Day 76 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 3

Today, I rose from my slumber at 7.30am. I had most definitely not learned my lesson about going there early. Today had a different twist though. Instead of being refused entrance at the door, I didn't even get to leave UCD. Buses only operated after 9am on Sundays, and I was there at 8.30am. Damn the wind.

I bumped into Xinyi, Nabila and Isaac while taking the bus. I guess I looked pretty weird walking around with a huge box.

When I finally arrived at DCU, the event had already started, but there was really nothing much today. The number of attendees had decreased considerably compared to yesterday. Still, it got pretty crowded after 12pm.

There weren't many notable events today. They canceled the cosplay panel because the programme director fell sick. And the other events just didn't interest me, like the Japanese fashion show, AMV competition and the Live Commentary, which is the guest from yesterday commenting on his own voice acting. Stalls also had less variety since they sold a lot yesterday.

I had more free time today and the crowd was smaller, so I got to do more browsing. There were lots of stuff I wanted, but I could get a number of them back home so I resisted. There were some which I couldn't but also restrained myself when I was told the price, like the Urahara hat. 12 euros for a simple hat!? And I couldn't find a Konata plushie :( Instead, I got a Vampire Knight mouse pad. It was only 3 euros. Maybe I should have gotten the Chobits one, but it looked very girly.

The first interesting event was the Maid Cafe. It wasn't really a cafe, just maids passing out cakes, coffee and tea. You didn't even get to sit down. You just take, pay and leave. I spent 2 euros just because I wanted to get a shot of the maids. I later learned that I could have done that during the closing ceremony.

The fashion show was basically girls showing off kimonos, gothic costumes and J-rock costumes. I stayed to watch just because I had nothing better to do. I heard the AMV competition was awesome, but I never really liked AMVs.

Then, there was the cosplay skit. It wasn't a competition. It's just volunteer performance. I saw lots of cosplayers doing out of character things on purpose. Imagine Mellow and Matt from Death Note dancing to constantly-changing music, or a Shinigami from Bleach screaming "Call the Ghostbusters!" and stuff like that. Some were pretty good, the Mellow and Matt team did an awesome dance.

The highlight of the day was the Mad Dash, or as I like to call it, the Freebie Fight. Basically, the committee bring a box filled with random stuff, like plushies, posters, CDs, T-shirts, necklaces, etc etc and throw them into the crowd. I wanted a plushy, but I got a kitty hat instead. I like cats, but that just looks weird on me. Boo... Ah well, at least I know where to stand next year.

Finally, it was the closing ceremony. The boring prize giving and thank you speeches went on forever! They announced that Eirtakon would be moved to a different venue next year, but it will still be in Dublin, so yay! They could always hold it in UCD. Our campus is huge!

Now that the event is over, I just realised something. WHERE WAS THE HARE HARE YUKAI DANCE!!??