Thankfully, the sun came out and washed out all the rain for a sunny day in the Bay Area. After having a quick breakfast, the crew and I headed towards the city just right before noon. The first thing I wanted to check out was the dealer's room. The dealer's room was pretty tiny, but they had a few nice things up for grabs. Epic Cosplay was there to sell wigs. Harajuku Hearts was there to sell gothic and lolita clothing. Pegasus Maiden set her store front to sell steampunk, lolita, and other fashion accessories. Toy Mandala, a Los Angeles based anime store, was surprise to find Scarlet Rhapsody at the event. It was nice seeing their wall of Pokemon plush! 

In addition to the dealer's room, you also had Japantown itself. Japantown has Sanrio, Kinokuniya, one store that is all about anime figures, and countless gift shops that sell everything that gives into Japan's culture of cute. My friend ended up buying a book on ball joint dolls that had patterns in it. Compared to Little Tokyo, the Kinokuniya bookstore has a wider variety of books on otaku culture whether it be in Japanese or English.

I also checked out the panel that went on before mind, Bekalou's "Choosing Fabric for Cosplay" panel. I caught the last half hour of it, but it was very informative. This panel also  discussed keeping in mind how fabric will photograph and taking personal liberties with translating a two dimensional anime character design into real life. My favorite example was Princess Tutu how Bekalou made Tutu's ballet outfit look like it could pass for an actual ballet outfit by adding a few embellishments.

I hosted my Reporting Anime Conventions panel. Much like Anime Vegas, the turnout was pretty low. However, with the few people who were there, I was able to still present a very informative panel on what is it like to run and maintain a press reporting group. I thought it would be appropriate to do this panel at AOD because my first press credentials were granted at AOD 2005.

Sunday was a very slow day. I expected Sunday to be just as busy as Saturday, but it looked like everyone decided to just go to the con on Saturday. From the afternoon on out, it was mostly people just hanging out with each other in the lobby. I wanted to see the Angel Hearts concert, but my reporting panel conflicted with it. I did not doubt that AOD had anything to offer, but there was just so many time conflicts with the programming. 

I did check out the game room because my college buddies were running it. It was nicely set up with Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and endless console gaming in which attendees can check out a game for a while. 

I decided to check out the Hetalia World Conference panel. I stand by the fact that once you have been to one Hetalia World Conference, you have seen it all - same demographic of 20something yaoi tweens asking about vital regions and becoming one with Mother Russia. 

Because the sun was up, I checked out the Japanese garden section of the hotel. Since the Kabuki hotel was in the heart of Japantown, the theming of the hotel is very much Eastern inspired. I have no idea why Dawn ("Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl") in her Hearthome contest outfit would gallivant in a Japanese garden, but it makes for nice background for cosplay photos. Japantown is a nice haven for cosplay snapshots since it is full of Japanese style architecture and design. 

The day was winding down and the convention was slowing down. Unfortunately, there was not a closing ceremonies event for all of us bewildered attendees to get closure. It felt abrupt seeing all the signs being dismantled and the game room shutting down. AOD went by so fast and so quick. However, time flies when you are having fun. One theory as to why AOD Sunday did not have much of an attendance draw was the Chinese New Year parade happening in downtown San Francisco. An attendee expressed that putting AOD on the same weekend as the famed parade was a bad idea.

However, we did enjoy  our time during the weekend. Though I reported this event alone, it was nice to see Bay Area friends and former college classmates. If anything, this made the trip worth it. Later that day, my friend made us the best tempura ever. The very next day,I took the Bart to SFO for a smooth and safe flight back to the Los Angeles area.

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