot of my friends had already left. I figured there wasn't much to do because mom didn't want to drive all night so yeah, tried to enjoy the last minutes of the con (at least my earlier lung derps had eased..) and then it was time to say goodbye to Kuopio, Mira-kunand Ri-kun and step into the car.. in cosplay. Yes. I figured half-way at the con that neither me nor my twin would be able to change back into normal clothes (as we had planned in the morning) because we both were wearing vintage silk kimonos as part of our cosplays and well, idiot me had forgotten my tatoshi (kimono wrapping paper) in the bottom of our luggage that was in mom's car's tailgate. Fail. Oh, and it wouldn't have worked anyway because I cringe of the thought of having to fold a kimono on the (toilet) floor... So yeah, needless to say the 5-7 car trip back home was in cosplay. At least Saitou cosplay is comfortable so I didn't really mind... until we had to stop at an ABC gas station/restaurant to eat and.. well, there was always someone staring at us, even when we sat down eating everytime I would look up I saw a pair of eyes looking at me. lol
Oh, and one last thing.. on the car trip back home we drove by this one small parking/resting place in the road that well... had the same name as my surname LOL. We had to stop and then Saitou (me) ran out and crossed the car road, with a camera in hand, and took some photos of the road sign and went back inside the car. XD Wonder what the people driving past thought when they saw a random kimono weirdo taking photos of a road sign...
