Apologies for the long delay in blog updates – after some internet and health issues in Japan, we’re finally catching up! Day 4 of WCS was an important day as we headed off to Tokyo for an official visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We left for Nagoya station at 9am with the two other countries who are new to WCS – Indonesia and Russia. The shinkansen was nice and cool and we had tons of leg room. On the way we caught a fantastic view of Mount Fuji from our carriage window.
After a couple of hours we arrived at Tokyo, the time just seemed to fly by. First of all, we took a coach to the ministry, and got some nice views of Tokyo along the way.
When we arrived we were greeted by the ministry staff, who gave us a quick briefing.
Next it was time to meet the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. The room was filled with camera crews and press recording the event – it was a very intense experience. Lex said the minister was so nice, he said that meeting so many cosplayers was like “entering the second dimension” and that it was a shame his son couldn’t be there as he is a fan of anime and manga and would have loved to meet them.
Afterwards we travelled to TV Aichi’s office and took some quick photos in the office and outside on the streets of Tokyo – it was so much fun to be able to take cosplay photos right in the middle of the city.
On the way home we drove past Tokyo Tower and made a quick stop at Shiohaku to try some delicious Japanese crepes. Outside the crepe shop there was a festival going on with a giant slide of Rei from Evangelion (sadly only kids could go on it though)
We then had a flying visit to the Kotobukiya store in Akihabara – 30 minutes was not enough time to look around! In the evening we took the shinkansen back to Nagoya and went straight to Joysound for a karaoke party – there was food, cocktails, and everyone was partying and having a good time. Patrick, the German organiser, showed us how German kids get drunk – by putting flavoured sugar in your mouth and swigging vodka. It didn’t taste as bad as it sounds, honest!
At the party, we met the owner of Brother (the sewing machine company). Lex owns two Brother sewing machines so she told him how useful their embroidery machine had been in helping to create the UK team’s championship costumes. All in all one of the best days so far.
Thank you very much to Widya Santoso for acting as our press representative on the day and providing some of the photographs.
Cosplay Odyssey: Japan 2012 
August 24, 2012 at 9:50 pm
The photo’s in this post are brilliant. Sounds like it was a jampacked amazing day :3 Jealous! But so happy for you guys 😀