Matsucon 2024 - Small panic a day keeps the doctor away

Hello everyone~!
After this post I'm finally back on my schedule! As the title says, this is my Matsucon 2024 summary - let's see how it went! 

All photos © Shiro Samurai if not mentioned otherwise.

A Matsucon poster. Not sure if this was the official one..?

Our trip to Matsucon started on 9th of August, the Friday before the con (which was held on 10-11th of August). I left work a bit early so we could catch our bus - yeah, this time we chose a bus instead of the train since the schedule was more fitting for us. 

Our mountain of luggage, including a PS5 and a TV.

Our Onnibus trip went... I can't exactly say well (in short: Shiro Samurai got stuck because of accessory chains and he literally spent an hour trying to break free but eventually managed only after breaking the chains plus the bus almost crashed into a truck) but we got to Oulu in one piece. I had reserved a ride via Menevä Taksi - their mobile app is very easy to use and it's been quite handy in many situations (and no, this wasn't a paid commercial lol) - and it took us to the hotel. Hotel none other than the trusty Sokos Hotel Arina. 

This time our hotel room had the summer night theme. To be honest the tar one has been my favourite by far but this was quite pretty too!

Shiro Samurai decided to get some rest meanwhile I headed out to meet my co-worker Julia and her date - we had agreed to meet at Coffee House in the Valkea Shopping Center. I had also bought some Arnold's donuts via ResQ app (which was created to reduce the food waste) and wanted to fetch them. At first ResQ only operated here in Finland but now when I checked their page they operate in certain towns in Sweden, Estonia and Germany too! The idea of the app is that local restaurants, cafés, grocery stores etc. can sell their products there that would otherwise go to waste - and the price is very affordable! Again, not a paid commercial. Sorry for getting a bit sidetracked here but there is a reason for that: during the weekend we bought almost everything we ate via the app and we'll definitely keep doing this in the future too, so cheap and hey, it's always nice to be able to make decisions that have a positive effect on the planet~!
When I was done I texted Shiro Samurai that I was coming back to the hotel room. It literally took me a few minutes to get back there - and the minute I step into the room I hear cursing and see my traveling buddy squirming in pain on the bed. The reason? He had been deep in thought and hadn't heard my steps - which resulted in a fright recoil when the door handle made noise which in turn resulted in his shoulder dislocating! I'm still not sure how is that even possible but yeah, still sorry about that ^^'

During the evening we went to eat at Itsudemo; we had been looking forward to that sushi buffet after a good experience last year! However... This time didn't go so well. The sushi pieces on the trays seemed dry and like they had been there for a while, they came apart very easily AND there were no refills on certain sushi sorts during the 45 minutes we spent there. Also one of the dessert cakes was still half-frozen. I swear to god our experience last year was much better...

After the disappointment dinner we did some shopping, bought a few more things via ResQ and then went back to the hotel where we just chilled for the rest of the evening. Neither of us had to be at the con the minute the doors opened so yeah, we decided to sleep a bit longer and have breakfast a bit later than we usually do.
On Saturday morning we woke up and quite immediately went to eat some breakfast. I must mention that I really like the detail Sokos Hotel Arina has at its restaurant (where the breakfast is also served); they have a screen that shows how much food waste there was on the previous day's breakfast! I think this is actually quite nice - and sure do hope that it makes people act more responsible. I belong to those who were taught the "take a full plate at the hotel breakfast because it's included in the room price - it really doesn't matter if you can eat it all or not" mantra and well, let's just say that I don't agree with it, at least not anymore.

When we had eaten - and I had taken a shower - it was time to put on our costumes. Funny enough, they were the exact same ones we wore in Nekocon; I cosplayed Kiki (I competed with the costume) and Shiro Samurai wore his Hotaru costume. We had plenty of time to put on our costumes and left the hotel on schedule! 

The entrance to the con - the venue was, once again, Pohjankartano's school.

The program chart/list and the floor plan of the building - super helpful!

 

This year we both worked for the con. Shiro Samurai had volunteered to work in the green room meanwhile I had decided to try out something totally new for me; I had volunteered to work as a program volunteer. A program volunteer, in short, helps out the program hosts and sees that everything goes smoothly - and preferably in schedule. Sounds easy enough but I can say now that it's not for everyone - especially if customer service isn't something you enjoy, don't volunteer as a program volunteer.
However, my first task of the day was to let the cosplay info guys know that I had arrived and was ready to get my costume pre-judged. I was given the schedule and at this point I had about 40 minute of free time so we decided to do a quick stroll around the venue and leave some stuff in the cloakroom. 

It was pretty crowded downstairs.

The merchants were downstairs; this included both the artisans (such as si3art and Jasu Wonder World) and stores (such as Manga Cafe).

 

We noticed quite immediately that something was a bit off; usually the air circulation at Pohjankartano's school has been quite good. However now it felt like we were suffocating and sweating after like, what, 20 minutes? The reason for this was revealed later that day; I don't know if there had been a misunderstanding or something between the school staff and the con staff but seemingly the AC wasn't even on! Well, that explains the bad air quality which only got worse in the upper floors where the Artists' Alley, flea market etc. were located...

Overview of the Artists' Alley.

The arcade room was also upstairs...

...and of course there was also space for the tabletop games!

 During that 40 minutes some of the cosplay volunteers approached us - or, well, Shiro Samurai and asked him to take part in the competition. Unfortunately he didn't have his full costume with him (read: no props) so he had to decline but that made us wonder how many had actually cancelled their participation? I suppose it was quite many since I got the number 13 - and I was the first one to get my costume pre-judged AND to go to the stage! At first I was under the impression that they had decided to pre-judge my costume first since I had a work shift soon after that but well, apparently that wasn't the case.

Proof that I was number 13. Photographer: Olivia.

 

After the pre-judging I think I just hung out with Shiro Samurai in the green room. Since the air quality was horrendous I didn't feel up to checking out the Artists' Alley - especially not by myself - so yeah, I just sat there and drank some coffee before my shift started.
The first shift I had went very smoothly; it was a relaxation workshop and tbh I almost fell asleep myself :'D It sure was a good program to watch over just before the cosplay competition! After that I took the laptop (that belonged to the person in charge of the programs) and speed-waddled to the first floor... Only to find out that I wasn't in any hurry at all since some things had gotten a bit delayed and it affected the cosplay competition's schedule too. Luckily it wasn't anything too bad even though some things, for example checking out the stage, got a bit rushed.
I didn't place this time either but, to be honest, I wasn't exactly waiting for that to happen. I'm still trying to build up the stage confidence I had years ago so yeah, I'm just happy if I manage to get myself on that stage.

After the competition it was time to go to the hotel. Shiro Samurai had went there in advance right after his shift had ended; he had felt uncomfortable because, well, his shoulder still hurt and the air quality wasn't too good in the green room either so yeah, I had booked him a taxi back to the hotel right before the competition started.
We lagged there for a while and checked out the ResQ app - and, well, we also had one plan in mind: fetch some boba tea. Yes, we... Kind of are addicted to it lol and there happened to be a boba/sushi place (namely Sushi Bowl & More Tea Oulu that seemingly doesn't have its own web site) near the hotel so yeah, we totally went there. Especially because there was some sushi on the ResQ app and it happened to be from the said store lol :'D
After the ResQ haul we came back to the hotel, chilled for a while and then decided to get some sleep - we still had another con/work day left.

Sunday morning.
Ugh.
I seriously didn't feel up to even going to the con anymore; I felt tired and laggy and I sure was happy that I had decided not to cosplay on Sunday. Shiro Samurai had planned to cosplay Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 4 but eventually that didn't happen either. So yeah, we just had breakfast, packed our stuff, I got guilt tripped by a semi offensive taxi driver and eventually arrived at the con venue. I sprinted to my work station, namely the room called Pieni Kirsikka, and soon minnalabanana (the person in charge of the programs) and some technology volunteers showed up too. You see, my first duty of the day was to watch over the voice acting workshop and that required a video call connection to Japan since its host was Yukari Honma. She is known, for example, as Sato from Vampire Princess Miyu and as Emili from Beyblade and Beyblade G Revolution.
And, because this required a video call connection, it was more than guaranteed that there would be problems... And there were some :') I'm not going into details since they really aren't even that interesting but yeah, let's just say that we were late for about 15 minutes. Luckily not more. And let's just say that I managed to get the programs in that room back on schedule - eventually.

She told how to utilize different chakras in voice acting - it sure was interesting!

The next program held in that room was a watercolor painting workshop, hosted by Jasu Wonder World. I was given the permission to leave after everything was ready for the workshop. At this point I decided to upstairs to have a bread or something - but it somehow turned into sending Shiro Samurai to fetch more boba tea for us. I mean, we both wanted it, I couldn't exactly leave the con place since I had to check on the workshop every now and then and his shift hadn't even started yet soooo... It was pretty much our only option. Unless we wanted to use Wolt and pay a couple of euros extra for the delivery which wasn't exactly the most optimal option.

Our boba teas! 💓

I think it was also at this point when we heard the sentence that made it to my blog post title (well, in a freely translated form but anyway). We were just chatting and then we heard someone say "Pieni paniikki pitää hengissä" ("A small panic keeps you alive") with literally no context at all :'D I mean whoever said it was quite right though - or at least that was the theme of my day. Being a program volunteer was quite hectic in the end and it also required quick problem-solving skills - luckily I've worked in different industries (for example food industry) before because that experience sure was gold! And no, by this I don't mean there would've been drama or such; it's just that things don't always go 100 % as planned and you need to be able to react quickly to solve any problem that comes in the way, no matter how big or small it is. 

After Jasu Wonder World's workshop was over there were two programs left in that room: a relaxation workshop (basically the same as Saturday) and a book talk about some manga series that could be found in libraries in Oulu. Those were easy enough to watch over - and after them I just put everything back in place in the room, checked out that there were no windows open etc., and my shift was over~! At that point I decided to check out both the Artisans' Alley and the Artists' Alley once more - and tbh I was beyond happy when I spotted some Zydrate vial stickers at the latter! The Zydrate comes in a little glass vial~
For those who are not familiar with the reference: check out the gothic musical Repo! The Genetic Opera starring Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton, you won't be disappointed.

It was almost as crowded on Sunday than it was on Saturday (this pic was taken on the latter).

As a Miku Hatsune fan this was indeed a joy to see. Too bad I can't attend any of the concerts since they are all abroad...

There were hardly any queues to the cloakroom and the info stand.

After checking out the tables for the last time the con was already nearing its end and we begun to clean up the green room - I didn't have that much else to do so I decided to help there. It takes quite a lot of effort to deconstruct a convention overall so yeah, each pair of hands available was more than welcomed! We couldn't stay until the very end of that though; we had a train to catch. So after an hour or two of cleaning up we had to leave - and that was the official end of our Matsucon 2024 trip.

Matsucon was overall a pleasant experience despite a few hiccups here and there (mainly meaning the problems with the AC). Even though being a program volunteer was a bit hectic I kind of liked working as one - don't know if I'll apply to be one next year though, we will see how much energy I will have then. Probably will volunteer to some position though! Conventions overall have hard time getting volunteers to work for them these days; after all many people are so stressed out and burnt out that they just want to relax and have a good time with less responsibilities during their free time. And nothing wrong with that; I don't work at every convention I attend to since I want to have those "more relaxing" ones too. However, the conventions need volunteers and people in charge so yeah, offering my help when I can.

But yeah, this is the end of my Matsucon 2024 summary - and now I'm finally back on my schedule, yippee!
...also known as prepare for at least dozen circle lens reviews, I have a huge backlog on them... Oops. 

Until next time.

-Firith

Mericon 2024 - Welcome back to the marine atmosphere!

Hello everyone~!
As the title says, this is my Mericon 2024 summary.
Mericon was held on 3rd of August at Rauma's main library, just like in previous year. And, just like in previous year, I and Shiro Samurai belonged to the group of organizers behind it. But, unlike last year, we both worked now from the north and let me tell you, it wasn't exactly an easy task to work as practically the main coordinator from 700+ km from the actual event venue... x__x 

But let's get down to business to defeat the huns!
(And, once again, all pictures are taken by Shiro Samurai. I really should fix my camera at some point but then again, this was one of those conventions when I wouldn't have had time to take any pics myself anyway.)

The more or less official poster of this year. Next year it just might look a bit different...

 

Fun fact: I actually spent my summer vacation for organizing Mericon - and what I mean by that is that a week before the con I and Shiro Samurai drove to South-Western Finland and spent a few days at my parents' place. During that time we visited Rauma multiple times to help the library staff with organizing the event and decorating the venue, to pick up stuff from our partners etc. It was indeed a very hectic week and tbh I really don't have that many memories of it - I just remember I was busy all the time and didn't really have that much time to spend with my family... But no can do, they knew I was coming to do some volunteer work there so yeah, they didn't mind too much and my father actually visited the con when he came to pick up my brother <3. 
The week went by fast and on Friday it was time to pack our bags and drive to Rauma where we would spend the night before the con. We had agreed to do that since it would be so much easier to be already at the town than to drive 40 km in the Saturday morning - I mean, we would have had to wake up way too early so yeah, we decided to make our lives at least a bit easier. We had booked a room at Haus Anna, a small B&B near the city center. Our main reason for booking a room there was that it was very cheap; 95 €/two people (we took the cheaper option, also known as breakfast wasn't included) and when we got there we knew immediately we had made the right choice, the room was very comfy! 💓

Notice the 'Raum - Rome - Paris' decoration board 💓 'Raum' means Rauma in 'Rauman giäl', the local dialect. The writer called Hj. Nortamo was actually famous in Finland since he wrote books in said dialect (which most Finns don't even understand) and his legacy still shows in the town.

Despite the room being comfy we slept poorly. Even more so than before other cons; I was nervous about the event and couldn't help but think things such as 'What if nobody shows up this year?' and 'What if something happens and this is the last Mericon ever?' etc. Sometimes I would really like to be less pessimistic about things.
We were supposed to put on our costumes and do our make-up (I had a random outfit w/tavern keeper pirate vibes and Shiro Samurai cosplayed Team Aqua Grunt from Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire) at Haus Anna but eventually we decided to do it at the library instead. Main reason for this was the fact that we were already behind our schedule AND we would likely have to do some last minute things at the library which meant possible sweating which would have meant our make-up and costumes getting all ruined and wrinkly before the event even started. So yeah, we just grabbed our stuff, left our room key in the post box meant for it and drove to the library.

This year we had more people organizing Mericon. Of course there was library staff (old and new) but then there were also a couple of volunteers; Oiva, a local student had sent an application for the position of an information man at the lobby and Springdeer had applied for the position of a cosplay competition judge. A big thanks also goes to my little brother Hermanni who agreed to keep watch at the PS4 room when I couldn't (I was also a cosplay contest judge) - I knew I could trust you bro 💓

Said brother - who isn't on any social media platforms and prefers to not show his face - working at the PS4 room which was seemingly empty at the time the pic was taken.

Aaaand a huge thanks also goes to my twin flame dearie Gure and her girlfriend Selja who also came to assist us; Gure was in charge of updating the Instagram stories and taking the event pictures and Selja helped with the escape room. Thank you both so much! 💓
After some last minute stuff it was time to put our costumes on; two hours had went by very fast and it was already time to open the doors for the congoers! This time I didn't have that much to do during the first 40 minutes of the event so I had plenty of time to do my make-up and put on the rest of my costume.

People chilling near the library~

The main lobby. The man in grey is Oiva.

Café Käpälä was open this year too, they sold tasty event themed snacks and drinks!

This year there was more to do and see at the con than last year. There were a couple of dance programs hosted by Opia Dance Crew and More More Hop, a cosplay catwalk, a cosplay competition, a drawing workshop & competition, "I like this - I don't like this" anime character Kahoot game, an escape room and the PS4 and this meant that I didn't have to be a panelist filler this year too lol. I'm under the impression that getting program hosts for conventions is a bit easier than last year in general but still not the easiest task to do. However I'm super happy that we got so many hosts this year - thank you all! 💓

The program schedule! The escape room is missing from this...

 

...but it had its own signs! There were quite many groups participating eventually; this pic was likely taken during the first hour of the event since not many people noticed the sign right away.

Oh, and Mericon had approximately the same amount of visitors than last year; most of them were from nearby but then there were some people from Eastern Finland and even one guy from Germany! I didn't have the chance to meet the guy but Shiro Samurai - who worked as the photographing cosplay competition judge - had chatted him. Apparently he had come to Rauma to meet a friend but said friend had ghosted him and eventually he ended up visiting Mericon. I still feel pretty bad for the guy - I mean traveling for hours and hours and then getting ghosted is not cool - and I sure do hope that he got at least some good experiences at the con...

The guest book was there again! This time it was probably a bit easier to spot than last year :'D

The drawing workshop. Even though there aren't that many people in the picture it was popular this year too. The theme of this year's drawing competition was 'Design a cosplay costume/Halloween costume/etc. for a pet'!

People chilling near the room where the Kahoot game was held. The entrance to the Artists' Alley can be seen in the background.

Since Mericon is held in the library it's pretty obvious that there are theme-related books too.

Visitors chilling at the children's/youngsters' section. That's where I also used to work at when I still lived in the south.

During the day I was mainly in charge of the cosplay competition judging and hosting it obviously I had other duties too but a huge part of my day consisted of the cosplay competition stuff. Like I mentioned before there where three judges; Shiro Samurai judged the competitors when they came to be photographed (how character accurate their poses etc. were) and I and Springdeer did the costume judging in the separate room. Each cosplay competitor had 10 minutes to tell about their costumes and show them to us - and I must say that all of them had done fabulous job! 💓 I stick to what I have said before: no matter if you win a prize or not, you are already a winner if you win yourself and get yourself on that stage. I'm so proud of all our competitors and I sure do hope I will see them in the future too - maybe even on bigger stages!

The stage was pretty easy to find - one could see it from the info desk and vice versa!

The stage from last year was back. This year we had that one added stair that helped a lot. Both dance groups also hosted their programs in the second floor of the library; for dancing this stage is far from optimal.

The competition and the award ceremony were popular this year too!

This year's winners! 💓 2nd place on the left, 1st place in the middle and the 3rd place on the right. Congratulations to you all! 💓

Some of this years prizes were sponsored by Talking to myself jewelry and Pinklazercat - if you ever read this, thank you were much! 💓 The cosplay competition winners also got prize cups; those were ordered from Laatupalkinto, just like in the previous year. 

After the cosplay competition I had some time to walk around and, for example, check out the Artists' Alley! I didn't do much shopping this year though; not because there wouldn't have been stuff to buy but because I didn't have too much money at the time and I wanted to save some up for Matsucon (which was held in the following weekend) too.

This year we actually had a visible map of the Artists' Alley - thanks Janika!

A couple of overview pics from the Artists' Alley.

The Artists' Alley was located in the same place than last year; however, the organization promotion booths were located in the second floor of the library. This year we had two booths!

Suomen Hopeanuoli-fanit ry - they were at Mericon last year too!

 

Rauma Pride!

I have to admit that I don't have that many memories of the event itself this year either (and this also means that I don't really have much more to say); everything was so hectic and it was my duty to be alert all the time - which means I took care of the "behind the scenes" stuff. Luckily there was not much drama or anything; it's just that there was still kind of lot to do (for example answering the feedback we got during the event etc.) and I felt quite exhausted when we finally closed the doors for the day. After the con we did some cleaning up, met once again a security guard since the alarm had gone off even though it shouldn't have done that and... I think after that I and Shiro Samurai drove back to my parents' place since we had a long drive ahead of us on Sunday and I wanted to get a good rest before it.

Mericon 2024 was quite exhausting but still a very positive experience and I owe a huge thank you to everyone making it possible - let's hold the flag high in the coming years too, whatever they may bring! 💙
Next year my job isn't the main coordinator anymore though; I will only take care of cosplay competition and everything related to it (picking cosplay judges and planning + hosting the competition). This decision was made in unison with the Mericon staff and it had nothing to do with my capabilities or anything; it's just that the library staff can use their work time to plan the event meanwhile it's basically impossible for me these days. This is just taking a huge workload off my shoulders and even though I still find it a bit hard to let go I know that this was a necessary decision for both me and them.
But I'm more than happy that they still want to continue this new tradition at Rauma; what started as a school project that got a bit out of hand became an event that attracts hundreds of visitors at Rauma's main library on an annual basis. It's been (and will be) an honor to be a part of something like this. Let's see what kind of cosplay competition we'll have next year then! 👀

Oh, this is how I looked during the day! I kind of want to dye my hair red again...

My next post is going to be my Matsucon 2024 summary and after that I'm finally back on schedule, about time after like 2-3 years x__x After that... A ton of circle lens reviews I suppose. Send help 🆘

Until next time.

-Firith

Kiki photoshoot!

Hello there!

Like I promised, here are my Kiki photoshoot pictures which were taken at Nekocon 2024. I have to admit that it was a bit difficult to figure out poses for Kiki since I didn't have any props etc. with me - however we got quite many good photos~!

I plan to photoshoot Kiki again in a different location, preferably with props which I'm still yet to make but I will get there eventually.

Release the pics!

Character: Kiki
Source: Kiki's Delivery Service (a Ghibli movie)
Cosplayer: yours truly
Photographer: Shiro Samurai (thank you for being so patient with me! 💓)

When you deliver the parcel to a wrong address :'D

And there they are~!

...
...you thought that was it?
Ahahahaha. Nope.
Here come the derps!

I know I'm not Miss Finland but hey camera, you still don't have to censor me! XD

"Wondering how my fist tastes like..?"

"NOM NOM NOM NOM" ft. lazy eye; I tried to cross my eyes but my right eye went "lol nope" x'D

So now, there they are!
Tbh cosplaying Kiki was pretty fun - actually I also cosplayed her at Matsucon 2024 too and even competed with the costume (more about that in the summary when I publish it)! I think this one will become one of my go-to costumes; the costume was comfortable to wear and I actually think I look decent in it even though looking cute isn't something that comes naturally for me.

The next post here will either be my Mericon 2024 summary or a circle lens review since I still have literally at least 20 of those to post soooo... We'll see which one it is! Likely the summary though; I would like to get back on schedule with these con summaries before the next con season starts lol.

Until next time.

-Firith