It’s been three years since we went of Fanimecom last, in 2008. This was two months in the planning and it took too long to finally arrive. We left the Inland Empire about 3:30 this morning. I picked up Tim and Lawrence then made it to Ontario in no time. I completely forgot that it was a Friday morning, then we realized it was because of all the morning traffic to L.A. Going through ONT was a breeze–with one hick-up. Tim almost lost his driver’s license going through security, but luckily a TSA agent helped him out. The flight to San Jose was non eventful. There wasn’t a lot of people on the plane, but more than the last time we flew. We arrived on time.



To our surprise, the terminal was completely remodeled and the directions to the various area were clearly visible. It became a modern, streamlined airport. We took the courtesy shuttle to the Light Rail station a couple miles away. When we arrived there, we missed the train that was already there. But anyway, there’s only a few minutes between trains so it wasn’t a issue. We just had to relearn to get our train tickets. It took no time to get to the convention center area in downtown San Jose. After we got off, we check in our hotel. Luckily we were able to get our room that early in the morning. In the past, we had to leave our luggage at the bell station until our rooms were ready that afternoon. Next was registration, even though the line was long, it took no longer that fifteen minutes to get our badges–a breeze.



We had nothing planned in the morning. I then remembered that I needed to buy a tripod and a couple of things I forgot to bring with me, so we went to the mall. We were planning to go there anyway, but now we had a reason to. At the mall, we found a Radio Shack (which all malls have) where I bought a mini tripod. After that, we were hungry so we looked for the food court. While looking, we saw a GameStop and looked around. “What do you know, I travel some 400 mile to buy an old PS2 game.” Yes, I bought one, but it was one I tried to look for at the stores in our area. We finally got to the food court. We were supposed to eat light because I thought we were to Japantown after to eat lunch at a Korean restaurant there, but it was all a misunderstanding. So we filled up and saved our appetite for later on.



On our way back, we rested a bit before going to the convention. It was long morning. We were all exhausted already, but we still had the entire day ahead of us. Back at the convention center, we had nothing planned to we just wandered around. We caught the opening ceremonies in the common area. All the guest were introduced as well as an acrobatics show beforehand. Good thing it wasn’t drawn out because of the very, very, very limited seating. Most were standing. When it was over, we walked around the dealer’s hall. There was so much we wanted to buy, but strongly held off because we had to bring all that stuff back on the plane.

After wandering aimlessly some more, we made it back to the hotel to reload. After being refreshed,we went back to the convention. While the way there, we got a phone call from Tami and planned our meet. Once said, we checked out artist alley. It was pretty quick, but there was a lot of very excellent artists...pro quality too. But we just breezed through. We went back outside to take some more pictures and waited for Alex and Tami.



When they arrived, we went to this Japanese ramen restaurant called “Ringer Hut,” a chain restaurant from Japan. The place looked pretty homey, but the food selection very diverse, more that any other Japanese restaurant we’ve ever eaten at. We got caught up in everything while eating dinner. And after diner, we continued our conversations a little longer. Then we went to a Starbucks, drank our coffee drinks and talked a lot more until closing. On the way back, we were dropped off back at the convention center. As a surprise, they have a some gifts–a good selection of manga and DVDs. Thanks. Signing out. Exhausted today. Been awake for 20 hours already.