tj_dragonblade | YaoiCon pre-days 1 & 2 (with commentary by Inyx-sama) (Reply)

Red-eye flights are not my favorite thing in the world. They're even less of a favorite thing when there's a shortage of the foofy little pillows they usually have out for passengers who want to sleep. Or, in my case, doze with the least amount of fitfullness possible. Lucky for pillowless me, I had a plushie in the carry on. So I dozed on Gaara for the three-hour flight. And yes, I realize it's a grievous misuse of his office and that 'pillow' is not generally counted among the duties of the kazekage excepting for certain persons named Rock Lee. ^_~

Wednesday was spent in the sort of haze that travel and meeting up with friends on three hours of sleep tends to induce.

jibii is made of awesome for picking me up and taking me to the hotel. ♥ Thank you, Joe! ^_^ (Inyx: Yes, Joe and the sexy boots...until said sexy boots destroyed my flip-flops...)

Hung out with Inyx and Joe for awhile, had lunch, talked this and that (Inyx: This and that being PopCult Anime and Cosplay); met up with

zalia,

gardensgnome,

nekofreak and a bunch of other folks later for dinner. Sushi restaurant (Inyx: I still regret not stealing that Sake jug...it would have been perfect for my Kenren cosplay). Outings become...interesting, with this group (Inyx: You mean 'Pervy'). In a generally amusing way. ^_^ Hung out in the hottub later for more of the same, (Inyx: It's not a hot tub, it's a soup...a fangirl soup) and turned in early-ish. Y'know, three hours of sleep and all.

Inyx and I headed into Chinatown this morning and wandered for awhile being horribly touristy. Lots of fun. All kinds of kitschy shiny to while away the hours before one realizes how many of them have passed. ^_^ Good times, good times. Alas, we found no charming little pet shop with mysterious proprieter tucked in amongst the shiny. T_T But we did have lunch that was very tasty, with tea that was also very tasty, somewhat to my surprise. My limited experience with tea so far has been mostly less than tasty.

Hopped a bus to Japantown in the afternoon to meet up with Zalia and the rest in the Kinokuniya bookstore, where I found this manga in the yaoi section that I've never heard of but bought on sight just because it's Minekura's. ^_^ Squee! The only bit of the title I can pick out ('cause it's writ in English) is 'Just'. Maybe someone 'round here this weekend who can make more sense of kanji than I can tell me what goes on.

Uhm...ate crepes, wandered in further search of a buyable version of the sake jug Inyx mentions above, bought a plushie Lee and Gaara set (so tiny and squooshy! ^_^), and eventually caught the bus and the BART and the Caltrain back. Big-city mass transit ftw, definitely, but I've done enough walking the last two days to make me feel it tomorrow, I'm sure.

Sorted out the room-switching that needed to happen (due to some sort of underfloor water leakage in the first) with front desk, packed back up, moved, re-unpacked, sorted out wireless connectivity (and why doesn't con hotel offer free wireless, alas) and business to be dealt with online, had dinner, and went to work on this entry-plus-pics. Inyx has crashed now, and I'll be turning in once I've finished the pic-bit.

Anyone who may be needing it: Our room# is now 5084. I only regret that 5085 was not available. T_T

These could maybe use further re-sizing, but I'm too tired to be bothered with it now. ^_^;

Three monkeys on a bench a block or so before the Chinatown gate.

The Chinatown gate.

Dragon detail atop the Chinatown gate.

Inyx posing with the gate lion.

This building graced quite a few of the postcards I saw, so I'm guessing it's important or memorable somehow. Viewed from a park a couple of blocks away. Before I saw all the postcards, I thought it just made for a nice snapshot. ^_^;

Super-techy bathroom with electronic access and door. Very shiny on the outside...

...but inside, it's still just a glorified outhouse. The electronic signage states that time is limited to 20 minutes and only one person is allowed inside except for those needing assistance. Inyx noted that this looked/sounded like a setup for the worst yaoi fanfic ever. We searched onward to find something a little lower on the 'ew' scale.

Chandelier in the cafe where we had lunch. Nice little place. Awesome chandeliers.

Detail in the chandelier. These things were huge and impressively intricate.

View up the street.

Fertility icons on display in a storefront. Giant wooden penises, oh my!

Dragon on display behind the fertility icons. I wants to take him home, I does. ^_^

I would so switch to Bank of America if all their building facades had columns like these. Only not really, y'know, especially since there's no local branches in Anchorage.