Countdown to KawaKon

You may have noticed something new on my blog - the counter on the left hand side.  Hard to miss, isn't it, all red and sparkly and dazzly and full of numbers, right? Countdown to KawaKon, it says. Some of you might be scratching  your head and wondering - what is KawaKon? Well, I'm glad you asked!

KawaKon is an annual convention held here in St. Louis celebrating anime and Japanese culture primarily, but not limited to those topics. This will be our third year having the convention, my second year with it. The convention is being held March 11-13, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Clayton. It's a really nice hotel.

Here's the entrance to the front of the hotel, the entrance to the parking garage is on the right, just out of camera range. It has a large parking garage.

Here is the lobby and registration. If you look down the left side of the picture, at the very end, you can see where the KawaKon registration will be. That's where you'll find me!  :)








This year our voice guest of honor is Quinton Flynn - he's the voice of Johnny Quest, Raiden from Metal Gear Solid, Kon from Bleach and more. Besides a voice guest, we have artist guests and a musical guest. Three River Okiya is back as well, such lovely ladies!  Every year there is a masquerade, always on Saturday, which is very popular and very well attended. Kelly is in charge of that again - she's a super lady who is great at everything, and very talented.  Our whole staff is great, and very eager to please and to make sure that our guests have a great and a safe time at the convention.

Our con chairs are a very lovely couple - Mikhail and Katrina Lynn.  They are experienced in running conventions; besides this one, they are responsible for BishieCon, a boys love convention also here, and a flash Harry Potter convention which will be in July, I believe, and in 2012 they will offer the first Ghostbuster convention - EctoCon. Busy people and quite wonderful!

Besides the Masquerade, quite a number of panels have been prepared on a variety of topics.  Here, check out the website:  http://www.kawakon.com/

There is a Fanfiction contest, and an AMV contest, a Swap Meet for those who want to trade their stuff for something else, a ball-jointed doll tea party, a date auction and a rave. On Saturday night is a ball brought to you by Ciel Phantomhive,  There will be a Host Club party, Whose Line is it Anime, Karaoke - and more!

Friday night, for those of you who like to stay up late, we're showing Repo! the Genetic Opera in which much fun will be had and much music sung and things I can't tell you about.  On Saturday night, it's the classic Rocky Horror Picture Show! The showing of the film will be preceded by a Virgin Sacrifice! Audience participation for this event is mandatory - everyone must dance the Time Warp! Loot bags will be on sale at Registration.

There is a restaurant in the hotel, but also places to eat within walking distance. There will be a dealer's room and artist's alley for all your shopping needs.I love being on the staff, it's a lot of fun!  So many people in costumes!  Lots of cosplaying!  I love meeting the people.  I get to see almost everyone, working at Registration.  I'm so running the two movie events I mentioned, and I have a samurai panel on Sunday, about samurai in the cinema, followed by a showing of Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo.

We have a pretty remarkable staff at KawaKon - you'll love them too!

Have any of  you been to a convention? If so, which one/s, and did you like your experience?  I'd love to hear about it!