Närcon Vinter, I'm coming for ya!

Ohohoho look what I have! <3 <3 <3

I'm about to explode with excitement and fly away on a manly sparkly rainbow of awesome!! The tickets were released today 14:00 Swedish time and I sat refreshing vinter!Närcon's page like an idiot the last 5 minutes so that I would get myself one of those Early Bird tickets for sure! For those not in the know the Early Bird tickets are 100 SEK cheaper than the ordinary ones, aka 250 SEK instead of 350 SEK. Early Birds tickets are limited so you need to be, well, early to guarantee that you will get one.. especially seeing how popular Närcon is and only 1000 tickets were released in total for the convention. I'M SO EXCITED OHMEIGERD the first vinter!Närcon, it will be so much awesome!

This also means that I'm sadly not going to Desucon FrostBite next year because FrostBite is on 16-17 February 2013 and Närcon Vinter is on 22-24 February. Too close to each other so I have to sacrifice one. Oh, and this also means I can't go to Kitacon in Kemi on 23rd February either because it collides with Närcon.

My reasoning for choosing Närcon Vinter over these two other cons are following:

• It's cheaper for me to travel in Sweden than Finland. (except that Kitacon would have been close to me, but it's so small it can't really compete with Närcon and Desucon...)
• Närcon Vinter is one day more than Desucon FrostBite and 2 days longer than Kitacon. The more con time the better; mer för pengarna ~
 • I have a free sleeping place if I go to Närcon Vinter, opposed to FrostBite, because Närcon is in Linköping and my oldest sibling lives there. Me gusta.
• I've already been to FrostBite this year so I have already "experienced/seen" it in a way while Närcon Vinter will be a whole new experience because this is the first time it's arranged and it's also in a different building that the usual (summer) Närcon + new activities. Hotto Dorinku (warm drink) bar anyone? <3
• Närcon in overall I think is better than Desucon and Kitacon, sorry. Närcon (summer) and Tracon are my two top anime conventions I've been to (if we don't count Uppcon because it doesn't exist anymore..) and of course then of a higher priority to me.

I'm not sure what I will cosplay there yet, but I have some loose ideas, so stay tuned for a cosplay plan revelation later! Oh, and if you didn't figure it out yet Närcon Vinter will be the next con I go to. Sorry, I won't be going to Wapanese Night 3 in Umeå because I'd rather save my money for Närcon Vinter and mom thinks I've been to too many cons this year already + December and Christmas stress...

Skecon - Metapods, hamburgers and Buttman

I attended Skecon in Skellefteå last weekend, 2-4 November. It was a small convention (they had 200 tickets) held for the first time and I must say it was very successfully arranged. Despite being small it was a very enjoyable con experience and I'm certainly looking forward for the next time it is held.

I'm sorry I didn't write this earlier, I've been a bit lazy and I've also been waiting to see if I could find some photos of one thing during the convention..
Oh well, now on to the con summary.

Okay so me, my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan started our trip to Skellefteå on Friday morning. We woke up 07:00 Swedish time and put on our traveling clothes, took all our suitcases and shit with us and mom drove us to Haparanda town where she dropped us at the bus station while herself heading for work. We three sat and waited inside for the bus, which came 08:30. It was a Norrlandskusten bus, it's a nice dark blue double-decker. I think the trip took around 4,5 hours.
My new (internet) friend Ninjah got on the same bus further down but I wasn't sure it was her until we were in Skellefteå bus station and I saw she was wearing her Hajime Saitou (Hakuouki) wig and had two swords wrapped in fabric. xD We all four then found our way to the Skecon building, aka the Efyran.

We got our con bands and soon decided it would be better if we went to the sleeping accommodation place (which was on a class room floor of the nearby school) to dump our luggage and shit. Everyone of us four changed into cosplays there. I cosplayed Falkner, Sairu-chan cosplayed Erika and Jäätynyt Enkeli cosplayed Silver, all from Pokémon. Ninjah cosplayed a hakama version of Saitou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan.
We walked back to the con building and walked around a bit. Soon our "original trio" (aka me, my twin and Sairu-chan) found a nice blue painted wall so we decided to take turns and have a photoshoot of our Pokémon cosplays.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

We mostly just chilled around and hung together and derped the whole Friday. The con atmosphere was relaxed, cozy and friendly and everyone seemed to have a good time. My favorite chilling place at the con was, without question, the bean bag chairs!! <3

"Life's tough being a Pokémon trainer" lol

I tried to take some self-photos just for fun but the (red) lighting was rather bad...

At one point we three went on a building exploration. We wound up in the Shimbukan dojo's "backside", aka changing-room-private-shower-and-sauna place where I noticed this sign someone had.. edited..

"såskopp" xD

It reads in Swedish:

"Please!

No shoes in the changing rooms.

It's easier to clean that way."

But someone added "-skopp" to the last word which changed its meaning to:

"It's easier to clean sauce cup"

I found it funny. Even though I think it was made before the convention.
Oh well, we went back to the more main-ish part of the convention and derped some more. Walked around and stuff.. and of course I drank some coke.

COCA(INE) COLA :'DD

When we three started to get tired we headed back to the sleeping place. Ninjah stayed behind at Skecon and came to sleep later. Our trio went back seemingly rather early because we were the only ones in the class room we had picked. Well, good for us because I think I was on some sugar high thanks to the coke drinking combined with con excitement so that when we pulled out our sleeping bags.. well.. as soon as I got into my green sleeping bag...  

METAPOD RAMPAGE!!

I don't even

My sleeping bag was named Metapod because.. duh, it's green. Sairu-chan's was Pinkpod (obviously it was pink) and Jäätynyt Enkeli's was Emo Kakuna because it was a mix of black and neon-ish orange.
After the Metapod rampage I got exhausted and went to lie down on my place, on top of a fitness mattress. lol I can't say it was really comfortable.. at all. But it worked.. somehow. After we had finished talking about our cracky ideas like for example what Hijikata would hatch into if he slept overnight in Metapod... rasetsu anyone? XD

By the way this was the first time ever during any con when I slept at the sleeping accomodation place instead of at a hotel or at some friend's/relative's place. In Sweden and Finland anime cons pretty much always organize this budget option for congoers to sleep at some random school's floor or something like that.

Oh, and on the roof close to me there was a paper airplace which had gotten stuck.

Saturday morning came. Me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan put on normal clothes, took our Hakuouki cosplays with us and walked to the con. We didn't wake up Ninjah because she was sleeping so peacefully. At the con we changed into cosplay because the toilets at the school was too small/narrow to allow for putting on hakama and stuff. I didn't bother to do any hardcore cosplay make-up because the con feeling was not the oh-mai-gawd-look-at-that-cosplayer kind and well, I was lazy.

Most of Sunday me and Sairu-chan just chilled in the bean bag chairs and occasionally wandered around. Actually, soon after we all had changed into Hakuouki cosplays I asked Chizuru (Sairu-chan) if she could braid my wig because.. Hijikata's hair is looooong and I wasn't very keen on having to make sure it doesn't tangle too bad for the whole day. She agreed ~

Braiding, braiding..

My expression.. xD

During 14:00 I went to the Shimbukan dojo (it's in the same building) to attend the "try-on" budo/martial arts. Me, having already practiced kendo for a few years (but for the time being I'm on a pause ever since I got a bad lung sickness last year's February..) went there anyway. I already knew all stuff they showed us and then we got to do the fourth kendo kata, the one with Hasso-no-kamae and Waki-gamae. I was feeling like a boss when I already knew all the movements.  XD We also got to do a harai men on a person who was wearing kendo armor. After the quick kendo try-on we switched to kyudo. Just so you know, I've been wanting to try kyudo a long time but there are veeeery few clubs in Sweden and Finland so I've never gotten the chance. Needless to say when it was kyudo time I was all rhghjreghjfdshagjd and about to explode!! <3 Everyone who wanted to try got to fire three arrows with a beginner bow at some kind of white foam-ish target.. I have no clue what it was really. Of course one of the budo guys (it seemed like some of them practiced several different martial arts) gave everyone some guidelines how to stand, how to hold the bow etc. But seriously.. DAT FEELING when you fire an arrow for the first time with like a 2 m long bow-of-awesome.. it was so agjhfdgsha oh my god. <3<3<3 Sain ihan jumalattomat kicksit siitä. xD eiku One of the coolest things I've ever done ahaha. I did hit the target on my second try.
   I'm really sad I don't have any photos of my time in the dojo because I was there some hours and it was so damn awesome listening to Magnus-sensei's stories from their kendo club's Japan trips (some things which happened them in Japan were hilarious. I laughed so hard I almost cried many times XD) and his "ninja's didn't really exist" speech was very interesting, not to mention he also showed some jodo techniques and some moves with a naginata and stuff. It was so damn cool. We also got to hold this huge shinai and look closer on a sharp iaito katana. Me gusta mucho!!

After I had been there listening and laughing with Magnus-sensei and the other budo guys as well as the congoers who were interested my company came and was like "Hijikata-san we will go eating soon" and so I had to take my leave, haha. I'm sorry they probably waited for me all this time. :$
Oh well, all four of us made our way to the nearby Max - a Swedish hamburger restaurant. We sat in the same table and next to us was a kid family... the kids stared at us so damn much oh my god. But now for some shinsengumi hamburger time feat. Hijikata! 8D

DERP WARNING!

Hijikata eating fries!

I just had to put these photos together into a hamburger "comic" XD

Yah...

Enough of hamburgers. 

We went back to the con and waited for the food coma to pass by in the bean bag chairs. That was when I heard an interesting sound coming closer.. it sounded like... geta... and then I saw a dude walk by with tengu geta (one-tooth geta) and I went

MOTHER OF GUSTA

I want tengu geta so much!! *grabby hands*

At some point we went to the room where you could draw, make pins and perler beads and stuff. Sairu-chan had to draw Buttman there after I had been insisting "I AM BUTTMAN" the whole con time. It was too much fun!

My idol. <3 err maybe not xD

 And in case you have no clue what we are talking about:
(Finnish only!)

Later during the evening maybe 30 minutes or something before the cosplay competition was about to start I noticed Sairu-chan was shaking. She said she was freezing so I gave her my shinsengumi haori. We started walking slowly towards the second floor where the cosplay competition was to be held and while sitting on a couch up there a man came and asked if we were going to compete. I said that we weren't and then he said something about that we couldn't be there because the competitors were practicing how to walk on the scene and stuff. I think I asked if we could sit there because Chizuru wasn't feeling good and he then asked if we wanted to go to the con's health care. The "con nurse" came and led us up the stairs to his little health care room. He asked some questions and gave Sairu-chan a warm blanket-ish thing and told her to take it easy and drink water because she had some temporary fever. When the cosplay competition started it got noisy so we migrated over to the first floor's café where it was calmer. Me and Sannan-san tried our best to keep her company and comfort her.

Luckily her fever seemed to go away (or at least her forehead wasn't hot anymore) after a while and she said she felt much better; the shaking had gone away. It was a relief. Now we did miss the actual cosplay competition but I don't really mind.. my friend's well-being is more important. <3

After Chizuru had recovered it was my turn to derp. I started feeling my breathing was fucking up slightly and I just generally felt a bit.. dizzy. HIJIKATA YOU CAN'T BE OKITA NOOOOOOOOO I dealt with it (after all I'm used to breathing screw ups ever since that bad sickness..) and when it got late we went to the place with blue wall were we had photoshooted our Pokémon cosplays yesterday. But this time we went to sit on that wooden table(thing?) which was half-way hidden behind that wooden screen.. thing. lol you see I get language block right now. OTL We ate some candy we had bought at Ica yesterday and took some last photos. I can't say we got anything sensible but oh well, here's some photos!

Empty coke bottle storage.. it was my RATTLE dammit!

I was tired.. and le wig is a mess

"Fuck this shit, it's hot here" *takes off haori*

Chilling together

 And then the obligatory self-photos...

Soon after these photos we three changed back to normal gear and went to sleep. We had decided to not go to the con on Sunday because it ended early anyway and if we took the bus home on the morning we would be back home before it got dark. So on Sunday we woke up, packed our belongings and left while everyone else in the class room were sleeping. We headed to the Skellefteå bus station.

I saw this Skecon poster on the bus station's bulletin board thingy <3

We sat and waited for the bus to arrive. We were early so we had to wait one hour or so because the bus came 10:30 if I don't remember wrong.

I'm wearing my Saitou wig because of (really) bad hair day. I noticed some people gave me dem looks. Oh, and the bus driver said to me after Sairu-chan had gone into the bus (she was wearing her Ciel wig) "oh, you also have such cool colored hair. Why have you colored it like that? :D" and I was all

Because it was a wig and he thought it was my real hair..

I was so tired when we got on the bus so I slept most of the journey back. But. We had to change bus for some unknown reason (even though this bus wasn't supposed to change as far as I know) at Luleå bus station. The bus driver said that when we arrive there the change bus would already be there but when we got there the other bus wasn't there. He then said it would arrive behind the bus we had been in. So we stood and waited... in like 15 minutes or something and it was cold and we all were freezing. Our feelings:

Oh well. We got home and the trip was successful. I hope there will be more Skecon events in the future.

...

.......

.........

-Warning. Rant ahead-

Except that I got offended by some few people during the con who would call me "she" and when I or my friends corrected them by saying I'm a "he" (transgender) they would insist on correcting me.

I'm the one who knows myself the best. No one else has the right to define who and what I am, except myself. It's not my damn fault I'm born in the wrong body (and have yet to correct that mistake, I'm on my way though) so please understand or at the very least accept that not everyone and everything is what it might look like at first glance. If I correct you don't insist on correcting me, that's rude. You might not think it's a big deal but it's my identity in question and that is a big deal for me, I'm pretty damn sure no one wants to be mixed up with the gender they don't identify with. I want to have a right to be who I am and not be misgendered all the damn time. I've had to deal with it 19 years so you can guess how fed up with that shit I am by now. I just want to be seen as the person I really am.. is that too much to ask?

Of course I understand if someone who doesn't know me uses the wrong pronouns and stuff when they first meet me, but, after I correct them and they don't do those mistakes again it's fine. But. If they still insist on calling me the wrong gender after that then... they piss me off with their ignorance, very much. It's painful; I'm sick of being taken for something I am not and have never ever been. I'm a guy at heart. Thank you. /end rant

Skecon cosplay plans!

I've been thinking about what to cosplay at Skecon the last weeks or so and I think I've finally decided. There's still a slight risk that I might change plans, but this is what it looks like currently:

Friday

Character: Falkner

Series: Pokémon (HeartGold/SoulSilver)

Ah, Falkner, the first Gym Leader in Johto who uses Flying-types.

Truth be told, this was a veeeeery spontaneous cosplay choice.. it came out of the blue. Falkner wasn't even on my cosplay list and that's saying a lot because I have craploads of characters in my cosplay list and I list pretty much all characters who I have even the slightest interest to cosplay. Somehow Falkner wasn't there, even though I remember having the thought that "if I ever wanted to do a Pokémon trainer cosplay it would likely be Falkner" but I shrugged it off because it was very low priority and Pokémon cosplays just wouldn't be as fun doing alone... until my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli really wanted to do something new for Skecon and that 'something new' turned out to be Silver (aka the rival) from HeartGold/SoulSilver. The "AMG I WANT TO DO A (JOHTO) POKERMANZ TRAINER TOO" reaction was triggered... and Falkner was the obvious choice. Ah, this will be a trip to nostalgic times ~

Lawdy lawd someone explain to me why I'm so hopelessly stupid? My cosplays get less and less clothing the further away from summer we get. :'D I sense perfect logic here.

Saturday

Character: Toshizo Hijikata

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Toshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ~~ <3

What is there to say? It's Hakuouki, a con without a Hakuouki cosplay is not a con! >8D

Also I've managed to get a few friends to have a mini Hakuouki group on the Saturday; we'll have a  Chizuru, Sannan, Ibuki (if I've got it right) and me as Hijikata. Of course it will be my newer version of Hijikata as seen here, only with the wig in a ponytail.

Luckily I might not freeze to death in this cosplay at least...

Sunday

   

Because Sunday is the last day and the con ends 14:00 (at least according to their website..) I don't really feel like it's worth it to put on a full cosplay. Also if I did cosplay I would need to sit in that cosplay the 4 hour bus trip home, not sure if gusta because I would worry so much about getting the wig tangled etc. So I think I might just put on a kimono and possibly haori (no hakama because that means murder if I have to go to the toilet xD) from my vintage kimono collection or go in casual clothes with some traces of geekiness something different.. depends on the weather and how cold it is. We'll see.

My final con for this year is set: Skecon

For some time I've been thinking about going to Skecon, a small anime convention held for the first time at Skellefteå in Sweden 2-4 November this year. Seeing how Skellefteå is in the northern part of Sweden and thus not far away from me (read: cheap train/bus tickets!) I decided some minutes ago that "HELL I AM GOING THERE". Gonna support those smaller cons in the north too. <3 They are selling 200 tickets and I think Skecon will be a nice last mini convention to wrap up my con-adventures for this year! Ooh I can't wait! I don't think I can go to ConFusion in Gothenburg this December. :'( But I'll try to go to winter!Närcon 2013.

I have some ideas on what characters I could cosplay there but there's still some slight I'm-not-sure-yet so I'm not gonna announce my cosplay plans quite yet. Stay tuned though, there will be Hakuouki! >8D

Närcon 2012 = Cosplay chess and tabi socks with holes

I just arrived safely at my dad's place in Bålsta after a successful trip to Närcon. I met a lot of familiar faces and some new friends too and generally had a very nice time. Now follows a rather long summary from start to finish what happened on the journey to, at and from the con ~


Tuesday (24th July)

Me and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli's journey from northern Finland to southern Sweden started. We had packed our stuff earlier and took the bus at Haparanda bus station 17:10 (Swedish time) that went to Luleå. We walked with our luggages to Luleå train station and I noticed a girl with blue-blond hair who was sitting close to the grill/kiosk/whatever who looked disturbingly familiar. Turned out it was one of my con friends who was going to work at Närcon! Me and my twin had a place at the sleeping car and my con friend, 'Ecce', had a sleeping place too although, I think, in the one next to ours.
We talked for some hours in our sleeping car and some other early congoers joined in. One of them looked creepily similar to one of my Finnish con friends... and I don't even exaggerate when I say 'creepily similar' in the sense of pretty-damn-sure-they-are-twins-who-were-separated-at-birth. lol When I first saw her my brain went "Fuck, isn't that [insert Finnish friend's nickname here]?? Wait... it can't be.. it just can't... WTF IS THIS SHIT? IT TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE HER. SCAAAAAAAAAAAAARYYYYYYYYYYY." and then, for the the rest of the train trip and even at the con, whenever I saw her I was totally brainfucked for some minutes until I could tell my brain it's not the same person. Not. Not. Nooooooooooot. I'm not sure do I want to meet my doppelganger... my twin doesn't count.
One hour or so before midnight Ecce left to her sleeping car 'room' and two random strangers entered our sleeping car.. and lately one more. One con goer was there too. Luckily they didn't snore so I could sleep.

Wednesday (25th July)

Around 12:30 or something like that (late train...) we arrived at Stockholm central train station. There we noticed what an epic fail we had made when we packed our stuff at home.. why did we put all our stuff in one of the luggages and leave the other one completely empty except two decoration katanas?? So what was labeled as "my" suitcase weighed probably closer to 20 kilos and the other one like... maybe not even 5 kilos. Guess was it fun to be the one having to haul the heavy-as-fuck one? Nope.
Well well, we took turns kind of hauling the heavy-as-fuck one and made it to the train that would take us from Stockholm to Linköping. Around 15:00 something (or a bit earlier, I dunno) we got to Linköping.
   When I was about to go down the stairs a random girl took my Urahara hat and put it on her head and started to walk away like nothing happened. I waited like 5 seconds if she would give it back to me, but she didn't and just kept walking towards the stairs. I then took the hat back and put it on my head and asked her "Why did you take my hat?" in all seriousness and she just answered "Because it's fun" in a casual tone of voice. The fuck. I almost wanted to punch her in the face, what an idiotic answer and behavior. I know you're a congoer and I am too, but that doesn't give you any more rights to steal my hat. You're a total stranger and I am one too, where is common sense? Some people... *sigh*
   Oh well, met up with Psycho Cat who had been waiting for us at the train station; we had booked a room together for the con stay. So yeah, we walked to Sky Hotel Apartments, aka our sleeping place. Actually it's more of a mini apartment than a hotel, we had our own mini kitchen! It was nice and cheap, at least I think so.
So we dumped our luggages there and went to the nearby food store to, well, buy food. Me and my twin bought milk, yoghurt, rosehip soup and rhubarb soup, small Kellogg's cereal packs, candy, noodles, chips (CHEESE DOODLES!) and frozen thai/asian food. Yup, that's the con diet, cheap and unhealthy like crap. :')) <- double chin lol
After that we went back to the 'hotel' and derped and awaited the next day to dawn.

Thursday (26th July)

DA FIRST CON DAY BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM ~~
Yah, morning came, on with the cosplays and let's go! So I got my Kondou wig on time (it arrived the morning we had to leave) and so I could debut him at Närcon, as planned. What I didn't plan was how long time it took to put on everything. Well, the make-up part took the most time because I used that one stuff, whatever-it-is, that takes like 9389594394 hours to dry. And I almost ragequited when my new experiment derped; stupid glue stick just peeled off when I tried to use it on my eyebrows to try to get them flat and easier to cover so I could draw on cooler brows yo. But nope, not today man. Not today. So I thought "screw this shit" and did my usual eyebrow coloring instead.
   Putting on the hakama was derpier than usual too, I dunno why.. my twin even managed to kill my hakama's hera (hakama "spatula" to help keep the back in place) or well, the piece of string it hung from broke. Yipee.. Oh well, it didn't matter all that much because you can still wear hakama without it, it just makes life a bit easier. *shrugs*
   Jäätynyt Enkeli cosplayed Keisuke Sannan from Hakuouki too and when we all three were done we walked to the central station and took the bus to Närcon. We saw the line of colorful people and costumes waiting to get in and went to stand where it ended. Oh, and let me say IT WAS HOT AS HELL. I kept taking my shinsengumi haori off when I stood still.
So we three stood there and soon enough our friend Angie showed up. She bought a wig from me.
13:37 Närcon opened its doors and the line started to move, after some few hours of waiting for us. The line actually moved surprisingly fast this year. *remembers Uppcon's 4 hour lines*
Soon we were inside the building and started to walk around and derp, like I usually do. Not so much to say except that during the evening I had to go to the CBG room to get information and prepare for Friday's cosplay chess -the biggest official one in Sweden- which I took part in for the first time this year. The theme was manga/anime VS games.
   The preparation was a let's-go-through-how-this-will-happen thing and we got to know who we would fight against and come up with our own fighting scenes. The preparation was quite entertaining if I do say so myself.. even though I wanted to go pee during the whole thing which took probably 2 hours. -.- Wonderful. My Kondou cosplay pretty much competes with my Hijikata cosplay when it comes to the current "murder when you have to go to the toilet" title...
   Me, my twin and Psycho Cat went back to the 'hotel' around 22:00-23:00 something and thank god for that, my feet hurt so much. At the 'hotel' we watched the comedy movie Dumb & Dumber on TV, ate chips, showered and then went to sleep.

Friday (27th July)

Second morning of the con and time to cosplay Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki. Jäätynyt Enkeli was too lazy to cosplay Sannan again (I would have had to dress him etc, long time to get ready) so he just went in casual clothes.. or well, the 2012 year's official Uppcon t-shirt. Getting myself ready today as Saitou went way quicker than Kondou yesterday. Simpler cosplay to put on. But before I put on my cosplay me and my twin cooked noodles for breakdast, mmm nutritious...
   At the con it was the same usual again: look at the cosplays, merchandise, feel the happy atmosphere... until I noticed my right tabi sock had finally chosen to give in; there was a big visible hole on my big toe.

My reaction

 What to do?

I went and looked at all the merchandise booths after tabi socks and I spotted a tabi and geta set. I asked the seller if they had more tabi socks and he said those were the last pair. He could sell 'em for me separately. But I looked at the geta and figured I wanted them too, especially when I noticed they fit me. So yeah, Saitou got new shoes and the day was saved.

   But it didn't take too long before Angie showed up and asked if I was going to take part in the cosplay chess. At that point I realized I had totally forgotten to check the time! We were running late and left for the CGB room. Almost all people from yesterday's preparation were there and they were going through the standing positions or something a last time. So I went and stood there and when I noticed people didn't really do anything that seemed like we-will-leave-at-this-very-moment signs I asked one of the people holding the chess if I had time to go to the toilet. He said if it's super fast then yes, I just answered medium fast and went on my way. lol Luckily I found a toilet very close to the CBG room, just up the corridor. When I was done someone said "Saitou Hajime!" and me, being pretty stressed (and even confused at the call because pretty much no one seemed to know who I was cosplaying) I was trying to say to her I'm running late but it just looked and sounded like avdgvsafgds so I said "Okey, fine, but make it quick" and posed and then walked fast back to the room. Back at the room people had taken their positions and then we walked out from the room in a nice line towards the outside grass area where we would start the cosplay chess.
   Back-stage was hooooooot. I joked with some people in line about the warmth and then I got nervous when people started to walk one by one to the chess playing board. It was soon my turn, as Bishop number 2 to step in. Oh, I forgot to say that I was in the anime/manga team, even though Hakuouki was first a game and I even asked about it before the con and the holder of the chess said I would be in the game team... *shrugs* Oh well, I have my theories why I got put in the anime/manga team and I don't really mind anyway ~
   So err, what to say about the cosplay chess in itself more than it was awesomesauce and I certainly want to do it again!! <3<3<3

~ I just really hope the whole thing got video taped and will be put up into Youtube soon so I can edit this post and link to it here! ~

However.

We left the con around the same time as yesterday because everyone had more or less pain somewhere... and as soon as I got to my bed...

(Photo by Jäätynyt Enkeli)

NO IT'S NOT FANSERV--, MY LOWER BACK JUST. HURT. LIKE. HELL.
(I could barely stand straight.. or do basically anything... it was that bad... OTL)

A lot oh-fuck-my-back-breaks-if-I-move-anymore-today pains I managed to get my ass over to the dining table and put some freeze food in the micro which resulted in a lot of derpy 'Saitou eating food' photos. I was eating some kind of sweet chili teriyaki chicken with rice, which I had not tasted before by the way... hence why lots of weird and silly faces happened.

(Photos by Jäätynyt Enkeli)

Oh, and lastly the obligatory let's-see-how-bad-my-makeup-looks-after-the-con-day ego photo:

What's with that face... lol

Saturday (28th July)

On Saturday I debuted my Sojun Kuchiki cosplay at the con, mostly because Psycho Cat did Byakuya and I also wanted to attend the planned Bleach meet... so I needed a Bleach cosplay. The meet was quite nice, we did a loooong line of Bleach cosplayers and marched around the con. I remember someone saying "A lot of Bleach cosplayers-- OH MY GOD THEY'RE MULTIPLYING!!" when we walked by. xD We had a photoshoot outside and also went to the con's photo studio. We broke the con's how-many-people-can-get-photographed-at-the-same-time record for the year I think. trololo ~
   Oh well, after the Bleach meet had officially been declared finished I soon went and changed cosplays back to Hajime Saitou because I had talked with a girl earlier who had told me she would be Chizuru on Saturday and that made me go "Agsjahfdsj must change to Saitou!!". So yeah, I went and changed around 13:00 something and then I spent a good chunk of the con day trying to find said Chizuru whom I had only seen early at the morning (before the Bleach meet). At the evening my twin called me and said that he had found her close to the entrance so I went there and there she was, yay~
I hung around the rest of the con day with Chizuru (my twin was with his friends and Psycho Cat had gone back to the 'hotel' earlier) and some of her friends, it was nice even though my lower back was, again, hurting like hell, afdghsg.
   Later I found my twin and told him I wanted to go home because I felt tired and yeah, pained too. Said goodbye to Chizuru and left the con building. It was raining a liiiiiiitle bit but it soon stopped. When we passed the tunnel and were close to McDonalds I couldn't resist taking a photo of the trash bin outside, it's obvious where the con goers go eat...

Trash bin explosion

Sunday (29th July)

Sunday morning came and I decided to not go to the con after all. I had planned to wear (and half-way promised) a yukata with a vine red kaku obi but I figured the trouble to get to the con wouldn't be worth it. If I wanted to go to the con I would have needed to wake up early as shit to get ready (style my hair, dress up etc) and then pack everything (in stress) and make sure I don't forget stuff and haul it to and through the whole con because the cloakroom was already full so I couldn't have dropped my stuff there and... yeah. You see what I mean. Besides my feet were so dead, my back was killing me and I just rather prioritized to sleep and then pack my belongings without too much stress and hassle. So sorry everyone who had expected to see me there on Sunday...
   Me and Jäätynyt Enkeli's train from Linköping to Stockholm and then to our dad's place left 15:20 and.. *yawn* Sweet Jesus I'm soooo tired I don't feel like writing about the train trip back to dad's place.. it's pretty boring anyway so. *shrugs* Sorry, I reaaaaaaaally should sleep now... and if there's any spelling mistakes it's because I'm dead tired and didn't proof-read before posting, oops.

Närcon was great and if anyone read all this crap then thanks for your time ~~

History's last Uppcon is over

So I attended Uppcon XII, the last Uppcon in history. I had a lot of fun, met some friends and just had general con fun and a blast. I took quite a lot of photos of cosplayers but I didn't attend any panels or anything.. again, I'm lazy and prefer to just walk around and look at all the cosplays, enjoy the atmosphere and occasionally strike a quick conversation with someone.
I cosplayed Gin Ichimaru from Bleach on Friday, Toshizo Hijikata from Hakuouki on Sunday and Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki on Sunday. I was happy to see that some people did recognize me as Hakuouki characters, even though it seemed it isn't as known in Sweden as it is in Finland. Oh, and what made me kinda happy was on Saturday when I was cosplaying Hijikata and wandering around the merchandise tent two Japanese men were standing in front of me, when I was walking towards that scene thingy, away from the buying stands and I noticed them both watching me with a smile and then they said something in Japanese to each other, one of the words being 'shinsengumi'. Then one of them gestured to me like "hey, shinsengumi, come here" and of course I did. They took my picture. :'D And bowed to me, I just smiled although now later I wish I had bowed back. I think they didn't know I cosplayed from Hakuouki, probably they just thought it was cool that I was dressing up as something from their own history. xD Whatever, it really made me warm inside haha ~

The weather was perfect on Friday but Saturday was rainy and Sunday even more so.. but when the con ended the rain stopped... oh, speaking of the con end; I got teary-eyed after the "avslutning" (conclusion, final speech thingy) and I noticed several people crying too.. I saw someone with face paint coming out of the building who you could obviously tell had cried a lot because the make-up had these tear strokes. I didn't really cry at first but then I noticed some of the people who arrange Uppcon were hugging con-goers as some kind of 'thank you for coming and farewell' thing and that made me feel my eyes watering. I hugged some of them.
After the final speech thingy several random people gathered huge hug groups of people and I took part in at least 3.. couldn't resist.

Sad group hugging

Also someone went around with a video camera and asked random people close to her about the feelings after the final Uppcon had ended.. she asked me and I said something that I tried not to cry because I didn't want my make-up to run (had planned a photoshoot after the con), I should have added that I would most likely be crying later because I'm like that.. at first I'm just stunned and emotionless and then a few minutes later it hits me like BAM it is over. Now just let's see if I can find that video on Youtube..

I also hugged this one guy who was cosplaying some more casual version (I think it might have been canon) of Kenpachi from Bleach because he was the one who was crying the most and it really made my heart break to see him so sad.. because I've known him since my first (or was it second?) Uppcon and if I have to associate one person with Uppcon it's him. He is just amazing, such a fire soul and he's the 'pepp' (con hype) incarnated. :'( He was crying so much and everyone kept hugging and coming up to him. I wasn't cosplaying Bleach when I hugged him so I asked if he remembered me (I was Saitou) and mentioned that I was Ukitake last year and he said that of course he did and praised my swords, then I said he was the one person I remember the most from my overall Uppcon experience and that made him break up in tears.. again. ;_; Awww.

And I was crying a bit after that and people started to hug each other and a person came very close to me, gave me a tiny bit of chocolate something and a hug. Thank you. ;A;
Also one of the Uppcon staff (I think?) was walking outside with a cardboard box that contained cute hats that he was giving for free, I got a black and white one with ears and a cute skull on, yay.

Oh well, despite the weather being semi-crap and the very very sad ending Uppcon XII was amazing.. but I can't help but ask myself why it had to come to an end already.. Uppcon X was my first con and first con I cosplayed to.. Uppcon opened my eyes for going to conventions, cosplaying and gave me lots of new friends.. so I just want to say THANK YOU UPPCON FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. <3