~ Animazement 2001 ~Oi this is only four months late, but better than never ne? ^^;;;; I hope I can remember everything. If not gomen. It's been one hell of a summer. Oo, I just found my report that I did back in May! ^__^ I'll post it and add to it. =P
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I'll start with Wednesday since that is when Tokio arrived. I went to the Greyhound station to pick her up. She looked sooooo cuuute! She had lost sooo much weight. I glomped her and then teased her asking, "where is the rest of you?" ^_~. Wednesday night we stayed in Danville at the Innkeeper... In room 310 ^__^ Nuriko's birthday for those who don't know. We went to Lynchburg VA with Mako to Ruby Tuesday's and had fun with the waiter. After that we just came back to Danville and hung out. We had to get up early the next day so we could get on the road.Thursday:
First we left the Innkeeper and then went everywhere! We ran around and got last minute con stuffs and food. After that, we headed for Durham. It was no trouble to get there since Mako had taken me down to find the hotel the Monday before.
This year the convention was in the Sheraton in Durham instead of the Hilton in Raleigh. The hotel is very impressive when you first drive up to it. The inside was really nice too. We saw a few familiar faces as we checked in. It's always good to see people from the previous years!
After we checked in and put out stuffs away, we went looking for food. There is NOTHING near this hotel to eat. I mean NOTHING. We drove all over the place (in five o'clock traffic ~~; ) and found no food. We headed back to the room and called the front desk to see if they knew of any places that delivered Chinese. We found one and called them. All we got was a pint of pepper steak, a pint of steamed veggies and tofu. The total? $17.00! *_*X The food wasn't even all that good either ;_; Needless to say we didn't order from them again! =P
After eating, we headed downstairs to pre-con night. Watase didn't come to pre-con night because she was sick from her plan ride over. ;_; Poor Watase. We talked to Su (who is a sweetie) she takes Watase around to her panels and various things.
When Tokio and I found out Watase wasn't going to be there, we headed back up to the room. I changed into my Sakura cosplay and we headed back downstairs. We found Sushion one of our trips back and forth in the lobby. She had just gotten there so she was really tired. Sushi's dad took us all to find food. It was late so there was nothing to get. Sushi and her dad got pizza though. Tokio and I just grabbed snacks in the room. After that, we all just walked around and talked to people for a while before going back up to our room to crash for the night.
Friday:
We got up pretty early on Friday. Tokio put on her Ryutaro cosplay. She was so very cute. Everyone just wanted to glomp her! ^_^ "Ryutaro" was seen walking around with a Tare Panda all weekend! =P I put on my first cosplay outfit for the day… Hime-chan from Hime-chan No Ribon. Two different people recognized me! Whee! I was very happy!
We went to opening ceremonies and Tokio fell in love with Tsukasa Kotobuki (Kotobuki-kun!) After that he was 'her boyfriend' all weekend. After opening ceremonies, we went back up to the room to wait for the dealer's room to open. I changed from the Hime-chan outfit to my Sailor Moon high school uniform.
The dealer's room was VERY disappointing this year. Not one Nuriko cel in the place… well… there was one but it was from the OAV and I am so sick of OAV cels of Nuriko ;_; I passed on it. I didn't buy much in the dealer's room at all that first day. ^^; When we left the dealer's room we found the kewlest thing of all. A friend of Watase's had a table set up! It was in the hall outside of the dealer's room and had the best stuff!
Promo posters, promo CDs, ANC stuffs, and more! I got two posters (ANC and FY) a ANC address book/planner, ANC doujinshi (with an illustration by Watase herself in it), FY promo single, two Tamahome money banks (so cute!), ANC stickers, and a FY sketch book.
The sketch book has a cute story behind it. Watase had come down to the table and was sitting behind it. I asked one of the people there if the sketch book was for sale. They said it was. While I was doing that, Watase opened it up and showed me a picture of Nuriko in it! ^_____^ She knows who my favorite is! ^_~ I bought that and she handed it to me herself. ^___^
After leaving that run table, we headed off to find food. We were still looking for food when we found Riven!!!!!!! We had been walking around all day looking for her going, "Riven... Riiiiven.... where is Rivvven! :P We glomped each other and then she joined us in our quest for food! =P Luckily there were shuttle buses at the hotel that took you to where the food was. We all hopped on and headed for the restaurants. We asked the guy if there were any Japanese restaurants around. He said yes and took us to a Chinese one ^^; It was closed though so we rode around some more.
He suggested OH! Brians…. ^^; Needless to say that wasn't a good choice. We got there and it was packed with people. People were pointing at us and LAUGHING (bunch of stupid drunk morons) We finally get a table (near the morons) and order. The food was…. Well… pretty bad. ;_; and expensive too. It was about $35 for the four of us. I grabbed the check and paid for everyone. After that all I wanted to do was leave the restaurant ^^;
We called the shuttle to come back and get us and it seemed like it took them forever to do so! We got back to the hotel and then ran up to the room so that we could be things ready for Watase's panel and autograph session.
I changed into my Nuriko cosplay ^__^. We grabbed stuffs and headed back down to the panel. Baka us didn't even get in the room at first. ;_; We got there right after the panel had started and it was standing room only. Eventually Tokio and I worked out way down to a seat in the room and then Sushi and Riven grabbed seats in the back. I didn't really get to hear much of the panel ;_;
After the panel, there was an autograph session. That took forever. X_x; I don't know what they were doing, but it seemed like it took all night to do it. Finally we got up to have our autographs. I had Watase sign the sketch book I had bought earlier. After that, we headed back up to the room to get prepared for the Watase party we were having! ^___^ I changed yet again and put on my Sana Kurata outfit ^_^
This had been Riven's great idea. We'd planned it like… two days before the actual con too! Riven was able to announce the party in the Watase panel so that people there would come. We had a pretty good turnout. We had paper for people to draw things and write letters to Watase. She even showed up! ^_^
Daniel, who is a Watase fan and was at my Nuriko birthday party last year, had his birthday this same day. He brought his birthday cake and a whole platter of sushi. That was really sweet! ^_^ During all the fun of people running around eating, talking and sketching, Watase herself showed up! ^___^
She was so sweet and let anyone that wanted to get their picture with her. I went to have mine done and had Nuriko with me. I let her hold him for the picture. I think she really thought he was cute. ^_^ After the picture, I pointed at him and said, "Kawaii!" and she nodded in agreement. ^_^
After she left, most everyone wandered away too. Riven and I were hanging out watching over the sketches and the book. Tokio and Sushi ran off and were gone forever. ^^; Riven wandered off after a while too, so I was stuck at the table by myself ^^; I would have left too, but someone had to stay and watch our stuff ~_~;
After that, I didn't want to sit anymore! When Tokio and Sushi showed back up, they were deserting me again to go to the Boy's Love panel ~_~; If you know me, you know I do not like Shounen Ai or Yaoi. I was not going to this panel. Sushi and Riven both wanted to go, but they were checking ID and neither of them could get in.
Tokio went to that, Sushi went to her hotel to crash, and Riven and I crashed on one of the con sofas. By this point she had lost her Miaka jacket. She was all slouched down on the sofa and said she was 'drunk Miaka' We decided she needed a sign to his affect! She had a groovy sign that said "I'm drunk Miaka" and other stuff and "Kids say no to drugs" LOL It was so funny. I have pictures on the pic page btw. =P
After that, Tokio came back from the panel and headed off for some Shounen ai anime in the video room. ^^: Again, I didn't go. Riven and I sat there a really long time with people coming by and talking to us. We finally headed up for the rooms. I got in the room and was just sitting around pondering going to bed when there was a knock at the door. It was Riv and she wasn't sleepy, so we hung out in the room for a long time. We finally went down to see if Tokio was ever coming back up!
She wanted to watch more anime, so Riven and I crashed in the hall outside of the video room she was in….. I had changed from my Sana outfit to my jean shorts, pj top, and a man's (Nuriko's ^^;) white dress shirt. I went downstairs like this too ^^; We just sat in the hall and waited for Tokio to come out of the video's. Riven had fun rolling in the hallway! ^__^ People just walked along, stepped over her and kept going. This is the fun thing about cons. You can do really fun/silly things and no one minds.
Tokio finally came out and we all headed up for the room. We crashed not too long after that.
Saturday:
Saturday we got up and showered and dressed. This day I was in my Sakura outfit. It was my favorite so I planned to wear it all day. ^_^ We had a lot of things we wanted to do on Saturday. We headed down and went to the dealer's room. That was fun. After that we headed for Watase's fan panel. This time as tradition we were in the front row. =P During the panel Watase was saying that she had been looking for Tooya cels. She said that the reason she couldn't find them in Japan was because they were all here! ^_~
The translator asked if anyone had had any luck finding any ANC cels in the dealer's room. Quick as a flash, I pulled my Aya cel and my Aki cel from my bag and held them up. This caused laughter from the room, and a giggle and smiled from Watase.
The panel was fun, but people asked all the same questions from last year. ^^; After the panel, we wandered down the hall to get in line for the autograph session. Riven had gotten there early, so luckily we got in the beginning's of this line. Watase's autograph session also included Akira Kamiya's autograph session.
First I got Watase to sign my Aya cel, and then I had Akira Kamiya sign my Animazment program and then had a picture made with him. He was so sweet! ^__^
After all this, we headed for Tokio's 'boyfriend's' panel! We found out he like Star Wars and he has a big CP3O collection! Of course this gave Tokio ideas! ^_~ After the panel he did autographs and sketchs! I had him sketch on the back of my badge since baka me had taken my program book and paper back up to the room after the other autograph session ^^;
After autographs and sketchs from Kotobuki-kun, we headed up for the room for food. We found an Italian place that delivered to the hotel and that had hoagies. We all got those (four full size hoagies and a 2 liter bottle of Coke and it was only $25.00! It was cheap and the sandwiches were good too)
After eating, we headed back downstairs. I wanted to see the second CardCaptor Sakura movie which they were playing in one of the video rooms. ^_^. That was sooo cute and spoiled the rest of the series for me. ^^; I was about 20 episodes from the end of the series when I saw it. There are still things I don't know that obviously happened in those episodes, so I am dying to grab them and see them.
I am just happy how it ends. ^__^ I won't say anything and spoil it for anyone. If you have a chance to see it, do! It's so cute! Cosplay was going on at the same time as the CCS movie. You would think the video room would be pretty empty ne? Well.. it was PACKED. Lot's of peeps wanted to see the CCS movie instead of cosplay. ^^;
After the movie, we headed back up to the room for a bit. I crashed hard. ^^; Riv, Sushi and Tokio left without me. After they left, I was bored so I got up, tossed my mary jane shoes, put on regular tennis shoes and headed out of the room. I walked downstairs and all around the outside of the hotel. Afterwards I headed back up for the room and ate the rest of my sandwich from earlier.
While I was eating, everyone came back to grab film for Riv's camera. They coaxed me out of the room with them this time. I changed back into my Mary Janes and off we went. We walked up to the tenth floor (where all the Japanese guests were staying) Some one up there was having a party. We went by that room a few times. ^^;
After this it was all silliness. We roamed around taking crazy pictures in the halls, at the coke machine, in the lobby of the hotel. In the halls of the hotel… you name it. We did it. After a bit, Sushi left to crash. After that, we went to the video room to catch one episode of Black Monday and then we were walking again. We ended up on some sofa's at one end of the hotel hall. Riven and I sat there while Tokio wandered over to watch Clerk's on someone's portable DVD player.
After the first episode she came over and then headed back to watch more. I decided to go to the room so I headed up that way. Riven followed a bit later and then Tokio came. We hung out in the room for a while and then went back down for a bit and roamed around. Doing some rolling in the lobby. ^^;
Finally we went to the room to crash for the night. I wanted to get a little sleep since I had to drive home on Sunday!
Sunday:
I had packed up everything the night before so I was all ready to check out. We got up waaaay early though so we went downstairs. Riven was leaving so we hugged her bye ( ;_;) We went to the gripe session which was really a good thing as everyone had some good ideas for next year. After that, we headed to the dealer's room before checking out. After checking out, we headed to the dealer's room again. ^^; Then it was off to the art auction. Some of the Watase work went really HIGH. One sketch of Tamahome and Miaka went for $1100. *_* There were also Nuriko, Tasuki, and Chichiri pictures in the auctions. ;_; I had no money by this point so I couldn't even bid. I am SO MAD about this… I sold TWO Nuriko cels to have money at the con for NURIKO stuff and did I get anything? NO. ~_~
Luckily though, the Nuriko sketch was won by Sushi. She adores Nuriko too, so I know it went to a good and loving home. ^_^ After the disappointing and cry worthy auction, we headed to closing ceremonies. After that, we had to wait to get Sushi's Nuriko sketch and the sketch that Tokio had won in the art auction. I am pretty sure Tokio's piccie was done by YaYa. She does really nice work. I wonder if she'd draw Nuriko for me? ^^;
The Nuriko picture that I had bid on in the art room and had been outbid on was still there. The person that had bid against me hadn't shown up to get it. I saw her LEAVE the damn con and they wouldn't let me buy it. ;_; If any of you know K-chan who had the beautiful Nuriko art up at auction, please let me know. I wanted it so badly … It would have lessened my pain over the art auction. ;_;
After they wouldn't sell me Nuriko and told me the earliest they could sell it was 6pm ~_~; we just left. By this point I was so ready to go it wasn't even funny. We hugged Sushi bye and then headed for my car. Tokio and I got back to Danville in record time. After which we paged Mako about 109809483 times.
She never did call back, so we gave up and went to eat. We were both starving. Tokio had only had something small for breakfast, and I had had nothing but one ice cube all day. ^^; I hadn't even had a coke!!!!! *_*
After eating we both felt sooooo much better. We headed for where I work so I could check my schedule for the upcoming week and grab some things. After that we just headed to my house and crash on my bed. We went through all the con photos. ^_^ That was lots of fun as we were both sort of punch drunk…. We were giggling and laughing at the pictures… some of them are insanely funny too. That was the best part of the whole con for me. Just hanging out and being silly with my To-chan ^_^
We left here about 9:30 to go to the bus station in case Tokio's bus was early. It WAS ~_~; It got there as SOON as we did. ;_; There were hurried goodbyes and hugs. I didn't even get to sit in the bus station and talk to Tokio before she was gone.
I left the bus station and cried all the way home. ;_; It was a sad ending to a very emotional con… it had it's good moments, it's sad moments, and it's frustrating moments, but all in all, I'd do it again. Hanging out with Tokio, Sushi, and Riven was loads of fun. I hope they all come back again next year for AZ 02 ^___^.
Thanks to everyone I met that loved my site and told me so ^___^ Thanks also to anyone who took my picture. It made me feel special and happy! One more big round of thanks…. Thank you to everyone who drew in my Nuriko memory book that Riven made me. ^___^.
PS Some of you owe me e-mails! I am expecting them! =P
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