The next day, Sunday, 17 Feb, we only had 4 hours until we have to leave for Oakland Airport. Luckily a “homey” hooked us up with a small limo to the airport the night before. It was same price as an airport shuttle, but with style and no stops.

After we got ready, we left the Kabuki to search for Hotel Tomo, the much rumored “anime hotel” we keep hearing about. Eventually we found it after walking 4 blocks. It was cool inside. As you walk into the hotel lobby, there’s anime, live action and dramas playing on flatscreen TVs to the right. In front of the entrance is a wooly sitting things. To the left is the front desk. The lobby was really small. And the wall paintings were like the Corralians from Eureka 7. We asked the front desk clerk where the restaurant was. It was on the next floor.

The restaurant was all cool looking. There were more frescos of Corralians on one wall. The menus had anime characters one them!!! What more can an otaku want! Right? The guys had regular “Western” breakfasts and I had the Japanese-style breakfast. It was grilled Salmon, rice, radishes, nori, and some fermented daikon with salmon roe. After we ate, Tim asked the waitress for one of those menus as a keepsake. We only got a photocopied page.

We headed back to Japantown to take more pictures. Nothing opened until about 11AM. So at that time everything was closed. We did find a shop that serve taiyaki. We had some. We were killing time until lunch. There was this place called “Over the Bridge.” It was a restaurant that served curry and catered to otaku. An emergency came up. We did not have enough room in our luggage to carry the stuff we bought. We walked all over Japantown Mall to look for a carry-on bag. We settled for a smaller-type hand sack that cost us 6 bucks.

Over the Bridge finally opened at 11:30AM. We had 45 minutes to eat. The restaurant was so damn cool. There was wall-to-wall manga. All vintage stuff. The owner must’ve been a manga collector. We all ordered curry...all different of course. Tim, Lawrence and I had a morning cocktail. We took pictures of them. While we were waiting for our orders, we were looking around browsing the manga. The curry was equally good. It wasn’t like the box curry I usually eat. This curry was from scratch!.

So after lunch, we hightailed it back to the Kabuki. Our limo was already waiting. We got our stuff and off we went in luxury to Oakland Airport.

Check out the pictures by clicking on the Cosplay & Convention above and the clicking on Other Conventions.

So we finally made to AOD. We arrived Friday night, or Saturday morning. Anyway, it was damn late. We arrived in Oakland after our flight was delayed. AirBART, BART and the taxis were a bitch. I don’t recommend travel to the Bay Area at night, unless you have private transportation.

Well anyway, after a hearty breakfast, we went back to our rooms and changed into cosplay. Army officers from Full Metal Alchemist. Registration was snap. We waited a bit because the dealers exhibit hall didn’t open until 10AM. Opening ceremonies wasn’t until 11AM. When the dealers room opened, we finished it up in 15 minutes. That was it...then the hotel fiasco began.

I forgot to set up reservations for 2 nights. We had 2 rooms, but for 1 night. The plan was to stay in one room for another night. So we check out of one, but there were no rooms available for Saturday night. The front desk did their best.

Adrian and I went back to the room, skipping opening ceremonies, to look for a new hotel to stay in. No hotels in the immediate are had any vacancies. We even tried the rumored “anime hotel,” Hotel Tomo. None. The final one we found was the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown, which was 3 block west of the Cathedral Hill Hotel. After the opening ceremonies, we all went back to our rooms to pack our stuff, get out of cosplay and move to Kabuki. Funny thing...on the way to the Kabuki, we got lost. The reservations gal told us they were near the Carlton. Luckily we caught a taxi that took us to the right place.

The Kabuki Hotel was the bomb. We paid a little more but is was worth it. We were in Japantown. The room was excellent. What more can you say...for otakus anyway. We took pictures of everything in the room: the beds, the bathroom, the desk, the closet and the accessories of that room. It was just plain awesome.

After taking pictures of the room, we walked back to AOD for the Robotech panel with Johnny Yune. It was very informative. The panel was too short. Because of the hotel fiasco, we missed the digital art panel that followed. Since Adrian and I are into the graphic arts, the panel would’ve helped a lot. We just headed back to the Kabuki so we could meet up with Alex and Tami.

As we neared the hotel, we saw the Miyako Mall sign a go there instead. I haven’t been in that mall in over a decade. A lot had changed...that I could remember. We checked out all the video, toy and book stores they had. There was just too much to see. Since we had a lot of time until we met up with Alex and Tami, we just took our time shopping. That time was the longest I ever shopped and looked around at stuff. We finally met up with Alex and Tami and found a Japanese BBQ place called Juban. The waiter was very unenthusiastic, but we dealt with it. The restaurant was pretty good. The food was very tasty and we had a good time eating, drinking and being merry.

After an early dinner, Tami showed us in hole-in-a-wall toy store. I forgot what it was called. It was packed to the bone with stuff. Damn! They even had a 1/350 scale of the Space Battleship Yamato for $550. I want one. Since we were on a tight schedule, we had to drop off out stuff in the hotel room. We showed Alex and Tami our hotel room. Even they said it was nice. That’s when the conversation of Hotel Tomo came up again. After that, we parted ways because we had a masquerade to go to. Damn those San Francisco hills.

To AOD once again. It really kinda sucks that we only had one day passes to AOD. There was so much more to do Sunday. But because of poor planning on part of AOD, the schedule was posted the Tuesday before. It’s kinda bad for out-of-towners to plan ahead.

The masquerade was short and sweet. “Was that it?” “Yes, it was!” It was nostalgic for me though. It reminded me of how AX used to be. Sure more people attended early AXs, the point is to have fun, right? And there were some slow parts. The game show was interesting. Jesus Christ won. It’s only natural for an omnipotent being. This was the first masquerade I actually videotaped since AX2000 that I can remember. Too bad I had a crappy 1 hour battery. I was so worried about the batter going out, I paused and recorded skits instead of recording all the way through. A new 4 hour batter is on the way.

After the masquerade, we waited another 2 hours for the concert. It was the Black Crystals. It’s kinda stupid to have concert after a main event like the masquerade. And to make it worse, a majority of the demographics was made up of high schoolers. They had their parents pick them up after the masquerade. We actually saw that happen. We sat and waited for the concert near the hotel entrance. The concert began. The Black Crystals rocked out anime songs from the Beat Crusaders, Asian Kung-fu Generation to their own rendition of song from Yoko Kanno. They totally rocked the house. The guitar amp blew out a couple times. The concert should’ve been earlier in the day and the masquerade later.

That’s was Saturday. After a late dinner, we crashed out. Damn those hills. My legs are still sore.

Check out the pictures by clicking on the Cosplay & Convention above and the clicking on Other Conventions. Read More...