The Crystal Caves

OMHG! at 0500 the people in the room next to us slammed the door like ten times in a row. i'm not talking about letting a weighted door fall shut on its own. nope, not in the least, they were slamming it. and giggling loudly. it woke both me and ro up, i'm not sure about perky, but ro and i are both totally exhausted right now. but that's also getting ahead of myself. :) yeah, i'm that tired.
we got up and nibbed some breakfast before changing into our costumes and pack perky up for her to change hotels and headed out into town. we took the lite rail back into Seattle and up into the Westlake station. for those who don't know the area, ro and i are staying out in Sea-Tac, which is where the airport is so we're technically not in Seattle unless we're at the con or walking around town. i just tend to say Seattle regardless. but i suppose it does get confusing. anyway, it's about a 45 minute ride for us each way. amanda beat us to the hotel and, while she wasn't able to change into her costume right away, we decided to head to the con with a couple of exceptions. i was about to fall over so i had to sit down and eat and not move for a bit so ro and i went to the con and ate some sandwiches we'd brought with us while perky and amanda went to lunch and then came to join us. while we were all just sitting around talking, a guy came up and asked me if he could get a picture with me. i asked him if he wanted just me or the whole team. i really think he wanted just me because he stood next to me in the picture, but he said the whole team so ro and perky joined with the bears. :) he also said he was going to be dressing up as momo tomorrow so we're hoping to run into him again to get pics. we also say a fuji, eiji, kaidoh set and got their picture. they're going to meet up with some other friends and say they're going to have a full seigaku team tomorrow. so that would be pretty awesome.
the downside to all of this is we had some crazy fan girls show up and start fan girling over us. and one other one who had major attitude who told us all about how long she had played Atobe and how awesome an Atobe she was and blah blah blah blah. i have a feeling that she was one of the crazy fan girls - the one who kept hitting on ro - because i pulled out Gen-kuma and she didn't even react and we had showed the crazed fan girls the bears. but it could also have been that she was just too cool to react to cute teddy bears in hand-made custom costumes. either way, she said she's bringing Atobe's cosplay to K-con down in Portland and we should plan some stuff. ro and i kinda agreed just to get rid of her. we could barely get a word in edgewise. she knew *everything* and was going to tell us about it whether we knew or not. but that's life at a con for you. you can't exactly tell people to shut up. *snorts*
and i realized something today. you could bring a video camera to a convention and make training videos of "how to treat people when you are in a long line" or "how to react to odd people" and then the nerds could once again rule the world. gefufufufuuuu. yes, there is a reason for this. ro and i went to see Morita Masakazu to try and get his autograph. he voices ichigo in bleach, tashiro in PoT, and "Bunny" in tiger and bunny. those are the highlights. okay, well, i really shouldn't have said "try" to get his autograph, but it was rather doubtful there for a bit if we would or not because we were in the overflow line. but we both did. he was such a sweetheart because he stayed way overtime to get as many autographs done as possible. not every person would do that. so i got his autograph and got to shake his hand. i'll share the picture tomorrow. it's still uploading from ro's computer and i'm not staying up much longer to wait for it. that's also why i'm not going to upload pics tonight. my bandwidth is rather limited.
end of the day, we went out to dinner and then back to perky and amanda's room for a mini-movie night. ro and i were too exhausted to stay too long and we had the long train ride back. the good news of all of this is that i don't have a headache anymore *yays* and i don't feel sick like i did last night. that does mean i ate something odd and i just have to avoid it

I suppose yesterday was technically day one because we were at the convention center for a spell to get our badges, but today was opening ceremonies (which we skipped) and the first official day of the convention. Ro and I had plans to go and hear some of the dubbing voice actors talk, but we decided since we watch more in Japanese than we do in English these days (we got sick of the bad pronunciation) we really didn't want to go and sit through the events.
On the train ride into the city today, there was a gal who taught school in Japan and she recognized both Ro and me in costume. We told her what we were doing and she said she figured her roommate hadn't told her about it for a reason. It was kinda cute. She had a friend with her and so we didn't get much of a chance to talk. We got up to the center and ate breakfast and then headed up to the dealer room.
They didn't have anything for Goseigers. I guess it's still too new for it to be here in the states yet. *pouts* I really want an Agri Landick jacket. I'll have to do some digging when I get home and see if I can find one somewhere. I got some lucky kitty stuff, a dragon and a few other things. Ro got her usual figurines. I keep threatening to buy her a shelf for Christmas she has so many of the damn things. We met a Tezuka in the dealer room and after Ro took a pic of him, I took one of them together.




I felt rather out-numbered, but when we were sitting and people watching a gal came up to us and asked if we were going to be playing the same characters tomorrow. I said we were and she's going to be Niou/Yagyuu. She has both wigs and will be changing them hourly. So I'm hoping to get some pics with her. I'll see if I can get her to change for two pics. *Grins*
We also went to the Space Needle and up to the top - because Ro has never been - and we actually did pics there too. But it won't let me put it up here. :( They're in the album, however.
Then we just went back and people-watched for a couple of hours. As we were leaving a guy chased us down and asked to take a picture with us. He looked so excited that we just couldn't say no. So there are Prince of Tennis fans here, but they aren't in costume. But it's also kinda fun because there aren't others in the same costumes. Like there are a ton of soul reapers running around. It's fun to be unique.
I'm in the process of putting up the pics from today on photobucket. I'll edit when they're up and give you a link. :) Be back with more tomorrow. It'll be pics and shopping. And we head home Sunday. Sadness.

Here's the link to the album on photobucket. Enjoy. I'll try and upload more tomorrow.
http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh41/woodlandpugs/sakura%20con%202011%20Seattle%20WA/

We got home yesterday and I crashed. Almost literally as I didn't realize what was going on and tripped trying to get to bed. :) So, I'm up earlier than usual before work and have the time to post some of the pics I took with my cell phone going to Boise. I have no clue how these turned out because we were moving most of the time.

Little Rocky decided he wanted to go to Boise with us.



If I ever dress up as Kakashi I'd have Pakkun ready to go. *Grins*

This was a first. Normally they have flaggers when there's road construction.



But I suppose this does save money in the long run - solar powered we found out later - and there's less chance of human error. It was kinda freaky going over the bridge with the crew working on the other side, not to mention the bumps.

This is the bridge where we changed time zones. Riggins ID is on the other side, and it was emptier than I've ever seen before. Probably because it's so cold people don't want to be out on the river rafting. There were a lot of people fishing though.




There were a lot of fisher-people when we came back, which made me think the salmon were running. But Ro quickly pointed out that salmon swim. If she hadn't been driving I probably would've tried to hit her. I'm the one who does the bad puns.

And the clouds going into Boise were just brilliant. I tried to take a pic just as Ro went into a turn and threw me into the window, so I took a second. I hope it turned out well. We were both laughing pretty hard at that point.

So I meant to write about this yesterday and totally forgot until today when Ro and I were in the elevator going down to the autograph session and dealers' room. There was this guy in the elevator yesterday who was just riding up and down watching everyone who was traveling up and down. We thought that it was possible to see more people in costume just by sitting in the lobby rather than freaking everyone out by constantly being in the elevator, but whatever. It was just really strange, but then again, most of my coworkers think that I'm really strange for coming to the anime con in the first place. I guess I am, but then again, I like who I am. :)

Ro sent me the pic of her and Johnny just after I turned off my computer yesterday. So here it is.



She said not to show this to anyone, but I think that as long as you don't tell her, we'll be fine. ;)


Today's story so far. Ro is a total fan girl and I really hope that she's not freaking Johnny out by her behavior. We went down to the autograph session and I really like how they have it set up here. If the guests have time to go down and sit for a while they do for the hour or so that's scheduled. And that gives them so much more time to hang out and talk with everyone.

All pictures will be up on my photobucket page as well.

This is what Ro had autographed.



this is what I had autographed.



and here's the pic of the day that's just making Ro squee like a mindless fan girl everytime she thinks about it.





We're going to his concert at a local pub tonight for our other thing for the day. There wasn't much on the schedule for the day that really caught our interest. Tomorrow is another Johnny concert and final shopping and packing up bulk stuff to take down to the car. And we leave on Sunday. This has been so cool, just being away from home and work for a couple of days. I think I really did need a break from all of my responsibilities because I feel so much more relaxed now than I have since my dad got sick back in October. It's so hard to think that I've been on a run since then when so many people have it so much harder than I do, but it is hard to watch your father age and start to have all these problems. And I'll have to do the same thing with my mother here in the next ten to fifteen years.

Okay, one last picture from the day. GO RIKKAI DAI!!!!

Ro and I are on a break between events and have retreated to the room to rest our feet/backs because neither of us are really in shape for as much walking/standing we did this morning.
We got up and walked around out of costume first thing this morning and it was so funny because I had on my Rikkai Dai jacket and I was taking a lost cell phone to the desk when I heard someone yelling "Rikkai!" I turned around and found that there was a girl dressed as one of the Hyotei players running towards me. That was just really cool so we talked to her for a while before coming back up to the room to get dressed in our Bleach costumes. Ro forgot her hat at home (baka) and didn't want to do her make-up but we went back out in full costume.
We ran into a couple of other Bleach characters and talked with them for a bit - finding out that there's going to be a Bleach group photo shoot on Saturday, so we've made plans to go for that. We both got glomped twice by gals who said we were dressed as their favorite characters. :) We both figure that we'll be hugged an awful lot this weekend.
We did some shopping, but the marketplace really isn't that great this time around. I got a couple of new shirts and Ro got way too many figurines that she has absolutely no space for at home. At least I know what to get her for Christmas - a bookshelf for her collection.
The two events we went to earlier today were Naruto/character whiffle ball and character chess. The chess was a lot more fun than the whiffle ball. I think we're going to get dressed again in an hour or so and head back down for the opening ceremonies, although most of what we really want to do starts tomorrow. Ro is currently lying on her bed staring out the window telling me how a cloud is evolving as it moves across the sky. Somehow I think she's getting a little bored. Maybe I should tell her to play with her figurines for a while. *Grins*

More tomorrow once I get back from the presentations and discussions. There is a fan fiction and yaoi discussion tonight/tomorrow night that I might go to. I don't know how good they would be and the ones that I've been to in the past have failed miserably. But I'll probably give them a try.

PANIC!!!
4 days until the convention. So little to do and so much time. Wait, strike that, reverse it. *grins*
Seriously, I am so excited to finally be going on a holiday, and I can't think of a better way to spend it than with a group of people who love anime and manga. Yay! So much fun.
Now I just have to get through the next four days at work without killing anyone. Oh yeah, I'm working almost 30 hours over the next four days so I can take the week off for the convention. I just have to keep telling myself it'll be worth it.

No updates, emails, and the like until I'm home again. I'm seriously in panic mode here.