Well, it's short and sweet and ignores the whole rest of my holiday,
basically, but ...
My Visit to AX98!
Woohoo! After many, many hours of flying (1 hour to Sydney, 8 or so hours
to Osaka, then a nice, relaxing over-night stay... followed by 11 or so
hours to LA!) I got to go to my first convention! Yay!
After AX-ing and being a tourist (Disneyland, Universal Studios and an LA
Tour), I got to go home again... (another fun 10 or so hours to Tokyo, a
lovely 6 hour stay at the airport, then an 8 hour flight back to
Australia! Plus the 1 hour flight back to Melbourne.)
I've finally been to my first convention! Yay!
<p>
(Went via Osaka, so I got a nice day there, after sleeping at the hotel
which was paid for by JAL. Went to a nice little place called Rinku Park,
which was an amusement park. My pen pal, Hiroe, showed us around, and we
met up with Yasu, my last boyfriend. So that was pretty cool... the way
home, we were stuck in the New Tokyo International airport at Kansai for 6
hours. That really sucked, but they had nice massage chairs in the rooms
you could hire out, and I got to watch some weird Japanese tv shows! The
coolest thing to happen at an airport, though, was in the Osaka/Kansai
International airport - while waiting to board the plane, the tv started
playing Ranma 1/2!!! Yay!!)
<p>
Now... on to the con!
<p>
It was a little strange at first... but it was interesting. Lined up late
on the Friday, so I didn't actually get into a huge queue, so that was
pretty good. But then I went to the dealer room - boy, was that packed!!
But I managed to get a kawaii P-chan soft toy! ^_^
<p>
There was a lot of trying to find stuff... rather dull that bit, all that
walking around to actually find things, because the maps weren't really
matched up with the list of things going on, so I had to look at two
pieces of paper all the time. Then there was the cancelled stuff - my
sister really wanted to see the Ranma 1/2 showing in one of the video
rooms, and I thought that I'd drop her off while I went to go find out
about the fanfic panel. During the hour or so that I was away, the video
got cancelled!! So I had to eventually drop her off to watch El Hazard,
which she thankfully liked. Though I still thing that it was rather lame
how they couldn't even organise showings.
<p>
Eventually I met Damon (of the Fanfic ML) and various other people going
to a lunch before the fanfic panel. I'd forgotten all about it, and had
already eaten, but my sister and I went along anyway. It was an amusing
lunch, though, even if I just had a Coke to drink. (As an aside, American
Coke is very different to Australian Coke - when American Coke goes flat,
it's undrinkable!!! Don't know what it is... msut be the cane sugar that's
used in Australian Coke that lets people drink it after it's flat! ^_^ )
<p>
Then it was time for the panel. Hmm... I was pretty stupid to ask to be
part of the panel, since I hate talking in public. Ah, well! I was there,
and was on the panel. Didn't really end up saying too much, mostly because
the questions that I could answer were already answered by someone else...
but I was rather amazed when people cheered when I said that I was
Kun-chan!! (Then again, after I said that I never checked fanfic voting
polls because no-one would vote for me anyway!)
<p>
The only real problem with that panel was that there was this guy who just
_stared_ at me through the whole thing. Even when other people were
talking! Geeze, that boy needs to learn manners!! He didn't even come up
and say anything at the end, like other people did. Feh, the word
'pervert' springs to mind, for some reason. Met another of them at the
'con - one guy at the parties run by Toshi Yoshida just kept following
myself and my sister around, hanging right near us and never saying a
word. *Shudder* He even followed my sister when she went out for a smoke.
Thankfully she went with two normal guys! Bleh, perverts just scare me.
<p>
Well, to change the subject - something fun! I liked the dance! Though the
music wasn't all that good, IMO, it was still fun being able to dance.
(Though I'd have rather more of the music along the lines of the Village
People and other fun disco songs that you can dance to!!) I went to the
dance with lots of cool people I met after the panel (and some at the
lunch) ... I've got a mind like a seive, so please forgive me if I can't
remember names. The party that I ended up going to afterwards didn't help
with making me remember things, either. Too many people!! Though I do
remember Foxtrot, Jennifer, Mikado@AnimeMUCK and Shige-chan@AnimeMUCK.
Sorry to the rest of you guys... names just go in one ear and out the
other!
<p>
Hmm... also had someone try to pick me up at the dance, too. A little tip
for the guys - when you're hitting on a woman, do NOT be heavy handed when
you first meet her! It'll just scare her away, unless she's used to that
kind of thing! Ah, well...
<p>
Going to the parties was really fun... got to meet quite a few cool people
(apart from that one creepy guy) there! Mr. Barman (Toshi), Other Mr.
Barman (Besh), various Viz people, Margaret Lum (gee, the muscles on that
delicate-looking girl!!), Cabana Boy (Brad - he really DOES dance if you
throw nickles at him!), and many others who's names slipped in one ear and
right out the other.
<p>
Basically, due to the parties, my sister and I just slept in and so missed
many morning events that were on at the convention. The problem is that on
Sunday morning, we aranged to meet Foxtrot and her fiance at the Viz
panel. Geeze, bad mistake. I was half asleep during the panel, and the
whining from the guy a few rows behind us drove me insane. (No, I wasn't
hung over! My sister and I seem to share the same genes that don't give
you hangovers... even though I stupidly drank one of Toshi's mystery shot
glasses, I was feeling quite normal the next morning, thank goodness!)
Anyway, we met them and just had to say goodbye, as they were leaving. So
at least we were there on time to say farewell! But we met up with Brad
and Besh, and we all went to the Hilton pools together. That was pretty
cool, hanging out at the spa in the sun. Who cares about the events on at
the 'con when you can be in a spa all day?! I even got one of those funky
midori margarita cups with the lizard on it, at the pool...
<p>
Eventually Toshi and Trish Ledoux turned up, and most of the Viz people
were going to go to Disneyland. Leanne and I had to go that day, as we had
a 5 day pass, which had to start on the Sunday, so we went with them. I
think the party ended up with at least 11 people in it - Julie, Kit, Bill,
Urian, Randy (all from Viz), and of course myself, Leanne, Besh, Brad,
Toshi and Trish. It's actually fun to go around Disneyland in a large
group! You get set aside while small groups get on the ride, then you get
the next one to yourself, mostly!! ^_^ It's also really good when you're
going with people who actually know where things are!
<p>
Too bad there wasn't another party that night... I couldn't have done with
one! Oh, well. We all went to Denny's afterwards, and ate dinner.
<p>
And that was the end of the 'con for us ... I'm a night person, and like
staying up late and waking around 11am or so... they should change the con
events to cater for that! What was with all that early morning stuff,
anyway?!?!
<p>
But, all in all, I had a lot of fun. After that, my sister and I just went
and did the normal tourist stuff - Disneyland and Universal Studios...
we'd already done the LA tour (on Saturday morning), but that sucked
because the tour company didn't have a clue as to what was going on. They
didn't even slow down for photos. Feh.
<p>
I took quite a few photos (almost a whole roll at Universal Studios!!),
but most of the photos are pretty dull... so I've put the interesting
photos on my home page...
http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~caseawr (or the American site that you can get to
from there, because it might be faster)
Click on 'AX98' from my main page... (Don't worry about the writing,
because you already might have read it here! ^_~ )
Kun-chan...