Terucon 2025 - "I am not crazy, my reality is just different from yours."

 Hello~!
And yes, I'm pretty damn late with this summary too, I apologize for that. Like I mentioned in my Maracon summary there has been a lot going on, especially at work. I was actually on a sick leave when I wrote most of this summary thank you wisdom tooth for breaking into seven pieces during removal, I did not appreciate :I so I basically didn't have anything but time in my hands. So yeah, it was finally time to write this!
(...and why am I always on a sick leave when I write a summary about this event, no matter its name? x"D)
((...and yes, the title of this post is a Cheshire Cat quote by Lewis Carroll since I found it very fitting.))

I attended Terucon on 26th of October 2025. The convention was held on 25th-26th but I couldn't attend it on Saturday since I was at work. However I wanted to attend at least during one day - there aren't too many conventions in the North, this one was held at Rovaniemi - and so I booked train tickets for me and Shiro Samurai for the day mentioned. 
Oh, and if anybody wonders: yes, Terucon is re-named Northern Lights Anime Party which we attended in 2024.

On Sunday we started our trip towards Rovaniemi in the morning. I had packed everything the evening before the con; didn't cosplay this time but had a nice outfit, plus I had to take a flash drive with me. You see, I had promised to host a Genshin Impact themed panel - but not just any panel, a panel combining said game and mental illnesses. More about this later.
The trip went pretty well, we just lagged and chatted until we arrived at Rovaniemi railway station. The weather looked like it could start raining soon so I decided we'd take a taxi to the event venue - and yes, this time I made sure to not to pick one of those scam taxes Rovaniemi suffers from and of which I got to suffer last year too 😑 In no time we arrived at the event venue, namely Monitoritalo Monde.

The event venue...

...and the event poster ft. mascots Rainer, Hertta and Aurora! ❤

When we - or, well, Shiro Samurai (who kindly took all the pics for this summary, thanks!) - were photographing the entrance we were approached by a woman who was wearing a security officer gear. We chatted for a while and turned out she was the mother of the main organizer and responsible for security and first aid. I had recently gotten my First Aid 1 card (which means I can do basic stuff, such as resuscitation, the Heimlich maneuver etc.) and mentioned that to her - she said she'd keep that in mind in case help was needed wasn't, luckily. 
After the brief chitchat we went inside... And were met by emptiness. It was pretty early at that point so yeah, not everybody wants to be at the con the moment the doors open (especially not on a second day) but it still took us somewhat by surprise. Luckily more people showed up later but we heard that the amount was significantly smaller than on Saturday.

Cafeteria area and the stairs to the second floor where the gaming room and the panel room were located.

General view of the lobby.

And a trusty WC I occupied almost immediately to put on my outfit and wig :'D

We had some time to look around before my panel would start (that would be around 12.30 p.m.) and so we decided to check out the Artists' Alley. This year it was located in the same big room where the stage was - and in my very honest opinion this was an improvement from last year. Of course I can't speak on behalf of the artists there (I mean, if something was going on on the stage I can only assume there were a lot of people and loud noises) but at least as a visitor I liked this change since there was a lot more space than in that narrow corridor upstairs where the Artists' Alley was located last year. I mean, that was a bit... Too compact.
In the same room there were also Pörröcon and Matsucon promotion tables and Matsukirppis (a flea market hosted by Matsucon staff) which we decided to check first. I must say we were both a bit sad when we realized there was no way we could attend any of the Pörröcon events; Akakabuton was hosted on 28th of February at Tampere but on the same day there was Sonata Arctica's concert at Kemi which we attended, and Pörröcon Royals will be hosted at Turku during the same weekend there's Kummacon at Oulu so yeah, no can do :C However it was nice to chat with the promoter! We also chatted for a while with the Matsucon people and checked the items people had brought to the flea market.

The door leading to the Artists' Alley/stage room.

Sus. Very much sus.

After this it was time to check out the Artists' Alley!
I don't think I bought anything during the first round but I chatted with many of the artists - and was incredibly happy when I saw TilliLili selling Infinity Nikki stuff! ❤ Despite its many flaws the said game has been some sort of a comfort game for me - even though I'm now starting to feel like it's time to let go because some things just can not be accepted #girlcott - and I was just happy to see art about it too. 

Artists' Alley, general view. The convention program visible on the left...

...and better in this photo! My panel was the one called "Seuraava potilas!" ("Next patient!") - or, well, that was a part of my panel's name but apparently it didn't fit in the program chart in whole.

We chatted for a good while until it was my time to head upstairs to prepare for my panel. The panel that was before mine was running a bit overtime but luckily not that much. 
What wasn't too lucky was my flash drive acting up. I had prepared the panel with LibreOffice I seriously don't have money for PowerPoint - or probably would if Microsoft didn't charge my bank account on a yearly basis and I don't even know WHICH account so I can't use the Office programs I pay for ffs and, of course, it complicated things a bit - I namely had to upload LibreOffice to the main organizer's laptop (I got a permission to that). Well, that took a while but people were understanding when I told them I had a bit of technical issues but they would be solved shortly. While LibreOffice was loading I decided to check if our friends had arrived already - and indeed, when I peeked over the railing of the stairs I saw Sallukka, Dongrieg, Pete and Joni enter the building, just in time for my panel! ❤

After a few minutes I could finally start my panel - almost on schedule, yippee! :D 

Even though it isn't visible on the photo there were surprisingly many people listening to my yapping! :'D My panel was about some Genshin Impact characters and what mental illnesses they could possibly have based on their behavior and the symptoms of certain mental illnesses - for example, in the two photos above I spoke about BPD (borderline personality disorder) and who could have it (in this case, Citlali - I mean she's the embodiment of impulsive BPD type ffs :'D). 
I have mentioned that I have been diagnosed with a few quite severe diagnoses and while I would rather not talk about them - because I consider it quite personal stuff - it would feel like lying if I hid them or the problems they cause. I also mentioned those in the beginning of the panel, just to be transparent that I wasn't there to spread the stigma or make fun about the mental illnesses I was going to speak about. I also sure hope I didn't do that, at least wasn't my intention ^^' 

The panel ended up being a bit hurried but I'm going to host this one in another convention too at some point - and I have already started to gather materials for pt. 2! Despite the topic being a bit heavy this was a nice panel to host and to be honest I enjoyed it a lot. Next time I wish to make this more interactive in some way - and no, I don't mean I would ask people to speak about their mental illnesses, I just want to spark up some discussion.
After the panel we headed back downstairs to discuss what we should do next.

The gaming room was right next to the panel room btw! ^^

At this point people were getting quite hungry; I would have wanted to stay for the gacha game panel that would have been the next panel in line but then I noticed there was some sushi in the ResQ app non-paid commercial, again and told Shiro Samurai about this. He wanted the sushi and I reserved the portion - not for myself since I'm very picky when it comes to sushi and don't want to pay if I end up not eating half of it - and in no time the said portion was fetched and we were back at the con place in no time. I ended up buying a triangle sandwich from a nearby store since I wasn't really up to eating any actual food (or well technically triangle sandwiches are food but I think you get the point what I'm trying to say here) but had to eat at least something. And I also got to try a couple of weird sushis which were surprisingly good :3

When we were eating, Joni and Pete approached us. Seemingly they had been discussing about what to do next - I mean, Terucon is a small event so there isn't as much to do as in bigger conventions (and that's perfectly okay, we need these smaller cons too! ❤) and sometimes there were moments when there wasn't that much to do. We discussed this for a while and decided to take part in a D&D session that was about to begin soon. Or, well, at first it seemed like only Shiro Samurai and Joni would play but after a while I decided to join them (Pete decided to observe our game from the table next to us).

Cards, character sheets and dices - and the dungeon we actually managed to clear in time!

When we were just about to start a French guy - whose name I still don't know - wanted to join us. Apparently he had participated to a D&D session on Saturday and got hooked :'D Can't blame him tho, this is a great way to spend time with friends! 
We started our session and at this point a round of applause to the DM is definitely in place. You see, not only had he planned a good one-shot (which was located in the Arknights universe btw!) and did a wonderful job as a DM but was also able to solve any potential... Err, unwanted situations quickly and efficiently. You see, a few times our French buddy got a bit too excited and tried to start telling what our characters should do and when. He didn't mean anything bad by it tho (and I don't think he would have done it on purpose)! It's just not very liked behavior since people often want to decide themselves what their characters do or say. But, other than that, we all had great time playing and we managed to beat the final boss, yay!

When our session was over the con was basically too - time for the last minute shopping spree which wasn't really that much of a shopping spree it was! 

I also voted for my favorite waifu. I have no idea who won tho :'D

After the gaming session - also known as after a lot of talking - it was time to drink some water too! Should remember to do so in conventions more often anyway...

After I was done with my shopping it was time for me to take off my wig and change into casual gear - it was a lot more comfortable to walk to the railway station in that since it had gotten even more windy during the day. We had to wait for a while to get into the train but after that the ride back to Kemi went smoothly - and that was the end of our short but nice trip to Terucon! ❤
I enjoyed the event a lot - even though I literally missed half of it thanks to work - and will definitely attend it in 2026 too. At the very least I'm going to host a panel there again but not gonna lie, I would like to compete in a cosplay competition again... Let's see if I have the time and money my student loan glares at me right now help to make a new costume this year! ^.^

Next post: Kemin Mangapäivä event summary! 👀

Until next time.

-Firith

Autumn Maracon 2025 - Unhinged card games, here we come!

 Hello people~!

It's about time I wrote this con summary; Maracon, which this is all about, was held at Oulu on 3rd-5th of October, also known as half an eternity ago ^^' 
Shortly about Maracon: unlike the cons I usually attend, this one's focus is on board games, card games and tabletop games. The people behind Maracon belong to CRYO ry and they host four Maracons in total during the year - mad respects for that! There are two bigger events and two smaller, and the autumn event we went to is one of the bigger ones. 
And now to the actual summary!

We - meaning me, Shiro Samurai and Joni - had decided to go to the event on 4th of October, also known as Saturday. Because my car was acting up at the time we decided that Joni would be our driver; he'd spend the night before at Shiro Samurai's place and they'd pick me up in the morning. Sounds like a plan, right?
...except that in the Saturday morning, when I texted Shiro Samurai that I was basically ready to go, he told me that there was unforeseen emergency and they'd have to take care of that first. For a while it was a bit unclear if we'd leave for Oulu after all but after an hour or so I got a text message that they were on their way to pick me up. Soon they got to my place, I made sure Joni could drive and after that we begun our drive towards Oulu.

None of us had eaten any breakfast so we decided to stop at Haukipudas and grab something to eat.

Kebababababababa.

I sure wasn't hungry after that, in fact I couldn't even eat it all lol :'D Läskin ammattiylpeys kärsii.
Oh, at this point I'd like to mention this: this post contains quite a lot of pictures. Some of them were taken by your truly, some by Shiro Samurai - I won't specify which one was taken by who but now you know that there are two photographers to give credit to.

While we were eating Joni suddenly got a phone call. We got a bit scared - considering there had just been an emergency - but it turned out to be a false alarm: Joni's friend, Pete, called and informed he'd like to join us. So yeah, after we were done eating we continued our drive towards Oulu, more specifically Raksila, where we picked up Pete and drove to the event venue, also known as a youth center of Kaijonharju.
I must admit that we had a bit of trouble with finding the right door; at first we went to the library, half by accident, half by the will to check out if there was anyone to help us. I soon realized that the self-service hours were going on, shared this information with my company and got quickly out of the building. We found the right door very soon... Because it was literally just around the corner lol.

The entrance.

As someone who is almost solely powered by caffeine I was a bit disappointed when I saw this sign, no energy drinks for the tired :c

As soon as we got in we realized that we would need to take our shoes off. This is pretty normal with many youth centers these days, easier to keep the building clean and all that. So yeah, we obeyed the sign saying that... And were met by this sight :'D

Muutama kenkä usko jo!

As you can probably guess from the amount of shoes there were quite a few people - and nobody in cosplay. This made me and Shiro Samurai sigh in relief: we had been going back and forth with trying to decide if we'd cosplay at the event or not and eventually decided to not to. Would have felt a bit overdressed for the occasion had we actually cosplayed lol. Then again, the CRYO guys we talked to at Matsucon told us there had been people cosplaying in the events before so yeah, maybe a more casual cosplay would be a good choice for this event!
The first thing we noticed was this bigger room right next to the hall where people were sitting in a circle. It soon became clear that there was a d'n'd session (or at least something of that sort) going on. Not gonna lie, I was thinking about joining the next session but it soon became very clear that we wouldn't have time for that. After all we were supposed to leave Oulu that evening meanwhile Maracon is one of those events that go on through the night.

So yeah, we started checking out our surroundings instead - after all nobody had been to this event before so we all must have looked like walking question marks lol.

Maracon info wall, including the rules. I'm sorry for the quality, I'm not sure what happened when I edited the size of this pic but nothing in my favor at the very least :S

There was a guest book! The only other convention I've seen doing this is Mericon but it's always a nice bonus.

As I mentioned in the beginning, Maracon is an event that focuses on board games, tabletop games etc. And there sure were many games to choose from! I'm not that much of a board game fan myself but even I found myself being bit by the hype fly :'D
At this point I must mention that these games are basically everything Maracon offers. There are no other programs at all; no panels, no cosplay stuff, nothing of that sort - and I found myself enjoying it more than I could have imagined. It was just a small event where you were just supposed to chill out with your company, make new friends and play board games with them.

Did I mention there were a few board games? :D

These signs were so handy!

There was also a flea market/merch table. And yeah, in the former there were mostly board games for sale.

We didn't have to wait for long before someone approached our group and asked if we'd like to play The Crew: Mission Deep Sea with him. I had no intention of playing but I followed everybody anyways; I'm more of the sort to watch the other people play when it comes to board games, if that makes any sense? We occupied one of the small rooms down the corridor and the others quickly engaged in playing the game... Meanwhile I was reading a novel called Blanka - Itämeren tytär (lit. 'Blanka - The Daughter of the Baltic Sea') by Ulla Rask. And yes, this totally is a reading recommendation, already waiting for the next book of the series!
And yes, I basically never go anywhere without a book with me lol. If I don't engage in an activity but everybody else does, I'll at least have something to do meanwhile - and reading is a dear hobby of mine anyway.

The corridor leading to the smaller rooms.

People playing The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. To this day I still have no idea what the rules actually were, all I realized was that they were quite complicated (or at least went over my head).

They played this once and I think after that the guy who originally asked us to play with him had to leave to run some errands or something like that? At least that's what I remember so yeah, it was time to go back to the hall to see if there was anybody else who would have wanted to play something. And, of course, to take more pictures since I happened to spot a couple of very... Interesting games :'D

This is, hands down, one of my favorite games ever :'D And yes, I do have a pretty dark sense of humor lol.

We found this legend xD Didn't end up playing it tho.

Oh, here's a better pic of the hall - there wasn't much going on upstairs but you could see basically half of the venue from there.

I think it was at this point that we got asked to join a figurine painting... Not sure if a competition is a right word here but yeah, anyway. Shiro Samurai and Pete decided to join, meanwhile Joni asked if I'd like to play a round of Yatzy with him. I agreed, we grabbed the game and started our search for a free table. Eventually we found one and could start playing - and the beginner's luck was on my side immediately xD You see, I had never played Yatzy before but managed to do the hardest trick in the game with my first couple of rolls - I probably should have taken a pic of the face Joni made when we realized that since it's half impossible for the others to win after that :'D Well, we still played the round - at some point Pete came to watch what we were doing - and I did end up winning. Not that I really cared about that, it was a fun game to play! :'D

And if you're not familiar what kind of a game Yatzy is, here is a pic of it c:

After the game of Yatzy we walked back to the main hall. Shiro Samurai was still painting the figurine and Joni and Pete went to check what games were available at the time. I occupied a seat on the couch and was about to start reading again when I spotted a familiar face - namely Ina who I've met a few times in northern cons! We were both surprised to see each other there and chatted for a while before I saw Shiro Samurai approaching us. Apparently he was ready with the figurine - just in time because Pete and Joni had found a game for us to play, said game being Trial by Trolley from the makers of Cyanide and Happiness :'D Ina decided to join us and our now group of five went to search for a table so we could play - and in the gymnastics hall was one unoccupied table, yay!

Yeah, most of the tables were occupied by the point we got to the gymnastics hall.

Decisions, decisions...

Yeah, it was pretty unhinged :'D

Soon a couple of Ina's friends joined us and we played a couple of rounds of the game above before switching to Cards Against Humanity with an extension pack called Crabs Adjust Humidity. One of the Maracon guys also came to play with us - and it was indeed pretty fun! :'D  And highly inappropriate xD

We played this game for almost an hour before it was time for us to go; both me and Shiro Samurai were getting quite tired and Joni and Pete were - or at least seemed to be - a bit laggy so yeah, after saying goodbye to our companions we drove to buy some energy drinks and then begun to drive back to Kemi. 

So what did I think about Maracon?

It was amazing. Loved every second of it; so chill and comfortable! I'll definitely attend it in the future too when my schedule aligns with it c: 

I have a couple of event summaries hanging so yeah, it was about time this one was written since I've already attended an event this year, oops. I've just had a lot on my plate and really haven't had the energy to write - after a day at work I usually just come home and start watching Netflix or playing on my PS5, that's how much energy I have lol. But now, since I'm on a sick leave this week (tooth removal was a bit more challenging than originally thought) I might actually get something done here.

Oh, a bonus pic! 

Beware of the leaning tower of pizza! Well, there wasn't one at that very moment but I could assume there were quite a few pizza box towers during the weekend :'D

My next blog post: Terucon (former Northern Lights Anime Party) summary!

Until next time.

-Firith

Cosplay year 2025

Hello everyone~!
I know, I know, I'm a bit late with this one since it's already 2026 buuut I'm not nearly as late with this as I am with my Maracon and Terucon summaries ^^' Well, I will write them as soon as possible too, just wanted to get this out of the way before it gets too... Irrelevant also known as before it's the mid April and it's pointless to write this anymore lol. 
But let's get to the year summary!

I'm not going to lie: 2025 was a year of big struggles both cosplay-wise and in personal life. Like I mentioned in the cosplay year 2024 summary I was likely to get a few severe diagnoses, which I eventually got. I have already mentioned that I have BPD (borderline personality disorder, diagnosed as impulsive but that's seriously not true, I'm the silent/discouraged type), but on top of that I got the diagnoses for anxiety disorder, recurrent depression (in remission) and PTSD, which I suspect to be more of the less known CPTSD sort. I got these diagnoses like two months into the year and even though I was able to guess practically all of them, now actually trying to learn to live with them is far more difficult than just navigating them. 
Has there been any development? Honestly, I don't really know at this point. Maybe some little things but those are so small I would need a microscope to see them so yeah, there sure is a long road ahead. At least I don't wake up 20 times a night anymore thanks to the medication so that's sort of a win...

Of course, these things have affected my personal life a lot and they haven't exactly helped with this hobby either. I mostly had fun, yes, and that's what I'd like to concentrate on, but at the same time I know that there was not a single convention without a big and colorful drama caused by me, except for probably Maracon. Oh the joys of being unstable af, 0/5 experience, I don't recommend 😒 Seriously working on getting a grip so making good memories and actually remembering them would be easier this year.

But yeah, the conventions I attended in 2025:

Konekocon - Kuopio, Finland
Kemin mangapäivä - Kemi, Finland
Kummacon - Oulu, Finland
Nekocon - Kuopio, Finland
Mericon - Rauma, Finland
Matsucon - Oulu, Finland
Maracon - Oulu, Finland
Terucon - Rovaniemi, Finland

Yeah. Didn't really leave the northern part of the country that much this year and mostly attended small conventions - to be honest, I highly doubt I could have even attended the bigger ones due to my health problems, both physical and mental - especially the latter.
I think my favorite event was probably Maracon for the reason mentioned above - and it was also nice to go to a new (to me) convention! I haven't published a summary yet so I'm not going into too much detail but yeah, it was nice, relaxed and totally different compared to any other convention I attended. 

STUFF I DID IN CONVENTIONS 

I took part in Matsucon's photoshoot competition with Sallukka as my model - and we won the third place! ❤
I was a volunteer worker at Kummacon.
I was part of the organizing team for Kemin mangapäivä and Mericon.
I hosted a book talk at Kummacon, a Star Stable Online panel at Matsucon and a Genshin Impact panel at Terucon.

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

If last year was a year of witches, this year was a year of gijinkas! This year I debuted a couple of new costumes again: shiny Jigglypuff, Dragonair and Espeon from Pokémon and Tanemon from Digimon.

No compilation pic this time, but here are all the costumes I got pics taken of! All the pics were taken and edited by Shiro Samurai, thank you very much! ❤

Shiny Jigglypuff

Dragonair

Tanemon

Espeon

WHERE I COSPLAYED AND WHAT

To Konekocon I wore the shiny Jigglypuff.
At Kemin mangapäivä I cosplayed Alicia from Moominvalley series. No new pics.
For Kummacon I debuted Dragonair.
At Nekocon I cosplayed on both days, Tanemon on Saturday and Espeon on Sunday.
Wore an alt/casual outfit to Mericon.
Cosplayed an OC called Marigold at Matsucon. Didn't have a photoshoot since the character and design still have the "work in progress" status.

Wore a casual outfit to Maracon.

Wore an alt outfit to Terucon.

Yeah, that's also quite many new costumes but I still don't think that I would have broken the promise I made last year; I wore these dresses even outside of cosplay so yeah, still sticking to what I said ^^ 

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

So... Yeah.
It was a bit of a rough year, honestly. Didn't sew anything new, battled against those inner demons of mine and half ruined almost every convention for myself (and partially for people around me). Not exactly a year I could be proud of and seriously, I'm not.

So yeah, at the end of this post I would like to thank all the people who still put up with my shit in 2025 and actually wanted to take me with them to conventions and such, you're all gold.

Let's hope that 2026 will be at least a bit better. 

Until next time.

-Firith

Matsucon 2025 - Trying a new thing and succeeding

 Hello everyone!

It's time for my Matsucon 2025 summary! About time since the con was held 9th-10th of August, also known as it's been about three months since then... Oops. But, as you will learn later in this post, I actually had a good reason for postponing this post no, I don't mean the Mericon summary which for some reason is always a bit hard for me to write lol - just keep reading~!

One of this year's Matsucon posters.

As per usual, I and Shiro Samurai (who kindly took the pics for this summary too, thank you!) traveled to Oulu on Friday, also known as the day before the con. Since I was still on my summer vacation we arrived at Oulu in the afternoon instead of the usual evening arrival - which meant we had plenty of time to go to eat and all that. This year's Matsucon weekend didn't start all that well for me though - the moment I stepped out of the train I felt my body acting up (and unfortunately it stayed like that for the whole weekend). No, I wasn't sick or anything, but the symptoms of one of my chronic disorders... Made themselves known, let's put it that way. Luckily I managed to take my pain killers in time and even eat something - which can't always be guaranteed with this one - but when the pain finally subsided I was so tired that I practically slept for the whole evening. Well, luckily Sokos Hotel Arina, our trusty accommodation at Oulu has very comfortable beds so at least I got a good sleep :'D 

Saturday morning came. Our morning routine was basically the same as always; we woke up, went to eat some breakfast and after that it was time to start putting our costumes on. In Shiro Samurai's case that meant Kisuke Urahara from Bleach while I cosplayed an OC. You see, this pirate-ish outfit I wore at Mericon 2024 kind of grew to be an outfit for a bartender lady called Marigold. I will tell more about her in the future - also known as half of her lore is still unwritten and I don't want to tell too much about a work in progress character lol. 
Well, it didn't take us long to get ready and a bit before 11 we took a taxi to the con. The heatwave was still going on strong and neither of us wanted to sweat our faces makeup off before arriving at the con venue. I mean, it wasn't just warm; the air felt somewhat thick, just like before thunderstorms (which, as far as I know, didn't occur in the end).

The con entrance.

The lobby during a surprisingly quiet moment.

When we arrived at the con we fetched our badges and tickets. Shiro Samurai was working as a green room volunteer this year too while I hosted a program about Star Stable Online. What I truly do appreciate is that Matsucon actually gave a free weekend ticket for program hosts too! ❤ Not sure if this is to motivate more people to host panels, workshops etc. but for me it sure worked - that was one of the reasons why I even applied in the first place the bigger one being that I actually like hosting panels because, well, my car definitely makes sure that I don't really have any extra money to go around lol. 

We checked the time and realized that we had approximately 45 minutes before Shiro Samurai's shift would begin so we decided to check the artisans and merchants downstairs. 

The obligatory Miku products. As a VOCALOID fan I highly appreciate seeing these.

The artisan/merchant area view from upstairs.

On the third picture you might spot me in red wig talking to a few people. Well, that was The Surprise Encounter of Matsucon 2025. You see, we had been walking around - and checking the time every two minutes lol - and stopped to discuss "where should we go next". I happened to turn mid-sentence and realized that I was face to face with my colleague Jossu and her (adult) children! :'D Turned out that the children - let's call them M & E - had gotten interested in anime/cosplay conventions during Kemin Mangapäivä this year and now they had decided to make a one-day trip to Matsucon ❤ Jossu actually said that she had hoped to meet me there but hadn't dared to message me since I was still on vacation ;__; I, of course, told her that in the future it would be more than okay to reach out - the more, the merrier!

With the little time we had left before a certain someone would have to go to brew some coffee for caffeine addicts - also known as to work at the green room - we decided to check out the board game room hosted by CRYO ry. We were interested in Maracon, a board game/tabletop game event hosted by them and had some questions about it, such as "Do people cosplay there?", "Do you need to be a member of CRYO to attend it?" etc. The CRYO guys were so nice to talk to; they made us feel welcome right from the start ❤

There were a lot of games to choose from!

Not long after that Shiro Samurai had to go to the green room - his shift was about to start. I, on the other hand, decided to go check out the matsuri themed panel, hosted by minnalabanana. I'm not too familiar with Japanese festivities even though they are presented pretty often in video games and anime series, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't be interested. And, well, I found the panel very interesting; unfortunately I don't have any pictures from it but basically everything mentioned was new information to me. This panel was also very popular, there wasn't a single empty seat!

After the panel I decided to go downstairs since I was waiting for Sallukka and their little brother Joni to arrive at the venue. We had been texting each other basically the whole morning - thanks Snapchat for existing - and I knew that they were in Oulu already so all I had to do was basically sit and wait.

This year's Matsucon was kind of special for Sallukka and I (oh yeah and Matsucon itself turned 10). You see, we had photoshooted their Melina cosplay (Elden Ring) earlier this year - if I remember correctly it was around May since there were no mosquitoes yet lol. Of course our main interest was getting good pictures of said cosplay... But we also had something else in mind too. And this is where the title of this post comes from since neither of us had done this before with anyone: we took part in Matsucon's cosplay photoshoot competition! 

I have had interest in photography for years now and occasionally have photoshooted my friends' costumes, be it cosplay or alternative style. This year there also wasn't any other competition at Matsucon that we could have entered; cosplay catwalk isn't exactly a competition and the only actual cosplay competition was the qualifying round of Tournament of Champions. Which is... Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Not with my costume-making skills lol. 

Also: I'm still not over the fact that our contestant number was 13 this year - exactly the same I had last year when I competed with my Kiki costume xD 

The lobby area where I waited for them to arrive.

I was so happy to see this!! ❤ The rules sure were easy to check out!

I sat in the lobby for a while until I realized that I was actually quite thirsty and needed some water. I made my way to the cafeteria - and spotted Jossu, E and M having a coffee break. I kept them company for a while and told them more about Matsucon and cosplay/convention scene in general. I was in the middle of explaining when I spotted a familiar-looking princess Aurora buying a cup of coffee - in other words, Sallukka and Joni had arrived!

...and it turned out that they had already checked out the Artists' Alley, I had just been too blind to see them or they had arrived at the venue just when I was in the bathroom lol. Sallukka showed us an A5 print of Ismo Laitela and Seppo Taalasmaa as nuns - "Siunausta!" x'D All of us had a good laugh over that, the idea was genius! I tried to spot the print later when I checked out the Artists' Alley myself but didn't see it anywhere, I guess it sold out before I managed to buy one :c 

Eventually E and M decided they wanted to check out the Artists' Alley and the merchants once more and then go see the the guest of honor's show. I waited for Sallukka and Joni finish their coffees so we could discuss what we'd do next - and to the video game room it was.

Even though I didn't really feel up to gaming - like I mentioned, my body tried to make me miserable for the whole weekend - I enjoyed watching the siblings play, it was very fun and entertaining! xD At some point I checked my phone and noticed that Shiro Samurai's shift would soon be over. I decided to head to the green room but I told Sallukka that if we didn't run into each other any earlier I would go watch the cosplay competition. The results of the photoshoot competition would be announced then too so yeah, needless to say that I was getting more and more nervous but I sure af wanted to go to check out all the wonderful pics and costumes. 

I made my way to the green room, waited for Shiro Samurai to finish his shift and then we headed downstairs. We wanted to go check out a program at Iso Kirsikka; there was not much information about what was going to happen but the program names were "Dragon art & Samurai Dance", "Bon odori: Japanese dances" and "J-Pop Idol Performance". The first in order was the one we wanted to attend to - too bad that a few others had had similar thoughts and the room was practically full! D: Shiro Samurai managed to get a seat meanwhile I decided to stay at the cafeteria and watch from there - the door was open so yeah, I didn't exactly miss anything out. Or at least not much.

For more details about the program, check out Shiro Samurai's summary since he had a better view of it - literally. 

When I was sitting at the cafeteria I noticed a familiar face, namely FreakyAngel, approaching me. I had texted her that I would also attend Matsucon but I hadn't bumped into her earlier. She joined me and we chatted quietly while we watched the program - didn't want to disturb it by making any loud noises, not even by accident. Even though we had met just a week earlier at Mericon we still had a lot to talk about!

When the painting part of the program was finished Shiro Samurai joined us too. It didn't take long before it was just us two - FreakyAngel had spotted another acquaintance and went to greet them - and I think that at that point we decided to go outside for a while before checking out the Artists' Alley. Just like last year the AC was basically non-existent... Which, in the middle of the heatwave, felt like being grilled alive.

Outside we bumped into this. Back then we didn't figure it out but I've been thinking about this and wondered if the answer was 'a fishing net' - then again it usually has more eyes than just 21...

After we had stopped melting cooled down we decided to go check the Artists' Alley - we hadn't had the time to go there before and we were already kind of running out of time since Shiro Samurai would have to go back to the green room soon. So, to the Artists' Alley we went! 

A general view of the Artists' Alley.

This year I didn't buy that much stuff; I was running on kind of a low budget at this point and knew that I'd need some money for going out later. You see, my bestie Gure and her girlfriend Selja were at Oulu (they were visiting a friend) and we had decided to meet up later - and as we all know, drinks aren't exactly cheap lol. But I finally bought one print I had already been eyeing at Kummacon, namely a Wriothesley x Neuvillette pairing one. Yeah, still a BL fan lol.

I think that at this point I checked the clock and realized that the cosplay competition would start soon. I had told Sallukka that I would try to reserve seats for us since someone had mentioned me that photoshoot contestants could reserve seats from the front rows. Apparently that was some sort of misinformation - not badly though, the seats just didn't need to be reserved, we could just walk in and take the seats we wanted. This, however, is something I learnt very close to the beginning of the competition and eventually Sallukka and Joni didn't come back to Pohjankartano in time (they had decided to hit the town). 
I told Shiro Samurai I would come to the green room after the competition and then practically ran to get myself a seat. I did get one near the stage - I was actually sitting right behind the ToC judges. I was there a few minutes early and it's a good thing I was: there weren't many empty seats in the audience! I suspect this had a lot to do with ToC qualifying round which was now held for the first time in Matsucon and actually in whole Finland.

The opening act of the competition was so nice - the hosts are very talented singers! ❤

The first part of the competition was the qualifying round. I had no idea what to expect but I had expected to see some acting etc. Guess if I was surprised when I realized that it was a "lavajuoksu" of very talented people? :'D I mean, that's not bad, just not what I expected! All the costumes were so awesome and well-made, the judges must have had a hard time deciding who qualifies. Oh, and speaking of the pre-judging, there were five different categories to judge: needlework, armor, wig & makeup, craftmanship and propmaking. When I said in the beginning that "not with my skills"... Yeah, DEFINITELY not with my skills. At least not yet but likely never, I'm not THAT passionate about competing.
After the qualifying round was the cosplay catwalk which isn't actually a competition at all. The purpose of cosplay catwalk is to give people a chance to show off their costumes without the pressure of a competition. This has become more and more popular (and common) and I think these are great - not everybody wants to compete, at least not without experiencing being on the stage at least once before! 

And after the cosplay catwalk... Was the photoshoot competition.

The photo we competed with. And yes, that's my left hand. I was holding the camera with my right hand.

I must say: I was nervous as fuck.
Never before had I competed anywhere with my photography skills.
I didn't - and still don't - have a better editing program than the one by Windows. I would like to get a license for Adobe Lightroom at some point; when I studied to become a media assistant I absolutely fell in love with it, it's awesome. But, of course, it costs money.

And when I saw the pics taken by other photographers taking part in the competition... Let's just say that I had my guesses about the top 3. Which, mostly, turned out right. Oh, and if I remember correctly there were 8 photos in total. 
We had decided to not to compete for the theme prize - the theme this year was 'a party' and there's definitely no party hard in our picture lol. The other prizes were placements 1-3 and 'the best storytelling' nomination. 

When all the pictures had been shown to the audience it was time for the award ceremony. To my surprise the photoshoot competition prizes were the first in row - at this point I felt like I was going to throw up. Luckily didn't lol. 
The theme prize went to the group photo I had expected it to go to; it was clearly taken with the theme in mind and I actually liked it a lot! The photographer definitely knew how to work with multiple models at the same time - a skill hard to master - and his editing skills were awesome! 
After this the hosts begun to announce who got the 3rd place; at this moment I realized that 'the best storytelling' nomination - which we had aimed for - would go to somebody else, also known as to the one who'd place 2nd or 1st. My brain went into some sort of an offline mode momentarily so I didn't really hear what the hosts were saying (except for something about the colors lol)... And then the number 13.

Wait. What?
My brain went from offline mode into full error 404 mode: did I hear correctly? Did they really announce our number? Did we actually place? I remember needing a few seconds to take a few breaths before I could go to the stage to get the prize or well, there was some chaos going on and I got the prize after the competition ended. 

Found one stage pic of this very moment. Photographer: mitrrx  

When I got back to my seat my hands were actually shaking so badly I could barely text Sallukka that we actually succeeded - managed to do that anyway but almost dropped my phone to the floor lol. 
It soon turned out that I had guessed the 2nd and 1st places right - and the one who one the 1st place also won the nomination mentioned before. And not just that: she also won the ToC qualifying round, congratulations ArLea for these AND winning the best armor prize in the finals! ❤

After the award ceremony I headed out to look for Sallukka - I wanted to chat with them a bit before heading for the green room. At this point I noticed it was raining cats and dogs outside; I sure hoped it wouldn't rain after 6 pm or a taxi would be needed again. I found Sallukka and Joni from the video game room and chatted with them for a while; they were about to leave soon but before that we decided to split the prize stuff we had gotten, it was only fair to do so. There were stickers, some Japanese candy and a bronze cup. The cup, two of the four candy bags and some stickers stayed with me. 

After the two had left I headed for the green room - my body was screaming for caffeine and pain killers. And bread. I was hungry.
When I went to the green room there was less than 30 minutes left of Shiro Samurai's last shift so I decided to hang out there, after all there weren't other programs to see that day since the con would close soon after that. When he was done with work we discussed about how we'd go back to the hotel; I was voting for the taxi in case it would rain again but I lost. And, well, to be honest the walk was okay, the hotel isn't that far away and it was refreshing to walk after being so many hours indoors. At the nearby park we took some "hey we had costumes on" proof photos.

Ft. the bronze cup and a curious honk.

Oh!
I mentioned earlier that I had a reason to postpone this summary. Well, this has been postponed more than I intended - I've been busy with work - but the reason for the original postponing was that I was waiting for the feedback from the judges! It took a while to get it, after all there were many contestants to give feedback to, but my wait was awarded a few weeks after the con.

The judges liked the atmosphere of the picture; some of them actually said that it took them right back to the world of Elden Ring. They liked the colors a lot and the editing I had done complimented the photo even more. I didn't actually edit the picture that much - we aimed for a "publishing ready" photo when we took the pics so yes, not a lot of editing was needed because we succeeded in that. And, of course, my wonderful model also got a lot of compliments~  

The feedback I got was very positive and there were also a lot of useful tips I'm definitely going to make use of in the future! ❤ I'm not posting all the feedback here since there was a lot of it, but every word of praise and advice was much appreciated and actually made me tear up eventually.

After taking the proof pictures it was time to fetch some ResQ sushi and some bubble tea before heading to the hotel to change out of costume and relax for a while before we'd meet with Gure and Selja. We had agreed to meet at Venn, the hotel bar, but when the others got there I got a phone call in which it was made very clear that there were absolutely no seats left. I asked them to search for a bar within a walking distance and without entrance fee. After a short while I got a notification; Gure had shared her location with me and said location pointed to Bar 1.
After a while we managed to drag ourselves to the bar - and were instantly quite anxious because it was very loud inside. People were already quite drunk even though it wasn't really that late yet and the bartenders were blasting the music so loud I thought my ears would call it quits. Luckily, after five minutes or so I noticed that one bigger group had left the outdoor area and we decided to move there - well, there we had to deal with a couple of smokers for a while, but it was still better than staying inside. We enjoyed a couple of drinks or well, my gin & tonic really couldn't be called an enjoyment in any way since it was way too sweet and then walked back to the hotel; the others wanted to go to another, LGBTQIA+ friendly bar since it was the Oulu Pride weekend, but we were way too tired to do anything else than watch National Geographic and binge a bag of Doritos.

Which wasn't a good idea. Felt way too nauseous after a while.

Sunday morning. Time to get some breakfast and finish packing. 
I was going to host a panel about SSO but that wouldn't take place until 12.30 pm so yeah, I had plenty of time to just hang out.

Except that my body decided to call it quits. I felt awful from the moment I woke up. For a couple of hours I tried to think "this will pass, it will get better during the day" but no; the brainfog and pains never subsided. I was so happy that I hadn't planned on cosplaying during Sunday, I most likely couldn't have done that. 

An outdoors pic to cut the wall of text.

When we got to the con we decided to check out the Japan themed room on the 2nd floor. I had read online that there would be a chance to dress up in a kimono, try out calligraphy etc. so yes, I had been looking forward to it a lot. 

But. First of all: we didn't really have time to try out the calligraphy.

Second: I know I'm not thin by any possible standards and that caused me some anxiety; there's literally no way I could wear a woman's kimono right now because it for sure won't fit. The ladies offered to bring me a man's kimono but at this point I also started feeling kind of bloated and physically awful too so I declined, which was a bummer but couldn't really be helped. And, to be honest, the latter was more of a reason why I turned down the offer.

Well, at least Shiro Samurai got his moment in the spotlight - more of that in his Matsucon summary if you're interested~!

A general view of the Japan themed room.

After our quick visit to the room Shiro Samurai's first shift of the day was about to start and he headed to the green room. I, on the other hand, headed downstairs to wait for Sallukka; they had told me that they would be there in time for my panel, and they were!

My panel wasn't exactly popular; I had, what, three people to attend it? Then again, my panel was about the actual costs of SSO so yeah, probably not that interesting topic, at least not to younger people. However, this was a perfect chance to test out this concept and it worked structurally etc. fine, which means I'll probably host this somewhere else in the future! 

I didn't feel as much like the deer in the headlights as I look. But hey, I'm happy this got photographed too! ❤ Picture: mitrrx

The rest of the day went in "a pain haze" as I like to call it; it's what happens when your body is just ready to call it quits for the day and all you can feel is pain and exhaustion - and, of course, there is brain fog as well and you barely register what is going on around you. I remember hanging out with Shiro Samurai and Sallukka at one point but I think we all went our separate ways after a while (and I think Sallukka and I went to fetch takeaway boba for all of us at some point)? Or at least Sallukka went to check out "Cosplay Thö Musical" (written how Finnish people with rally English would pronounce "the" lol), that much I remember.

Eventually Shiro Samurai and I went to the green room, after all he still had work stuff to do.

The most important part of green room: coffee station.

The coffee maker on the left sums up my condition on Sunday. Weak.

When Shiro Samurai's shift ended it was also time for Matsucon to close its doors - and time for us to grab some leftover food and head to the railway station since we had a train to catch. And that was pretty much the end of our trip to Matsucon. 

And this, my dear readers, is the end of my Matsucon summary. Even though I had some, err, physical limitations during the weekend I sure enjoyed the con a lot! Special thanks to Sallukka for taking this new step with me, literally couldn't have done it without you ❤
Next up - Maracon summary! 👀

Until next time.

-Firith