Fanime is often regarded as the kick off the summer convention season among West Coast otaku. Stan and I have been attending Fanime since 2003, wheras Deb and Jared have only recently been acquainted with this event. The Bay Area event attracts fans from Southern California and the space is just enough to fill to capacity. I continue to attend Fanime because I used to live in the Bay Area. Part of enjoying an anime convention is catching up with friends you have in the fandom. Fanime is that rare opportunity I get see see my Bay Area friends that I went to college with. Before the con, I recorded my usual Zero Hour Vlog.

Jared and I left for LAX on early Thursday morning to catch our flight. Stan and Deb decided to drive up the 5 freeway to San Jose. The flight was pretty smooth, but we flew into stormy weather. Our buddy, Jorge, picked us up from the airport and we were finally on our way to downtown San Jose. We discovered Original Joe's, a restaurant just right across the street from the Marriott hotel. It was a delicious experience. The prices might range from the $15-$20 mark, but you get more than what you pay for. The leftovers can be saved for a later meal.  At the early day zero hours very few people were at the convention, yet we sighted a couple attendees in line for registration at 11AM.

At around 5PM, we checked in with Milton to get our press credentials cleared. By then, people started to check in and line up to get their badges.

There were a handful of cosplayers on day zero. Most notably, cosplayers from World Series Hetalia had a strong presence. Ryan (California Conventions Blog) cosplayed as his original interpretation of the Philippines. Many pinoy otaku, including Mr. Wendell, joined him in humming the national anthem of the Asian nation.

Day zero also offered the swap meet and the arcade. Several of our friends were sellng in the swap meet. Jared was able to find a rare Mai Shiranui figure for $5. One of the swap meet dealers, Chris Tang, even had his own Dance Dance Revolution set up.

Jared and I wandered around the convention halls in our Luna and Artemis hats that I picked up at Anime Central two weekends ago. Suffice to say, we recieved many compliments for bringing back some old school love.

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