This past weekend was San Diego’s first-ever Anime convention: Anime Conji! The convention was held at the Doubletree Club Hotel off of Hotel Circle, not to be confused with the Doubletree Hotel near Hazard Center (which I thought was the venue at first). This was my first time at a first-year convention and for a small convention, I think it did well. Venus and I had our first Artist Alley experience and had no clue what to expect. Note to self for upcoming conventions: book a hotel room. It makes commuting so much easier, especially since the both of us have a hard time getting up early ;_;
We weren’t sure if we wanted to get a PVC display or not, so Venus ended up buying some wired cube shelving from Target. They’re really neat when they’re assembled! The thing is, when we got there, we had no clue how to assemble the cursed thing, so a good chunk of our time setting up for the first day was us trying to figure out how the pieces connect 
After finally getting them together, we were able to settle in and decorate our space. Speaking of our space, we really felt cramped 
It didn’t help that our table was right near a wall (and the wall was slanted). In order for us to actually maneuver in and out of the space, we either had to squeeze through what little space we had left, go around all the other tables, or just straight up crawl underneath the tables. I think I almost crawled up into someone’s skirt doing that ^^; The plus side of our spot was that we had outlets! OUTLETS! Those saved me a bunch of times especially when my phone was dying and when we brought our laptops. Speaking of which, I managed to snag an Internet connection while there. Win.
Here’s my side of the table. Oddly enough, the Totoro print was the most popular o_o;
Here’s Venus’ side of the table: complete with Nyoron and Coco prints.
Most of the time was spent behind our tables selling prints and getting commissioned on the spot. Luckily, some of our good friends on staff and SD Animanga came by and dropped us off some food and other goodies! Somehow, we ended up with an excess amount of food, ranging from Tabe BBQ spicy pork tacos to random muffins to chicken karaage bentos from Nijiya Market. Ooh, and those free Kameda Crisps rice snacks! Good times. Also, ramune was probably the drink of the whole convention. I have no clue how many bottles of those I drank D:
Unfortunately, we didn’t really have anybody to cover our tables in order to go out, but we did take random breaks here and there to check out the different dealers and roam around the pavilion. I was able to meet Chris Daily of Striptease (and also happens to be an acquaintance of the boyfriend ;3) and he gave me a free Internet girlfriend sticker T_T I wish we did have some extra people to help man the table so that we could check out some panels. I really wanted to go to the Intro to Vocaloid and Touhou panel, but I had a commission queue to attend to. Thank you to Jennice for letting me watch it via UStream 
RANDOM PLUG FOR SD ANIMANGA.
Even though we were cooped up at our table, it was really cool seeing all the different kinds of cosplay! It was pretty convenient: I didn’t have to walk around anywhere 
They came to me, huhu. Another thing I liked about being at our table was the random people we got to meet and talk with. I really like having spontaneous conversations, even if people are just browsing around. Plus, we were able to do some networking with some local folk
Another thing that surprised me at the convention: TOUHOU COSPLAY. I can’t recall how many Reimus and Marisas I saw running around, but every time I saw someone cosplaying from Touhou, I cried a little inside ;_; I was so glad to see an Alice, too! It was really cool getting to talk to random fans when they came over to our table, too. Finally found a Suika fan out there as well. To the Suika fan I met: you are awesome
I’m bummed that I didn’t get to meet all of the artists in Artist Alley, but at least I got to meet those around me! Our table buddies were Deanna (on the right) and Tori (on the left). Deanna did all the artwork for the convention and is a totally sweet girl. Tori makes really, really cute charms. Check them out! Both are really talented :3
Got a picture with our other table buddies from across the way: Floyd, Nancy, and Jennifer – the Neko Ninjas! They’re absolute sweethearts, too ;_; Also shouts to Divine and Maire, who always gave us Nilla wafers! I forgot to buy a cat scarf from her at the end of the convention D: I also picked up some swag, but I’m too lazy to take a picture of it and post it. I’ll save that for another post.
I only caught a couple of photos from my dinky point-and-shoot, but I’m sure more photos are around of Anime Conji here and there. In the end, I had a great time! Despite having little to no sleep and constantly working, I still had a blast. Must’ve been that convention adrenaline rush ^^; I’m definitely looking forward to it being bigger and better at the Town and Country next year :3
Tags: anime conji, Art, artist alley, awesome!, Convention, san diego
@999hp
MYLENE! ^_^ Table neighbor! It was a delightful surprise to have a table next to you. At the beginning of the con, I was kind of nervous because you guys were late. I didn’t know what kind of people my table neighbors would be. But you and Venus turned out to be amazingly nice and talented. <3 It seemed like you did really well at the convention. I loved the bart simpson/edward elric print and the saihate print the most. Oh, and saga, of course :3Mmm… Tabe was delicious and so were those rice cracker snacks. I hope you are for sure coming to Anime Conji next year. See you at AX!
Yes, we are getting a hotel room next year. I like to just wake up and head to the table right away then having to commute there.. ;p And I forgot to buy my frog scarf from Maire, as well. Hopefully we’ll see here sometime soon..
I should make quickie comics of the conversations we had at the convention, including the Final Fantasy debate (9? 8?! 10?!) and the Power Level reading! (It’s 1,006? WAT? O___O)
We got there late because we had some last minute prints to make and the both of us woke up late
;;; At least we got there before noon!And thank you so much for dealing with our crazy antics ^^; lol, we’re kinda crazy. I’ll definitely be at Conji next year and hopefully for years to come. See you in July!
I think she said she’ll be at AX as well, so we must stalk her then
I want a cat scarf!DO THE COMICS. I don’t have the conversations fresh in my head, so it’d be best if you did them XD I still have one more commission to finish, but ever since this cold got the best of me, I haven’t had time to sit down and actually do it. I’ve been spending my time more on lying down and trying to recover ;_;