London Anime Expo

HOLY SHIT!

I went to the London Anime Expo yesterday with Dagga and Sarah and... HOLY SHIT! It was AWESOME!

First, we had to get to London, which meant taking a train from Banbury to Oxford, and I was kinda nervous, seeing as it was pretty much my first time on public transport without an adult around. But it was actually really fun. Once we were in Oxford, we had to get a coach to London, which took about an hour and a half, I think. I wasn't really paying attention to the time, and I slept half the journey away (even though I reckon I was the one out of us three that got the most sleep the night before. I know Dagga only got four hours sleep). Then we had to take the London Underground from Victoria station to Tower Hill. And this was where I started getting travel sick. Sarah was way worse off than me, though. And finally, we got a DLR train from Tower Hill to the Customs House at ExCeL, or something like that. That made me travel sick as well.

But travel sickness was forgotten completely when we arrived at the Expo. There were so many amazing cosplayers there, I can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. One of my favourites was this trio of guys cosplaying as Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. It was almost possible to believe that those three actually were the characters. (And the guy cosplaying as Sanji was kinda hot. Heheh.) There was also this group of people cosplaying as Eeveelutions, and they were all posing for people to take pictures and stuff. I could go through a whole list of the cosplayers we saw, but I know I'd forget loads, and we'd still be here in the evening talking about it.

Well, then we had to queue up to get our magical wristbands of awesomeness. My back nearly gave out. I swear. We were stood in this mile long queue for way over an hour. There were a few good distractions. Sarah was cosplaying as Tobi and loads of people asked for photos, and even one person cosplaying as Pikachu asked for a hug. There was also this splicer in the que a little ways in front of us, and a Yuffie only a few people in front of us who Dagga started chatting to about FF7.

Then, finally, we got out of the queue of terror, and we finally got inside the Expo at half two (we left banbury at nine. That's five whole hours, and some). Let me tell you. It was so worth the wait. It was crowded and stifflingly hot and so unbelievably awesome. There were stalls all over the place selling plushies and figurines and posters and wall scrolls and props and bags and manga and doujinshi and cosplay outfits and hats and coloured anime contacts and necklaces and other jewellery and anything an anime fan could ever want. There was even one stall selling real swords. There were dozens of katana, and even some real kunai and shuriken, and Asuma's knuckle blades and some wakizashi. Unfortunately, you had to be eighteen to buy one. But no worries, we're going back in October (for Dagga's birthday), and we are so going to the one in 2012 too, so I can buy myself a real katana. Oh, god, I can't wait. I'm so saving up for that. Definately.

Well, moving on from what I couldn't buy, and on to what did. Teehee. First of all, I spent about £15 on a Straw Hat of Power. I HAVE LUFFY'S HAT! Kyaa~! I am so happy about that. I'm going to wear it all the freaking time! I also spent £12 on a Mugiwara kaizoku flag (Straw Hat Pirates flag). I tried to bluetack it to my wall, but it keeps falling down, and I don't want to use pins or anything, cause they'll leave holes in the flag. So I'm kinda stuck on how to get it to stay on the wall... Anyway, I also spent a whopping £30 on an Ace-Hat for Sarah, so we could wander round the Expo as Akatsuki!Ace and Akatsuki!Luffy. Hurrhurr! It was awesome. Sarah got herself a Grell plushie for £15. It's adorable! Then I bought myself a pack of Naruto Shippuden playing cards for £3, which is awesome. There's two cards with Gaara on (Kyaa~!) and quite a few with Itachi on (KYAA~!). And finally, I bought a Gaara poster which was about £4, I think. (GAARA-KUUUN~! KYAA~!). I'm not entirely sure about what Dagga bought because she decided to be antisocial and wander off on her own. But I know she bought a hat with bunny ears on and a Vampire Knight cosplay outfit, which was sexy. She also got a Tsubasa messenger bag, I think.

After that exhausting but exhilarating three hours, we headed back, on the DLR which made me travelsick, back onto the Underground, where we got a little lost. It wasn't bad, but the DLR had taken us one station further than we thought it had, so we got to Victoria station earlier than we thought. Then we had to find the right coach to get us back, and we did, right as it was pulling out of the station. So we had to wait another half hour for the next one. Sarah was feeling travel sick and hungry, Dagga was tired and hungry, and I was just plain old hungry. Finally, the coach turned up and we got on. It. Was. Hell. The buss was way too hot, the air-conditioning was blowing out hot air, and there were no openable windows. And, of course, the heat only made the motion sickness that much worse. I tried to sleep again, but it was too hot to sleep properly, so I just dozed occasionally. The one time I did actually drift off to sleep I had a weird dream where Chopper was taking my appendix out and Sanji was perving on me in the bath. Finally, we got back on the train taking us back to Banbury, met Dagga's mum outside the station, and got dropped off back home at about ten in the evening.

Then we pretty much just stuffed some hastily made dinner into guts, then colapsed into bedand slept all the way through to the morning.

I'm almost certain that despite the three hour long journey there, and the same back, and the good hour or two in the queue, it was the best day in my life so far. I have never had so much fun before, except perhaps when I went to Disneyland Paris when I was little, but even that doesn't compare to an Anime Expo. Nu-uh. Anime Expo pwns Disneyland without question.

I've got to find a way to get more money for October... and I've gotta keep about £160 for 2012 when I can get a katana~! Can't wait!

Ja ne~!