DAY 1

We starting out at a reasonable time Friday morning. This year it was Lawrence and I, as well as Samantha and her friend Brittany. After we picked up Lawrence, I had an errand to run at the bank. We stopped by at Stater Bros. off Van Buren, ate, before we made another stop at another bank for Lawrence. Ok, we’re on our way to ALA!

The drive wasn’t too bad, not much traffic. So an hour later, we arrived and parked at the LAX Marriott. The girls got into their cosplay then went to get in line, yes a line, for registration. I guess it surprised us because we usually arrive on a Saturday and go through reg in a breeze. But yeah, there was a gang of people already at the hotel. It was almost noon after all.



Once we finished with registration, got our badges, ribbons, then the girls wandered off. I feel more reassured that they do that here because of all the security and staff walking around. Lawrence and I began our job of taking pictures for the magazine. We did nothing else for the rest of the day. Around two, we tried to check in, but of course the rooms we not ready. Strike One! That’s cool. I expected that.

On a tangent, a few days before, I bought a new 55-200mm lens for the camera…upon recommendation from a co-worker. I was going to buy one anyway, but I need some advice. Well, now that we’re live, the lens didn’t quite work out. On top of that, I left the regular 18-55mm lens at home. FFFFFFF!!!!! So we took a taxi to closest Best Buy to get a lens. Sure, there were other, better “camera” stores, but this was the closest. When we arrived, I went in to buy that lens. Oh man, there was no help what so ever. Another customer and I had to grab someone from the computer department. Then, the lens wasn’t available. Strike Two! That was a $30 wasted trip.

Back at the hotel, round two at the front desk. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon now. Strike Three! Room not ready yet. Ok, by this time, we we fatigued and irritable. I stayed cool. We decided to get our luggage and leave it at the bell desk.



With the camera, we just had to do the best with what we have. At the pool, I bumped into an old acquaintance, Jerry Shaw. As usual, he’s just around taking pictures, enjoying his hobby. We killed time at the pool and terrace areas taking pictures. We walked through the small dealer’s room. Why some people call it an exhibit hall, I don’t know. Everything on “exhibit” is for sale.

So an hour went by, back at the front desk. By now all the clerks know me! They didn’t check my ID anymore. So, we were left with a choice—wait another 30 minutes to an hour for a double or a single that ready. Foul Ball! Because we were tired, irritable and the girls wanting to know if we got a room, we took the single. Ok, so the bell boy met us up at the room. Christ! The door was pushed open. We just dropped our stuff and headed out again. Upon closing the room door, it didn’t close all the way.



Back the in the dealer’s room for one more look. Got my Satoshi Urushihara book! I’m one happy camper now. We got hungry. Somehow Samantha read my mind. She called and asked if we’re going to eat. Not yet, I said. So she dropped the bomb and told be that she and Brittany made some “Hetalia” friends and went to eat at Carl’s. At this point, there’s nothing I could do. So I told her to call me when they get back. We went to the Fashion Show to check it out and saw this as a picture taking opportunity. It was cool, but I was expecting it to be more. Oh well. It was cool though. While in line, we met this guy named Scott that just moved here from somewhere back East. It was his first time at an anime con and he hung out with us for a bit.



Lawrence and I were on out way back to the room to cook and eat the ramen. Ok, the room door won’t open! WTF!!! Really? Strike Four! We’re SOOO out by now. “Shimmering Sparkle!!!!!” Lloyd came out with a vengeance! So we thought the room key got demagnetized somehow. Plausible. So we went back down to the front desk, explained what’s going on, got new keys and went back up. WTF!!! It won’t open still. I went to the nearest phone and had a manager from up to check out door. He finally arrived and check the door himself. He had barge the door open! Damn, I hope we didn’t have to do that! Now back in the room, the manager called up a maintenance person to check it out. To make a long story short, two maintenance men came up to “fix” the door while we watched the Clippers kick the Lakers ass. By the they finished, it was partially fixed. We were offered free brew for our “inconvenience.” But throughout the entire time, we were praying they couldn’t fix it and they’d have to give us a new room. The Coors Light sufficed. We are our cup-o-ramen dinner…and beer.

At least if the girls needed to go in and out the room, it was easy. By the time we were all in the room, we all crashed shortly after. What a day!

DAY 2

Saturday morning went off without a hitch. Since we all crashed out early the night before, we all got up pretty much early after getting a good night’s sleep…except Lawrence. After getting ready, we all went to have breakfast the the Latitude. This breakfast was our one and only “good” meal for the entire con, so we made the best of it.

The girls had to get some of their stuff in the car that we forgot to get so we went to get them. As soon as we were done and closed the back hatch. Lo and behold, there was Kristen, and I think, her brother, walking toward us. I knew I was going to try to meet her today. I was bent on looking for Sailor Mars throughout the day! But there she was! What a coincidence! In the parking structure. They were only here for the day. Bummer. So they where on their way to get their stuff. We parted.



As soon as we got back to the hotel, the girls left us to get their cosplay ready while Lawrence and I walked around the convention. We had nothing planned, so we decided to catch Eyeshine’s concert, Johnny Yong Bosh’s band. For years, we always talked smack about his band. But now my eyes were open. They’re actually pretty awesome. We stuck around for the whole concert. At the end, the audience and the band decided to do a electric and acoustic concert tomorrow. I bought their first CD and a guitar pick.

While in the dealer’s room, I found this dealer that sold old comics in a folder, as I was browsing their table. This was another customer browsing through the folder and then turned to a set of Gunsmith Cats comic from back in the day. So this customer and I started chatting about it. Cool. Luckily he go the ones I already had. So when it was my turn to browse through the folder, I found a few that I didn’t have. I snatched them up and got’em for only a buck each. The dealer told me that tomorrow (Sunday), they will have some Robotech comics and asked me to come back. I did.

We went back to the room to freshen up and drop off our haul. The room wasn’t cleaned. I though to myself “the girls must’ve been in the room when housekeeping came by” and left. Damn. I called the front desk to ask them to clean our room. They told me that they weren’t finished yet and will do our room shortly. Back down in the main floor, Lawrence and I made it in time for the “Anime Fandom Before the Internet” panel. My buddy, David Keith Riddick was part of the panel.



For most of the day, we were walking from the pool, lobby and terrace areas talking pictures. Oh, at the pool...this how it went. I saw cosplayers as the Sailor Scouts sitting in one of the far benches. I had to look if it was Kristen as Sailor Mars. Ok, I had to look twice because I honestly could not recognize her. But when I did, after taking their pics, I realized that she looked so different in cosplay than everyday life. Great job! So wile walking around some more, we met up with some more of our buddies: James, Patrick and Jerry. Yeah, too bad the other homies couldn’t make it to the con.



We took more photos of cosplayers and cosplay gatherings for most of the afternoon, then it started getting dark. We went to our second panel “Best Recent Anime” of 2012. A lot of the anime that they went over I either overlooked or totally missed. Now I have to go back and take a second look at them. Great panel.



For the last panel of the day was “What’s Popular in the US vs. Japan” after a smoke break at the terrace. The panel started out as a free-for-all. But later, as the panel went on, the discussion became pretty deep. Instead of “what’s popular,” the discussion became out the anime industry in America. Oh man, it was déjà vu. Back in Expo ’96, our other buddy, Ron, also had a panel about the industry. It started about the same time, but this panel ended in an hour. Ron’s panel, though ended, continued because there were no other panels using the room next. And when we were kicked out of the room, we continued the panel at Denny’s until three in the morning. I wish this panel lasted more than an hour.

After the panel, we roamed around some more then chilled in the room. We were pretty exhausted and it was around ten already. We did make plans to go to the taco party on the 18th floor, but we weren’t sure. Too tired. Eventually we did. Good choice. As soon as we stepped off the elevator on the 18th floor... “shhhhhhh!” is all we heard. I thought we were in the wrong place. Oh, we all had to be quiet because the rooms on the 18th were occupied and people were already sleeping. It was 11 after all. So people were directed to get in line and “shhhhhh” be quiet. It was tough to be quiet. It was cool though. Through whispering, I was joking around with this cute girl that was in line behind us. We just couldn’t help but giggle and laugh quietly the entire time in line. Damn, I forgot her name! It was one of those fated encounters in life. So we got our tacos. I forgot to leave a contribution in the tip jar. Some staff I am! After we finished our one taco, we headed back, watched Bleach on Adult Swim, ate more ramen, drank Coors and crashed.

DAY 3

I was the first one to head out. I just wanted to go outside to get some cold LA air. There was nothing going on at seven in the morning, a few early birds, convention staff (a lot whom I don’t know) were running around and nothing else. After literally chilling, I went back up to catch everyone else up and getting ready. We ate some of the remaining ramen and packed our belongings. While the girls got ready, Lawrence and I grabbed our “big” luggage and packed them away in the car so we don’t have go through the mad elevator rush. Best choice we made.



We had nothing scheduled for the last day as we were planning to head out around two. We were thinking about going to a couple panels, but no. Oh yeah, we went to the Video Game Voice Acting Panel at ten. Man, those guys were pretty funny taking about the their experiences in the biz. They’re actually down-to-earth in all aspects. Nice. I think some of them were still getting over hangovers, though.

We made one last trip to the room before we checked out. SOB!!! The girls forgot a lot of stuff in the room. They even forgot their phone chargers! So Lawrence and I went through the room with a fine tooth comb to gather up what they forget and what they bothered not to get. There was a lot of stuff we took to the car, through the elevator rush. Luckily it was only 3-4 bags full of stuff.

Eyeshine’s second concert was even more awesome. We got there in time for it to begin. They started off with an electric set. Half way through their allotted time, they switched to acoustic instruments. This time, Johnny and the band were pretty mush ad-libbing. They took questions from the audience and sung back the answers with music. I wish I could ad-lib like that.



When the concert was finished, we just hung out, dealers room and photos. I did go back to that one dealer that sold the comics and bought a few more assorted comics, primarily Robotech. I picked up a Space Battleship Yamato “model.” And, oh, I finally got to try Tentacle Grape from J-List. Sweet! it was kinda like Concord grape soda, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t natural. I should’ve kept the bottle. Bummer.

It was around three when we left. But before going back to the IE, we made a pitstop in Gardena. I picked up a few, rare, used things at BookOff and then we ate at the Curry House.