My friend and her husband were supposed to come visit me for three days yesterday, but they got trapped in Okinawa due to high waves. They couldn’t use the ferry to get back to the main island and had to postpone their flight. I had already taken PTO yesterday so I got to have an extra day off. As their flight was coming in late today, after the last bus and with a small chance to catch the last train, I offered to pick them up at the airport. So I spontaneously ended up in Tokyo for today. This weekend was AnimeJapan, the world’s largest anime convention, at Tokyo Big Sight. Last year about 120,000 people attended. What a jump from my previous cons - Anime Midwest, 3000; MTAC, 9000; Ohayocon, 13,000.

I left at 7 am. Normally it takes a little under two hours to get to Tokyo, but there was a 50 minute delay on the way. All the traffic. I decided to get off the expressway and circumvent it. I parked a bit further away from Big Sight along the same train line so I didn’t have to wait in long lines to park. The station was right next to the parking garage, but it was a bit weird because the building accompanying it was closed so I couldn’t get back outside except by walking up the ramp although there was a no walking sign. Whoops. The trains was super crowded! I just followed the flood of people pouring out of the station and towards the convention center. I walked and walked and walked. They had some staff members manning signs that directed us to basically wind around the whole convention center to the back and then into the East hall. I got off the train at 9:40 am and made it in the convention center at 11:15 am. It wasn’t that bad because we kept moving the whole time, but had I gotten there earlier… Eeek. Definitely the longest line I’ve seen. Even beat Disney at NYE. There was a separate smaller line to buy tickets before the big line up started. I was glad I managed to figure out how to get mine at FamilyMart!

When inside, it felt like less people because everyone spread out. There were only spots where it was difficult to move. It was completely different from the American cons I’ve been too. Huge stands for all the anime companies that often had displays or shows. There was one open stage with events, and three private stages that you had to win lottery tickets to enter as they could only fit about 500-1500 people. The stages were all talk panels with famous creators or voice actors.

Each booth was selling things, but it was mostly shows I wasn’t interested in. Lots of free flyers, goodies, and bags were being handed out. There were two huge food areas as well. I think I missed out a bit on the signs and atmosphere because I can’t understand Japanese. Some things would have been more impressive. Like I think I could have gotten this really cool Kuroshitsuji movie ticket thing, but google translate failed me. I really enjoyed seeing the huge Nyanko-sensei though! It was also cool to see the creator booths where you could watch them draw manga with photoshop and put together animations.

The cosplay stuff was way different too. There was a small indoor cosplayers area that featured a dressing room. The cosplayers came in normal clothes with suitcases and changed there, dropping their suitcases at a “coatroom.” Then most of them were outside staking out a spot with signs with their pro names and twitter handles. Photographers/people would line up to take a picture of the cosplayer posing. The cameras were super intense! People even brought the light reflector boards. The cosplayers didn’t roam free throughout the con. There were some impressive cosplays, but it wasn’t that much better than those in the US. It was exclusively anime characters (and some video games?). I didn’t see the mix of comic, tv, and movie characters that we have. I felt bad though because it was cold! They were standing out where we originally came in, by the windy ocean.

It was a different type of crowd. It’s like one big nerdy party for us and it just seemed like a commercial event here with standard group of people going, although people did end up sitting everywhere on the floors too. I got lunch at a cafe that was okay and not too severely overpriced. At about 4 pm before it closed, I staked out a spot at Starbucks and relaxed. I later got dinner at McD’s but I couldn’t hang out there too long. You were only allowed to stay for 30 minutes and were given a piece of paper with your exit time.

I had some extra time before I could leave for the airport, so I walked over the bridges to the other part of Odaiba to see the giant Gundam statue. Along the way I ran into people doing nighttime cosplay shots, by the big Ferris wheel. I even spotted a Project K shoot between Mikoto and Munakata that suited the atmosphere perfectly! By the statue, tulips were already blooming and two sakura trees! I was pretty cold at this point so I took shelter in the shopping mall. I only wore a fleece jacket because I didn’t want to carry my coat around all day inside the center - although it was actually only semi-warm inside. I got to go shopping at H&M and Forever 21, cries. Big city life with clothes with real sizes. There were a bunch of sales going on for spring. I got three things at F21 for about $15!

I made it back to my car and headed off for the extra hour driving to the airport. It all worked out and I managed to park at the right garage. Following some very confusing signage, I made it to Terminal 3 which is much further from Terminal 2 than I had thought. I managed to get there right before my friends came out at 10:15 pm. Needless to say, we took the bus back to the Terminal 2 ha. After a long drive home with mostly empty roads, I managed to get in my bed at 1:30 am. It was really great talking with E and her husband K though. We made plans to get up early the next day for a drive to Nagano so they could get their JR Rail passes exchanged because there’s no station in Gunma that will do it. The original plan was to do it in Tokyo, but the office closed before their arrival.