Tom and I left San Jose on Friday June 30th. We arrived in Los Angeles late in the afternoon. We stayed at my SoCal residence for the first night. The next morning, we left the house at 10AM for Anaheim. It was the same half hour drive from Torrance to the Hilton. Our room would not be ready until after the CLAMP panel. The first thing we had to take care of was to get our Industry badges. Unfortunately, Traveling Valentine was not able to get Press membership this year. Luckily, we have industry qualifications. We had a mishap at the Industry registration desk, but Tom resolved that situation.

For the most part, we wandered around the convention center. For the first day, there were tons of people. Perhaps it's because Anime Expo started on a Saturday. I remember back in 2002 that the first day, Thursday, was a dead day. Things were definately in full swing. We begun to line up for the CLAMP panel. We met up with our hotel mates Nando and Katie. Luckily, we also found our AnimeFX friends and Irvine friends to hang out with in line. Though Tom and I had VIP seating for the CLAMP panel, it was nice to kill time before the panel started.

The CLAMP panel began an hour late. Unfortunately, we took no photos of CLAMP because of the strict photo policy. CLAMP shared a video of their accomplishments of past years. Card Captor Sakura and X received the large applause from the audience. Finally, CLAMP came out and answered 12 emailed questions. CLAMP also shared photos of their work space and Copic markers. It was really great to see CLAMP in the US. We learned that they just arrived from the airport, hence the late start. Though they did not answer any question that I wanted to hear (like, When are you going to finish X?), it was still nice to see them.

Unfortunately, Tom and I did not win the autograph raffle. I wanted to get my Karen Kasumi red shoe signed, but they only allow certain items to be autographed.

Thank you Anime Expo for bringing CLAMP to the US!

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