The summer solstice is today, which means a nice amount of daylight. *loves long summer days* ^_^ I guess it would also be an appropriate time to post a couple of nyosen pictures since the festival my costume is from started on the summer solstice.
Finally got a back view of hair with loops, hairwraps, tassels and everything. Too bad the pink flowers were lopsided and my real hair was escaping from under my collar. ^_^;;

And a profile that my brother wanted to take. Not particularly in character or anything but I thought it was one of the better pictures since this was after the masquerade and I was tired and seemed unable to smile without it looking weird. ^_^;

Oh, and my convention photos have been posted, too: http://images.cosplay.com/gallery.php?cat=44405&member=10168
Okay, time for my AnimeNext report or the beginning of it, anyway. Friday morning got off to a slightly stressful start because as we were about to leave the house, my nyosen fan fell off a chair and the little wooden ball at the top of the handle broke off. (I had to get glue and repair it at the con. Thank goodness it wasn’t worse.)
After my father picked up a couple of my brother’s friends, we headed for NJ. Got to the Embassy Suites around 9:30 but rooms weren’t available yet so we had them put our bags in storage and went over to the pick up our badges. The pre-reg line turned out to be much longer than last year and took us an hour to get through. The registration line became non-existent after a while though and one of my brother’s friends said we shouldn’t have pre-registered. ^_^;
Things were better after I got my badge and started running into people like
vampricyoda,
ngmaster, and
neoangelwink. First actual event that I went to was the anime dating game at 2, which was great. I think it was the most I ever laughed at a con event! The first round had Mario, Duo, and Miroku competing for a date with Kagura from Inuyasha. Mario was great and used the character’s accent whenever he was speaking. Miroku just kept digging himself deeper into a hole with his answers XD; and Duo ended up winning. Second round was Kakashi, a very enthusiastic Rock Lee, and Sesshomaru trying to win a date with Yuna.
There was supposed to be a Fruits Basket photoshoot at 3 but it didn’t work out. I only found a Hatsuharu and Yuki. (Two Yuki fanclub girls and Rin showed up later but Haru and Yuki had left by then.) Plus, I couldn’t get changed into Ayame in time since I hadn’t gotten my hotel room yet. ^_^;
Finally checked in a bit later and met up with my brother and his friends to move our bags and give out keys. Then, checked in for the masquerade and went to the Kingdom Hearts photoshoot. Took pictures there for about half an hour and then hurried off to change into Ayame for hall cosplay judging. It seems that people trickled in for the contest during judging hours this year rather than all showing up at the start like last year so there were only several others waiting and I didn’t have to wait too long to see the judges.
Bumped into
djranmas after judging and then wandered back to the expo center where I went through the dealer’s room and talked to Kevin Lillard from fansview.com for a bit. Good to know he’s doing okay these days after health problems earlier in the year. ^_^
Also experienced one of my weird moments of the weekend. A guy cosplaying Roxas in an Organization XIII coat wordlessly walked up to me and hugged me. That was surprising since it seemed rather random and kind of confused me. ^_^; I was wondering if he mistook me for Riku or some other Kingdom Hearts character because of the white wig and black coat I have for Ayame; the general shape is kind of similar but the details on my coat are rather different. *imagines a Fruits Basket/KH crossover with Ayame trying to convince Organization XIII to adopt flowery brocade coats as their new uniform* XD
There weren’t any events I wanted to go to Friday night so I just went out to dinner and then stayed in my room, preparing some stuff for the next day. Saturday comments next time!
Finally got a back view of hair with loops, hairwraps, tassels and everything. Too bad the pink flowers were lopsided and my real hair was escaping from under my collar. ^_^;;

And a profile that my brother wanted to take. Not particularly in character or anything but I thought it was one of the better pictures since this was after the masquerade and I was tired and seemed unable to smile without it looking weird. ^_^;

Oh, and my convention photos have been posted, too: http://images.cosplay.com/gallery.php?cat=44405&member=10168
Okay, time for my AnimeNext report or the beginning of it, anyway. Friday morning got off to a slightly stressful start because as we were about to leave the house, my nyosen fan fell off a chair and the little wooden ball at the top of the handle broke off. (I had to get glue and repair it at the con. Thank goodness it wasn’t worse.)
After my father picked up a couple of my brother’s friends, we headed for NJ. Got to the Embassy Suites around 9:30 but rooms weren’t available yet so we had them put our bags in storage and went over to the pick up our badges. The pre-reg line turned out to be much longer than last year and took us an hour to get through. The registration line became non-existent after a while though and one of my brother’s friends said we shouldn’t have pre-registered. ^_^;
Things were better after I got my badge and started running into people like
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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There was supposed to be a Fruits Basket photoshoot at 3 but it didn’t work out. I only found a Hatsuharu and Yuki. (Two Yuki fanclub girls and Rin showed up later but Haru and Yuki had left by then.) Plus, I couldn’t get changed into Ayame in time since I hadn’t gotten my hotel room yet. ^_^;
Finally checked in a bit later and met up with my brother and his friends to move our bags and give out keys. Then, checked in for the masquerade and went to the Kingdom Hearts photoshoot. Took pictures there for about half an hour and then hurried off to change into Ayame for hall cosplay judging. It seems that people trickled in for the contest during judging hours this year rather than all showing up at the start like last year so there were only several others waiting and I didn’t have to wait too long to see the judges.
Bumped into
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Also experienced one of my weird moments of the weekend. A guy cosplaying Roxas in an Organization XIII coat wordlessly walked up to me and hugged me. That was surprising since it seemed rather random and kind of confused me. ^_^; I was wondering if he mistook me for Riku or some other Kingdom Hearts character because of the white wig and black coat I have for Ayame; the general shape is kind of similar but the details on my coat are rather different. *imagines a Fruits Basket/KH crossover with Ayame trying to convince Organization XIII to adopt flowery brocade coats as their new uniform* XD
There weren’t any events I wanted to go to Friday night so I just went out to dinner and then stayed in my room, preparing some stuff for the next day. Saturday comments next time!