{"id":439,"date":"2011-03-02T18:15:35","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T23:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/?p=439"},"modified":"2013-07-01T00:14:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T05:14:39","slug":"katsucon-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"Katsucon 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katsucon<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 18-20,2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Katsucon was spared from the snow and wild weather raging across the country this year.\u00a0 2011’s weather theme was high winds that kept everyone indoors for at least Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Part of conpics.ws arrived at the con site around 3 p.m. Within 10 -15 minutes registration was complete, as\u00a0they had multiple lanes and a lot of people working. \u00a0Pre-registration was even faster; they checked your ID and looked up your name and you were on your way.<\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday parts of the Gaylord Resort, where the convention was held,\u00a0were being used by other conventions.\u00a0\u00a0Sections were roped off, confusing crowds.\u00a0\u00a0Given these circumstances,\u00a0we didn’t have much chance to do anything that afternoon.<\/p>\n

At night we wanted to take a peek at the “Formal Ballroom Dance.” We were kind of\u00a0shocked that it was just a dark\u00a0corner behind the video game area.\u00a0 We aren’t sure how it could\u00a0have been\u00a0too enjoyable or formal either.\u00a0There was a ton of loud noise to compete with from the gaming area.<\/p>\n

Which brings up that the video game area.\u00a0\u00a0The gaming itself\u00a0was great.\u00a0 The area even included a place for people to sit.\u00a0 Katsucon also offered a bag check service for coats and bags, a huge plus. \u00a0Their dealers room and artist alley were large and exited into\u00a0a lounge.<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday the first morning event we attended was a panel\/workshop \u00a0entitled “Japanese Green Tea.” The host went into great detail about the origin of tea and how different nations around the world became “tea nations.” He taught the audience the proper way to steep tea: one should use loose tea leaves in a tea ball (there were other cool tea leaf holders but the ball was the easiest) and steep them in warm (not boiling) water for no more than 30 seconds. Also, please do not use Lipton, Bigelow pr\u00a0Twinnings teabags because they use “bottom of the barrel” tea leaves to fill their bags.<\/p>\n

The host then focused on the Japanese method of \u00a0tea production and taught the audience the basic steps of the Tea Ceremony. It was interesting to\u00a0learn that different Japanese \u00a0social situations call for different grades of tea. \u00a0For instance , if one goes over to a friend’s house in Japan, they will most likely serve you Bancha<\/em>. Bancha<\/em> is the lowest grade of “quality” tea, meaning it was picked last during the harvest. \u00a0Bancha<\/em> is usually ordinary household tea. \u00a0 The next level of tea is reserved for more important guests. In Western terms: you give your friend a beer when he’s at your house but break out the liquor or wine when your boss is over for dinner.<\/p>\n

After explaining the different varieties of teas, the host started to brew the audience one of his new favorite teas. It was a mid-level quality tea ( he used the loose leaves with a teaball to steep them) \u00a0from Ito En. \u00a0This tea tasted a bit like flowers but\u00a0didn’t have as\u00a0strong a flavor as Jasmine tea. \u00a0The next sample compared to cold bottled teas. One was Oi Ocha, a ready made tea from Ito En. It’s also\u00a0known by its English name: “Tea’s Tea.” The other was a carbon copy of Oi Ocha \u00a0from an American supermarket. Of course, I am a big fan of Oi Ocha and drink it almost everyday, but the knock-off version wasn’t too bad. It tasted like the White Tea flavor of “Tea’s Tea.”<\/p>\n

Next up was the Funimation industry panel (the only real “anime” related panel we attended). Josh, Funimation’s event and convention manager, was there to tell the audience about some of “Funi’s”\u00a0\u00a0recent titles. \u00a0He announced that the complete series of the sci-fi anime \u00a0“Gantz,” “Chrome -Shelled Regios,”\u00a0\u00a0a live action movie “Alien Vs. Ninja,” and the blue-ray of ” FLCL” have all been recently released. “Hero Tales” parts 1 &2 and \u00a0“Ga Rei Zero” will be released soon. \u00a0Josh also had a special announcement<\/strong>: the long awaited third season of “SGT.FROG” will be released some time in the future.<\/p>\n

At night, of course, was the masquerade. This year it was\u00a0placed in a ballroom with a stage.\u00a0 However, the quality of the skits picked went down a little from prior years.\u00a0 The lighting and atmosphere from last year’s brought in stage just wasn’t there. \u00a0There were some good group skits, but\u00a0I still don’t get the walk-ons where the skit lasts 30 seconds and is only used to show off\u00a0 a costume.<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Sunday everyone was just wrapping up. We went to part of the last feedback panels\u00a0where\u00a0the staff held Q&As. \u00a0Though this is their second year at the Gaylord,\u00a0they explained that \u00a0they are still working with the hotel\u00a0on space issues.\u00a0 They also mentioned that\u00a0they have been trying to bring in new staff members to train in how to run the convention.\u00a0\u00a0Most important, the staff said\u00a0they\u00a0do still have a contract with the Gaylord until\u00a02015,\u00a0so there will be many more years in this wonderful location. \u00a0All of which points to a good Katsucon 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katsucon was spared from the snow and wild weather raging across the country this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conpics.ws\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}