Anime Expo 2010 @ LA

I've been wanting to write about my 1st experience at AX 2010 but kept procrastinating as usual. Since the next big anime season is close at hand, I figured now is a good time to upload the photos to conserve bandwidth for the next season. XD

All the guests photos and other miscellaneous pictures can be found here. Those are open for view because the guests are public figures (and the cosplayers album is locked for privacy).

Most of the photos are quite grainy because I had to do no-flash, and my cheapo camera ($50!) absolute sucks when there's insufficient lighting. I'm definitely getting a new camera if I'm going to AX again.

And here's the real test to see my memory retainment rate after almost three months.

Day 0

We hitched a ride after zoo from Neko-tan's friend who's also going to pick up the badge. We had completely lost faith in LA's bus system after the bus trip to the zoo.

We spotted an itasha in the underground parking featuring Mikoto from Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (funny how I recognized her without ever watching the show or the series it spin-offed from). My 1st itasha spotting! :D

The line for the badge was expectedly long, from the back entrance to the back alley, winding around a few times. Quite a few cosplayers, but everyone's in the line up so I didn't even try taking photos. I had my book to occupy me so it wasn't too bad, but the scorching sun overhead was a different story. Everyone had much respect for a cosplayer dressed in a full plush suit (head to toe enclosed) as Akamaru from Naruto. There's an ice bar vendor that walked up and down the line selling the icy treats at 2/$10 or something outrageous like that.

It only took us less than 3 hours to get our badge and program guide, then another 20 minutes for the main event tickets. Apparently it's not as bad as once before where they lined up for 5 hours for the badge (back then, they didn't charge for the main events, but you had to line up for hours during the Expo to get the tickets). Last year, on the other hand, was a breeze as it was a far smaller crowd due to the lack of good guests.

I had sausage in pineapple sauce (didn't feel adventurous enough to try the sausage in chocolate sauce) and black sugar caramel shaved ice for dinner. XD