Anime North 2014 Con Journal

Man I am super late in posting this!  Things have been crazy since my last post!  I have also been very lazy :P  So to make up for it I am going to post like mad this month to cover everything that has happened in the past couple of months, starting with my first con journal of the year!  Here it goes!

Friday

·         My friends and I left Montreal early Friday morning to head to Toronto

·         We stopped in Kingston for breakfast

·         We ran into some rain on the way and hoped that by the time we got to Toronto it would clear up

·         Got to the congress center two hours before the con opened and managed to get our badges in a timely manner

·         Went to check in at the hotel and I changed into Mokona Modoki

·         We attended the armouring panel and learned how to shape metal sheets into curved forms

·         I left after the first panel to go meet up with a friend, who I never managed to meet up with

·         Masquerade registration was open so I got in line for it figuring that I wouldn’t be able to get to the con early enough to register for it Saturday morning

·         I got to meet some awesome cosplayers while in line

·         I didn’t have my music on me so I promised the masquerade staff that I would bring it to them first thing in the morning

·         On my way to the dealers room I bumped into one of the guy from my group and we decided to eat something

·         Afterwards we wandered the dealers room and artists alley

·         We took quite a few pictures of cosplayers

·         I got a lift back to the hotel early while the rest of my group went to the rave

Saturday

·         I woke up super early and got back into Mokona for the morning and carefully packed Mew Zakuro into my boyfriend’s bag

·         I got the hotel to order a taxi for me and got to chat with a cute Dutch couple about cosplay (apparently their son cosplays back home!)

·         I got stuck in traffic which resulted in a very pricey taxi ride (it took double the time!)

·         As the masquerade staff asked me to bring them my audio asap I went to the registration desk first

·         After handing in my music, I wandered around a bit and took more cosplay pics!

·         At noon there was a CLAMP photo shoot, Mokona had lots of fun!

·         I met up with my friends after the shoot and ate with them before heading into the dealers room

·         I found Worbla but managed to resist buying it

·         They had a cosplay changing area in the dealers room which was awesome because changing in a bathroom stall is not fun

·         Walking around the con I discovered that the top I had made was slightly too small and that the snaps were not strong enough to keep it up if I breathed too deeply

·         I managed to discover a way to keep my top from falling (without relying solely on safety pins)!

·         Before I had to go to the green room I took a little nap on the grass while my friends hung out with other cosplayers

·         I woke up with a little sunburn L

·         Anime North organizes their masquerade with all the entries in order so I was assigned a den with other novices

·         Once all my judging, audio, and photos were completed I started to wander the other dens and talk to some other cosplayers

·         I was one of the earlier entries and I completely improvised my walk on

·         I found that once people went on stage, they didn’t stay to hang out but rather left to go do other things

·         I got to meet some really cool cosplayers!  My den dad was also pretty chill

·         After the masquerade (none of my friends watched my performance L ) I met up with my boyfriend and got something to eat

·         I decided to try and stay up with my friends but I was so exhausted that I ended up having to make them bring me back to the hotel

Sunday

·         As we had to check out of the hotel, we all got up at the same time and packed our things

·         I had two things to do on my agenda: attend the Ghibli photo shoot at noon as Sheeta and go to the masquerade award ceremony

·         My friend and I barely arrived at the shoot on time but I was one of the first on site; nobody seemed to know where it was exactly

·         The location wasn’t the greatest as we had large power lines overhead but we still had fun J

·         After the shoot I attended the ceremonies (alone, again) and it turns out that I was awarded an Honourable Mention for tailoring in the novice division!

·         I met up with my group for one last tour of the dealers room and I finally caved and bought a roll of extra-large Worbla

·         We were sad when we had to leave the con L We decided that we would have a nice large dinner all together before heading back to Montreal

Overall Anime North was an amazing, super fun experience.  It was the con that I wandered around alone the most and at times I rather liked it!  I hope that I can go back again next year!