There's no costs for the street fair but some of the workshops and film screenings as well as the VIP party costs $$$. The festival runs Sat and Sun 11 am to 6 pm.
I'll be with Epic Cosplay wigs in Anime Lane, kinda like a Dealer's Room/Artist Alley, all under one giant tent so come find me there - I'll have copies of my book "Cosplay in America" :) See y'all there ! Bay Area, back again !
*whew* Made it back to Los Angeles in one piece ! San Japan ends my back to back travel to Otakon (largest anime con on the East Coast) in Baltimore and San Diego Comic Con. I managed to edit together half the video on the plane ride back to LA before my laptop battery died *grrrrr*
If y'all don't know, I travel with my trusty G10 Canon camera and just interview random folks about cons and cosplay, then dump it into iMovie and slap something together :) I can't bring everyone with me on my travels but I can at least show y'all something !
Texas was hot ! I should know better - I spent a lot of my childhood there but living in Los Angeles now, I've forgotten how hot it was. I landed pluck right in the middle of a 20 day heatwave of 100+ degree scorcher. I arrived in Austin, rented some grip equipment from GEAR Rentals, and headed down to San Antonio with my sister and her hubby.
(My "office")
Now this time, I was invited by San Japan so I was given a room that I shared with cosplay show sign-up. This allowed me a chance to set-up a 9 ft. backdrop. See, most of the time, I travel with a 4 ft. backdrop since it has to be small and fit on the plane. This is probably the only con on my tour that I could pull this off. The folks at San Japan were so accommodating. They're good peeps. I talk to many folks and asked how they felt about the con. The only real complaint is the lines, rooms filled up fast and the heat. Luckily, two of the problem will be solved next year when they moved to the convention center across the street. As for the heat....uh, well, Texas is just hot.
(Thanks Crystal !)
Met folks from Texas, from out of state and even from out of the country with a few folks from Canada, Japan and Australia. Crystal bought me a little gift (yay !) and Rhapsody Angel dropped by with Skittles (love, love, love !). A few cosplayers have mention that one of the reasons they love cosplaying was meeting people and I have to agree. For me, the best part of what I do is just meeting and chatting with people from all over. I'm still surprised people want to meet me - honestly, I feel very humbled by all this since to me, I'm just a guy that runs around and makes random videos and takes photos. Speaking of photos, I've posted up cosplay photos from my HTC phone on my Flickr acct where you can also see pictures from past cons. Older con videos also found on my YouTube too.
I even had a panel to do which was fun but frightening at the same time as I'm not used to speaking in front of a group of people. I probably stumbled my way around but luckily my sister was there to give support ! I think I did alright :) I didn't get a chance to run around the con as much since I was working so I didn't get to see the Cosplay Show nor Nabeshin either. I guess this is a drawback of working cons. :( but hey, lucky for me there's YOUTUBE !
So thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat with me at San Japan ! Y'all know I couldn't have gotten so far with all of y'all out there. I'll be at DragonCon in about 3 weeks. I won't have a table or a booth at all so I'm just going as an attendee to check it out - every con I visited back in 2009, someone would always asked "Have you gone to DragonCon ?". I believe it is time I make that trek ! (By the way, the PBS documentary "Four Days at DragonCon" can be stream here)
I will be back in Atlanta at the next con, Anime Weekend Atlanta where I'll be with Epic Cosplay wigs in the dealer hall with books and photo booth. Check my tour list to see where I am. Hope to see y'all around !
I'm writing this the day before I leave for Texas for San Japan. It's a balmy California day here and in my apartment with the windows open and in midst of scattered chaos on my floor, couch, table I sit hunch over my computer picking these words.
I think I've finally become comfortable with the travel and what my life has turned into from the past year. I used to stress continuously - juggling multiple balls in the air - did I book that airfare ? Are the books already shipped to their destination ? Did I get the new promo cards in from the printer ? Do I need to head out to the post office to ship more books ? Did I update my Facebook page ? I admit, I'm not the most organized person in the world and juggling cons that might be back to back to back can be nerve-racking. Witness how last year at Otakon 2010, I forgot my video camera or at Katsucon this year I forgot to pack Pocket Wizards (triggering device for camera equipment) and had to pay $80 to Fedex overnight from LA to DC. I'm definitely handing it better now but there's always that thought "Did I turn off the stove ?" in the back of my head.
In a few short days I'll be at San Japan, a pretty young con (born in 2008) with about 5,000+ attendance currently hosted on the San Antonio Riverwalk at the Marriott. I've heard San Japan is definitely one of the cons to cosplay at from just talking to cosplayers so I'm eagar to head over and check it out.
I actually have a room - a photography room that I share with the Cosplay Sign-up table. Conference Room 7 to be exact. I'll have a larger set-up than my usual one - with the amount of space, I can now do full length photos. And of course, I'll have copies of my book "Cosplay in America" available for purchase. I'll be doing photo shoots for $10 which gets you 15-40 or so shots - depending on how many people, etc, etc. I'll be emailing those out on Monday night.
The hours of the room are :
Friday 11:00 am to 6:30 pm
Saturday 10:00 am to 6:30 pm
Sunday 10:30 am to 2:00 pm
On Sunday from 3 to 4 pm in Panel 2 I'll be talking about my experiences in how I managed to pull this book together throughout the craziness as well as show some never before seen images and my hope for the future volume so come by and check it out.
There's a host of cosplay panels such as Cosplay Wig, Crossplay, Cosplay Photography Workshop (I'm not involved with that one), Cosplay Makeup and more ! See the list of events here.
So I'm gonna go back to packing and catching up on work before my flight tomorrow. If you see my apartment, there's things everywhere. I never seem to have a chance to clean-up since I'm always on the go or working on the computer. So I'll try to tidy up a bit, repack my bags and I hope to see y'all all at San Japan this weekend :)
