Equipped with our phones, wallets, my trusty travel bottle of suncream and a bag of sliced apples, we were ready for the hour drive up to Subiaco. Getting there was a bit of a challenge, with the city's constant traffic and all the complicated turn offs that Siri forgot to mention when giving us the directions - but eventually, we got there. Entry was only $5 and upon arrival, we were greeted by a seedy Professor Oak and a Pikachu to take.
We arrived just as they announced that the cosplay competition would be starting soon, so that gave us just enough time to check everything out. I was honestly surprised at the number of stalls there were, given that it was such a small convention. They all seemed to be really good quality, too. We managed to have a good look at what each stall had to offer before the competition started.
The cosplay competition didn't go for very long, as there were only about 8 people who entered. But nevertheless, the cosplays were pretty good and the hosts, although seemingly inexperienced, did a good job at keeping up the vibe of the convention. Hopefully if the convention happens again, there'll be more people, because I felt so bad when everyone was supposed to clap for the cosplayers and only around 15 people did. I just hope the cosplayers realised that those 15 people made up 90% of the room.
After the cosplay competition, we decided to go back to the stalls and buy the things we had set our eyes on when we were there earlier. A few days ago I had sold some of my clothes to a girl who I used to go to school with and made a fair bit of cash, so although some of the things I bought were not worth the money, I figured I could justify being a bit stupid with my cash just this once. The first thing I bought was an adorable Pusheen plushie. I've wanted one for ages, but I had no idea where to look since it's not a very popular or common brand - I was shocked to find it at somewhere like a Pokemon convention. The ladies who sold Pusheen to me were super nice and friendly, their business was called Static Fluff Anime and I would definitely buy from them again.
The next items I bought were from a stall that didn't give me a business card like the previous one, but I found out from the convention map that it was called CrystalTheEchidna. The people here were so friendly and helpful and the stuff was so cheap! I picked up three Pusheen sticker pages and a Rilakkuma pen (obviously for education purposes).
The final thing I bought was a pair of beautiful hair clips from a small business a few of my friends run, called Peppermint Carousel. These girls are from my local Lolita community and are so sweet, I couldn't not buy something from them. They sell basically everything that comes to mind when you hear the word 'kawaii' and work so hard, I hope I see them at the next Con.
After we shopped around, we sat down at watched My Neighbour Totoro, which was being played on the big projector. It was a really nice atmosphere to sit down with a bunch of strangers that all had this common interest. We didn't finish the movie, because we had plans to go into the city for lunch later, so we decided to do one more lap of the convention and then call it a day. Although on this final lap, we noticed that one of the many consoles around the convention was finally free; so to wrap it all up, all three of use sat down and had a super intense game of Mario Kart 8.
(Rosalina: My sister || Baby Daisy: Me || Toad: My partner)
After Mario Kart and a final look at everything, it was time to get back in the car and head into the city for lunch. Keeping with the Japanese theme, we decided to go to a place you puddings may remember me mentioning a while ago: New Arigataya. That's right, I finally found myself in the city on a day that it was open, and I was not missing this opportunity - plus, my sister and partner both really wanted to try ramen.
I ordered the teriyaki chicken ramen with gyoza, my sister had the miso ramen with pork and my partner who doesn't really like to experiment with his food got dipping ramen with soy broth on the side. We were all super hungry, so I only took a couple of pictures of the food before we all dug in. I'm absolutely kicking myself for not trying this dish sooner. I think this is my new favourite thing to eat; everything was so well prepared and tasted so delicious. And they gave us so much, I couldn't manage to eat it all. By the time I had finished the chicken and gyoza, I was so full. None of us managed to finish everything in our bowls, I would have taken a doggy bag home, but the idea of carrying noodle soup around the city just screamed for a disaster.
After leaving the restaurant and shopping around the city for a little while, we started the drive back home with full bellies, a bunch of cute new things and smiles all around. All in all, it was a really nice day. I had a super good time and my sister and partner got along really well, which I'm happy about. It was a really nice way to kick off the month and I can't wait until the next Con.
...and the next excuse to stop off for some ramen.
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