Anime Central - ACEN :: Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wow... it's been a month since I actually went to ACEN, and it's taken me this long to post about it!!
I've been too busy to do much of anything lately! (excuses!) I haven't even had the chance to do any of my class work for the last couple of weeks. (I'm taking classes to get my TESOL certification)
Anyway! About a month ago I traveled back to Chicago to go to the annual Anime Central Convention. It is exactly what it sounds like. A giant convention that focuses on anime, there is a dealers room (where you can rent a booth to sell anime goods), tons of panels ranging from Japanese culture in general to analysis of specific animes. The visual kei band Lm.c was also there, and that was the real reason my friend Nicole and I decided to go.
Friday:
Before we left for the day
Had to stop for gas.
With my day pass
Outfits
There were tons of... interesting.. people at the convention. Most of the people were cosplaying one anime or there other... (I'm sure) but some were just... strange.
Sitting around in the dealers room right after spending 45 minutes in the bathroom teaching a girl how to put her new contacts in.
I happened to mention to a girl while I was fixing my contacts that I was an optician.... at which point, she decided that I was the perfect person to help her put her contacts in for the first time. lol.... We didn't have anything planned, so I didn't think it would be a big deal... and I didn't want to leave her on her own. I had a bit of fun teaching her how to make sure they were clean, how to look at them to make sure they weren't inside out, the proper way to put them in, etc. (I also told her she really should get them check with the optometrist before she wore them, but she didn't care... *shrugs*) but, after watching her fail for about 30 minutes... I had to tell her she might want to wait and try again later... (which is normal practice xD) but she wanted to keep trying... lol... I let her go anyway. She was going to get them in if it killed her, and I felt a little better that she wasn't just winging it with no information at all.... I was a little pissed at the stand for selling the poor girl contacts without any information about them or the proper instructions. Perhaps they didn't feel it was their responsibility to make sure those who were purchasing took the proper precautions... but I felt that it was poor business practice and completely irresponsible of the booth to not check if the customer had worn contacts before.
We got to the convention around 2 pm because the concert we were there for wasn't starting until 7pm. We figured we could walk around the dealers room, people watch (one of my favorite things), take in a panel or 2, meet new people, etc.... but after going through the dealers room we were kind of bored. Neither one of us are really into anime... Around 4ish...we stopped over where the line for the Lm.c concert was supposed to start (yeah, you have to line up, the tickets don't have numbers on them to let you know which order you get in, bogus) and learned that the concert was pushed back, they would start the LINE at 7pm, the concert would start at 8ish.
We managed to entertain ourselves until around 6:30pm (spending a couple hours in the hotel bar) when we both looked outside and noticed there was a HUGE line outside snaking around the building... from our vantage point 2 floors above them... we could see they were all Lm.c fan... wtf.
So, we headed over to where the line for the Lm.c concert and we learned that they let the line start at around 6pm because they couldn't get the people to stop lining up early. They'd sent everyone outside... lol... uh, so we didn't care about getting close, and there was NO WAY we were going to wait outside in the freezing cold when we were told the line started at 7pm... so, we plopped down against the wall inside, and waited them out.
They didn't even START letting the line in until around 8:30pm (so, the concert is already 1hr and 30min. late) we sat and talked to the line security for the 45 minutes or so it took them to get the entire line inside. Once they all came in, we just waltzed over and got in the back.
The line.
They didn't let us into the concert until around 10pm.... and then they didn't start until 10:30pm... oh, only 3.5 hours late. Long story short... we didn't get out until 12:30am and were at the convention for a lot longer than we planned... and I had my contacts in for around 14 hours. ow.
Homeward bound.
Saturday:
We decided we didn't really want to go back to the convention. We'd had our fill the previous day, so we decided to go to downtown Chicago, Mitsuwa, and then round out the evening with clubbing.
I wore the same heals I'd had on all day at the convention, and my right foot was killing me.... but, we were out all day so nothing I could really do about it.... well... turns out I have a stress fracture now. YAY!
no contacts. my eyes were a MESS!
Downtown.
Gyukaku! It's a yaki-niku place that we'd eaten at in Japan. Had lots of fabulous MEAT and a delicious mimosa.
Our outfits.... we decided on unrelenting black.
We then spent a long while in the 2nd largest Forever21 I've been in (the largest being in Harajuku... have 8 floors and all) trying our best to find this blue dress for me! A shop boy helped us... and after something like an hour of all 3 of us looking... we found the LAST ONE in the store... in size large. I need a small. BUT... the HUGE drapey look is cute too, so... bought it anyway! (you can't see but the back drapes completely open almost to my waist).
After shopping downtown, we headed to Mitsuwa the Japanese supermarket for milk tea and picking up of supplies, then sushi station for dinner, and finally clubbing!
Sunday:
We didn't do anything special until that evening. All I had to wear on my feet were heels... so I was in agony. My foot was on FIRE all day. We went to a dinner theater to see Hunger Games. It's a place you sit and dine while watching a movie. The waiters and waitresses stealthily walk through the dark to serve your food while you watch... it was actually really awesome... and would have been amazing if I didn't suddenly get overwhelmingly nauseous about halfway through the movie. I'm glad I'd already seen the movie once before, because I couldn't tell you what was going on because I couldn't focus at all. But, the place was awesome and some pictures were taken.
Menu
We were in the Wizard of Oz theater. So neat!
Anddddd When I got home, I learned that we'd had a huge hail storm down where I live... and it was really lucky my car wasn't there.... my parents saved some hail balls in the freezer to show me!
My Dad's windshield is cracked and all the cars have dents galore! I've only had my car for 1 year, so I was very lucky!
YAY! ok, finally got that post out! Hopefully more entries soon! Gearing up to finally have my first giveaway, so look forward to that!
Until next time!
I've been too busy to do much of anything lately! (excuses!) I haven't even had the chance to do any of my class work for the last couple of weeks. (I'm taking classes to get my TESOL certification)
Anyway! About a month ago I traveled back to Chicago to go to the annual Anime Central Convention. It is exactly what it sounds like. A giant convention that focuses on anime, there is a dealers room (where you can rent a booth to sell anime goods), tons of panels ranging from Japanese culture in general to analysis of specific animes. The visual kei band Lm.c was also there, and that was the real reason my friend Nicole and I decided to go.
Friday:
Before we left for the day
Had to stop for gas.
With my day pass
Outfits
There were tons of... interesting.. people at the convention. Most of the people were cosplaying one anime or there other... (I'm sure) but some were just... strange.
Sitting around in the dealers room right after spending 45 minutes in the bathroom teaching a girl how to put her new contacts in.
I happened to mention to a girl while I was fixing my contacts that I was an optician.... at which point, she decided that I was the perfect person to help her put her contacts in for the first time. lol.... We didn't have anything planned, so I didn't think it would be a big deal... and I didn't want to leave her on her own. I had a bit of fun teaching her how to make sure they were clean, how to look at them to make sure they weren't inside out, the proper way to put them in, etc. (I also told her she really should get them check with the optometrist before she wore them, but she didn't care... *shrugs*) but, after watching her fail for about 30 minutes... I had to tell her she might want to wait and try again later... (which is normal practice xD) but she wanted to keep trying... lol... I let her go anyway. She was going to get them in if it killed her, and I felt a little better that she wasn't just winging it with no information at all.... I was a little pissed at the stand for selling the poor girl contacts without any information about them or the proper instructions. Perhaps they didn't feel it was their responsibility to make sure those who were purchasing took the proper precautions... but I felt that it was poor business practice and completely irresponsible of the booth to not check if the customer had worn contacts before.
We got to the convention around 2 pm because the concert we were there for wasn't starting until 7pm. We figured we could walk around the dealers room, people watch (one of my favorite things), take in a panel or 2, meet new people, etc.... but after going through the dealers room we were kind of bored. Neither one of us are really into anime... Around 4ish...we stopped over where the line for the Lm.c concert was supposed to start (yeah, you have to line up, the tickets don't have numbers on them to let you know which order you get in, bogus) and learned that the concert was pushed back, they would start the LINE at 7pm, the concert would start at 8ish.
We managed to entertain ourselves until around 6:30pm (spending a couple hours in the hotel bar) when we both looked outside and noticed there was a HUGE line outside snaking around the building... from our vantage point 2 floors above them... we could see they were all Lm.c fan... wtf.
So, we headed over to where the line for the Lm.c concert and we learned that they let the line start at around 6pm because they couldn't get the people to stop lining up early. They'd sent everyone outside... lol... uh, so we didn't care about getting close, and there was NO WAY we were going to wait outside in the freezing cold when we were told the line started at 7pm... so, we plopped down against the wall inside, and waited them out.
They didn't even START letting the line in until around 8:30pm (so, the concert is already 1hr and 30min. late) we sat and talked to the line security for the 45 minutes or so it took them to get the entire line inside. Once they all came in, we just waltzed over and got in the back.
The line.
They didn't let us into the concert until around 10pm.... and then they didn't start until 10:30pm... oh, only 3.5 hours late. Long story short... we didn't get out until 12:30am and were at the convention for a lot longer than we planned... and I had my contacts in for around 14 hours. ow.
Homeward bound.
Saturday:
We decided we didn't really want to go back to the convention. We'd had our fill the previous day, so we decided to go to downtown Chicago, Mitsuwa, and then round out the evening with clubbing.
I wore the same heals I'd had on all day at the convention, and my right foot was killing me.... but, we were out all day so nothing I could really do about it.... well... turns out I have a stress fracture now. YAY!
no contacts. my eyes were a MESS!
Downtown.
Gyukaku! It's a yaki-niku place that we'd eaten at in Japan. Had lots of fabulous MEAT and a delicious mimosa.
Our outfits.... we decided on unrelenting black.
We then spent a long while in the 2nd largest Forever21 I've been in (the largest being in Harajuku... have 8 floors and all) trying our best to find this blue dress for me! A shop boy helped us... and after something like an hour of all 3 of us looking... we found the LAST ONE in the store... in size large. I need a small. BUT... the HUGE drapey look is cute too, so... bought it anyway! (you can't see but the back drapes completely open almost to my waist).
After shopping downtown, we headed to Mitsuwa the Japanese supermarket for milk tea and picking up of supplies, then sushi station for dinner, and finally clubbing!
Sunday:
We didn't do anything special until that evening. All I had to wear on my feet were heels... so I was in agony. My foot was on FIRE all day. We went to a dinner theater to see Hunger Games. It's a place you sit and dine while watching a movie. The waiters and waitresses stealthily walk through the dark to serve your food while you watch... it was actually really awesome... and would have been amazing if I didn't suddenly get overwhelmingly nauseous about halfway through the movie. I'm glad I'd already seen the movie once before, because I couldn't tell you what was going on because I couldn't focus at all. But, the place was awesome and some pictures were taken.
Menu
We were in the Wizard of Oz theater. So neat!
Anddddd When I got home, I learned that we'd had a huge hail storm down where I live... and it was really lucky my car wasn't there.... my parents saved some hail balls in the freezer to show me!
My Dad's windshield is cracked and all the cars have dents galore! I've only had my car for 1 year, so I was very lucky!
YAY! ok, finally got that post out! Hopefully more entries soon! Gearing up to finally have my first giveaway, so look forward to that!
Until next time!
posted by l0ckheart @ 7:46 AM
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