Super and Special - JAFAX XIV Report

After a nice long weekend one needs a little rest, but there's still time to cover some of the fun of a convention. This year marks my 6th year going to JAFAX and the 14th year JAFAX has been around. It's a smallish convention, as it's free to attend because it's located at Grand Valley State University's Allendale, MI campus, so it's something you go for more to hang out with like-minded people, meet up with friends, pick up some good deals on merchandise, and check out some fun cosplays (or cosplay yourself) rather than check out some good panels (they pretty much have the same ones each year) and meet big names in the industry. Still, if you're in the area it's a GREAT place to go and hang.

Anyone who has been to a fandom convention can understand the kind of stuff that can happen, an expect the unexpected kind of thing. You can wind up trying melon-pan one minute and octopus ramune the next; you can find Xellos working for con security (a strangely disconcerting concept as that is). My two oldest nieces and I arrived early, getting a place pretty close to the doors, eating a breakfast of mini donuts and drinking Java Monster in line. We took a little time out of our breakfast to take part in an impromptu Caramelldanson started by another congoer. Being the dork that I am I rolled my wheelchair over and got down and I didn't do too badly at it either.

I had fun meeting people I've seen before and hanging out with some online friends, like chatting with my self-proclaimed waifu from Gaia Online, Mary, and meeting up with Gyrefalcon who I met on the Gryphon's Guild. Gyre had a kickass cane for me and while it's a little too long for me to use with flat bottomed shoes it's perfect to use with some of my cool boots. I managed to get some nice swag, like Transformers stacker rings, an adorable hand made wolf plush, a humorous and geeky shirt, picked up some old and new anime and manga, and managed to get some great pics of cosplayers. I even managed to be part of an amusing conversation when one of the dealers was explaining to another dealer at their table that there's potential sales coming from both sides. He missed me trying to get his attention trying to buy some used manga and I had to chime in with a "there's a potential sale right in front of you, too."

My nieces and I did a group cosplay on Saturday, with me cosplaying Aki from Keroro Gunso, my oldest niece cosplaying Natsumi, and my middle niece being human!Kitty. The only picture we had taken of us was by my dad taking a pic of us together by the pond in the back yard after the convention. Amusingly on Sunday we had three pictures taken of us and we were just hanging out with kitty ears on. Granted, I looked pretty nice in my black kimono-style top and gold pants and my nieces were pretty styling as well, so we were a little more flashy than on Saturday. I'm kind of disappointed, as I still have yet to run into a good Train Heartnet cosplayer at JAFAX (I did see a good Sven one year, though).

I spoiled my nieces by buying us all some melon-pan on Saturday and on Sunday I treated us all to some octopus ramune. I've wanted to try melon-pan for a while and octopus ramune sounded too weird not to try, at least to just say I had tried it. Melon-pan I'd recommend to anyone, but octopus ramune is something I'd say try with caution; I liked it, but it does have an interesting aftertaste (my middle niece said it tasted "like butt" altho she did finish it - after being bribed with a Sasori keychain by her sister). My mom I surprised with a Death Note necklace, a cross wit L's picture on it (my mom is an admitted L fangirl) - my dad got nothing since he really wouldn't appreciate it anyway. The entire thing left me rather worn out, but it's the good sort of worn out. The kind of worn out where you feel you've accomplished something and it's worth the drained feeling. It's a good thing I have plenty of new anime to watch and manga to read while I recover from everything that happened.

And now for some photo funnage!