Cosplay: Japan Pop Culture 2017

I went to an interesting Japanese-themed event today. This event (for its prior editions) has been on my go-to list ever since I started cosplaying, but for a variety of reasons, I never got to be able to go to it... until this year. A friend suggested that we go so that we could share some of the burden of going there, and I agreed. Now I can mark this one off my list.

Back when I started cosplaying, I had only my Ash DP (fourth-generation) costume, so I would use that for every event or convention I went to. It is this experience that I wanted to replicate, so I chose this costume for today to honor those times. However, the cosplay competitions had been fully booked by the time I decided to come, so I could only do non-competitive street cosplay. No matter - maybe next time there will be something for me.

I was glad that I was able to meet many of my friends from the recent times I've cosplayed. I was not glad (and I sense others were also not glad), however, to be caught in the rain. What's worse, it was also stormy, and it put to halt the mostly-outdoors event for a good two hours, effectively delaying the schedule by the same amount of time. It was perhaps even more difficult for the food and merchandise stands, who were fully exposed to the wrath of the weather. By this same token, I am glad that I was not a participant in the competitions and didn't have to worry about delays. So there were ups and downs.

I found the event to be like a miniature version of the event held at my alma mater earlier this year, with much of the same attractions. The differences are that one, it's not my alma mater, though it's some other people's alma mater. Two, it's out-of-town and yet somewhat distant, which became a reason I've used in the past for being unable to go to it. Three, it has paid entry; the event at my alma mater has always been free, except for one time when they attempted to do something different. It's still a passable event any which way.

Overall, I'm satisfied that I finally went to this event and saw what I missed, which is quite a bit. Next time I go, I will have to involve my Pokémon cosplay even more, perhaps a little like my friend who came with me. I'm already getting ideas on just how to do so. I'm still earmarking this event for the future, no matter what it takes to get there and to do stuff there.