Comiket

So today's blog is going to be a little bit different. For one, it's about an Anime convention I attended here in Japan. So that means a lot of you don't want to (and don't have to) read this blog. For two, I'm not going to have pictures in this one. That's because the people who I took pictures of never said I could put their photos up online. I told them they could of me, but I forgot to ask. >>

That being the case, I'll start off this blog by saying, "HOLY SHIT COMIKET WAS AMAZING!"
You'd NEVER know there were hundreds of thousands of people at this convention by how quiet and well organized it was! Like seriously, it was just so amazing...

First things first. Comiket is not your regular Anime convention that some of you are familiar with. Comiket is mainly fan-made artwork in the form of doujinshis (fan-made comics) and are usually pairings or romance stories. Some are amazing side stories that people made with canon features and an actual story and some are just little posters and pictures to sell. But this place is so huge I honestly didn't get to see the entire thing. There are three halls, the East 123 hall, the East 456 hall, and the West hall. The West hall is near where you cosplay.
Speaking of cosplaying! You cannot cosplay outside; only in certain areas inside or ropped off areas outside. Also, you CANNOT take pictures of people without permission. If someone thinks you're taking their picture and you didn't ask permission, you can get kicked out. It's crazy.
Also, there's a map that shows where the artists sit. You need to know the artists beforehand and the majority of people do. It's NEVER a good idea to bring the entire book that you buy to get the map (that tells you what artists are going and where they are) and it's put into sections.

In the East hall 123, those in the A sections are the REALLY good artists, the hard sellin' ones that are most popular. They usually sell out by noon and this con starts at 10. Then there are those on the side that USED to be A's, but are now B's or are just under A-ranking. They're still good, but don't get the lines As do. (I'll explain later) Then there's the rest of the tables which in are lined up A-S. On the East hall 456 it's lined up in the hiragana of あ through ち I think, but I think it went a little further...
Then there's the West hall that's organized quite the same, but differently. I didn't see much of the West hall. Although, there's another part to the West hall where there are actual vendors from companies will sell their stuff. We wanted to go there, but we never found it on the day I went.

The first day we got there, we somehow skipped through the line that was about another 2 hours long, thank GOD. I don't know how we did this, but we did. We get into a line and think, "okay, we're in line". Nope, we're in line to get to the line. This is a trend we see keep happening. Thank God it went so smoothly you never really noticed. We were in the main line just to get in for about 45 minutes. During that time, we took out our map to make sure we knew where we were going (this place was so huge, you HAD to have a map) and the majority of this convention was Hetalia. Half of the main building was Hetalia. I was excited beyond all reason. As I looked around at our fellow con-goers, I noticed that not only were they mainly girls, but...they all had the same areas mapped out on their maps; almost the same locations and everything. They then noticed us and how we had little Hetalia keychains and what-not with us. I was blasting my Hetalia music on my headphones and dancing to it so they knew. My friend said, "this girl behind you, she looks ready to steal your England keychain!" It was great!

We got inside in a relatively quick amount of time and rushed to the East hall 123 where all our stuff was that we wanted. We split into two groups. I headed straight for the two I wanted the most (Hoshitamago and Hakkapink) and saw that there was a line. I started to get into the line when I was stopped and told to get into the line to get INTO the line. Everyone was SO nice and smiled at us and tried to talk in English, but when we showed we talked Japanese they were like, ":D :D :D" and talked Japanese. The lines weren't all that fast and I got to hit a lot of the tables in two hours. By that time, it was noon and the A tables were closing up shop. It was time to cosplay!

So you don't pay to actually get into Comiket. You pay to cosplay. But even then, it's only 8 bucks; so wonderful... So once we paid, I thought we went to our own little dressing rooms and all to change. No, it was a gym sized room of girls just stripping and changing and you had to plot down on the floor like a picnic and dress there. Wow....talk about awkward because the minute we walked in, almost all eyes were on us. Yeah...

So once we were done dressing, I was blind because I had colored contacts in and my outfit called for no glasses, so here I was clinging on to people on where to go, but we had NO IDEA where to go. We went outside and were almost in trouble for doing so, but these nice guys told us where to go and weren't mad at us. We talked Japanese to them and they were relieved to know we weren't dumb first-timers, but just lost first-timers. It happens. This place is frickin' huge.

So we finally got to the cosplay section out in the West hall area. At first we were starving and ate as fast as we could, but then people saw us and were, at first, afraid to approach us because they didn't know English and thought we didn't know Japanese, but our Japanese friend (who actually is from America, but hey) found us and once people saw him, they thought he was our spokesman and asked him if they could take our pictures. He repeatedly told people, "they speak Japanese" and eventually word got around that the foreigners in the area can speak Japanese. That's when we became the hit of Comiket. We had lines to see us, girls crying, people asking to be in pictures with us. We even started this entire thing where this large group of Hetalia cosplayers begged us to join them in pictures and then, once in, this HUGE crowd appeared. The cosplayers with us said they'd never seen it like this and they said it was because, "we have the REAL THINGS here! THEY'RE SO CUTE!"

That w as when I met the two that made my con. These two were so adorable and so amazing. They made me SO INCREDIBLY happy, you just can't believe... I had been with my friends when my Japanese friend told me there was a US and UK dressed up as Santa's near the exit. I rush over and see them and almost die. They're just sitting there together texting and look SO cute! I nervously go up and ask if I can take their picture. They JUMP up in surprise and scramble to get ready and, once done with the picture, come flying at me. They're amazed that, not only do I speak Japanese, but that I came all the way from the US to come to Comiket. I explained that I was studying in Japan and they got even MORE excited. I thought the America was going to have a kitten, she was so excited. She started jabbering on how she wants to go the States and learn English like no other while the England tried to hide herself. She was so shy, it was too cute!

We were soon pulled apart and were lead into another large group and people took our pictures after we took theirs and visa versa. It was chaos. I eventually made my way back to the two Santa's and went up to the England and asked for a picture with her. Since I was colonial America and she was England, she FREAKED and almost cried she was so happy. We posed together as big brother with little brother and people flocked to us. Some fangirls cried they were so happy to see "the real thing" there and such. I was in heaven. That England, she was so adorable. And the America kept apologizing saying she made my country "look horrible". Trust me, she was adorable as hell.

Once done with cosplay, we headed home since the con really was over by that point. Once home, we collapsed, but headed to a friend's later and ate at his apartment. It was great fun, but I could feel my throat getting sore and my insides starting to hurt. My skin, too, felt a little sick-ish. I got worried and told my friends I wanted to head home early. But it didn't matter because by morning, I was very sick.

I ended up not going to the second day of Comiket, sadly, but my friends did. They texted me during the day and got me soup before they left to help me feel better. It was nice and by night time, I was a little better. I was still relatively sick the rest of my time in Tokyo, but all in all, it was a GREAT con. Best anime convention EVER. I want to go back... *starts to save money*

Next update will be about Tokyo Disneyland. I'll have that up soon because come Monday, I'll be in Kyoto and by Wednesday, I'll be in Osaka and then I'll be back home for two weeks, so I need to get on that. Next update will have pictures. Sorry for none this time.

~星子☆