Anime North 2012: Friday

Anime North this year was held on May 25th to the 27th. I only attended the Friday and Sunday event dates, but nonetheless, here is my share of the Anime North experience.

Let us start with friday.


<sub>Zhe entrance to registration


Zhe Atomic Lollipop music stage next to zhe entrance</sub>

My friends and I arrived at the Toronto Congress Centre (TCC) around 2:30 PM on Friday. We figured the line wouldn't be very long, but we were wrong. The line up for registration and pre-registered ticket pick-up already covered much of the front parking lot. I forgot how we arrived at 11 AM on Friday the year before and vowed to always arrive early.

I took about two hours for my friends to get their tickets. I had to wait for them outside of the building since I wasn't planning on registering this year. After getting their tickets, we went to grab lunch at Subway's.

When we finished eating, we split into two groups: one went to the 5 PM Digimon panel and the second group loafed around the grass area. In the grass area was a mushroom.



Across the mushroom was Poison Ivy, relaxing in the shade, waiting for Batman or Robin to pass by.


A South Park group made their way onto the grass and right when they spotted Cartman, I asked them for a picture.



Sitting in the shade on the grassy area doing nothing but trying to come up with topics to talk about with Livia gave me the idea of taking stalker images of people walking by. If you find a picture of you in the following pictures and would like me to remove them, leave a comment at the end of this post. :)


<sub>Tiger and Bunny walking West.


Eyeshield 21 boys.


I pokémon snapped a Bulbasaur. Fabulous!


My first thought: "reverse KKK? No way." Does anyone know who they're cosplaying?
Looks like they're from Baka no Test. Thanks, Anon.


Ice-cream trucks just waiting to lure people. Soon.


Supernatural's Cas


Kamen rider!


Dragon Kid and Blue Rose from Tiger and Bunny


Happy Wolverine


The back side of two fabulous cosplays.


Pikmin! Not life-sized, but giant!


Last, but not least, a Puella Madoka Magica group.</sub>


And now for the Anime North Friday story of... Ricky.


_{Ricky playing his guitar}

Livia and I sat down a grassy area after chatting with our friend Misha. After taking a few photos, she wanted to play cards. She noticed a boy playing his guitar and got me to ask him to play cards with us. Turns out he didn't have a pass and was waiting for his friends who were in the TCC. We hung out with him for a few hours until 7 PM where he left to reunite with his dearly beloveds. Hope we didn't made you feel awkward with those chats about harems, farts, and adoption, Ricky!

Friday felt too short. I would have liked to stay a longer, but a 2 hour ride back home and a good night sleep called.

To be continued in 'Anime North 2012: Sunday'.

Toronto Music Garden

I have a group of friends I call 'Teahousers'. I gave them that name because we used to hang out at bubble tea cafés every time we met up in the two years after high school graduation. We usually have a get-together every 6 weeks and between those weeks we plan for the next meeting. During our last meeting, we visited the Grindhouse to try out kangaroo burgers. On the same day, we walked to the Toronto Music Garden at Queens Quay. There weren't any functions in the garden that day and it was raining in the morning.


View Larger Map

"Treeline catering" was painted on the walkway along Queens Quay. I searched the words on Google's search engine and the first website on the list was treeline-events.com.

I was surprised to find a fancy birdhouse at Queens Quay near the Music Garden. It was standing in the middle of a fenced area, so I couldn't get a close look at it.


It took us awhile to find the garden because we were distracted by boats. (We were hoping to see one that looks like a pirate ship.) We knew where the garden was a little later because of a sign. The plants in the music garden looked almost too perfect: it was eerie yet beautiful. Most of the pathways were spirals, which was neat. The spiral pathways made plants like the maple trees and low lying flower buds noticeable. What I liked most about the garden were the textures and colours of the plants. There was even fungi!


_{The welcome sign facing south}













After walking around the garden, we walked to Ann Tindal Park and there was a black-crowned night heron. My friends and I didn't know what the bird was called until we asked a passerby that stopped to look at the bird.



For more pictures, visit this album:

Toronto Music Garden

Late. FAIL.

I found a picture I took of fungi at one of York University's Keele campus woods from October 9, 2008. It's one of my favourite pictures from the 2008 album.


I have a bad habit of leaving things for later. I don't like making excuses, but to those that always want to know the reason to things: I'm lazy, uninspired, and easily distracted. Awful and unreasonable reasons to leave things undone. I always feel bad about not finishing things on time, and I've tried many times to prevent it from happening, but it still happens. I feel like I'm wasting my life.