Cosplay: Art and Culture Exhibition (ACE) 2023

Me: Second of busy Saturdays this month.

Goh: Something tells me you're right after all.

Me: You'll believe it when you see it. OK, now this one has a bit of a strange history. Ash might recall having been sent there in past years when it wasn't too much of anything.

Ash: Oh, uh... oh yeah! Like five years ago.

Pikachu: Pi... Pika chu. ["Boy, that was a time."]

Me: Right. In the old days, they opened things up for characters but they didn't do anything special for them. I also called it a "theme event", but it's more appropriate as a "festival".

Ash: And now, I guess, it's still one.

Me: Yeah, you can say that. And I heard this time they're doing something special for characters, so I totally need to get Ash in on it.

Goh: I wasn't around when this first happened.

Me: All the more reason, to tell you about it. Now, times change, and Ash might notice more changes from way back when.

Ash: Oh! Now it's in the creative center like that one time and another.

Me: Yes, the location changed - it's not a campus anymore. But some things about it still shouldn't have changed.

Ash: Food stands were still there! And there was still a stage for performances.

Goh: Well, you need that in any case.

Me: Which brings us to our "something special": a character parade. You did sign up for it, right?

Ash: I did! I almost didn't, but I got in.

Goh: Nice! But, uh... I guess it wasn't much, like that time before.

Ash: Yeah, it still wasn't much. And not many were in the parade too. Just five characters.

Goh: Really? But then, I guess it's because this is a Saturday after all.

Me: You could be right about that. Anyway, I did send Ash with his Kanto-Johto outfit because I still felt annoyed about last week for Ash.

Ash: That's totally fine. I guess you could say you want me to try to make up for it.

Me: That's another way of saying things. In any case, what happened on stage?

Ash: I did it almost like last week! It was so great, I thought I could do it again, and I did. I think Pikachu and I were awesome.

Pikachu: Pika! ["Nice!"]

Goh: That's pretty neat. What else happened?

Ash: Not much. There was a band and a dance cover group, but that was it.

Goh: Really? That wasn't very much.

Me: It was like this in past years too, though.

Ash: Like our friend said. I mean, it was kind of like that the last time too.

Goh: Huh. OK, so how did you do?

Ash: Not bad - third place!

Pikachu: Pika chu!! ["Very nice!!"]

Goh: Great!!

Me: Nice job!! I guess a win is still a win even when there are few to deal with.

Goh: That really does make up for last week... maybe even if it's not as much.

Ash: Yeah, I think you can say that. About that, everything ended in the middle of the day.

Goh: Wow. Who'd ever think there wouldn't be much of anything today?

Me: I'm surprised as well sometimes.

Goh: What did you do after that?

Ash: I tried to catch a lot of Cryogonal to look for a Shiny one... but I didn't get any. And I met a couple of our friend's friends for that.

Me: Well, thank you for that - it probably wasn't the time for that. But this festival was really the time for it.

Goh: It really kept the two of you busy.

Ash: Pikachu and I just do what we can - our friend's the busy one!

Pikachu: Pika pika. ["So true."]

Me: It seems even when not much goes (or went) on, we can still be busy, like on this Saturday.

One year ago: Tournament: Raid Group Great League, No Restrictions

Two years ago: Casting Out Porygon

Three years ago: Let's Talk About Finding Our Way

Four years ago: A Day (or Year) with Pikachu

Five years ago: To See and See Not

Six years ago: A Pokémon Twist to My Phone