Northern Lights Anime Party 2024 - I got asked to compete!

Hello folks!

It's time for a con summary; I really thought Gingacon would have been my last con for this year but that sure wasn't the case. About 2,5 weeks ago I stumbled upon Matsucon's story in Instagram where they promoted this new-to-me event - Northern Lights Anime Party - which would be held 14th of December at Rovaniemi, more precisely at Monitoritalo Monde. After quickly checking out the event's website and Instagram profile I messaged Shiro Samurai if he would be interested in going - and got a green light since Rovaniemi really isn't that far away.
I was about to go there anyway since one of my friends, Hant, happened to be working at Rovaniemi - he usually lives in the south and we hadn't seen each other in literal years so I wasn't going to let this opportunity to meet him slip out of hands. He happens to be into cosplay and alt fashion too so I informed him about the event too and he was willing to join us, yay!

The entrance to the con building. Notice the NLAP banner on the wall.

I picked Shiro Samurai up on Friday the 13th which kind of ended up living up to its name lol. You see, we both had a feeling that we were forgetting something very, very obvious but just couldn't figure out what. We drove to Kemi, more specifically to Sallukka and Dongrieg's place since Shiro Samurai would stay the night there (I couldn't exactly let him stay at my place since one of us would have had to sleep on the floor in that case lol). We were watching Dongrieg play and I don't exactly remember which one of us four made a comment about a dead camera...
And then it hit me.
The camera. 
I looked at Shiro Samurai who looked like it was dawning upon him too. The conversation went pretty much like this...

Me: "Did you, by any chance, take your camera with you?"
Shiro Samurai: "No I did not, that's the thing we fucking forgot!"

I mean... All these years and neither of us had paid any thought to it. I still feel a bit embarrassed for not noticing this since it's pretty obvious that we would need a camera if we wanted to take some pictures for our con summaries. 
Luck was at least a bit on our side though; I still hadn't gotten rid of my Canon I bought all those years ago. I mean, it still works - there's just some dirt on the mirror that I would need to get rid of since it leaves black dots to the pics. We decided to roll with it this time. It might not be as good as Shiro Samurai's Nikon but definitely better than no camera at all lol.

The Saturday morning came.
And I slept in because I didn't wake up to the alarms.
Luckily not too much, only for about 20 minutes, so I still had time to take a shower and do my make-up. I had planned to change into costume - I had decided to wear Alicia from Moominvalley - at my place but quickly scrapped the idea because I was already running late. So I just grabbed my belongings, texted Shiro Samurai that I was on my way to the railway station and took a taxi there. No way I was walking with that amount of stuff in a hurry when it was slippery af outside. It didn't take too long for the train to arrive at the station and when it did we hopped in and begun our short trip to Rovaniemi. I messaged Hant that we were on our way and we agreed to meet at the event venue - it would have made no sense if he first walked to Rovaniemi railway station to meet us and then with us back to the con lol. 

No jumping under the train! (This is also the only pic I took for this summary, others are taken by Shiro Samurai.)

Except that we didn't walk either.

If it was cold in Kemi, it sure was that in Rovaniemi too - literally twice as cold! We decided to take a taxi again... And ended up paying way too much for that short trip. You see, when I asked the taxi drivers around they all told me that the minimum price was 25 euros. I turned down quite many offers until an older man approached us. He told me the same price but was willing to give us some sort of a discount. Since it was getting cold and we were freezing I agreed to that; still way too expensive considering that he didn't have to drive for long (and I kind of had to help him with my Google Maps lol) but at least a bit more reasonable. I think that the company behind these drivers had given them the same instructions and the discount amount they could give to people - and no, it isn't even illegal to ask that much for a short trip. A few years ago the Finnish taxi law enabled this kind of bullshit so of course some of the companies make the most of it. I'm not exactly blaming the drivers here, they are just doing their job (and this seriously is a first world problem, I know that) but I sure do hope they get their share of the money, after all they are the ones doing all that work! 

Okay, rant over.

We arrived at Monitoritalo Monde and immediately started to look for a dressing room. Shiro Samurai asked a con volunteer (or, well, it later turned out that they were one of the main organizers but we didn't know it at that point) where we could change into our costumes and we were instructed to make use of the bathrooms. After a very short thinking process we decided to invade one of the bathrooms for a moment - but before we did that I spotted Hant sitting on a sofa and informed him that I'd just put my costume on quickly and then give him the wig I had promised he could borrow for the day. Eventually the wig ended up becoming his lol.

An overview of the lobby...

...and more specifically the very comfy sofas!

I changed from a tired librarian to a young curious witch in no time and left the bathroom so Shiro Samurai could do his make-up and change into costume in peace. I went to sit on the sofa with Hant and we begun chatting; it had been so long since we had last seen so there was a lot to talk about! At some point I noticed a con volunteer approaching us; they were clearly about to come to talk to us so we turned our attention to them.
And they... Actually asked me to compete in the cosplay competition!
My mind went blank for a moment there; it was said in the rules that at least 80 % of the costume should be self-made and Alicia DEFINITELY doesn't fill that criteria. I mean I have made and modified parts for her but 80 %? Uh-oh, nope. I explained this to them and the answer was "It's okay, if there's anything you have made yourself it's fine". At that point I caught the drift of what was going on; they had extended the application time for the cosplay competition the day before the con so I assumed that The Curse Of Being A Small Event had hit them too. Also known as: there were not enough contestants. At that point I decided to give it a go; I sure hadn't planned to compete but I wasn't about to say no to the chance either! I was given the instructions to meet up with other contestants in approximately 30 minutes; before that I was free to do whatever I wanted so I continued chatting with Hant and waiting for Shiro Samurai to get ready.

I guess this was some sort of the "Who is the best husbando of them all?" kind of 'contest' where you could vote for your favorite by drawing a heart next to their pic. Still no idea who won though. I voted for Wriothesley after this pic was taken.

About five minutes before the competition he emerged from the bathroom, now in costume, and we had a very short time to plan our next steps. I left my things with Hant since Shiro Samurai would start taking the convention pictures and it wouldn't have been very practical to have one heavy extra bag with him lol. Hant on the other hand told me that he would watch the competition so yeah, totally a better solution.

I met up with the other contestants by the stage and felt like a frickin' dinosaur. I mean the youngest contestant sure was about 20 years younger than me! D: Nothing wrong with that, of course - I just felt pretty old lol.

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

At this point I would like to take a moment to explain how this competition was planned. The first part of it was the catwalk I'm speaking about right now. The catwalk itself consisted of going to the stage when the contestant heard their number (mine was 4) and name, do about two or three quick poses and then exit the stage. A very, very traditional catwalk which works in most cases - and especially in smaller conventions. This type of contest doesn't require that much performing skills since they are mostly about the costume; however these days the stage performance in these matters more than it did about 10 years ago so it's not a good idea to neglect that part either. Good poses can make a huge difference in the final result! Saying this as someone who has been a contestant for many times and also a judge for a few times. 

The next part was judging the costumes. Normally the costumes are judged before the catwalk part but this time the judging was after it. Personally I prefer the more known way but, to be honest, does the order in this really matter that much, especially in smaller competitions? I believe that the result would have been the same even if the judging was held before the catwalk.

The final part was the award ceremony which was held several hours after the competition. This may sound like a weird decision but I'm throwing in a wild guess: it might be because the con itself was pretty small and there weren't too many programs otherwise either. If the award ceremony was held earlier at least some people would have left many hours before the con closed its doors for the day - and since it was a small event there weren't like thousands of visitors to begin with. I myself have used this tactic when I planned Mericon's cosplay competition; there has been (and will be) a 45 min time gap between the competition itself and the award ceremony unless I come up with an even better idea. 

So yes, NLAP's cosplay competition was pretty traditional - it just had its own twists to the traditions. This was also their first cosplay competition (this was a second time the convention was held) so yes, it's more than understandable that there were a few hiccups along the way - but more of those later in the summary.

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

We were briefly explained what was going to happen and given our stage numbers - as mentioned, mine was 4 this time. There were six contestants in total so yeah, definitely not a big competition. We formed up a queue, waited for hearing our names and walked to the stage when we heard it. The whole competition was over in just a few minutes but that didn't surprise me - especially considering that there weren't too many contestants to begin with. However, I think that the catwalk part went well and the host was great - so supportive towards us contestants! 💓
After the catwalk it was a bit unclear when the judging would happen but eventually we were given instructions to follow one of the con workers to the back. I told Hant where I was going and that I'd catch up with him and Shiro Samurai a bit later. After that I walked to the corridor in the back where we were told to wait for a minute so the judges could get ready to do their job. Fair enough. We didn't have to wait long either; in just a few minutes the judging begun.

I must say that this must have been the fastest costume judging I have ever attended to. Normally it takes approximately about 10 minutes to judge a costume and even that might not be enough. This time, however, it took just a couple of minutes per costume. From what I heard from the other contestants, many of them had a bought cosplay on them or such so there likely wasn't that much to tell about the costumes anyway; I didn't have that much to tell about Alicia either. The questions I was asked were pretty basic, such as which parts I had made myself and so on. I also got feedback about my stage presentation looking natural and good. I must say that it made me quite happy; as someone who suffers from anxiety/panic disorder it took me years to get myself to this point with stage presentation. And the strive to become even better is definitely still there.

I would like to mention something that could be called 'constructive criticism' though. I know that this was the first cosplay competition ever hosted at NLAP and if you take that into consideration I'd say that everything went pretty well. But next year a separate room for judging the costumes would be an improvement; this time there were people picking up their jackets etc. from the room during the judging. It didn't really bother me that much since I'm used to the judging situations but from what I heard many of the contestants were first-timers and thus quite nervous. Getting interrupted in the middle of telling about your costume might result in "mind going blank", also known as forgetting a lot you were about to say - and telling those things to judges is extremely important. However, I'm not being too harsh about this; there likely weren't too many spare rooms to begin with so I do understand the solution. Just... If possible next year, a separate room for the judging would work in favor of both, contestants and judges.

After the judging I was free to go to explore the con. I picked up my bag from Hant who was about to make a pin at a pin... Uh, workshop, hosted by the library of Rovaniemi. It's always nice to see libraries getting involved with these kind of events; there even was a pop-up library in the middle of the lobby! 💓 It really warmed my heart to see people take interest in it. 

Said pop-up library.

Hant also mentioned that he wasn't sure where Shiro Samurai had gone. I had a feeling I would find him at the Artists' Alley and so I climbed upstairs where it was located... And I was right, I almost walked into him when I had taken the last few steps lol. He was almost done taking the venue pics - and we both were more than ready to go to eat. Hant also appeared upstairs after making that pin and after the short discussion we decided to check the Artists' Alley first and then go eat at the nearby Kotipizza. It was literally in the same building, just in the other end of it, and none of us was really up to walking any greater distance to fetch some food since it was pretty damn cold outside. 

The cloakroom/info desk and the stairs leading upstairs.

A guardian of the stairs? :'D

A part of the Artists' Alley ft. Hant's back and my phone screen.

The corridor/upstairs lobby where the Artists' Alley was located was a bit narrow but still okay; I didn't bump into everything and everyone when I moved around. There were quite many sellers; I think seven or eight plus the info/promotion table of Seta. It was nice to see that there were both new (at least to me) and old artists selling their stuff; it seems like it's not too easy to get a table from the Artists' Alley in the first place so I was happy to see that so many had applied and got accepted to sell their stuff at NLAP! On the first round I don't remember really buying anything aside from one envelope that contained mystery products which later turned out to be LGBTQIA+ related stickers, to name one group of products.

After the pretty quick tour around the Artists' Alley we went to get something to eat. First I checked when the award ceremony of the cosplay competition would be held; I wasn't really expecting to win anything but wanted to still be there to see who would be announced as the winner. We had multiple hours of time so yeah, pizza o'clock it was! 
We dragged our arses to Kotipizza, ordered our pizzas and, while waiting for our food, took a few silly group selfies with a snowman family - which got dubbed as "This could have been us: snowman version" xD 

A group selfie ❤

AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE'S A PAPARAZZI AMONG YOUR GROUP GOD DAMN IT x"DDD There's a reason why I pose for pictures when I want to look presentable :'D

During our time at the restaurant we also did a few raids in Pokémon Go. I'm not too active player these days but Hant wanted to do a few raids and needed people to raid with him so me and Shiro Samurai joined the fun. I think we did two or three raids until we checked the clock and noticed that it was time to back to the convention place. Shiro Samurai and I had been looking forward to the hurt/comfort themed panel but when I checked the program I realized that we had missed it. Tbh I was a bit sour about it back then since, well, the topic seemed interesting enough but it was kind of a no can do situation; we wouldn't have had time to grab anything to eat any earlier or any later so yeah, we chose survival over our interests. *sniff*

Once back at the con my body was already screaming for caffeine and thus I ordered a cup of coffee from the small café that was located near the building's entrance. The venue overall was quite small too - minus the hall where the cosplay competition and some of the other programs were held, I swear to to god it was about 75 % of the whole venue! However, the venue was surprisingly functional and I really don't have anything bad to say about it; an event this small wouldn't have needed any bigger venue. Maybe in the future they will need one though but this year this was just fine.

Mascot donuts! 🍩 I found this idea pretty cute tbh.

Pretty soon Hant and Shiro Samurai went upstairs to play some D'n'D; the dungeon master had prepared a short-ish campaign to play at the con. I was supposed to go to check it out too but I realized that the award ceremony would be soon so I decided to stick downstairs to speak with the librarians. At this point I noticed from the corner of my eye that something was going on at the stage. I looked up and saw some other contestants standing there. It didn't take long to count 1 + 1: the award ceremony had begun a bit early and I had missed it completely! 

I saw some of the con workers approaching me and asked them about the results (and I had guessed the winner right, congrats to them! 💓). Apparently they had assumed that I had already left - I'm not sure had they been specifically looking for me or anything but anyway - and decided to have the ceremony with the contestants they could find. I got apologized over this but I told them that it was fine; I can totally understand the stress related to organizing a convention so yeah, a few hiccups can occur, no matter how carefully you plan everything. I chatted with them for a while and then decided to change out of cosplay; after all I had had it on for six hours already and lenses even longer so yeah, definitely wanted something more comfortable to wear (even though, I must note, Alicia is one of my most comfortable costumes to wear).

After changing out of costume I did a second round at the Artists' Alley and this time bought some stuff from a few sellers. When my small shopping spree was over I checked the clock and realized that it wouldn't take too long for a taxi to arrive (this time I booked one via Menevä Taksi, I sure wasn't ready to pay overprice for a ride second time that day) and texted Shiro Samurai about it. After a while I got the reply; they still weren't ready with the campaign. When the minutes passed by I texted him that I would go to the taxi beforehand; they had just finished playing and were about to come downstairs. I decided to go to look for the taxi though - you see, the app showed me a weird-ish place where the car was parked at but eventually I found it near Kotipizza. The app didn't really point there but I guess that's the app's problem. Not too long after that Shiro Samurai caught up with me, we boarded the taxi and it took us to the railway station where our train was already waiting on the tracks.
To our horror there was someone coughing and sneezing right next to our seats (literally on the other side of the very narrow corridor) but it really couldn't be helped - and I strongly believe that that person is to blame about the flu we both managed to catch -.-" What an ending to a con journey. Yay. Been on a sick leave for almost a week now and even though I'm starting to feel quite fine this still gets on my nerves...

But what do I think of Northern Lights Anime Party?
My feelings towards the event, despite the minor hiccups with the schedule and such, are very positive. A small, low-threshold event for the beginners, for the seasoned congoers and for everyone in between! It was clear that everything that had been done was done with love and passion for this hobby. It was so nice to see a convention here in northern Finland; even the smallest ones have the power to get people with same interests gather together and get some new friends and experiences. If I understood correctly they plan to host NLAP next year too and I can say for sure that I will attend it - in one way or another! 💓

I think that events like this are really what the Finnish con scene need right now. Don't get me wrong, we also need the big events, R18 events etc., but also these ones to make it as easy as possible for people to start cosplaying and going to conventions. After the biggest pandemic years the con culture has started to wake up from its slumber and with this awakening many new conventions have come to exist, this one among them. I really look forward to attending Northern Lights Anime Party in the future too - and as long as something is done with a mixture of love, passion and skill I believe that that 'something' truly does have a bright future ahead of it.

Oh, and if anyone's wondering what's with the flashy name: NLAP 2023 was pretty much what the name says, a 3-hour event with some programs, music and snacks (I may have checked their IG posts from last year too and got this explanation). They just hadn't changed it and to be honest I don't really see a reason for it, it sure does stand out. Some name-themed decorations would be a nice add next year to make this convention even more distinctive! ✨

This was, for real, my last convention for this year. I considered attending Nordsken too but eventually decided to not to go; I will be visiting my family in the south during that time so yeah, it's a bit of a no can do. 

Back to the circle lens reviews it is then - at least for a while.

Until next time.

-Firith

Gingacon 2024 - Kalakaveri jumpscare and a fakeout liver cirrhosis

Hello folks~!

So yeah, a con summary time it is! This time it's about Gingacon 2024 which was held on 23rd of November at one of Tredu's campus areas in Tampere. This is the first time I've attended the said con - I've gotten more familiar with the furry community only recently so yeah, I haven't exactly belonged to the target audience before. 

The banner was located above the stage.

I must mention that originally we - also known as me and Shiro Samurai who also attended the con (and took pictures for this blog post except for the selfies + came up with the title of this post) - had planned to attend Kazecon at Raahe this year. Unfortunately it was cancelled and that meant that we needed a convention to fix that hole in our calendar. I think it was Shiro Samurai who first suggested going to Gingacon and pretty soon I agreed going there (after I had arranged my work shifts, that is). Gure was also a sweetheart and promised that we could stay with her and her girlfriend - and that was our plan until a few days before the con...

...when she messaged me and told that she was sick.
Panic button: smashed down.
I texted Shiro Samurai immediately and told him to start looking for a place to stay; after all he belonged to the work force and I assumed that he could probably sleep at some other volunteer's place. At first I considered canceling going to Tampere completely; I realized I wouldn't have money for the hotel since the situation occurred so suddenly so yeah, I was a bit fucked there. Suddenly Shiro Samurai sent me a link to an airbnb accommodation that had been suggested - and at that point it occurred to me that he couldn't get a place to stay either. So yeah, I speed-booked the airbnb and solved that problem.
The next one was right behind the corner though: I'm not too familiar with the city (despite spending quite a lot of time there) and I had literally no idea which tram or bus we should take to get there. 

However, the stars were aligned in this too. I had been chatting with my friend Asuka (formerly mentioned in this blog as theoneandorginal) who still lives in Tampere and whom I hadn't seen in years - and who decided to be a savior and drive us to the airbnb! <3 That crossed one problem out of our list.
There were still a few things to solve but after a lot of panicking and a ton of phone calls everything got settled and we could sigh in relief. With at least some con hype with us we begun our journey towards Tampere on Friday, the day before the actual convention. The train wasn't too late this time; sometimes VR and winter don't really get along but luckily this time there were only minor inconveniences. It was an easy trip to Pirkanmaa since we didn't have to change trains; usually there is at least one change in Oulu but nope, not this time. We arrived at Tampere almost on schedule - and immediately ran into one of my friends who is also my former colleague. I was happy to see her too even though it was very briefly! She wasn't as lucky with her train as we had been with ours; hers was running late... And not just a bit lol.

Asuka arrived at the station's parking lot not long after us; I had been told to look for a silver-colored car with one of those moody octopuses on its dashboard and spotted one after a minute or two. It was so nice to see her again! We put our stuff into the car and traveled to our destination of the evening. Let's just say that we got pretty quickly to the house we would stay at xD She was also going to attend Gingacon; she's part of StellaNova, an idol dance group (and she also might be the reason why I ever watched AKB0048 in the first place and got so addicted to it that I finally plan to cosplay from it too lol) and said group was going to perform as the middle show of the cosplay competition.
Oh, and I should maybe mention at this point that I was competing with my Kiki costume. Again. I mean, stage experience anyone? Gingacon is a small event so yeah, there was literally no pressure at all. Except for the question if my hair bow would stay in one piece spoiler: it did...

The person who owned the house where we stayed at for the night was super friendly (as was the whole family tbh)! This was my first airbnb experience ever and I must say that Hanna, the accommodation owner, made it a 10/5 experience. The first thing she asked us was "How was your trip?" and after that "Would you like something to drink, like coffee or tea?". She asked a few questions about the event we would attend to (I had mentioned that previously when I had booked the place) and seemed genuinely interested in our hobby <3 After drinking a couple of mugs of tea we watched some TV and then decided to go to bed.
We didn't sleep much during the night though. 120 cm bed + 2 people with sleeping problems and a tendency to steal the duvet from the one sleeping next to them + just one big duvet equals... An hour of sleep, approximately. 
I'm seriously getting too old for this lol. I mean going to conventions with almost zero sleep. To make it worse we didn't have energy drinks with us this time so the morning was... Slow. And eventually a bit chaotic because of that lol. We were ready a bit after 12 pm and booked a taxi that arrived pretty quickly at the house. Menevä Taksi, a company that can be trusted. Didn't get guilt tripped this time lol.

The entrance doors.

When we arrived at the con venue we had no idea which door we should use to get inside the building; the one we first saw had a huge sign on it saying "Personnel only" - okay, that door was out of question. We then proceeded to check the other entrance and got a bit confused because the sign there told people to use the exact entrance we had first seen..? The signs weren't put there by the Gingacon staff though; the venue was a school, namely one of Tredu's campus areas so the signs weren't really event related. One volunteer let us in and wondered if they should cover the sign up for the day - to which I replied something along the lines "Yeah, that would be less confusing".

The lobby area. Behind that glass wall was the retro game room.

The info desk which was literally the first thing people saw when they entered the lobby.

We took our place in the short queue and pretty soon we got our badges; Shiro Samurai, who was part of the work force got a blue one and I as a cosplay contestant got an orange one. 

My axe badge!

I must say that I was positively surprised about the fact that the cosplay contestants got a free entrance to the con! Back in the days this was more common than it is these days; after all cosplay contestants also bring content to the con. I mean, without them the cosplay competition couldn't be held so yeah, they are indeed quite important part of the con program. However, these days (as a result of many things) the contestants usually have to pay for the ticket too. I understand this, don't get me wrong; after all the venue rents have skyrocketed during the past few years so conventions really need the money to cover the costs. It was still a pleasant surprise that I didn't have to pay for a ticket this time - especially because there have been a lot of surprise costs this autumn that have affected my budget... Buy a car, they said. It will be fun, they said. Ahahahahaha. 

Khm. Moving on.

Almost immediately I was taken to the 3rd floor where contestants were photographed and their costumes pre-judged. At this point I would like to say that the building resembled Pohjankartano, also known as Matsucon's venue, very much - it wasn't identical but clearly built around the same time. To be honest I liked the venue a lot: there was a lot of space to go around and each activity had the space it needed. I was a bit surprised to see that the stage was basically right next to the lobby and the Artists' Alley; usually cosplay competitions are held in auditoriums or gym halls but not this time. Frankly I'm not sure how good idea this was in the end; I mean the stage was easy to find, there were a lot of seats for those who wanted to see the competition etc., but there was one thing that bothered me quite a bit. And that one thing was the sound system. Let's get back to that a bit later.

The stage. Artists' Alley can be seen in the background.

The pre-judging and photographing went very well; the judges were so nice and supportive! 💓 I also think that this time I got asked a lot more about my costume - including my make-up which I pretty rarely even remember to tell anything about! I also found it a bit funny that it apparently wasn't all that obvious that I was wearing circle lenses - I mean, this time I wore a different pair of lenses than I usually do wear for Kiki and seemingly this second pair was more natural than the first one (I will review both pairs in the upcoming months!). Or, well, at least they weren't noticed until I mentioned that I have lenses in my eyes lol.
After the pre-judging I had approximately 15-20 minutes before the competition would start and I had two missions to accomplish before that: help Shiro Samurai to attach his so fluffy I'm gonna die tail better to his costume and go to the bathroom. 

I got a text from Shiro Samurai where he mentioned being in green room - which kind of made a lot of sense, considering that he had volunteered to work at the green room and it was work o'clock for him lol. Usually cosplay contestants aren't allowed to go to the green room but this time I had an exception for those few minutes I was needed there. I also ran into Asuka there - my friend, if you're reading this: your Takamina costume was so pretty! 💚

The con-themed signs made it easy to navigate around the building!

I mean seriously, look at that - so well done! ^.^

I accomplished both of my missions in time and there were also a few minutes to spare, woop woop. I walked to the contestant meeting point, namely a couch near the stage, and begun to talk with the other contestants. Funnily enough one of them - namely Arin who placed 2nd this time, congrats! - had competed at Mericon where I was a judge. We had a laugh over this because I think both found it pretty funny :'D They were so nice to talk to and I hope we will run into each other in future conventions too! 
Before the cosplay competition there was this cos/furwalk where people could go to the stage to show their cosplays and fursuits without the pressure of the competition. This time it was a furwalk since all the attendants were in fursuits - and lord, those suits looked AWESOME. I do have some interest in fursuits etc. but when I think about actually making one... For the love of almighty, not with my patience. Uh-oh. Nope. Luckily there are people out there who take commissions.

After the furwalk it was time for the cosplay competition. I was the 5th to climb onto the stage - luckily there weren't too many stairs and, unlike in most competitions, I could actually see where I was going lol. My left leg was already acting up at this point and my feet were hurting because of my shoes so yeah, I just kind of wanted it to be over already so I could change into more comfortable clothes. Luckily this - according to the feedback I got - didn't show to the audience. Personally I was quite devastated about how I felt at that very moment; you see, when I go to the stage I actually enjoy it and want to give it my all. However, sometimes my physical conditions (including the chronic pain disorder) make it quite difficult. I hope this will ease up eventually. 
Still kind of consider myself a winner because despite all that I actually climbed onto that stage - and enjoyed it as much as I could. The contestants were supposed to spend approximately 30-50 seconds on the stage - that's quite long if you ask me! However it was kind of nice - usually contestants have about 10-15 seconds of time to pose before it's time to exit the stage so yeah, we had plenty of time to show our costumes to the audience!

Photographer: Isla.

I seriously need to do something about that hem - it was even worse than the last time when I wore this costume! D: I had washed the fabric before sewing but when I washed the costume itself the hem decided to be a part of modern art or something and now it's way too short from the front and it hangs from the sides. On top of the fact that it looks pretty bad right now it also shows one of my greatest insecurities: my legs. There is a reason I haven't made costumes where my legs would show; I have heard nasty comments about them for the majority of my life and that has made me quite insecure about them >.<" 
Kind of like my facial expression in the pic above though. Usually I take off piercings etc. if I compete but this time I decided to leave my lip ring on; my skin has been a lot more irritated lately (likely because of the cold because it dries the skin) and I decided to not to torture it any more with taking the jewelry off AND pushing it back to place again. 

After the contestants it was time for StellaNova to take the stage - and here comes the problem which I mentioned earlier: the sound system clearly wasn't good enough. The space where the stage was placed was very, well, spacious; the ceiling was up high and there weren't any acoustic panels or anything to make up for that. The sound system wasn't too good to begin with, and, well... All that equaled this problem: I could barely hear the songs (Aitakatta, Heavy Rotation and some third one I can't remember to save my life even though it was more than familiar to me) when the dancers moved around and their shoes clopped against the stage. There were other technical difficulties too though but luckily it didn't take too long to solve those. I mean, no convention can avoid those.

I didn't place this time either. I wasn't surprised and didn't really even look forward to that; as the feedback said, my costume was very simple and thus hard to judge because, well, the simpler the costume the less there are different techniques. However the judges liked my costume and make-up choices overall - and my hair bow was their favorite. I swear to god it gets all the attention every time - but, after all, it does look pretty good so I'm not really complaining :'D 
Straight after the competition I changed out of costume. I was getting cold anyway and I wanted to wear more comfortable shoes for exploring the con - after all I hadn't had time to do that before the competition. I also wanted to take a selfie of my con explorer look. And ended up looking like my liver was severely damaged thanks to the extremely yellow light in the bathroom lol.

THEEEE SIMPSOOOOOONS

I actually got comments about becoming unrecognizable after taking the costume off. I remember Asuka giving a small laugh for those comments and I found them a bit hilarious too; not sure if she was thinking the same than I was but the first time we met she helped me to get out of my lady Ciel Phantomhive costume and I got exactly same comments after that, only from different people :'D 

I did a quick checking round around the Artists' Alley. This time I didn't recognize most of the sellers; I guess many of them were first-timers? Anyway, there were many awesome artists this time and had my budget not been close to zero I would have bought a lot more stuff from them. However, this time it was a bit of a no can do...

A couple of pics from the Artists' Alley!

At this point I noticed that my left eye was getting VERY irritated. The lens in it had been acting up a bit during the day (it had moved around so much it felt like it was going to jump out of my eye) and now it went "3-2-1 I'm gonna dry now bye". It started to feel very uncomfortable and I texted Shiro Samurai to meet me at the lobby; his shift was ending soon and the lens solution was in his possession so I had to wait for like 10 minutes or so. When he arrived with that sacred bottle of liquid I practically ran into the bathroom and took my lenses off - not only because my eyes had had enough but also because we were already in a bit of a hurry! You see, we were about to attend to something we had never before attended to: a plush doll meet-up! 💓
We had brought some plush animals with us; Shiro Samurai had his big blue fish with him and my companion was a white ram, also known as my emotional support when I wake up to nightmares during the night.

"Welcome to the plush doll meet-up!"

Pretty much all the plush dolls that attended the meet-up! My ram is in the front row and that very bright blue fish in the left upper corner belongs to Shiro Samurai.

The idea of the meet-up was to bring a plush doll with you and, if you were up to it, tell the other attendants what the plush doll means to you. It was my job to act as the icebreaker and start with my story; I tried to keep it a short because I have a tendency to explain way too much so yeah, didn't want to do it this time so the others would have time to tell about theirs too :X 
There were many different stories; they varied from very fun to tragic accidents. I must admit, I hadn't expected such an emotional roller coaster! Unfortunately I had to leave the meet-up a bit early because the Wolt courier was getting a bit impatient with me.

...wait? Wolt courier? Wtf?
I would like to clarify that I'm not a loyal customer or anything like that. In fact I pretty much despise Wolt, Foodora, Bolt and all those companies that are practically modern slavery. Yeah yeah, said it out loud, feel free to stone me, but that's pretty much how it goes; people working for those don't get paid enough. In fact they barely make their living so yeah, not exactly fresh. However, this time I literally had no other choice if I wanted to get what we desperately needed at that point of the day. Also known as boba tea. The shop wasn't within the walking distance this time so yes, we had to rely on Wolt. Luckily the courier wasn't mad or anything but I seriously do understand that he was busy - they always are. The more orders you bring to customers, the better you get paid. 

A selfie with my emotional support.

Said bobas - mine is the winter melon one - and our plush animals! 

I knew that it would take a while for the meet-up to end so I sat down with our bobas and continued reading a book since I didn't have pretty much anything better to do. This resulted in something hilarious. You see, when I begin to read I will very quickly enter a state where I don't see or hear literally anything else but the said book. My former colleagues had a laugh over this a couple of years ago - I was reading so intensely that I didn't even react until I heard one of them saying my name and when I asked "What?" the reply was "Pfff no we were just talking that you concentrate on reading so well that you literally just ignore your surroundings :'D". I guess that's quite telling in itself lol.

That was a thing this time too... And thus I completely missed Shiro Samurai sneaking up behind my back until there was a damn big blue fish hanging right in front of my face and a certain someone singing a part of "Kalakaveri" remix behind me :'D I still think it was pretty funny lol.
After the bobas we checked out the Artists' Alley and the con overall together. It was pretty quick tour I must say; checking out the artists' tables took most of the time. 

The retro game room - there were surprisingly many games and consoles!

A themed book/art showcase. 

You could also try your luck with the wheel of fortune...

...or buy Gingacon's official merch!

After the final round Shiro Samurai decided to change out of cosplay; after all, Gure - with notably less symptoms now - had promised to pick us up and take us to the railway station and she would arrive at the parking lot soon. Well, eventually she ended up having to wait for us for a few minutes but nothing too bad. We drove to the station and immediately went to eat; I hadn't eaten since the morning and believe me, I was hungry.
We went to a pizzeria called La Gare. Such imagination, much wow. The other two took pizzas while I took a kebab dish - it was very good! ^.^ After that Gure had to leave and we evacuated ourselves to the bar located at the station; there were a bit too suspicious people hanging around in the lobby and since we had to kill some time we decided to go somewhere where we would be at least a bit more comfortable. We ordered some hot chocolate with mint liquor - one of my favorite drinks in the cold season.

When we finally boarded the train to Harjavalta it was pretty much full. I had realized earlier that there would be people sitting opposite to us and I was a bit worried what kind of people they would be. Turned out that we got the coolest random traveling company of all times; a middle-aged couple whose looks screamed "we listen to heavy metal". If I understood correctly they had been at a gig and were now traveling back home to Sastamala. It was clear that they had been drinking but they were pretty chill; the woman almost fell asleep for a few times and the man was very chatty and nice. We ended up talking about our favorite metal bands - and he even knew what cosplay is! Tbh I kind of wish they would show up in a convention at some point, they seemed very nice.

A bit over an hour later we arrived at Harjavalta where my father picked us up and drove us to my parents; we had decided to spend a night at the south so we wouldn't have to take the night train. That officially marked the end of the Gingacon related part of our trip.

To be honest I don't really know what I expected to experience but I must say that Gingacon was a blast! Even though there were multiple difficulties to overcome we eventually made it - and I'm so happy that I didn't cancel my trip. Gingacon was a nice and relaxed event which I would and will definitely attend again when I get the chance! 
To get a more complete picture of our con experience, check out Shiro Samurai's summary - many funny things happened behind the scenes too! 👀

My next convention will be Northern Lights Anime Party at Rovaniemi and it will likely be the topic of my next blog post too so stay tuned~!

Until next time.

- Firith

Circle lens review: I.Fairy Star Pink

Hello all~!

This is, apparently, the year of new circle lens colors - or well, new to me but anyway! This time I'm reviewing a pair of pink lenses, stunning I.Fairy Star Pink lenses to be exact. Let's go~!
My photographer for this review was Shiro Samurai, thank you! ^^ 

Important note: I got these lenses from someone who totally lost interest in wearing and reviewing circle lenses. These lenses had a wrong prescription for me and I think that these were close to their expiration date/already expired so I can not grade the comfort. However, I will say a few words about the comfort in general - pretty much my first impression of these. Remember: wearing lenses that are past their expiration date/broken/have the wrong prescription for you is a dangerous thing to do and it can damage your eyes for good so seriously, don't do it. I wore these lenses for half an hour and then threw them away so I had these on only for this review. Thank you.

And, just like before, this circle lens review is not sponsored by any company. 

The vials of the lenses.

The lenses in their vials.

Base curve: 8,6 mm

Diameter: 16,2 mm
Water content: 55 %

Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

I would like to remember that inserting these was pretty easy - despite them being big lenses which is typical for the brand. However, I have a vague memory that these ones didn't feel that comfortable in my eyes; likely because they were already expired and all but I remember that these felt a bit scratchy compared to the other I.Fairy lenses I reviewed that day. However these were still far from being uncomfortable to wear and I'm considering buying the other colors of the series too!

One lens in to show the enlargement.

Well, like I said: lenses of this brand are typically big and really do deliver on the enlargement effect aspect. I feel like these are not that "in your face" enlarging than for example the I.Fairy Eclipse Gray lenses but it's likely because of the design - which I immediately fell in love with btw. It's very unique and mystical; I would even describe it kind of dark and by that I mean that these made me think of goths and vampires immediately when I saw these. These definitely are not cosplay lenses though (unless your own character has eyes like this but otherwise I don't see these as a cosplay lens); I would use these for different alternative style outfits such as goth or a mythology inspired outfit. 

The only complaint I have of the design is that it's clearly not made for light-colored eyes. The clash between my own gray/blue eye color and the lens is very visible and tbh that's the one part I don't like about these lenses :/ They do enhance my gaze pretty nicely still so yeah, these still belong in the "I want to review the other colors too!" category, also known as I'm willing to spend money on this lens line.

The color is pretty dark pink, bordering on dark fuchsia. These do look a bit more red than pink to me though but I don't really count that as a problem. The black thin lines remind me of a lacy star (which makes me think of gothic lolita tbh) and combined with the pink they look amazing. The black limbal ring is pretty thick and gives your eyes this nice "dolly effect" which at least I've grown to like during the years. So yes, this is a very pretty lens colorwise too!

Now to the lens photos!

These pictures were taken on a rather cloudy day in June 2021. These aren't filtered in any way; they've only been re-sized.
(Note: we took pictures of quite many lenses on the same day so the light conditions are going to be the same in the next review too.)

Natural roomlight.

Yellow roomlight.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Facing window.

Back against the sun.

Facing the sun.

From the distance.

Another one from the distance, different angle.

• The color is 9/10. It's very pretty dark pink - I just kind of wished it would have been a bit more on the light side. Still, very beautiful and lively color!
  
  
• The design is 9/10. The only thing I dislike about it is the huge pupil hole. At least it looks still pretty nice from the distance.
  
  
• The opacity is 7/10. The part that actually has color is very pigmented and doesn't really let the real eye color through - however the part that has color is pretty thin, hence why the grade.
  
  
• The naturalness is 1/10. Nobody (or at least not any known person) on this planet has partly pink eyes with star-shaped decorations. Uh-oh, nope. The only reason these aren't getting a zero out of ten is that these are not crazy lenses lol.
  
  
• The enlargement is 8/10. The effect isn't as good as some other I.Fairy brand lenses have - these don't double my eye in size.
  
  

Okay, the second last one of the oldest batch is now done~! 

My next post after this will be a Gingacon summary and after that I'll continue with the reviews - stay tuned! 

Until next time.

-Firith

Circle lens review: I.Fairy Eclipse Gray

Hello folks~!

As you can probably tell I'm desperately trying to deduce my backlog on these reviews and I'm happy to announce that pretty soon the oldest batch of these reviews will be finally done. Phew. Don't worry though, there will still be many more reviews to come so I won't run out of content in a long time.

But let's get down to business! This review is about I.Fairy Eclipse Gray, a very beautiful gray lens that in my opinion can be worn for multiple purposes.
Photos for this review were, once again, taken by Shiro Samurai - thank you! :)

Important note: I got these lenses from someone who totally lost interest in wearing and reviewing circle lenses. These lenses had a wrong prescription for me and I think that these were close to their expiration date/already expired so I can not grade the comfort. However, I will say a few words about the comfort in general - pretty much my first impression of these. Remember: wearing lenses that are past their expiration date/broken/have the wrong prescription for you is a dangerous thing to do and it can damage your eyes for good so seriously, don't do it. I wore these lenses for half an hour and then threw them away so I had these on only for this review. Thank you.

And, as per usual, this review is non-sponsored.

The vials of the lenses.

The lenses in their vials.

Base curve: 8,6 mm
Diameter: 16,2 mm
Water content: 55 %
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)

Inserting these was pretty easy despite the lens being bigger than the ones I usually wear. I recall these being very comfortable to wear despite being expired and having the wrong prescription for me; in fact I didn't even feel the lenses in my eyes! Had these been "fine" I would have likely been able to wear these for the full 8 hours. So yes, definitely considering to buy these in the future too; at least at the very moment I'm writing this summary they are still sold at Ifairycon's website. 

One lens in to show the enlargement.

Let's just casually double my eye in size I guess? :'D Like many other I.Fairy lenses these ones truly do deliver in size and the enlargement effect is very noticeable. So yes, if you need gray lenses that make your eyes look huge - with this color, for example, for a cracked doll look - these are the ones to buy in that case!
The color of these lenses is pretty dark gray and I'd say that the name of these beauties describes them pretty well. In my light-colored eyes these turn out partly black but ngl I like that. The gray parts blend nicely in with my natural eye color meanwhile the black parts of the lenses give my eyes a mysterious, deep, almost ancient look - and these actually remind me of storm clouds. So yes; these lenses truly are mesmerizing.

I also love the design; it's very unique and makes these stand out! However, I think that the pattern does look prettier in the vials than in my eyes - maybe these just blend with my eye color a bit too much which makes the light gray parts of the it almost disappear? Don't get me wrong, these still look pretty when worn too, I just wish the pattern would have stood out a little bit more.
These lenses would be perfect for multiple characters, especially for girls; the one that immediately comes to mind is Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I also think that these would look very nice in certain alt styles, for example emo or gothic lolita. Like I mentioned in the beginning, these could be easily worn for multiple purposes.

Now to the lens photos!

These pictures were taken on a rather cloudy day in June 2021. These aren't filtered in any way; they've only been re-sized.
(Note: we took pictures of quite many lenses on the same day so the light conditions are going to be the same in the next few reviews too.)

Natural roomlight.

Yellow roomlight.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo.

Facing window.

Back against the sun.

Facing the sun.

From the distance.

• The color is 9/10. A very beautiful mixture of different shades of gray plus black. I expected these to be a bit more on the light gray side but these are pretty none the less.
  
  
• The design is 9/10. A unique pattern that gives your eyes a very mesmerizing and mysterious look.
  
  
• The opacity is 8/10. This lens is pretty opaque, however in light-colored eyes the light gray parts let some of the wearer's own eye color through even though they also blend beautifully together.
  
  
• The naturalness is 2/10. I mean, if I see someone with eyes that naturally look like this I will run since they are probably possessed or something.
  
  
• The enlargement is 10/10. The effect is very noticeable.

Aaand one more done!
I just checked and I have two more reviews left of this oldest batch so stay tuned for them! 💓After them I also won't put in the clarification about the "same light conditions" since, obviously, they won't be the same anymore in the reviews following those two.

Until next time.

-Firith