Hyper Japan
One of the nice things about my recent move to the Earls Court area is its immediate access to the Earls Court area. This may seem redundant, and likely is, but it’s just nice to have some fairly large, well used event centers within walking distance to my home. After the ComicCon a couple of weeks ago, Robert and I as well as Danni and I went to this years Hyper Japan (on Saturday and Sunday respectively).
It was an interesting mix of Japanese cutesy-culture products, food, calligraphy & origami instructional classes, cultural education, video games and of course cosplay. Part of the proceeds went to the Japanese relief fund as well, which was nice to see.
The day that Danni and I went (Sunday) was the Square Enix cosplay competition so there were plenty of Final Fantasy characters roaming the event center. I’m always amazed at the amount of work these kids put into the costumes and we stayed to watch the contest which was interesting. I’d always assumed it was just a matter of walking out on stage to display your efforts, but most put on mini performances in line with the characters they were depicting which was really impressive (even if I didn’t get the inside jokes of a lot of them).
I’m told there was also a Lolita fashion show which we missed, but it makes sense as there were an awful lot of girls dressed up that way. The aptly named Tofu Cute girls were there again, but at the risk of developing a stalker like status I didn’t take another photo. Instead, there were a couple of over-the-top cutesy girls at the exit when we were leaving that kindly posed for photos.
It was a very cool day out and difficult to resist making a lot of impulse buys (which I managed to do). If it’s in the neighbourhood again next year I’ll definitely be returning. A word of advice if you plan to attend as well: Go Early. The queue on Saturday was around the block ridiculous, and that was for ticket holders.
Couple more shots in the gallery.
Tags: cosplay, earls court, hyper japan