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No, I didn't take a trip to the States recently. This photo was taken with my keitai. This mini-Statue of Liberty sits adjacent to the man-made beach found in Odaiba. I was there this past weekend for a beach volleyball 4's tournament and we managed to completely miss the beach the first time and had to double back. We u-turned at this statue. My team had awesome players, but we didn't win. Maybe next time.
Wow! It was a completely hot day in Odaiba yesterday. Temperatures at 35 deg C plus humidity. The cosplay area was only in the garden area... and that was hot hot hot!
When we arrived, there were hoards of people. Think 80 ft sq blocks of people that they were stopping at regular intervals before being allowed to proceed.
Once we got inside, we took a tour of the 4th and 3rd Nishi (West Halls) before trying to go down the escalators to get a tour of the Higashi (East Halls) before going up and then down and back to get to restaurant avenue. We nearly got kicked out because we ended up in the wrong line. But since we believed we should be there, we doubled back, hopped a barrier and caught up with the rest of group. It would be another 5 minutes before we would arrive at the cosplay area. I nearly got my camera confiscated when I lent it to my friend who had an ordinary camera. He wanted me to take a photo of him pretending to use my camera while I took a photo using his pocket digital camera. Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take photos of cosplayers without their permission so this on-site security lady came running up to us telling us to stop and gesticulating wildly and pointing to the camera. It was fun trying to explain in the same rapid-fire Nihongo that he wasn't really trying to take a photo and only I was trying to take his photo and I definitely had his permission to take his photo. I'm not sure I got it all correct but with all my counter-gesticulations, she finally said "ok" and let us go forward and onward into the inner realm of the cosplay garden. Literally.
The garden area is actually one of the most difficult and convoluted routes in the whole of Tokyo Big Sight. To make matters worse, there was only a one-way, directed path getting to the cosplay area and if you accidentally get outside of that allocated space, you end up outside of the lineup and nearly getting ejected --- like us.
We spent about 2.5 hours in the cosplay garden, had a snack and called it quits. I managed to get a lot of great shots. I have posted some of my favourites.
This weekend there is this huge anime and comic festival with Cosplayers at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Over 500,000 people are expected to attend --- industry people, fans, and people like me who want photos of cosplayers. Watch for photos after tomorrow.The place opens up at 10 am, with some of the more serious people showing up before 8 am to get in. I hear the lines die down after 11 am, so a bunch of us camera-toting folks will be heading over at 11:30.
Wow! It was a completely hot day in Odaiba yesterday. Temperatures at 35 deg C plus humidity. The cosplay area was only in the garden area... and that was hot hot hot!
Once we got inside, we took a tour of the 4th and 3rd Nishi (West Halls) before trying to go down the escalators to get a tour of the Higashi (East Halls) before going up and then down and back to get to restaurant avenue. We nearly got kicked out because we ended up in the wrong line. But since we believed we should be there, we doubled back, hopped a barrier and caught up with the rest of group. It would be another 5 minutes before we would arrive at the cosplay area. I nearly got my camera confiscated when I lent it to my friend who had an ordinary camera. He wanted me to take a photo of him pretending to use my camera while I took a photo using his pocket digital camera. Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take photos of cosplayers without their permission so this on-site security lady came running up to us telling us to stop and gesticulating wildly and pointing to the camera. It was fun trying to explain in the same rapid-fire Nihongo that he wasn't really trying to take a photo and only I was trying to take his photo and I definitely had his permission to take his photo. I'm not sure I got it all correct but with all my counter-gesticulations, she finally said "ok" and let us go forward and onward into the inner realm of the cosplay garden. Literally.
