Left Hand Not Right Hand! ARRRGGHHH!

Cosfest X.1 10th Anniversary 2011

My first trip out of Malaysia without my parents and my first anime convention out of Malaysia, I went to Cosfest X.1 in Singapore with Cheryl, Nicole, Yumi and Jean. This also means it's my first time going out to an event (and out to a country) with a group of girls with me being the only guy. Harem manga much? It doesn't end here.

This trip to Singapore made me learn and realise how beautiful Singapore is compared to Malaysia, how easy it is to go from one place to another, how green the country is and also how expensive the food is. I constantly had the RM1 = 2SGD in mind. Despite that, I didn't have food problems. In fact, I would still have a lot of money if only I didn't go into fanboy mode.

Pre-Cosfest

After class on Friday, Cheryl, Nicole and I each went to buy lunch. I went to Giant and bought bread for breakfast for my stay in Singapore. We met back up and waited in class for Nicole's dad. We got our bus tickets to Singapore from Jean the day before and Nicole's dad will be driving us to Tasik Selatan where the Bandar Tasik Selatan (BTS) bus terminal is located. We got in and waited for our bus at the gate we were directed to. Excited and nervous I was, I couldn't wait to touch down in Singapore.

The three hour ride in the bus wasn't much of a bother. What surprised me was that half-way through the trip, our bus stopped after a toll and the driver came in and called out all the people going to Singapore. We were going to switch buses because the other bus goes to Kovan, our destination faster. Which was great. The second bus we took has better seats, and a better atmosphere.

Going into the Causeway Link and the Customs, I was nervous and constantly worried about it, kept on worrying about missing out some procedures or something. It went well, now I got more confidence to go into Singapore alone (still preferably with friends or family though). After all that, we went back to our bus and proceeded to head to Kovan.

When we got to Kovan, we found Jean and Yumi waiting for us already. They got to Singapore earlier than us because they didn't have class. We got together and had dinner there. After that, we took the MRT to Pasir Ris where our chalet, Costa Sands Resort and where Cosfest is held. Changing trains and boarding them took us almost about an hour before we got to Pasir Ris. Jean took us to the chalet and we all settled in, relaxing our bones and stretching out our limbs. Two of Jean's friends came to our room to have a chat. After chatting, we took turns to bath and then we went out to buy supper at a 24 Hour mart outside Costa Sands. We bough some instant noodles and snacks and then went back to our room. After supper we got ready for bed. Alarm was set to go off at 7.30a.m.

Cosfest Day 1

I woke up wondering what time it is and why the room was so dark, partially because I was still blur and didn't remember that I was in Singapore. Suddenly Nicole's alarm went off,nyanyanyanyanyanyanya, "Oh, I'm in Singapore.", I rolled back under the sheets. I woke up to the second wave of Nyancat after I dozed off a little. Still staying under the sheets, someoneelse's alarm went off too and then I pulled my head out of the sheets only to turtle myself back in to the presence of light rays from the Sun. The girls have gotten out of bed and started getting ready for the day. I lazed around for a bit and then I got up and get myself ready too.

When I was done, the girls were putting on their makeup and costumes. I waited for a while watching them put their makeup on. Honestly I was quite fascinated. After awhile I got bored and started to feel sleepy. After checking the time, I decided to get into full costume. Nicole helped me out and then I continued to wait. Cheryl insisted that I go to the event first but I refused because I doubted that I can make my way their safely as I was half-blind from wearing my mask. It soon rained so I laid down and watched the fan spin until without realising it, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, the first thing I heard was an unfamiliar voice talking. I got up and someone said, "Whoa, that's scary.". I was a little confused and thirsty. Cheryl introduced me to the unknown voice. In a second I figured out that this girl is Jean's friend who will be staying our room, then that makes another two more people missing. Then they said something about a pair of twins. That means everyone is here already. I stood up and told Nicole that I want to take off my mask because I got thirsty. The girl was surprised because she assumed I was a girl as my face was hidden and everyone else was a girl in the room. A quick introduction, the girl is Harenai and the twins, unfortunately I can't remember their names, we kept calling them 'Twins'. I think one is Wei Li and the other is Wei Xing. Anyway, the two of them is another case of Pei Jin and Pei San, the pair of twins from my class. The three girls are Singaporeans and had a discussion of cultural differences for a while.

After drinking some water, I sat around some more feeling somewhat sleepy. The rain had stopped while I was asleep. I had slept an hour and the girls were still not ready yet. They still had a little more before we are ready to hit the event. I waited patiently until they were all ready and I put on my mask again with Nicole's help and we headed out. Harenai and the twins stayed as they were not ready yet.

Making my way out, I had to keep an eye out on Cheryl's bright red dress and Nicole's Peach cat. Cheryl, Yumi and Jean were cosplaying characters from Kuroshitsuji, Madam Red, Ceil and Sebastian respectively. Nicole was cosplaying her original character. The event place was big so I couldn't identify how many cosplayers there was but the moment I stepped into the event hall, I could feel the amount of spirit in that hall. It was epic! It was not like any event in Malaysia, the spirit was intense and I could tell that everyone was really excited.

We walked around for a bit and in less than three minutes, people started asking Cheryl, Yumi and Jean to pose for photos. While I waited for them to be done, people started asking me for photos. Honestly I was happy because there were more people who knows 20th Century Boys than the people here in Malaysia. As I walked, I could hear people saying, "Tomodachi! Tomodachi!" and soon enough someone would ask to take a picture. Even though I was cosplaying my vest version of Tomodachi, because I didn't have a coat my size and had to borrow Yumi's vest, people still had a positive acceptance for my Tomodachi cosplay.Really, really happy.

Most of the time in the hall, I couldn't see much. The lighting either was too bright or too dark. After walking around for a while in the main hall, Cheryl said that she was shocked that there were no doujin booths around. We wandered around a bit and then made our way to another hall which Cheryl said was not open last year. Inside was all the booths that Cheryl was looking for. The reason for this change was probably because Confest was celebrating it's tenth anniversary, hence the spacious divide. The event place overall was very, very wide. Compared to the events in Malaysia, this is wider than Comic Fiesta 2009. There were a total of over thirty thousand participants and it didn't feel like it! That was how spacious the whole event was. Malaysian events need to learn from this.

I followed the group as they spazzed at artworks and stuff. The girls tried to show me the stuff on display. I could make out some stuff but things were still blur. After going around, I had a brief idea of what I want to buy. After we finished our round around the doujin booths, we made our way out to do some photo shoot. Since I couldn't see anything, I waited for them to finish. We then decided to go back to the chalet and take a break. At the chalet, I took off my mask with relief. I finally got to take a proper breath.

Yumi and Jean started photo shooting BL shots of Ceil and Sebastian. Because they were girls, I didn't receive much impact from the yaoi poses. I got the privilege to use Jean's DSLR to snap pictures. At least I got my hands on a good camera, my camera is epic fail. After snapping the pictures, Jean asked if I wanna do a photo shoot as well but I was lazy and didn't want to put my mask back on so I passed the offer.

We all went back to the event grounds again. This time I can see everything! Cosplayers here and there! Photographers here and there! The place was so big! Err.... It was smaller than what I had pictured in my mind when my mask was on... But it was awesome overall! With Jean's camera in possession, I went fanboy on a bunch of cosplayers. It was the first time I ever chased a cosplayer down. Usually I would be shy and miss the chance but I didn't! When Nicole and I saw the Gold (from Pokemon Gold and Silver) cosplayer, we looked at each other for a second and then made a run for it to grab some shots. I later chased a Phoenix Wright and then decided that I shouldn't make Cheryl, Yumi and Jean wait for me. We met up with the twins again and then we headed back to the chalet.

Getting out of costume and relaxing around, taking turns to bath. The twins went out to join their friends for barbecue at the pits outside the chalets. While we freshen up ourselves, it rained heavily and the twins came back. The twins didn't really get to eat anything aside from a single bite of a sausage so we asked them to join us for dinner at a restaurant called JustAcia.

The rain stopped after awhile and we headed out after the twins were ready. At JustAcia, you get to have free flow of drinks and dessert when you order a set meal and everything on the menu is a set meal, equals bottomless drinks and dessert no matter what meal you order. After I finished my sambal salmon fillet, I nom on loads of ice-cream until I got the mango flavored ice-cream. Bleh, I didn't like the taste and I lost the appetite to proceed. Poor me. I was also trembling from cold from eating so much ice-cream.

After dinner, we headed back to the chalet. After a short trip back to our room, we made our way to see some of Yumi's friends. They stayed in a bigger chalet behind D'Marquee. We sat around in a circle and chatted for some time. We later excused ourselves and left for bed.

When we got back to our room, Harenai also came back. We packed our bags ready to check out the next day and then went to sleep soon after arranging ourselves. I got a bed to myself again while Jean and Harenai slept on the floor with a sleeping bag, the twins got a bed to themselves and Yumi, Cheryl and Nicole shared the big bed. It was cold so I wrapped myself in the sheets.

Cosfest Day 2

I woke up feeling a little hot being wrapped up like a sausage bun. Feeling woozy and still sleepy, I made my way to the toilet and later slumped back in bed still tired of running and spazzing about the day before. Harenai and the twins were already awake, meaning it was either 6.30a.m. or pass 6.30a.m. because the twins said that they will wake up at that time. Nicole's alarm went off and I continued to laze in bed covering myself under the sheets shielding myself from the Sun's rays again. The girls soon got up and I stayed a little longer under the sheets. After awhile, I got up as well and freshen myself.

I was not gonna cosplay on this day so I got into my casual attire and sat down to watch television. There was this cartoon titled Grossology. The logic was flawed and as the titled suggests, it is really gross. In this episode I watched, the villain, Frederick Follicle, has overgrown living hair and uses his hair to attack and sort. Disgusting as it is, Frederick uses his overgrown nipple hairs to attack, his nose hair to push buttons and his ear hair to move about, much like Dr. Octopus's robot arms. Flawed logic, Frederick stole a gun that removes all hair from a person's body, the victims of the gun however, turned bald but still had their eyebrows and eyelashes. I was disappointed.

After that was Kamen Rider O-Den. It's funnier than the Kamen Rider I watched before (I don't really watch Kamen Rider actually, honestly, I'm surprised that young adults enjoy Kamen Rider! One of the twins sang along with the opening song and she's older than us by a year!). Epic fail as the show was English dubbed and the dubbing didn't match the bishounens. Yumi was spazzing over the bishounen actors but was disappointed by the voice overs. Damn, why can't dubbers get the voices right?

After everyone was ready, we took our bags over to Jean's friend's room because we were checking out as we only paid the chalet room for until afternoon. After that, Cheryl, Nicole and I went to the event grounds together. Yumi, Harenai and the twins stayed behind to finish getting into costume and Jean helped them.

The three of us were surprised when we saw almost no cosplayers around D'Marquee. Turned out that the event starts at 12p.m. We got there at 10a.m. The doors however were already open so we went in and sat around for a bit. There were some cosplayers inside already getting into costume and makeup. I tried to take a picture of a Heavy (from Team Fortress 2) cosplayer but my camera can't get good lighting and because it's an old model, I can't change the ISO or the aperture. I decided not to take any photos then because it'll be a fail anyway.

When more cosplayers came in, the three of us made our way into the doujin booths hall. I went fanboy and started shopping. I bought a bunch of badges and two t-shirts. I got some badges for Cheryl, Yumi, Jean and Nicole each as a gift. After the shopping, we met up with Yumi, Jean and the twins again. Hanging around for awhile, we went got separated again and Cheryl, Nicole and I made our way to the cosplay event hall and sat down near the stage area to wait for the other girls' return. When everyone got back together, we left to get our bags to leave because we had to catch a bus to go back at 3.30p.m. The twins left the same time with us, just that they left for home.

The five of us made our way to the MRT station and took the train to Woodlands were we caught a bus to go back to Johor. After going through Customs and Immigration and the bus ride, we got to Johor Bahru but we were clueless on how to find bus back to KL because we didn't book a bus to go back (supposedly to save money). Going through quite the adventure, we manage to get to a bus terminal and got a bus ticket back to KL. The bus however was freakishly slow and our bus only departed at 8.00p.m. which was way behind schedule.

Because we were not confident about the bus service and I was the only guy, I felt the responsibility to make sure all the girls were safe. I stayed up through the ride until at one point I fell asleep after getting too tired. The bus got back at Tasik Selatan Bus Terminal at around 1.00a.m. Because it was late, I stayed a night at Cheryl's house along with Nicole.

Despite the depressing ending, my overall experience of traveling to Singapore and back was awesome. I really, really enjoyed myself thanks to Cheryl, Yumi, Nicole and most of all Jean for guiding us through the whole trip. Also, thanks to the twins, Harenai, Jamie and co., Judas and co. and everyone who participated at Cosfest X.1 2011! I can't wait to go back to Singapore again for another event.

Edit: I found out that at Cosfest I have been using the wrong hand (I used my right hand when it should be left) for Tomodachi's pose. Epic fail. I feel so disappointed in myself.

Green Cycling

It's been quite some time since I blogged because I was kinda busy these pass few days. Like really, really long.

Weeks ago (like last month I think?), I attended this Green Cycling activity held by Setia Alam. Apparently my family was one of the winners for the recycling activity and we won a bicycle. To claim the prize one of us had to cycle for a cause. My dad told me to cycle so I did.

The cycling activity was held at the big park in Setia Huh. Besides the cycling there were some booths selling food and health related stuff.

When we got there, my mom quickly went to register our family name. We got our free bike and I had to wear this Setia Green Cycling t-shirt in conjunction to the event. The best part is, WE HAVE A NEW BICYCLE!

My family left before the cycling started because they had to send my sister to tuition. After warm up exercise, we started cycling. My parents who were stuck at the traffic lights (for the cyclists to pass) tried to take a picture of me when I passed by but they said I was too fast and missed me; I was a small dot in the far end.

After I finished, I met with my mom and sister soon after and we had some of the free food. While we were having our meal, the bike stunt performance came on. We watched for a while and then we decided to go home. But my mom suggested that we do some rock painting. I reluctantly joined my mom and sister but I later enjoyed it a little. The rock painting was free by the way and you can take your rock home. I painted three in total, a floppy cube design (Rubik's Rock), a Voltorb and a car. The car was pretty cool because the outline of the rock looked like a car.

After that we walked home with our new bicycle. Yeah.

27 June: This post has been dragged on for almost a week now. Screw this, I'm posting it the way it is now.