San Fransisco Cherry Blossom Festivale 2010

I went to the San Fransisco Cherry Blossom Festivale on Sunday, April 18th. I cosplayed as an original Gijinka of Pikachu, and my friend went as Ash Ketchum (Pokemon).

For once, we left on time! No way! That never happens. So me, my boyfriend (Ed), and my friend (Andrea) left around 10:30 to go to BART. Unfortunately, BART trains don't run from my city to San Fransisco on Sundays, so we had to take one train and transfer to another. Then we took a bus the rest of the way. Getting there took, as usual, about two hours.

When we got there, the first thing we did was go into the nearby mall to find some food. We found a decently-priced place with no line and got some breakfast / lunch. After that, we found a place to stand to watch the parade. We ended up right behind a trash can that was covered with a trash bag, making it useless, but just about as stinky. Luckily, we were right next to a photographer, so people stayed out of our line of sight for the most part. We were also in the shade.

The parade lasted about two hours, from 1:00 to 3:00. It had a lot of fun, interesting floats and acts, from drums and dancing, to beauty pageant winners and political figures. Honestly, I can't remember everything, heh.

Anyway, after the parade, we went to watch the winners of the cosplay contest get announced. We found decent seats, though the people in front of us were loud and a little obnoxious (and blocked almost every picture opportunity with their big, red, phallic balloon -.-). We were in the shade in our seats right up until the costume contest actually started. Darn you, sun, and your strange habit of moving! Anyway, the costume contest runner-ups, third, second, and first place winners were announced and the audience (those not blocked by balloons) was given a chance to take pictures of them.

Following the announcement of the winners, there was a cosplay talent show, a non-competitive show that mainly included cosplayers singing and dancing. it was hosted by Usagi Tsukino, also known as the San Fransisco Sailor Moon. She was, as always, delightful and entertaining, and her professional group (AnimeMyu Senshi) also performed. The talent show was fun to watch, and definitely worthwhile.

We then went to look for more food. We stumbled upon a noodle house, but it was vastly overpriced Forty-five dollars for noodles? No thank you, I'll go find some twigs or something.. We decided to leave and ended up eating at a small Japanese place that I had actually spotted at last year's Cherry Blossom Festivale. There we met up with another friend for a while who was there promoting Kin-Yoobi Con 2010.

It was about 5:00 when we finished eating, so we quickly looked at the remaining booths that were still open, and I bought three pairs of earrings, with some money my boyfriend gave me ^-^ The funny thing is, I bought earrings last year too, haha. We went over to where some pretty trees were and took a few pictures before leaving for home.

Overall, it was tons of fun. I was surprised at how much attention our costumes got, actually. I don't know why, but I considered Pikachu to be a fly-under-the-radar type of costume, probably because I put almost no effort into it. I felt sort of bad, really, so many other cosplayers deserved all the attention we were getting. But I guess I shouldn't complain, haha. My only disappointment is that I couldn't find any of the friends I had hoped to meet up with. :(

Quotes of the Day:

"We NEED a napkin!" "A napkin!?"

"Uhh.. That's fine. You go. Go with your silly-colored friends."

WonderCon 2010

It seems like every time we go to a convention in San Fransisco, my boyfriend and I leave for and arrive to the convention way later than intended. We left around 12:00 noon and arrived at about 2:00. Registry was surprisingly fast, and cheap, for such a big con. Walking through the line took no time at all, and it was only $15 for one day.

The line for registration put all entering attendees directly into the dealer's room. It was ridiculously crowded though, and the layout wasn't the best in my opinion. It seemed like four booths were the main attractions: A Capcom booth where you could play Street Fighter IV, a Dante's Inferno booth, where you could play at some points throughout the day, a booth promoting Kick-Ass, which sold limited-edition memorabilia, and a booth showcasing a 3D graphic design program, which showed some tutorials and explained different aspects of 3D graphic design and animation. All four of these booths were on two neighboring corners in the dealer's room, and crowds from them nearly completely barricaded two aisles.

Just past the dealer's room, in the same open auditorium, was the artist's alley. Unfortunately for the artist's, there was almost nobody there. Admittedly, it did provide a relief from the dense dealer's room crowds, but I still felt bad for the artists.

By far, my favorite booth, without competition in my heart, was the booth selling tribbles from an episode of Star Trek titled "The Trouble with Tribbles." Essentially, they're just little balls of fur, no feet, legs, or defining features, but ever since I saw them, they've been clicking and chirping their way into my heart, and for $20 I now own a little gray fluffball of my own. The booth was even run by David Gerrold, the creator of tribbles, and author of the episode that made them so lovable. (Tribbles can be bought at www.tribbletoys.com)

Regrettably, we missed the panel I had really wanted to see. It was a series of movie trailers (for Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Toy Story 3) and Q&A's with several of the actors. So instead, we went straight to the panel my boyfriend was most interested in: "Marvel Comics: X-Men". However, he was not particularly interested in the X-Men talk, he was there because a couple of the creators of the Marvel character Deadpool were there. The panel itself was rather entertaining and informative, but I felt that the speakers were too impersonal. However, it was very well-run and time-efficient.

We had actually arrived to that panel about a half hour early though, and sat in on part of the Spotlight on David Finch, comic book artist for titles including Call of Duty: The Brotherhood, New Avengers, and X-Men Unlimited. His panel was entertaining as well, but the highlight of it for me was when this little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, asked David how he got started in the business and how he got famous, and requested that David review his (the boy's) comic book drawings. It was probably the cutest things I've seen in a long time. Besides a tribble, of course.

After the X-Men panel, we decided to get lunch. It seems that I'll never learn to research food places outside of convention areas, but convention food will always be ridiculously expensive. Lunch drained the end of my money and left my boyfriend with only $5. So we ate and then found our way up to where the Lion Gate: Kick-Ass panel was to be held.

We went and found our seats just as the previous panel (Trailer Park) was ending, and the staff played movie trailers on the giant screens at the front of the room until it was time for the panel to start. Lion Gate: Kick-Ass was essentially a trailer showing and Q&A with the actors of the movie (Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Nicholas Cage). Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I were sitting in literally the second to last row of a room that sat an estimated four-thousand people. So people on stage appeared to only be about an inch tall (luckily they appeared on two movie theater-sized screens at the front of the room). The panel was a blast and I got some decent pictures of the giant screens.

After the panel, there was an exclusive autograph signing with the stars that you had to pay to get into. I wanted to check the price, even if we did only have $5 left, but as fate would have it, they were sold out by the time we got there and figured out what was going on. The autograph line for other stars, which you didn't have to pay to get into, consistently looked about two hours long. Even though there were big stars that I would have loved to get autographs from (including Martin Klebba, Tim Russ, Carel Struyken, Marina Sirtis, and Lou Ferrigno), I just didn't feel like waiting in line for two hours. So we left for home.

Overall, I had a great time and fully intend to go back next year, for more than one day if possible. The only downsides were the placement of the most popular booths and the cost of food.

Quote of the Day:

Little 5-year-old Boy: I have some of my drawings with me, and I was wondering if you could critique them.
David Finch: Of course!
Audience: Awww~! ♥ *clapity clap*