Yama-Con 2015: A Pirates Life Fore Me!!! Saturday!

                                       Saturday!
        At most 3-day cons all the big stuff goes down on Saturday, Yama-con is no different. There was concerts and gaming tournaments, photo shoots galore! Anything you wanted to do while at Yama-con probably happened on Saturday.
Ok enough build up. How was my Saturday? 
Why thank you for asking I would love to tell you ^_^ 
We had planned to spend pretty much our entire day in Fan Panel A. The schedules I had printed out had our first panel (Con Crash Course) at 11:15 however we soon realized that wasn't going to happen since we got out of our hotel room at 10:30 and still had to eat and get through Pigeon Forge traffic. (Backed up 1 mile for Krispy Kream doughnuts, we didnt even want doughnuts -_-)
So sadly we missed the Con Crash Course, I am certain somewhere in there the host probably says "Leave your hotel with plenty of time to get to the con!" but hey, stuff happens.
Next up was the always charming Sword Art Online panel, because who doesn't want to sit in a room full of Kirito and Asuna cospayers? I didn't see a Klein though :'(
Anyways, as soon as we got to the door we saw the schedule had changed. SAO got switched with Welcome To Anteiku which I am sure would have made more sense if I knew what that was. We ending up not staying for the entire SAO panel after all of that, I was feeling a little claustrophobic.  
After that we went to the Cosplay Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wanted to get a clear shot so unfortunately I was standing in the back of the room with my camera on zoom so sorry if the pictures aren't as clean as they could have been. I am still an amateur but I feel really bad. These cosplayers were so good! 

 The way that her wings sparkled when the light hit them was amazing! I wish I had gotten a picture of it for you :/

 The twirl was perfect, her skirt and cape both spun out in a gorgeous manor.

 Where oh where is the wolf at?

 I personally love all forms of Jack Frost so this got a thumbs up from me. Not to mention a Pikachu and an Apple Jack!

 I dont even know what she is but I know she had some awesome poses.

 I had a different picture I was gonna use but I love the scythes shadow in this one, very character accurate.

 My fellow FMA fans! Take me with you! I heard that she hand drafted the patterns. I copied some and that was hard, I can only imagined how skilled she is. :)

 This guy. His costume was amazing!!! The armor was detailed very nicely and the sword was huge! I am just sitting here thinking, "Walking around Walmart dressed like that would be fun.".

 This girl somehow got her friends to be zombies and chase/shamble(?) around after her.  It was adorable.

 Spirited Away cosplays... The stage crew really impressed me with this, they helped the duck (Sorry if thats not what you are ) on and off of the stage.

 And naturally we have a few wonderful HomeStuckians :D

 I don't know what this is but I am pretty sure she can fly... Sewing those sleeves would have confused me so mad respect for the maker! And sadly I recorded the rest of the contest so no more pictures.... I know, its sad... Don't cry! I have other pictures!

Like these ;)

 That time when I fangirled in the hallway because someone represented one of my fandoms.
(Seraph of The End, The one is "Yuu" and I cannot remember the other ones name. I know he is a well known vampire though."

I am going to explain something real fast, k?
Alright. So Saturday night is the concert night, which is awesome if thats your thing. It isn't my thing, in fact I had never been to a concert because of how much they scared me. All of that changed thanks to The Slants.
Earlier that day in a bit of our down time we went to the dealers room, during that time there was a big panel going on so it was pretty dead. We saw two of The Slants band members sitting at their table just chilling so I thought "Hey, that would make a cool picture!" so I went over to their booth. I asked if I could take their picture and they were totally cool with it, which sadly I can't seen to find the photos I took which is really depressing.
After that they kinda just had a normal conversation with Heiwa and I. They asked if we were gonna go to their concert and all I could say was "Maybe." and to my surprise they asked why so I got to tell them about my fear of being surrounded by people, dark rooms, loud noises, strangers, talking in front of people etc. At the end of the conversation they said that if there was only like fifteen people in the room I should definitely come or that I should try going on stage because no one would be up there.
To me that meant a ton. They were human and they were really cool guys to just talk to. I know it probably wasn't as important to them but it helped me grow as a person. So Saturday night I went to my first concert, because they had invited me and I wanted to support them. I was in a dark room with loud music surrounded by people and lights and I survived! In fact, I thrived.
Glad I ended up loving their music!  So here are my favorite pictures from the concert. No lie I took over 200 pictures and a few videos.

                                     He was on our side of the stage playing Guitar, I think. (Right corner for me, left side for them)

                               I got a lot of pictures of the lead singer because he was very energetic and interactive, which makes for great photo opportunities.

 I ended up having a hard time getting photo's because the lights were constantly moving which would blind the camera or wash out the band. I still got a few good ones though.

 I love how you can literally see the emotion(?) in the music even through a picture.

 Stage dive time!!! This was really exciting, and a little scary for me because everyone had to squish in together. (There was maybe 50-60 of us) It was worth it though because he enjoyed himself :P
Also sorry to who ever was standing behind me when this happened! I didn't mean to step on you as I was backing away!

                                           A guitar over the head because hey, why not?

                                         This one looks divine. (See what I did there?)

 I adore this picture! I feel like it properly caught the essence of that moment. Which is really hard to explain if you weren't there.

 And this is the last picture, I got at least 20 pictures of him but this was one of the best ones. I wish the others had turned out better :/

Now you know why The Slants are my favorite band. They were my first concert and that will always make them special for me :)


That was pretty much the end of our Saturday, we checked out the rave a bit but we were pretty danced out already so we didn't stay. We did get to do another Conga line though!
Here are a few random pictures to end the post with :D

                                            Kitty!

                                       Tails and ears oh my!

                                               Definition of Kawaii?

                                                      Deadpool say what?

 

These guys were awesome  to see around the con. Always friendly and just so sweet towards eachother :)

 

 Aki signing off! Thanks for the read!!!!
Woof*
~Aki Ame Okami

  

Yama-Con 2015: A Pirates Life For Me!!!! (Friday)

                     My adventures started on Friday.

Early Friday morning I jumped out of bed, terrified and excited, not knowing what the weekend would hold. I am writing this to tell you what has happened and how it has changed me as a person. For the better :P

For starters I would just like to say that this was my first time cosplaying and I was terrified and unsure as to how it would turn out. This is what I went as on Friday. (It is my version of the Yama-Con mascot Yami (Fox pirate this year))

So sadly we got to Yama-Con late because our dear Heiwa had to go to her college class... I despise college -_-
We missed opening ceremonies but that was alright. I had gone through and made a color coded schedule for us so that no matter what happened we would know where everyone was.
After opening ceremonies we went to the Pokemon photo shoot.

 Now let me tell ya, I scheduled an hour for photo shoots. They took about five minutes... Because of this unplanned free time (I was so glad that we ended up having frequent down time.) I spent more time in the Merchants Room than when planned.

                        Oh Bassy O.O And a Ciel dressed as a cow!!!!! I almost started fangirling in the Merchants room XD

 We almost lost all our money on the first day, And by lost I mean spent.

It was a real struggle.... They had Ouran HighSchool Host Club posters that I wanted to get so badly... The only problem is I wanted to keep my money and I didn't want to explain why I had a poster of twins cuddling on my wall....

The other thing I really wanted was a bag, a sling bag, messenger bag, it didn't matter to me. I just wanted a cool bag that showed my love for anime. Sadly I have big plans for Christmas and couldn't afford anything. However I found something that was far better than any bag. (keep reading)

SHIZUO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did fangirl this time :P This cosplayer made my Friday.  Look at that stop sign! The craftsmanship! I didn't get a picture of it but shortly after we took the picture an Izaya ran up to him... The fact that I missed that photo-op will haunt me. Shizuo... <3

We also found this one in the Merchants Room. Kirito!!!!!! The sword was wonderfully made, I actually wish we had gotten a better picture of it. I felt really embarrassed asking for a picture  because for some reason my voiced squeaked. I guess I was aww struck :P A Shizuo, Izaya and a Kirito... Why wouldn't I be?

 We got to see this awesome guy with his awesome booth and its something we are looking into going to, I have never been fond of big cities so Atlanta is a little intimidating to me.

After the dealers room we went to the Iron Cosplay: Davy Back Boat Race
This event was really cool. It appears to be a Yama-Con original event (The iron cosplay part, I think :P ).
The took 3 teams of 4 and gave them random items, Some items that I recognized included tin foil, duct tape, wrapping paper, cardboard and I am sure that there were other items that I just didnt see. The winners got dealers room bucks (The lucky cosplayers...) and the not winners got donuts!!!! Sadly the only picture I got is of the announcer (Who also cosplayed) then I got caught up in the competition and forgot about the camera :P oopsie.

 

 After that we had another photo shoot, Noragami, which sadly we must have been in the wrong spot because we never saw them so we left to get dinner. We ate at Bellacino's as always :) It was delicious and filling. I did get funny looks though, my guess is they didnt recognize my cosplay. We ended up skipping the rave that evening cause of a "No bags" rule and we needed to keep ours with us. Since we skipped we did get to see some of the Con staff in action, I must say that I was very impressed with them. They kept to their rules and they were always around if you needed something and they were always so kind to us, even if we were hopelessly lost :P
A big thanks to the Con staff!!!! (Also please bring The Slants back next year! )
 
 
Any who, On to the Cosplay Highlights!!!
There were so many good cosplayers I think I will be putting together a seperate post about them :)
 
                      


                         They had their Black Butler cosplays on point!
There will be a seperate post about all the cosplayers so my favorites of the day will be featured here..... (Drum roll!!!!)  

  The Black Butler group!!!!!

 Shizuo takes second place.... Sorry about this photo, meant to ask but then we got mobbed by a group moving through the halls and then he was gone...

 To top off the post I am going to show you some of our glamour shots!!! These were taken on Saturday evening but I am just dying to post them :)
Heiwa as Hinata Hyuuga

 And me as Kiba Inuzuka.

I really enjoyed my Friday and it gave me a lot of confidence going into Saturday. It proved to me that this fandom is truly and accepting and loving family.

~Aki Ame Okami