World Cosplay Summit 2016 – Part 7: Day 4 Meji Mura and Karaoke party

World Cosplay Summit 2016 – Part 7: Day 4 Meji Mura and Karaoke party

Oct 30, 2016 | Cosplay, Events, International Cosplay Contests, Japan, Travel | 0 comments

Meiji Mura
Meiji Mura was the second outdoor event we went to.
Meiji Mura is an outdoor museum, where a lot of famous building from the Japanese Meiji area can be explored. The special thing is, that they are build up in original size and you are even allowed to go in and explore more.
If you like architecture of have traditional Japanese costumes, it is a great location for a photo shooting.

Pictures at Meiji Mura

We didn’t have any changing rooms there so we changed into our costumes before going into the bus.

We knew that the trip will be about 1 hour, so we decided to go for comfortable costumes, of course with a fan!
When we arrived there we’ve been split into groups of 4-5 countries and went in small groups from the bus through the entrance to a small stage on after another.
It was a very hot and the sun was burning down. That’s why they tried to keep us in the air-conditioned bus as long as possible.
Actually no one told us, what will happen next and that we need to go up to a stage and answer questions. But I guessed that because this event has been hold last year in the same way.
When we arrived at the stage, we went up when they called our country and name and posed in the middle.

At the stage of Meiji Mura

Afterwards they asked us some random questions and made a group picture. After the group picture we had some free time to explore Meiji Mura by ourselves.

Our students were accompanying us and brought us to the famous Omu rice place to get lunch and aircon.
Picture we took
After lunch we strolled around, took some pictures and had some fun with the other teams. It was quite nice and really interesting. It is definitely a great location for photo shoots. They even had a really beautiful fake church.
I also liked the traditional candy store and bought ice cream and some penguin
The problem was that it started slowly to rain. Actually something I really appreciated, because it was hot and the rain cooled everything down.
Japanese people don’t like rain. Even after a small single drop they out their umbrella or look for a roof. In Germany rain is totally normal and if it rains even an umbrella won’t help you…
The meeting point for the group picture with all representatives where at the other side of the park. So we needed to walk a bi in order to get there. The problem was that the rain just got stronger and stronger and just after a while we looked like we were swimming.
We didn’t mind but started to panic, because we needed to wear these costumes for the courtesy visits the next day again.

Meeting point

When we arrived at the end meeting point, only half of the teams arrived and everyone was looking shocked when they saw us (we really looked like we just jumped into the pool…).

Most of the missing representatives there waiting somewhere inside or got stuck in other locations. Only the stupid Germans went there slowly in the middle of the heavy rain. The group picture was canceled and it took a while to collect all the missing representatives.
They brought us with small busses to the entrance and to the bus in order to change (or to get dry). Because afterwards we went to Joysound.
A Karaoke chain in Nagoya, which has several branches.

During the Karaokeparty with Team Phillipines

We had a small room (compared to the number of people) with a lot of food, drinks and a small stage where the people could sing.

I had a lot of fun with the people and really enjoyed singing with them.
Gift exchange with Team Russia and Kuwait
Next to the Karaoke party it was also gift exchanging time.
We brought gifts for all representatives, Alumnis, WCS staff and organizers.
But actually we couldn’t find everyone, because it was crowded, loud, dark, we didn’t new the faces (without cosplay) and had only about 1-2 hours to get dinner, exchange gifts, drink something and to have fun.
We were searching for the teams like crazy and tried to give them our presents. In exchange we also got a lot of nice presents, like self made cookies, tea, key chains etc. . Some of them are really really cute and I will treasure them! Thanks for these awesome and cute presents!
The gifts from all the other teams
Sadly we missed out Team Singapore…. We are sorry Team Singapore but we couldn’t find you guys… And because they were always in the other bus we just missed every chance to give the present to them ToT.
We knew it could be difficult to keep on track which teams already got presents, so we made a list, where we could check which teams we already gave presents or not.
After eating a lot, giving the people the presents and having fun we went back to the hotel. Dead and happy after an awesome day.

World Cosplay Summit 2016 – Part 4: Day 1 Laguna Ten Bosh and Welcome Party

World Cosplay Summit 2016 – Part 4: Day 1 Laguna Ten Bosh and Welcome Party

Oct 20, 2016 | Cosplay, Events, International Cosplay Contests, Japan, Travel | 0 comments

Laguna Ten Bosh
Finally the first event! I was so excited!
We went to Laguna Ten Bosh for the opening ceremony at the new opened flower lagoon. Laguna Ten Bosh is an amusement park. They have rollercoaster’s, carousels, a big pool, a beach, illumination shows and a flower lagoon.
Normally its not allowed to make pictures there, but at this day the Cosplayers were allowed to make pictures as they like. It was also allowed to go into the water and to make photo shootings in the rides itself during certain times. The Location was very unique and perfect for Cosplay shootings.


I knew quite early that the opening ceremony will be at the flower lagoon so we chose this version of Love Live for this event.
Because in Japan it’s prohibited to go in costume to the events, we chose costumes which don’t take a long time to change. We also chose some for the outdoor events where you can use a fan as an accessory, because it was just hot outside!


Our costumes for the Laguna Ten Bosh even
In the changing room

We departed divided into 2 buses (block a bus and block b bus, the blocks and appearing number was always the same as in the championship), played a lot of Pokemon go and arrived after about 1 hour drive.

They started with a short briefing about the WCS and the following schedules. The problem was that we departed to late and needed to cut time.
That’s why we only got a briefing about today and have been told that we will get most of our schedules the night before the next day.
Afterwards we made make up and changed in our cloths, got into the bus and arrived in the back of the flower lagoon.

Lining up
We waited there, lined up in front of the water lagoon and got some balloons.
Actually no one told us what to do, only that there would be an opening ceremony.
The host tried to tell us in Japanese that we should say the phrase “Cosplay everywhere” and release the balloons in our hand when she counts till 3.
That’s why you might find a lot of pictures with confused looking Cosplayers, because most of them cannot speak Japanese. XD After some more communication we managed to release the balloons.
After some speeches, the cutting ceremony followed and we had some hour’s free time.
A wall of photographers were taking pictures of the opening ceremony (my first time seeing so many photographers in front of one motive, I later learned that this was nothing…) and also continued to make pictures of the Cosplayers.

Making pictures

The Cosplayer just stands in front and the photographers are lining up in order to make a picture. After a short thank you and Coscard exchange the next photographer takes pictures of you.

The simple and Japanese way of making pictures.


Cosplayers making pictures

After making some pictures at other spots of the lagoon, we had a look around with Iris and Patrick (our organizer), Team China and Japan, had some ice cream and enjoyed the park. We also met our 2nd Omotenashi student Yuuka chan who always cared about us for drinking enough and finding the places.

After walking back to the changing rooms, we changed and prepared ourselves for

the welcome party.
The welcome party is organized by the Omotenashi students. The Omotenashi students are cooperation of students who are supporting the representatives in all matters during their stay in Nagoya. They care about your wellbeing showing you around and if you need something they give their best to help you. Yuuka chan and Eriko chan were our students, who took really good care of us.
The Omotenashi students organized and collected the money for the welcome party at Laguna Ten Bosh.

The welcome party

The food was really delicious and it was really fun to spent time and talk with the other representatives, organizers and Alumnis.

I don’t know why, but we didn’t got any chairs for the tables. And the tables weren’t that high you could stand in front of them.
So we decided to sit on the ground. Looks funny? It was funny!

Sitting at the ground

After the welcome party we had some time to visit the 1.000 sunny, the ship from One Piece. It was a great experience to be at a full size ship of an Anime you love! We had a lot of fun!

1000 Sunny
Inside of the ship

After a long day we arrived in the Hotel and went to bed.