TouhouCon 2015

I just wanted to capture some thoughts about my experience at Touhoucon before they faded. I only went on day 2, since I had work on day 1, and I didn't feel like driving up to Anaheim again for the final day.

Attending was kind of a spur of the moment thing, so I wasn't really prepared with either my cosplay, or in figuring out what panels I wanted to see. I'm not sure when the panel descriptions were added online, but I didn't actually see them until after the con was over...

The con was relatively small, so it allowed for some interaction with other fans that I haven't experienced in quite a while (I personally tend to be a bit standoffish).

Two experiences at this con were really memorable for me. The first was of a young lady dressed as Marisa who wanted to get a picture with me. I put my arm around her lightly, as her mom (?) took a picture of us, when I suddenly felt young Marisa give me a big squeeze. She seemed so happy that we were taking that picture together, and I could feel all her joy and enthusiasm in that hug. I hope that she never looses that spark.

The second experience was when a lady dressed as Ran asked me to pose for a picture with her. I agreed, and she started to speak to me in Japanese. I could understand a word here and there, and the jist seemed to be that she thought I was kakkoii, which made me feel rather gratified (as I mentioned, I didn't get to spend much time on my cosplay, and I had to get dressed in my car – I didn't get to practice any appropriate poses either, so I was worried that I would look like a total dork).

Luckily my friend was able to speak Japanese, and do some translation for us. Ran-san was a big Touhou and Marasy fan, who decided to visit her daughter (who is going to school in So Cal) as a pretext to attend the con.

I really should make an effort to study Japanese properly. I would have liked to speak to her directly, but I couldn't dredge the words up to say what I wanted. I felt like a child, shyly hiding behind a parent who did the speaking in their stead, chiming in here and there when there was something I understood.

I feel I could have enjoyed TouhouCon more, but there was a lot of stuff going on in the back of my mind, so I was distracted and not really in con mode.

I didn't take much in the way of photos, but below are a few of the shots I took of the cars on display from the California Itasha Alliance:

A couple of photos from the Touhou cosplay gathering:

Stage 5  bosses

Taiko drum workshop held by Senryu Taiko:

Here's a video of one of the songs they performed uploaded by Utsuho Reiuji:

Here's a great cosplay music video produced by the guys at DZTV.

I was asked to be in the video, but I had to decline – I'm reluctant to have my picture exhibited in highly public places. If that makes people curious, the best I can do is to offer this picture I found on the Touhoucon Twitter page. I'm actually in the background of the draw battle between Kozou and Henry Liao. I'll leave it to your imagination to guess which person is me.

Henry Liao vs こぞうさん

I'm walking by in the background near the very end of this clip as well...