Sakura-Con 2011 - We're Back!

Ahoy there! After finally being able to feel my legs again after standing almost 12 hours on the first day of the con and about 5 hours on the second day, and getting enough sleep, I got my act together and started uploading the 580 or so photos I took at Sakura-Con 2011. It was a great experience for me, since this is my first year attending. I must say though, I made some very worthy investments, as all the merchandise I bought at the exhibition hall has been autographed! I was a little bummed however that there was not press priority at the majority of the events though, and the general organization of most of the autograph signing sessions was dismal, oh wells!

There are way too many photos to fit into this one single post, so there will be a series of Sakura-Con posts highlighting different aspects of the con, from cosplayers to concerts.

This post is just a brief outline of what to expect from the other posts that will be posted later on the in week once I'm finished organizing and uploading all the photos, so if anyone of you are wondering why there are so little photos present in this post, that is the reason.

Enough blabbering, on with the event!

I spent the night before Sakura-Con organizing my schedule the classic way, with printed off schedules laid out across the floor in my room. That took me about half an hour, until I slept at 12:34AM...

And woke up at...

Hey, five hours of sleep isn't all that bad if you have a con to go to!

But my bustling excitement came to an abrupt halt when I arrived at the border crossing, only to find that there was a 2 hour wait, which meant I would be missing the opening ceremonies, which was an absolute bummer. So I hooked up my iPad, reclined my seat and started listening to great music.

As soon as I arrived at Sakura-Con, since I missed the opening ceremonies, I headed straight for the Exhibitor's Hall after I got my press badge and figured out directions and what not. There was already quite a large crowd outside.

There was some great merchandise at the Exhibitor's Hall, including some rarities and a boatload of figurines, which will be covered more in the merchandise Sakura-Con post.

As with all anime conventions, cosplayers are aplenty, and Sakura-Con was no different. There were some really high quality cosplays that I saw and managed to snap a few photos of, which will be covered more extensively in the cosplay Sakura-Con post which will be posted soon.

There were a great number of significant special guests who attended Sakura-Con this year, including Sailor Moon voice actor Kotono Mitsuishi, Japanese all-female visual kei band "exist†trace", and artists VOfan and Jo Chen, whom I received autographs from (I managed to get autographs of all three guests). These were the guests I chose to cover on my trip, however there were a lot more than just this, including female group Berryz Kobo, whom I did not have time to visit or watch their concert.

This is just a brief summary of what to expect of the upcoming posts of the con, which will include cosplay, merchandise, and special guest categories. Look forward to them!