SacAnime Summer 2016: Vlogs, Photoshoots, Fooding, and All Out Going Gyaru

Because my vlog post only showed peeks into my SacAnime trip (and only for Saturday), I thought it would only be appropriate to do a SacAnime blog post.

I woke up bright and early at four am on a Saturday to get ready, knowing that my look would no doubt, take up a lot of time. I would probably only be given thirty minutes to spare to pack last minute things considering that I had both hair and make up to do. x_x

For Saturday, I was aiming for a very glam agejo look. I faced a little bit of a dilemma with a ma*rs dress I currently bought (thank you boobs =_= -sigh-) so I ended up defaulting to a outfit that I had made revisions on now that I had an appropriate skirt to add under it.

Make up wise, I got to use a lot of my new make up and utilize everything I had hoarded up over the summer. My foundation stayed the way-Nars Luminous Weightless (Mont Blanc) and Soft Velvet Loose Powder (Snow)-for primer underneath I used the Tarte Poreless Primer. For brows, I used the Make Up Forever Aqua Brow and drew my brows in for once. I thought they didn't turn out too bad considering that I was using a high end brow product for the first time.

For eye make up-I wanted to keep it dramatic and neutral. Used a combination of my Gwen Stefani x Urban Decay palette (Harajuku and Pop as my base), an Etude House Look at my Eyes Cafe Eye Shadow Singlet (Berry Soda) for the outer V in my eye and for a base for the upcoming crease color, for the crease color I used the a mauve purple/brown Nars singlet eye shadow (Ondine) for the crease-I blended both the pink and brown/purple together at the crease. For my brow bone, I went back into the Gwen x UD palette and used a blend of Blonde/Bathwater and for the over brow bone I used Baby. For liner, I used Dollywink eyeliner, and Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner (gold) for the inner corner. For lashes, I used my trusty Holika Holika Magic Pole mascara and used top and bottom lashes.

I only contoured my nose for the look and focused on a blend of Nars Angelica blush with an outside blush gradient using the Play 101 Stick in a deep pink color. I used a Naked Flushed highlight (from the Native Palette) to bring it all together. For lips, I used a fake Limecrime Velvetine in Pink Velvet but that wasn't working out too good throughout the day, so I switched to the Play 101 Stick that I was using on my face.

For my hair, I placed my hair in half-up twintails. Before I curled it, I spazzed the fuck out because my hair honestly, really looked like Pikarin's (Hikari Shiina) who is a Popteen model. With my heavy make up, I honestly felt like I was the old era version of her. I felt SO CUTE. However, I knew straight hair wouldn't work with my coordinate, so I went and curled my hair.

For my outfit-I wore my Ma*rs dress/top that is from the LA/AX collab back a couple years ago, The skirt I placed under is a basic black skirt from the brand WC. My black gem tights are off brand, heart mules are from Yumetenbo. I also wore a sparkley gold heart necklace that I thought went well with the print on my dress/top thingie from Ma*rs. The bag I paired with the outfit is a Betsey Johnson one.

Afterwards, I quickly packed and headed out the door to meet Katie who was waiting for me. We were soon enroute to Sacramento. First we checked the hotel we were staying out to see if they would let us check in early. However, that ended up not working out, so we ended up going for breakfast. I took Katie to one of my favorite breakfast/snack spots in Sacramento. I honestly have a couple of favorite snack spots, but this is one I had direly missed, and one I thought that was diverse enough for it to have something for everyone.

Mahoroba Bakery is one of my favorite spots! It's really small and cute-they do everything from loaves of bread, to sweet and savory breads, as well as tea. I snuck in some (very shaky ;-;) video of the bakery as I waited for Katie to receive her food.

I got a mango Caplico to swallow down everything I bought-but I got a strawberry anko (one of my all time favorites) and pizza bread (needed some savory shit for breakfast). Katie I think got a ham and cheese croissant and a tea for her poor throat because she was getting sick a bit. x_x

We quickly scarfed down our food and made way to the convention center from there because we still had to find decent parking and get our badge. Thankfully both tasks once we arrived at the convention center, went smoothly. We found eight dollar parking for the whole day (yay) and got our badges with no hassle.

Upon getting our badges-we walked around the convention center all while playing Pokemon Go (because the Lures were lit, ALL weekend, yass). I ended up realizing that there wasn't a long ass line for Takoyaki (overprice takoyaki but takoyaki regardless =~=) and takoyaki is my ultimate weakness along with okonomiyaki-so Katie and I grabbed some of that for lunch knowing that we'd most likely wait up until dinner to stuff our faces with food (which ended up being correct surprisingly. I'm actually shocked that we decided to not wait in that long ass Starbucks line because I usually do LOLOLOL). We sat around watching cosplay gatherings and ate takoyakiiii.

Afterwards, I cleaned myself up and did a couple of outfit shots with Katie in my coordinate before I got too wrecked. :)

(psstt! Follow Katie's instagram for more shoot pictures from the weekend and other future events at: katiemiura08 @ Instagram) 

Then we went downstairs to hunt for Emma, Sydney, and Bella who were-yep, at the damn Starbucks. I was so happy to see Emma and Sydney cosplaying my ultimate OTP. Both of them were doing Haruka and Michiru/Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune from Sailor Moon. I kind of died a little inside. Bella also worked incredibly hard on forming armor for an amazing Lightning cosplay from Final Fantasy 13.

Amongst our antics, we ended up catching up since it had been awhile. Katie got to witness all weekend how crazy I am with these girls. I feel like among certain people, I am a completely different person than I am with the other crowd. With Emma, Bella, and Sydney-all my reservations and attempts to stay quiet and mature go all out in the window with them. Despite my attempts to watch over them and all, these girls make me such a spazzy goofy mess. I'm so grateful for them because they're truly one of the reasons I still go to cons and why I still try to. Not that I haven't had fun with other people-but I definitely am afraid of being judged for being spazzy and happy around others...among some other really traumatizing experiences among making new friends/other friends-Bella, Emma, and Sydney have never ever made me feel like I have to hold back or be self conscious. I know that they would never do anything to intentionally hurt me. So like I said, it was great getting to introduce Katie to them and for Katie to see a different side of me that she most likely had never met (or hadn't seen in a very long time). :)



The girls wandered for a little bit and Katie and I decided to troll the dealer's hall. Honestly, we had a plot. I had a fucking plot at least. My deal with the artist alley and dealers hall usually is-if I can't eat it or wear it? I don't need it. This has kept me from buying trinkets, figurines, and the like for years. However, I had somehow via Instagram, found some ADORABLE bath bombs that were supposed to be in the artist alley. I'm all for supporting independent people-especially if it's affordable. So here was Katie and I walking fucking everywhere in this artist alley trying to find Fizzy Fairy Apothecary. We finally found it after a little bit of searching on the map, and went ham. The creator had JUST designed some Pokemon Go bath bombs that featured Valor, Mystic, and Instinct. Katie and I got our respective teams of course. Mine being Valor and hers being Instinct. Along with that I also purchased a Sailor Moon bath bomb because it's my fandom of all fandoms (if she had Uranus and Neptune, I would have been ALL OVER IT, but I settled for Sailor Moon/Usagi LOL)....and then I saw Harry Potter Butterbeer Bubblebath, which smelled heavenly, and would last me awhile-SO I ended up getting that too. In all my purchases were around 17.00-which is totally reasonable considering Lush costs me around 21.00 for two bath bombs sometimes. x_x Plus, these are really cute and fandom-y... I'm super excited to try out everything. Perhaps I'll do a review on the vlog! I'll certainly take video of my bathbombs, so follow my instagram ToxicTsukino for that!

Once we did plenty of damage in the dealer's hall/artist alley-we ended up chilling in a variety of places while playing a bit of Pokemon Go around some Pokestops that had lit lures. We were basically waiting around for someone to free up and hang out with us. It was between Wendell and the girls at this point...

We trekked to the hotel-grabbed a outlet for awhile to charge our slowly dying phones (thank you Pokemon fucking Go...jfc) and the girls got back to us first since we were supposed to shoot them. I was super excited to do so. All of us ended up meeting up at this one building where the SacAnime rave is occasionally held because it was kind of a big artsy building with a decent amount of light and space.

Silliness occurred. So much personal space and bubbles were crossed as I directed what I wanted for poses.... I touched people...LMAO all in order for there not to be upskirts.... Katie was standing over people at one point. It was really crazy. There was one moment in time that I told Emma and Sydney to act like they loved each other.... They ended up giving me this shit instead.....

SMH. Posted on my Instagram and it got over 200+ likes on my damn account, and it ain't even of me. -amused-  Katie also took some really badass photos of Bella's Lightning which looked really great in that setting as well surprisingly.

Somehow, we also ended up wandering into this park/garden space with hella roses. It was so perfect for Michiru and Haruka. I almost wished Emma and Sydney had Infinity Gakuen uniforms to chanrge into and had a violin...because it was so perfect. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE PERFECT IN THE EVENING ugh ugh ugh... Basically, it was a really great shoot. I had so much fun helping direct it. Katie did an amazing job as well. Thank you so much Katie, for being so inclusive with them. And thank you ladies for taking time out of your day to hang out and shoot. It was so fun and I hope you enjoyed some of the shots that have been released so far.

This gets into a explanation of my shots. Once upon a time ago, I really used to be into photography and doing cosplay shoots. However, within the past year, I totally got intimidated shooting my friends because there's so many photographers who flaunt around their DSLRs and such-so there wasn't really much point for me to play around with my point and shoot glitchy digital camera. However, I did sneak in a couple shots of my OTP because it is my OTP... and I'm actually really pleased with how the shots came out... I definitely had to edit them to make them clearer and make the colors show up vibrantly-but honestly? What photographer doesn't do that? Basically, I'm really happy I still did a couple of shots. I've gotten nothing but kind comments on them.

One day in the near future (since my car is paid off), I would really love to invest in a DSLR. For my own YouTube channel and my blog here, but also so I can do proper photoshoots for others in the future. My main focus is on all my friends having fun and enjoying themselves while shooting. Things that are completely casual. I want my friends to look at their shots and go 'oh wow, is that really me?' :) Because I've felt that way over my own shots. Being an ex-model, I kind of understand all these feelings-the importance of being comfortable and feeling confident. So It would be a nice thing to do in the future. I'm really inspired by my photographer friends especially. I want to do a ton of J-Fashion shoots and such. I really love planning projects and composing settings and poses and scenes from things. Some of the best work I've done in the past, even with my own shoots, have been ones of my own planning somewhat. Once I have an image in my mind-it's kind of stuck there.

With that said, here are my shots I did for Sydney and Emma out of the blue.

Afterwards, Katie and I rushed over to the Sheraton to say hello to Wendell We caught up and talked a lot about music stuff. It was a blast as usual hanging out with him. I always enjoy stopping by and saying hello to him as well. He's such a relaxed guy among all the hustle and bustle of con life. I'm always greeted with a smile and open arms, and I'm incredibly thankful/grateful for that. :)

We hung around in the Sheraton for a while stalling for time, and ended up eventually hobbling down over to the car where we left to go to check into our hotel finally and meet up with Miguel who was rooming with us.

All of us ended up having perfect timing because Miguel ended up showing up around the time we had ended up in the hotel. All of us ended up piling into a car and heading to Mana Sushi which is another favorite spot for me in Sacramento. It's a much more recent favorite spot, but it's still a favorite. They have all you can eat on their super diverse menu for 20.00. It's like tapas almost but with Japanese and Korean food. It's so yummy! I love it lots! Miguel is vegan and there's a lot of 'non-meat' options for him there is comparison to some of the other places we usually hit.

Afterwards, we did a food drive by for the girls at the con (lmao...I wanted to feel badass and chuck that shit out the window-but it didn't end up happening that way gdi TAT I would have rolled up in douchey shades creeping and everything....y u gotta ruin Miguel? lmao) and then went off to get boba for our jenga night.

The boba place we went to is another new favorite for me, Cool Tea Bar. They have really amazing teas and smoothies for decently priced. I love the peach green tea there but this time I opted for a matcha smoothie with pudding, red bean, and boba. All in which were amazing combinations. Miguel and Katie got their orders and we picked up boba for Emma and Sydney who were joining us for jenga that night in the Sheraton.

This was our late night boba haul from hell..... Literally the most boba I've ever seen on a table at one time.

So we headed back to the Sheraton hotel where we set up to play Jenga with the girls. Oh man...Here's where I have a story for you guys. So on the way to the hotel, pretty sure Miguel dropped a straw by accident. So Sydney was without a straw and decided to yolo the shit out of her drink-aka, taking th plastic cover off and drinking it straight. WHICH WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA IN HINDSIGHT CONSIDERING WE WERE PLAYING JENGA. Who the FUCK plays Jenga with DRINKS on the table? -raises hands- THESE FUCK FACES RIGHT HERE!!! -choking laughing-

Sydney plays Jenga derpy enough honest to god. So half the tower was diagonal with her-which was terrifying. At one point it was her turn to pull out a block and stack on this tower from hell. It topples over and Sydney decides it would be a brilliant idea to punch the shit out of her OPEN CUP at that very moment.

I never saw Katie dodge projectile milk tea so fast. Here I am having Jenga blocks fly at my face. The next thing I see is Sydney face down on the fucking floor...her spilled milk tea all over the hotel lobby floor beside her-jiggling intact egg pudding and all.

Mind you it's ONE IN THE MORNING in this fucking hotel lobby. That we're NOT staying in. I hear vacuum cleaners running upstairs from where staff is hard at work cleaning the place up for the next day...

And what do all of us do?

Laugh so hard that we are in tears... It's so horrible that it's hilarious at this point. We literally CAN NOT believe what happened. I record a bit of the aftermath and I'm STILL dying laughing. Katie and I had to run to the bathroom before we peed ourselves from laughing so hard. Nobody could breathe. Forreal we were dying. I demanded that we clean that shit up because it's bad enough we're in a lobby of a hotel that late at night-and in one we're not staying at-AFTER all these staff have cleaned the place up.

I'm partially in panic and partially in laughter... Laughing because it's hilarious because that shit just happened. Panicking in fear that we might get told off before we can clean the mess we made up.

Thankfully we went potty and then grabbed a fuck ton of paper towels from the bathroom. Cleaned up the mess on the lobby floor at 1 am. And continued to play Jenga until 2 am and acted like that shit never happened.

That pretty much sums up my Saturday...


CONTINUING ON TOWARDS SUNDAY...

Sunday was a lot more chill in terms of the con. But my outfit was not. Oh no. I thought it would be a brilliant idea to dress as raunchy as possibly on the last day.

I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that I had a summer time D.i.a outfit that still needed to get some loving before it turned into fall. So I decided to wear it, thinking that I could get away with straight hair since I wouldn't have time to curl and style my hair since we had to check out at 11 am.

My make up was pretty neutral despite there being reds. Color theme was orange, gold, and red...with a matte brown crease color.

I wore a coral blush (NARS Super Orgasm with the NARS Illuminator in the same shade on top), contoured my face with the Etude House Play 101 duo stick for the perfect harsh contour for gyaru make up, and placed focus on the lips-where I used Etude House's Fresh Cherry Tint in red to really bring out the lips.

For my outfit-accessories wise I'm wearing the same gold heart necklace from Saturday and offbrand Sun and Moon earrings that I got off of Ebay. My belt is from D.i.a, my top is also from D.i.a Spec. My shorts are from Forever21 and my shoes are offbrand.

We headed out for breakfast and hit another one of my favorite hidden gems. Osaka-ya. Here I bought some really delicious mochi and manjyuu/kiku inside of their shop. Outside during the spring and summertime, Osaka-ya sells really delicious and VERY huge (and decently priced) shaved ice. Personally, my favorite is the Kintoki. Kintoki is red bean at the top and bottom of the shaved ice-with matcha powder (I order extra with condensed milk). It's absolutely one of my favorite warm weather treats. I wish I could get it more.

Katie got a cherry shaved ice and a mochi. I think she was quite shocked with the size of the shaved ice. It's really huge-even the small.

The ices remind me of the cute little festival shaved ices that you could possibly get at the summertime festivals. :)

After finishing off our shaved ices, we headed to the convention center where we roamed around. I did a photoshoot with Katie in my outfit. Personally, I felt like this outfit was very gyaru. If I had done my hair up crazy, I would have felt like a paler Black Diamond girl. Instead, I felt like with my straight hair, that I was maybe a EGG magazine model instead. That was what my look was inspired off of anyway. EGG was a huge influence-it meant having confidence and giving no fucks what people thought. I was super prepared for street harassment the entire day, I was really shocked and pleased when I didn't receive any. Perhaps it was because I was with friends, that it thankfully didn't happen and I was safe.

I used the fact that my hair was really long and not curled for once to do a couple of hair flip shots for Katie. Officially truly felt like Regina George or Chanel Oberlin at that moment. ;D

Afterwards we met up with the kiddies and sat around for a bit. Eventually Katie ended up taking a couple more pics of random cosplayers along the way and we decided to go eat lunch with the kids since I don't get to sit down and have meals with them often since they don't get to leave the con area where the super delicious food is at.

We ended up at Osaka Sushi for a little while. Everyone ordered random things. We derped around talking about Mystic Messenger and took pictures while waiting for food. :)

Afterwards Katie and I roamed around the con and dealer's hall for a bit. In the con area we ended up running into a lot of friends. Miguel also ended up finding us and took pictures of friends too.


The kiddies eventually left, and Katie, Miguel, and I decided to head on over for dinner at Ryujin which is a really delicious ramen house in Sacramento. Wendell ended up surprising us by joining us for dinner.

Dinner was really delicious. I ended up getting a really yummy combination of takoyaki (of course) and a tonkatsu shoyu ramen. Afterwards all of us took one big group pictures in the midst of our food comma and heading on our merry way.

In all? This SacAnime was incredibly enjoyable. It's been awhile since I've attended a con that's been a multiple day event. Even Fanime was a one day affair this year-so getting to spend time with people for multiple days and getting to have outfit plans for a weekend felt nice.

Huge props to Katie who kidnapped me this weekend and was a super huge trooper. This was her first time being at SacAnime where it's been at the convention center. Beforehand she mentioned wanting to get back into photography again, and I encouraged her that SacAnime would help her get back into the swing of things. SacAnime has a lot of cosplayers, but it's a very laid back con where people aren't swamped with plans and honestly-it's easier to get to know people there. So I really do hope she had a good time, because I know she needed it. Actually, I hope everyone had a good time and enjoyed their SacAnime.

To see a glimpse into my SacAnime Saturday via video, check out the video below!

Until next time guys!!!