Kei's Con report:
Friday
I woke up Friday morning at 4:30am to being my trek down to Sakura Con. It took me about 4 hours to get down to Seattle and find parking. Due to the huge line ups, I missed the opening ceremonies, and I went into the H&A autograph session about a half-hour after it started. I was a bit surprised and somewhat disappointed at the short line. Then again I remembered that the schedule was posted quite late and I figured most people were held up at Registration and wouldn't be able to make it. It also surprised me that they cut the autograph signing an hour into the 2-hour session. I thought it was because there weren't that many people in line. Later we found out that Rika wasn't feeling well and suffering from jet lag, so they decided to stop. I noticed that when Yossy signs something, she'll look at you in the eye as she hands it back to you. Rika sometimes glanced quickly. They are both quite intent when they're signing something, it looks like they're very focussed on it.
All my fears of a small turn-out were proven wrong with the boisterous cheering and applause they got at the Guest of Honour dinner. Shortly before the dinner, they walked through the crowd (we had to clear a path for them) to get into the room at the Grand Hyatt. Rika was covered with a pink blanket while Yossy was wearing her long black adidas jacket.
During the introductions, Yossy said that she was surprised to see all of the cosplayers. She was looking forward to eating to get energy to perform at the concert. Rika said she was also surprised at the cosplay. She thought she'd be embarrassed because in her Angry costume, she'd stand out, but among the cosplayers, she seemed to fit in. She also said she thought she was a bit underdressed. There was another part about Rika being very sleepy from jet lag and something about not being able to eat the spring rolls, but I couldn't hear why. Then Yossy took the mic and said "She is angry. She is angry." which brought a good chuckle to the crowd.
They didn't actually eat at the reception. They stood around a small cocktail table while there was a translator on each side of them, then everyone stood in line to chat a bit and move on. I had a bad cold/flu all week so I let Kimuuu do most of the talking. Since we weren't allowed to take photos, I asked if I could shake their hands and they both agreed. The one thing I remember was that Rika's hands were warmer than Yossy's. They left about an hour or so into the reception. We were told that they were going to eat and they don't like eating in front of people. As they passed by me, they were turned so their backs were facing me and all I remember was seeing holes in the shirt that Yossy wore. The shirt was supposed to be that way and you could see her white shirt through it. Someone said they were shorter than they expected so I remember looking down at her shoes too and noticed they were black boots with a flat heel.
Saturday
I went sightseeing in the morning and barely made it back in time for the concert. Even though it was a long wait, the concert was AWESOME. I stood in front of center stage with row of people in front of me, so I had a really good view. My only complaint was the sound level of the mic was too low and you had a lot of problem hearing the vocals. Regardless, the concert was so damn fun! There was lots of Ishiyoshi action. Yossy's arm around Rika's waist, Rika feeling up Yossy's leg, interlocking pinkys while singing. Yossy throwing her arm around Rika's neck/shoulder. The crowd couldn't get enough. They knew how to throw a party.
In their first break, they greeted everyone in English and had a small speech. You can tell they practiced alot. It was so cute. At one point of the concert, we saw them go get an armful of glow in the dark rings. Yossy had the pink ones and Rika had the blue ones. They started throwing them out to the audience. I told my tall friend that he had to get one for me, and he snagged me one from Yossy. *_* wai wai. They performed one of the new songs dancing with a small feather fan. At the end of the song, they threw their fan out to the crowd. That was unsuspected. Later, the projection on the back wall turned into a "Happy Birth Day Hangry" sign, and the guitarist started playing the Happy Birthday tune while we sang along. Yossy looked surprised and Rika said it had been a secret. The rock versions of The Peace and Love & Peace Hero ga yattekita threw everyone for a loop and the cheering got louder.
After a long day including dinner at the steakhouse, Kimuuu thought she saw Rika in our hotel lobby. It was past 1am but we were going to head down anyway to get into the business center and use their computers. After getting our gear ready, we headed to the main level. There were a few people in the lobby and we weren't sure if it was Rika because the view was from behind. We were about to leave until we heard Rika's voice. So we decided to head across the lobby to the front desk for a city map, I was actually curious if there were any bars around. When we were there got a pretty good look and knew it was her. We walked closer to the front door and I actually didn't see Yossy sitting there, she was so quiet! I was more focussed on Rika talking to a guy who was trying to explain something in Japanese.
After a little while I knew we couldn't stay there and stare so I walked up to Yossy who was fiddling with her cellphone and she looked up at me as I got close so I told her it was an excellent concert and gave her a thumbs up. I think I took her off guard because she just smiled a bit, nodded and gave me a thumbs up. The person near her said thank you and we walked off to the business center.
Yossy looked pretty tired, after all, they had just performed at the concert a few hours earlier. She had taken the pink extension out of her hair and it just pulled back into a ponytail. It's all blonde. She was wearing her light blue jacket, dark pants and boots. I'm pretty sure it was the same jacket as this:
Rika was in a dark jacket, I think maybe dark brown rather than black. I think they were going out because they were sitting on the sofa right in front of the main door. I was a bit surprised that they'd be going out at that hour. It must have been 1:30am by then.
Sunday
Before the Q&A panel, they tried to play the Kill Me Kiss Me PV, but VLC player kept crapping out and crashing. Eventually they didn't bother with it and introduced Hangry and Angry. I spent the whole Q&A session scribbling down notes. For the last half of the session, they started signing autographs, I noticed they were using colored markers so I had them sign my journal instead of the black t-shirt I bought. As Yossy was signing it, I said it was my Sakura Con diary and she said "Sugei". I said the same thing to Rika and she was surprised. My con pretty much ends there as I had to make sure I could drive all the way back home through the heavy rains safely.