The con was all fun and games, until the Fire Nation Attacked….but more on that later!..

We’ll start out with Thursday, I got in pretty late so I was in my pj’s but a few of my friends in the room were already wandering around in cosplay scoping out good photo spots and just chilling out in general. We unpacked and got everything ironed and ready for the next morning.

Friday

The morning started early… much like the heroine of any slice of life anime…I sat up in bed and groggily rubbed my eyes…at least 3 of us were doing an easy set of costumes first but with the 5 people in my room getting into cosplay it makes for a bit of a rushed mess…We all got out onto the floor and to our respective photoshoots and then back up to the room for another quick costume change for a photoshoot in early afternoon.

My hubs and I took a break to get some lunch before I changed. It was freezing already and you could feel it was going to be a cold weekend if anyone needed to venture out for food or supplies from the nearby CVS.

Returning after lunch it was a change into Kougyoku Ren from Magi to meetup for another photoshoot… Very casual… Most of the photoshoots I went to were run well and allowed for some break time afterward… Since I was staying with folks I was cosplay with we were able to wander around the con during down time.

Later on in the day we returned to the room to relax and have a few drinks and get that much needed “wig break”… If you’re a cosplayer, or you perform a lot, you’ll find that when you wear wigs for a long period of time it feels soooo good to get them off your head… Even for a few minutes.
We decided to get back into costume after getting some food because it had gotten less busy on the con floor and we thought we might be able to get into some of the good photo spots while everyone else was preoccupied.

Friday wrapped up when we headed back to the room for some much needed sleep. We kept commenting that it felt like we had already done the whole con… Little did we know there was much much more to come….

Saturday

Started with waking up a bit late. I snoozed my alarm and only 2 of us had to be up for 7am anyway… Unfortunately one of them incurred a big mishap with their costume and the hotel iron. However, with the help of another roommate she was able to remedy it to the best she could for the rest of the con.

The rest of us slept later until 9 and thankfully I had worn the costume a few times so it was quick to put on everything and get my makeup just right. We got down to our photoshoot and enjoyed spending time with other friends who were doing the same group. Once that finished though we rushed up to the room…costume change again!!

But wait…what’s that sound… Oh no…
Is someone in the atrium is doing the Collassas yell?
……Had some dummy brought an air horn to con?
….Is that the fire alarm?…

Lo and behold the fire alarm started to go off. It was only in the atrium so we stayed put, watching them filter all the cosplayers from the main floor and lobby out into the freezing cold. It was colder than the day before and I felt badly for all cosplayers who were spandex and body paint as you could only imagine how cold some people were. Then the automated message came on for us to evacuate over the PA and we did…rumors had already started floating around as to what had caused it. By the time we were out in the parking garage many people already knew what the actual cause of the fire was. It was a very cold hour in the garage as we waited. My Friends and I all smooshed into a friend’s car to keep warm, calling our other friends and my hubs to make sure they were alright. The fire department and fire company came by and gave the all clear. There had been an electrical fire connected to the Maid Café but everyone got out alright.
After that excitement we expected the photoshoot to be cancelled or at least delayed..but nope as clockwork, it was right on schedule. We got to the location a few minutes late since it took some time to filter back in.
After the shoot, we walked around a bit and got some nicer shots in areas where there weren’t too many folks, we dared venture outside again. We also ran to get dinner as well, since it was getting to be that time again and one must remember to feed one-self while at the convention or you end up spending it in hospital.
We sat around shooting the shit in the room for a little while relaxing before we got back into costume for later that night. Changed and returned to the convention floor. The night time views in this hotel had always been very pretty and when people had lights in their costumes, it just adds to the ambiance.
It was another fun photoshoot, with everyone interacting with everyone else and many variations of pretty frequently costumed characters. The organizers were my roommates and they always run a tight ship. They had the idea of how they wanted to run it down to a T so it went very smoothly and even ended with time to spare at our location for specialty shots.
After that we were all pretty tired and returned to the room…but somehow got energy to do one last costume change for the night and go out to meet with some fellow cosplayers for a “pajama party” style shoot.
It was fairly uneventful, even for a photoshoot, as by the time we arrived it seemed to have wound down and people were playing cards. So we bolted and walked the convention again, meeting up with another one of our roommates at her own shoot and getting a few pictures of her and the group.

Sunday

The morning came with a very big yawn. Everyone was tired and feeling very lethargic…it was hard to get up again. But I wasn’t in costume, I ended up wearing Elegant Gothic Lolita that day. But I did have one roomie that did full on body paint like a boss for her Steven Universe cosplay photoshoot. My hubs and I dropped our things out into our car and came back to help our fellow roomie who had stayed in the room with the bags. Baggage check was a nightmare…We had to wait in line for an hour just to get the bags sent into the holding area and our other friends finally met back up with us.
One final walk of the dealer’s room and one final walk of the artists alley right before the convention shut down. 3pm we all started to gather up and went to a fellow friend’s room to change into normal clothes before catching a bite to eat. After lunch we parted ways hoping to see each other at the next con to come around.

PROS

• Friends!
• Rooming at the hotel
• Lovely/well- organized photoshoots
• Chillaxed overall experience… Except…

CONS

• Fire Alarm
• Really crowded EVERYWHERE
• Missed some folks I wanted to see due to amount of CROWDS!

EXTRAS!
Things that I didn’t experience much of but had heard/seen photo evidence that happened.
Someone or group punching a hole in a wall and writing “One Punch Men was here” on a piece of tape across it…
Someone vandalizing the first floor bathroom stalls by scraping the word “Katsucon” into the paint on them.
Someone flooding a hotel room so badly it seeped out under the door and into adjacent rooms.

That was pretty much what happened at Katsucon 2016… See you guys next year..and if the prices go up again… You’ll know why.

Ichigogami

Cosplayer and Teacher of the Costuming Arts. Big fan of having fun at conventions and making memories with friends. You will often find her attending events for J-fashion or Teaching new cosplayers at Studio Cosplay.

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