Isekai Travels - Japan

Today is the the first day of JmoF! I guess it's technically the second day but there really wasn't much going on the day prior other than getting my badge and then crashing in the room.

Atsu was kind enough to find us some tickets to eat the hotel breakfast with each morning. The breakfast at the Loiser was sort of like a mix of the traditional intercontinental breakfast you might find in America and a bunch of Japanese types of food. For example there were Japanese options such as Udon, tamagoyaki, beef (the kind that goes on bento, I'm not sure what it's called), rice, salmon, pickled vegetebles while also having more traditional options you might see at a buffet in America such as french fries, meatballs, waffles, etc. There were more American-like options than that but I don't remember because I tend to focus on the things that are unlike what is back home. This buffet was way better than any buffet that has been available at conventions I've been at in America. Usually the breakfast buffet is something I skip out on so I can get better food somewhere else but this was definitely worth the effort of waking up early. I'm writing this from the future and there were definitely times where I had to struggle to get to the buffet on time because of lack of sleep and a hangover (the next day).

Afterwards, I was able to do some laundry. The building had its own floor for laundry machines and services. It was a little creepy because the floor to the laundry was through a separate elevator where there were rooms but the lights were shut off in the hallway with signs instructing you to stay out of the dark hallway and only use the laundryroom. I took a photo of Sekki contemplating life's unsolved mysteries in the laundry room and then went off to suit some with Atsu!

Atsu was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures of me and himself with various suits we thought were cute as well as people we knew. I met some new people and he took pictures of everyone's badge in case I made a friend or something. I really appreciate the thought Atsu puts into small things such as that for myself or others 😊 I don't often go around getting pictures with people so this was sort of a new experience! I sometimes get pictures with people but only if they ask so this was one of the first times where I was hunting down suits to get pictures. I plan on getting more pictures once I have a full body suit but this is also a special occasion so I think it was good to get out there.

I exchanged business cards with some people and that was a fun experience. It's almost like a game getting to see your collection of cards accumulate as you spend time at the convention. Plus, it was super useful to have a stack of cards to go through and remember everyone I met. I probably wouldn't have remembered everyone's character or contacts but the cards made it super easy and they become little momentos themselves! There's also a neat service for making your business card a collectable trading card but I'll probably talk about that in one of the other day's posts.

Afterwards, me and Atsu when to a panel where I couldn't really follow the Japanese too much so we dipped out and went to a panel about juggling various items. Atsu got a couple videos of me failing to juggle things which was fun and one of the guests of honor was in charge of teaching the room how to juggle. Since I had my suit on, it was not overly apparent that I'm not Japanese so the guest of honor, who was a big yellow dragon with bright red eyes, was explaining in very fast Japanese how to juggle sticks to me. I kind of was just nodding along and not following what he was saying but I thought it was cool he was so enthusiastic about teaching others! Atsu told me that normall the Dragon's character doesn't talk but since they are the guest of honor and running the panel, they were using their special telekenetic powers to communicate. I'm honored to have the experience of being telekenetically communicated to via an intercom 😉

Afterwards, we went to a panel where Ware was talking with some other people about predator/prey type of stuff. Honestly, I have enough trouble understanding basic Japanese so most of what was going on in that room went over my head. I kind of just zoned out and tried to absorb the language and sounds and use it as a listening exercise. Then, we headed to a panel about LGBT topics ran by someone I had intended to meet at a convention in America but never got the opportunity, Yoshiro. I did my best to listen to the panel, comprehending maybe just the overall general topics, snapped a selfie with Yoshiro, then went back to the room to get back to my human shape 🤫

The lobby died down pretty decently once it got later in the day. American conventions would never be this empty around 10-11pm. However, because of Covid rules and the Japanese ability to follow rules to the tee, no one was really hanging around the lobby. However, the neat result of this is that people generally are having smaller and more chill room parties during the night instead of ragers. Me and Atsu ended up going up to Chu's room and hanging out with Chu, Sekki, Ware, and a couple other people who became friends!

During our conversations, I felt the alcohol and presence of friends gave me the confidence to speak a bit more fluently and confidently. One of my other new friends in the room, Audler, knew some words in Japanese but only just enough to sort-of get by. As a result, a lot of his sentences were really funny because of how almost, but not quite, correct they were. For example, he was talking about how he had to dye his hair to accept his job as a doctor. However instead of saying hospital or 病院/byouin he was saying 美容院/biyouin. It's a funny mistake that is very common, but it's rare to find a conversation where both of the words could make sense in the same sentence so it could be confusing to the listener! I helped explain the difference and mentioned there was a joke about the similarity in the anime Odd Taxi. Something about " This is a byouin not a biyouin" comment to a doctor.

Another slip of the tongue was calling Atsu "Ashita-san" instead of "Atsushi-san". Ashita/明日 means "tomorrow" so another one of my new acquiantences, Hanaede, was joking about going by "ototoi-san" which would mean "day-before-yesterday-san". It was really cool to be able to make jokes and get along with each other even though I might still be at a pretty low level of Japanese. Im really happy that I'm at a high enough level to joke around at least and act as an elementary translator for my new friend when he almost hits the mark but not quite. It's moments like this that really help to meet new people! I think that when someone only speaks english and is non-asian, it can be intimidating since there may be no way to verbally communicate. However, I'm super happy to be at the point where people might be comfortable enough to try to speak even if they know close to no English.

My friend Mahkun and Kamo also ended up visiting the room later in the night as well. I was especially happy to see Mahkun since he has been needing to work late nights and was worried that he may not be able to attend much of the con. We caught up a little and then Sekki motioned over to Atsu who was falling asleep every couple minutes so I went over I suggested maybe we should get some sleep 😴 Ever since getting to Fukui it's been nonstop action, events, and drinking so I don't blame Atsu for being so tired, I was too. I'm impressed with his ability to fall asleep in any situation though for a minute at a time. I've not see anyone else with this superpower. Maybe it's the hidden Japanese secret of 残業Les mer