Friday:

We arrived about 1pm in the afternoon. Coincidently managed to bump in to a friend we met at Aya on the way to the hotel, so made our way to the Ibis budget together. Although I was concerned about it being a budget hotel it was actually really good for the price. The rooms were basic but clean and comfortable. The staff on the desk were actually really pleasant too and were actually happy to express an interest in what we were doing, despite often being surrounded by weirdos in costume. Before heading to the convention we changed in to our cosplays: me as genderbent Death the Kid and Blue reprising her Patty. We bumped in to another friend from Aya when we reached the convention, who we chatted to briefly before going our separate ways as she had gophering duties.

First panel up was building a pinata, which we decided to make in to Kyuubey (I made the tail, which was clearly the best bit). Next we went to "If you missed it", which was a showcase of good but obscure series. It served as a reminder to pick up a few things I'd heard of but never properly finished ("Monster" and "Now and then, here and there"). I also got to be introduced to a few things I'd never even heard of, in particular "Quiet Country Café", a rather odd post-apocalyptic series. They also showcased "Serei no Moribito", which is an absolutely gorgeous but underappreciated fantasy series with a strong female protagonist.

We grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the opening ceremony. This involved some fun games, including watching a Kyoko cosplayer kill our Kyuubey. There was also an amusing variety performance, which involved people taking part in various games on stage for our amusement. After this we headed back to the hotel and had a few more glasses of wine. We then ambled over to the late night disco and met up with various friends (old and new)! Drank quite and bit more and danced badly, including inventing some rather epic new dance moves. We headed to bed around 1pm.

Saturday:

Things didn't really kick off till late morning. I changed in to my costume for the day, Nihon!Fai. I headed over to the video room (Blue deciding to take a shower first), where I met up with a friend from Aya, who had a very cool Namie from Durarara cosplay, and we watched the first two episodes of Angel Beats. After that we went to the dealers room. I bought relatively little at this con, just some sweets from Tofu Cute and some of the manga of Natsume's Book of Friends, which I'm collecting. Next thing I went to was the Snack Tasting panel. I tried quite a few different Japanese crackers and sweets and I had fun experiencing some new treats. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed over to "cooking with Babbit", in which I learned to make steamed buns- something I definitely want to try and home. The seafood filled buns we made were also very tasty.

I had to leave the panel early to go to the masquerade briefing. After this I headed over to the sake tasting, which despite having to run back and fetch ID as I'd left all my belongings with blue, did end up being pretty enjoyable. Free booze is always appreciated. Next was to go wait for the Masquerade. I didn't enjoy that bit much as I was nervous as hell and had a bit of back pain (which I think was from my binding). But I did get to chat with some nice people who were equally as stressed out. It was my first time doing a performance entry, so I was quite anxious about how it would be received. By the time I got to the stage I was feeling a little sick with nerves. There were a couple of issues, firstly I wasn't sure the mike was picking me up very well and with my eyepatch on I had difficulty seeing so couldn't find the person I was supposed to indicate to to start the music. But I did manage to do it in the end! In all honesty I'm not 100% happy with how I sang but I'm pleased I did it and people did say to me they enjoyed it afterwards. Since I was early on in the ordering I got to sit back and watch other performances and walk on entries. There were a few very funny skits, including a play on "Tribute" by Tenancious D sang by Harry Potter cosplayers.

The last thing we did was the pub quiz. We joined a team made up of people we made friends with a Aya and the quiz itself was being hosted by someone we'd met at the disco the previous day. It was good fun. There was even a yaoi/ yuri round, although I'm sad to say I didn't know all the answers to the yaoi questions (although I did know the name of Ryuuchi Sakama's band, which I'm not sure anyone else got!). We took second place in the end, which we were fairly pleased with. After that we were exhausted so headed back to hotel rooms.

Sunday:

Today I was wearing my Infinity!Fai cosplay. In the morning we went to paint a Kimmidoll. I covered mine in flowers (it wasn't very good) and Blue turned hers in to Akira from Mai Hime, which was much more awesome. After that we went to the Maids of England café, which is something I always enjoy. The maids were so cute and the banoffee pie was delicious. I even got them to draw me an angry ninja in chocolate sauce (which I decided was appropriate to my cosplay).

Afterwards we went to three panels run by Akemi Solloway, a lecturer in Japanese culture. She taught us "Learning Japanese through Anime", in which we got to learn the opening theme to My Neighbour Totoro (which incidently is my favorite Ghibli movie). Next we learned about Japanese Etiquette. It was interesting to see where Japan and England are different and where they are similar. Finally we learned the history of "Famous Samurai". As always her panels were interesting an educational. The last thing was the closing ceremony, during which we watched an amusing trailer for Ayacon by Team Giblets. I headed pretty much straight home after that, stopping only to say my goodbyes to various friends.

Overall an enjoyable con and one I'd definitely be interested in returing to!