Curtain up! Light the lights! Nothing to hit but the sunny and decadent San Fernando Valley. Per usual, Stan, the official Traveling Valentine chauffer took the crew up to Sakura Watch at Anthony C. Beilenson Park. The organizers worried that the rain earlier in the week would damage any chance of the bloom. However, we had a slight improvement from the previous week. We hit some traffic on the 405 North, but this is Los Angeles, what else is new?

We finally arrived at Lake Balboa at 1PM. Unfortunately, we did not where the designated meeting point was. We parked on the “waterfall side” of the lake. There were no cosplayers in sight. However, Carolyn and I ran into a few little girls who greeted us with a, "Hi Sleeping Beauty and Hi Snow White!" That was cute.

We ran into Kenji, who was also looking for everyone else. After sending the usual “Where the hell are you?” phone calls, we found out that everyone was on the other side of the lake on the “playground side.”

There was a nice picnic set up with tents and food. It was very nice of Jason and his crew to have this set up earlier in the day. I gave Julia her birthday present. She was turning 18, therefore Julia finally can graduate from minor-dom. Sorry, Carolyn. I gave Julia her present in a Frederick’s of Hollywood bag. (I didn't have any spare wrapping paper.) Everyone was quite suspicious of what she could get for her 18th. In the end, she discovered the Victoria Secrets beauty set I got her.

On the lakeside area by the playground, we also ran into Mr. Postman and few of his Lolita friends. Unaware of the Sakura Watch gathering, Mr. Postman and his crew decided on an impromptu gathering the night before. It was a pleasant surprise seeing the Dollfie Dream pimp and a few Asian Ball Joint Dolls present at the lake. Too bad I left Cosette and Eponine in the car.

Of course, Sakura Watch is all about the photo shoots. Though the cherry blossom trees were not like the ones you would find in a shoujo anime, we made the best for what he had available to us. The trees were not dead, but everyone who showed up in costume still had a chance to get some nice background for their cosplays.

Originally, I was supposed to also wear Karen Kasumi from X/1999, but the X/1999 photo shoot had to be delayed for another week. I opted to cosplay as Nadeshiko Kinomoto from Card Captor Sakura because I heard Julia was going to cosplay as Sakura. However, he plans fell through. The story behind Nadeshiko is I cosplayed her because I was cast as her in a fandub project based on “The Flower” episode. Though I had the costume since 2002, I always had a Touya, a Sakura, and a Tomoyo. Yet, never a Fujitaka. Jared decided to cosplay as my teacher-husband for the shoot that day. Julia was very nice to do a photo shoot of the two of us. Thanks to Carolyn for taking pictures with my camera. (Though Julia suggests that everyone should pitch in to get Victoria a new camera since I had to downgrade to my older digicam since my other camera was stolen at Disneyland)

In Julia's own words, "I'd ship it."

Technically, I did have a Touya at the shoot. Caitlin was cosplaying as a Tsubassa variant of Touya Kinomoto. Here’s a shot of Touya trying to get in mah belly. Now all we need is the Sakura to get the full family portrait...

Deb cosplayed as Ash from Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl. Stan also cosplayed as Volkner from the same series.

Caroyln cosplayed as Princess Aurora from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. If you take a closer look at her fabric, you will notice that the color shifts from blue to pink, just like in the movie. Carolyn found this fabric for under $3 a yard at the Los Angeles fashion district. Even while taking glamour shots of the famed Disney princess, a few little girls continued to greet her.

And here's Kate as Fuu from Samurai Champloo encouraging Traveling Valentine readers to drink Aloe Vera, the unofficial drink of Sakura Watch 2009.

Jared and I took a few single shots of our Card Captor Sakura costumes. The funny part is, Jared will be pratically wearing the same suit for the X/1999 gathering the following week. A few people mistook him for Light from Death Note. I joked around that I should do the schoolgirl version of Nadeshiko to make this December-May pairing look more wrong than it should. As long as Jared does not make a Nadeshiko and Fujitaka amv to The Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me," things will be fine.

Carolyn discovered one of the joys of the park - the ice cream man! There was an ice cream truck parked right by our designated picnic area. Because of Carolyn's affinity for Power Puff Girls (and all things Cartoon Network), she was eating a Bubbles on a stick. "Are you eating Tiffany?" I asked. Our mutual friend, Tiffany, cosplays as Bubbles.

Feeling tired from the San Fernando Valley sun, we decided to rest up in the picnic area. Stan gave us Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. I took a few riceballs for sustenance. Carolyn and Deb were cuddling up because Carolyn needed a proxy boyfriend for the rest of the day. At this point, it was rest and relaxation and just random chit chatting among friends.

To my surprise, The Hooded Man (aka the guy formerly known as Rey Rey), showed up to the gathering. The nice part about this gathering is that everyone was well behaved and there were no "Ramune Babies" present to whack innocent bystanders with yaoi paddles or to quote the latest Internet meme. Rey Rey, Angela, Jared, Carolyn, Deb, Stan, and I talked about the good old days and how much this gathering reminded us about the time when our fandom was not infected with the "Ramune Babies." Considering our first anime events were in the late 90's / early 2000's, maybe we're just looking at things from a much more grown up perspective. Maybe.

Dusk was approaching. Angela pointed out that no one was using the "popular" trees for photos, so we decided to take advantage of getting last minute photos before leaving. The 5PM hour was a perfect timeslot to get last minute photo opportunities. No sun in the face and the lighting upped the rommance feeling by a few points.

People were ready to leave as it was getting darker. Our crew left as the sun was about to set.

For dinner, we decided that going to Denny's was our best bet. I remember seeing a Denny's the last time we circled around the area looking for a Starbucks. Fortunately, we found the location. (And for further reference, we also found a Sizzler on the same street.) I decided to bring out my dolls for Denny's, since I didn't bring them out for the gathering. Of course, the dolls scared the men of the group.

By the end of the night, all of us were very drained and exhausted from an eventual, yet amusing day at the lake. On the way home, Carolyn started singing random tunes from Disney and Sondheim. Carolyn woke up the sleepish Deb and Jared to the That 70s Show opening number.

And who knows when the cherry blossoms will come to full bloom? Rumors say because of California's hot and cold (it's yes and it's no) weather, estimated arrival time will be April. Until then, we're just going to keep coming back and we're just going to have to make the most of what we have with our friends.

And don't forget to check out Stan's Week One photos at his Photobucket! For the record, Stan will not be cosplaying as Chris Brown anytime soon.

Pictures are copyright by Traveling Valentine and Valenti East. If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font Ham Lake. Many thanks to Chaz Boston Baden for the image resizing and watermarking program.