Anime Expo 2010 - Day 1

“As I wake up in the morning and raise my weary head, I had on old Colt for a pillow and the earth was last night’s bed. I don’t know where I’m goin’. Only God know where I’ve been. I’m a devil on the run, a six gun lover, a candle in the wind.” Only if I started my day like that every day at Expo, but no. I get up early, do the “3 S’s” and leave for another crazy day with the guys. And sometime we all get “shot down in a blaze of glory.” I really don’t know where that all came from. May it’s because I’m trying to play that riff on my guitar the other night.

We tool the bus to the convention center. When we arrived, it was weird. We were dropped off I between the Nokia and South Hall with no directions on where to go. With much thought, and walking back and forth, we decided to go where the crowd is. We got our concert tickets. Mayn't concert was 20 clams! Damn! Anyway we went to opening ceremonies. At first, we thought it was assigned seating, but it was seating anywhere. It was cool because we right at the first row. We got to everyone close up. We saw Danny Choo. At first we thought he was the MC, but wasn't. So when the opening ceremonies began, Danny danced. The rest was pretty cool. Because we were up front, without our knowing, many Guests of Honors were walking back and fourth in front of us. Until we know, there was May’n, walking everywhere.

After opening ceremonies, we took the long to South Hall. We didn’t have anything planned until the May’n panel. About 11:30, we got in line. At the panel, someone wanted May’n to sing Megumi song. Other than that, people asked the stupidest questions, but some were actually good.

We left early form the panel and went to the RST concert at the nokia live. Man, it was hot. But they were hot, too. Suki, one of the singers, was my type and I took a picture with them. We then went to get something to drink because we were waiting for the next panel. Our first sustenance for the day.

Next was the Ochigo panel which feature the voice actor, Mazakazu Morita, of Ichigo. The main thing there was he got people from the crowd to voice over a Bleach clip. AS with everything, all the events were running late.

I was running late to meet up with Tim and Susan. So I went to the hotel to drop off a key. I was supposed to go back back, but Lawrence called me that tickets have to be bought. So we skipped out of the AKB48 concert. Now I'm waiting for him here at the hotel. I guess he arrived and he didn’t see me, so I got my key back and went up to the room. Several minutes later Tim and Susan arrived. Lawrence and I went to eat dinner at Subway and the other two went to get their badges.



We met up again at the convention center. Lawrence and I didn’t have anything planned other than the AMVs which started at eight, so we walked around. Then we remembered that Beni had a concert so we went to the Live and meet with Adrian. Anyway, on the way there, we met up with Tim and Susan, so we just rested.
After almost an hour, we went over the Live and just waited for the AMVs while listening to the outdoor DJs. The AMVs were not to start for a little more to Tim and Susan went to eat. Lawrence and I looked for staff giving out tickets, but there were none. It was still a little warm outside so we went to get drinks.



At the drinks shop, we were enjoying out drinks when all of a sudden, there was a line forming down the sidewalk. We asked what the line was for. It was for the Yoshiki Foundation. Yoshiki is a drummer and pianist for the Japanese rock group, X Japan. Other members are the singer, Toshi, bass, Heath, guitars, Pata and Sugizo. So we got in line. We had absolutely no idea this was going on. It was supposed to be free…yes, it was. From what we understood at the time, X Japan is doing a free charity concert. The Yoshiki Foundation sponsors the Make a Wish Foundation, Meals on Wheels and one other I forgot about. So this event was totally unexpected and totally not AX related. So after another long wait outside and a bunch of douches in line, we got in the Nokia Club. It was totally awesome. Dance floor on one side and a bar at the other.

Apparently, we found out they were there to shoot a music video. We still waited a long time for it inside. There was a goth fashion show which was cool and boring. Anyway, a hour later, Toshi, Yoshiki and Sugizo, did play an acoustic version of their song “Born To Be Free” or something like that. Oh, some was also a costume contest. On a tangent, yesterday, Lawrence found a badge someone lost. The badge we found belong to one of the winners of the costume contest. Funny. Anyway the music video shooting was awesome. They didn’t play live though. The same song was playing, but they synced their playing to the music.

After the music video,we went back to the hotel. It was around midnight. When we saw the line for the buses…screw it, we took a taxi back. It’s very late. We’re very tired. This blog will not be posted until Friday night…maybe.

We started out about 640. Tiarra and I dropped off Samantha at my dad’s place and then picked up Lawrence. Off we were to the Metrolink station. I wanted to start off early so we don’t miss the last morning train. If we did miss it, it was a 6-hour wait for the next train to LA. We made it. Off to LA.

It went way smooth–no longer wait than 5 minutes to the bus or anything. Once we arrived around the hotel, we chilled for a bit and had drinks and coffee at the Starbucks. After that, we checked in at the Bonaventure. This time, we got the blue tower.



After settling down, we went off to Little Tokyo. From the stop where we caught the next best shuttle, we got off in front of City Hall. Unknowingly, I jay-walked across a pedestrian crossing when it wasn’t good to go. At Weller Plaza, we had lunch at Orochon Ramen. We decided to eat out because it was already hot. Even though it was hot inside, we ate outside where it was as hoot but had a breeze. After lunch we bought some supplies at Marukai Market and headed back to the hotel.

We rested for a few. On the way, we decided to get haircuts. We found the place after some time. Apparently, this particular barber need an appointment. We didn’t make one since we didn’t know our chedule. Now it was off to get our food supplies at the local Ralph’s on 9th St. Awesome as the Ralph’s is, we only bought food we could actually eat in out rooms. On a tangent, on the way there, on the shuttle, there was a couple arguing about manners. Anyway, we bought our supplies and headed back to the hotel. When we got back, we realized we bought the wrong ramen pack. Instead of the cupped ramen, we got the “to-cook” ramen packs. We called for back-up.

We’re off to pre-registration. When we got there, we got off the wrong stop. This year registration is at South Hall, unlike last year when it was at West Hall. Upon arriving, the line snaked around the parking structure closest to the 10 freeway. By the looks of it, there was double or triple the amount of pre-registrants. We arrived in line about 4. We believe we were at the half way point by 5:30. For the first 30 minutes, we did not move…if you consider moving 20 feet, moving. For the last hour, the line moved regularly…for another hour. So by the time we got our badges, it was about 6:30. Our original plan was to catch the last DASH. Nope. It didn’t happen. By luck we caught a random bus back to the hotel. We did not plan to walk back…for today.



We took a side trip to the barber close by to make an appointment, but he was already close. So we ate dinner at Carl’s. I didn’t know Carl’s served beer. There were a number of people drinking pitchers of beer in the dining area. So we called it the day. We’re tired from this Day 0.