Even a small con like this deserves a quote page!

Los Angeles' own Little Tokyo brought us AG Mixer. However, AG Mixer was in the middle of a Japanese culture festival. Japan Town Anime Faire (JTAF) was San Francisco's Japan Town's mini-anime con. Surprisingly, around about 1000 attendees were registered for the event. Victoria and friends only arrived for Sunday due to time constraints.

The con madness started Saturday afternoon. Tom and I had already planned that we cosplay as Lupin and Fujiko for the cosplay. Tom has always wanted a Zenigata. He got his wish. Enter Chris. I asked him at the beginning of school if he would be willing to participate in a cosplay. Even during last semester, our friends have tried to get him to cosplay. So Tom arrived at my student apartment. We took Chris for some "Goodwill Hunting." Apparantly, the Zenigata pants were clown sizes, this is where duck tape comes in...Another anime con virgin is my suitemate Angie. Unfortunately, most of my costumes aren't with me, so couldn't have her rent out a costume or two. Saturday night involved Tom and I watching Casablanca in it's entirety (both of us have only seen fragments, never the whole thing). Also Saturday night involved drunken fist and sparring thanks to Seishirou-Mike.

Sunday morning followed. I gave Angie and Chris the heads up that we were leaving at 8: 30AM. It's about an hour from Sonoma State to San Francisco on the dreaded 101. Tom played some Azumanga songs and DDR 5th Mix (best mix EVER!). The Osaka song and "Hot Limit" songs traumatized both Angie and Chris. It was uber foggy once we reached Golden Gate Bridge. Couldn't even see Evil Monster Island. (those who have see Lupin III: Alcatraz Connection know what I'm talking about) Masako even informed me that it was 93 the other day. I was dressed as Fujiko (one of my more summer outfits) and had brought Summer uniform Tohru (eep!). Things were to get interesting.

We arrived at J-town. (Thanks Al for the directions!) We got our registration out of the way. Good thing we made it before 10: 30! Ran into Albert, and took a few pics of my Fujiko cosplay. Tom joined us after getting something in the car. Ran into more bay area peoples like Nando, Ryu, the BR group at Fanime, etc. So the four of us went around the stores in J-town.

At about 10: 30 we were getting ready for the masquerade...ahem..."cosplay contest." I decided to call Masako and meet up with her. Funny thing was, when I called her, she was about a yard away from me. Yay! We've finally met! *^^* So we got in line for the cosplay. Tom was discussing how to pull off a mini-skit. During our line up, we ran into more bay area friends such as Lionel, Ziggy, Wing, AJ, Padme, Positive Space, Michi, and others here and there.

So, came the costume contest. I had no idea that Urian Brown would be MCing this event. The only things I know about the guy are 1) He works for Animerica and 2) my friend Katie has an insane crush on him. The cosplay contest was quite different from the typical masquerade format. Usually singles get a walk on and do poses. Well, here it was an interview sort of thing and the MC gave the cues to pose. Tom wasn't aware of this format, so we just went with the silent mini-skit anyway. While I'm sure we were disqualified, the audience seemed to really like it. I really don't care much for awards, as long as the audience loves it, cool cool. ^^v

There were a few delays in the contest. After the awards were given out Urian asked all cosplay participants for a group photo op. We did all these crazy type of poses. Dead, depressed, yaoi (Chris ran offstage like hell), can can, and of course...Yatta.

Tom and I went around the con. We heard that there was Para Para in the other hotel. Not much there though. So we changed into Fruits Basket costumes. I was surprised we were recognized. I know Fruits Basket is quite popular, but there's not a lot of summer uniform Tohru and Kyo (at least this version of Kyo) looks like any other non-cosplayer at the con. We stopped by the Japanese garden for pictures. My, my...was this a blustery day!

Afterwards, Tom and I headed over to the bookstore. I found Hellsing manga. *^^* No Read or Die manga though. ;_; So, I got myself some Hellsing, Lupin III, and Azumanga. We met up with Angie and Chris there. Appeared that they ate already. Tom and I looked at the music store. I was uber overjoyed when I found out they had Akemi Ishii LDs. Yet, they were like 27 minutes for $45. I did get a Double cd there.

Then went to Japan Video if there was anything I desperately wanted from there. Not much to be found. Ran into Albert, Nando, and Tony over there. So we went over to eat lunch/dinner at a restaurant (forgot name). After dinner, it was nearing time to go. We said our bye byes to Ryu, Wing, and Albert. Couldn't stay too long since Tom had to drive us back to Santa Rosa and then back to Milpitas.

Drove back home. Angie and Chris took a long neko nap in the car. We got back to the apartment to talk about future mini cons...Metreon maybe? Well, of course the Traveling Valentine duo will make an appearance at AniMagic.

JTAF was a pretty spiffy day. I liked it better than AG Mixer. It was cold, but at least it wasn't so hot that it I nearly fainted once or twice. It was really nice seeing bay area friends again. 'Twas a fun and a memorable day. See you all at AniMagic and Metreon. *^^*

And for your viewing enjoyment, here's a good amount of the pictures I took!