Raison D'être: C2AGE to 盆踊り

Saturday morning, I got up early at 7a.m. despite the fact that I had slept at 1.30a.m. before. The first thing I did was double check my list of things to take out, wig, hair spray, gloves, tie, camera, paper flame, beret-like cap and chucked them into my sling bag. I put on my long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows, black jeans and grabbed my socks. Then I headed for college.

After class, I thanked Wei Jean again for lending me her Sawada Tsuna cosplay items, the gloves and wig before heading to Tropicana City Mall to attend C2AGE (Comic, Cosplay, Anime, Games Exhibition). There I found Rin and SenzO fast along with a friend of Rin's. Rin helped me adjust my wig and then we headed out into the event. It was really fun. There were all my friends already but I just didn't see them yet. I bumped into Earnest before meeting Rin and SenzOwhich could only mean Kuui was there already. Oh well, I'll definitely see him because it's for sure that he is going crazy snapping shots of cosplayers.

Right after coming out of Starbucks where I got dressed into the wig and X-Gloves, some people asked for my picture. I was nervous, happy and excited at the same time. This was so much different compared to my previous and first cosplay where almost nobody knew I was cosplayingas - Maebara Keiichi. Rin got jealous because nobody recognised who she was cosplaying as -Ryūgū Rena, because she was cosplaying Rena casual version where she did not carry her signature machete. Soon after, we met Abby who was very noticeable, she was cosplaying asRokudo Miroku. We did some poses for photographs and then made our way through the event. We separated soon after because I wanted to have a look around the whole place. SenzO was very kind to carry my bag and take pictures for me. Hehe.

Epic fail was, I saw Wayne but I did not recognise him. I walked around and saw a L cosplayersitting at the chairs watching the Cosplay Checkers game that was going on and I just went, 'Oh, L.', then I continued my walk. Then I saw Kuui and Earnest nearby so I went up to them andKuui proceeded to pretend-attack me with his BB guns. We laughed it off and then I asked him if he saw others around. He then said, 'Yeah! Wayne is here.', 'Where?', 'There, the L on the chair.'. The first thing through my mind was, 'Oh my god! How did I miss him! Oh shit! I totally did not know that was kaichou!'. So I went up to Wayne and greeted him. We then hanged around looking here and there. Soon we decided to have lunch. I gathered everybody up and we went around to look for a restaurant.

After getting out of Kimchi Restaurant because of wallet reasons, we settled in Otak-Otak Place. We got our seats and ordered our food, with us was Abby's friend who helped her carry her bag. Unfortunately I did not catch his name. Yati. Marcus and Kuui joined us later and then we went back to the event area to continue walking around.

Wayne found himself some girls to 'play' with (rather getting played with) when taking a rest at a table. The girls noticed his 'failed' L cosplay and started playing with his hair with Gatsby. I left him for a while and soon came back to find them still trying to make his hair stand which fails. Abby was around them so we all broke the ice and made friends.

Later, it was time to leave, Yati, Kuui, Wayne and I left Tropicana City Mall into Wayne's dad's car to get to our next destination, Panasonic Stadium. What's there? It's Bon Odori!

Bon Odori, the event that comes around once every year, was full of excitement! Full of energy! But not exactly a blast... It was far more crowded than I had imagined. People were everywhere! There were many girls and guys in yukatas which make me excited at first. Soon after we went in, we got our Bon Odori fans. There was a stall selling traditional Japanese stuff like kimonos and geta but they were out of stock. We proceeded to go buy food and as we moved around to find the tents with food, we saw a long row of portable toilets and Kuui took pictures of them. We got to some tents and found that they were selling drinks. The whole place was far, too far from what I had imagined Bon Odori as. The stalls were placed in a circular shape around a field and huge crowds along with really long lines sprouting out from some stalls that are selling attractive food, some with attractive prices.

There was one particular food in mind that Wayne and I shared and that was takoyaki. Yati had his eyes for this Japanese ice-cream and Kuui has all about taking pictures. While we were making our way to look for the food stalls, the drumming performance started (apparently that was Part 2). We took a quick glance, a quick snapshot and then hurried back into the crowd where we finally found food stalls the first one being empty and the second, Sakae Sushi. We continued moving until we reached one end of the food stalls and spotted yakisoba. It was RM7 for one and RM10 for two. So Kuui and I bought two for the four of us. Turned out Yati didn't want yakisoba so I was left with two. Wayne got this curry fishballs thing. We then proceed to move some more and saw Sushi King with their famous conveyor belt that was running in the middle of the field. We moved some more and finally found a stall selling takoyaki. The line was really lone but we joined in anyway as Yati parted with us for a minute to buy a cup of lemonade. Soon after I spotted Laura coming out of nowhere with a plate of takoyaki in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. We said hello and she noticed Wayne's L appearance. She informed me about Nick and Mal being at the seats of the stadium and then left soon. We continued to wait as Wayne and Kuui ate their yakisoba which turned out to be normal mee goreng that was too dry, salty and peppery.

Half an hour later... We agreed that Kuui and Yati should go and buy their Japanese ice-cream as Wayne and I stayed in the line. There the two of us came up with the nickname, Blue Light or 青光 (Ao Hikari) for Yati because of the blue bandanna he was wearing. They came back about 15 minutes later to check up on us and Kuui let us have a taste of his ice-cream. They soon left again to find other things. After convincing me, I ate my yakisoba.

Another half an hour and ten minutes later... We finally got to the front of the store and have a view of the takoyaki grills. We got three plates of takoyaki and made our way out of the sea of humans. We could not reach Yati and Kuui because the signal there was really bad. After we were free from the crowd, I received a bunch of sms that were sent to me an hour ago but they did not make it into my phone while in the crowd.I tried to call Kuui but it fails so Wayne and I sat outside this shut down toilet shade thing and ate our takoyaki. Kuui manage to reach me and we met up soon enough. Kuui and Yati told us about this cheap juice drinks an after taking my money they zoomed away to buy those drinks for us. They came back and then we moved to the mats prepared and sat for a while. Kuui finished his takoyaki and Wayne and I finished a bottle of our fruit juice. We asked someone to help us take our photo with my camera and then we moved on. On the way, we met Chon Giap. I noticed the Rover H shirt at first before moving my eyes up to his face. Haha. Because Kuui was in front, Giappy did not see me and called out toKuui instead who couldn't hear him. Hahaha. We talked a bit and then we parted ways.

On the way, Wei Jean spotted me and poke at my shoulder, we waved at each other before disappearing into the crowd. The four of us walked around some more before reaching near the high stage where performers were drumming and dancing. An almost organised crowd of people followed the dance. Wayne and I joked about how the field looks like the stadium in Code Geasswhere Euphemia kills a bunch of Japanese. We then made our way to the seats of the stadium and sat there. Soon before we knew it, the announcer announced that Bon Odori has come to an end. What?! Noooo!!! It was too short a feeling at Bon Odori!! Wayne was saying that we should have stayed at C2AGE instead. Hahaha. Still, the overall experience was great. Two great Japanese events in day? That sure is awesome!