Otakon 2010

Day zero: When we were arriving to the Baltimore Convention Center, my friend Gabby and I were extremely excited because it was our first time ever going to an anime convention. There were already people walking down the street in their costumes, even though Thursday wasn’t the actual convention, but the date to pick up pre-registered tickets. Since we arrived close to closing time, around 8:40pm, there wasn’t a line for pre-registered ticket pick-up. On the other hand, people were already lining up for Friday’s door tickets (which wouldn’t open till 9am). I’m so glad we pre-registered. (But our friend Isaac didn’t...)

Day one: On the actual day of the Otakon, we were even more excited before. We arrived around noon because I unfortunately had to finish taking a final exam for Chemistry class. But no matter, we still made it to the Convention, and were extremely happy people. About every eight out of ten person was cosplaying, and we had wished we were one of those eight. I at first had felt like dork to wear a costume, but since everyone else was wearing a costume, I felt like the dork not wearing one. For our first time being at an anime convention, we had no idea where to start, and the schedule that I did create was “thrown out the window” so we walked aimlessly around for hours. We got lost for three hours in the Dealers Room, but we eventually found the correct exit. While in the Dealers Room, I spotted the president of the Asian club (along with a member) who had both recently graduated from my school. I chit-chatted with them a bit, and we went our separate ways. Throughout the entire convention, Gabby and I searched high and low for a person cosplaying as Lelouch. We saw one guy dressed as Lelouch, but Gabby instantly said ‘ew’ and we didn’t find any other Lelouchs until about two hours later. In total we found seven Lelouchs, and only two of them were good looking; the others were....um....But out of the two good looking Lelouchs, only one of them played the role correctly. He was Asian, and tall, and hawt. We stalked him for all three days of the Otakon and I’m now his Facebook friend :) The only thing on my schedule that we actually did follow was attending the Ultimate Lolita Fashion Show from 8:30pm-10pm. The outfits were splendid, and all would have went well if the music had kept playing. The woman controlling the music kept fiddling with the Mac that she caused it to freeze, which I have never seen before in my whole life. Whenever this occurred, the announcer lady would say, “Oh Mac,” or if a model was walking on the runway, she’d say, “Work it girl.” This got really annoying. Day one of Otakon was finished, we were sad, but Day two was up next. However, the day wasn’t over for me. After arriving home at around midnight, I had to stay up until 2 am finishing my Magnet headphones for my costume that I planned to wear for Saturday. I’m such a procrastinator which is a habit I’ll have to work on.

Day two: The second day of Otakon arrived, and so did a bear. This was no ordinary bear, but a bear named Pedobear. He is the creepiest pedophile I have ever come across. Isaac saw this cute mascot bear first and immediately wanted a picture with him. I on the otherhand didn’t, so I just stood on the sidelines and watched Isaac pose with the bear. But once the picture was over, Pedobear shouted, “A picture with her! With her!” So I unfortunately had my picture taken with the bear, which I thought was nice. But when my picture with Pedobear was finished, he petted me on my shoulder, and when I walked away gave me that wave thing that’s supposed to be sexy; which wasn’t sexy, but scary. Later on that day we ran into Pedobear again, and he gave me that wave thing away, and even chased me around. But besides meeting Pedobear, we saw hawt Lelouch again, and he was wearing a different Lelouch cosplay which still looked amazingly good on him. Throughout the day he saw tons of men in heels and bunny costumes, which was very disturbing. And there was even one guy who stuffed his cellphone and other objects into a bra to fill it. When two o’clock came, I was so pumped for the Vocaloid meet-up, but it only got ruined due to the stupid fire alarm. Some idiot pulled it, and jumped out the emergency exit. All 22,000 people had to evacuate the Baltimore Convention Center, and stand outside in the heat, in their costumes for an entire hour. My friends and I were smart, and we entered the Hilton for air conditioning, and remained in the Otakon Library for that hour. I read Beauty Pop, volume 5; great series. During the full hour I worried about whether or not the Vocaloid meet-up would be cancelled or not, but when I went to the fourth floor (meet-up location), tons of Vocaloid cosplayers were there. I was so happy. The photoshoot went on for about half an hour or more, and I meet a girl who cosplayed as Miku Hatsune from the same video as me, Magnet. Oh, I cosplayed as Luka Megurine, and I was totally awesome. Later that day, someone wanted my picture, and said, “kawaii.” (Meaning “cute” in Japanese). I have never been called cute in my entire life, it overjoyed me so much. But when I was walking down the street on Sunday, dressed up as Luka Megurine as a school girl, someone told me I was “hawt.” But either way, I looked good, and that’s all that matters. Right?

Day three: So on the last day of Otakon, I again dressed up as Luka Megurine, but this time I was a school girl. On our way to the Baltimore Convention Center, I hastily made my Vocaloid headphones, which I didn't finish in the car. But, when we arrived, we quickly went to Ota-chan (workshop where you can make kawaii crafts) where I finished my crappy headphones within seven minutes. Throughout the day my headphones would untape itself from my headband and fall apart, but they managed to survive until the end of Otakon. Strangely people still wanted my picture, even though my headphones were crappy, but everyone said they were nicely made. Not much happened on the last day except for the humongous line to entire the Dealer's Room and people wanting my picture. Oh, also inside the Dealer's Room, we found a good looking Suzaku, and asked for a picture with him. He was really tall, and maybe taller than the hawt Lelouch. We'll never know cause we failed to assemble the two together, which we tried so hard to do. Anyways, Otakon ended like that, and all I have to remember it by is this blog, tons and tons of advertisement fliers, pictures, videos on Youtube, and my member which vanishes very quickly...

I'll post some pictures of Otakon later. So look forward to them!