Fanime 2016

A last weekend, I made a SUPER sudden last minute trip to Fanime for a Saturday. I seriously thought I was about to be breaking tradition and all-but a friend and I decided to attend for the sake of old times. Personally for me? Because it feels too weird to not be a part of something that I've participated in since I was sixteen years old. While I have retired from the cosplay scene and don't actively shoot at all anymore, it's nice to still say hello to friends and be around the convention atmosphere. For the most part I cafe hop and selfie with people.

This trip was no different. SO QUE TO 3 AM... Katie and I decided because there was a Color Run blocking off streets, parking was going to be insane (no really I had the beautiful experience of it last year with a far away hotel) and the fact that Katie still had to endure LineCon 2016 to pick up a badge-that leaving at 6 am was ideal. No traffic. No fighting for parking. Possibly getting a badge and it not wasting the only day we had. It sounded like a plan. 

However for me it meant that sleep was for the weak. I take a good three hours to get ready if doing my own hair is added into the equation. I hate feeling rushed and I really wanted to go all out for the one day I was going to be there. SO because of that, I decided that a 3 am start time was necessary. 

For my look on Saturday I went for a Tsuyome/Agejo gyaru fusion. I don't know what you could call it exactly. It had the ruffle and femininity of agejo but had the sexy dark glam of tsuyome. It was really something that I have never seen done before. I like blurring lines. ;D 

Plus this also gave me an excuse to wear my NYX Lip Lingerie liqiuid lipsticks and feel like a trendy bitch. Make up wise I went for a red base with a cool toned brown crease shadow. Black eyeliner was applied with red edges (thank you NYX Vivid Brights) and Diamond Lash eyelashes in Glamorous Lash. I kept the lashes to only one set because I wanted to the red bits of my eye make up to be slightly apparent. For face make up, I'm realizing as my skin improves in texture, the less I'm feeling the whole Kat Von D foundation train that I've been rolling on for years now. Foundation  application DROVE ME NUTS. Time to bust bank and make NARS Sheer Glow my everyday foundation, because when it comes to make up, I'm a pretentious bitch. <3

I tried to dilute the toothpaste-like texture of the KVD with some Mac Fix+ which helped a little. I set my face with HD powder because that shit was tacky. I highlighted and contoured to the high heavens-used a rose blush. and used the NYX Lingerie in 'Honeymoon' to finish off the look. 

In terms of my outfit-I wore my favorite spaghetti strap from d.i.a (I seriously need to buy more d.i.a tops because I AM IN LOVE. Excuse me while I buy a million tops and skirt sets) that I also wore to the Gazette (that was also my peeve is I at first didn't want to wear it because I had just worn it to the Gazette concert when people last saw me lmao) and then paired it with my WC skirt, Yumetenbo thigh high boots (thank you for murdering my feet you pieces of shit) and to accessorize I wore my d.i.a star belt because let's been honest-it's the WHOLE reason other than my lipstick as to why I wanted to even wear a dark outfit again. 

So out the door I went to meet Katie at the car at 6 am and off went went to trek to San Jose. The trip there was absolutely painless. We found parking no issue, all day parking was 7.00.... We then proceeded to Bank of America down the street where my ass got hit on. I was seriously like "I know it's early but please cosplayers come out and play so I look like less of a hoe!" ahaha because I always pray when guys talk to me that they say whatever and I can go on without them continuing to talk. :'D 

After grabbing cash at the bank, Katie and I went on over to the Marriot where LineCon was taking place. It was only 7 am and the line looked pretty god awful. WTF Fanime? I thought they had this fixed... So I let Katie get her badge and walked my happy ass down to the lobby to relax and wind down. There I pretty much surprised my entire facebook feed letting them know that I was here for a day and if they wanted to hang out that I was totally capable of doing so. 

Wendell (who works at Stage Zero) had been sending me tons of video on Friday knowing that I was missing out on the con and knowing I wouldn't get to say hello like I usually did. I decided to derpily send a video back of me waving in the familiar area of the Marriot lobby-in which he told me to haul my ass up to the con once I was situated. Which I did and lugged Katie with me! 

Once I met up with Wendell we proceeded to basically chill near Stage Zero and catch up. Lots of our talk was on Da-Ice that was performing that evening and on other J-Pop stuff. I'm super thankful that I was able to spend time with him and even more so thankful that my friends got to become friends with each other and bond over a mutual hobby. I can't tell both Katie and Wendell how appreciative I am to them both for always letting me tag along and also how happy I am seeing friends spazz out over things like music or the technicalities of a convention. It was definitely the highlight of my weekend/day at Fanime.

Once Wendell get busy, Katie and I roamed the convention hall in order to figure out just where the autograph session was for Da-Ice. From what I remembered most signings were in the Hilton area but I hadn't attended a signing session since Yuya Matsushita in 2011. Go figure, the autograph room was in the COMPLETELY OPPOSITE end of the convention near the karaoke and screening rooms. 

Once we figured out where they were, Katie and I decided to get lunch/breakfast, At first I thought we were going to opt for Starbucks but after seeing that ThirstTea was open earlier than usual and that there was no line-we decided to get a boba fix instead. We got shaved ice for breakfast which yes, I know is totally nutritious, but there was fruit ontop so shhhhhh!! Another highlight of my convention was running into Rene! We have been lurking on each other a lot on instagram which in turn lead to facebook, but we had yet to ever meet in person. So here was Rene all cute and shit finding me and her first impression of me just *had* to be of me shoveling shaved ice in my mouth/my mouth being full. lmaooooo 

I told her hold up lemme throw my lipstick on  again and took an awesome selfie with her before she and her friends dashed off to LineCon 2016 themselves I think. 

Katie and I after shaved ice ended up going to the dealer's hall to get to signing stuff and then I separated from Katie so she could get her stuff signed. In turn I wandered around a bit and even sat and watched some cosplay gatherings go on. Eventually I ended up wandering back into the dealer's hall and I shit you not, a minute later, I run into Mai!!! 

Surprise? She seriously didn't know I was here and I found it super hilarious how I still recognized her even when she was all ikemen'd up. We ended up trolling the dealer's hall together which eventually led to her and Katie meeting once we were reunited. 

We separated off from Mai who wanted an autograph and ended up derping around. Pretty sure we ran into friends while charging phones because my portable charger is a piece of shit. >_> 

Once again hungry real food, I took Katie to my favorite cafe in the downtown area, Amore Cafe! We had to wait 30 minutes for them to open but I'm pretty we braved a wait because once we ordered our food the line was relentless. Two years into this place being a thing, con goers are catching on to this place being here. 

I got a white peach milk tea which was super oversized (that was a mistake that I didn't think it would be <_<) and popcorn chicken that comes with this super amazing sauce that I will never ever get over. Katie got some garlic fries of some sort and I think a thai tea..? We hung out there for quite a bit. I'm almost kind of sad that it was congested because in previous years it's never been that way before. I blame the self serve boba area. Last year that area was a comfy couch. 

After the cafe I hobbled my ass back to the convention center and in turn, Katie had a concert to go to. There I ran into more friends and ended up trolling the gaming hall where I played my first rounds of slapjack ever. Afterwards I ended up walking with said friends to some food places just to spend time.. Ran into the now engaged couple Johnny and Jessica (ahhh congrats guys. I still am super sad that I missed it. I probably would have yelped in excitement because I've never seen a proposal in person and it's even more exciting it was between my friends. I'm so happy for you both!) and we caught up for a bit. 

Katie ended up being finished with the concert and I penguin walked back to her where we got some drinks and trolled the Fairmont Hotel lobby to charge phones and just wind down a bit because I kind of was at a loss for what to do since everyone was pretty busy partying and doing their own thing. I think we both were trying so hard not to fall asleep on the floor from lack of sleep. =_= We were seriously feeling it...

Eventually we decided to call it a night and went to Wendell's room to say bye and talk for a bit, which was super pleasant. 

And basically afterward we crawled back to the car in our half dead states and headed home.

That's my one day Fanime adventure. Not very eventful but very enjoyable regardless. I'm super happy that I got to spend time with people and catch up and be in a place of familiarity that I always enjoy going to. I feel like I have less and less reason to be in the San Jose area anymore but occasionally it's nice to enjoy the nice food and weather there with friends. 

Yet again, I'm super appreciative to all the friends who made that day happen and be fun. I surprisingly enjoyed this Fanime probably more than I have my past couple of years going all four days~ <3