Well well well.
I haven’t managed to do one of these in years past, partially because working the convention is an exhausting affair that takes me a few weeks to recover from, and partially because many of the more interesting things that happen are Classified (well, not really, but that sounds cooler than Internal). But this year I am making the effort! Mainly because I think this is a better format for the photos I managed to take than Insta. Hopefully by the end you’ll understand why these posts often don’t get made.
Pre-Fanime
I usually drive up a day or two before the con starts and stay at my friend’s house to get a bit of a break before I have to Work The Weekend. Typically, I don’t do much but watch her TV and eat dinner at her expense before leaving for San Jose (I’m the broke bestie). But this year, my friend’s husband was going to an A’s game courtesy of his work, and I was asked if I wanted to go as well. Sure, I said, and so I went.
Sad fact: they had a cute elephant patch on their uniform, but changed it to a stupid bridge this season. More on that later.
Oh, the elephant’s name is Stomper, very important.
A quick aside for those who don’t follow sportsball news – the A’s are in a sad state of purgatory this baseball season. Part of that means they now play their games at Sutter Health Field (formerly Raley Field) right across the river from Downtown Sacramento and the home of local minor league team the River Cats. Speaking of formerly, they were the Oakland Athletics, and played in, you guessed it, Oakland, until this year. Now they’re just The Athletics and they play in West Sac. Not to like, bag on West Sac so much as “they now play in a minor league stadium that has a big river cat next to the scoreboard”.
No, river cats aren’t a real thing. Also this sign is way less legible lit up.
“Look it’s…not the Sacramento River Cats!”
We parked next to the Ziggurat, an (in)famous office building I’ve referenced many times on my stream, and honestly I was prolly more excited to see it up close again than the game.
Now you know why it’s called that
Spongebob Narrator voice: Three…Hours…Later…
Not only did I score some choice shots of the Ziggurat, I also was able to confirm something I constantly make fun of Sacramento PR firms about – the relentless pathetic efforts to make the local Tower Bridge seem cool.
Branding Level 1: Logo Incorporation
Branding Level 2: Direct Comparison to Established Cool Bridge
Branding Level 3: Partial Structural Element
Branding Level 4: Indoctrinating Children
If you’re thinking, hey, Kelp, is the bridge really that uncool? I give you…
What’s cooler, the office building on the left or the bridge on the right? Where’s the Ziggurat playground structure? Huh?!
Anyways, the A’s lost handily to the Angels that night, but more importantly, due to how small the stadium was and how chill the crowd was, my lack of ear protection turned out not to be a problem.
The two genders(?)
Recycling is a team sport, but composting is individual
Thursday (Day Zero)
I started with what should have been the good news of one of my hotel roommates offering to check us in early, so I could just drive up and have the bellhop immediately cart my stuff to my room. Luckily I was still filling up at a greater Sacramento area gas station when she cheerily told me our room number…on the seventeenth floor. I immediately responded with something to the effect of “I will die.”
An image of the future? (thanks @bon.komera for this edit)
Any of you who go to large conventions likely have already gleaned one of the problems – checking out on a high floor is often a nightmare, since the elevators are not built to handle The Load. Indeed, last year on the dawn of the final day I did more or less get stuck on the thirteenth fourteenth floor for over an hour, eventually electing to carry what I safely could down double-digit flights of stairs, and temporarily abandoning my large suitcase in the room. (I did safely retrieve it hours later.) But that’s not actually why I would die.
Where am I gonna put all these photos Bon took of me looking tired- oh wait.
The elevators in the hotel we’re staying at are just not in good repair, and getting worse as time goes on. This year, I noticed the chimes don’t work, nor do the hall signals, to the point where I missed several elevators. (Yes, the one thing that is in good working order are the doors! Quiet as can be.) When I did correctly clock an elevator had arrived, I had to ask the occupants if it was going up or down. Every time. But the number one problem with the elevators is they make me sick.
Can’t wait for my grey hair to kick it into high gear
Not just me either – out of the four people in my hotel room, all but one of us have experienced vertigo from the elevators. One time riding the elevator down to the ballroom level last year, I got so dizzy I had to just sit for fifteen minutes before I recovered enough to start my shift. When I chatted about this on stream, my resident physics expert volunteered that they must decelerate too fast, which my non-physics brain eventually understood to indeed, likely be what’s going on. Even if my collection of roommates is a statistical anomaly, there has to have been hundreds of hotel guests at this point who have been made ill by these elevators.
Luckily, my roommate was able to gesture to her mobility aid and get us moved to the third floor, dodging one perennial problem for the rest of the weekend, at least.
I had some minor hiccups getting checked in for the swap meet, but it more or less worked out fine. I didn’t sell most of my big-ticket items, but I did sell all my heaviest items, so I can’t complain. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll have enough “stock” for next year, as I’ve been slowly plugging away at clearing out for some time now, but we’ll see.
Maybe if I get enough promotional happi coats, I can do a juuni-hitoe coord
Friday (Day 1)
The calm before the storm, for me at least. One of my recurring jobs is to give a short presentation at Opening Ceremonies about the J-Fashion Department. Since I taught in front of a classroom/lecture hall for 10-ish years, I have zero fear of public speaking, so this is a very chill job for me. This year the official account actually posted a few photos of me snapped by other photogs while I presented, although the second one makes me glad I wore a longer skirt…
Yes, I’m just reading my script off my phone
I left shortly after to get lunch over at Whispers Cafe before it closed. Before that though, I did manage to chat a little with our J-Fashion Guest of Honor, who was scheduled to speak sometime after me, as well as enjoy the opening performance of a local yosakoi group.
two of them
Afterwards, I did some window-shopping at Artist’s Alley before I got mildly whelmed by the crowds and headed off to handle my fairly low-key shifts, and once those were done headed over to check out the swap meet before ending my day at the arcade in the Gaming Hall.
Move over, Typing of the Dead – Lupin the Third is here to steal your niche
Yes, the joystick is a banana, and it’s a little weird even considering
Friday was weirdly sort of dead compared to last year, at least from my perspective. The positive is I had no competition for the Densha de Go!! machine. But it did make me wonder what the crowds were going to be like for the rest of the weekend.
Yes, it was officially categorized as a Racing game, along with Initial D, Battle Gear, Techno Drive, and Solar Assault
Don’t let this fool you – I’m still not very good at the train game
Also, while this was my ‘chillest’ day, I did have a bizarre interaction with an attendee in an elevator (add that to the list of elevator woes), which had an even more surprising part two whilst I was shopping the swap meet later on in the night. Luckily nothing serious happened.
Saturday (Day 2)
A rough day. It started with yet another bizarre incident, where I was shaken awake in my hotel room by housekeeping at the late time of…9:30AM. She let out a little shriek and ran off apologizing while I remained in a daze trying to process what had just happened. I guess she just didn’t know the power of ear plugs?
Anyways. My other regular duty besides speaking at opening ceremonies is managing the line for our fashion shows, as well as regulating access to the runway room. Without getting too deep in the logistical weeds, I was Working most of the day.
No idea why the left side of my bangs didn’t freeze hold with the rest this day
(Also proof Bon also took photos of me fully upright)
The good thing is despite my part of the job being a little intense, the fashion show went off without a hitch. The bad thing is I started losing my voice from all the Line Managing, and I would have to do this over again on Sunday. I spent the rest of my shifts that day recovering from the ordeal, assisted by the company of a friend who was attending, as well as my fellow staff.
Sunday (Day 3)
With a good night’s sleep uninterrupted by novice housekeeping staff, I was still fairly exhausted, and my voice was hoarse. Luckily, the cavalry came (i.e., professional line management staff) right when the line started ramping up, and I had a much easier time of it. I also switched to my comfy sneaks because the boots I had worn the day before and for many events before that betrayed me and gave me a bruise under one of the straps (a possible trade-off from my decision to wear thick socks).
The only two poses a girl needs
Once all the lines were cleared, I headed out to drop off some donations for Idris’ Closet and the Manga Lounge, and then visited with a few friends over in Dealers. I then made my way back to the staff room to check out how our gaming event was going before vegetating in the staff room.
Right: a local specific bird
Monday (Day 4)
I had no problem this year escaping my room, electing to preemptively move my large suitcases down to the ballroom level the night before, and using the stairs to leave that morning. Fun fact: you actually can’t take the stairs directly from the third floor to the ballroom level (second floor), and instead have to go down to the first floor, turn a corner, and go back up a separate set of stairs. I did not attempt to explain this fact to anyone in an elevator I took from the third floor to the ballroom level, but I was tempted to defend my actions. (And I did still take the stairs at times, in moderation.)
Bon directing his vision (and also me on how to work his camera)
I was again, suffering from exhaustion, and not really scheduled to work, so I simply shot the shit…huh, that phrase doesn’t sound right once you inflect it for past tense… Well, I chatted with some friends in the J-Fashion Market, as well as did some more window shopping before heading out.
Bon the MVP for making sure I got a decent coord shot for every day, even one where I was too tired to do my hair
Speaking of Shopping
I primarily have been using this con to get rid of things rather than buy new things, and given my modest swap meet sales on Thursday I was on a fairly strict budget. But even with that and my rather selective (read: out-of-date) tastes, I was still able to find a few things.
From bottom left, clockwise: staff tee, 3 random volumes of Planet Ladder, staff uchiwa, stickers, and enamel pins, Clay charm, my room key, J-Fashion Dept ribbons and enamel pin, and a complete in box copy of Chocobo Tales. You can guess which two items I paid money for. (Well I guess I also technically paid for my room key.)
I once again did not make it over to the Oasis at the Doubletree (one year!), so no R18 purchases either. Not that there’s really anything over there I’m looking for – I’ve mentioned on stream how it’s rather funny I never ended up with a dakimakura after all these years, but I also don’t think I’ve really had any mainstream husbandos, as the kids say. (Do they still say that? I feel like in the vtuber era they’ve just moved on to oshi?)
There were a few interesting items in our own J-Fashion Market that caught my eye, but having recently purchased Pasta!! and unexpectedly grabbing a friend’s Limited Menu, my fashion budget was more or less already spent before I arrived. I look forward to coordinating the latter for Ursa Major later this year.
By the way, I probably should have mentioned earlier that this year’s FanimeCon theme was Summer Matsuri, hence the four days of wafuku-inspired coordinates. As of writing this, I have washed all three worn yukata, but not ironed them. The red vintage meisen kimono worn on Day 3 is folded and put away.
kelp 