Ryan's Kumoricon 2019 Day 1: Red Like Roses

Hey everyone Ryan here...

Welcome to the beginning coverage of Kumoricon 2019!

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Unlike the past times of getting to a convention, this started unusually different as I had just completed my grind at work Wednesday as my Friday started that Thursday aka Day Zero of con. I was waiting for everyone to finish their respective shifts with my buddy Trevor finishing his last at 11:30 that night. Right after he got off I would pick up everyone and have the car loaded at Trevor's by midnight. Tires aired up and gas in the tank, we'd hit the 5 and be on our way. During the trip we would start finishing the schedules for Nick and Trevor and also killing time playing "guess that anime tune" that lasted half the trip before I had to extremely concentrate on the road as it began pouring asinine amounts of rain.

A view from the hotel room

Due the minor slowdown because of the rain, we would arrive in Portland by 5:30am and get into our room by 6 where none of us had slept prior with the exception of Nick and Trevor in the car. With registration opening in two hours and trying to find out our press schedule we would get what little sleep we could before it opened. I prior to the trip had just received my DSLR camera started to take some test photos with the scenery from the balcony of our room and continued to improve throughout the weekend. As 8am rolled around I would take more photos of us walking to the convention center as Dalton would be shooting our first video of the convention on our way there. As we were walking he would soon begin to realize he had forgot his business cards and went on a scavenger hunt to find them to only realize that they were indeed in his bag as I suggested the first time.

A view of the Oregon Convention Center, home of Kumoricon

Mishaps aside we finally headed on our way to the Oregon Convention Center. Thankfully the commute to the convention was only a short 10 minute walk from the hotel. I would begin taking photos of the transit station for the MAX Light Rail and many other landmarks on the way.  Once we got in Dalton and I split from the roommates and do some recon of the entire convention center, here we would shoot photos from the balcony floor of the con and figure out our bearings.

Dalton walking the many hallways of the Oregon Convention Center

An overhead view of a Dragon Boat hanging near the entrance to the KumoriMarket

From there we immediately dashed to the press room to figure out why we hadn't got a schedule for our interviews. Unfortunately due to a reschedule at the last second adding Japanese guests Studio Trigger and Teddyloid we not find out until 12pm regarding who we were interviewing or when our interviews began. At that time Dalton and I would head to dealers hall to begin a live walk-through of the hall however due to the lack of signal we could not continue the stream but continued to tour the hall. I nearly forgot that I needed to get my autograph schedule set so that I could get into Kumori's lottery system so I headed back to registration to see if I could find Nick and Trevor after visiting the autograph terminal.

Registration line

Backup verification code for the lottery system

During the con after you selected who you wanted you would get a text or email (in my case both over the day) if you were or were not selected to go to a signing. Interesting as the concept is I still prefer a ticket system over random chance but that wouldn't deter me from getting things signed. I would regroup with Dalton afterwards near noon to find out our results. Giddy as we were we found out that we had an interview scheduled with one Guest of Honor today, David Wald, and had to wait until to tomorrow to get a chance to interview Teddyloid and Tia Ballard.

Stepping Stone Cafe

Given the rest of the day was now free, Dalton, Nick and I were literally starving as we haven't eaten since the day before. Also realizing that idiotic me forgot my tripod and cell phone clip for recording back home we began our detour from the convention to go eat at a well known breakfast joint called The Stepping Stone Cafe and hit a local Target nearby. Once arrived at the cafe, which I had found about via my sources and seeing on a Man vs Food episode, we would glance at the menu and order what we wanted. I came in knowing that I wanted their famous Smothered Badass Omelette with a Mancake that nearly competes with the Jim Denny's Hubcap in Sacramento. Dalton would get an extreme version of the cafe's Biscuits and Gravy that had eggs and cheese on a ginormous plate. Nick would get another cafe staple.

Menu

Badass Omelette and a Mancake

The plates may have been a tad steeper in price than I'm used to but the food that you got would more than be worth it as you got you paid for. In addition to the Mancake, the house made syrups and jams were to die for.

A Mancake with a slice of orange

After stuffing our faces Dalton would buy his tripod, table tripod, and cell phone clip. We drove back to the hotel, grabbed the rest of the gear, and went back to the covnention center to scout the areas we haven't been to yet such as the gaming room and panel rooms while waiting to interview David Wald.

[we are currently having some issues with encoding David Wald's interview, we will post it as soon as we can get it up to our YouTube channel -Matthew]

I would check out the Gunpla lounge near the hotel to talk with organizer and fellow friend of mine Travis McMehan about the room and the contest that would be held the following day. Night would begin to fall and the majority of us began to lose steam closer to 10 pm. Nick would retreat to the room as Dalton, Trevor and myself would enjoy the late night festivities. unfortunate for me a Sword Art Online panel would be canceled last minute so i would join Dalton and Trevor at the Lewd Jeopardy game sponsored by Fakku. I watched from the crowd as Dalton would go to actually be in the game and won a Fakku membership with a very saucy book that we at the blog can not depict as much as I jokingly think he would like to post. ("Why haven't you?" -Dalton) The convention center closed at 2am as we called it night and would ready ourselves for the big day tomorrow.

The Oregon Convention Center at night

End of Day 1