Kawaii Kon 2008 Aftermath Part I
Can you believe it? We SURVIVED our first event of 2008! Kawaii Kon has officially come and gone it was a blast! :D
It has been a stressful 3 months leading to Kawaii Kon and KS and I both believe it really paid off well! We met lots of long-time readers, made some new fans, and sold a good chunk of merchandise. Our pups were especially well-received and so were our new shirts and pins!
I'll be writing more about this event in detail when I'm a little more rested (4 days with minimal sleep == NG!) But for now, read on for a quick rundown of my personal highlights of the event!
1) We were back in our old spot from last year, in front of the Maid/Butler Cafe! It was a comfortable and familiar place for us. Lots of sights to see and got to chat every so often with the good folks from Wizzywig hailing from Ann Arbor, MI. I even bought a Japanese Spongebob Squarepants for my brother as a birthday gift. (Oh, and a San-X phone charm for myself!)
2) We have the Bestest fans in the World! A few local fans came by to say hello and even dropped off gifts! Ann, a fan from last year, stopped by our booth to hand me a JuJu Beads bag charm that is both meaningful and sentimental for us. Another fan we made this year handed us a couple frozen Crustable Grilled Cheese sandwiches early Sunday morning! And the most touching story, I'll save for later!
3) Friends from all over flew in for the event! Lionel from Usagichan Search & Rescue, Trimmy from Monkey Ame, PMBQ from Tea-Club, old JASH guys from Las Vegas, and familiar faces from all over were in attendance this year. I wish I had more time to really sit down and chat with them, but we were either swamped at our booth or dead-tired and trying to recover. TwT!
4) Mari Iijima's concert - I've waited years to see Mari in concert, and I finally had the chance to see her perform - in the front row VIP seating, nonetheless! She played mostly songs from her independent catalog, but did a beautiful rendition of "Runner", the ending theme from the original SDF Macross series in tribute to the composer, Kentaro Haneda, who passed away last year. (Incidentally, Mari did not sing the ending theme to Macross - but there was a version with her recorded.) Yay!
For a few select photos of the event, check out our flickr gallery! :D
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