Mericon 2024 – Look captain, the ship is back!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum trippimehu!

Mericon made waves at Rauma's main library last weekend, more exactly on 3.8.2024. This was the much awaited second iteration of the newly sprouted free-entrance anime convention and, just like on its debut, this year's Mericon held true to its namesake and kept to the maritime heritage theme like the name implies ('meri' means sea/ocean in Finnish) – this is largely a nod to Rauma's long and rich history as a harbor town!

All aboard, let's start the report!

Mericon entrance view, aka the library.

I was part of the work force and one of the organizers, just like last year. My traveling companion and partner in crime was Firith and, though the latter doesn't live in Satakunta region anymore, there might or might not have been a big reason for why we arrived a week early and that's because we were rigging the event up.

The day before the con we migrated from Hinnerjoki over to Rauma to make our busy morning a bit less hectic and this meant that we needed an overnight stay that was within our budget. We went yolo and tried the bed & breakfast establishment Haus Anna near the centrum of Rauma, which turned out to be a most fortunate choice indeed! It was so comfy and much nicer than we expected, especially considering how cheap it was if you opted out of the breakfast (it wasn't included in the room price).

Our room in Haus Anna.

Because we're so very proper and responsible adults we went to sleep early and woke up fresh and ready to tackle the challenges and tribulations of the con morning. *insert cicada-filled silence here* ............. Pfffrt, as if, did anyone of you stools really believe that at this point? :'D Of course we stayed up until well past midnight and woke up with at best 5 hours of sleep and an imminent sense of morning dread. Luckily brainfog and le sleep-deprivation vitutus can be cleared with carbonated caffeine – but sadly facially devastating eyebags cannot.
You see, my original plan was to put on my cosplay of the day already at the hotel.. except I really couldn't muster up the energy on said morning. Like at all. Besides, we were a teeny tiny bit short on time. So I ended up taking my makeup and costume stuff with me in a separate bag (ain't no way I'm carrying around my heavy-ass suitcase with a broken wheel any more than needed!) and so we headed for the main library.

Mericon view towards the entrance door.

Cafeteria tables, plus embroidery exhibition, near the entrance.

Because we were workers we arrived at the con before it officially opened the doors. While Firith did some final errands I headed to the changing rooms in the back to put on my cosplay. I didn't have a lot of space to work with so yeah, I ended up spreading my belongings all over the men's locker room like the chaotic goblin that I am. A funny story is that while I was doing my makeup, standing in front of the mirror shirtless, another worker enters the door. I recognized that he's the technician but his knee-jerk reaction probably was something along the lines of "there's someone doing makeup in the changing room so I must be in the wrong one" and he just closed the door confusedly and it took me like half a second to register that "oh yeah, he's a normal dude not used to other dudes caking their faces up" and so I tried to call out to him to come back lol. xD I got told that we'd by all certainty be the only two using said changing room and so I asked if there's any, well, locker, that I could use for the day because it seemed all of them had someone's name on. Well, he said there was this one that I probably could borrow because it was empty and the key was in place...

I am the cleaning crew!? :-DD

Yes, I have a dumb sense of humor. It helped a lot to have somewhere to put all my stuff to keep it organized, especially because throughout the day I ended up with more crap than what I had when I arrived lol. Roskisdyykkaan panttipullot eiku.
Once I finally had my cosplay on, which was the old-school Team Aqua Grunt from Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire (not the remakes!), the clock was almost opening time. I spent the last minutes before the official con start helping Firith's brother Hermanni with setting up the Playstation 4. He volunteered to help with watching over the video game area for the first half of the day, which was very nice of him!

As soon as the doors opened I ran around taking photos for my blog and I must say it was nice and relieving to notice that as soon as the doors were up people starting arriving in droves. The relief comes from the fact that there had been slightly less marketing this year, when compared to last year, and by that I mostly refer to how last year Mericon was featured in local newspapers before its debut, something we couldn't do this time. I mean Firith is practically the promoting face of the event and it's a bit, err, complicated, to give in-person interviews for a local paper if you live and work in the other half of the country lol.

The guest book from last year returned!

As Mericon is held in a library it also means that it's mostly propelled by the goodwill of the library's own workers to function; they serve as the main chunk of the work force and without them Mericon would be impossible to organize so yeah, my heartfelt thanks goes out to Katriina, Aino, Sami and everyone else whose names I don't remember (I'm awful at remembering names and faces, sorry!) for making it possible for Rauma to have its own manga and cosplay event. <3

Manga pockets put on display! Notice the rope~

The Maritime Museum provided decorations to set the mood!

The library had put forward and highlighted relevant books like manga volumes and "how to draw" art books etc to incite visitors to browse and maybe even borrow something interesting to take it home for a read. After all, one of Mericon's purposes is also to invite and inspire children and youth to the wondrous world of literature, imagination and creative writing – libraries are not just boring and dated relics from the past filled with equally boring and ancient books; libraries nowadays have everything from superhero comics and classical literature to new video game releases, movies, handicraft and hobby magazines, board games, music CDs and scores and some even have instruments that you can borrow! Honestly, libraries are awesome and so underappreciated for what they truly provide – aside from the thousands and thousands of available collections, offered for free, libraries are quite literally one of the only remaining public spaces where you are free to exist and browse without any pressure to buy something or gtfo and that, I think, is a treasure we should value in this increasingly consumerism-crazed and profit-obsessed world. So yeah, get out there and make a library card at your local library (it's literally free) and support it by borrowing anything you fancy – it's so much more than just saving your own money by borrowing instead of buying something new every time, it's an eco-aware action and it also safeguards the future value of libraries and, in extension, the future of humankind's education, preservation and literacy.
...
Many big words, very important, such wow.
...
No but really, this is something that I personally think is a very important topic and an urgent societal issue that should be lifted. In fact, the literacy and attention spans etc among today's children and youth are already deteriorating at an alarming pace and whole school systems are in distress over this negative development. I'm so fucking thankful I did my pivotal school years before smart phones even existed and social media and screens took over everyone's lives. Thank the heavens for being a 90s kid lol.

The drawing room. There were contests!

General view of the con. Info desk to the right.

Notice the massively improved photo booth to the left!

My core task this year (aside from being the graphic artist) was to be one of the three cosplay competition judges. I got roped into this post quite late as a fill-in for the last empty slot. The original plan was that Firith would have done the photography part of the contestants and I would have done the costume judging part together with Springdeer – basically the opposite of our roles when compared to last year. But on the morning of the con we changed this setup last minute so that I would be the photographer again and he would do the judging, there were a few personal reasons as to why but in the end we were both grateful that we swapped because we avoided some potential difficulty bumps. One of them being that my SLR camera (which was the only one we had to use for this task) acted up a few times suddenly it's getting old I guess and just stopped responding randomly and yeah, because I'm the owner of said camera (aka the one most used to handling it) I managed to get it to work every time.

The judging part started 11:40 and I made my way to sit just next to the photo booth, aka the turquoise fabric curtain in the youth sector. I saw no humanly sized chair nearby enough so I just succumbed to sitting on that very tiny children's chair just across the photo spot lmao. At least the approaching cosplay contestants would make the connection that I'm the photographer guy and not some random who just happened to be resting there lol.

While I was sitting there on standby, waiting for the contestants to come over, I had a few interactions with other congoers. There was this guy who told me in English that he had walked past me several times, feeling like I looked familiar somehow but he didn't stop to talk to me.. that is until he noticed the Team Aqua symbol on my bandana and went like "wait a moment, I recognize that symbol" and then he came up to me and asked if I'm dressed as a Team Aqua Grunt. This guy was the first stranger out of two to initiate a conversation with me based on my cosplay, and I haven't had this kind of interaction in years so it was quite something for me. The guy was visibly excited when I pulled out my Great Ball prop from my camera bag (one of those TCG tins) once he asked for a selfie together, it was so precious! We ended up talking about the mainline series and all kinds of stuff and I found out that he's actually from Germany and was supposed to visit his friend or something but it fell through and he ended up randomly going to Mericon instead – quite a wild story!
Firith was already very surprised when the guest book snitched to us that someone had come all the way from Lappeenranta so yeah, when I told that I met this one bloke who came from Germany he dropped all his jaws on the floor. xD

Team Aqua Grunt waiting for contestants!
(I had the gloves but didn't wear them most of the time)

Unlike last year all cosplay contestants who had signed up for the competition (this was done in advance online, as is customary to these kinds of events) actually showed up. Mericon had nine contestants in total, which I feel is a very healthy amount for a small and still new convention!
Mericon is marketing its cosplay competition as a very low-threshold event aimed at first-timers or beginners to gain valuable stage and feedback experience for future competitions – this is also why Mericon is one of the few conventions that allows people to compete in store-bought costumes, as long as it has been modified or altered in some way; for example if you've cut and styled the wig yourself or made the props then it would count as eligible even if the fabric parts of the costume aren't self-made. So yeah, a very relaxed competition it is.

After I had photographed all the cosplay competition contestants (and a couple other congoers who wanted their picture taken) I did a quick stroll through the Artist's Alley and then it was time to gather together with the other judges in the backroom and ponder the winners. We were uniform in our decision and there were no difficulties with reaching an agreement, it was smooth sailing!
A few minutes after that it was time to start the award ceremony where the judges declared the winners and handed out the prizes.

The winners of the costume contest~

After that my main responsibilities for the day were done and I was free to mingle around the con a bit more leisurely. I was quite hungry at this point and I also wanted to yeet myself out of my costume, not because it was in any way uncomfortable to wear but because I wanted to take the colored contacts out. So yeah, I disappeared for a moment back into the locker room. I decided to keep the wig and makeup on because I know that if I remove my makeup or my wig then my face and hair will look like shite for hours before it normalizes lol.

Cafe Käpälä had specially made Mericon treats for sale!

I was tempted to buy a blue cheesecake but I am extremely tight on money right now so I cried internally and headed back to the break room to chug a Megaforce energy drink instead, pärr pärr.
I think it was at this moment that a very weird discussion took place behind closed doors – I don't remember how exactly it started but I think me, Firith, Gure and Selja had just finished our coffee break and were about to stand up but I might have exclaimed something about how I'm so tired that I can't get my ass up from the chair. This regrettable proclamation of human inconveniences propelled my brain juices into Overdrive Thinking™ mode and I said something profoundly deep yet equally confusing – "imagine if your butt could just separate from the rest of your body and gain self-awareness while it rises up from the chair". This illogical grain of disturbing ponder, which had now been perversely released from its shackled confines, prompted us all to consider –at least in our developed minds– if your ass casually floating above your head would lead to an existential crisis and, if it did, whether those newly enlightened butts of wisdom would transcend into a religious awakening of their own – a cult of levitating human yet human-free, intelligent, self-sufficient, superior butts. Firith was quick to voice his stance on the matter by exclaiming "uskon vakaasti lentävään irtoperseeseen" before he exited the room.

Don't ask.

Upstairs were the organization booths.

Which meant Rauma Pride...

... and Hopeanuoli-fanit.

I just remembered another slightly amusing anecdote from the con. When I was still in cosplay during the first hour of the con I went behind the info desk to talk with the library workers about something and as soon as I opened my mouth one of the ladies looked very surprised and then proceeded to say something along the lines of "Oh it's you! Your costume/makeup is so good that I didn't even recognize you until I heard your voice!" – I guess that's a compliment for a cosplayer, right? xD We are the master chameleons after all.

Oh and yeah, my plans to photoshoot my cosplay in Rauma obviously fell through because I changed out of costume a bit prematurely. I just didn't want to stress about it too much because we still had a lot to do for the remainder of the day like packing for the road trip back home on Sunday morning (photoshooting before the end of the con wasn't an option due to our responsibilities) and yeah, I figured I could always just photoshoot some other day when there's less going on. I would have liked to photoshoot Team Aqua Grunt near the canal but another thing that made it difficult was the encroaching appearance of a thunderstorm and I'm terribly afraid of lightning. So yeah, proper photos of this costume will have to wait a bit longer still. 10 years wasn't enough already rip.

Mericon had more signs this year to make navigation even easier.

One of the last things I did before Mericon was over for this time was going through the Artist's Alley together with Firith. I did do a solo run earlier during the day when I got stuck talking with JeMiChi for a good many minutes when we both realized that we had a surprising amount of interests and experiences in common, including sailing on tall ships and being a book author (well, mine's still in progress but still). :D I bought one of her absolutely adorable whale and calf prints too. ;_;

Entrance to Artist's Alley.

Never saw someone selling paintings before! Artist: riikkusga

And the wonderful JeMiChi and her works!

I could probably ramble on a bit more about the convention but I feel like I've said most of the things that I wanted to say at this point and well, I've been drafting this post for like 6 hours straight when we count in the photo editing so yeah, needless to say my head is getting very spongy lol. But anyways, I left Mericon feeling satisfied with the labor of our work and I hope the visitors, artists, dancers and everyone else also enjoyed their time at the event! <3
At the time of writing it hasn't been announced yet if Mericon will be hosted a third time, but I recommend keeping an eye out on their social media channels (like Instagram) to stay on top of any news and information, including the feedback survey which will be made available later!

Thank you everyone who visited, keep sailing towards new shores and adventures~
Shiro Samurai out.

Mericon 2024 cosplans!

Hello nerds and bookworms!

I've barely had time to settle since the blast that was Nekocon but soon I'll be on the road again towards Rauma and the return of Mericon! The first ever Mericon was a success against all odds last year so of course I'll be there to help keep it afloat this year too! Yes, I'll be part of the work force just like last time and, to be more exact, I might have been asked to fill in as one of the cosplay competition judges. I'm quite nervous about this role but hopefully it'll go well since Mericon's cosplay competition is a relaxed entry-level event aimed at first-timers. 

Last year some might remember that I wore a pirate-themed outfit to match the naval vibes of the con, but this time I plan to wear an actual cosplay. Seeing how I'm one of the cosplay judges I want to be in a character costume idk it feels more proper lol. My issue is that I don't have a lot of costumes currently that are in wearable condition so my pool to draw from is very limited. But then I thought that why not, I could rewear that one old costume... or could I? It's far from perfect (I'm ashamed of some parts but fuck it, it's 10 years old so I can cut myself some slack lol) but it's easy to wear, quick to put on the con morning will be stressful and comfortable.

Character: Team Aqua Grunt

Series: Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire 

Not one of my best cosplays by a long shot but whatevs, it fits the con's theme close enough (I mean the design looks kinda pirate-y) and well, it's Team Aqua. Hopefully I can get a photoshoot of this costume before or after the con because this is also one of my many costumes that I quite literally have no photos of. :'D Oh and yeah, because the grunts are just, well, grunts, I will wear a random wig and lenses with it to make it 20% cooler. Besides, in the anime they have varying hairstyles and such so yeah, it's fine lol. 

That's it for this public announcement, see you at Mericon soon!

Hotaru of the Shiseiten – Samurai Deeper Kyo cosplay photoshoot!

Hello there! 

As I mentioned over at my Nekocon summary, I had a proper photoshoot for my Hotaru (also known as Keikoku) cosplay from Samurai Deeper Kyo while in Kuopio! I've wanted to get this costume photographed for so long since it's one of my favorite mangas and Hotaru is a character that I feel suits me. I'm really happy with how these turned out and I can't thank my photographer enough for being so patient with me. ;_;

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (Hotaru)

Photographer: Firith

Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

 

This costume is entirely made by me, the tengu geta and sword included. I wear the shoes only for photos because, while they're made of solid wood and carry my body weight no problem (I've tested this and yes, standing is possible), they are tall and require an exceptionally good sense of balance –and even ground– to walk in. As much as I love cosplay accuracy I'm not going to risk breaking a leg for it, I'm not that hardcore. xD

Keen-eyed observers might also have noticed that I changed my watermark on these photos and yes, this is my new stamp that I will be using from now on in this blog! I've wanted to update my watermark for a long time but just haven't had the energy to do it before. There will be a transition period where most new content will have the new watermark but some might still have the old one – this mainly concerns circle lens reviews and some unfinished and obviously still unpublished cosplay WIPs that I have lying around.

I do plan to cosplay other characters from Samurai Deeper Kyo in the future, maybe already next year I might have bought some fabric on sale recently *cough* but I won't promise anything just yet! What I can promise though is that Hotaru will be seen in another con before the end of this year. ;) I might or might not try to get together a second photoshoot also~

Thanks for viewing~
Have a great summer wherever you are, stay safe and hydrated!

Nekocon 2024 – I heard you like boba tea

Hello all colorful geeks!

I'm back home from last weekend's trip to the delightful Kuopio where I attended my second Nekocon, woop! This year's Nekocon was held on 13-14th July in Kuopio's Music Centre, just like the year before. I went there together with Firith and I think it's high time I get this con report on the road!

Nekocon side view of main entrance.

Our journey towards Kuopio started already on Friday morning. Me and Firith had decided to drive down but due to me being a derp and misremembering the timer of my dishwasher we ended up getting a bit delayed – it wasn't too bad though, like an hour or so behind schedule. Anyways, before we could start driving we had an urgent problem called no gasoline. And by that I mean the car tank was so empty that it was a game of chance if we even had enough to get to the nearest gas station – needless to say we were clenching our butts in nervosity for every successful kilometer rolled forward! We made it, somehow, and could officially start our journey down to Kuopio.

We drove down one of the smaller roads and aside from some tractor-induced road rage the trip went well. Our dining stop was at the lovely rustic Matin ja Liisan Asema at Lapinlahti, easily recognized by the preserved 1938's Tv1 steam locomotive outside. Honestly recommend this place, really pleasant!

Once we arrived at Kuopio it was evening, I think the clock was about 18 local time? I can't really remember, but what I do remember is that we had enough time to speed over to the con location to go claim our con tickets (and Sallukka's tickets as well since they would have arrived too late otherwise) in advance before it closed! This saves us from having to stand in line on Saturday morning to exchange tickets so it's definitely a quality of life thing to grab them the day before!

As soon as we got the tickets we continued to our chosen place to stay the weekend, namely the trusty and familiar Rauhalahti Spa Hotel, just like last year. I swear it's half the reason we went to Nekocon lmao.
This time we didn't get the Donald Duck room number but we got a room on the top floor, aka the fourth floor. What came as a surprise was that unlike last time we had a balcony!

Cosplayer hotel room means it's immediate chaos.

This was sooo nice to have! You could air out your costumes after the day.

 

The hotel room was really comfy and pleasant and, unlike last year, this time our mini bar actually kept our drinks cold, yay! :'D Yes we brought with us a bunch of energy drinks, a couple ciders and a 6-pack of beer lol. Raikasta ja ravitsevaa olutta~
Thanks to it being the weekend the spa was still open with a couple hours left and so we jumped into the pool to relax after the long drive. Honestly the super warm pool is like the best thing ever, you could literally just melt away there for hours.

Saturday morning came. We had decided the night before to not take overly much stress from being at the con early because we both were really tired and wanted to have a chance at a decent night's sleep. I think we woke up around 8:30 or something like that and after lagging around in bed for a while we walked over to have some breakfast. Fun thing is that we stumbled upon some familiar faces from Kummacon at the breakfast buffet! I had my obligatory Karelian pastries and after we were done it was time to head back to the room and put our costumes on. Or at least try to, as soon as morning brain lag had dissipated enough.

My cosplay for the day was Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo, a costume I've only worn once before many years ago and lacked any proper photo proof of. I don't remember exactly how long it took for me to change into cosplay but it was an episode and a half to get everything on smoothly! Hotaru looks like a simple costume to wear but holy moly the amount of fabric I have to stuff under the shorts and secure in place to keep all the layers from shifting to kingdom come! I'm so thankful Firith was there to help me dress, it would have been so difficult to do the kimono tucking in the back etc without any assistance. ;_; Firith cosplayed the titular character from the Ghibli movie Kiki's Delivery Service, by the way.
It took us somewhere between 2-3 hours to get ready but it would have taken even longer if I hadn't caught my creeping panic attack in time onneksi olin ottanut rauhoittavia mukaan... 

The clock was around 12:30 when we started driving towards the con and it was a beautiful sunny summer day. One of the first things we did was to take a quick tour with the camera and snap the general con photos and after that we headed straight to photoshoot our costumes because the bushes near Kuopio's Music Centre are very nice for cosplay photos! 

I'm happy I did check some character references this time around because last time when I cosplayed Hotaru I completely missed to do the kanji he has on his neck, oops!

Hotaru! You can also see the Nekocon ticket~
(photo by Firith)

 

Hotaru was a decently heat-friendly cosplay, only the midsection was a bit toast with all the layers piling up. I had all the props and parts of this cosplay with me but I wore replacement shoes around the con (stupid Pikachu flipflops gave me an awful toe blister and I don't even know how xD) and left the sword in the car after the photoshoot because it would have been cumbersome to carry around while shopping. I'm not even sure if anyone recognized my cosplay because I had zero interactions with other congoers but, then again, Samurai Deeper Kyo isn't exactly a well-known manga and was never published in Finland, so it went exactly as I assumed it would haha. Anyways, we got some really awesome photos afhsdadsgh that I will post separately! [edit: link here]

When we were done snapping photos we left the camera back in the car and then we hurried over to the Lumit building where Firith's friend had a table at the Artist's Alley. The Lumit building was part of Nekocon and also hosted at least the video game room as well.

Walking next to Lumit.

Lumit was very easy to recognize because there were always cosplayers and colorful people sitting just outside it. There even was someone dressed in a huge red inflatable Among Us costume. xD

Entrance view of Lumit.

The video game room was popular!

I would have initially wanted to watch the "Valitut Lapset: Superlataus" Digimon stage play but decided in the end not to because I knew I wouldn't be able to sit almost 3 hours alone without having difficulties (Firith wasn't interested enough, mainly due to the length, and Sallukka and Don had their own activities). Besides, it started already 12:15 and you needed to get seat tickets starting at 10:30 and we weren't even at the con at that time so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Artist's Alley.

More Artist's Alley~

It was quite crowded at the Artist's Alley on Saturday and we both quickly agreed on that it was a bit too much. The air quality wasn't the best with so many people crowded in a small area and it was quite anxiety-inducing. Not to mention sweaty. So yeah, we hurried outside after a quick glance through all the tables.

A nice collaboration Nekocon had this year was that there was this one boba tea (aka bubble tea) stand near the town square that had a deal so that if you bought a drink from them in costume you got a 20% discount. One needs to know at this point that I haven't had proper boba tea in about 9 long years. I had forgotten how delicious it could be. And because we were hot and thirsty no not like that you perv we decided to go and make use of this opportunity!

Taro milk tea with matcha swirl, heavenly!

It was soooo good! Like oh my goodness it was so refreshing and perfectly sweet and I just wanted it to last forever. ;_; I miiiight have reignited an old addiction send help. No but really, it was totally money worth, 5/5 stars no drama.

After the trip to the town square (and being subjected to puzzled normies along the way lol) we returned back to the main building of Nekocon and plowed through the Dealer's Hall and just took in the con atmosphere. Nekocon overall has this pleasant feeling, it's welcoming and the general location is inviting and very central with both greenery and the town square just outside so yeah, you're close to almost everything. Except our hotel is a few minutes car ride away. :'D

Nekocon entrance/cloakroom view.

We didn't stay the full duration at the con during Saturday, mainly because it was a very warm day and we were both still a bit tired. As much as I enjoy cosplaying I can't help but notice that I'm getting old lol, I don't have the same tenacity to withstand discomfort that I used to have. Remember when everyone used to say "cosplay ilman tuskaa on teeskentelyä" and how we'd just power through all the pain to prolong that magic con feeling? Ei helevetti, those days are long gone. If I feel discomfort nowadays then I go back to the hotel early, I'm absolutely listening to my body's needs nowadays. #millenialinsights

Besides, we wanted to take some more photos of my cosplay outside the hotel before my makeup was all messed up from the heat so yeah, that was another reason why we left a bit early. And it was the right decision because we found a really good photoshoot spot that we had completely overlooked last year!
After the second photoshoot was wrapped up we both really just wanted to jump into the spa and then have some beer and chips in the room after. I mean if you book a spa hotel you kinda maybe want to set aside some time to actually use the spa, right? :D It was really fun to just hang out and chill and play on the PS5 I had brought along for the trip (and a TV to play on) for the rest of the night. It was a great day~

Oh and I ate a delicious veggie pizza at the hotel's restaurant!

Then came Sunday. I had trouble falling asleep and so my eyebags had eyebags when I got up. It wasn't beautiful I tell you. I considered skipping doing any makeup for my alt fashion plans at first but luckily my face kinda recovered after breakfast and idling around long enough to properly wake up. Chugging an energy drink might have sped up the process. We packed all our belongings but still somehow ended up stressing to get done on time since we also had to return the room keys. I swear time blindness and estimation of time is one of my biggest weaknesses! It felt very wistful to check out from the hotel because we had so much fun and it was over way too quickly. Next year's Nekocon can't come any sooner!

Anyway, we drove to Nekocon and today we had reserved more time to actually check out the con more properly; it's just a lot easier to explore when you don't have to worry about messing up your costume. We took our time to check out the Dealer's Hall on the main floor and the artisan's tables upstairs while just vibing and soaking up the good feels. Firith also ran into some old acquaintances while I just awkward potatoed around because I don't know how to enter the chat naturally with people I don't know who are already in a conversation.

Dealer's Hall view...

... and more Dealer's Hall.

Staple sellers Manga Cafe provided the snacks.

Sunday was definitely a calmer day than Saturday, it was easier to move around and there weren't as big clusters of people around. I wanted to go watch the "Digimonien avara luonto" program but I honestly ended up forgetting what time it was because I didn't carry the con's info booklet on me with all the schedules and stuff. Oh well, no can do but I got to say it seemed like an unique concept that I haven't seen done before and that's why it piqued my interest in the first place.

Nekocon info desk next to the stairs.

One thing I did notice was that the overall layout of what was located where seemed very similar to last year's Nekocon and honestly, why change something that works? The only clearly different or improved change I noticed was that the video games area in Lumit had been expanded from being in the corner to having that big room (was it a gymnastic hall?) for themselves, which was great.

Artisan's area upstairs.

Promotional booths of other conventions, also upstairs.

A few merchandise sellers were upstairs as well.

At some point me and Firith just looked at each other and I swear our brain jellies did some sick telepathy moves because we both just went like "should we go for more boba?". Yes, we should. We should fuel this addiction while we still can.
While walking there was some older middle-aged man, clearly not a Nekocon visitor, who walked slightly in front of us and he kept staring at me and doing double-takes to the point it was like fucking penta-takes lol. It was really rude and uncomfortable tbh, I mean one shouldn't stare that obnoxiously at others regardless of how differently from the norm they're dressed – have at least some semblance of manners at your age, please... -.-

Taro milk tea with tapioca bubbles, yum~

I think after the boba tea (yes, I really like taro flavor) we did a final shopping round and then we agreed in unison that it was high time to leave because we had a long and exhausting road trip back home ahead of us.

It's legit hard to describe how fun and rewarding Nekocon was for us both, it might not sound like a lot happened but we honestly had a blast and this will probably go down as one of my favorite cons this year. We've both been in some tough and dark places lately so this trip was a much needed break from everything stressful that's been going on in life. Honestly I'm looking forward to next year's iteration already, Nekocon and Rauhalahti spa combo gives me life. <3

Oh and before I forget, here's my loot haul!

Thanks for reading, my next con will be Mericon's return in Rauma! See you there~
Shiro Samurai out.

Nekocon 2024 cosplans – took so long to decide!

 Hello hello!

I'm heading to Nekocon in Kuopio this upcoming weekend and I'm so excited! Last year I went to my first Nekocon and I had such a blast that it was almost immediately decided that a revisit was in order. It's such a comfy summer con and Kuopio feels weirdly cozy and inviting to me.

It took me ages to decide on what to cosplay, hence why this post is very late I dunno if anyone will even see it in time lol but I had difficulties okay? :'D I did consider at first rewearing my Kisuke Urahara cosplay from last year but I don't know, it feels a bit awkward to wear the same cosplay to the same con twice in a row (whiplash to my early weeb cosplay years hits hard xD) and so I had to brainstorm for another heatwave-friendly costume that was in wearable condition or wearable with some small tweaks that I could recycle. And yes, this is the kind of bizarre moments when you realize you've done 50+ cosplays and still somehow have nothing to wear?!

Eventually I came to realize I had one candidate that stood out from the rest...
*drumroll*

Character: Hotaru (Keikoku)

Series: Samurai Deeper Kyo

It's legit been 12 years since I read the manga. I honestly don't remember much at all of the plot at this point but I do remember really enjoying the series (because of its unpredictable twists and turns) and I also remember liking some of the characters like Hotaru and Akira particularly much of the lot. I still plan to cosplay Akira too at some point but currently I only have Hotaru completed. I plan to wear Hotaru on Saturday.

I made this cosplay way back in 2016 and I've only worn it once, which I'm very much not fine with lol. I honestly don't want cosplay to be like fast fashion for myself and thus I'm very positive to reusing my older costumes and fixing them up if needed. Hotaru did need a quick update because, originally, I had missed to consider the way how loosely in front he wears his outermost kimono (a simple oversight on my part) and I made it according to normal kimono width when I should have made it narrower to avoid excessive fabric bunching at the sides. This is something I've done a temporary fix on for now and will re-estimate the need for further, permanent, corrections after the con.

Oh and yes, I'm bringing his suicide shoes tengu geta although I'll only use them for photos – I will walk around the con in replacement shoes that are more convenient and safe to walk in. As badass as the tengu geta look they're not suitable for normal walking, at least not on my feet because I have slowly come to accept that I have chronic knee issues. This is also why you will likely see me having at least one of my knees wrapped in bandages (Hotaru has shorts so I can't hide it) although it's not a part of the cosplay; it's a stabilization precaution I do to prevent issues from walking up and down stairs (and Kuopio Music Centre has a lot of stairs ffuu ffuu) which, without any kind of knee support, is the worst pain trigger for me.

I did dabble on-and-off with the idea of a Sunday cosplay but I'm almost certain at this point that I will just go in alt fashion. This means that Hotaru is the only cosplay I will bring. I'm still kind of trying to ease myself back into active congoing ngl and wearing costumes in public, trying not to go too fast and overwhelm myself because I still have a lot of mental health difficulties I'm dealing with.

That's all for now nerds, stay safe and see you soon at Nekocon~!

Lens review: EOS Ice Gray

 Hello everyone!

Dang, it's been a while since I last did a colored contact lens post. But fret not, I'm back with a circle lens review and today's we're going through the EOS Ice Gray colored contact lenses! These have existed on the market for a considerable amount of time and thus becoming one of the faithful servants which, in turn, makes it kinda weird that I have not reviewed a single lens from this series before, despite drooling over them for literal years. Crazy, innit? :'D

Anyways, let's roll out the review!

 

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm

Water content: 38%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

 

I bought these in a pinch last summer to use for my Kisuke Urahara cosplay debut from Bleach. It's perhaps not the most color intense lens series on the market but they are undeniably pretty with the crystal-like ice design and fit my needs at the time. Of course I might have had an advantage because my eyes are naturally a grayish blue color and so a lot of color opacity wasn't required from the lenses to make my eyes appear gray enough for the cosplayed character.

One lens in.

It should be noted that the EOS Ice series is one of the extremely few circle lenses that exist in different size variations so yeah, you might want to pay extra attention to the stated diameter and base curve on the site you're shopping from. The ones I'm reviewing here are the smallest version available, aka the 14.0 mm diameter with the 8.6 mm base curve. I know there exists a bigger variant with a 14.8 mm diameter and a 8.8 or 8.9 mm base curve so be sure to pay attention!

 

These lenses are not really big but there is still a very slight size enlargement. I don't feel like I suddenly got like super dolly eyes or anything, it's hardly noticeable and that's what I needed at the moment moe moe uguu Urahara would have been weird af. These lenses have a natural-ish design, it fits their namesake of ice and although it's simple it's far from dull and well, the simplicity actually makes these versatile for a lot of different needs and purposes – I mean I used them for cosplay yeah but these could just as well be used for alt fashion or even as a daily enhancement type of lens, especially if your real eye color is close to your chosen lens color. :)

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during an afternoon. All close-ups are free from color filters etc and that's so that the colors would appear as true to life as possible.

 

Natural room light indoors.

Yellow room light indoors.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Facing a window. (not sun side)

Unlit corridor, poor natural light in the distance only.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun directly.

I found these lenses overall to be decently comfortable. It should be noted that I have naturally really dry and sensitive eyes so I usually can't wear lenses for prolonged periods of time without eyedrops etc – but I did manage to wear these for half a con day (roughly 4-5 hours) at Nekocon in the middle of summer so yeah, that's already a win for me. I do recall them being thin and generally comfortable to wear (insertion was also easy!) and most of the time I didn't really feel that I had lenses on, which is always a good thing. At some point they would feel a bit dryish but nothing out of the norm for me so I don't feel like the comfort or moisture levels were somehow poorer than on your average circle lens, even though the water content is listed as a lowish 38%. I guess I can say that these are fine and I wouldn't err from buying another set in the future, especially because I do like the design and I honestly feel like my photos don't do these lenses justice (they look a bit dull), they're nicer-looking in real life I promise, especially because when the sun's reflection hits it makes your eyes look sparkly and revitalized and my camera just isn't catching any of that lol.

These lenses are a worthwhile pair to check out, especially if you need smaller diameter lenses that still have some color to them without being overpowering. The EOS Ice Grays are one of those lenses that are clearly more natural than extraordinary but they are still distinguishable with their delicate patterning and it's noticeable that you're wearing lenses (at least to lens-savvy folks lol). I wouldn't recommend them as a top-pick cosplay lens (mainly because the color might not show up from a distance) but depending on the character and your needs they are still a viable choice, especially for more mature/senior anime characters or for western movie characters and such where you want correctly colored eyes without it looking too unnatural or jarring due to excessive vibrancy, patterning or color intensity.

Have a distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 7/10 

A soft, lightish medium gray tone that's natural and not blocky at all. It's very easy on the eyes.

Design: 8/10 

Simple yet beautiful crystalline ice-styled burst design. It transitions smoothly into your real color.

Opacity: 5/10

They change my light eye color enough to become clearly gray so I'd say there's more color opacity on these than on those tinter/enhancement type of lenses.

Enlargement: 4/10 

It comes across as a meager size boost but it's still slightly bigger than my normal iris.

Comfort: 7/10 

I wore these for roughly 4-5 hours with minimal issues, despite having naturally really dry eyes. They are thin and mostly unnoticeable in terms of comfort, save perhaps for some slight dryness over time, which is to be expected.

Naturalness: 7/10 

These are surprisingly natural, despite their delicate design, but I think it's safe to say that part of that impression is boosted by how well the gray color merges with my real eye color; I don't think that for example the Ice Violets would look as natural on me. :')

Thank you so much for reading, have you tried an EOS Ice series lens yet?

Shiro Samurai out ~