Nekocon 2025 - Your not-so-local house plant is here!

Hi everybody!
Hi, Dr. Nick!

Okay, so, first of all I do apologize for being late with this summary - and not just with this one because I have three different con summaries to write now 😵 But I actually do have a reason for this and for once it's not procrastinating: I was away from home for a couple of weeks and when I finally arrived back at the north I barely had a few days to decompress and then it was already time for Matsucon (summary coming later!). 
But first things first; now it's time for the Nekocon 2025 summary! 🐈

Nekocon 2025 was held on 19th-20th of July at Kuopion musiikkikeskus (Kuopio Music Center). We - also known as Shiro Samurai and I - drove to Kuopio already on the 18th of July, also known as the Friday before the con. We had booked a room at Rauhalahti spa and figured that it would be a lot less stressful to arrive a day earlier than start driving waaayyyy too early on the actual con morning, especially because it takes like five hours to drive from here to Kuopio.
We left around 11 am if I remember correctly. Shiro Samurai's mom drove him to my place and quite immediately after that we begun our journey towards the eastern region of Finland. Like I mentioned it was about a 5-hour ride but honestly it didn't feel all that long. During the trip we laughed at stupid road and village names and saw way too many lupines and soft ice stands. 

At this point I would also like to mention that Shiro Samurai took all the pics for this summary, thank you very much! ^^ 

Once we arrived at Kuopio my brain went all error 404; you see, there was this roadwork site near the Music Center and apparently nobody really knew how to drive there. I think they were renewing a roundabout and that resulted in some very interesting driving solutions - also on my part. Well, we didn't get into a car crash, that's already a win lol. 
We had decided to retrieve our tickets already on Friday and had promised to Sallukka that we would retrieve their and Dongrieg's tickets too; they would arrive at Kuopio a lot later than we did so yeah, there was no way they would have managed to retrieve them on Friday and nobody wants to stand in a queue on Saturday morning when the con is already open. Especially not in the heatwave that was going on during Nekocon; as someone whose body jumps into the Nopetrain to Fuckthatville when it gets too hot I sure didn't enjoy it lol.

The tickets! The blue ones were ours, the golden ones belonged to Sallukka and Dongrieg.

If someone wonders why there are two types of tickets: us two had the basic ones while Sallukka and Dongrieg had the ones with which you could go and see the anime concert. 

After a quick visit to the Music Centre we finally drove to Rauhalahti, checked in and almost immediately went to the spa to relax after the long drive. We stayed there until the spa closed and then went back to the hotel room to do some skin care routines and, of course, to relax more - which in my case meant drinking a glass of white wine and reading a feel-good book written by Frida Gråsjö. Even though I mostly read horror books (imo the character development, relationships etc. are most realistic in those) sometimes I just want to read a book where everything goes unrealistically smoothly lol. 
I think it was a bit before midnight when Sallukka and Dongrieg came to retrieve their tickets from us and it didn't take that long before we went to sleep. We had planned to wake up around nine in the morning, which we eventually did...

...it just didn't result in going to the con place around midday like we had planned to do. Nope. We went to eat breakfast and after that got a huge lag spike; it took us nearly two hours before we could be bothered to do basically anything! And that... Kind of resulted us two reaching the con place around 3 p.m. Oops.

Music Center entrance view.

Music Center lobby + cloakroom.

When we finally got to the con place it was hot af. No, I don't mean our arrival or do I? - it was +29 Celsius degrees in the shadow. That quickly made the decision for us: we needed to take some costume proof photos before our make-up would be all over the place. This time we didn't make use of the bush we have used as a background the last couple of years; we decided to check if there were any other good locations nearby and I twisted my ankle during the process because I didn't look where I was walking and there was a hole in the ground in which I of course stepped.

We found a place behind Lumit, one of the two con buildings - the one with the Artists' Alley which we decided to go check out after getting at least one decent "hey I had a costume on" pic.

Is plant.

And yes, it was so hot that even though Tanemon is a very light costume I could only wear it for like three hours during Saturday until I eventually had to give up.

After taking some proof pictures we went inside Lumit; during normal days it's a music high school but during Nekocon at least the Artists' Alley, the photobooth, the flea market and the game room are located there. It's also the very same building where Konekocon was held earlier this year.

These stairs outside Lumit provided a very popular sitting spot.

The worst rush hour was over when we got there but it still felt pretty crowded, probably because the corridors between the artists' tables are quite narrow. Well, at least there was enough space to actually check out each table properly! The AC also works quite a lot better at Lumit than it does at the Music Center so yeah, despite the crowd the air quality stayed on an acceptable level. In my opinion Artists' Alley is also one of Nekocon's strong points: the placement is very good!

A couple of pics showing the Artists' Alley.

The game room where one could sit and play - or watch the Nekomättö tournament!

There's also this cafeteria area where one can just sit and relax for a while.

After checking out the Artists' Alley we begun to wonder if the Aina Kesä bubble tea stand would be at the town square. At this point Nekocon hadn't advertised it at social media - or at least we hadn't noticed it since they eventually did at some point - so we couldn't know for sure. Luckily it doesn't take more than five minutes to walk to the town square and even before that we noticed there were people holding some take away plastic cups that looked suspiciously familiar. When we arrived at the town square we sighed in relief: the boba stand was there! ❤ 

Coconut milk tea with matcha swirl and the vegan strawberry milkshake (or was it raspberry, can't remember anymore lmao).

Those drinks sure were refreshing and delicious~ 💚

After the drinks we discussed what we should do next; it was already fairly late, thanks to lazying around in the morning so if we wanted to get something to eat AND spend some time in the spa there wasn't much time to spend at the con anymore. Shiro Samurai mentioned that he wanted to check out a couple of artists at the Artists' Alley again; I couldn't be bothered so I decided to stay outside at the stairs. While I was waiting for him I messaged Sallukka and asked where they were; turned out they didn't have anything to do at that exact moment so we decided to meet up at said stairs. Shiro Samurai joined us too and we hang out as a group for a short while until the two of us really had to get going - and the two of them had an anime concert to attend.
After a quick run to the nearby grocery store and running into one of my acquaintances we drove back to Rauhalahti. We tried taking some photos there too but that... Didn't really work out, especially when I was operating the camera because I could barely see anything anymore at that point. You see, I'm allergic to many beauty products and apparently my lash glue wasn't an exception to this - wearing false eyelashes for more than 1-2 hours was painful af. Luckily my contact lenses didn't act up on top of everything... 🙈

Our room kind of exploded after taking our costumes off. Oops.

So yeah, we took our costumes off, showered and cleaned our make-up and decided to get some food before going to the spa. Downstairs, near the spa area is a Scan Burger restaurant and we decided to eat there since it was budget friendly and neither of us really wanted to drive back to the city since it would have consumed quite a lot of our precious time. The food was pretty okay but let's just say that we really couldn't eat in peace thanks to a kid who threw a tantrum about pretty much everything. I mean, I get that the kid was probably tired and hungry but still, it sure wasn't a nice experience to eat when someone was constantly screaming practically next to us.
After the dinner makkaraperunat ftw it was time to relax in the spa for a while. It was so nice to chill in the pool after being cremated alive by the sun for so many hours ❤

We went back to our room a bit before the spa closed. Since we had booked the room until Monday there was no rush to start packing during the evening, also known as we could literally just watch some TV and relax. It was either the LOTR movie or the Norwegian version of Naked Attraction we watched, can't really remember which one happened on Saturday and which one on Sunday lol.

And, of course, we had some snacks and drinks!

I mean, those heart-shaped licorices are the best and work for face censoring very well too lol ❤ 

Eventually, Sunday morning came.
We woke up around the same time, went to eat some breakfast and by some miracle managed to start putting on our costumes and make-up immediately after that! My cosplay choice for Sunday was Espeon from Pokémon and Shiro Samurai decided to become the nation of stars and stripes, also known as America (Revolutionary War version) from Axis Powers: Hetalia. It didn't take us that long to get ourselves ready - I overestimated the time I needed for Espeon's make-up - and a bit after midday we arrived at the Music Center. 
The very first thing we decided to do was to take some photos of our costumes in the nearby bush. And I mean literally in the bush lol. During our short photoshoot session we also ran into Sallukka and Dongrieg - we didn't have that much time for chatting but it sure was nice to have that brief encounter!

This costume was so comfy to wear ❤ Also finally found a chance to wear those purple fake eyelashes a bought from Tokmanni over a year ago - they were discounted and cost 1 €!

I will post more pictures in a separate post - not sure if I'll publish them after this post or after I've written all my more or less delayed con summaries but definitely in the near future! 

After the photoshoot session it was time to check out the Artisans' Alley and Dealers' Hall which were located in the Music Center. And yes, the air quality there was hideous this year too lol - almost immediately after entering the building I started to feel dizzy and somewhat nauseous. Not really a pleasant experience.

I think the artisans and vendors are pretty much the same every year; of course they have different products for sale but the same ones are pretty often there. Not complaining about this tho, just something I have noticed over the years. 

Fantasiapelit - a booth to visit if you crave some manga in your life!

Bard & Jester - I surely will buy something from them in the future, their products are awesome!

I was so tempted to buy a Miku figurine from Puolenkuun Pelit but eventually realized that it wasn't within my budget ;__; 

 

I didn't buy anything from the Dealers' Hall this time even though I was tempted to buy a Miku figurine and a kinky themed T-shirt from Niramuchu but as mentioned in the text above I really didn't have budget for either of them ;__; Well, I'm kind of eyeing both products online so yeah, likely going to buy some stuff when my financial situation gets a bit better lol.
After the Dealers' Hall it was time to check out the Artisans' Alley - and if that didn't feel like a sauna, I don't know what actually fills that criteria except for the sauna itself lol! The room is indeed spacious and all but the huuuuge windows definitely didn't help, especially because it was extra sunny outside 💀

I mean there indeed is a lot of space but it was warm af and the air quality still sucked.

After we had checked out the Artisans' Alley we decided to check out the Artists' Alley again. There were a few different artists on Sunday than on Saturday so we wanted to check them out - and I actually bought more stuff this time! It wasn't nearly as crowded on Sunday as it was on Saturday either so it was easier to actually check out the products without constantly having to worry that you were blocking somebody else's view.
When we had made some purchases we both kind of got the same idea - to the boba stand we went! This time we opted for some... Very interesting options I must say. Shiro Samurai bought a drink that was called The Reviver (and contained Red Bull) and I had a green apple soda float. So good!

I swear to deities unknown: this drink stand is 30 % of the reason why we visit Kuopio annually lmao.

This was probably my favorite: banana milk tea with matcha swirl!

I must say that I don't really remember what we did after this, probably drove back to the hotel and went to the spa :'D Not much really happened at Nekocon but it was still an enjoyable experience; this year the heat wave just was a bit too much (for example photoshooting didn't feel that comfortable). But overall I've always liked the con and Kuopio as a city; this sure wasn't the last Nekocon I'll attend! ❤

My Nekocon loot! 

So many talented artists! ;__; Thanks Shiro Samurai for the brib bird charm! 

...and some, khm, bonus photos too xD

This is what happens when you leave a bag of chocolate candies on the car's dashboard when it's sunny af - you get one big and messy chocolate candy! xD

Is plant. Needs watering. Hydrated plant is happy plant. And, for some reason, very shook plant.

Okay I feel this summary was a bit all over the place but at least it's now off the table :'D 
Next up: either Espeon photoshoot or Mericon summary - we'll see which one! 

Until next time.

-Firith

"No more tractors, I beg of you!" - Nekocon 2024

Time to drop yet another con summary I swear to god these are never-ending! 

Like the title says, this one is about Nekocon which was once again held in Kuopio (Kuopio Music Centre to be exact) on 13th-14th of July. My traveling companion - and trusted photographer - was, once again, Shiro Samurai. Our journey towards Kuopio begun already on 12th of July - also known as the Friday before the con - buuuut it was a bit of a miracle that we even managed to leave the north. You see...

I mean the situation was 🆘

And to those who don't know what an Earth that means: had there been two more kilometers to drive to the gas station we wouldn't have managed. Oops. In my defense: I had been saving up money for this trip on my part too and had decided to use some of that money to refuel just before leaving so we wouldn't have to worry about it on our way to Kuopio. Well, a wise decision in itself - except that we almost didn't manage to leave point A at all.

Anyway we managed to get on the road a bit before midday. According to Google Maps driving to Kuopio would take approximately 5 hours so yeah, we had a lot of time to just speak and plan what we would do during the evening (invading the spa was our priority number one). After about two hours of driving we saw a tractor in front of us and I remember saying something along the lines "Luckily it's not that fast so I will have plenty of time to pass it" when a cold realization hit me...
It wasn't the only one. Not even close.

DUN DUN DUUUUUNNN

I swear to god there were at least 15 tractors to pass!! I don't know what they were doing there in the first place since they surely hadn't been working on a field or anything but I suppose they were driving to a meeting or something? I mean, it's nice that the farmers have their own meetings - and I totally support farmers, my late grandfather was one too until retirement - but omfg it took ages to pass them since the road was very narrow and I could only pass one or two at a time xD One apparently shall not pass lol. At least my blood pressure shouldn't pass the height of Mt. Everest but I must say it was pretty close.

Zetor seemed to be one of the most popular brands.

After some struggling we finally managed to pass them all and our journey towards Rauhalahti Spa could continue. At Lapinlahti we decided to stop at a very cozy and rustic Matin ja Liisan Asema to eat something; I think I devoured a cheeseburger. The place and food were both 5/5 - I think this might become one of our traveling hangouts.
It didn't take too long to drive from Lapinlahti to Kuopio. We first stopped at the Music Centre to claim our con tickets - and by "our" I also mean the ones that belonged to Sallukka and their boyfriend. They had left a few hours after us because work happened and they managed to get a bit lost along the way but hey that happens, I managed to get lost when we drove from the Music Centre to Rauhalahti Spa and would fetch the tickets from us later in the evening. 

After fetching the tickets we drove to Rauhalahti Spa and dragged our mountain of luggage to the hotel. It didn't take too long until our hotel room sure looked like we had half of our apartments with us...

Boom. The pic was seemingly taken on Saturday or Sunday tho.

Some energy drinks and ~olutta~.

This year we also had a balcony! I'm a bit sad I didn't have time to casually sit there and just read - I mean literally no matter where I go I do have a book with me - but oh well, maybe someday in the future if we manage to get the same or similar room again.
I don't think we did that much during the Friday evening, just relaxed in the spa and quickly met Sallukka and their boyfriend who came to fetch the tickets. Can't remember when we actually went to sleep but this time it didn't matter that much anyway since neither of us had responsibilities at this con - usually at least one of us is working or competing but not this time. 

On Saturday morning we woke up around 8.30, had some breakfast aamukahvi vaan hittaa diffii and then started putting on our costumes. This year I've apparently had my own personal cosplay theme, witch(y) child characters - in Kummacon I cosplayed Alicia from Moominvalley and for Nekocon I had made a new cosplay: Kiki from the Ghibli movie Kiki's Delivery Service! She isn't one of my all-time favorites but still a nice character. I managed to find perfect fabrics for her a few weeks before the con and kind of just... Decided to make the costume lol. And it sure was a good choice; the outside temperature during Nekocon was nearly unbearable to me so yeah, at least I didn't die from a heat stroke or anything.
Shiro Samurai had decided to wear one of the costumes he had worn only once, namely Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo since he wanted to get proper pictures taken of the said costume. I should probably go through some of my older costumes too and see which ones I could still wear; most of them don't fit me now but hopefully will in the future...

It took us about two or three hours to get ready but eventually we begun to drive towards the convention place. It was pretty interesting to drive with Kiki's hair bow; because of the size of it I had to imitate the Hunchback of Notre Dame - also known as I couldn't sit with my back straight.

#doublechinapproves #idonot

The entrance of Kuopio's Music Centre.

At first Shiro Samurai wanted to take the general con photos. That was more than fine with me - until we walked into the building itself and holy shit it was hot in there! I mean, it was hot outside too but inside, once again, the air felt very stiff and I begun to feel sick pretty soon. I have also suffered from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo since the beginning of the year and it sure didn't help when I suddenly started to feel dizzy...

The entrance hall and the info desk.

Stairs leading to the Artesans' Alley which was located in the 2nd floor of the Music Centre.

 

 

A couple of overview pictures from the Artesans' Alley.

And of course there were also promotion booths of different conventions and groups!

Luckily Shiro Samurai was quick and we were able to go outside to take photos of our costumes before our faces melted off make-up was all over the place. First he took some pics of my Kiki costume (link!) and then I took pictures of his Hotaru cosplay; those ones can be seen here. 

And le selfie. As you can see, the sunlight was pretty harsh so yeah, taking the photos was not too simple of a task for either of us.

 

After the photoshoot we left the camera in the car and walked to the Lumit building which was next to the Music Centre - and where Artists' Alley was located. This year we knew to look for it there; last year we would have missed it had Sallukka not told about its existence lol. This year I also had a personal task in mind: meeting Momo, also known as the founder of bunicorn_design. I have bought quite a lot of stuff from them - for example the Ouija necklace I wore at Matsucon in 2023; there's a photo in the summary in which the necklace can be seen. We chatted for a while and I bought a guillotine necklace from them; I mean, I'm a fan of gothic, dark and twisted things so yeah, it caught my attention quite immediately.
We also quickly checked the other tables but as quickly we decided to come back to the building on Sunday when we wouldn't have our cosplays on; Kiki's hair bow was already causing me a headache and Shiro Samurai had some difficulties to keep his costume in place so yeah, not exactly ideal clothing for checking out the Artists' Alley.

The Artists' Alley was crowded basically 90 % of the time, no joke.

The video game room was also in the Lumit building. This year they didn't have the consoles etc. at the entrance hall - nope, they had their very own room (which I think was a gymnastics hall)! The reason for this may have been - at least partly - Nekomättö, also known as a Tekken 8 Tournament, which took place on the stage there. We didn't check it out but Sallukka and their boyfriend did and enjoyed it. I also saw signs that pointed towards a second hand shop but we didn't visit it - mainly because at this point we both begun to be quite fed up with having cosplays on. 

 

There was so much space this year - also a working AC was 6/5!

But... We couldn't take our costumes off just yet. We still had one final mission with them.
"...and that would be..?"
Boba tea.

You see, the Kuopio town square is only a short walk away from the con venue. This year Aina Kesä's boba tea stand was located in there and if you went to buy products with a cosplay on you got a 20 % discount! Of course we wanted to take advantage of this and begun to walk towards the town square. At this point I must admit that I hadn't tasted boba ever before (unless you count those ones who are sold in cans but in this context I don't count that one) and I was pretty excited about going there! When we arrived there the queue wasn't that long and in no time we had boba teas in our hands and a bumblebee took interest in them too lol.
Let's just say that 1) I wasn't disappointed and 2) I may have a new addiction now.

After our boba tea adventure and a quick trip to the Dealers' Hall we decided to go back to the hotel. The day had been warm and both of us were still a bit tired from traveling - and knowing that we would have to drive back on Sunday sure didn't make us feel less tired. I can't help but feel sometimes that I'm getting a bit too old for this; then again, the hype to cosplay and go to conventions is still there and I intend to go on as long as I still have that hype going.
When we got to the hotel we took a few more pics of Shiro Samurai's cosplay and then we went to take our costumes off - mine was almost glued to my back. Ewww. After a quick shower it was time to go to the spa again; I think we just melted there for like two hours again until we decided it was time to go to eat something. This time we went to the hotel's restaurant and, well... The food and dessert were very good. What didn't amuse me was the time we spent waiting for the food - I swear to god it took at least like 30-40 minutes. But oh well, the quality was still good and the staff was friendly so I can't really complain.

After eating we just played some games on PS5 for a bit before going to sleep; after all we would have to get proper rest to be able to sit in the car for those 5 hours again.

Sunday morning came. We thought we woke up early enough but still ended up being in a hurry. The morning wasn't particularly catastrophic though, we were just slow and my make-up skills had decreased since Saturday or at least felt like it since it took ages to get a basic make-up done. Both of us were dressed in alternative outfits - I must point out that I really liked the one Shiro Samurai had - since it would be easier to travel in those than in cosplays.
We checked out of the hotel already looking forward to next year and drove to the Kuopio Music Centre one more time. I think this time we first went to check out the Artists' Alley; you see, there were different sellers there on Sunday than on Saturday so we wanted to check the new ones out too!

The outside of Lumit building. Most times it was near impossible to find a spot to sit down.

And because the Lumit building was closer to the town square than the Music Centre... Oh yes, we decided to go for more boba tea.
After taking a selfie, of course.

Selfie time!

This time I also ordered a croffle - in other words, a croissant waffle. Turns out that it's not only boba that's delicious at Aina Kesä's stand. 

After our quick trip to the boba tea stand we returned to the Music Centre and spent most of the remaining time checking out the Dealers' Hall. We also ran into Sallukka and their boyfriend who were also doing the last round there; after all we all had a long drive ahead so we had to leave pretty early. I think there was still enough time to check out the sellers there.
And I also ran into jansutti who casually just screamed my name across the room to get my attention xD It was so nice to talk to her; we went to school together but I graduated before her and hadn't talked to her since! Fun fact: both of us also worked as cosplay judges in Kitsunecon 2018 of which I never wrote a summary about - mainly because, well, my whole day there consisted of judging the contestants and I didn't really get to see anything but one small room and the stage lol. It was pretty hectic day. Still, nice memories.

Well, these didn't cost anything obviously but could be found literally anywhere, even in the Dealers' Hall.

Some overview pictures of the Dealers' Hall.

After the last round in the Dealers' Hall it was time to leave Kuopio behind and drive back home. I can't even describe in words how much fun I actually had there and next Nekocon couldn't come any sooner! <3 Like Shiro Samurai mentioned in his Nekocon 2024 summary we both have been stressed out and in more or less dark places for a while now so the Nekocon weekend was very welcomed - and we actually managed to relax there and just have fun. Can't wait for next year! 💓

Oh, my con loot!

I won't make many purchases, he said. I'm on a budget here, he said. Still no regrets.

I still have a couple of con summaries to write so stay tuned! The next post, however, will be the Kiki photoshoot - and after that I just might drop another circle lens review. Literally might, don't know yet - either that or my Mericon 2024 summary. We'll see which one it is~!

Until next time.

-Firith

Luka Megurine - Just Be Friends photoshoot

Hi folks and happy New Year!

Even though I haven't written that many con summaries this year I attended many events in 2023 (I will publish those summaries next year - and also at least try to make blog posts more often since I've kind of miss writing these regularly). One of the events was Nekocon in Kuopio for which I made a new cosplay: my own design version of the VOCALOID Luka Megurine, more specifically her Just Be Friends version. Even though the costume isn't the best out there I still wanted to get some pics of it - and here they are! 

Photographer & photo edit © Shiro Samurai.

This one is definitely my favorite one <3

Favorite even though I was literally just standing still and almost fell because of the high heels lol.

...and, well, of course there just happened to be a sign that was a bit too hilarious and I just had to have a picture taken with it.

(I think the sign was actually warning people not to park there or they´d get a fine.)

There are the photoshoot pics of this costume! Even though the dress itself isn't the professionally made it still looks surprisingly good in pics imo.

See you guys in 2024~!

Until next time.

-Firith