We woke up early to head to the convention center for the opening ceremony. There was a line already when we arrived. An hour wait was ahead of us. We finally got in and waited again before the opening ceremony. As with AX tradition, it started late. I never though we were on Japan time. We saw all the guests. The girls from the Morning Musume group were all cute. After the intro of more guests, the opening ceremonies ended with a fizzle.

We went to the exhibit hall, but it was still closed. Instead we bought some AX merchandise after wandering around the area for a bit. Afterward, we went back to the hotel to eat. Because the room wasn’t cleaned yet, we quickly refreshed ourselves and ate the Subway down below. I left a key for Joe at the bell desk. So we went back to the convention center. Before the Morning Musume panel started, we listened to the Morikawa panel that was currently in session.



The Morning Musume panel was cool. This was the first time real famous idol group came from Japan. They each introduced themselves. Unfortunately I developed a headache from being tired and from their high-pitched voices. As the panel switched to the questions & answers, they were asked some really good questions which surprised me. When the panel finished, the staff gave out autograph session tickets. We left and went to the Moi Dix Mois concert across the hall. If I had a choice between Morning Musume and Moi Dix Mois, I'd pick Moi Dix Mois. I prefer watching a band playing instruments rather than singing with recoded music. But Morning Musume has their cuteness going for them. I concur!



After the concert, my headache went away. We finally went to the dealers room for the first time today. All we did was wander around looking for stuff, after we all split up. There was really nothing that interested me. Well, maybe a few things. But I had to think about them. Really hard. I did buy samantha a parasol and, myself, a keychain. Buy accident, we all met up again. Lawrence met up with some buddies of his that he met there. He hung around with them for the rest of the evening. The rest of us chilled before the premier of the Gurren Lagan movie started. Right before the movie started, Adrian went to sit closer to the front. And at the end of the panel, to get tickets for the autograph signing for the next day.

Joe was already on way to LA by Metro Rail. In the meantime, Tim and I decided to wait for Joe at the front of convention center and to take some pics. Well, Joe had problems getting here. So we abandoned waiting for him and went to the Battle of the Bands line because we believed that Joe wasn’t coming directly to the convention center. But because the line was long for the BotBs, the Staples Center was next door and tried to get a picture with the Oscar Dela Hoya bronce stature there. The area was cordoned off by the LAPD because of the pending Michael Jackson memorial this coming Tuesday. So Tim and I went back to the same waiting place in front of the convention center. Joe unexpected showed up so went went to the Battle of the Bands. There, we stayed and listed to a lot of local bands performing j-rock music. Before the end, Tim and I went to Anime Singled Out to check it out. In the meantime, Joe went to the hotel to get Lawrence’s badge to use the shuttle. While waiting in line, the room where the panel was being held was full so they weren’t letting people in. We went back to finish off the Battle of the Bands. Joe came back. And shortly we returned back to the hotel to eat dinner...at midnight.

We started out early today. I was so excited last night about taking a vacation at AX that I hardly got enough sleep–three and a half hours. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get any sleep. Also, Lawrence was sick with a cold. Adrian came to pick me up around 6:40 am. We left around 7 to pick up Lawrence and then to the Metrolink station. Just like last year, we took the Metrolink. It was a smooth ride. We arrived at Union Station around 9:30, took the Dash and arrived at the Westin Bonaventure around 10.



We took a little breather in the room. It felt like we did a lot already and couldn’t believe it’s still mid-morning. According to plan, Adrian and I went grocery shopping for our weeks-worth of supplies while Lawrence went back to the hotel to get some rest and sleep. The Downtown Ralph’s we went to was awesome. It was like another world in there. It was so clean, something we didn’t expect from Downtown. We got our supplies and headed back after an hour of running around. You see, we were supposed to have done this last year, but didn’t.



After resting again, Adrian and I took a little trip to Little Tokyo. We didn’t have to, but it was to kill some time until time to get our badges at the convention center. Lawrence stayed again to sleep and rest. When we arrived in Little Tokyo, we didn’t bother with the main plaza. I only wanted to go to Kinokuniya to look for a FM Magazine, which I haven’t bought since last summer. After the bookstore, we relaxed at the local cafe drinking iced café mochas because of the downtown heat. We picked up a few more snacks at the market and headed back. Now we’re waiting for Tim to show up after he called and told us he missed to 2:45 train. Bummer! He left from Bernardino instead.



Tim finally arrived. We spotted him walking down the street from our room. As soon as he arrived, we all took the Dash to the convention center to get out badges. We were all exited to get our badges early so that we don’t have to wait in the very, very long pre-registration lines on the actual first day of Expo. Wrong! As soon as we entered the convention center and followed the registration lines, we saw a huge, huge, HUGE crowd. That was the pre-reg line! So I guess that’s the beginnings to line waiting. It had to start somewhere, so why not the day before? It was a quick two hour wait. During one point in the line, groups were split up into smaller lines for the actual registration. Lawrence went to the closest line, while the rest of us went to the furthest line because it was the shortest of the six smaller lines. Bad decision. Lawrence was way ahead of us because he had the faster line. We, in turn, had the slowest line. When we arrived at the front, the person dictating when to use registration computers let two people or two groups of people use two of the six available computers. While in the other lines, all six of their computers were constantly begin used. WTF! After we got our badges, we relaxed in front of the convention center until it got real cold, then we took the shuttle bus back to the hotel. Woohoo! Cup-O-Noodles for dinner!!!