Wai-con has come and gone for another year. I had a lot of fun and made my wallet $500 lighter. I spent most of my time battling the crowds looking for things to buy and ended up not going to any of the panels and screening, except for the Eminence screening which was quite interesting. This year I also volunteered at Wai-con, which I have been doing every year except for the first year that Wai-con was running. Normally I do screenings, turning the lights on/off, sticking the DVD into the laptop, and then pressing play. This year I got to sell stuff at Panic HQ which was actually quite fun.

It was an early start on the Saturday, volunteers were told to come in early to help out with stuff. I think I got there around 7:30am but there didn't seem to be anything for me to do so I walked into the city to grab some breakfast. There were a few people queuing up to get into Wai-con when I left, but when I came back, the queue had increased by a a lot.

Although I had considered going to see Choir Sakura in the theatre, I decided to wander around the trader's tables to check out what I can blow my money on. I wanted to add another figurine to my collection, but most of the stuff available were Naruto or Bleach or series that I had no interest in or never heard of. I saw a set of Inuyasha figurines at the Empire Toys table but no Kikyou or Sesshoumaru. They had a Sesshoumaru plushie, but in my opinion, plushies of humanoid characters look ugly.

There was a thick crowd surrounding the Madman table as usual, I waited patiently and slowly inched my way towards the table and bought some manga. I decided make an attempt to reach the anime side of the table later. I bought a Chi plushie (from Chi's Sweet Home), which unlike the humanoid plushies, is really reeally cute, and comes in difference facial expressions. I would've bought one of each if the others hadn't been dirtied from being handled by so many people.

I bought lunch in the city before going to my volunteer shift at 1pm. Because the cosplay competition was on at the time, things were really quiet around the main area. I learned to use a cash register for the first time in my life. At first I was slow and made some mistakes, but I think I got the hang of it after a while. My shift was due to finish at 3pm, but that was roughly when the cosplay competition finishes. There was a sudden explosion of people exiting the theatre and things got really busy at Panic HQ.

At Panic HQ we were selling Pocky, Hi Chews, Ramune and these little HP and Mana potions. A lot of people passed by and found them amusing or interesting, but when they asked how much they cost and I said $10, 90% of them replied with "Ouch". Despite the price, a several people did buy them.

When things at Panic HQ settled down, I went to see if the things I had my eye on in the morning were still available for purchase, but it was all gone. Oh well, I save a bit of money. By then my feet were killing me, so I went down to the volunteer's room (Green Room) to chill out before going to the Eminence concert.

The Eminence concert, Destiny: Promised Legacy, was awesome. I don't normally go to concerts because they don't really interest me, but I made an exception this time because it was sorta part of Wai-con and because they would be playing anime and game music. Man am I glad I forked out the $65 to see it. I've tried to learn how to play the keyboard and guitar, so I think that I can better appreciate the skill that is required to play music like that than people who have no musical background at all. The music, and the way the members of Eminence played was just beautiful and the whole experience was very enjoyable.

For a second I considered not going on the Sunday because I was feeling sick, but I had a shift to do at 1pm, so kinda had to go. Again, because it was during the cosplay competition, things we pretty quiet at Panic HQ. But just like on Saturday, when the cosplay competition finished, there was increased activity. We had reduced the price of the magazines that we were selling from $7 to $5, but one guy who purchased one didn't seem to hear me when I said that they were $5 and he ended up walking off without his change >.<

I went to the Eminence panel at 3:30pm, but was still feeling sick and was tired from standing around at Panic HQ so I decided to go home after the panel. I was going to stay late to help clean up after Wai-con and then attend the dinner afterwards, but I decided that it was better to go home and rest than to be tired and feeling like crap at work the next day.

Before heading home, I made one last round of the trader's tables. I bought a DVD, Gurren Lagann volume 6, and volume 9 of Full Metal Panic manga. I decided to see if I could pick up one of the cute little birds at the Peppermint Carousel table (literal birds, not the girls behind the table :p). Apparently the birds were just for decoration, but the girls at the table said that they could let me have it for free if I bought something. So I bought two of the phone strap decoration thingys and got the bird :D

Wai-con 2010 Loot

Every year, I look forwards to Wai-con mainly to buy stuff from traders that I normally can't buy anywhere else at any other time of the year. I bought anime DVDs and manga, which I could buy elsewhere throughout the year, so I was feeling a little disappointed. However, the moment I got that cute little bird, I felt like my Wai-con experience was complete. Now counting down the days until the next Wai-con in 2011.