I’ve been in the Greater Seattle area for two years now. As I mentioned in my report for last year’s Sakura-Con, I missed 2024’s due to arriving up here the day before the con plus being on call for work. Notably, 2024 was the first year since 2004 that I didn’t attend any sort of fan convention. While all the conventions I would likely have attended were cancelled in 2020, some rad people online put together ConFromHome (archived link) which I attended in 2020, and AWA did a virtual con that year too. Last year was my Sakura-Con debut, and I decided I wouldn’t miss it this year either.
Day -1, Wednesday, April 1: Seems this year has a “Day -1” too. As the same as last year, this was a normal work day for me. My friend Mike’s flight landed midday this year, and because I hadn’t taken this day off too, he took the light rail and bus to get to the apartment. After he made it up to our apartment, he got settled in as he could, and I finished my work day.
After I was officially on PTO, we headed out to run a few errands and pick my sleeping bag up from the cleaners. In future years I will probably take this day off too just for logistical purposes due to inbound flight timing, especially if the others from my usual con group decide to fly out here.
After we came back to the apartment, I ordered us Taco Time for dinner and we hung out for a bit before getting to bed relatively early due to wanting to be up early the next day.
Day 0, Thursday, April 2: We woke up rather early today and ran by Costco and REPC before heading back to the apartment to transition to public transit to get up to the Seattle Convention Center’s Summit building to pick our badges up. A combination of the First Hill Streetcar and Bus Route 10 got us there. The badge line was significantly shorter than it was last year due to the con having pre-printed badges that just needed a hologram sticker affixed. The badges did not have names on them this year, which was fine by me.
After we got our badges, we took the same bus route down to Westlake Station and took the 2 Line this time back to the ID/Chinatown station to hit up Uwajimaya for lunch, run through Kinokuniya (where I didn’t twist my ankle this year) after, then back into Uwajimaya to pick up more groceries.
Once we were done there, we headed back to the apartment and planned out our Friday for the con before heading to the Museum of Flight’s First Free Thursdays event. It was packed, and I was glad it was a bit cold as I’m sure it’s even more packed when the weather is warmer. We got through all of it except The Red Barn, so we’ll make a return visit in a future year.
We caught a bit of the rest of the week’s episode of Eastern Echoes on KEXP as we drove back to the apartment.
Once we returned, I fixed some food at home and we hung out for a bit.
Day 1, Friday, April 3: Up earlyish again. We headed over to the Streetcar again and took the 49 this time back to the convention center. Our first objective today was the dealers’ room. I didn’t get anything personally, Mike picked up a few things from Retro Saikou, and as we had no real plans to attend any panels today, we walked down to Westlake Center to grab lunch and so Mike could top his ORCA card off. While we were there, we found a pretty cool candy shop I need to head back up to at some point.
We took the light rail and bus back home where hung out for a bit before making dinner plans.
We opted to take the streetcar back up to Capitol Hill so we could see the Jimi Hendrix statue as well as pay our respects to St. Rat in Cal Anderson Park. After we stopped in Elliott Bay Book Company, a local bookstore I’ve been meaning to drop by, then walked over to Unicorn/Narwhal for drinks and dinner. They had a cabaret show going on downstairs, which was fun to listen to upstairs. After we had our fill of this, we got an Uber back to the apartment and settled in for the night.
Day 2, Saturday, April 4: Today is where we had real plans at the con. First priority was making it over for Emi Nitta’s panel. We got there and were close to the beginning of the line as the premiere of the Witch Hat Atelier anime was going on around the same time with a significantly longer line. The only premiere I’ve gone to at a con was Season 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, and that year Mike was cosplaying a character from the show, so we kind of had to go. Maybe if I start keeping up with shows more regularly again I’ll want to go to a premiere at a con. That said, Witch Hat Atelier is on Crunchyroll now, so I might add it to my queue. I think I need to go through my CR queue at lunch instead of stuff on YouTube… Anyway, back to the present.
Emitsun’s panel was a good time, and after the panel we rushed down to get in line to get her autograph. Mike, myself, and the other folks we know made it with time to spare, so we were good to go. Mike and I had dropped by Daiso in Crossroads on Wednesday afternoon, so we had shikishi for her to sign.
After the autograph session, we wandered over into the Arch building of the SCC, headed up to Artists’ Alley to run by a friend of a friend’s booth, grabbed some food in the back of AA, sat down at a table to eat with other con attendees, and when a couple of chairs opened up a couple of people sat down, one of whom had Freiren-in-a-mimic for his cosplay. It was pretty epic and I did take a pic of it. Props to whoever you are: you rock! We took a few minutes to get some fresh air before heading back inside.
Next stop was a panel called “The Secret History of Gundam Yaoi” which was amazing fun. I had to dip to hit the restroom, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to the panel host after the panel, so that was a bit of a bummer. We then headed over to the “Arch Tower” building to hit up the arcade for a little while. First game we played was Quiz & Dragons which was actually cool. Notably one question we got was “Which of the following teams has never been to the Super Bowl?” The correct answer was the Atlanta Falcons, my #1 team, who went to the Super Bowl the year following the game’s release. We wandered over to the rhythm games, and I played a few rounds of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: All-Star Carnival before playing Densha de Go!!. I definitely need to make a visit to gamecenter in Kent some day to play these again. After the arcade closed we hoofed it to 3rd and Union to pick the 14 up back to the apartment.
We grabbed dinner at the Ethiopian sports bar on the first floor of my building and it was quite good. I will need to visit them again.
Day 3, Sunday, April 5: I was not feeling it at all this morning, so I slept in a bit. Mike headed over to get in line for Emitsun’s concert, and I followed a bit later. The streetcar got delayed, so I missed the 12 and had to wait a bit for a 10 or 49 to get back down to the con. I made it to the concert only a few minutes late. I probably missed one or two songs. No big deal: I got to hear Snow Halation live and it was so good. The friends we met up with at the panel/concert all had photo op tickets, which we didn’t have, plus raffle tickets, so we headed to the second autograph session. Once all this was done, the friends had to head out to catch flights, so Mike and I headed back into the dealers’ room to revisit Retro Saikou. I picked up a couple of CDs and we made our way back to the apartment, stopping at the QFC in Cap Hill while we were out.
Mike had brought a packed corn beef with him to fix dinner for us, so he got started on that once we made it back from the con. He and I stayed up really really late talking about life and fandom and cons and all sorts of topics. This reminded me a lot of the long deep conversations in the lobby of ATLGLES during many AWAs. I do miss that con… maybe one year we’ll go back.
Day +1, Monday, April 6: We slept in a while today. I woke up earlier, took care of a few things around the apartment, and once Mike had woke up, he took a shower, and we headed over to Kirkland to lay flowers at our friend’s grave like last year. Another sobering moment, and another reminder to make the most of every day. Another stop by Costco had us pick up a rotisserie chicken and some grilled chicken strips, both of which I put in the fridge when I got home.
I fixed dinner for myself when I got home as Mike said he wasn’t super hungry, so he packed his stuff up and we headed to the airport for him to board his returning flight.
After he dropped his checked luggage off, there was still a bit before his flight would board, and the security line was quite short, so we parted company at this point.
I wandered back home and helped another friend out with a run through Sunwell Plateau in WoW on her hunter for a chance at the legendary bow from that raid.
I was tracking Mike’s flight on Flightradar24 and FlightAware, so once it took off, I headed to bed.
Day +2, Tuesday, April 7: I slept in a lot today. I had a text waiting from Mike that he had safely made it home, so that’s a relief. I definitely need to spend some time studying the bus route maps in various locations around the SCC and elsewhere to facilitate more efficient routing even for my own personal outings.
It’s back to work for me tomorrow, so we’ll see how the rest of this week goes.
Normally I post the con report after all the “convention days” are done, but this year I’ve opted to post it on the Tuesday after. Technically all the convention and con-adjacent activities when I’m the “host” are done when the last person has been dropped off at the airport, but as my “host” con now involves cross-country flights for friends, it can bleed into Tuesday morning. It’s still okay to write about it on Tuesday as con-related stuff is done and normal daily life things are back under way.
Next year’s dates appear to be March 26-28, so we’ll begin preliminary plans soon enough.