I woke up grudgingly at 8am, trying to relish a few more hours of sleep. Despite going to sleep early, I was still exhausted. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any sleep on the bus. Getting to the con was no issue at all, and was quite easy. When I got there, the line to get my pass was pleasantly quick. The bathrooms were pretty much empty aside from some sane Hetalia cosplayers. I relished my time sleepily at the maid café, eating cupcakes, drinking tea, and occasionally serving people and explaining why everyone there was a long row of dolls sitting on the table. I also spent it bumping into people, tables, and objects, and people. It got a lot more popular than I thought it would. I wasn’t trying to be moe; I was just clumsy and tired. People probably wondered what was wrong with me.
My camera refused to stop blurring because of the odd lighting in the hotel. I can’t tell if the lights had a yellow cast, or if it was because the walls (and parts of the carpet) were such a golden color, but everything had a yellow tint. As you might expect, my camera thought this was way too much, and almost the pictures taken inside the rooms or inner hallways turned out various shades of yellow and blurriness. I think it was just the décor of the hotel, because even when I color corrected the photos, they were still very yellow. It makes me annoyed to realize I should have just put the camera on Auto mode for the ones in the room.
After the Maid Café ended, I wandered the Dealer Room, bought some sour gum, and popped into the various panels. Then, I was very bored, and everything went downhill.
Since I couldn't pack any lunch, and I wound up spending 10 dollars on food at the hotel’s restaurant. I only got chicken tenders (5 of them), fries, and a drink (no refills). Since many other con goers didn’t plan ahead, there was a long line. It took around a half hour before I got my food, and it wasn’t even that great. It was average, and a little overpriced. Throw in the fact that this was a special reduced con menu, and you can understand why I feel a teensy bit surprised. Luckily, I don’t eat very much and it lasted me the entire day. So that’s not a very big deal. Collectively, my “family” and I spent around $60 -$70 on food between the 7 of us.
Since I couldn’t go to see the costume contest judging for whatever reason, I killed an hour talking to people, hunting for good cosplays, and wandering around the dealer room. The costume contest ran long, and delayed another panel I wanted to go to: the S.S. Hanami concert. I got my best photos of the day here, but I admit I was sad I didn’t get to hear the new songs because there wasn’t enough time.
By the time we got home, it was cold, windy, and rainy. I was thoroughly exhausted. This con made me realize I’ve out grown a lot of the stuff at conventions: splurging on junk in the dealer room, stocking up on pocky and ramune, buying posters of anime I’ll hate in 5 years… but, I still love cons, albeit better planned ones. I also realized I hate hotels that have predominately yellow décor.
