~Sakura-no-Tamashii

This year's Anime Expo in Los Angeles was very fun. I met a few new friends and managed to meet most of the Internet friends I wanted to meet as well. ^^
So now I guess it's time for my break down of events. Apologies in advance for the long journal..."|| And I've decided to make reading this journal more excruciating by typing a single "paragraph" for each day. Am I considerate or what? *shot*

Preparations

came over to my house on July 1st to help me with my prop Mugen for the Kanda cosplay. We managed to saw off most of the excess wood and, after an entire afternoon of carving out the middle of the handle, glued the three planks together. Surprisingly, all-purpose wood works very well (I thought it would be weaker..."). The plank with the blade did accidentally snap once, so that was a pain to glue back together..."|| We didn't dare try to use the nasty jig saw on the glued-together "sword" so we left it alone. It had a whole lot of excess wood left over. We weren't able to carve out the blade when all the planks were glued together. The handles had some excess wood on the sides, and there was a sort of an extra handle at the bottom (to make up for the blade-plank's shortness) that made me feel like I was carrying a condensed version of Cloud's sword whenever I held the incomplete Mugen up by there. There was also some (frustrating) confusion regarding where my ordered Exorcist cloak would wind up.

Day 0

My mom took me in the morning to get my hair chemically straightened. Then I got a call from Linda saying she managed to pick up my Exorcist cloak so I knew what else I needed to bring. After some last-minute packing, Ivy came over in the afternoon and my mom took us over to the hotel where we were staying at. Everyone else had already gone down to the convention center to pick up their badges, and we couldn't get into the hotel room because neither of us was registered with the hotel, so we practically acted like hobos outside of the room and waited for the others to come back to let us in. I got a look at the Exorcist cloak, and was pleased to find that it fit very well. Ivy and I then left to pick up our badges (a wonderfully fast process this year, I'm happy to say). Ivy and I then headed back to the hotel to pick up my incomplete Mugen and head over to a nearby Home Depot. I heard that they would saw wood for you, but apparently they didn't do precision cuts, so the walk to and back basically killed... around an hour of our time. I wound up buying to small hand "sanders" that I used as saws. No sleep that night for me. I kept sawing away the excess wood on Mugen (with some help, of course), and Linda worked on her blouse for her Road Camelot cosplay while everyone else fell asleep. I'm very surprised the sawing didn't keep them up all night.

Day 1

The big day. Everyone else left for the convention early, but Linda, Ivy and I stayed behind to finish our cosplays. Ivy and I managed to sand and paint Mugen while Linda finished up her blouse. We didn't leave for the convention until some time after 1 in the afternoon. After briefly running into , we met up with the two other people (Allen and Lenalee) in our D.Gray-Man cosplay group in the Exhibition Hall. Ivy, as Komui, was freakishly in character the entire time she cosplayed. There was also a time when a group of people suddenly attack-glomped Linda. I tried to get away, but they caught me and everyone else in the group as well; they also shouted out something that was very awkward to hear, so I'm not writing about that..."|| Later, Sonia (Allen), Caroline (Lenalee), and Linda wandered over to a Yaoi booth. Upon their return, Ivy (in character) shouted "Lenallee, why~?!" It was really loud, but so amusing. XD We also met up with "dot" () and went to eat some lunch at the café ourside of the Hall. We headed over to the D.Gray-Man Gathering that was located across a street. To get there, we didn't notice the stairs leading over the road, so we ran across the street. Then we saw a General Cross cosplayer on the other side of the road, and Sonia shouted at him to "pay off your debts!" There were a lot of cosplayers at the gathering and a lot of picture ideas as well. I tried my best to avoid the pairing shots, but somehow I got forced into one of them. It was funny because all of the cosplayers in that shot were girls, so someone shouted "Fake Yaoi!" while Linda shouted "They're all girls; it's Yuri!" There was one Tyki that I was impressed by; the Tease that he used were velcroed to clips on his gloves. Then a small group of us decided to do a D.Gray-Man version of the Hare Hare Yukai dance. I distinctly remember hearding someone say "Of course, Kanda is Kyon" and that made me laugh a bit. Unfortunately, I don't remember much of what happened after the Gathering, but our group was stuck in places several times while people took pictures. Cosplay groups are fun... Sonia's friends then went to an event (I don't remember what) so we decided to hang out with her for a bit until her dad came to pick her up. Then the others in our hotel room decided to attend another late-night event (I think it was Midnight Tea) so Ivy and I headed back to the hotel room. I think I might've suffered from some heatstroke that day (darn the cool-looking Exorcist cloak) because I was dizzy for a long while and eventually blacked out on the couch in the hotel room.

Day 2

Woke up earlier this day, but it was a pain to wake... a certain someone... up. That morning, Ivy and I went over to the Ouran High School Host Club panel and found out who would be voicing in the dubbed version. I'm fairly content with who FUNimation chose for the voice overs. Linda came in later and met up with us. We left to find Sonia afterwards. In the Exhibition Hall, I met up with for a brief moment while Ivy and Linda went shopping at the h.Naoto (did I type that correctly?) booth. Then when Linda left with the others from our hotel room, Ivy, Sonia, and I eventually developed our own "trademark" pose for pictures: Komui's attempting to restrain Kanda while Allen leans back to avoid being hit by Mugen's blade.The three of us headed over to the Artists' Alley later because Ivy had to look for something for a friend. I saw there and that made me happy. XD We also met two guys (one of which who was the only male Allen Walker cosplayer) from the D.Gray-Man Gathering the day before and just wound up talking for a long while. There was als another guy who kept popping up and saying he was an Akuma. The two Allens and Kanda reacted by starting to activate our Innocence but then the dude's friend kept dragging him away and telling him to stop picking fights. XD Ivy, Sonia, and I then left to find the others (to no avail) and started to sit in line for AX Idol tickets. Unfortunately, Ivy had to leave early for a signing in Little Tokyo so I sat in line with Sonia and her friends. After receiving our tickers, we headed over to the Nokia Theater but were stopped. Apparently, that place is paranoid that I could possible kill off a hundred people or so with a lightweight, wooden prop. -_- Sonia and I walked back to the hotel so I could drop Mugen off because the Theater wouldn't have let me in (the other option was to simply trash the prop... bullsh*t). AX Idol was fun though. I was a little sad that Johnny Yong Bosch wasn't hosting again this year, but the dude from... some TV network(?) and Vic Mignognia made up for it. Vic even sang the English version of "Hikari e", so that was cool. The contestants this year were very good though, and some person in the audience won a trip to Japan. After the show, our group went behind the Staples Center and stayed at what Sonia and I dubbed the "Epic Platform" because it was a giant, cut rock that was raised and tilted. We took a few pictures there, but because I lacked a Mugen at the time, our pose options were limited. Later on, our group merged with some other people, including the strange Akuma dude, and we all went to IHOP for a late-night dinner. Sonia and I went back to the hotel room really quick for me to pick up my Mugen before heading over to IHOP. We had a really fun time there. It's amazing how well strangers from a convention can get along when they've only met for a few minutes. The restaurant got pretty noisy, and I'm surprised the staff didn't mind. Someone at our table connected a whole bunch of straws together for one long Epic Straw and started drinking from glasses from across the table. That earned many cheers and a huge applause. Then someone on the other side of the restaurant decided to start chugging coffee straight from the pot. I think he spilled, but the sight was amusing all the same. Afterwards, I headed back to the hotel. I'm very grateful towards Sonia and her friends for walking back with me, but I feel bad about any trouble with Sonia's dad that I might have indirectly caused. It was past midnight at the time, and surprising all the others in the room except for Stephanie hadn't returned from the signings yet. I pretty much laid down on the floor, started watching TV, and didn't move from that spot for the rest of the night. Stephanie and I watched Deal or No Deal for the first time, and she got really into it. XD

Day 3

Hanna and Linda weren't here in the morning because they had to leave for church. They supposedly kept poking me and Linda asked if she could borrow my sandals, but I still have the slight suspicion that she stole them because I don't remember any of that happening. ._." I was originally going to cosplay as Haku this day because of the Naruto Gathering, but Sonia and I managed to agree to cosplay as Exorcists together one last time for some final pictures. She came over in the morning so we could help her with her costume. Her grey-haired wig was strangely amusing to me, but it creeped everyone else in the room out. XD The TV was on the entire time we were getting ready and Law and Order was playing. Michelle got really into it, so that was fun to watch. Our group split up pretty soon though, and there wasn't much to do that day. I finally met while she was standing in line for tickets to watch the newest Batman movie, so that made me happy. Then Michelle, Ivy, Sonia and her friends, and I decided to rest a while at the food court area for a while. We momentarily ran into there, but Sonia and I left to buy some sodas and then Tiffany left soon after we returned. Then everyone else at the table left for other reasons (shopping, concert) and Sonia and I wound up sleeping for a few minutes there. Afterwards, I think we went over to watch the Otaku Parliamentary Debate Finals. The topic was the ever popular "Ninjas vs. Pirates" theme, and, in this case, the Pirates won. It was very amusing. I then went with Sonia so she could pick up a ticket for the Masquerade. It was such a huge line outside that she decided to simply buy the ticket. Along the way, we walked past a Millenium Earl cosplay who, according to Sonia, actually said "Exorcists~?" in a creepy voice when he saw us. We ran back to him to get his picture, and I was so tempted to whack him with my Mugen. XD We headed back to the hotel room so I could drop off Mugen there again, met up with Ivy, Michelle, and Linda, and we all headed over back to the Nokia Theater for the Masquerade. I guess it was fairly entertaining, but I honestly expected more skits. They made up for the extra time though with other performances, so I guess that was okay. But honestly, some of the costumes in the Masquerade were so amazing, it was hard to believe they were "Novice" winners. Also, I thought the D.Gray-Man skit was very amusing. At least I wasn't the one who killed Kanda's image. ^^ The entire group of friends then met up and went to Denny's for dinner. After that, I went back to the hotel to grab Mugen. Michelle, Ivy, and I then went back to the convention center to meet up with Sonia and her friends at the Epic Platform. When we got off the shuttle, some dude actually approached me and said that "I saw you get off the bus with the sword and thought 'I have to talk to that person'"... kind of strange..."|| Ivy and Michelle were playing with my Mugen while I was talking to the dude and they attracted another group of people. XD I just wish they wouldn't smoke... it was hard to breathe..."|| We wound up having a mini photoshoot in that area, and even when Sonia and her friends left, Michelle kept taking pictures of me and Ivy (as a VK Jrocker this time) until past 2:30 in the morning. My camera's battery died after all those pictures..."|| When we got back to the hotel room, everyone was already knocked out.

Day 4/Today

The last day, unfortunately. Everyone decided to spend their time today shopping. I was the only one who went to the Whose Line Is It Anime event. I was a little disappointed that no one else decided to go, but it was very amusing all the same. They cracked a lot more Yu Yu Hakusho jokes than before, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl was thrown in there too. XD Sonia found me after the event, but she had to leave soon after. I then met up with Ivy in the Artists' Alley and we left for the hotel to pick up our luggage. Her dad came later and he dropped me off at my house.

It's so good to be home, but I'm so incredibly tired that I'm in a bad mood..."|| I have to start catching up with a few things here again too before I leave for Taiwan and Japan (I don't want to travel anymore... D: ) I don't want to do anything productive at the moment, so I guess I'll be sleeping soon..."||

Pictures and videos will be posted after I exchange them with friends, but chances are you guys won't see them from me until after I return from the East. I'll also try to make a collage of the pseudo photoshoot from the night of Day 3.

Ivy's trying to get me to upload one of my Kanda pictures as my dA ID. XD

Post-Expo Depression sucks..."||

<KuraiSakura>