This weekend I will be driving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to attend Sogen Con. While I have never been to Sogen Con, I have high hopes for a great weekend. It is a smaller convention, but there are several interesting guests and a very interesting and unique list of events, many of which I have not seen at previous conventions.
Every year in Kansas City, the Japan festival Committee holds a Japanese cultural festival at a local community college. While in previous years the festival spanned an entire weekend, this year they are holding the festival on only one day, but adding more event during that time. I will be going for part of the day to explore the various exhibits, listen to some talks, and sample some food.
From their Website:
The 2007 Japan Festival will take place in the spacious Carlsen Center and include more “hands-on” workshops than ever. We hope these workshops will allow you to get involved in aspects of Japanese culture that you have wanted to try but have not gotten a chance to in the past.
This year you can participate in one or several of these workshops: from flower arrangement, bonsai, and tea ceremony to dance, music, origami, taiko and three kinds of martial arts.
Join us and experience the “new” and “old” Japan.
This weekend, I will be attending my fifth anime convention this year, the Anime Festival Wichita held in Wichita, KS. It is one of the smaller cons I have ever attended, but it should be fun. Expect a report when I return.
This weekend I will be attending Anime Iowa, a convention held in the brand new Coralville, IA hotel and convention center just outside of Iowa City. This should be the largest convention I will have attend this year, with an estimated 2,000 attendees. It is also the first convention which I will be attending for all three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It should be a lot of fun, and I will report back with the details after I return.
As anyone who has read much of this blog will know, one of my favorite features of anime and science fiction conventions is the masquerade. Something about watching a bunch of nerds get up on stage in costume, sometimes acting out a short skit, is very entertaining.
Otaku Omaha’s masquerade, though small, was interesting. There were several original and creative costumes which I had not seen attempted before, and a couple very detailed costumes that were better than any version I 
had seen before. The few people who attempted skits did not do anything particularly memorable. However, I had a great time, the event was run well without any problems, and all of the contestants seemed to have a great time.
Read more to see a bunch of pictures I took of the event.
Last weekend I attended my third Anime convention this year, Otaku Omaha. While it was the smallest of the conventions I have attended, and there were some serious problems with the hotel (see the previous post about the horrible, horrible Carlisle hotel), there were some definite highlights to the experience.
Click read more to read the rest and see some photos of the events.
This coming weekend I will be attending my fourth nerd convention of the year, Otaku Omaha, an Anime convention held in South-Eastern Nebraska. From what I can tell, it is a fairly small Anime con, but nonetheless looks to have some very interesting events in the lineup. Because Omaha is only a 2 and a half hour drive from Kansas City, and it is a smaller con, we will only be attending for Saturday and Sunday. Expect a report sometime after I return about the events.
This weekend, I will be spending some time at the Conquest science fiction convention here in Kansas City, MO at the airport Hilton hotel. This is the 38th year for the con, but will be the first time I attend. I met one of the con organizers at Naka-Kon a few months ago, and saw him again at Anime St. Louis/ShoMeCon last month. It seems to be a very well organized convention and they have a lot of interesting events, so it should be a good experience. I will be posting several updates and photos after the con, so check back for more next week.
Here are a few more pictures from the Anime St. Louis Masquerade. Be sure to hit “Read More” to see them all. (more…)
One of my favorite features of anime conventions is the masquerade. Well over half of the attendees of anime cons generally show up in costume, and the masquerade is a great way to show off the incredible workmanship that goes into some of the costumes. Not only that, but the participants often perform short skits or performances as well.
The Masqerade at Anime St. Louis, while one of the smaller cons I have been to, had one of the best run Masquerades I have seen. Not only did it start on time, which is rare for a convention, but it also was run very smoothly and with minimal problems. It was a great show with many impressive entrants and several awesome skits. I am looking forward to next year’s show already.
There are several more pictures after the jump. (more…)