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