Anime Expo 2015 Day Negative Zero and Day Zero - I'm Coming Home

I'm coming home/I'm coming home/Tell the world I'm coming home/Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday/And though my kingdom awaits, they'd forgiven me for my mistakes/I'm coming... home!

Diddy-Dirty Money - Coming Home (ft. Skylar Grey)

It's good to be back as I write this part of my review in the comfort of my friend James' house back where? IN LA BABY!!! Not all things end in LA we also have to start somewhere too.

It was midway through June when I was first told that my friend and fellow roommate Dalton would be able to join me in my quest to Anime Expo. As the excitement came upon us week by week, he would aquire his badge and we began to start packing in advance for what we couldn't even sleep for: the anticipated trip to and from Oregon to Los Angeles. That moment finally happened at 3 a.m. when we began to leave Oregon to Sacramento. We finally made it to Matthew's house, my best brother and of course our boss. Around the time we arrived at 10:45 a.m., Matthew was very hungry and decided that he wanted to take us out to a nice lunch at a place me and Dalton have never been before. Me being Filipino, I feel it as a disgrace that I've never been to this establishment before but finally we would go to Jollibee.

FOOD.

Be the first time I went to Jollibee, I had some there staples such as their fried chicken, spaghetti, and other Filipino dishes. To my surprise everything was really tasty and I would recommend this to anyone who is Filipino or non-Filipino and has one in their area. Their peach mango pie is to die for. After a nice lunch and a tour of an Asian supermarket called Seafood City, which was more tease than show, he would take us to a local bread shop that sells a Filipino delicacy known as "starbread." What is "starbread" you ask? Not even I know what's in this but it was so sweet and juicy that the fact of the matter is that I could even describe how good this bread is. This leg of the trip was supposed to be a resting stop but instead we ended up in a food coma and staying up. With what little time we had with Matt, he would take us to Starbucks and buy us a Frappuccino for a safe trip back to LA. Another long 8 hours in and we had finally seeing destinations that we are familiar with such as Six Flags Magic Mountain and the Hollywood sign. speaking of Hollywood, the first habitual stop in our trip before hitting James house would be Pink's Hot Dogs. As it was Dalton's first time, he ordered a basic hot dog with bacon and nacho cheese; to his surprise, these hot dogs were un-freaking believable and "out of bounds" as Guy Fieri would say. I had the America The Beautiful Dog and chili fries but filled on the dog and tragically never ate the fries all weekend.

MORE FOOD.

Around 11pm we arrived at James' house where two beds were made for me and Dalton. Upon our arrival was a happy yet sarcastic James who would continue to jest with us until we were tired and would eventually fall asleep.

We woke up early as I anticipated interviews would be taking place all day for us. To my surprise, Dalton and James did not have to wait so long in line as the door opens for registration at 10am. Meanwhile, we haven't received any information about our interviews for the day and registration was about to open for press. After I receive my badge and swag bag, I immediately go over to the press lounge to find it wasn't open. I go back to the press registration and asked what was going on about our interviews and one of the team leaders gives me a card to call the higher ups on press. To my dismay, our outlet was unable to do any interviews this year. Since I had no interviews and semi-irritated with nothing to do, I figured I would show Dalton around so he would get his bearings of the entire convention center. We got to West Hall when LACC staffers were telling us that we needed to leave; luckily I had a friend who was part of staff that let us roam around with her. The majority of my party was hungry, so in agreement we went to another habitual stop in while in LA, Philippe The Original for lunch. Double dips all around we were full and walked out happy but couldn't help but say "Okay time to step out of Philipe's that was a good French di--OH GOD $5/GALLON WHY" after noticing the gas station across the street. I had plans to hang out with other people but unfortunately they didn't arrive till very late so we decided to go home early and take a nice dip in the pool. The night would end with with James treating us to Olive Garden, with a glass of wine in celebration of my return and a great AX we called Day Zero to an end.

Still tired from our previous night we slept through the night in anticipation of...

- Day Negative Zero and Day Zero End

(Editor's Note: The correct term for "starbread" is "senorita bread." However, I call it "starbread" most of the time and even the shop that sells senorita bread that I took them to is called "Starbread Bakery.")