Forest fungus, Super Mario and sushi - Oulun Animeseminaari 2012

Yesterday night I got back home from Oulu, where I spent last weekend attending Oulu's anime seminar event. It was a rather small event (or well, the building it was held in was rather not-so-roomy) and had the same feeling to it like Kemi's comic days have, namely that chill and relaxed hang-around-with-your-friends feel.

Only photo I have of my company during the con, derp too. Taken by my aunt.
• Chizuru (Sairu-chan), hakama!Saitou (me) and prison!Rukia (Jäätynyt Enkeli) •

I cosplayed the casual/plain clothes version of Saitou (aka hakama edition) both days, it was comfortable to wear and derp around in; I'm happy I didn't take a more complicated cosplay with me, there was rather few cosplayers (and photographers) running around so it would have felt pretty 'meh' to spend a long time getting ready when it felt like most people were there just to hang out rather than to put on their most flashy cosplays and take photos of others. Luckily I had my new friends to hang around with all day so it was a certainly positive experience.. even though Saturday was so fucking hot (big glass windows + sun = everyone is boiling inside) I would have died had I not taken with me my cheap-ass fan from Thailand. Phew. Luckily Sunday was better, not too hot but not too cold either.

So, eh, what more to say? I don't know.. I had a fun time. Vinkee fiilis tulee metsäsienistä ~~
On Saturday me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan went to troll around the city in cosplay, mostly to try and find a restaurant and a food store. We obviously got some stares, along with comments mainly I overheard after we had passed by, like "Oh, Japanese..?" and a father seemingly telling his children "Some kind of samurai gang". We all three were wearing kimono outfits, me being the only one with autenthic vintage pieces though. *points at photo up there*
When we got to the sushi bar at the top floor of Stockmann the one Japanese chef/bar holder/whatever well, when we stood outside and looked at the menu he came outside the sushi bar and spotted us. Later inside it felt like he looked at us pretty.. I don't know. XD His expression didn't really change but he looked at us every now and then. lol Not everyday random gaijin walk in dressed like that..

Hmmm.. I don't have so much more to say. I derped a lot with my new friends and I mostly just hung around with them all day. There wasn't really that much to do at the event so I can imagine that if you didn't have any friends with you you might have gotten bored pretty fast. *shrugs*
Oh well, I had a great time nonetheless and will be going again if this event will be held again; an anime event that close to me (yes, 100 km is close..) with free entrance is awesome, be it small or not!
Also it was a blast sleeping over at my aunt's place well, I have many aunts butbut. She is generally awesome and she even had a Nintendo Wii so me and my twin played some New Super Mario Bros. Wii there. So much fun because neither of us two had played it before... so we failed a lot and did lots of derp mistakes. xD Even though we are gamers olololo ~

That's it, a second hakama!Saitou photoshoot [feat. Oulu] will be posted soon!

Repairing vintage hakama

Konnichiwa!

Remember those dark brown vintage hakama I used for Kondou and will use this weekend for art/collector book Saitou too? Well, during the Saitou photoshoot a few days ago when I crouched down I noticed there was three holes on the hakama that would need to be repaired before Oulun Animeseminaari. One couldn't see that there was holes if I was just standing or walking slowly, but if I sat down, crouched or just did basically anything that makes hakama spread everywhere then.. yeah. Oh, and I don't mean a hole in the way that it's in the middle of the fabric or something, I mean a hole like where two fabric pieces were stitched together and the stitching holding them together is coming loose... look, my English is so wonderful, I'm not even sure what that's called, if anything. So yeah, I decided to fix my hakama in shape before the event.

But.

I went to town today and visited four sewing supply/fabric stores asking for silk thread.. no one carried it. One of the sellers at one of the shops even said "you're the first person even asking for silk thread this year". So... yeah. The fuck.

Oh well. Back home I figured I would just have to suck it up and use normal sewing thread instead, even though silk thread would have been preferred...
   At first I hesitated sewing because I wasn't sure how the hakama were sewn and well, I'd hate myself forever if I messed up any traditional Japanese clothing because I have such a deep love for them.

I thought if there was any 'quick fixes' but all the ideas I came up with where... eh... let's say barbaric. I then decided to examine the stitches on the hakama and noticed they were super simple... then I proceeded to feel stupid. OTL With a sewing needle in hand I started working ~

Started hand-sewing...

Done
(flash photo, so bad lighting in my room)

It didn't take me long time to sew shut all three holes. Now my hakama look presentable again and I can go and rock them at the event without having to feel embarrassed all day and wonder if anyone notices the holes or not. Oh, and now I can sit down too whenever my feet decide to kill me. Sweet.

Now it's time to start packing my stuff for the weekend, bye bye ~

When Saitou decided he needed pants too...

 Hello to everyone!

So today after a lot of "but I waaaaant to have a cosplay photoshoot today" whining to my twin he finally agreed to be my photographer, but he didn't cosplay because his next cosplay isn't quite finished yet. So I tried on my casual/plain clothes version Saitou cosplay to see that everything worked together before the coming debut at Oulun Animeseminaari and of course to, well, have a photoshoot. Duuh.

Less talk, more photos!

hakama!Saitou preview galore!

Model: Valkoinen Samurai (Hajime Saitou)
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

And well, let's say it wasn't all pleasure taking photos... we were butchered by a swarm of mosquitos. Almost. So here's a few mosquito related derp shots ~

SMACK a mosquito.. without giving a flying fuck.

Lawdy lawd my foot is itching ~ *scratch scratch*

And lastly two (more) bonus pictures because I know everyone loves random derptacular crap, heuheuheuheuhe. In the middle of the shooting I noticed there was something in my kimono sleeve and I had no memory of it at all... so I decided "fuck the shoot, I must know NOW what it is".

FFFF what the fuck is inside my sleeve??

PAPER TOWELS! OM NOM NOM NOM

What is this I don't even....

That's it, I'm outta here!

Oulu, here I come!

I just bought the train tickets to Oulu so me and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli will attend the Oulun Animeseminaari event! Yay!

The problem relating to where we would sleep during the "con" has been solved. I didn't get contact with one of my cosplay friends in Oulu, whose place I (we..? ahah) had originally planned to sleep over at. Time was running out.. or well, time to buy these more or less cheaper 'advance tickets' was running out because VR stop selling them a week before the departure date. So today was the very last chance to buy train tickets cheaper for the Friday night departure and this meant that, because I didn't get in contact with said friend, we had to resort to use plan B.. aka asking one of mom's sisters who lives in Oulu if she would let us stay at her apartment during the weekend.
Jäätynyt Enkeli called her and it was green lights, much to our relief, even though her apartment is rather tiny. Oh well, a free sleeping place is worth being crammed like tuna in a can for!
Problem solved and now my appearance at Animeseminaari is secured!

My cosplay for the weekend -yes, just one cosplay- is still casual/plain clothes version Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. I don't think I can take with me another cosplay because I will share luggage with my twin during the weekend, herpderp ~

Sooooooooooo..

Watch out northern congoers, immah comin' like a DERP ~~

Remake, or not remake?

So err, earlier this week me, my mom and my twin went to Eurokangas in town to check if they had some stuff we needed. Eurokangas has a huge sale going on because they will move to another local in town and this is the last week the sale is going on.

While wandering around I spotted in those random "fabric leftover" boxes a very pale light purple fabric... and my thoughts immediately went to my sick!Okita cosplay. I think that's about the same shade of purple that I had used. I have no clue how much fabric that piece consisted of or how much it cost though. I'm wondering should I buy it and remake my Okita kimono? I'm not satisfied with the one I made to Desucon because it was so rushed and there's just so many things gone wrong with it... lining cut too short, cutting mistake ending in seams at a "not accurate" place, too short (especially annoying/embarrassing in my eyes because I do kimono kitsuke) etc. BUT. I'm not sure will I wear this version of Okita to another con (read: I have too much cosplay plans and too few cons to wear them too) even if I did a remake. While I did like wearing it -and I can imagine myself wearing a remade version- I can almost bet on that the day I make his wafuku and western versions those will take its place. Although I still want to do a sick!Okita photoshoot.

So... I'm rather perplexed, should I buy that fabric and remake it if there's enough of it and it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg or should I save that money in favor of future cosplays and just do the photoshoot with the fail!kimono I already have?

By the way, for your information that shade of purple is a bitch to find at least in my hometown and neighbor town, hence why I can't decide should I pass it up or buy it now when I got the chance to remake it.

That's all.

I heard a Chizuru will attend Animeseminaari...

And thus I think my Oulun Animeseminaari cosplay plans got changed.
I have a feeling I might not get my wig for Bakumatsu Renka Shingengumi Saitou in time and I'd rather cosplay with a wig even though my real hair would work decently for him. Yeah. So I figured I will postpone him for a later con and now do a Hakuouki cosplay to accompany said Chizuru, who, is a person I know from the "cons"/anime events in northern Finland.

Sooooo, I'm not too keen to cosplay Hakuouki Saitou's shinsengumi kimono version because I've been cosplaying it quite a lot at the latest cons and well, I have a love-hate relationship with that scarf. lol
So in the middle of last night, before I fell asleep, I suddenly got enlightened about what I could cosplay instead and already had everything I needed for!

I'm not sure what this version is called but it seems to go by something like casual/plain clothes version.. at least according to the names of the plushies wearing these alternative outfits. Most male characters in Hakuouki seem to have one of these different clothing versions.
I want to do this because I already have everything I need for it and I won't need to have a battle royale with that motherfucking scarf during two days, trololo. Hopefully people will still recognize me as Saitou though.. we'll see. I will carry with me two swords of course.. on the right side like he does.

If I go to Oulun Animeseminaari..

.. I think I know who to cosplay there!

Oulun Animeseminaari is held during 18-19 August and well, because it's in Oulu (read: pretty close to me), has free entrance and I think I might be able to sleep over at a friend's place.. well, why not? I would only need to pay for the train tickets to get there and back. Besides today I checked when my school starts and it seems to be 20th August so mom can't use the "you can't go because you're gonna miss school" card.. and you don't have school during weekends anyway lol, but I know she means if I go there on Friday or/and come back on Monday.. but because it's close I need not take extra days I think.

So yeah, for quite some time ago I've been interested in Bakumatsu Shinsengumi Renka (or is it Bakumatsu Koi Hana? I don't know, but I see BRS used much more often..) because, err, shinsengumi, do I really need another reason? xD It's a semi-unknown otome game/virtual novel only released in Japan.. again I'm planning to cosplay some obscure stuff no-one knows in Finland. Oh well, today I randomly found the manga translated to English online and while I was terribly bored I figured "why not?" and read it, at least I would get some knowledge about the series even though there's only one volume of the manga and the game is probably much more deeper than the manga. *shrugs*
I can't say the manga was bad, but I can't say it was OMFG awesome either, worth a read though and quite funny sometimes. Basically it's like a more light fluffy not-so-serious romantic version of Hakuouki where no one dies, heck, there's hardly any fights. I found it enjoyable and it was quite funny to notice that pretty much all the characters had the exact same personalities like in Hakuouki.. except Kondou who was a womanizer and had a white-pink kimono with flowers on.. and is blonde. lol Didn't see that coming.

...
Whoops, I ended up rambling about Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi when I was supposed to reveal my cosplay plans for Oulun Animeseminaari, if I can go there.
So err, I had planned to cosplay this guy:

Hajime Saitou from Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi

Yup, that's what Saitou looks like in BRS. Here's a manga page too, because everyone looks older and cooler and hotter in the manga:

(I erased the text)

At least based on the manga Saitou was my favorite, followed by Hijikata. He has pretty much exactly the same personality as in Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan, he is the distant lone wolf of the group and hard to read because he doesn't really show emotions.. until he trusts someone.
Okita sadly got almost no screentime.. or should I say pagetime. ;_; Except the last chapter.. or well, I think it was more like an bonus story because it said 'the end' earlier on the chapter before it. Oh well ~

It would be an easy cosplay and it seems pretty comfortable to move around in too, although I will add swords to it. I figured I could maybe use one of my vintage kimonos for him too.. it isn't the right color (although the color and patterns, if any at all, varies from picture to picture...) but it has vertical 'spray'-like pattern.. kinda like he does on that official art photo. Note how in the manga his kimono is plain.
My kimono is not super accurate but close enough I guess.. and it's not like anyone will know who I am anyway. xD Besides I've checked those few cosplayers who've done him on Curecos.. no one had a perfect kimono either what I could see, everyone seemed to just use a close-enough one. lol

My kimono in question looks like this:

(photo by the seller)

If I decide to use this one I just need to make that purple loose armless shirt whatever-it-is, a glove and an obi.. because his obi is weird pattern-wise and I can't find anything similar to it online... and green kaku obi's are rare anyway. The rest I have at home... oh, and a wig I need to buy.

I think I'm only going to bring one cosplay to Animeseminaari, it doesn't seem to be a big event and it's chill to just have one cosplay = less stuff to take with me and remember to take back home. lol

See ya!