Yesterday morning, we met at the usual place. Again, it was a last-minute decision. In the first place, we were supposed to go to the Macross Convention in UCLA. But the night before I change my mind because I looked at the schedule and there wasn’t anything interesting going on. So when Andy called me up, he invited me to go to the auto show with them. I gave in and said okay. So anyway, the plan was to leave at eight o’clock in the morning so we can have an early start. But at least we were able to leave around nine. Since I plan to go to the auto show is so wishy-washy, I wound up driving.

Luckily, the trip to Anaheim was pretty smooth. There was no traffic at all the way there. Even on the way to the convention center, going through the convention center streets was pretty easy. Since I paid for the gas, Andy and Tim took care of the parking fee and my entrance fee. On the way to the entrance, it was how it was like two years ago when we last went to the auto show. So we got our tickets and we enter the convention center. As soon as we entered, we started looking at the Honda cars that were right after the entrance. While looking around, we decided to take a clockwise route around the convention center so could see everything in some kind of order. But that didn’t work out because we started going just about everywhere, zigzagging through the convention, and seeing everything that we could see.



I was thinking around 11 o’clock, we should go eat lunch because around one o’clock there was going to be a bikini show. But as we looked around some more at some of the cars, we lost track of time and before we know it, it was almost one. The bikini show was supposed to start. When we got to the stage, there were a lot of people around the stage so was hard to get a good view. Before the contest started, I was looking around to see what else was going on. And to the right of the stage, there were the lingerie league girls. After little bit, the bikini show started. When the girls were brought to the stage, they weren’t in bikinis after all. They were actually in dresses. We all felt like we were gypped. In the program, it was going to be a bikini contest.

As the girls were introduced on stage, Andy and I were trying to take pictures of the girls. There was one problem though. In front of us, near the stage, there was a douche that had a huge flash coming out of this camera and was blocking our view of the stage and the girls. Of course it was upsetting, but what can we do. We tried our best with what we could do with the cameras. This time around, Tim brought his his SLR camera with us. Since I was tall, I was one that used the SLR to try to take pictures of the girls coming out. It was supposed to be an automatic camera, but it didn’t respond as quickly as I thought it would. There were times when I couldn’t take the pictures I wanted because of the two second delay. But at least Andy was there as a backup photographer. By the way, this time around I actually forgot to bring my own camera. But that’s cool, at least we had two cameras with us and in the meantime I was taking pictures with my phone.

When the contest ended, Tim and Susan were trying to find a place it down because they were tired. Andy and I stuck around for little while to see what was going on. And while we were hanging around the stage area, I took a picture with the WWF wrestler, Chyna. By this time, the crowd was already dissipating so we decided to leave two. It was already around two o’clock and I actually forgot about lunch. So I told Andy and we should call Tim and Susan so that we could go eat together. When we got hold them on the phone, we told them to meet us at the entrance of the auto show.

From we were at from the convention center, it was a pretty short walk to Tiffy’s restaurant down the street on the corner of Katella and West. The last time I was at Tiffy’s was when Tiarra’s cousins from St. Louis came over on a visit. I believe this was the first time Tim, Andy and Susan actually went to this restaurant with me. In the past, I was either with Adrian or Lawrence, Vick and Jason. Since the Jolly Roger on the other street corner closed, this was only decent restaurant within walking distance. I guess this was first time they went to this restaurant, because everybody was amazed at how good the restaurant looked. After we ate lunch, we made it back to the convention center. At this time, we took the other way around. It was a usual way back to the convention center. The front side. By going this way, there was a lot of shade along the sidewalk, unlike on West Street which where he came from.



So when we went back to the convention floor, we entered through the “back side” of the convention center. We went straight into the Ford area. While we were looking around, we met up with Andy’s friend. If I remember correctly, her name was Crystal. She was actually a cute looking girl. But anyway, Andy and her caught up for a little bit. After that, we started walking around some more. By this time, we were going around counterclockwise. But still in a zigzagging motion. About this time, we realized that Mitsubishi wasn’t there at the auto show. And there were also some other car companies that were also missing. One things for sure, this auto show was a lot smaller than the one from a couple years ago. But away, at least we came to the auto show today and actually had a good time. It’s better than staying home and doing nothing but watching TV all day. It was late afternoon and we made it to the other side of the convention center again to where Tim and Susan bought sunglasses. Andy wanted to buy some sunglasses too, so he was looking around. But this time, we were there for a really, really, long time looking at sunglasses. I felt like I was in a department store waiting for someone to finish shopping. Oh well!



It was already late afternoon and we saw what all there was to see in the convention center, but there was actually one thing that we were going to do before we go. It was to test drive some of the cars. So on the way out, we went over to the Toyota place to test out the cars. I didn’t actually test the cars, but Andy, Tim and Susan went ahead and signed up to test the cars. So while they were testing the cars, for about an hour, I was waiting for them and wondering around looking at the Ford cars and walking in and out of the convention center. Thankfully, around this time of the day, it was actually cooling down so it became bearable to stay outside. When they were finished, he called the day and went home.

Again it was one of those events we were hesitant to go to. The main reason, it was only one day. And that one day is Sunday. I’m usually busy on Sundays doing other things and to prepare for the coming week. And a couple day before, I sprained by back doing some work at home. So I had only little enthusiasm to go, much less spend money. So we didn’t decide to go until late Saturday night. My cousin Richard wanted to go so I though he informed everyone. It became his gig.

Sunday morning, he came to pick me up then we picked up Lawrence. I figured everyone else was busy doing other things because they didn’t go. The plan was to leave at 8, but we wound up leaving around 10. We got the Irvine Great Park around 11 and it was already in the high 80s. It was hitting a wall of heat when we got out of the car. Then again, we were directed to park somewhat far from the entrance because there was another even going on close by. The walk to the entrance to the fair was “like the Bataan Death March,” I commented. I knew it was a totally irresponsible comment I made considering the event and the situation, but it was already so damn hot and we were walking through dead grass and dying trees.


Entrance

We got our tickets. Unbeknownst to me, the promo card that I got from Nisei Week for the OC Japan Fair was for two free tickets instead of one. So I basically paid for myself while Richard and Lawrence got in for free. Hell, it was only five bucks. When we entered the Fair, it looked somewhat empty. The stands were set up in the traditional Japanese fashion, side-by side along the sides of the fair. Product sales were closer to the entrance, while going further toward the back were the food stands. I was expecting a temple at the end, but instead was a stage for the events and performances. Oh, did I fail to mention that it was almost unbearably hot. There were more people than places to sit, relax and dine. And most and foremost, there was no shade! Did I mention it was hot!


Booths

Anyway, we made to past the many competing food stands to the stage area. There was also a stand with cute maids selling food, but we didn’t stop by. At one end was a takoyaki stand. It was nearing noon so we wanted to eat some takoyaki. The line snaked around to the side of the stand and to the back parking area. We must have been in line for almost an hour to get our takoyaki. But while in line, I met some fellow otaku that were in line behind us. Before this, we were joking around about how easily we could point out all the otaku in the Fair. Talking to guys behind us helped shorten the time in line. We must’ve discussed things from Full Metal Alchemist to Seitokai Yakuindomo to Final Fantasy. To me, it was interesting how this person was so animated in the discussions.


Takoyaki Line - 45 min wait

After paying our $6.50 to $7 takoyaki and drink, it was difficult finding a place to sit and eat. We wound up eating in the seats in front of the stage–in direct sunlight. Did I mention there was little shade? Apparently, the takoyaki stand was the same one as in Little Tokyo. The takoyaki was a little undercooked, being more soggy inside.

When we finished eating, were walked around the other side toward the entrance. Not much to see, more food and product stands. The game stands were down along the center. I, or maybe all of us, assumed that there were going to be more stands selling anime goods, but there were not. There was a couple…the usual plush toys, Hello Kitty, etc. As we walked more, there was Kotobukiya stand selling some anime figures. Well, mostly Marvell-style figures and a few books.

Finally we made to what little shade there was. So cooling down a bit, we went into the Akira Kurosawa Museum. It was cool to see come all his artwork, movie posters and his connection to Hollywood. After this, it was back to shade. We eventually walked another round, stopping to see the sumi-e artist on stage and then finding some one dollar tea drinks. Well worth the dollar.

We were are the shade near the entrance again to cool down. While there, beside us, a little fell due to heat exhaustion. The police came by to render first aid. The first aid crew were notified and came by with ice and ice water to cool down the girl. The girl was ok and luckily nothing much more serious occurred.


AniMaid Cafe Show

The Maid Show was about to come up and we went to see it. Richard stayed behind to cool down more. At the stage, in the mid-day sun, the Maid Show began. Aside from the eye candy, it all wasn’t that great. Only the cute girls were worth the standing up and watching in the heat. Good thing it wasn’t too long. Lawrence got sunburned. So after buying more dollar tea drinks to cool down, we went back to meet with Richard and left. We couldn’t take the heat anymore. It was time to go. Now, if it wasn’t for the extreme heat, we would’ve stayed for the 4 o’clock cosplay show and the 5 o’clock Maid Show again. There much more to enjoy, but anyway...

On the way back, we stopped at Fry’s Electronics, ate at Carl’s and stayed at my house to cool down and relax. All in all, the extreme heat killed the day for us. Maybe next year, it'll be cooler. We will see.