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Sakura Con 2002 Adventures!

Have patience, the picture link is at the bottom

Preperation

Sakura Con 2002 took place at the Hilton hotel in Seattle (well, more like SeaTac) Washington April 26-28. My amigos Sonia and Jen had been planning this excursion since last October and had all that time to prepare costumes and such. They invited me (ok, I invited myself) to come along roughly two weeks before the Con, and I being a stubborn one, insisted that I had to have a costume. So I had roughly two weeks to come up with one, and make it. 

I suppose now would be the time to mention that I don't know a thing about anime, so as it was I was SOL. The only anime I had ever heard of was the Final Fantasy series, so I decided to go as Yuna from ffx, because that was the only game I had played. So two weeks to make Yuna. Shit. 

Thank (insert god here) for thrift stores. I managed to find a suitable skirt and halter top in about twenty minutes :). Then it was off to the fabric store where I couldn't find the right fabric for the sleeves so I improvised :P. I was still working on that damn costume the night before the Con :P. A more detailed account of my adventures in sewing is available --------------> here.

Friday

Arrived at the hotel we were staying at (couldn't get a room at the Hilton, and 'we' being the five of us sharing a two person room) at around 10:30 pm because I had to go to a wedding first. When I got there the room was devoid of life, though there were definite signs that the others had been there, i.e.. clothing and accessories strewn about everywhere. I figured that they were still at the Con but I was tired so I didn't go join them. 

They showed up around midnight while I was watching David Letterman. We decided to try to get some sleep around two, even though we had to get up in about three hours to get ready. Yeah. Sleep. People need that, don't they? Well, we sure didn't get any. Oh well, we made up for it in school on Monday.

Saturday

Woke up five-ish to get ready. Or, more precisely, was woken up by Danielle's alarm. Argh! Precious sleep interrupted! Must destroy!! 

Since I do not require three hours in the morning to prepare, I was left on my own to find amusement while I waited for the rest of the bunch. Amusement = more sleepy time. 

Then we shuttled down to the Hilton to wait in line to pick up my pass at about seven. They went on sale at nine. We had to wait outside till then. Now, I don't know if you are all aware of this, but in Seattle, there is only one season. Screw Spring Summer and Fall, all we get is cold rainy winter. Doesn't matter if the rest of the country is enjoying summer, it's still winter here, except instead of snow we get rain, rain, and look, more rain. 

Now, to be fair, it wasn't really raining then, but it was cold. So very very cold. At this point I was half dressed in my costume. That is I was in my little skirt, some slippers I found under the bed, and a sweatshirt. That's about it. For two hours. Soooooooooo cold. If I had been a guy I'd have frozen my balls off. of course, if I had been a guy I would not have been wearing a skirt...

When they finally let me in I could no longer feel my feets. My poor feets. We wandered around for a few minutes, but nothing was open so we went back to the hotel to finish getting ready. 

Later Saturday

Arrived back at the convention at some indiscernible time that afternoon and wandered around like lost German tourists, taking pictures of everything. But since we only had those crappy one-time-use cameras half the pictures didn't even come out :*(. Next year I bring the good camera.

Then someone suggested that we go check out the anime dating game. unfortunately for us it was at the same time the voice-actor guy from Trigun was doing his thing, but we didn't find out about that until later. The dating game was amusing and there was a really cute Vash as one of the contestants, but I think I would have preferred going to see the 'real' thing. Oh well, there's always next year. 

Afterwards we had some time to kill so we wandered around some more and Danielle and I decided to go back to the hotel to pick up her car, so we called for the hotel shuttle to come pick us up. By this time the driver was thoroughly sick of chauffeuring us around, and he decided that he would ignore the call. So Danielle and I had to hoof it all the way back to the hotel in our anime costumes. Tickets to convention: $50. Fabric for costume: $30. The looks on people's faces while walking down a major highway dressed as a Final Fantasy character: priceless. We arrived at the hotel without further incident and retrieved Danielle's car. 

We met back up with the gang plus Ben (who had no costume, the bum) at the Hilton and wandered some more. 

We killed some time by buying expensive expensive food that tasted like someone had fished it out of the dumpster behind the kitchen. Danielle observed that her pizza bore a striking resemblance to her ass and I promptly lost my appetite, which was just as well because I was too cheap to buy anything more than a soda. Dan Dan Security Man said he wanted a picture of Yuna flipping him off so I was happy to oblige. 

Then we wandered some more. Sonia and I went into the art room and looked at all art people had submitted. It was all very cool. We also paid a visit to the vender's room. Very crowded.

We were waiting for the dance to start 'cause it sounded like fun. And it was, but by that time the lack of sleep had caught up with me. I sat for most of the show, half out of exhaustion, and half out of lack of  partner. I was sad, nobody wanted to dance with me :*( . Except for this one girl dressed as Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, but I'm not really into dancing with chicks, being one myself.

Danielle and Sonia had no such qualms. They were having fun dancing together until some guy came up to them and gave them a disapproving look, but they quickly explained that it was ok because they were both girls and he gave them a big O.K. sign and smiled. 

We danced some more, or rather I watched Ben, Sonia and Danielle dance and have fun while I ate ice from a conveniently located jug of ice water. Eventually it caught up with me and I had to retreat to the M.T.R. which was a welcome relief from all the noise. As I was coming out of the bathroom I was ambushed by a guy wanting a picture, which in itself was innocent enough but I was already feeling out of sorts so I wasn't to pleased, but I did oblige the poor guy. 

When I got back I sat down in my usual spot, and discovered that Dan Dan Security Man had peace binded my staff several thousand more times. They're still on there seeing as how I am too lazy to remove them. I think Ben was feeling sorry for me because he came over and kept me company for awhile and Jen showed up too. 

Sometime around midnight we left. At the other hotel we tried to get some sleep but everyone we too wound up to rest much. 

Sunday

I can't say that we really 'woke up' because we got even less sleep than we did on Friday night. We were all feeling lazy and none of us wanted to put on our costumes. Big mistake. We quickly discovered that if you had no costume at Sakura Con, you were pretty much ignored by everyone. That's no fun. 

Little else happened that day. The party was pretty much over. We stayed for the closing ceremonies which were pretty cool. There was a drum routine preformed by a bunch of people. I found if very fascinating but I still managed to dose off, because I was that tired. After that we all went home and went to sleep.

Notes For Next Year

Make reservations at the Hilton, commuting sucks. Buy passes early, they're cheaper then. Start on costume much earlier. I's gonna to be all these people: Yuna from FFX (again), Meryl Stryfe from Trigun, Nyan Nyan from Fushigi Yuugi (that will be interesting), and Integra from Hellsing. Wooooo hooooooooooooo, see y'all next year.

 

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Skip this crap and just let me see the pictures!