The Chronicles of Chet

July 2009
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Los Angeles and Anime Expo 2009

For the past 2 years some friends and I have set a tradition of attending A-Kon then yearly Anime Convention held in Dallas Texas, but this year we wanted something different. So we decided that we’re going to fly to LA and see the grand sights of Anime Expo the largest Anime Convention in the nation. We arrived in LA 2 days before the opening day for some sight seeing and non-expo vacation activities, which included amazing food, The La Brea Tar Pits, and Hollywood.

Black Sea Cucumber

Our first stop took us to Little Tokyo for some authentic Japanese Sushi at Sushi Gen. There I was able to get my chop sticks on Black Sea Cucumber, and man was it goood! The texture was similar to octopus but a little more chewy. They also it swimming in a bitter sweet type of sauce that enhanced the flavor beyond belief. I also had a Shrimp Tempura plate that came with a plate of Maguro: Tuna, Toro: Fatty Tuna, and Mamachi: Yellowtail Sashimi. I had my doubts due to an experience with Sashimi I had at a local place here recently. However, the fish tasted as though it had just been pulled out of the net and prepared that instant. I think this is the first time I had actually been able to taste true flavor of the different slices of Sashimi. Daniela had a Sushi Bowl that was basically a treasure chest of delicious. The bowl was made up of Octopus, Shrimp, Spicy Tuna, Ahi Tuna, Tomago, Eel, Smelt Roe, and Salmon on a bed of rice. The meals were so amazing we walked out smiling out of sheer satisfaction. I think that meal alone has ruined Sushi in San Antonio for me forever. I can’t explain how fresh and tasteful everything was, it was hands down the best Sushi experience I have ever had.

Korean BBQ Dinner

After some hanging out by the pool and testing my cameras underwater features we decided to chow on some Korean BBQ. I wasn’t too sure what it was and man was I in for a surprise! Our waitress came out and set down a giant platter of raw meat that was to be cooked on the burner in the center of the table. We also had dish upon dish of different dips, sides, and types of kimchi to eat along with the meat. Along with the different sides we had a number of edible leaves that you would wrap the meat, noodles, dips, and kimchi in as it if were a Korean taco. That method was tasty yes, but I liked just mixing the meats with kimchi and enjoying it like that.

This meal is one of the single best experiences of the trip, we had amazing food and great friends all around. Words alone can’t begin describe how awesome this experience was. Im positive I could go back a hundred times and still be as excited as I was that night.

Another of my favorite moments was seeing The La Brea Tar Pits. They weren’t the most exciting spot in the world, but I have wanted to see them since I was a small boy… Really ever since Last Action Hero when Arnold Throws the dead guy off the roof into the tar pits because there is a bomb in it. They had the normal display of the Mammoth stuck in the tar that rests on top of and under the water that has settled over the years. Seeing the methane bubble up from the earth was awesome, now that I think of it I really wish I had taken some video of it. We also took the time to walk around the entire park and pose with statues we came across.

Project Board at La Brea Tar Pits Project 23

However the coolest thing at The Pits was seeing the new Project 23 Dig Site! So it turns out that during the digging for the construction of a parking garage fossils were discovered! The workers had to actually dig under huge plots of earth to build crates around them and move samples to excavation tents that were set up. I was able to get pictures of some bison bones, a few of the crates, and a fun comic explaining how they’re doing things and what they have found.

Hollywood was great, we saw the Mann’s Chinese Theater, Michael Jackson’s Memorial, a crazy woman saying she was married to Michael Jackson, as well as the filming of How Do I Look. The scene at MJ’s memorial was more tame than expected. Then a crazed woman removed her shirt and began rolling on the ground swearing that she was married to Michael Jackson. I know most people would have snapped pictures, but I would choose to try and forget those images.

During the process of some shopping around with Daniela we came across the filming of the show How Do I Look. We stood by to watch some of the filming when who looked to be the director or producer came to Daniela and I saying we need more people in the audience so we went in and sat down. The Hostess of the show was really nice and had a lot of interaction with the people in between shots. It was interesting to see all the alternate takes they would do for the show and to see the people that were the persons friends have to keep redoing their reactions and dialogs.

[View with PicLens]

I would have really liked to go back to Hollywood to see more of the attractions, but there just wasn’t enough time to fit everything into a week. We called it a fairly early night that night in order to be up early to get our Anime Expo 2009 access badges.

Day One of the Expo was pretty cool, even though we got a bit of a late start on it. We were there to get our badges and such early, but ended up going back to the condo to sleep some and then for lunch. We were back to the Expo in time to see some great costumes and catch the visual kei band Moi Dix Mois’ concert. They were interesting and pretty cool to see live, though I was a little disappointed that they had prerecorded Organ solos.

That day we mostly walked around looking at all the costumes and figuring out the surrounding. We eventually found out way into the Exhibitors Room (Dealers Room), that place was huge! I was surprised to see how man actual companies and vendors were there. They had everything from Capcom, Funimation, and Crunchyroll to J-List.com, Anime Jungle, and Imgai. The Exhibitors Room was almost too big, I still feel as though I didn’t see everything that was in there. Day One seemed to end as quickly as it started, but it was a good intro to what we had in store for us.

Vizard/Hollow Ichigo

Day Two of the Expo Daniela and I made it to the Convention Center in time to catch the Bleach Cosplay meet up. All the costumer were great and I was surprised to see such awesome masks! I would really like to see how much time and work goes into creating the masks. The two best costumes from this would have to be Ikkaku with his Bankai and Ichigos full Hollowization Mask. I was a little surprised to only see one Nel and one Halibel in the crowd.. Both had good costumes, but I can’t say they really pulled the characters off very well. Once we were done watching the meet up we went into the convention to look around and see what there was to see and shop around for things.

Ikkaku's Bankai

The big event for this day was what I thought was the US Premiere of Evangelion 1.0 You Are Not Alone on BluRay. We ended up attending the World Premiere of the English Dubbed version, which normally I can’t watched most Anime in English, but this worked out well. I don’t think anything could ruin my all time favorite anime series for me. There was a few short announcements by Funimation that I was pleased to hear. One of which was that Evangelion 1.11 BluRay Special Edition is officially slated for Spring 2010! Yes it’s a ways off, but it’s well worth the wait. Though I am a little sad that I will not be able to own Evangelion 2.0 You Can Not Advance for another 2 years or so. I also though it was very fitting that they had a group of girls Cosplaying Rei Ayanami sing Fly Me To The Moon as it as been the theme song for the releases of the series and movies. After the movie and a little more shopping around in the Exhibitors Room Daniela and I grew a little tired of being at the Expoand decided to adventure out on our own to see if we could find a mall so I could buy a sweater and she could do a little more shopping. Needless to say we really shouldn’t have ventured around that far on our own. We ended up getting a little turned around on a not so delightful part of downtown LA. Haha, it’s a good thing Daniela has a much better sense of direction than I do. I could have sworn we needed to go the opposite way that we were going in order to get back to where we weren’t going to be stabbed. The lesson learned that night was, once you stop seeing crazy anime kids running around LA in their costumes it’s time to go back.

We did make it back in time for one of the three major events, which was the AMV (Anime Music Video) Contest. Thought Im not much a fan of most AMV’s I do think they’re creative and usually really well done. The great thing about this contest is that it seems like LA and the Surrounding areas have a lot of people that pull out all the stops when it comes to making their AMV. One of the better videos is posted here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5FhPs1SWeI, and a few of the others that were shown are posted up as well. I liked the about 90% of the entries we saw, but I don’t think they rank anywhere close to AMV Hell at A-Kon in Dallas Texas. Though I do want to say good job to all the finalist videos.

Security at the MJ Memorial

Day Three of the Expo was our last full day of the 4 day event, all of us were pretty worn out from all the walking and semi late nights. Not a lot was going on this day, so we used it to find all the last minute items we wanted to buy but couldn’t find or didn’t know if we wanted to spend that amount of money on. Usually you can also bargain with the dealers to see if they will lower the prices. Though I think a lot of the cosplayers saved their best costumes for last or I just saw a lot of the costumes I hadn’t seen the last two days. Before the final big event of the expo we decided to take off for some eats. We ended up at Riordan’s Pub which I had been eyeing for the last few days. It was great walking in there Michael our waiter was awesome, very talkative and interested in who we were. Since we were in a pub he wouldn’t let us order anything but a beer to drink and even let us sample some beers. The menu was a bit pricey but so is everything in LA, Frodo ended up eating a twenty something dollar burger that was made up of one pound of beef, a few strips of bacon, cheddar cheese, and chili. I think the first bite took two years off his life. But he was a champ and nearly ate the entire thing, I was so proud of him.

After an awesome lunch we decided to return to the Expo and came across the Michael Jackson Memorial in front of The Staples Center. As you can see from the picture Security was at an all time high. The final event of the night was the Massacred, which I thought was a costume and cosplay contest.. Man was I wrong! It ended up being a half baked talent contest where people cosplayed and put a spin on their favor animes or acted out a scene from one. It was entertaining to say the least, but Im not sure it I was entered out of shock or out of general interest. After the Massacred we thought we would hit the town for some good time to celebrate The 4th of July.. Well, we thought wrong. It seems that the area of LA we were in shuts down at about 11 o’clock and it was a bit to late for us to hop on The Metro andadventure around. I think it was the only time I on the trip I wished we were back in Texas.

Kel Mitchell

Day 4 of the Expo was just last minute shopping at the Exhibitors Room and a little more picture snapping. While walking around the room Daniela and I heard a very familiar voice. It just happened to be Kel Mitchell from Kenan and Kel! I thought it was pretty odd that he would be at an anime convention. Well it turns out he was there to promote his new Manga and Anime series. After that was said and done we left The 2009 Anime Expo for a final time and headed to Little Tokyo for some extra shopping and gift purchasing. We hung around there and checked out all the shops for awhile until it was time to head to dinner. That night we had dinner at the Newport Seafood Restaurant. The group of us had a feast ordered up! We had plates of muscles, a carne guisada type plate, fried flounder, different types of greens, a massive lobster, Frodo and I also went halves on a small bowl of Shark Fin Soup… It was surprisingly plain. We all dug in as much as we could and Frodo even at the brain. It was one of the best Asian style seafood dinners I have had in a very long time.

To end the night and our LA adventures we all (Seth, David, Frodo, Myself, and Daniela) decided chill outside on the patio next to the outdoor fire place for a little while, we were all a little bummed to be leaving the fairy tail land of no responsibilities or dead lines. No one to tell you what to do and when you need to have it built and deployed. At times we were able to just sit and stare off into the sky and imagine limitless things. All in all the trip to LA was great, I was more happy to be there with Daniela and some good friends than I was to be at the Expo. As for the Expo, it was an awesome experience and I think I will do it again sometime but I don’t think it will be anytime soon. At times the Expo felt as if it were too big and I feel like I missed a lot or didn’t see enough. Also there were times that the people running the show didn’t know what was going on or why they were trying to organize things, it’s like they were doing it for the sake of being organized, which can only lead to disarray. Personally, I enjoy A-Kon in Texas more than Anime Expo. The people at A-Kon don’t have a rep that they think they have to keep and everyone is there to be there and have a good time. I can’t wait to go back and experience the same stuff and discover new parts of Cali, haha next time I may not even come back.