Närcon Vinter 2016 – I'm addicted to bubbletea!

Good day all geeks out there!

I'm back from my trip with friends to Närcon Vinter in Sweden. It was held during 12-14 February in Linköping and I must say that I had a blast! Before the con I had been crazy excited about it and now that the convention is behind me I feel like it lived up to my expectations. This is the first time in a while when I've actually felt comfortable and free of worries at a bigger convention; I feel like Närcon Vinter made me feel like I can enjoy cons again – I felt safe all along and didn't get any anxious moments etc. People were very friendly to me (includes total strangers!) and I even got some new friends, wohoo!

The Närcon dragon logo outside Saab Arena during night time.

Yes, it changes colors!

Some of you might remember that in the cosplans post I mentioned that I'd travel with Frozen Angel (former Jäätynyt Enkeli), Sacchan, Hitsu and Ronya. The thing is that like a week before the con Ronya suddenly informed that she can't go because her mom decided to be an asshole. I won't go into details because it's personal stuff for Ronya but I'll just say that me and Sacchan tried to convince her mother, along with Ronya herself, but her mom was 100% impossible to deal with and we had to give up on getting Ronya with us. :(
So yeah, less than one week to go before the con and I have one additional con ticket, the hotel room is booked for 3 persons and the gasoline costs for the carpool have been calculated and divided on five. I was seriously stressing and panicking because I barely knew anyone who could replace Ronya on such a short notice; I mean, we would have to leave on Wednesday and it was already Sunday! I tried calling my good ol' friend Kiivi but they couldn't go and at that point I was lost. I called Sacchan and she didn't know anyone either – unless her little brother Joni would be up for it. I desperately called Joni and explained the situation; luckily he is gamer, has been to a few cons and has an interest in cosplay so yeah, the possibility was there. He told me that he'll have to beg for vacation from his school on Monday and, if that succeeds, then he'll come with us. I lit up and waited for the next day. During my school day on Monday Sacchan called me about the "get vacation for Joni" mission twice – the first call sounded like we were fucked. The school Joni is in has a strict principal and because his underage some paper work was required with his parents signature/approval and on top of that several days of processing the request. WE DON'T HAVE SEVERAL DAYS TO WAIT. GODDAMMIT. 8C Sacchan called me some hours later and came with good news – suddenly Joni could come! :DD I don't know what black magic he or his parents used but the whole paper processing thing got skipped completely and off we go! Hell yeah!

tl;dr – Ronya informed that she can't come with when there's less than a week before the con. I and everyone else panics and ask our nearby friends on a very short notice to replace her – no luck. Turns out in the end that Sacchan's little brother Joni could come instead.

★ Pre-con (Wednesday & Thursday) ★

On Wednesday evening we had decided to start driving after everyone in our company had finished school for the day. Because I'm a dumb fuck I do all my packing after school on said Wednesday. :)) I'm surprised I managed to get all my cosplay stuff into my gray bag, lol.
The hours pass by and I hear nothing from Sacchan. I try to call her several times and I call Joni too but no one answers. At this point I get really worried because the clock is already mighty past 16:00 Swedish time and we should ideally have left already. I try calling Joni a second time and this time I get an answer, omgyes! He tells me that his sister had accidentally left the cellphone on soundless mode after school, classic mistake. xD Joni also says that they are not done packing yet and that it will approximately take one hour before they are anywhere near ready to jump into the car. I call Frozen Angel to inform the situation and he informs me that he had already expected them to come pick us up so he had left his apartment already and dragged all his luggage to the entrance, lol.
When Sacchan and Joni finally are ready they drive from their home to me and Frozen Angel's town (it's a 30 min car ride) to pick us up and then we went to eat together at Max, a hamburger place. Gotta start the con diet! 8D And besides, I had a shitlot of coupons to use that I had picked up from school.
With our stomachs filled with burgers and fries we finally left our starting point and started driving southwards, towards Umeå. The reason why Umeå is because my good friend Hitsu lives there and she was to be our fifth carpooler and second driver; we had decided on sleeping over at her place the night between Wednesday and Thursday so that we'd have less of a distance to drive on the morning.
We arrived at Hitsu's later than I had thought but luckily she was still awake. I ran around the apartment and knocked on her window, she waved excitedly to me and came and opened the locked front door. The clock wasn't far from midnight and so we just talked some shit and then we all went to sleep.

I don't remember when exactly we woke up on Thursday morning but it might have been around 10 in the morning. I don't think I had any breakfast either but we all just collected our stuff and left for Umeå city to go buy some provisions and take-away sushi for the long drive ahead. The car ride took many many hours and I spent most of the time either playing Monster Hunter or Pokémon on various handheld consoles and, when I wasn't playing, I was talking about all possible things with the others and most times it was really silly topics. We had, for example, come up with some really detailed and thought-out shit about why there were over ninethousand trucks on the road screwing with us and how, why and where they were holding their secret meeting to plot hell upon Sacchan's Citroën and Hitsu's Volvo. I won't go into more details but let's just say that some of the reasonings had to do with Volvo being a tool and not a car and that French cars suck. xD
At Uppsala we stopped to eat dinner and guess were we ate? :DD Max. Again. Or well, I didn't eat because my stomach was hurting – but I shared my coupons once again lololol.
When we reached Norrköping I called my big sister, because she had requested me earlier to inform her when we're in Norrköping so that she'll know when we arrive in Linköping, which is a 30 min car ride from Norrköping. So many köpings. Oh and yeah, me and Frozen Angel were to sleep at big sister's place while Sacchan, Hitsu and Joni had booked a hotel. 

This is where I slept at big sister's apartment. The geek is spreading.

Our carpool company drove me and Frozen Angel to our sister's place when we arrived in Linköping and we got welcomed by sis and her boyfriend – it was really nice to see her again! ;A; I had never been to her new apartment and I must say that it was hella comfy and hey, I got to sleep on the tatami floor! 
She told me that I could eat some of the leftover Thai food and that was appreciated because I was pretty damn hungry. After that we played some Mario Kart 8 together all four of us and I had to try playing with Link! I've never played MK8 before so it was really weird and I... kinda sucked. :'DD Or well, I wasn't that horribly bad (highly depending on cup though, Star Cup showed me no mercy) but I certainly wasn't as much of a pro as I am on Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, lol.
Big sis had asked me and bro before the con to bring her good old Super Nintendo with us and of course we did. I grew up with that shit too so it was a bit hard to let go but hey, it's originally hers anyway. We all three had a huge case of nostalgy when we tried to get the old childhood console to work; it took several tries to get it to start but when it finally worked I think I got a tear in my eye – the old graphics, old musics, all the memories... THE CHILDHOOD FEELS WERE REAL. The only issue was that the start button was so worn out that it barely responded; big sister managed to fix it the next day somehow.
She also tried playing some Megaman X (the nostalgy!!) and she informed us that we actually had the sought-after Japanese version of the game that is wanted by speedrunners. Our console is PAL but we have one of those things for it that makes it possible to play games from other regions! She even told us that when the game was originally bought she just wanted it because it looked cool and got it after bothering mom and dad enough lol – she had no idea that the Japanese version would be valuable. So yeah, she played the first two stages of Megaman X (or Rockman X, as the Japanese version is called) and I was just sitting there on the tatami floor and enjoying myself.

★ Friday ★

The first con day!
I woke up 10 in the morning and was tired as shit, not gonna lie. The first con mornings are always so harsh; I'm really not a morning person, no matter how you put it. I stayed in bed for a while before I finally got up and ate some Havre Knas Fras for breakfast.

The first thing I saw when I woke up.
– Result? Megaman X selection screen music stuck in my head the whole morning!

Big sister's living room certainly belongs to a gamer – there's consoles from Wii U to Playstation 3 and 4 and now a Super Nintendo. She also has a Playstation 2 and the first Playstation somewhere. :)
Me and Frozen Angel started to put on our cosplays slowly after checking with the rest of our gang if we were on time with them. I need to mention though that I had some issues with the makeup, mainly the eyeliner because it was fucking up so badly. I have this kind of liquid eyeliner that dries in a way so that you can literally peel off the liner once dry; it has not been a problem before because I haven't done any thicker lines but oh lord, this time it was horrible to use!! I tried to build up a thicker line on my eyelid and the liner just crumpled and ended up looking like I had slathered fucking black latex on my eyelids?! It looked fugly, ruined everything and I ragequitted on it while a stream of swear words came rolling down from the general direction of the bathroom. Thank God sis was not home, lol. I spent way too long on the makeup and I ended up just borrowing Frozen Angel's liquid liner because I had no reserves with me and he had the same one I had before this current shit...
And as if that was the only problem I ran into – it wasn't. :) I also figured out that the violet circle lenses I had taken with me for Kenshin (without having tried them on before because lack of time) had one of the lenses defective and yeah, I couldn't wear them at all because of that. Thank lord I had taken with me a reserve pair juuuuuust in case. u_u My scarring liquid had also dried out but luckily I had taken with me an unopened bottle of it as well.
 

Kenshin is ready! (obligatory cosplay selfie)

I called Sacchan when me and bro were ready and they came to pick us up... after a truck was done blocking their way from the hotel. The mothertruckers go to attack! We drove to Saab Arena (the con building) and left our Volvo in the parking lot.

Saab Arena viewed from the front when we arrived.

We went inside through the main entrance and were quickly turned around by the entrance checkers/workers because we didn't have our tickets yet – they told us we had to go stand in line outside. We went outside to check the line and all I could think was "hell no".

The long line to get your tickets. (this is just a small part of it)

Me, Frozen Angel, Sacchan and Joni followed the line to see exactly how long it was and it felt like it would never end – I thought Närcon had solved the problem of mega-sized lines!! Oh well, I found a couple friends standing close to the beginning of the line and well, because I'm a sneaky bastard at times (and I was shaking terribly because of the cold) I stayed there and thus didn't have to wait forever to get in. #yolo

Närcon Vinter 2016 con ticket!

We got our tickets and instantly tried to find Sportcenter, aka the second building that had all the merchandise and the gaming room etc. We actually ended up going in the completely wrong direction and got fairly frustrated because there were no signs whatsoever showing which way to go!! When we got fed up with walking around cluelessly we went inside Saab Arena and asked for directions, but much to my annoyment the directions given were really unclear and vague – aka "go over the fence and continue forward". Excuse me but whut?? If I continued straight forward from where I saw the fence I'd cross the car road and enter the industry/school area on the other side which, clearly, didn't belong to the con. >_> Oh well, after some searching and looking for where other con goers were heading we finally found Sportcenter, yay.

Sportcenter ahead, the second building of Närcon Vinter.

What instantly hit me when we got inside Sportcenter was how crammed and narrow it felt. It was also really obvious that it was a... well... sport center. I didn't really like the entrance area because of the non-con cafeteria there (by non-con I mean that it belonged to the building and not to Närcon) and the big squared off area in the middle that made it so that if you wanted to get past the cafeteria area (with tables for eating customers etc) you had to go around it and well, the corridors/passageways were narrow and a bother for me to pass through because I had swords, aka people kept bumping into my swords and it made me crazy.

The entrance/main non-con cafeteria area, seen from one of the corners.

A big fabric sign showing a map of the Sportcenter.

The corridor you had to pass to get to the merchandise hall, foodcourt etc.

We all were so happy to see that bubbletea was available! I had heard rumors online that they would come but I wasn't sure if it was true. All four of us (excluding Hitsu because she was somewhere else) went to plow through the merchandise and I must say that I was pretty satisfied with the variety of goods, even though I nowadays rarely buy stuff at a con because most times it's grossly overpriced.

The foodcourt area. The Närcon cafeteria is next to the wall.

Bubbletea shop – my con is saved!

The merchandise ranged from the usual alpacca plushies to other cutesy stuff, figurines, t-shirts and other wearables along with accessories for alternative fashion, cosplay parts, posters, art books, DVD's and movies and basically anything that you can think of. C: There was even contact lenses but those honestly scare me and I stay away from them – they always seem to be of some kind of shady brands that I've never even heard of before and yeah, I'm quite the lens guru so that says a lot.

This was the view when you entered the merchandise hall.

A lot of small figurines...

The obligatory cute plushies seller. I keep thinking that someday
I want to buy an alpacca...

My Little Pony shop feat. show accurate plush ponies.

Pokémon League badges!

OMG Digimon! ;A;

Pokémon plushies.

Pokémon mascot keychain plushies.
I was so tempted to buy the Latias and Latios ones
because I love and collect those.

When we were walking around the merchandise area some random person passed us by and handed out Namco Bandai paper sheets. On a closer look they were basically lottery tickets to win a Sorey figurine from Tales of Zestiria and the only thing you had to do to enter was to write your contact information and fill in the boxes of what Namco Bandai titles you are a fan of. Me, Joni and Frozen Angel got handed those papers and so we headed off to the gaming room to fill them in because that's where the Bandai Namco booth was. Sacchan got a ticket at the booth and we were quite surprised when we learned that the girl sitting at the booth was actually Finnish, omg! :O We chatted with her for a short while and then when we gave her our tickets she gave us all two booster packs of some Tekken TCG; everyone who entered the lottery got two of those as a freebie. Awesome.

Tekken Card Tournament freebie booster pack.

When we were done checking the merchandise hall we had all gotten hungry enough that going and fetching some grub sounded like a good idea. But as per usual with cons the choices for food are limited to fast food, more or less, and so was the case with Närcon Vinter too. There would have been some kind of wraps and I guess tortillas but oh well, it was easy to go to that truck outside Sportcenter that was serving hamburgers, kebab etc for a fair price. Närcon's own food stands constantly had lines longer than life...

There's no con without fast food.

We all bought the kebab with bread because kebab felt more tempting than burgers (hell, we had eaten burgers two days in a row) and it only cost 55 SEK, which wasn't half bad. It was snowing when we ordered (the pic is taken on Sunday, by the way) so as soon as we got our kebabs we ran inside because we didn't want to have extra snow in our meals, lol. We went to eat our food at the cafeteria/foodcourt area; it was quite the challenge to find a free table and chairs but we managed.

Kenshin + kebab = Kebshin

In case anyone wonders I took off my tekkou before eating. Actually, they were such a pain in the ass that I spent half the con day without them, lol. They wouldn't stay in place for shit and just kept spinning you spin me right 'round baby around my arms and loosening up etc – really annoying. I actually used the tekkou that I made for Ichito back in the days because I wanted brown leather ones, instead of the black fabric ones I had been using previously and which I had bought from eBay years ago. The thing is that because I never wore Ichito longer than a few hours I hadn't really gotten to wear the tekkou long enough to figure out how they behaved and yeah, I had no idea they'd be so goddamn much of a bother to wear. I ended up just putting them on when someone asked for photos and otherwise they were swimming around in my bag. Frozen Angel accidentally almost broke one of the tying strings anyway when he put it on for me because yeah, it's a bitch to do by yourself.
Speaking of my Kenshin cosplay! I had a fair amount of people calling out "Kenshin!" when they saw me, one person fangirling and then –of course– one person asked me if my scar was real. I don't understand why it seem like that at almost every con I wear him to there's always someone who thinks that I actually cut myself in the face, for the sake of cosplay. I mean, it's nice that it looks realistic and all but hey, I'm not that hardcore! :'D

Had some matcha bubbletea for dessert!

I swear that bubbletea is like the nectar of the gods. One of my bigger reasons to go to Närcon Vinter was bubbletea – I love it so much! The matcha milk tea with cherry bubbles was godly, seriously. I bought it twice because it was that good.

Next to the Bubbletea shop was Gottcon, which sold candies, soda etc.

There was also a shop selling Japanese candies and sweets.

Next to the foodcourt was also the "crafting corner" where
you could draw and do those, err, "pärlplattor". Fuse bead pegboard things...?

You could also draw in one of these "con memory" things. :D

We went to the Skecon meetup at 20:00 but when we got there... there was like nothing to do. Four or so people were sitting in a ring on the floor and just chatting away and when me and my company came there we just said a quick hi to them and were left just... standing there. Awkwardly. I must say that it was lame as fuck and I felt like a completely outsider and thus very awkward. I really can't stand meetups when I just get ignored and don't feel welcome. There was some boring muted video with the Skecon mascot dancing Caramelldansen (which I'm really sick off, by the way) but that was about it; the whole meetup felt dead and there were like only that little friend group chatting with their own and not letting others into the fun. Ugh. Totally reminded me why I steer away from meetups. ._. We just awkwardly left after 5 minutes and well, those 5 minutes felt like the longest and most awkward minutes of my life.
I didn't attend any other panels or anything and yeah, I don't think we did that much more on Friday. We did spend some time in the gaming room but I didn't play anything myself; I just find it fun to watch others play. 

One thing though! At one point I reaaaaaally needed to take off my lenses (they suddenly started hurting my eyes and/or feeling really dry and uncomfortable) but I only ever found one bathroom in the Sportcenter building and there was always at least 5 people standing in line for the damn toilet!? I had no time to wait so I started freaking out because I didn't know where any other toilets were and then I had to rush all the way to Saab Arena and ask people there. Luckily I found a free bathroom there that I could use. But holy Christ, arrow signs for nearby bathrooms would be appreciated. During the whole duration of the con I only managed to find 3 bathrooms in total – what the fuck...?

I think we left the con late-ish, around 22:00 or something like that. Hitsu kindly drove me and Frozen Angel to big sister's as we had agreed on. At her place I ate some yummy leftover lasagne and then we watcher her play Until Dawn way too late into the night and, well, I think we all kinda shat ourselves. xD Jump scares goddammit.

★ Saturday ★

The main con day is here!
Me and bro decided on waking up earlier than the day before because bro had a Hetalia panel that he wanted to attend. We had breakfast and started putting on our cosplays – today I was to cosplay Kashuu Kiyomitsu from Touken Ranbu. I called Sacchan after I had put on most of my cosplay, to check if we were on schedule, and it turns out she was a bit behind us so I waited before doing the finishing touches.

Selfie with me as Kashuu my wig is derping
and Sacchan as Atago from Kantai Collection. ♡

When we got to the con we headed straight for the Sportcenter again. Actually, we spent most of our time in there because Saab Arena only had the Artist's Alley, info desk, the visitors' second-hand table, the cosplay competitions and some external events that I didn't care too much about.
We went and chilled in the gaming room but all along I was hoping that those few Touken Ranbu cosplayers I had seen on Friday would be here on Saturday too – I had seen a Tsurumaru, Kogitsunemaru and Heshikiri. But as my luck is crap I of course saw none of those, or well, I saw some of the cosplayers (the previous Heshikiri cosplayer came and talked with me) but they cosplayed from other series. :( Damn. I was honestly expecting to see more TouRabu cosplayers but during the whole Saturday I only found another Kashuu and a Yamato no Kami Yasusada, whom I by the way ended up bonding and chatting a long time with. Oh, and it seemed like no one even recognized me, save for those three; I honestly got more comments about having painted nails (by fellow guys, nonetheless) than I got about my cosplay, LOL.

Some people playing the new Naruto fighting game. Joni is the one closest
to the camera by the way. :)

The geek is strong in here. (gaming room)

I actually spent most of Saturday doing nothing... or well, hanging with my friends. XD It might sound boring as all hell but I actually enjoyed it a lot. It was a lot of fun just walking around and seeing all the cool and happy cosplayers; there was this one Saitama cosplayer from OnePunch-Man who was such a natural joy pill that spotting him immediately put me in a happy mood!

Monster Hunter figurines!

More MonHun figurines!

And one more.

I was happy to find Monster Hunter merchandise but I didn't buy any; I thought they were way too expensive. Some MonHun items were literally three times as expensive as what I've paid for mine directly from Japan so.... yeaaaaah. No thanks. But it's still a feast for the eyes to see the stuff on display!

I was also looking for Touken Ranbu merchandise but, much to my surprise, there was barely anything to be found! I thought it would be a lot more popular but it felt weirdly obscure...?

I'm not sure what these were...

TouRabu posters. There were several different designs.

The posters are self-explanatory but those small figurines I'm a bit confused of what you are supposed to do with them. They all had their arms up and under the arms ran a small groove, almost as if you were supposed to fasten them by the groove on something. I have no idea, I never saw anything like it before. For some reason, when I checked back on those later, only the Mikazuki one was left; the rest sold out. And here I was expecting that Mikazuki would disappear first...

Närcon had these awesome "NärConsent" signs
up here and there. I approve!

This one was outside Sportcenter.

I don't have so much to say about Saturday since I didn't even go watch the cosplay competitions or anything. I guess I should but I'm just not interested enough to stand in line for hours and then sit still more hours on a chair and stare at costumers so far away that I can barely tell what characters they are cosplaying, lol. I hate when all the tall people sit in front of me too. I don't like to sit still for long when I'm at a con because I feel like I miss a lot of what's happening around me; I guess that's the reason why I'm so bad at attending panels too...

This is my Saturday in a nutshell – sit and
chill in the foodcourt area. :D

At some point our gang gathered and we just sat in the foodcourt area and drank bubbletea together. I bought the matcha one again but Hitsu did things better than me – she was so savage that she bought two bubbleteas and drank them both on the same go!

Hitsu wins at life.

When the clock was nearing eight I suddenly got a call from big sister's boyfriend; he told me that he'd come pick us up after eight. This meant that I had to cut my con day shorter than I had planned and I didn't have time to discover everything there was to offer. But the trade-off was not bad at all – me and bro got treated to some super-amazing sushi from one of Sweden's best Japanese restaurants!

So yeah, we spent the last 45 minutes exploring the Saab Arena and, more exactly, the Artist's Alley. We found this one Norwegian guy selling amazing Nintendo characters etc in zombie designs! Me, Sacchan and Frozen Angel ended up talking and gushing over his art for a long time and of course none of us left his table empty-handed – his stuff was seriously way too cool to pass up on!
I also chatted with Jackocalypse for a while because he also had a table at Artist's Alley; he's such a cute and sweet person!

People are standing in line for something in Saab Area's main entrance.

Artist's Alley area.

Also Artist's Alley.

Närcon information desk.

I left the con a little bit past eight and it felt like it all went by so fast; we didn't have any plans on attending on Sunday because we had to leave early, thanks to the long driving distance back home. :( Sacchan, Hitsu and Joni stayed at the con after me and Frozen Angel had to leave. Big sister's boyfriend picked us up and we drove back to their place.

Saab Arena seen from the front during night time. Rainbows!

I must say that leaving "early" from the con didn't feel all that bad once I saw the sushi feast. Holy moly was it delicious!! Best sushi in my life, no question about it. I got to try several sushis I've never tasted before and everything was sooooooo good. ♥

Family sushi dinner! #worthit

After the meal I spent several hours talking and asking questions about Japan with big sister. She has been there several times and talks the language fluently so yeah, I got a lot of information! She even asked if I wanted to borrow some of her language books but I forgot to ask for them when we left on Sunday morning, damnit.

★ Post-con (Sunday & Monday) ★

I know, Sunday is not actually "post-con" since Närcon is a 3-day con. But I decided to put it in post-con because I didn't attend the con, save for a quick visit to pick up provisions.

On Sunday morning I packed my stuff as soon as I woke up. At some point Frozen Angel called Hitsu and asked if we could do a quick stop at the con just so that we could go pick up bubbleteas for the trip or whatever else we wanted; Hitsu said it was okay but we had to be quick.
Me and bro said goodbye to big sis and her partner, I gave back the reserve keys and we left – I felt sad. :(
Everyone except Hitsu went inside Sportcenter one last time (in our normal clothes) and I bought myself one last bubbletea and also some merchandise that I had been pending back and forth with if I wanted to buy it or not; I ended up buying a Latias and Latios Pokémon plushie, they were too cute to resist. ;_; 
We got back into the car and left Linköping behind. The trip back to Umeå went without any problems, just like the trip down. We stopped to eat at Uppsala once again and yes, it was Max. Again. XD I still had coupons! They are neverending.
Once again I spent a fair amount of my time playing either Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate or talking with mostly Joni about how a jumping stick is the deadliest weapon.
But guys, I need to tell you one thing! While I was playing MonHun I did a rare G rank Expedition quest and well, I think I died a little inside when the following monsters showed up on my screen – the game decided to fuck me over, big time. MonHun fans will understand the pain. I had no chance and, even less so, because both of their timers started fairly close to one another. Fuck my hunter life. :)

DOUBLE SAVAGE DEVILJHO!!! #savageaf #rekt

We arrived at Umeå not too late but yeah, we had to sleep early anyway because Hitsu had an airplane to pass the morning after (she's a busy girl!) that she couldn't allow to miss. 
We woke up on Monday morning before the pigs had time to fart and Sacchan, me, Frozen Angel and Joni had to dig up Sacchan's poor Citroën from all the snow that had buried it meanwhile we were gone. It was a good thing that the thing even started because it had been outside completely in the cold...
The drive from Umeå back up to Haparanda and to Finland went fine. I cracked some hilarious Finnish puns that made everyone burst out laughing – success! Nothing else noteworthy happened except that we saw 5+ reindeers on the road, 60 km south of Skellefteå around 07:00 in the morning. One dead reindeer was lying next to the trench and the rest were scattered around the road, scaring the shit out of Sacchan who was driving slowly and trying to get past them. Luckily they didn't approach our car.
When we arrived at our destination we were hungry and we went to eat... one last time... at Max. :DDDDDDD

Before I end this con report I just want to show my convention loots! (aka merch purchases)

I bought these two on Sunday just before we left; I couldn't leave them. ;o;
Latias & Latios small Craneking plush dolls.

Sesshoumaru and Miroku rubber straps from InuYasha
and a zombie Yoshi necklace from Artist's Alley by Fredrik Edén.

I was seriously so excited to find InuYasha merchandise! You never find any merch from it nowadays because it's such an old series. I really love InuYasha because it was my first manga that I started collecting and Sesshoumaru is one of my all-time favorite characters. I actually bought the Sesshoumaru strap already on Friday (insta-buy!) but I bought the Miroku one on Saturday evening.

_____________________

And that pretty much sums up my Närcon Vinter journey. I had a pleasant experience and I'd gladly go to NCV again. ^_^ The only complaints I have is the general lack of direction signs, especially to Sportcenter because it took my group a while to find our way there and it was frustrating. I also never found the Pokémon Gaiden room because I never found any signs or a map that showed where it was. 

I'd also really appreciate it if there were more food options than the usual fast food. I'd love to be able to buy some sushi or other simpler Japanese foods, unless it's horribly overpriced. I remember Uppcon having had sushi back when they still existed and it was really cool so yeah, I don't understand why Närcon hasn't followed in their footsteps yet...?

Oh and yeah, this is not Närcon's fault but I want to mention it anyway – I only had nice and friendly encounters with people, except for this one cosplayer who was walking behind me and Sacchan on Saturday when we were about to enter the gaming room. I clearly heard her say in a really bitchy voice "why can't people walk faster??" and it really pissed me off. She maybe just carelessly thought out loud but what really grinded on my gears was that she clearly seemed to assume that, because we were speaking Finnish, then we wouldn't understand Swedish. Well, I'm sorry to break it for you but I'm completely bilingual and I totally understood that you were being a jerk behind us. Don't fucking go bitch about people when you don't know why they do what they do – in this case Sacchan was wearing high heels that were way too big for her –and thus troublesome to walk in– and her feet were hurting; I was walking next to her so that she could lean on me if she lost her balance or needed to put her shoes back on, in case they went out of place (which they did, several times). I also walked slowly because my cosplay restricted my movement (surprise motherfucker – cosplays sometimes do that! :D), aside from supporting my friend.
So yeah, if you're gonna bitch at others just because they are slow (and there was enough space so that you could pass us by, anyway) then kindly piss off; if you don't know the reasons –and let's face it, hindrances are not always visible– then don't open your fucking mouth and, especially, don't assume that those you refer to won't understand. I'm just as Swedish as you are so yeah, I'm sorry but you made yourself look like an inconsiderate and selfish asshole. Congrats. :)

But yeah, thanks for a great con everybody! o/

Shiro Samurai out ~

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Bonus pic!

This seal plush is super cute and all but yeah, the placement of that tail fin pippelihäntä hihi really fucks with my mind... XD It stayed as a joke between me, Frozen Angel and Sacchan during the con, lol.

Ciao! ~

Lens review: MAX Elegance Tri-Tone Violet

Hi there!

I thought I could share a circle lens review with you all meanwhile I'm scribbling together my summary about Närcon Vinter. :3
These lenses are the MAX Elegance Tri-Tone Violet that I bought from HoneyColor a while ago. As far as I know these lenses are exclusive to their site so yeah, if you want to try these then that's where you should be looking!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 15.0 mm

Water content: 55%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Okay so, I think most people are unfamiliar with the MAX brand of lenses –or M.A.X– as it's spelled on the vials. My guess is that the name MAX stands for My Alluring X-factor (to beautiful eye) because that's what's written on the label.

I bought these lenses out of curiosity and because they were on a 50% off sale back then.

Lens on my finger with "wrong side" showing. Different indoor lights.

I don't know exactly where or what but these lenses have a design that I'm sure I've seen on another pair of contacts before – or at least a veeeery similar one. Then again, the print of these is rather generic I'd say; not like it's bad but yeah, I mean it in the way that it doesn't really stick out because there's several other lenses out there that looks the same.

Lens photos incoming!

All photos taken by me during a February morning with a clear sky. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

One lens in. This is to show enlargement.

Facing window in my apartment.

Facing the sun directly, through the window.

Natural room light indoors in my apartment. (lamps off)

Room light in my apartment. I'm standing next to a weak yellow lamp.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

The color is a nice medium or light violet that shows up quite well. The lenses have a star shaped brown design towards the pupil hole, along with small black dots in the same shape; I think this is done to make them blend in a bit better with whatever natural eye color that the user has – I have light blue-gray eyes, with an occasional greenish tint. The design is kinda generic but it's still nice in all its simplicity. The black limbal ring is narrower than on most lenses and it has an irregular "cracking" effect instead of being a fully covering bold ring; this makes the lens and the enlargement effect look more modest and not as unnatural.

The issue with these lenses is the comfort. I am highly suspecting that the right lens is defective; I've tried wearing it 5 times but every time it feels like I have dirt between my eye and the lens and it feels horrible!! The lens gives a really unpleasant scratching feeling and it makes my eye water like crazy as soon as it has settled on my pupil. It's seriously horrible to wear and I've tried cleaning and inserting it multiple times and it always feels the same. :/ I threw it away as soon as I was done taking the photos and yes, this is the reason why there's fewer pictures than normal – I just couldn't stand wearing the hurting lens at all.
It seems though like the other lens (left one) is okay to wear but it feels kinda "thick" in my eye and it feels uncomfortable at first too, although not in any painful way – just the usual "I have a lens in my eye" feeling, which I dislike. I haven't tried wearing it for long but I guess I could stand wearing it for probably 2-4 hours or so. Please note though that I have dry/sensitive eyes and that comfort of each pair of lenses can be really different from person to person.

Distance photo!

Want to see other colors?

Check out this: Red, Blue

Short summary:

Color: 6/10
Nice light to medium violet color.

Design: 6/10

Basic-looking circle lens design but it's still nice in all its simplicity.

Opacity: 7/10

The colored parts of the lenses are more opaque than I was expecting – they change my eye color nicely.

Enlargement: 6/10

They do look sorta big but it's nothing crazy that grabs instant attention to your eyes.

Comfort: 1/10

Comfort is really poor, mainly because I suspect one lens is defective; it feels like I have constant dirt in my eye and it's just reaaaaally unpleasant to wear and makes my eye water like crazy. The left lens seems okay but it's not really comfortable either – I feel it in my eye and it feels "thick". Comfort for the non-defective lens is around 5/10.

Naturalness: 2/10

Too big and pigmented for being realistic. Also, violet is not a natural color to begin with, lol.

Thanks for checking out my reviews! Hope this was helpful. ^^

Shiro Samurai out.

Lens review: Beaucon Jewels Violet

Hi folks from around the globe!

Time for a circle lens review before Närcon Vinter kicks in!

Since Kenshin has violet eyes, I actually bought the Beaucon Jewels Violet solely with him in mind because I thought they'd be a very good fit for his eyes! I have to say though that I can't use these for him since the comfort is really too poor for me; I most likely won't even be able to stand half a con day wearing these. :/ It's a shame because otherwise these lenses would be really nice for him.

Oh well, let's move on with the review!

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.0 mm

Water content: 45%

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

The lens to the watcher's left shows wrong side out.

As far as I know Beaucon's lenses can only be found at HoneyColor – that's where I bought mine, in case anyone wonders where to get these. I also want to mention that the Beaucon Jewels series has a very similar design to those very popular 'Candy' style lenses, like EOS Sugar Candy and Vassen Sakura Candy for example. The main difference between the 'Candy' lenses and the Beaucon Jewels is the diameter – the Beaucon lenses are notably smaller.

One lens in.

Much to my disappointment it became clear to me –as soon as I put the first lens in– that these won't be comfortable. When I had both lenses in I spent the first 10 minutes resisting all the urges to just take them off because the lenses felt really uncomfortable on my eyes, especially when I moved my gaze. They make my eyes watery and it feels like no matter how many times I clean them and re-insert them they always feel like they kinda "scratch" my eye when I move my gaze – I don't know how to explain the feeling; it's really annoying. The first 30 minutes were really unpleasant and I caught myself thinking "I just want to take these off" all the time, lol. But after that my eyes got used to them a little, sort of. I managed to wear them for 1 hour and then they suddenly just felt so dry that I went "fuck this shit" and took them out. Please note that I have sensitive and/or eyes that are often tired, which means that even though I don't find these lenses comfortable they might be hella comfy for someone else – everyone's eyes are different.

These lenses have a simple design with a thick black limbal ring and a single color that fades towards the pupil and thus creates a very nice blending look. These lenses are that perfect middleground between giving the anime look but somewhat still managing to look natural, thanks to the blending effect. 

Lens photos ahead!

All photos are taken by me during a February afternoon with a cloudy sky. All close-up photos are free from filters etc and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Facing the window (always sun side) in my apartment.

Apartment room light. I'm standing next to a lamp.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

White light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the corridor.

Yellow light in the staircase.

Outdoors with my back against the light, aka facing wall.

Outdoors, sitting under the roof, turned towards the light.

Outdoors, facing the light.

These have a light violet shade that looks pretty damn natural, actually. In some lights the violet color seems to look a bit grayish though. Nevertheless it's a lovely shade and a good choice (assuming these would be more comfortable for others) if you are looking for a violet lens that isn't too unnatural.

Distance photo!

I would really have liked to be able to use these for Kenshin's portrayal in the Tsuiokuhen OVA since I was looking for a lens with a small diameter, simple design that provides the anime eye look but still something that would not be overwhelming and too distinguished. For the OVA version I'd prefer a more subtle lens, something that doesn't jump at you but still gives that surreal look to your eyes and the color change... Man, I was really hoping for the Jewels Violet to be the one because hnnng, they'd have been so perfect! >n<;; Damn comfort getting in the way!

Want to check out more reviews of the Beaucon Jewels series? :>

I have reviewed other colors too: Brown, Pink Brown, Green

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
Lovely soft light violet shade.
Design: 8/10
Simple design but it's very likable. It works great for cosplays on which you'd prefer a smaller diameter but still want that anime eye effect.
Opacity: 7/10
Opacity is good because the lenses change my eye color notably. They do blend for a natural finish though.
Enlargement: 3/10
These are small but still gives a subtle enlargement boost.
Comfort: 2/10
These are not comfortable for me; I can't wear them for much longer than 1 hour before they dry my eyes. They also feel like they subtly "scratch" my eye when I move my gaze, no matter how well I clean them.
Naturalness: 3/10
These are surprisingly natural for being an unnatural color, but the thick limbal ring still gives them away as circle lenses.

Shiro Samurai says thanks for reading and byebye! ^.-

Battousai Kenshin – Pimpin' up the wig!

Hello peeps!

I was bored this evening/night so I just sat for a while and thought about the upcoming Närcon Vinter and my cosplays and then it hit me – now that I'll bring Kenshin out again then why don't I update him a little and give the wig a new look?
I scrolled through some old photos of my Battousai Kenshin cosplay (for reference) and it hit me that the wig looked a bit too... I don't know... "untouched", for my current taste. :/ Too straight, lol. Besides, I wanted to mess around with a wig anyway because I was soooo bored.

This is just the base wig.
Ponytail is not shown because I didn't do anything to it.

I didn't do all that much to the wig, just spiked the front and sides all over for a more unkempt anime look. :) I didn't cut it because that was already done; this was one of my early wig cutting projects back in the days, haha.

I don't know why I'm so excited to do Kenshin again, even though it's a cosplay that stems back from 2013. Well, save for nostalgy and love of the series, that is. ^^" I guess I just really like how I look as him; it's one of those few characters that I currently feel like I actually fit – you know, that feeling when you put the cosplay on and look yourself in the mirror and actually somewhat see the (likeness to the) character? Kenshin is also one of the few of my cosplays that doesn't make me horribly self-conscious either, for the same reasons as above + that I've noticed that I do muuuuch easier get successful photos taken of me when I do him, even random con photos by others!? I hate bad photos of me so much, sob sob.
I guess it's just a relief to feel like you actually can pull off some characters with whatever physical traits you were born with. I know that it shouldn't really matter and all but yeah, on some days (especially when I feel bad about myself) it's still a really big "feel good" thing for me –can't deny– and it makes me happy because most of the time I don't like how I look in a cosplay, actually...

Looking forward to Närcon Vinter! Thanks for reading my cosplay ramblings!

Shiro Samurai out.

Närcon Vinter 2016 cosplay plans – Sword boys with sad stories!

Hello puppies!

So my first con of the year will be Närcon Vinter in Linköping, Sweden. It's held during the 12-14 February and I must say that I'm really stoked about attending! σ(≧ε≦ｏ) I already bought the con tickets and everything else is fixed too! I haven't been to Närcon Vinter since the very first one back in 2013 – it's gonna be interesting to see how it has evolved! What makes it even more of a fresh experience is that this year they changed locations so the con will be in a different building, yay! It used to be in Anders Ljungstedts Gymnasium but now it's gonna be in Saab Arena and Sporthallen!

I will be carpooling with the best company ever – we're gonna be 5 friends in one car! >w< Our seat takers consists of me, Frozen Angel (former Jäätynyt Enkeli), Sacchan, Ronya and Hitsu. It's gonna be so awesome!

Regarding my cosplay plans I need to admit that for the longest time I was pretty damn set on what to cosplay but then, like two weeks before the con, it suddenly hit me that some really important stuff for the cosplays have yet to arrive and that I won't be able to finish some props in time. D'oh! 

So yeah, I ended up having to change my original plans almost completely, only leaving one of the characters still on the list. But without further babblings I'll get to the cosplans, here goes!

Friday

Series: Rurouni Kenshin (Tsuiokuhen OVA)

Character: Kenshin Himura (Hitokiri Battousai)

Time to let Kenshin out again! A rather comfy and fun cosplay to wear for Friday – and I can't deny that it will feel a bit nostalgic since I did cosplay him at NCV (shortening for Närcon Vinter) three years ago. :') Kenshin is one of those cosplays that I really enjoy wearing to cons because I often get funny interactions and yeah, people are more likely to come and talk to me about RuroKen etc. It's a classic series for many and I just feel all kinds of fuzzy inside when a random congoer comes up to me and tells me that they're so happy to see that someone is still cosplaying from the old classics. ;u;

Saturday

Series: Touken Ranbu

Character: Kashuu Kiyomitsu

New cosplay! I have already spoiled here at my blog that I was planning to do Kashuu's casual outfit for my next con so yeah, this should hardly be a surprise anymore. xD I think I'm starting to fall quite deep into swordboy hell but I regret nothing. I just love the designs so soooo much, okay. ;A;

I decided to put Kashuu on Saturday because I'm hoping I'll find other TouRabu cosplayers on that day since it's the main day and well, Touken Ranbu is popular right now!

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That's about it. Even though the con is three days I don't plan to cosplay on the last day, aka Sunday. Sorry about it. ^^" The reason for this is mainly because the con will close it's doors around 16:00 and that I'm really not sure if I can be bothered to put on a full cosplay and, well, it would slow me down and be a bother in case our carpool group has to leave ASAP after the con closes. I'm really not the type to want to be in a 9+ hours car trip with my cosplay and all the makeup still on, ughh. I just don't want to stress as soon as the con is over because yeah, we won't have much time to waste because driving back up to the far north will take the rest of the day and, most likely, we won't even reach our first destination before midnight – especially if we actually stay at the con until 16:00.

That's my cosplay line-up for Närcon Vinter! See ya there!

Shiro Samurai says byebye!