Nordsken 2023 – This is not the way

 Hello nerds!

This year is almost over but I still managed to cram in one more event into my list. I just got back home from my first Nordsken which was held on 28-29th December in Skellefteå, Sweden. Nordsken started its life as a LAN event and then it slowly incorporated other aspects of nerd culture into its existence as it grew over the years. This year, as far as I know, was the first time Nordsken was a free entrance event and that's partly the reason why I was lulled over to take a look.

Let's move on to the summary!

Nordsken 2023 official poster.

I wouldn't have been able to even attend Nordsken if it wasn't because my friends Sallukka and Dongrieg were going too and I managed to hitch a ride, tysm! ;u; I woke up early af on Thursday morning (4 hours of sleep woo!) and prepared myself for departure. Yes, the con was actually held on a Thursday and Friday and not on a weekend as is customary. I think we left a little bit before 8:00 and the drive down to Skellefteå took roughly 4 hours more or less. Once we arrived at Skellefteå we found a suitable parking spot without too much difficulties thankfully and headed straight into Sara Kulturhus where Nordsken was held this year.
I went casual this time because I didn't feel up to cosplaying and, in hindsight, I'm so relieved I didn't bother because it wouldn't have been worth the effort.

Sara Kulturhus.

The con building is located smack dab in the middle of centrum and it stands out because of how tall it is and how it's all wood and glass, it looks quite modern and inviting. I was a bit perplexed though by how there were no outside signs nor posters at the entrance telling you that Nordsken was held inside.

View directly from the entrance.

One thing I immediately noticed was that there was a library in the same building and it took up a majority of the base floor and the rest belonged to a restaurant to the right side of the entrance. Nordsken's cloakroom was on the base floor behind the main stairs and that's where we headed to drop off our jackets. I had to return a second time to the cloakroom because of that silly and very unconventional new rule in Sweden which states that you're forbidden from carrying any kind of bags in events over a certain size and yeah, I wasn't even allowed to bring my camera bag upstairs. So uh, you had to come prepared and have pockets on your clothes to be able to carry your most vital belongings with you (phone, wallet, glasses etc). My personal opinion is that this enforced rule is ridiculous but I understand it's done by the Swedish police department because of the currently raised terrorism threat level nationally. This is not something unique to Nordsken nor something they had contol over but yeah, it's a rule that complicates things unnecessarily and made for example shopping awkward because you couldn't even bring tote bags or anything to carry your purchases in.

General view of the main area on the upper floor.

General view of the main area, one of the vendors to the left.

Skellefteå map made in lego near the entrance to the main area.

As soon as we got upstairs we were overwhelmed by how horrendously overcrowded it was! It was difficult to even move or check anything out because people were crammed everywhere and bumping into you constantly and it was just way too much to handle. I felt really anxious because I kept losing track of my friends even when I looked away for just a few seconds and it could take many minutes to find them again in the constant barrage of people. I literally wondered if it's even legal to have so many people inside the building at the same time, I mean imagine if for example the fire alarm went off and they'd have to evacuate – it would create chaos and massive bottlenecks and people would get trampled over in the panicked frenzy. Surely every public building has an allowed max capacity in place for safety reasons? I mean for real, there were several instances on Thursday when I couldn't even move at all because the main hall was too fucking full and it was honestly an awful first impression of Nordsken and just made me want to leave and not look back. I seriously wonder why there wasn't any limits put in place on how many people were allowed into the upper floor at any one time...

In the upper floor immediately after the stairs there was also a little cafeteria and tables where you could build lego together with others or play oversized versions of games like four-in-a-row and such. It was pretty cool because Nordsken offered quite many ways for visitors to socialize while also being entertained simultaneously.

General view of the back half of the main area.

Lego build display at the back half of the main area.

The main hall was split to one half being mostly vendors (think Dealer's Hall) and the other half being for association booths and workshops, exhibitions and some activities like the ice hockey games on the photo above. Some of the association booths were clearly aimed for the younger audience, for example one let you paint your own t-shirt and another one was a workshop for badges and a third one let children color in papers with printed lineart of popular characters on it. There were also some aimed for younger adults and late teens like one booth that looked like some kind of animation sfx studying opportunity? I personally got the feeling that the whole event felt more like a "look at this local culture thing X we offer" exposure exhibition rather than a typical geek convention. Especially because it felt very strongly marketed for kids and adolescents over the adult population, which honestly felt a bit weird because I bet a majority of the visitors were adults. One clear example of this is that there was a cosplay competition for kids but none for adults like what in the actual fudge is dis?? Yeah I know I'm starting to sound like a grumpy old man here but it was honestly pretty mindboggling how it felt like adults were lowkey sidelined in favor of children. Like I understand you want to involve kids into creative culture and get them involved in local clubs and shit and that's wonderful, really, but please show the same energy for the grown-up nerds too.

 

Pokémon themed photo booth.

Swedish Garrison (501st Legion) Star Wars booth.

Star Wars themed photo booth.

My favorite thing at the con was the 501st Legion's get-to-know-us-and-what-we-do booth and display near the entrance on the main area. For those not in the know the 501st Legion is a global fan-based organization consisting of screen-accurate Star Wars costumers and they generally make volunteer appearances in promotional and charity events. The Swedish Garrison is the name of the local unit based in Sweden and they focus on charity work like showing up in costumes to children's hospitals and donating money to good causes. It's honestly both awesome and wholesome. There were different characters present on both days and you could pose with them for pictures together and ask about the group, how to join if interested and such. The costumes are really amazing up close!

There was also this Star Wars themed photo booth just next to the 501st Legion's display where anyone could borrow a jedi robe and a light saber (free of charge) and take photos together and there were cool props like tie fighters in the background too!

General view of the corridor passageway on the upper floor.

 

The main area on the upper floor hosted essentially the whole event including all the vendors, photo booths and association tables. If you walked past this one corridor pictured above you found some LARP association booths at the end of it and this one dark room (it was a cinema saloon) filled with retro video games and a few arcade pinball machines. The gaming room had surprisingly good air circulation and by that I mean it didn't smell like sweaty nerd cave deluxe the moment you stepped in lol.

 

Nerd warning! :D

Arcade pinball machines.

The gaming lair was pretty awesome because it consisted of a generous array of the retro gaming consoles of yesteryear. There were a lot of NES, Super Nintendos and other oldies. I think the newest console I saw in there was a Nintendo Gamecube or Nintendo Wii? Which are both considered old by today's standards. Fuck I aged like 20 years just by writing that. It would have been nice to stay and play a bit but as you can see on the photo it was crammed in there too so yeah, no chance unless you were willing to wait for an unknown time. 

One of the few LARP booths.

At the end of the corridor were a few LARP booths to educate and lure over visitors into this hobby. One table was medieval themed and had some outfits on display and the other was this friendly woman dressed as a witch who offered you mysterious elixirs in return for a high five. It was clearly meant to invoke a casual imaginary session where you got a little brightly colored drink mixed for you that gave some kind of supernatural quirks. I got a kraken slime drink blend that was supposed to make me hot but mean. xD

Because of the crowding issue it was really hard and uncomfortable to try to browse any of the shops in the main area and thus I didn't end up buying anything. I gotta say though that based on what I heard from Sallukka and Dongrieg it sounded like this iteration of Nordsken was notably poorer in the vendor department, apparently there were a lot fewer sellers this year and several other interesting booths and activities were completely missing. I can't really compare because I didn't visit Nordsken last year myself but it sure sounds like this year was a disappointment for many with previous Nordsken experience. I gotta admit that we didn't stay very long on Thursday and that's because there were simply too many people for its own good and we were overall quite disappointed.
One of the bigger issues was the clearly false information on the website about there being an Artist's Alley but in reality it was just a few artworks on display in that corridor I mentioned earlier. I mean it was literally called Artist's Alley on the site but there were no sellers, just an unmanned tiny art display and that was so fucking disappointing like holy shit. I mean for real, dunno if it was intentional or not but it seemed like whoever was in charge of the website didn't know what Artist's Alley means in con speech – it's not a literal artist's alley but artists selling their self-made artsy stuff! If what you have is an art display then, for the love of god, just call it exactly that –an art display or art exhibition or whatever– instead of baiting people with misleading connotations.

Super Mario Wonder demo booths.

We left Nordsken early on Thursday, after having spent between one or two hours in there. We just were really let down and yeah, going out to visit Café på Bit in town and then going out for dinner was a lot more appealing to us at this point. I've never visited said café before but it was honestly super cool – it's like a mix of a video game store and a cafeteria that also has a lounging area where visitors can pay a fee to play retro consoles, VR or arcade machines and there's also tables for board games and card games. Yes, you can play for hours or even book the whole evening if you want. Basically it's nerd heaven and a must visit if you're in Skellefteå!

Café på Bit entrance view. <3

Honestly I loved that place, it was so cozy and unapologetically geeky and I want one to pop up in my home town now lol. You guys and gals and thems who live in Skellefteå need to make sure that this business stays afloat, you have no idea how lucky you are to have such an unique experience in town! If it dies I'm gonna legit cry fr.

After our nerd stop we went back to Nordsken for some unknown reason and this time we entered through one of the other staircases which, weirdly enough, wasn't even guarded by any of the crew members. None of us bothered to drop off our jackets or stuff because we were just going for a quick shopping run and well, I was a criminal because I had my camera bag on yet I wasn't stopped or told to remove it. I saw several crew workers on the upper floor but no one seemed to care and I also saw numerous other visitors with bags and carrying cases in the upper floor (where bags were forbidden) so yeah, it seemed like they stopped giving a fuck at some point or not enough workers to guard all possible entrances to the upper floor. Either way I couldn't help but notice the inconsistency.

Maginarium's vendor table.

Café på Bit's vendor table.

Legend's vendor table.

Retrobokklubben's vendor table.

After our quick sneak attack to grab some D&D dices we then exited the con to check out an electronics store for more video games and after that we all concluded that we were hungry and so it was time to do like the Turtles do and stuff our faces full with pizza. At this point we had also kidnapped a Swede from Nordsken and so our otherwise Finnish gang was one nerd stronger now; he was really funny though and I totally understand why he's a friend of Sallukka and Dongrieg.

This pizzeria was our chosen target.

After we ate and returned our voluntarily abducted Swede to the streets we headed for our airbnb stay. It was a nice apartment near the campus area and we spent the rest of the night watching Scooby-Doo and playing card games together. It was cozy and fun and we had a good time!

On Friday morning we had to leave the accommodation at 11:00 and then we headed back to Nordsken to give it a second chance. We were not too hyped considering yesterday's unenjoyable experience but we wanted to check the vendors a bit better and so we returned to Sara Kulturhus. I was in my mind already dreading another instance of being stuffed like sardines in a can but when we passed through the entrance it looked like there were less people around. We dropped off our jackets and headed up and I think we all collectively gasped in relief when we saw that there was an agreeable amount of people upstairs. One could actually see what was in front now! It wasn't crammed to hell and back! A miracle had happened!
No but really, this significantly improved my experience and I think the other two agree as well. Otherwise Friday had pretty much the same activities as Thursday except for the addition of a cross between a visitors' thrift store and a pseudo Artist's Alley appearing in the corridor. Maybe it appeared already later on Thursday but when we were around it wasn't there at least. It was just a few tables but because there were so few vendors to begin with anything extra was very much welcome in my opinion.

I'm such a nerd but I had to have a photo with the 501st!
(sorry phone quality, didn't have my camera on Friday)

Because Friday wasn't so crammed me and Sallukka actually managed to snag a 10 minute demo session at the Nintendo Switch promotional booth to play some Super Mario Wonder together. Neither of us had played it before and it was genuinely fun and now I want to buy the game even more!
We didn't stay very long on Friday either although this time we utilized the cafeteria in the building and my two dice goblin friends bought some more dices lol. After we were satisfied we went for some sushi nearby and then we went for some desserts at Café på Bit in town again and after that it was time to steer the car back up north and leave Skellefteå behind.

I can't stress it enough how much better the whole experience got once you actually could move around freely and didn't constantly have people walking into you from all possible directions. Now I even got that con feeling to rear its head a little although the low amount of vendors was still a big mood bummer because yeah, I didn't find any loot to buy and it feels weird to return from a con empty-handed.
Of course I still feel like Nordsken has a lot of improvements to make for next year but Friday elevated my score from massive disappointment to okay-ish. I was told all the awesome stuff Nordsken had at 2022 so of course I was disappointed when a lot of the hyped up things were completely absent but I'm happy with some of the stuff we got like obviously the 501st Legion, the Super Mario Wonder demos and the gaming room with a delicious selection of oldies. For a free event it was a decent experience I guess (especially if you are new to this kind of stuff) but for veteran congoers it felt off as several key activities were missing and there were some other issues too like poor information and lack of signs. I kinda got the impression that Nordsken blew its budget on a few things and then had to cut a lot of corners elsewhere, if that makes sense? I can only imagine the excellency of the 2022 edition and I do hope that what we got now was a test-run on a new formula and that they learn from their mistakes and return to the glory they had because apparently Nordsken 2022 had all the good things 2023 had plus much more. I also feel like Sara Kulturhus might not have been a very good host building – it has a good central location and it looks pretty with decent air circulation but that's about it, the layout is awkward and made the event feel incoherent and scattered and the lack of signing made it worse. But most of all it felt like the building was way too small for the event. I also have this gnawing feeling in my butt that I probably missed some activities simply because I didn't know where they were; I didn't even see a map anywhere.

I'm sorry if this comes across as overly negative (and trust me when I say that it feels bad to be a critic) but yeah, the event just didn't live up to my expectations after having looked forward to it for so long. I'm not gonna give up on Nordsken though, I do wish and hope for it to improve and am willing to return for a second take. We need all the geek events we can get in the north so anything that scratches that itch will be on my radar even though I'm cautiously optimistic for now.

Thanks for reading, stay nerdy out there!
Shiro Samurai out~

Lens review: ColourVue Crazy Lens Blue Flower

 Happy Sunday folks!

I'm here to, once again, share a lens review. This time it's the ColourVue Crazy Lens Blue Flower on the plate and without further ramblings, let's dig into it!

Ya hi hoo~

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm Water content: 45%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Okay so, I remember I had no plan when I originally bought these – just a spur of the moment thing because they were on sale and I saw Swedish Pagans colors or something lol. Then again, the design with the pointy flower pattern is quite spicy and I think that might have roped me in to try these. I can't deny that these are kinda pretty and ugly at the same time like me so I just had to see what they would look like. 

One lens in.

Hmm... virus eyes anyone? The yellow color doesn't show up as brightly as one might expect but the color payout overall is still rather intense. The blue color is crisp and unnatural while the yellow almost looks more green hued once worn, on light eyes at least. There's some very slight enlargement effect, although it doesn't make itself very noticeable due to the lack of limbal ring definition. Regardless it's a funky and rather fun lens with a whimsy take on it.

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during approaching sunset with partly cloudy weather. All close-ups are free from color filters and the like and that's so that the colors would appear as true to life as possible.

 

Natural room light, indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo, indoors.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Unlit corridor, weak distant natural light.

Outdoors, back against sun. (facing wall)

Facing the sun while standing under the roof's shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

These were also part of the oopsie box that I forgot for years. For more info please just check almost literally any other non-sponsored lens review I've done in the last few years but yeah, essentially these lenses were expired by the time I did the review – hence why I can't grade comfort fairly as I only wore them for a very short time. What little I can say about the comfort and my first and only time wearing these lenses is that they felt thin, comfy overall and I didn't feel like I had lenses on. Due to the narrow pupil hole I did experience colored corners at the edges of my vision but that's normal with crazy lenses as they typically have a much narrower pupil opening than contemporary circle lenses, for example. Besides, it's something you get accustomed to over time and it's mostly only noticeable in poor indoor lights and such.

I don't think I have so much more to say about these lenses, they're funky and weird and in all their little quirkiness I don't see why some alt folks wouldn't go gaga over these. It's not my first pick for special effects lenses but sometimes curiosity gets the better of you and you just got to try something different, you know? Anyways, these can be a fun addition to spice up some youthful rebel looks and what-have-you. Be bold, be colorful, be brave ~

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 6/10 

There's a bright, medium blue and a star-shaped center that should be screamo yellow but turns a bit greenish in my gray-blue eyes. Still looks pretty rad though.

Design: 5/10 

It's a very simple and crude flower-like design. Only two colors but it delivers a punch of fun.

Opacity: 7/10

This will change your eye color definitely and it will look crazy but there seems to be some slight transparency as the colors seem affected, to some degree, by what your natural eye color is.

Enlargement: 2/10 

The enlargement effect is negligible and not eye-catching due to the lack of limbal ring definition.

Comfort: 7/10 

Thin and I didn't feel them at all, save for colored corners but that's standard with narrow pupil hole lenses. Comfy.

Naturalness: 1/10 

Obviously these are not natural at all. I don't think I need to explain why.

Thanks for reading my blog, have a pleasant day!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Matsucon 2023 – Gamer panic and gamer bliss

Hello geeks, spooks and cheeky pumpkins!

 

I was at Matsucon this past weekend and I'm here to tell you all about my latest con trip, woo! For those not in the know Matsucon is an annual anime convention in Oulu, northern Finland, and this year's edition was held on 28-29th October – which makes it coincide with Halloween. This mashup was visible in the decorations like a Gengar plush at the info desk, pumpkins on promotional material etc and added an extra layer of fun and festive atmosphere. After all, most people with a geeky bone in their body also tend to enjoy Halloween because of reasons (dressing up, dark/creepy aesthetics, supernatural stuff etc) so there's a lot of overlap and yeah, I personally find it a good call that Matsucon incorporated Halloween elements into their set this year.

But enough ramblings so let's go~

Matsucon information booklet.

I left for Oulu on Friday afternoon and my travel companion for the con was Firith. We had booked a Sokos hotel room for the weekend and that meant I didn't hijack my aunt's apartment this time lol. The hotel room was tar themed and quite nice and we spent Friday night just destressing and preparing for the con. Oh, and eating the dinner buffet at Itsudemo aka stuffing our faces way too full with sushi and honey cake.

Our tar themed hotel room. Me like.

I had applied for a con volunteer position prior which meant I was part of the work force and I just so happened to have the first morning shift so yeah, I had to be at the con 9:30 in the morning. My original plan was to cosplay on Saturday and go casual on Sunday. Yeah I know, I didn't do a cosplay plans post before the con and that's simply because I didn't decide until last minute on what to wear. ^^" Oh well, when Saturday morning came I felt quite uncomfortable with the idea of cosplaying because of practical, physical and mental reasons and so I ended up going casual.

Thanks to my phone's GPS flipping its shit around (and messing up my efforts to use Google Maps for navigation) I ended up taking detours through Oulu's centrum while I tried to waddle my way to Pohjankartano where Matsucon was held.
I found my way inside the building, claimed my worker's badge and scurried up the stairs for the work briefing before my shift would start at 10. I had applied to work at the gaming room, which meant my shifts consisted of a lot of nostalgy-fueled sounds Tetris music rentfree in your head anyone? and assisting willing gamers in any way needed – sometimes it was just inviting curious onlookers to come play, sometimes explaining how a game works or assisting in how to play 8-bit Super Mario and other times just being there for company or playing versus games with a lone gamer. It was a very nice, feel-good job and not too stressful.

 

The gaming room, my workplace.

My first shift ended at 12 and after that I was free to roam the con for four hours before my second shift for the day would start. Somewhere around this point I contacted Firith to ask if he was already at the con because there had just been an announcement that the Saturday tickets were sold out at the door. This surprised me because of how early it happened but yeah, thankfully Firith reminded me that he had pre-ordered his tickets already a long time ago so there was no panic.

 

My original plan was that I wanted to attend the Studio Ghibli concert that started at 12 but when I found the room that it was held in a few minutes past it was already locked. That was quite the bummer as I remember other cons where you could still enter if you were a bit late. Oh well, no can do.
I went back to buzz around the main area and quickly checked through the sellers and did a first run at the Artist's Alley by myself. I did run into Sallukka and their boyfriend Dongrieg and we swapped some words and after that I soon found Firith as well. Both friends were about to participate in the cosplay competition and were waiting for their turn with the judges so I left them to vibe together while I hurried over to the Green Room. I had gamer responsibilities to do.

Near entrance view of Matsucon. Dealer's Hall area.

Dealer's Hall.

More Dealer's Hall. There was this seller with only Genshin merch!

MION's booth, the Guest of Honor. There was always a line to meet her.

Dealer's Hall view from upstairs.

Before Matsucon I ran into a huge issue. A huge dilemma for a gamer. You see, I've been playing World of Warships: Legends almost since it launched (I'd call myself a better than average player, I currently hold the world record for highest damage game in premium battleship Nassau #flex) and these past 4 weeks there had been a daily event with simple tasks that you need to do and if you completed every day without missing any you'd get an exclusive new commander and of course I had put a fair share of effort into completing these tasks... until I realized that the final two days of the event fell on the Matsucon weekend and if I missed these two then I'd miss out on the main reward and would basically have wasted 4 weeks of effort. *insert panik meme here*

I tried to think of all kinds of solutions before the con but everything fell through last minute (and I can't exactly drive 100 km home every day to go do my dailies and then drive all the way back to Oulu, especially when I don't even have a driving license) and I was desperate. So desperate I asked in the discord if I could somehow borrow a monitor at Matsucon if I brought my own PS4 with me to do the dailies during my off-time. It looked bleak at first but then I was recommended to ask Marko privately if he could bring a small screen to the Green Room. And it turns out that besides being the main technician he is also the Guardian Angel of All Gamers in Distress™ and said it was no problem to bring a monitor as he lived close. Bless his heart!

A gamer's gotta do what a gamer's gotta do.

Once I got done with my dailies I packed away my console and left it at the Narikka (cloakroom) for storage for the rest of the day. I gotta say I really enjoy being a worker nowadays because it also gives you access to the Green Room where you can go whenever to have a quick bite, drink tea or coffee and such and it just helps to make sure I don't get nauseous during cons because yeah, I have a bad habit of forgetting to drink and eat sufficiently. >_< Besides, to me it's fulfilling to volunteer because it's meaningful and so important –  if no one was willing to donate their time to make the con run smoothly then we'd soon have no cons because usually the organizations behind them are non-profit and are reliant on the goodwill of people to function and well, I find it very important that these kinds of events are held because a lot of those who have an interest in this kind of pop culture also often deal with difficulties to fit in elsewhere and might be vulnerable – cons might be their only safe spaces and where they feel they belong as their geeky, most authentic and colorful selves. This is based on my observations and experiences over the years and, although I'm not here to generalize, it does seem to me that groups that are minorities in society are the majorities in these pop culture spaces; cons seem to attract certain types of people who often share life experiences.

Okay, enough deep thinking there. Back on track!

My second work shift started at 16 and that of course meant that I couldn't go watch my friends at the cosplay competition. I did make sure to check on Firith multiple times during the day to make sure that he was okay as I knew he has been in a rough patch lately. I did hear later that Sallukka had won some honorary mention award at the competition for best accessory (I think?) so congrats to that!
My shift ended at 18 and that's roughly when the con closed and the party moved over to the night club (tickets were sold separately). I didn't have the mental energy nor interest for the afterparty so once my workday was over I met up with Firith and we called a taxi back to the hotel. Once at the hotel Firith peeled himself out of his cosplay and then we just relaxed for a bit before we met up with Sallukka and Dongrieg for a cup of coffee at the nearby Coffee House.

Lemon meringue cake, yum.

I had a pumpkin spice latte (yeah I'm slowly starting to enjoy some sweet coffees but the ordinary stuff is still yuck as fuck lmao) and a yummy cake with lemon curd! We just hung around for a while and talked about the day and such, just the whole chilling with the bros vibe ya know? After the coffee we wanted something more spicy and so went to a nearby karaoke bar and had a few drinks. Something funny happened at the bar too! So we had a table near a more quiet corner and were just having fun chats when suddenly this middle-aged lady appears out of thin air on my right side. I'm quite shook by the time I register that she's way into my personal space and she's like bending down slightly and tilting her head in this very observing-but-drunk-granny way (it's almost comical I tell you) and then she suddenly says "I have no idea who you all are, I've never seen any of you here before but I love all of you" and then she just up and leaves and we're all just sitting there like "????". XD

After the bar episode Sallukka and Dongrieg left for their hotel while me and Firith raided the Hesburger around the corner. Or more like Firith activated his unquenchable thirst for nuggets and I just tagged along. Then again, he had not eaten anything warm since the hotel breakfast so I can't blame him. xD

Back at the hotel we played on our Nintendo Switches and leisurely watched a movie on TV; it was a Finnish movie about a blind man and it was quite unsettling at times but the way they implemented the reality of blindness throughout the whole movie was genial. It's called The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic in English, do look it up if you're intrigued.

Sunday morning came and I slept rather poorly. I was quite anxious on the morning and debated whether I wanted to cosplay at all but I managed to get my shit together and cosplayed anyway. My outfit for the day is actually one of my very first cosplays but just reimagined – it's my original character Yuuto. I kept the main colors of his outfit the same (white kimono and indigo hakama) but compared to the first version I added more pieces to his outfit and changed the wig from a white bob to this silver-blue gradient wig in a similar cut. I did look for the original wig but could not find it anywhere, I think I might have sold it years ago. Anyway, this was a comfortable and simple cosplay to wear and, although I want to tweak it a little before I wear it again, I'm quite happy with the overall look. During the con I didn't wear the correct shoes though because yeah, it had snowed and I did not want to wear geta clogs in the snow.

My Sunday cosplay, OC Yuuto.
(photo by Firith)

On Sunday I also had the early morning shift at 10 but this time me and Firith could leave for the con together as he would not have to wait in the cold for 30 minutes before the doors open in a sleeveless dress that isn't even full length, like the case would have been on Saturday if we left at the same time.

I headed straight for the video games room again while Firith went his own ways. It was quite nice that some visitors from the day before came over on Sunday to play some more. But overall I can say that Sunday was a much more quiet day in the room and our assortment of Nintendo consoles also decreased by one around midday as the NES left the building, leaving the gaming room with a Switch, SNES and Wii. So yeah, there was 100% Nintendo dominance this year. And for those curious the games that were played the most were the Wii and Switch versions of the Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart series along with Tetris on the retro consoles.

At 12 my first shift ended and I had a spontaneous idea to go check out the "Kiss, Marry, Abyss" Genshin Impact program. I watched for a while while the panelist explained the rules but there were quite a lot of people and the whole setup looked rather overwhelming and so I lost interest and left. It seemed like the rules was that the room were split in three halves, one for each option (kiss, marry and kill) and you had to go stand in the right spot according to what you would do to the multiple characters shown on the screen. I was expecting it to be done by like a phone app or something and you would just click on options and then have the results shown on screen what everyone voted. Moving around the room might have worked, I don't really know cuz I didn't stay to watch how it actually unfolded but to me it looked like it would quickly become chaotic cuz there was a ton of chairs and other furniture everywhere (the room was a lecture/auditorium style room). The game's idea seemed fun though!

Artist's Alley view.

This little tip jar amused me too much!

I now did a more proper Artist's Alley run and I was so excited to find that someone actually had somehow had time to do Neuvillette merch! He's my new favorite character in Genshin and I wasn't expecting to find anything featuring him and I just afjdsfdfs when I saw the charm. ;_; I'm posting a con loot photo at the end of this post~
Artist's Alley was located on the second floor and split into two halves, one on the left side of the building and the other on the right side. I felt like it worked decently well but there was quite a lot of crowding on Saturday, hence why I did most of my shopping on Sunday as it was easier to move around and browse the tables. I also gotta say that I liked the variety in sellers – there were both familiar and new faces to me. I wish I could have bought more and supported more artists but I don't have a lot of spending money right now as I'm still unemployed.

Of course I did my dailies in the Green Room again once my shift ended (and I got the final mission reward, yay!) and at some point me and Firith went outside quickly to take some photos of my cosplay. I mainly just wanted a proof picture for now but I will do a proper photoshoot later. :)

During my second shift I was witness to the tragic human tale of a man who bought too many mystery lootbags. I bet this was the best laughs of the whole con lmao. So there was this group of guys in the gaming room (I think they were friends of the other guy who was working at the same time as me, not sure) sitting around the table in the middle of the room and at first I didn't really pay attention to their conversation until I sat on the same table and they were talking about something that apparently caused hilarious regret. And I was curious and asked what they're talking about and apparently I had now pressed the cursed button because one of them said something like "now you have to do it because you asked about it" and I was like "oh no what have I gotten myself into" and this guy then pulls out this tiny rotating fish game for kids where you have to fish up the fishies with a magnetic rod while they open and close their mouths and I just had no way to back out. I had to accept the challenge like a man. And so I fished up like half the fishes and some I got real fast, which earned me some impressed 'oohs' and 'aahs' and then I had integrated myself into the group. They then kept talking about the lootbags and how shit they were and the conversation got wilder and wilder (somehow Rovaniemi's tax money was relevant to this, I guess bro's unemployed too and that's what the sponsor joke referred to xD) and it was absolutely hilariously unhinged crylaughter-fueled regret and the guy who was the one cheated out of his $$$ was laughing like a human siren with his face turning bright red – you ever have that thing where you feel sorry for the poor soul but you just fucking can't stop laughing because he's laughing too? That was how I felt, basically schadenfreude with consent. x) At least he could see the humor and laugh at the whole situation (although it was on his expense) because yeah, not everyone is a champ like that and someone else might just have broken down in a corner because of the huge waste of precious money.

After my second and final work shift ended at 16 (it started at 14, I worked 4h/day so 8h in total) I went to find Firith again and we did a final Artist's Alley round together before we were satisfied with our con experience and then we headed back to the hotel to rest our legs and wind down. Our budgets were almost used up so once we got back to our hotel room we had to brainstorm a bit on the topic of dinner. I happened to check Burger King's website and there was a really affordable campaign and what's even better is that the restaurant was located almost just around the corner from our hotel!

Läskeillään koska soli halp. :)))

And that about wraps up my summary of Matsucon. After the burgers we just returned to our room for the night and on Monday we parted ways and our Oulu trip was officially over; Firith went back to the south and I continued back up north.
Overall I had a great time at Matsucon and would definitely visit it again. I've been to Matsucon twice before (2017 and 2019) and I've always felt that it's quite well organized and an inviting anime con to attend for anyone even moderately interested in what it has to offer. I would say it's worth your time if you live in the north and why not if you live further away as well because yeah, Pohjankartano is a solid building for this type of events and Oulu is a lovely city well worth a visit!

Here's a photo of my con haul:

Square magnets by SaQe-Art, dragon charm by Sysirauta, Beidou
by si3art. I don't know who Neuvillette was from sorry. ;-;

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!
~ Shiro Samurai

Nippori 2023 – Another tiny library con

 Hello weebs!

I ended up attending Nippori for the first time last weekend. It's a small library con in Pori, Finland, and that probably comes as a surprise to no one since the name of the event is clearly derived from mashing together 'Nippon' (Japan) and 'Pori' hah. Anyways, Nippori is a free event and the reason I didn't do any announcement on my blog prior is because this was a rather spontaneous last-minute trip – Firith asked me if I could accompany him as he didn't want to go alone due to Pori being quite an anxiety-inducing town. I agreed because it's always nice to go somewhere I've never been before, even if the town has a reputation of being a shithole (if you ask anyone in Rauma at least lol). 

Oh well, Nippori was held on 23rd September and it's a one day event that's split into two different buildings – the first half was held in Pori's library and the later half in Nuorisotalo (lit. 'youth house'). 

 

Let's get on with the summary!
(and a fair warning for foul language ahead)

Nippori entrance, also known as Pori's library.

I should maybe put a disclaimer here that although I'm to some degree affiliated with Mericon I am visiting Nippori as myself, as an ordinary visitor, and my opinions about Nippori are purely my own. I know Rauma and Pori have a longstanding friendly rivalry (because of competing ice hockey teams etc) as do many other neighboring towns in Finland so yeah, I felt I should make it clear that I'm not sent by Rauma to smear Nippori lol. I'm not even a local, I'm from the far north so I have nothing to do with this silly rivalry in the first place lmao.

On Saturday morning me and Firith woke up quite late. We had planned to be at Pori roughly 14:00 as we had organized a carpool with Katriina and her kids. I made the classic mistake of severely underestimating how much time it takes for me to get into costume and that meant that the later half of the morning was panic mode unhinged – hands down the most stressful con morning ever. #whenwillilearn

I had decided on rewearing my Gakupo Kamui cosplay from Vocaloid, yes it's the same original kimono version I last wore at Skecon 2014! I know, that's like 9 years ago fuck I feel old. 

I don't know how but somehow we managed to leave the apartment on time, although I had to put on my cosplay very sloppily and rush my makeup but yeah, we could not afford to be late for the carpool which was waiting for us at Prisma's parking lot – nobody wants to inconvenience other people. I figured I'd just fix my costume once we arrive at the event so it wasn't that big of a deal. And I didn't care too much about my makeup not being slay as I had no plans to photoshoot Gakupo due to unfavorable weather and Firith told me that Pori centrum doesn't really have any good photoshoot locations as it's mostly just dreary concrete buildings.

We arrived to Nippori roughly 14:30 which meant we caught the very last moments of the first half of the event that was in the library. Nippori had split the con into two separate buildings in such a way that past a certain time (15:00) the first building would close down and the second would open. This meant that whatever was located in the library, aka the first building, would be unavailable once the con migrated over to Nuorisotalo. Needless to say we had to immediately bolt upstairs once we got into the library just to have enough time to visit the Artist's Alley before it closed.

General photo upstairs, near the entry point for the Artist's Alley.

I didn't bother to fix or put on the rest of my cosplay because we were so short on time to check out the Artist's Alley, one of the main reasons we attended Nippori. I really needed to pee too but there was no time for that either. xD
So yeah, me and Firith went up the stairs and I guess we both were quite perplexed when we saw a big sign stating something like "queue for Artist's Alley here" – I mean, not to be that guy but that kiiiiiiinda already gave me a red flag that the location for the Artist's Alley must be pretty unoptimal if they have to limit how many people can enter at once and from what direction.

We both looked towards the corridor past the glass door and I swear my first thought was "oh no". I could already tell that this would be an unpleasant experience. I shit you not, the Artist's Alley was placed in an extremely narrow reverse U-shaped corridor with barely enough space for visitors to even move past the tables if someone stopped to look at what was being sold. This was ten times worse than Kummacon's placement last year, which also was in an U-shaped corridor but at least there was a semblance of air quality. I found myself trying to rush through the Artist's Alley's later half because I literally felt like I was running out of oxygen; it was absolutely suffocating once you passed the midpoint of the corridor and the constant bottlenecks and crowding made it unbearable (even though we were one of the last people inside as it was closing down, I dread to think how awful it must have been during the active early hours *shudders*). And as we all know some congoers have a bad habit of stopping to talk with friends in the middle of narrow passageways without paying attention to the fact that they're effectively blocking the flow of traffic and yes, Nippori wasn't exempt of this cancer either. I might be getting old and cranky but I have no patience for these kinds of people – like for the love of god almighty please move out of the way if you're gonna strike a chat with someone in a place where space is already severely limited and others are trying to get through, it's not that hard to be conscious of your surroundings and considerate of the sanity of others, is it?

View of Artist's Alley corridor.

So yeah, hands down the worst Artist's Alley experience to date purely because of how bad the placement was. I don't understand why they didn't locate it downstairs, there seemed to be a lot more room? The sellers were interesting and there were a lot more tables than I expected there to be but sadly I could not browse to my liking as the crowding and poor air quality kept triggering my panic syndrome to the point I had to get out as soon as possible. This was such a bummer, especially because I was really looking forward to the Artist's Alley and wanted to buy stuff.

We arrived a bit too late to be able to check out the other activities that the library half of the con offered – I saw for example that there was a video game room but the door was locked when I tried to open it. Of course, because it was a library, there were a lot of manga put forward that you could borrow and read and I found that very pleasant and yeah, it added to the feel of it being an anime event. There was also this, umm, I guess it was meant to be some kind of art corner or display? Whatever its purpose was I assume it was primarily for decoration and perhaps to show local talent.

 

These Mew stuffies were adorbs!

Part of the art display.

Aside from the Artist's Alley disaster I found the library to be an okay building for an event of this scale. It was quite comfy and there were places to rest your legs and free bathrooms. As far as I'm aware Nippori is held by the library crew in collaboration with the local youth agency so it makes sense that it's those two buildings that they have in use. And as long as the event doesn't explode in size I think it'll suffice.

While I was standing outside the library's entrance I had a very unpleasant experience. There was a group of three teenage boys who approached me and my company, handing out homemade flyers that read stuff like "have you seen this man?" with a black and white photo of an almost naked male model. I had seen these flyers scattered around inside the library and my educated guess is that this trio were not the intended target audience of the event but just delinquents who wanted to harrass "the weird colorful gays". I'm also assuming that Nippori's security guards had removed them from indoors but were powerless to banish them from the outside vicinity of the library, where they continued to disturb visitors by handing out these flyers. So yeah, I was unlucky to be targeted by this group and one of the three boys proceeded to ask me if I had seen the dude on the photo and when I answered the boy's facial expression promptly changed to visible confusion and he proceeded to ask me at least five times in a row if I'm a man and every time I told him yes in my clearly and unquestionably male voice – like what the fuck I'm not gonna give you a different answer just because you repeat the question and I pity you if your masculinity is so narrow and fragile that the mere existence of an androgynous guy in makeup and a colorful costume is a threat to your understanding of the world. Like what do you want me to do, show you my damn ID card and that little M marker on it or mess up my cosplay by not shaving my beard next time? Gtfo and don't approach me until you have amassed a deeper understanding of the complexity of individual expression, that which transcends the stifling norms your limited capacity is currently capable of processing.
Worst part is that this pissflap even asked for my photo and it was clear as day that he had no good intentions (most likely would have made fun of me) and I politely declined, although I should just have been rude at this point as he didn't deserve an ounce of my respect with how blatantly he disrespected me and made me feel uncomfortable. Even worse, I think he took a candid photo anyway. The group then left us alone for a few minutes before this same boy returned to ask me again "Are you really a man?" like for fuck's sake is your hearing comprehension as challenged as your intelligence? I hate that I was as polite to him as I was, I should just have told him to fuck the hell off but years of school-bullying and trauma have made me extremely scared of conflicts and I just shut down when suddenly thrown into uncomfortable situations.
Oh well, I can't really blame Nippori for that (although I wish security would have stepped in to handle them) as this kind of situation can literally happen anywhere and at any time. It did affect my overall mood for the worse and I didn't feel safe at the event after said incident. Who would? I'm pretty sure a lot of other congoers were also harassed by these shitbags during the day and it wouldn't surprise me if they primarily targeted people whom they perceived as female, which would make it even more disgusting as that's technically on par for sexual harrassment...

Just proof that I was in cosplay.
(photographer is Firith)

As the first half of Nippori was closing down we used the help of Google Maps to navigate ourselves to Nuorisotalo with Katriina as the mama hen leading the way. It was surprisingly far away from the library and luckily we live in the age of smartphones or a non-local like me would have gotten lost lol.

After some walking we arrived at Nuorisotalo and it was crammed full of people, as one would expect. It was nice to see the amount of people in costumes and fursuits though, especially considering that it's a small event. I felt like a rather notable percentage of the visitors were dressed up in some way.

Nuorisotalo outside view.

Now I finally got a chance to go to the bathroom for a very urgent bladder emptying and I also put on the missing parts of my cosplay and fixed up the hakama knot. We then went to check out the Artisan's tables which is similar to Artist's Alley except it's more 'official' I guess, like bigger names and sponsor merchants or something like that. I think the general difference is that artists have to apply but artisans are invited by the event? Anyway, the location of the Artisan's tables were a lot better than what the Artist's Alley got – the shopping area was located in an open space room so you actually could move around like normal and check out the tables. This was such a relief and made the browsing experience a lot more enjoyable. I could actually get in the con mood for a bit too.

Nuorisotalo entrance.

Programs and activites for the con's later half.

I was lowkey interested by that Sephiroth panel but as I haven't played the games (yet) I didn't want to risk any spoilers and so I passed on it. In the end we didn't stay all that long at the con so we didn't watch the cosplay competition or anything. Our group mostly just vibed for a bit and did the shopping rounds. I didn't end up buying anything this time but Firith had a field day so at least it was worth it to come here lol. Oh well, window shopping is always a decently fun pastime and so is meeting friends regardless of how briefly it is. Yes, we ran into Gure. :D

Artisan's tables area. Entrance view.

Drawing wall.

I forgot to draw the legendary Buttman on the wall to continue the legacy but oh well, it's too late now. Maybe I remember next time. I gotta say though that whenever a con has one of these taped up somewhere it's always a win in my book, it's a really fun way to encourage creativity and make people socialize!
Oh and there was apparently a cafeteria that sold food and pastries but I had a brainfart and didn't go check it out. Oh well, it's still a very nice addition and something I appreciate as a whole as it gives visitors the option of convenience – they don't have to leave the con area and go walk around in a town where they might feel unsafe because of the way they are dressed etc.

I don't think I have so much more to say about Nippori really. It's a small event that's suitable for locals and those who live nearby and it appeared to provide a decent amount of entertainment with most of the typical con staples that visitors have come to expect. I think battle-hardened congoers would probably get bored after a few hours but for those new to the scene and community it's a good springboard into this colorful hobby, especially because it's free and thus a low threshold event with no barriers attached. The general mood and flow of the event was relaxed, casual and easygoing.
I don't know if I would visit Nippori a second time (especially because of the 600+ km distance, not really worth it for the event alone imo) unless I happen to be nearby for other reasons too. But obviously if you live close and you need to scratch that geek itch then I'd say it's a worthwhile day trip.

Thanks for reading, Shiro Samurai says bye!