AX2014

Hi, blog! It's really been a while since I've sat down to post here without it having been... that one hour I waited in the salon for my haircut LOOOOL.

Unfortunately, I broke tradition and didn't vlog this year's AX trip D: but I don't regret it. This year was so busy and hectic and other times uneventful or frustrating. As a bonus, I was one of the hotel room holders so I took it upon myself to try to make sure I was on top of everything and could take responsibility for everything so at all times, I had something or another on my mind ;; AND there was cosplay... If I had decided to vlog, I would've been too overwhelmed and it would've been forced, holding out a camera and talking to it. I can't say that the entire trip was a pleasant time. To be entirely honest, I feel guilty that there were times I could no longer hold it in so there was once I had a mini breakdown and a few times I just withdrew into a little sulky, irritable ball in a corner. So in some senses, I feel like I failed as the leader figure pillar I was trying to be and I'm sorry to my hotelmates for that. But all that aside!! Regardless of whether things were positive or negative, it was all an interesting experience we learned from.

Ultimately, I did have a great time and I'm so glad that I go to AX every year. It's not really about the con, but about the people and experience. Sharing a hotel room with ~10 people (we had 2 rooms and 16 people total, but the distribution every night turned out a bit uneven so my room was often jam packed haha) and making new friends and becoming a family is an incredible adventure. There's so much warmth and mirth. <3 Anywhere you go, you have friends who're like family who really care about you and readily give hugs and support. That's really how I'll always remember our hotel room family this year. ^^

I don't have that many pictures because of being busy or otherwise just hanging out with friends casually (which doesn't make for an exciting photo or vlog subject).
The result of my Puzzle & Dragons Water Courier Ruka cosplay you can find in this post here! Summary and other pics from AX2014 under the cut! :>


8 of us in the hotel room (we had 2 rooms but we counted ourselves as the same room) were coming from NorCal so we had our 6-hour roadtrip down to LA last Wednesday. I was in a car with Myst, Chiisana, and Chiizu (who's from Vancouver) and it was really the most pleasant car ride haha. Despite the long hours, it felt short 'cause we were cruising along in good company. xD This was Day 0 of AX so we intended to get our badges that day, but it had to be postponed since the con was having a lot of problems. We ended up grocery shopping then going back to the hotel to play a very enjoyable 10-player game of Cards Against Humanity.

Day 1 of AX! We got up when it was dark and early to line up for badges then went back to the hotel to get into Kagerou Project cosplay. ;v;

Me as Kido Tsubomi, Ian as Seto Kousuke

(photo by Karu)

(photo by Karu)

Andy as Kano Shuuya, me as Kido Tsubomi, Chiisana as Tateyama Ayano, Ian as Seto Kousuke

Chris/Hakuro as Kano Shuuya, me as Kido Tsubomi

2 PM was the official Kagerou Project meetup so we attended that. It was my first time going to a real cosplay gathering so I didn't know what to expect. Basically they called out a character and then everyone cosplaying them would line up and people take pics, and it goes on with each character and pairings/groupings. The highlight of the gathering for me was the KanoKido pairing. Most everyone was being all lovely, AND THEN WE HAVE THE TRIO on the left being abusive HAHAHAHA. It's Andy as Kano and the Kido to the right of him is me.

(photos by Koon)

Later that day, we had a mini meet-up just with some pals from the Kagepro meetup last year. ;v;

(top row) Kanso, me, Jackie, Chiisana, Kath

(bottom row) Hakuro, Myst, Jingles, Miyu

Then we died.

(photos by Sohly)

It's a little bit scary that I don't actually remembered what happened the night of Day 1 LOL. My memory goes straight to Day 2, when we spent forever in the morning getting into our Puzzle & Dragons cosplays because they're so much more damn difficult.
Again, pics here~

Yeaaaaaah unfortunately, we didn't get many other pics of our Pazudora cosplays..... kind of sad really since we worked so hard for so long.

Then that night, we walked over to Little Tokyo for a karaoke session with our hotel room, Fome's hotel room, and Momoka! Karaoke with celebrities everywhere wow.

Day 3 was the big youtaite meetup. I don't have any pictures from that but here's one that our friend Aaron snapped?

(photo by Aaron)

Day 3 went by kind of like that, just meeting with people. Some friends (notably Fome and Dibur) were having a jam session in the concourse hall so we watched them perform and show off their talent to the crowd. ;u;

That night, we went up to Fome's hotel room to party. /o/ I hardly drank any alcohol but apparently I wasn't pink at all so probably I'm building up my tolerance?! This night, I discovered that it's actually really fun to watch anime with a group of friends. I had no idea. D: It's been a while since I really watched anime, and if I'm watching alone, I'd just get annoyed or bored tbh. BUT WOW it was fun!

Day 4 was another casual day for me. Ah, I'm kinda disappointed that there hardly were any group pictures during this trip, but I'm glad that Aaron suggested we take this one when we were at the food trucks for lunch. ^^

(photo by Pan)

me, Andy, Chiisana, Diji, Albert, Khrys, Aaron, Dean, Karu, Chiizu, Dibur, Fome, Justin, Lauren

That night, our hotel room + Chiika and Rai went out for okonomiyaki dinner! Yummy stufffff

Until next year, AX!