At 1:00 am there was going to be a Mazinger Z movie I wanted to see. I figured Jeff would want to go as well, but he left for a Macross party and I went back to the convention. I met up with Tyson and we both went to video room 2. Unfortunately, the Mazinger Z tape was broken and they showed some more Getter Robo: Armageddon.

Tyson and I went back to the hotel. Or tried to at least. Police and firemen were everywhere. The streets were flooded and many roads were blocked off. Because of this mishap in the sewer system, Tyson and I couldn't get back into the hotel. The front and rear doors were locked, and one street was blocked off disallowing access to another entrance. We asked a police officer how were we supposed to get into our hotel.

"Just ignore the 'do not cross' tape and use the side entrance."

The street was partially flooded, but we made it back inside. The other guys came back around 2 or 3 am or so. We just went to sleep.

Woke up around, let's see here…. don't remember. I didn't even bother to pull my hair back into a ponytail. I went back to the dealer's room with Jeff, after he told me that someone had a few Zeon flags I wanted to buy. We went to his table and asked if he had any left, but he said that he sold the last one this morning. Instead I went to the DVD guy and picked up 3x3 Eyes instead. I had about $50 left and I was going to pick up a rocket-punching Mazinger Z toy, but I decided that I probably needed my money or food or other expenses that might come up. You see, I never mentioned eating Friday or Saturday mainly because, well… I didn't eat anything those two days, I was merely running off stored energy and excitement. As you can expect, I was starving. We walked around the dealer's room, trying to gather everyone who had wandered off. I walked past a Gundam model kit vendor and purchased a High Grade GM Sniper kit. We found a few more friends as we browsed the dealer's room, but I pratically had to pull myself away from buying a Master Grade B3 Gouf Custom kit for $35. I tried to buy Mike something because it was his birthday is a few days, but he didn't want anything.

After all the Daniel Webster College guys had been assembled, we started moving our stuff from our hotel room to the vans/cars. Once we had everyone and everything loaded, we went to Burger King across the street and ate. (John wanted to go back and buy a live action La Blue Girl, but unfortunately the dealer's room closed at 2 pm on Sunday.) We arrived at Daniel Webster College with few problems. The second van got ahead of us and arrived maybe 5 minutes before we did. Mike got his BMW (3 series!) and we unloaded all our gear and packed it into his car. I went into Brian's dorm and used the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my hair back. I would go home looking presentable. I said bye to everyone before Mike and I finally left for Massachusetts.

We arrived home at about 2 or 3 am. I brought all my stuff in and of course my parents are up waiting for me. We sat at the dining room table and I told them of my adventures and all the fun stuff we did. I show them everything I bought (which was quite a bit, about $450 worth. Brian, being a big cel collector, beat me as the biggest spender with over $1000 worth of stuff). All my parents were really concerned about if whether or not I had a good time, which I most certainly did. Mike leaves shortly after my mother feeds us something.

So, would I do it again? Absolutely, and next year I'll be cosplaying too. Otakon really is an experience. There's no way to describe it to someone who hasn't been to a large anime convention. There's just so much going on, you can't possibly do it all the first time you attend. There's new anime to watch and panels to visit and games to play and people to meet and talk to and lots of pictures to take. Don't forget stuff to buy, oh god, the stuff you can buy. Next year I'm bringing about a thousand dollars with me, and knowing what's available, I can probably spend it all. The main problem would be trying to get it all back home.

To everyone considering attending an anime convention… DO IT! You'll never know how big an otaku you are until you compare yourself to what you'll see at an convention. To anyone thinking of traveling several states to attend Otakon… DO IT! Your trip couldn't possible go any worse than ours did. To anyone thinking of cosplaying at an anime convention… DO IT! It's a lot more fun when you cosplay. Otakon is THE convention for east coast otaku. If you only attend one convention this year, make it Otakon.

Also read 2001: An Otakon Odyssey - Part I, Part II and Part III.