Morning Activities

Ate a 'suitcase breakfast' this morning, and then it was off to see Koushi Rikudo, the creator of the Excel Saga manga. He is a quiet fellow with a rather tricky sense of humour. You'd pass him by confidently on the street, but beware, as he apparently likes practical jokes a lot. He told an anecdote about taking his assistants to lunch, but failing to tell them the restaurant was 500 miles away. As he was pulling his van onto the freeway, they asked 'where are we going, sir?' But of course they had a nice lunch when they got there.

Some of the other guys stayed to see Kazuki Yao, a voice actor (or seiyu). I was getting a sore butt, so I went to check out the art show instead. Tom and Dan came along, but were not as interested as I, so I lost track of them after awhile. I saw a few pieces that I'd consider bidding for, but I wanted time to think, and to see if any other new pieces would get put out before the bidding closes today.

Since then I've been on my own. It's a big Con, and lose track of someone once, and you won't find them again easily. I went back to the room for some down time (introvert, remember). I ate a 'suitcase lunch', then headed down to the dealers' room. I'd heard that Bandai was giving away free T-shirts to those who sat through a presentation, so I went looking for their booth.

It's hard to miss, being one of the big mega-booths. I waited in line, playing Iridion II on my Gameboy Advance SP, and was in in no time. The presentation was a series of video clips of their upcoming releases, set to electronica and hard rock rhythms. It was short and easy to handle. When I left, I got a Witch Hunter Robin T-shirt. They're promoting that series bigtime.

I moseyed about, resisted buying another Hong Kong movie (so far) and picked up some freebies. On exiting, I went to the Convention T-shirt booth and looked into their shirt choices. I ended up buying a small Gundam (giant robot) shirt for Kelly, and an XL for me. Buy two, and get a third, AX Disneyland T-shirt for free! Cool. I'm going to wear that one tomorrow, since it appears I packed one shirt light, and then offer it to Jean, even though she said she didn't want any souvenirs.

I think I'll go back to the Art Show and decide if I want to bid on something.

Tonight's big activity is the Masquerade, or as I call it, the cosplay. See you later!