The Tomahawk
My Time At Ohayocon 2011Tuesday, March 08, 2011 By Catherine Tierney
Today is February 4th, 2011. Groundhog day was two weeks ago and Puxatawny Phil did not see his shadow so, apprently we are in for another few weeks of winter. Solo and Ensamble for the choirs is this saturday. The weatherman calls for snow. That is not a happy thing to hear right now because of the chance of Solo and Ensamble getting cancelled this year. We, the choirs and the band, have worked very hard on practicing our songs in these past few weeks. It is a very exciting thing to sing or play an instrument in front of a whole lot of people that you may or may not know. I for one, find it thrilling. My freshman and sophmore year, I sang for the talent show. The first time was with my friend Tia. I think that people really enjoyed it. But, the next year, I didn't feel as prepared. Part of that was because I chose my song a day before I auditioned... but, then again, my first year, Tia and I chose our song less than an hour before auditions right after school. Either way, fun times. :) Recently, (January 30th, 2011), I went to an anime convention. Ohayocon 2011, January 28-29. It was completely and epically AMAZING!!! I saw two of my friends from school there. (Casey Kuster and Leslie Cook.) Though, they were there for the whole weekend and I was only there for saturday. Casey's mom got a hotel room for the weekend at the convention center and Leslie stayed with them. (It is normal to rent a hotel room and stay the whole weekend for anime conventions since they are only weekend events.) Fortunately for me, I was able to leave my coat and stuff in their room while we roamed around everywhere and got into adventures. Describing an anime convention and not be put into simple words. They exist for lovers of anime, manga, japanese videogames, costumes from any of the series' and artwork. Lots and lots of artwork. The "Dealer's Room" is the big area where you can purchase anime related items, such as books, Cd's, DVDs, dolls, costumes (animal ears, tails, cosplay, weapons, etc.), plushies... the list is endless if you know what these things are. And is is a wonderful time for fans of this type of ordeal. The art work is actually made by, usually the state local artists who are fans. The creativity from everything just flows. At these cons, there aer also special guests, such as voice actors from anime shows or movies, or authors or artists of famous mangas. (Manga=Japanese comic book. Anime=Japanese cartoon.) At an anime convention 3 years ago, I met and got the autographs of Vic Mignongna (Edward Elric), Caitlin Glass (Winry), and Aaron Dismuke (Alphonse Elric), (voice actors from Full Metal Alchemist.) Even though I have hardly ever seen the show, it feels pretty cool to tell people that ARE fans of the show that I actually met the voice actors. I have all kinds of stories from anime conventions because this is my fifth one. I have been going to them since I was in the 7th or 8th grade. I am not a junior. But my friends Casey Kuster, Leslie Cook, Gayle Kohsman, Chelsie Perry, and I believe even Evan Marmie have also been to anime conventions. I usually always post my pictures and videos from the cons on facebook and youtube. Ohayocon took place at the Hyatt Regency Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. Though Ohayocon is only once a year, anime conventions all around the world take place at any times of teh year. There are websites such as http://www.animecons.com/ have all sorts of information on anime conventions in the United States and sometiems even the world. Obviously, this is something that people all around the world do. People gather at conventions to have a good time with people that share their interests of manga, anime, and teh entire J-pop culture. I have made plenty of friends at these things. That is all that I can think of to blog about at this time. I hope it wasn't too boring and I guess it's okay if no one evern reads it. But I was happy to blog for you. |