Fanime 2011

Sak and I celebrated our 7th date-aversary this weekend at our favorite annual event - Fanime Con. Though probably not the "best year ever" (if such a year existed?), this year did not dissapoint.

And since I was having such a good time - I uh, didn't take many pictures, despite having told myself that a good blogger should always over-document her experiences. *hangs head in shame*

Along with best-buddy E, we drove down to the convention Friday morning to pick up badges. We watched "Welcome to the Space Show" - a fantastic sci-fi movie with absolutely beautiful animation.

A movie room.

This year we stayed at the Saint Claire hotel - thus furthering our quest to try out every hotel in the area.

Fanime had custom room keys this year! Sugoi!

Though I have few pictures of the convention, I got one of the bathroom ceiling? What's wrong with me...

I have to admit that this one is probably my favorite out of the five we've stayed at in the past. With only six floors, the elevator wait-time was short, and it's a definite plus to be right across the street from all the action.  Though they do make you sign a "no party clause" when you check in.

Unlike these guys raving up in the Marriot!

The swap meet Friday night is always one of my favorite events.  Rows and rows of people lined up, hawking their anime wares - it's just fantastic.  This year I scored 9 volumes of manga (for $2-$3 dollars rather than the retail $10-$12!), a $5 kappa plushie for Penga-Sis, and a Plusie headband for $3.

Another favorite event is the Anime Music Video Contest.  I have a bit of an obsession with AMVs, so it's always exciting to get to see (and vote for!) new ones (you can download a ton of them from here).  Sak and I were a bit put out that they were not shown in the big civic auditorium as they are most years - takes some of the "grand stage fun" out of it.

The only other convention dissapointment was the lack of printed schedules.  While it was okay for people who had phones or tablets for online accessibility - us smartphone-less souls were out of luck. Kind of hard to plan your day without the guide!

Where to go next?

We watched a bunch of anime, went to a few panels (armor making, Steampunk in anime) - but the best part about fanime is the reunion of friends.

Kamina men!

Some weirdo in the brown :P

Cousin T was there selling her mini-hats (so cute!)

and Friend R was selling her crocheted Pokemon and Pokeballs.

They were quite the hit with all the Pokemon and trainer cosplays around the con!

We also met Cousin T's friend A, who sold cute cut-out greeting cards. Talented ladies - all around!

Saturday night I broke my ears at the musicfest concert. It was probably the best concert Fanime has had in a long while though - the opening act was Yuya Matsushita, a dreamboat pop singer! It was a bit depressing to realize he is only 21, but what can I say, a fan girl will always be a fan girl - even if she is getting older! ;)

*Drool* (source)

Love this song. He danced better at the con.

The main act was FLOW, who does opening songs for a variety of anime shows like Naruto, Eureka 7 and Code Geass.  They were good, but the acoustics in the auditorium really, really suck - and my left ear was practically bleeding by the end! Next year: earplugs.

Civic Auditorium of loud noise. (Stolen from Cousin T's fb)

I made an attempt to get into the GAIA panel (for the free swag!), but lack-of-interest-from-Sak-and-friends plus a fairly packed room prevented me. Boo.

Great Ewok cosplay to cheer one up!

On Sunday we made it through half of the Cosplay Spectucular, which wasn't as bad as it usually is.  There were a few really good acts, like this Portal one, and this Old Spice Dante.  We left mainly due to some REALLY annoying people sitting around us, being overly loud and rather dumb. We joked that they should have a section reserved for the 21 and over crowd, because the young whipper-snappers are just too noisy for our sensitive old-people ears.

An impressive metaknight.

Sunday night we watched the movie "Confessions", and while it was cinematically good - it was the entirely wrong movie for me to watch at night. It is so very very disturbing. Psych thrillers of the ghost/alien/etc. kind I can handle. Psych thrillers of the omg-this-stuff-can-actually-happen kind I cannot. Needless to say I had nightmares.

Anyway, is anyone still here? I know this is rather niche stuff I'm talking about - and I've written it mostly for my own memory.  But if you did read this far, thank you! Here's some delicious downtown San Jose food pictures to restore the normalcy:

Pita Pit gryo.  I lived off of these during college, and eating one always makes me nostalgic. Get them with grilled onions and all the veggies - so delicious!

Or a giant horchata (pictured next to the "large" soda) and nacho plate from La Victoria Taqueria. Not pictured are their $2.75 breakfast burritos, which are amazing with their specialty "orange sauce". Yum.

Slice of Pizza My Heart veggie pizza. Bought because we needed the shirt that came with it. >.>" Only $5!

And bentos and milk tea from Hydration - the standard convention staple! My favorite is the saba bento (grilled mackeral) and honeydew milk tea.  Though this year I branched out and also tried the almond milk tea. Exciting, I know. So exciting I have zero pictures!

We also tried to get the donut bento box from Psycho Donuts, but it was regrettable sold out.  They put nori (seaweed) and pocky on them though! How uh, psycho!

And that, friends - was my 2011 Fanime experience. We already bought next year's tickets - so here's hoping it's even better!