Smash '09

After last year's somewhat lackluster Manifest experience we decided to give Smash a try this time around, which turned out to be as good a call as we could have asked for. Smash is a lot smaller than Manifest – probably not even as big as Waicon – but it may well have been the best organised anime convention we've ever been too. Queues were short and moved quickly, the staff were helpful and friendly and never seemed run off their feet, there were two excellent food stalls right outside, and there was even a live video feed of the cosplay comp for entrants to watch backstage while waiting for their turns. Things ran a bit late on the second day and they could have used more seating for the cosplay competition (a lot of people were left sitting on the floor, standing at the back or watching from the balcony), and the host for the event was, not to put too fine a point on it, not John, but none of that took too much away from the experience. The people were more friendly and enthusiastic than at any other con I can ever think of, and they stopped us to ask for photographs/complimented our costumes/oohed and ahhed over Lisa's art/recognised us from the Internet a lot over the two days, which all terribly good for one's ego. Lisa only managed to book a table for the Sunday, which turned out to be the quieter of the two days, but a respectable profit was still made and for once we had a day free to actually see what was going on around the con. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable con experience.

( A bit of general travel stuff )

( Smash: Saturday - WEWY cosplay redux )

( Smash: Sunday - Ky and Robin cosplay )

( Monday - last minute touristy stuff )

Still a heck of a lot of things I've been meaning to get written up and/or posted sitting on the queue, but now there's no huge, urgent cosplay projects looming over me, that should be a little easier to get around to.