A different planet

We survived the long drive to and from Vancouver. And the very long drives to get almost anywhere in Vancouver, like the 1/2 hour drive from Burnaby to UBC for the convention and then the 1/2 hour back to Burnaby.

It was something else! I have never seen anything like that. I know some people don't understand scrap booking, the classes, crops, money spent on it, the need for a better printer, camera, tote, etc. but I never ever thought about the whole anime/manga thing that my own kids are interested in. Never thought about kids who would spend 2-3 HOURS in line to get into a convention, spend hundreds, yes, hundreds of dollars on costumes, all their waking hours drawing, laminating and trimming art for bookmarks, buttons, posters, tote bags, etc., or hand stitching dolls of their favourite characters to sell at the convention. Some travelled by bus from miles away. There were over 4400 people registered for the convention. I would hazard a guess that 25% of those people were NOT in costume, were not 'cosplayers', but they wandered around with a total shocked and amazed look on their face. There are some kids who 'cosplay' everyday all day. Don't ask me why. These 'kids' spent a bundle of money and time on their costumes, some had different costumes for all 3 days. They had a dance, they had a movies, karaoke, Anime Idol, live chess games, photo shoots, autographs of famous voice actors, how to break into the business seminars, a huge merchants mall, you name it...This was my favourite costume, Kon from Bleach.
Eureka and Anemone from Eureka 7.The weirdest, heart warming thing...giant spin the bottle, each person had a water bottle, spun it , and then ran to hug who ever it was pointed at. Every once in awhile someone would yell "Group Hug!" and they would all run to the middle and hug.
The kids loved seeing all and buying the art, there are some very talented artists out there, Emily being one of them. She has plans on renting a table next year to sell her art work.

My favourite food at the market, fish shaped vegetable waffles, and the sweet rice and bean pancakes.

Anyways, we did do other things, I hit 3 of the scrapbook stores, spent too much, we went to the Richmond Night Market, ate weird things, the Art Gallery Krazy exhibit, saw weird stuff, it was a comic/cartoon, anime, manga, animation, graphic novel exhibit. Both kids said they wouldn't go again. Definitely not for children. Went to Metrotown 2 times, Pacific Center for lunch, made a Build-a-bear and then stopped at Ikea on the way home and filled the van with shelves and an entertainment unit, and lots of other goodies that they make you think you can't live without.

Emily was in her element pretty much all weekend, she should have been born and raised in Japan. My aunt gave her 3 books she had from her teaching days and Emily is using them to teach herself to write, speak and read Japanese. She already knew a tonne of things and could read some of the stuff to me. She love the little gift stores, Gift Surprise was her favourite, it was filled to the ceiling with all kids of imported Hello Kitty type stuff, her fav. being Monokuro Boo, cute little black and white pigs. She bought a truck load of pigs.

Shaun was pretty impressed with Ikea, he was very young the last time we went and was not interested at all. But this time, he was in awe of the very stylish rooms, the low prices, and the way everything was layed out. Oh and the cheap hotdogs and delicious cinnamon buns.