• The opening night concert was cool! Kristine Sa was cute and fun, and I liked her cover of Boa's Every Heart and especially the Ranma 1/2 theme. The main act was Kotoko, performing her only US concert this year - she's written and sang tons of anime theme songs, and does many styles of music. She had a full band (plus awesome dancers) and I was really close to the stage! I went to her Q&A panel the next day and enjoyed hearing her and her interpreter. There was one guy there who came to A-Kon from France just to see her show - what a fan!
• I really enjoyed meeting Peter Mayhew, the only and only Chewbacca. His handshake felt like his fingers could reach my elbow because his hands are so big! I got an autographed photo, and he told me a little story about how the photo was used in the Holiday Special. There were some cool Star Wars costumes around, too!
• Speaking of costumes, there were some great ones! I think there were more video game and sci-fi ones this year, including an incredible Borg costume with lots of working electronics. There seemed to be more guys dressed as cat girls and maids than before, and more pink hair than you ever thought you would see. There were also some twins carrying around dolls that looked like themselves - kind of creepy!
• Random enjoyment: I ate tons of Pocky, including my first time to try pineapple flavor! I ate my lunch in the J-Pop room and watched lots of videos, and watched a few episodes of My HiME in one of the screening rooms. I saw some truly amazing Beatmania players, and a couple who were constantly playing Nintendo DS together (true love). It was a fun convention and time really flew!

Labels: anime, photos, trips