I just finished my only full day at Ohayocon 13. Had a fantastic time. It has grown again this year. Even more dealers, truckloads of cosplayers, great panels and Artist Alley had the most and best artists ever.
The wife had to work that day and she laughed and said “have a good time. I was still a little sleepy and not alert and I didn’t check my wallet until she left. Sure enough, she took my debit card and left me with just cash FFFFFUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!
I started out with a decent breakfast at home, and arrived at the con at 9:30am. The convention center parking garage was already full. I had to park about a block away.
I pre-registered for a pass, so I just walked in a special room .showed my I.D. and walked out with my pass. It took maybe a minute, as compared waiting an hour and a half for those who are buying that day.
The first thing I did was take photos of cosplayers. They were really good with their costumes. This year’s theme was Zombies so there was a lot of those, but the variety was great. Once I get them developed I will post them
Next I made a beeline to Artist allay. To meet old friends and create new ones Oh my gosh! It expanded by about 50% and the artists were all really good. I loaded up on original stuff and got business cards from new people.
Next was the Dealer’s room. The word “Room” is a misnomer. It was gigantic, easily the size of three basketball courts full of Otaku nirvana! I picked up some DVD boxed sets, manga, t-shirts, but no figurines. I must say there are no bargains at dealer’s rooms. Everything is top dollar. I also got some gifts for some friends.
I then went to the food court and had a chicken stir-fry. By then most of the panels I wanted to go to started opening
Here are the panels I went to:
Shiny Sailor Moon Musicals, Chris Ayres, Tiffany Grant, Zombies in the Closet, Dave Lister and Pokémon (Dave is an artist friend)
Anime Old Enough to Drink, Cosplay fashion show and Contest, Studio Capsule with Robert and Emily Dejesus, Artists Roundtable, Funimation Sneak Peeks, Bouncing through the years: Gainax, Anime Parody Dub Workshop
Matt Greenfield had several Panels, but I ran out of time to go to them
I made a final visit to dealer’s room and artists allay. I met Robert Dejesus and talked for a while and I made arrangement for a later commission. He was selling Ohayocon T-shirts (his artwork and pulled out some beautiful Pencil sketches not meant to be sold he would let me have for only $15 apiece Oh Hell yes I would buy them. I opened my wallet… Tapped out of cash. NNNNOOOOooo!!!.
Left the Con at 6:00 really tired. The weather was still good enough that some cosplayers went to local downtown restaurants. It was amusing to see downtown Columbus full of Elves, stormtroopers, ninjas,ect wandering around the streets of downtown Columbus.
Next up Matsuri con in August