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My too-big AX report
Click here for roadtrip minutes
Star was waiting for us at the hotel when we arrived. She looked better than I expected, considering she’d gotten sick THREE times on the flight out. After a quick greeting we checked in, only to find that the hotel had given us a room with 1 king-size bed rather than the double we’d requested. And the room was itty-bitty to boot. Star and I flopped down for a moment of rest while CC went to the con to get our badges. As worn out and stressed out as I was from the drive and downtown misadventure, I wasn’t in the best of shape to commiserate with Star’s own traveling mishaps. CC returned with our badges lightning-fast, which blew my mind, considering the hours-long wait I typically experience at other cons. Way to go, AX!
We then went down to the front desk to gripe and moan about our room. Eventually we were able to wrangle a double room out of them by emphasizing that we needed a bigger room to accommodate my oversized costumes. Hmm. Based on that logic, I bet we could’ve gotten a handicap-sized room if we’d pushed the point a bit further. Victorious, we headed to our new room . . . only to discover that it was the same exact size as the first, but with two beds crammed into it. Waah. Oh well, it was still an improvement.
Now that we knew where we were staying we were finally able to unload the truck. It didn’t take too many trips, fortunately. My next task was to find a parking garage that cost less than the hotel’s $47/night rate. So I spent the next couple hours walking between the hotel and convention center, checking out all the parking garages and lots to find the best place. About 11 pm I thought I’d finally found a perfect place so I hiked back to the hotel, took my truck out, drove to the garage, and found that it had closed during the 20 minutes it had taken me to walk back to the hotel. Dangit! I returned to the hotel and resolved to get up early the next morning to get a spot in that garage before all the commuters got there.
So 6 am Thursday, ka-pwing! I was out of bed and on my way. I parked my truck there and was able to relax a bit, knowing that I wasn’t throwing away $40-something per day. Everyone was still asleep by the time I got back. Looking around the room at the 5 sleeping girls, I got the feeling that the longer I stayed there, the greater chance there was that I’d eventually do something that would get me into trouble. So I turned right back around and walked back to the garage where I cleaned all the tarp-y bits off the mascot costumes, then I went to breakfast.
When I got back, people were finally starting to show signs of life. As we were preparing to go to the con, I realized I couldn’t find my badge. After 20 minutes of looking, I reluctantly decided to go check the truck. I walked there, didn’t find it, then walked to the con intent on buying a new one. Thankfully though, the registration line was non-existent and the staff was helpful and informed me that a replacement badge was only $5. SWEET.
Once again restored to my full power, I spent a few minutes running around cosplay-hunting and learning the layout of the con while I waited for Star and Ami to arrive (the Loli trio stayed behind to work on their Midnight Tea and have caulk-fun). The three of us watched over the growing crowd amassing in front of the soon-to-be-open Dealer’s Room. Actually, they watched while I frequently ran off to go get pictures.
The Dealer’s Room opened and we got sucked into the vortex along with all the other con-goers. I’m pretty sure I heard angels giggling as I walked into that aircraft hangar of a room. Or maybe it was just me giggling. That place was insanely huge, I think it had it’s own weather system. Ami and Star went off looking for some doll, following Ami’s instincts/radar while I went to one end of the canyon and systematically browsed through each aisle in order.
An hour later we escaped and returned to the hotel. I got into Slade and then Star and I went back to the con. I only cosplayed an hour or so until I began sweating through the costume then called it quits. I think this con will be Slade’s swan song, the helmet got damaged in the trip and the armor’s started to look rather worn out.
Star and I then had dinner, went to the con, and attended the only cosplay panel of the con. By that time it was 10 pm and the past few days were catching up with both of us; we were pooped. But the Midnight Tea didn’t start till 11 and we said we’d be there. So despite the fact that I wanted nothing more in the world than to take a nap at that moment, we dragged ourselves to the manga café. I dunno if other cons have this (I haven’t noticed any), but the free manga was a great idea. I read a couple volumes and managed to stay awake.
The Midnight Tea was pretty interesting. I was expecting more competitors, considering how gung-ho the girls had been about this event. But there were only 5, maybe 6, tables. The Trinity Blood table was the only real competition and may arguably have been prettier, but the Rock-Loli table had them beat in terms of originality and creativity, which is probably why they won. There was a long line to get in, I’m sure because most people assumed there would be free food and drink (or maybe something naughty) at the “Midnight Tea”. Sorry guys. Even though I knew that most of the display was made from building materials or had come from a dumpster, I was still tempted to nibble on those chocolates, just to be sure.
Friday morning Star granted me leave to go cosplay-hunting while she got into her Dark Fairy outfit, for which I was grateful. I have no experience with dresses and wigs and make-up, so I would’ve just been sitting on my hands all morning. I had fun on my own, taking pictures until Star showed up and then I took some pics of her. We hung out for a while until our schedules came to a screeching head-on collision. Star had been in costume less than an hour, but it was nearing the time for us to change into our Pucca & Garu costumes, if we were going to do them at all that day. Plus, she wanted to go to an important panel too. I thought we could do it all, but Star felt it was impossible and became frustrated with the scheduling. We had a spat and instead of cosplay or panel, we spent a few hours talking things out.
Later that evening our whole group made the hike to Little Tokyo for dinner. I was the guide and mistakenly took us through a one-way (the wrong way) tunnel, but the girls were good sports and took it all in stride. Just when our stamina was beginning to flag, we saw a group of other weaboo kids on the other side of the street and we knew we were close. We ate at Mr. Ramen, a restaurant I’d been to last AX. The food was as delicious and the portions were as stupidly-big as I remembered. If the place sold the bowls their food came in, I’d buy one just to wear it as a helmet, that’s how big they are. Ami was the only one who actually completely finished her ramen. I ate most of mine and a lot of Star’s so I could argue I ate more, but who’s keeping score?
Most of Little Tokyo was closed by the time we finished dinner, so there wasn’t anything else to do there. JB thought that we should try to get to Famima (a Super-convenience store) before they closed at midnight. By my calculations, Famima was nearly twice as far as we’d already walked, but dessert sounded good and I knew I had to walk off the 5 gallons of ramen in my gut, so we headed out.
Our fatal mistake came when we decided to take a short-cut through the Toy District. We read the sign that said, “ Toy District” and thought, “Oh, that sounds like a fun, pretty place to visit.” How wrong we were. About a block in that direction, the girls started hopping and yelping and running. It took me a moment to notice the constant cockroaches running across our path. I thought about offering to take the lead and act as a roach plow, but I was having too much fun watching their reactions to the little buggers. The Toy District itself was pretty intimidating. During the day I’m sure the yellow and red painted buildings look happy and lively, but in the dark, with steel shutters drawn over the doors and windows, that place looked like some sort of Playskool fortress. Not to mention the scary empty streets and numerous hobos sleeping on the sidewalks. We got out of there as quickly as we could, but not all of us made it to Famima.
Although my legs were still on strike from the day before, I got up early and headed to the garage to get the mascots ready. I’d decided to wear GIR first, with Star as my handler. I was surprised at how easily and quickly I was able to set up the costume; it was working fresh out of the box, with hardly any struggling or problems. I was a bit nervous with only one person as my handler. We set up with my back to a pillar, hoping that would prevent glomp-attacks from the rear. I have to say, I was really surprised at how well-behaved the crowds were. There weren’t any of the screaming tackles I remember from A-kon; the people patiently and quietly waited for their turn with GIR. Some Latin cosplay crew “interviewed” me, as did AnimeNewsNetwork. There wasn’t much I could do or say besides flap my stubby arms, but it was flattering to be noticed.
After GIR, we took a short lunch break while I dried out before we changed into Pucca and Garu. I wasn’t 100% sure I could handle doing two mascot cosplays back-to-back. I mean, how much can a human sweat in a single day? This time around we didn’t have any handlers, for which we were both nervous, but considering how well-behaved the crowd had been earlier I thought we could pull it off.
Perhaps two mascot cosplays was a bit much for me, because I had to take frequent breaks while in Garu. I may have spent more time resting than in costume, truth be told. I hate having to ask people to wait or “come back later,” but I just did not have the stamina to stay in that costume for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Star and I managed to stay in costume until 6, when the dealer’s room closed and all the exiting masses got a chance to take our pic.
The Loli trio had won backstage passes to the masquerade as part of their prize pack, for which I was jealous. That’s where they spent the evening while Star, Ami, and I chilled out in the room. I attempted to go to the con as the masquerade was letting out, to catch all the competing cosplayers, but I went to the wrong place and found no cosplayers at all. Boo.
Sunday was all about Star and I hanging out, as she had to leave that afternoon for home. We made one last swing through the dealer’s room and artist’s alley and then returned to the hotel. Star’s shuttle ride never showed up, so after an hour of fruitless waiting, I bundled her into a cab and sent her on her way. As soon as she left I had this feeling that the con was essentially over now. But rather than dwell on that, I went back to the garage and began packing up all the mascots.
That afternoon, as the con shut down, we all re-grouped and headed out to Little Tokyo, this time by taxi. The girls went apeshit-bananas at the first store we stopped at, which had all sorts of cute stuff and a surprising amount of Totoro and Pucca stuff, which kinda made me sad that Star was missing out on this. After checking out a few more stores we had dinner (lunch?) at a conveyor-belt sushi place. We had seen some other AX attendees wandering around the shopping center, so I was mildly surprised that the sushi place wasn’t swarming with Narutards and such. We still had to wait a while to get seats, but ho damn, it was worth it. I did not hold back while I was there. I got a big Sapporo beer and snatched anything off the belt that looked tasty. It was nifty how you could tell the price of the food by the color of the plate it rode in on. I spent a good amount of time waiting, just watching for what would come around the corner; it felt like a game or something. In fact, we soon had an unofficial race going on, seeing who’s stack of plates was tallest. (I think Cat-chan ultimately won that race, or maybe it was JB. I dunno.) Me and Cat-chan were really hankering for some eel and joking about who was going to grab it first whenever it showed up. Well I guess the chef (?) overheard our salivating because he asked, “Would you like some eel?,” to which we all nodded with silly grins, and he handed the plates to us directly. He didn’t put them on the conveyor belt to possibly be stolen by other people, he gave them to us! He was cool. So now that we felt a bit more confident, we began ordering specific items from him. And the sushi rolls they made, OMG *drool*, the rolls were as big around as a soda can. They were huge! And they were steaming hot and delicious. Man, I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. It was like a weaboo’s Thanksgiving. Also the short little Japanese lady who ran the place was cute and funny too. It was a little pricey, yeah, but considering the food and the dining experience, it was a bargain. A place like that would be so awesome to have here in Austin.
We stopped at the cute bakery and then stopped at the mochi place (I ate so damned much at Little Tokyo). We looked up at the Miyado hotel and lamented the fact that it wasn’t a con hotel and wondered how we might be able to attend next year’s AX while staying at Little Tokyo. After more shopping we took a taxi back to the hotel where we watched Vermilion Pleasure Night (yay). There may have been more shenanigans that evening, but I’ve already forgotten.
Cat-chan left early Monday morning, before anyone (besides me) was up. Once everyone else had arisen, we went right back to Little Tokyo for breakfast and also because the manga store had been closed the day before. We nabbed stuff from the bakery and I found an unexpected Gunnm book at the manga store. We then went to the hibachi place for lunch, which like every other LT place we’d eaten, was delicious and fun. Mochi for dessert again, then a little shopping before CC and I said goodbye to JB and Ami. They were sticking around for another day or two to go sightseeing around LA, but it was time for the two of us to head home.
[return road-trip minutes coming soon . . . maybe]
Star was waiting for us at the hotel when we arrived. She looked better than I expected, considering she’d gotten sick THREE times on the flight out. After a quick greeting we checked in, only to find that the hotel had given us a room with 1 king-size bed rather than the double we’d requested. And the room was itty-bitty to boot. Star and I flopped down for a moment of rest while CC went to the con to get our badges. As worn out and stressed out as I was from the drive and downtown misadventure, I wasn’t in the best of shape to commiserate with Star’s own traveling mishaps. CC returned with our badges lightning-fast, which blew my mind, considering the hours-long wait I typically experience at other cons. Way to go, AX!
We then went down to the front desk to gripe and moan about our room. Eventually we were able to wrangle a double room out of them by emphasizing that we needed a bigger room to accommodate my oversized costumes. Hmm. Based on that logic, I bet we could’ve gotten a handicap-sized room if we’d pushed the point a bit further. Victorious, we headed to our new room . . . only to discover that it was the same exact size as the first, but with two beds crammed into it. Waah. Oh well, it was still an improvement.
Now that we knew where we were staying we were finally able to unload the truck. It didn’t take too many trips, fortunately. My next task was to find a parking garage that cost less than the hotel’s $47/night rate. So I spent the next couple hours walking between the hotel and convention center, checking out all the parking garages and lots to find the best place. About 11 pm I thought I’d finally found a perfect place so I hiked back to the hotel, took my truck out, drove to the garage, and found that it had closed during the 20 minutes it had taken me to walk back to the hotel. Dangit! I returned to the hotel and resolved to get up early the next morning to get a spot in that garage before all the commuters got there.
So 6 am Thursday, ka-pwing! I was out of bed and on my way. I parked my truck there and was able to relax a bit, knowing that I wasn’t throwing away $40-something per day. Everyone was still asleep by the time I got back. Looking around the room at the 5 sleeping girls, I got the feeling that the longer I stayed there, the greater chance there was that I’d eventually do something that would get me into trouble. So I turned right back around and walked back to the garage where I cleaned all the tarp-y bits off the mascot costumes, then I went to breakfast.
When I got back, people were finally starting to show signs of life. As we were preparing to go to the con, I realized I couldn’t find my badge. After 20 minutes of looking, I reluctantly decided to go check the truck. I walked there, didn’t find it, then walked to the con intent on buying a new one. Thankfully though, the registration line was non-existent and the staff was helpful and informed me that a replacement badge was only $5. SWEET.
Once again restored to my full power, I spent a few minutes running around cosplay-hunting and learning the layout of the con while I waited for Star and Ami to arrive (the Loli trio stayed behind to work on their Midnight Tea and have caulk-fun). The three of us watched over the growing crowd amassing in front of the soon-to-be-open Dealer’s Room. Actually, they watched while I frequently ran off to go get pictures.
The Dealer’s Room opened and we got sucked into the vortex along with all the other con-goers. I’m pretty sure I heard angels giggling as I walked into that aircraft hangar of a room. Or maybe it was just me giggling. That place was insanely huge, I think it had it’s own weather system. Ami and Star went off looking for some doll, following Ami’s instincts/radar while I went to one end of the canyon and systematically browsed through each aisle in order.
An hour later we escaped and returned to the hotel. I got into Slade and then Star and I went back to the con. I only cosplayed an hour or so until I began sweating through the costume then called it quits. I think this con will be Slade’s swan song, the helmet got damaged in the trip and the armor’s started to look rather worn out.
Star and I then had dinner, went to the con, and attended the only cosplay panel of the con. By that time it was 10 pm and the past few days were catching up with both of us; we were pooped. But the Midnight Tea didn’t start till 11 and we said we’d be there. So despite the fact that I wanted nothing more in the world than to take a nap at that moment, we dragged ourselves to the manga café. I dunno if other cons have this (I haven’t noticed any), but the free manga was a great idea. I read a couple volumes and managed to stay awake.
The Midnight Tea was pretty interesting. I was expecting more competitors, considering how gung-ho the girls had been about this event. But there were only 5, maybe 6, tables. The Trinity Blood table was the only real competition and may arguably have been prettier, but the Rock-Loli table had them beat in terms of originality and creativity, which is probably why they won. There was a long line to get in, I’m sure because most people assumed there would be free food and drink (or maybe something naughty) at the “Midnight Tea”. Sorry guys. Even though I knew that most of the display was made from building materials or had come from a dumpster, I was still tempted to nibble on those chocolates, just to be sure.
Friday morning Star granted me leave to go cosplay-hunting while she got into her Dark Fairy outfit, for which I was grateful. I have no experience with dresses and wigs and make-up, so I would’ve just been sitting on my hands all morning. I had fun on my own, taking pictures until Star showed up and then I took some pics of her. We hung out for a while until our schedules came to a screeching head-on collision. Star had been in costume less than an hour, but it was nearing the time for us to change into our Pucca & Garu costumes, if we were going to do them at all that day. Plus, she wanted to go to an important panel too. I thought we could do it all, but Star felt it was impossible and became frustrated with the scheduling. We had a spat and instead of cosplay or panel, we spent a few hours talking things out.
Later that evening our whole group made the hike to Little Tokyo for dinner. I was the guide and mistakenly took us through a one-way (the wrong way) tunnel, but the girls were good sports and took it all in stride. Just when our stamina was beginning to flag, we saw a group of other weaboo kids on the other side of the street and we knew we were close. We ate at Mr. Ramen, a restaurant I’d been to last AX. The food was as delicious and the portions were as stupidly-big as I remembered. If the place sold the bowls their food came in, I’d buy one just to wear it as a helmet, that’s how big they are. Ami was the only one who actually completely finished her ramen. I ate most of mine and a lot of Star’s so I could argue I ate more, but who’s keeping score?
Most of Little Tokyo was closed by the time we finished dinner, so there wasn’t anything else to do there. JB thought that we should try to get to Famima (a Super-convenience store) before they closed at midnight. By my calculations, Famima was nearly twice as far as we’d already walked, but dessert sounded good and I knew I had to walk off the 5 gallons of ramen in my gut, so we headed out.
Our fatal mistake came when we decided to take a short-cut through the Toy District. We read the sign that said, “ Toy District” and thought, “Oh, that sounds like a fun, pretty place to visit.” How wrong we were. About a block in that direction, the girls started hopping and yelping and running. It took me a moment to notice the constant cockroaches running across our path. I thought about offering to take the lead and act as a roach plow, but I was having too much fun watching their reactions to the little buggers. The Toy District itself was pretty intimidating. During the day I’m sure the yellow and red painted buildings look happy and lively, but in the dark, with steel shutters drawn over the doors and windows, that place looked like some sort of Playskool fortress. Not to mention the scary empty streets and numerous hobos sleeping on the sidewalks. We got out of there as quickly as we could, but not all of us made it to Famima.
Although my legs were still on strike from the day before, I got up early and headed to the garage to get the mascots ready. I’d decided to wear GIR first, with Star as my handler. I was surprised at how easily and quickly I was able to set up the costume; it was working fresh out of the box, with hardly any struggling or problems. I was a bit nervous with only one person as my handler. We set up with my back to a pillar, hoping that would prevent glomp-attacks from the rear. I have to say, I was really surprised at how well-behaved the crowds were. There weren’t any of the screaming tackles I remember from A-kon; the people patiently and quietly waited for their turn with GIR. Some Latin cosplay crew “interviewed” me, as did AnimeNewsNetwork. There wasn’t much I could do or say besides flap my stubby arms, but it was flattering to be noticed.
After GIR, we took a short lunch break while I dried out before we changed into Pucca and Garu. I wasn’t 100% sure I could handle doing two mascot cosplays back-to-back. I mean, how much can a human sweat in a single day? This time around we didn’t have any handlers, for which we were both nervous, but considering how well-behaved the crowd had been earlier I thought we could pull it off.
Perhaps two mascot cosplays was a bit much for me, because I had to take frequent breaks while in Garu. I may have spent more time resting than in costume, truth be told. I hate having to ask people to wait or “come back later,” but I just did not have the stamina to stay in that costume for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Star and I managed to stay in costume until 6, when the dealer’s room closed and all the exiting masses got a chance to take our pic.
The Loli trio had won backstage passes to the masquerade as part of their prize pack, for which I was jealous. That’s where they spent the evening while Star, Ami, and I chilled out in the room. I attempted to go to the con as the masquerade was letting out, to catch all the competing cosplayers, but I went to the wrong place and found no cosplayers at all. Boo.
Sunday was all about Star and I hanging out, as she had to leave that afternoon for home. We made one last swing through the dealer’s room and artist’s alley and then returned to the hotel. Star’s shuttle ride never showed up, so after an hour of fruitless waiting, I bundled her into a cab and sent her on her way. As soon as she left I had this feeling that the con was essentially over now. But rather than dwell on that, I went back to the garage and began packing up all the mascots.
That afternoon, as the con shut down, we all re-grouped and headed out to Little Tokyo, this time by taxi. The girls went apeshit-bananas at the first store we stopped at, which had all sorts of cute stuff and a surprising amount of Totoro and Pucca stuff, which kinda made me sad that Star was missing out on this. After checking out a few more stores we had dinner (lunch?) at a conveyor-belt sushi place. We had seen some other AX attendees wandering around the shopping center, so I was mildly surprised that the sushi place wasn’t swarming with Narutards and such. We still had to wait a while to get seats, but ho damn, it was worth it. I did not hold back while I was there. I got a big Sapporo beer and snatched anything off the belt that looked tasty. It was nifty how you could tell the price of the food by the color of the plate it rode in on. I spent a good amount of time waiting, just watching for what would come around the corner; it felt like a game or something. In fact, we soon had an unofficial race going on, seeing who’s stack of plates was tallest. (I think Cat-chan ultimately won that race, or maybe it was JB. I dunno.) Me and Cat-chan were really hankering for some eel and joking about who was going to grab it first whenever it showed up. Well I guess the chef (?) overheard our salivating because he asked, “Would you like some eel?,” to which we all nodded with silly grins, and he handed the plates to us directly. He didn’t put them on the conveyor belt to possibly be stolen by other people, he gave them to us! He was cool. So now that we felt a bit more confident, we began ordering specific items from him. And the sushi rolls they made, OMG *drool*, the rolls were as big around as a soda can. They were huge! And they were steaming hot and delicious. Man, I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. It was like a weaboo’s Thanksgiving. Also the short little Japanese lady who ran the place was cute and funny too. It was a little pricey, yeah, but considering the food and the dining experience, it was a bargain. A place like that would be so awesome to have here in Austin.
We stopped at the cute bakery and then stopped at the mochi place (I ate so damned much at Little Tokyo). We looked up at the Miyado hotel and lamented the fact that it wasn’t a con hotel and wondered how we might be able to attend next year’s AX while staying at Little Tokyo. After more shopping we took a taxi back to the hotel where we watched Vermilion Pleasure Night (yay). There may have been more shenanigans that evening, but I’ve already forgotten.
Cat-chan left early Monday morning, before anyone (besides me) was up. Once everyone else had arisen, we went right back to Little Tokyo for breakfast and also because the manga store had been closed the day before. We nabbed stuff from the bakery and I found an unexpected Gunnm book at the manga store. We then went to the hibachi place for lunch, which like every other LT place we’d eaten, was delicious and fun. Mochi for dessert again, then a little shopping before CC and I said goodbye to JB and Ami. They were sticking around for another day or two to go sightseeing around LA, but it was time for the two of us to head home.
[return road-trip minutes coming soon . . . maybe]