Matthew's Quick Hit Reports: NorCal Fall Cosplay Gathering 2013

For awhile now, the NorCal Cosplay Gatherings have been a staple within the community here. It's held every quarterly at various parks in the Bay Area and the turnouts have been increasing with this recent one held at Vascoe Lake Park being the highest ever in its history. I finally had a chance to come out here and check this event for myself, and I had a very good time.

To make things easier on my wallet, I took about three other people in my car. I picked up David first who is not that far from me, then it was down to Stockton for breakfast at Sonic Drive-In. After that, we went to go pick up Nate and his friend.

For some odd reason, when inputting Nate's address into Google Maps everything went wrong as soon as I got off the 580.

The blue circle incidates the approximate location Google Maps sent me. The black circle indicates the actual approximate location of Nate's house. Yeah, thanks a lot Google.

We didn't miss a beat though when it came to finding ample parking; we arrived to find parking close to the event even after picking up Nate's copy of the newest Pokemon game and his friend.

It was just about 11am, and slowly but surely the cosplayers started to trickle in and soon we had ourselves a gathering that rivaled a small-local one-day convention.

The area in which this gathering took place was beautiful; the lake had crystal-clear water, the trees were still full of color despite being the fall season, and the park itself is very well-kept. It was the perfect setting for a ton of photo shoots that were scattered all across the park area with photographer gear in hand.

By noontime, everyone who had chipped in $5 to keep these gatherings running were treated to a hot dog lunch accompanied by the mountain of food the organizators bought.

During this time I had an interview with this local documentary film crew that was doing one on cosplay. They loved how I was chill and "keeping it real" with my rants on Heroes of Cosplay and cosplay bullying. I'm hoping to see how the footage comes out.

It didn't look like this a couple of hours ago...

Probably the biggest highlight of the gathering was the JoJo Pose Academy based off of the JoJo's Bizzare Adventure series. Here, the teachers taught you how to be FABLULOUS. And I really mean it.

I thought I had more video footage from this, but unfortunately this is the one footage that didn't get corrupted.


 As the day wore on, the number of people started to dwindle.

Eventually, we headed out before sundown when the park would be locked up for the night. I didn't want to be locked in with having to drop off my rides plus work the next morning.

Dinner plans were a bit iffy at the time. We went to this one Japanese place nearby, but the prices were too high for our budgets. Then David remembered a sushi buffet east of downtown San Jose; he called in and the guy on the phone said no wait, but when we arrived it came out to be an hour and a half wait. With all of us steamed, we went back to downtown San Jose to eat at La Vic's. Part of me questions why I didn't eat here all these times that I came to FanimeCon.

Speaking of FanimeCon...

BONUS COVERAGE: THE NEW-LOOK SAN JOSE CONVENTION CENTER

With FanimeCon 2014 seven months to go, the competition of the San Jose Convention Center expansion couldn't have come at a better time. The fences are gone, and the building is now open to the general public.

Me and Nate had a chance to walk around the new building. And I made sure that I filmed it.

Rumor has it that Registration will be on the bottom floor alongside Con Ops while the Grand Ballroom will hold Artists Alley with everything else status quo for the time being. I'm still checking my sources on that.

Despite the new building, we now realize that everything is in place and that Fanime needs to deliver on the heels of their 20th Anniversary and after the massive letdown a year ago (or two, depending on who's counting).

Props go out to Oscar and Becca for running the gatherings. You two make an awesome duo when it comes to anchoring this down. Depending on my work schedule and funds that would be reserved for Otakon Vegas, I might make the Winter Gathering in Fremont; if not, there's always the Spring and Summer ones in 2014 to look forward to.