OTAKON 2009: The Reportage
THURSDAY
My flight left at around 9 and I arrived in Baltimore thinking that Mike and Vanessa would be picking me up with their car, but it turned out they had used public transit so I had to go back in the baggage claim. We rode down to the train station to pick up Robyn, who was waiting there with someone from her area that was also going. We ferried her to her hotel since she was pretty much stranded, then we went to go pick up food and Jordan who had rode the bus from PA. So with five of us squished into Mike's car and Jordan's head poking out of the sunroof (the guy's like 6 foot 8) we drove into Baltimore proper to pre register. We had dinner at a fish restaurant on the pier and since I was in Maryland I had a local microbrew and crabcakes, so everyone got to see me tipsy.
The pre registration line was outside, and it was very long--a lot of people had the same idea we had. It was also very hot and humid, and by the time we got inside we weren't feeling too good, so we sat around and cooled off after we got our badges. (I got the Ouran High badge, although I probably should've got the Kagami as Hatsune Miku badge...) After a bit of wandering about the city we dropped Robyn off with her friends at the hotel, then went back to Mike's place where there was much Discussing of Stuff (a lot of it pertains to just us so I won't go into detail here) and Jordan taxied back from the VAMPS concert and I could hear him playing Metal Gear from upstairs while sleeping down in the basement (it was quite comfortable down there.)
FRIDAY
There was a line to get into the con so we missed out on an Important Panel about personal safety from Creepy Fans. The first thing I did was go down to Artist's Alley to register my work. I brought 5 of my amigurumis with me: Cait Sith (the one I just finished,) the black and white Mokona Modokis, Shaymin and Jama-P. Then we went to the dealer's room and navigated the mad crush of people as we looked around. Lunch was sub sandwiches, thoughtfully purchased ahead of time from Wal-Mart by Mike (they were really good.) I had one panel I went to on Friday on Gothic and Lolita and saw Lisa, who had gone with us to Canobie Lake Park in June and we talked a bit. We went into Artist's Alley, bought stuff, and I attempted to meet the group in the video room to see the AMVs, but was unable to do so due to the room being at capacity, so I waited outside, wandered into the game room, took pictures, etc. After the doors opened, it was time for the premiere of the Evangelion 1.0 dub, which we watched, and the video had a very nasty habit of cutting out JUST when it was getting to the good parts. We watched the Friday Night fan parodies in hopes that the one that our group did, ReMoon, would be featured, and it wasn't. What WAS, though, was something called Alfred Leebop which was a complete waste of time. In fact none of the crowd enjoyed it, and when the female character whined, onscreen, "This is boring" the ENTIRE AUDIENCE voiced their agreement. Then they cut to Dragonball Z abridged which was much more awesome.
SATURDAY
We got in rather easily. It was actually a really nice day out, not a whole lot of humidity or anything. The first panel for us was Anime Parliament, so we went over the skyway to the new Hilton hotel. It's a beautiful place, and the best part was that the picture windows outside the panel rooms that had been set aside for the con give you a really clear view right inside Camden Yards. (If I'm at Otakon on a game night, I'm going to go and take pictures. I got pictures of the view, though.) The next panel for me was the Gothic & Lolita fashion show. There were lots of really lovely designs, and my only gripe was that my camera couldn't get any good shots (they're all faded.) I went back into the dealers' room and spent time at the Kinokuniya stall looking at this one Metamorphose jumperskirt that I thought would suit me. After much deliberation, plus some useful input from a mother and daughter who knew what they were doing, I purchased the jumperskirt!
Later on that day, we returned for the Sailor Moon panel. The presenters were doing attack sequence contests, and Mike lent me the bat to his Team Fortress 2 Scout costume to wave for attention, and I got up to perform "World Shaking" and won (it was stickers, but it was upholding our group's honor after all.) When we said we were all members of Suburban Senshi, we got cheers from two people in the audience (one of the people was my competitor in World Shaking) and it was really pleasing for us to have fans. We had more sandwiches for dinner, then joined the line for the masquerade. To be honest, this is only the second pure anime convention masquerade I've ever seen (the others are from Arisia and AAC; I haven't even seen one from AB) so I didn't really have a lot to say about the skits but the guys were not impressed--we were texting each other notes as we were watching. My two favorite skits were the FF7 musical number (the Turks dancing to Men in Black, AW HELLS YEAH) and a skit whose intro had Jordan give the MC the one finger salute as he ran from his seat ("Organization XIII is going to the Hidden Leaf Village to retrieve the Death Note...this skit promises to be none of that.") The skit involved a fight between Magikarp and Noonsa the fish monster from Slayers. Noonsa defeated Magikarp, then the Pokemon evolution music played and Solid Snake came out and shot Noonsa. After the Masquerade we went to the video room to watch the Saturday night parodies, more DBZA and the annual airing of Evangelion ReDeath (audience participation encouraged), then we went home after hitting Taco Bell for fourthmeal.
SUNDAY
The first thing I did that morning was head down to the art show to check on the status of my work and pick up anything that was unsold when I got the exciting news: It wasn't there to be picked up because it had been sold! (I had checked twice on my work Saturday; the last time it had been checked there was a $40 bid on the Shaymin when I had the minimum bid at $20.) So if everything sold at the minimum price plus that one bid, I made $120 before fees and shipping and such. Not bad at all.
I joined a bunch of people for a The World Ends With You photoshoot as Shiki. A lot of the girls snatched away my Mr. Mew crocheted plush for hugs right away (I got him back eventually) and there was a person dressed as one of the monsters, which was awesome, and one of the girls dressed as Beat had a handcrafted plush of Noise!Rhyme. We did a lot of poses and shots and much fun was had by all. The only thing worth doing on Sunday was the feedback panel, but after that we headed back to the garage and passed by a family whose minivan was stuck in the middle of traffic with a dead battery! We stayed with them until AAA arrived (I ran down the street to flag down the tow truck after he made about 3 wrong turns) and then delivered Jordan to the bus station as Robyn took his place as a houseguest. We were napping when Mike called to announce that HIS battery had died as well...luckily that was easily replaceable, so he got home and we all drove in the better handling car down to Red Robin for dinner. They had awesome burgers, we sang along to "Bleeding Love", compared driver license photos and signatures, bought stuff at Rite Aid for the drive to Hershey, then headed back home for sleep.
MONDAY
Off to Hershey Park! We got into the car and drove down the highway to Pennsylvania. Surprisingly, our route took us through York which is the city where the call center for the newspaper I work for is now located so I was looking around for the building from the highway. We stopped at Wal Mart so I could get some flip flops and a little handbag (I had been up to this point carrying around the gold brocade messenger bag my mom got for me and I needed something smaller for the park) and Vanessa got Action Replay (it's more expensive for her to buy it in Canada.) We went into the park. I rode the Comet with Robyn, and then she and Vanessa rode Storm Chaser. Robyn really wanted to ride Fahrenheit...which is probably the most insane roller coaster I've ever seen. There is, quite literally, a NINETY DEGREE RIDE UP to a NINETY DEGREE DROP. Robyn and I played DDR, we rode Coal Breaker (which is like the log flume at Canobie only with one drop, but much wetter) and went to the water park to ride the Surge (?) and the Lazy River. Then, since it was looking like rain, we headed to the chocolate factory tour (which was QUITE updated since the last time I went there which was 1987 or 88) and got souvenirs for home. Robyn and I both got Dagoba chocolate bars and we tasted and compared them (I had lavender blueberry while she got chai.) We stopped at Sheetz gas station/convenience store for dinner and that place is awesome. I had fried macaroni & cheese bites which were quite good. The jalapeno poppers were...meh.
And then this morning I woke up, said bye and got on the plane home. See you next year...if not earlier.
So here's my haul:
- Anime albums for Magic Knight Rayearth, first and second part
- Figures of Sei Sato and Rei Hasekura so now my set of Maria-sama ga Miteru figures is complete! Yay!
- Maria-sama ga Miteru 3rd Season OVAs
- Inubaka #13 (farewell Czerny ;_;)
- Yakitate! Japan #18 (or rather, It's Yakitate! Japan #18...if I were to tell you why it'd be a spoiler)
- Cardcaptors doll of Sakura in the Cardcaptor Sakura Episode 31 battle costume (this is actually a trade to Vanessa for another Cait Sith plush)
- Reese's T-shirt with the logo in black and yellow shiny crystals
- A ring and some earrings (I may be giving away the earrings) from Cute Plush
- Plastic onigiri molds in heart and flower shapes
- Metal vegetable cutters in flower shapes
- A fanart badge from Halolz with a Slowpoke cosplaying at Sho Minamimoto from TWEWY ("So Zetta Slow!")
- Metamorphose temps de fille jumperskirt