There's this annual two-day event in my city where people come from all over the world to dress up like fictional characters and compete for fame, fortune, and geek cred. I went last year, as a spectator, unable to even approach fellow nerds if there was a hot girl in the group. But I've had it with living life as a spectator sport.

Now, I'm not a big anime fan, but in general I'm a fan of geeky subcultures. I just happen to have a Jedi costume made by an acquaintance who works in Hollywood. If my hair was a bit longer, I'd be a dead ringer for Anakin Skywalker. Even without a lightsaber (which I used to have but wouldn't fit in my luggage when I moved here), it's a sweet looking outfit, so that's what I went with.

Day 1

7/31 consisted of a huge parade of cosplayers through the shopping district in the middle of the city, and then an after-party of sorts where everyone just kind of mingled around.

Apparently most participants come early in their street clothes and get changed beforehand. I didn't want to carry a bag around with me, so I commuted in costume. Hell yeah, Jedi knight on the subway line. Take that, social norms. Old people staring at me? I don't give a fuck.

There were a few challenges though. To look convincing, I had to go without my glasses. I'm nearsighted and can barely read print or make out people's faces past 5 meters, and it was especially hard to detect eye contact from far away. Finally, it bears mentioning that it was about 36 degrees Celsius all day. Even people in normal clothes were hot as hell, but I was sweating my ass off.

Anyway, when I arrived, I jumped right into the mass of people getting ready for the parade and said hi. Later I found out that I was supposed to have registered or signed in or something first. Oops. But the way I carried myself, no one questioned my presence there. So I did the parade thing as one of only a handful of foreigners, said "may the force be with you" in Japanese to anyone in the audience who recognized me, and generally had an awesome time.

Then there was the party at the nearby temple grounds. Even exhausted and dehydrated by the heat, I did a metric assload of approaches, far more than I've ever done before. It must have been between 30 and 40 in the span of a couple of hours, and most of them were sets of girls who ranged from super-cute to drop-dead gorgeous. In addition, I was opened by dozens of people who wanted to take pictures or just find out about me. It did a lot to erode my once crippling approach anxiety.

I kept hearing this unfamiliar word being directed at me, "ikemen." Although I'm rather fluent, I don't know a lot of young people's slang, so when I got home I had to look it up. Okay, so it's a good thing. My past experiences had led me to assume that when girls whisper something about me, it's inevitably negative, but apparently not in this case. "Assume attraction" is still a leap of faith I don't feel ready to take.

In any case, I had a lot of good conversations. Oh, and every time I took a picture with one or more girls, without hesitation I put my arm around them and pulled them in close. They all made this adorable "squeeee" sound and turned bright red. It might have been from sheer terror for all I know, but it made me laugh.

One of the highlights for me was meeting HBSailorMoon & HBChibiMoon, both 22 year old students at very prestigious college who had amazing costumes and were smoking hot. I chatted with them as they fixed their makeup, using another group of girls I met earlier as a pivot. I asked them to show me their naked transformation sequence, but they said I had to wait until next episode. Touche. By then there were like 50 people waiting to get pictures of them, so I told them I'd see them tomorrow and ejected.

Day 2

8/1 was mainly for the world championships, but there were a bunch of other minor events going on and many people were mingling in the area. Once again it was brutally hot, but it was set in a partially underground complex with good shade.

Just like the day before, I opened a bunch of sets and had a good time. I saw the SailorScout babes again, literally surrounded by orbiters, and for some reason I had far more anxiety about re-opening them than I did meeting them the first time. I took pictures with them, but with all the other people clamoring for their attention it seemed like they were distracted and I ejected early once again.

An hour or so in, I met up with a friend I made at a festival a week ago. Unfortunately that's where my game ended. My new friend has absolutely no AA and talks to anyone and everyone she wants to, which would be great if I could take advantage of that, but instead she becomes the center of attention and I'm not really able to interact much with the girls in the sets. It was still a lot of fun, and somehow we ended up getting interviewed by a guy making a video for some online magazine.

After the event was over, my friend still wanted to go do stuff (drinking, clubbing, karaoke, none of which I can stand) and was about ready to go approach random people to come with us, but I was hungry, tired, and literally drenched with sweat, so we ended up grabbing a bite to eat and calling it a day.

(Italy won this year's contest, if you're curious.)

What I did right

I smiled a lot, talked to everyone, and remained in a positive and playful state. I was much more forward physically than I have ever been (grabbing girls for pictures, for example). I was holding my own peacocking at an event dedicated to people who dress up in crazy outfits.

What I did wrong

I failed to push things past innocent socializing. In hindsight, I think I definitely could have (and should have) gotten some numbers somehow, but I couldn't bring myself to isolate or ask. It's like I'm waiting for some huge, blatantly obvious IOI or mutual "spark" before I consider taking things further. Otherwise, I feel like I'll be dismissed as a typical desperate foreigner just looking to score some poon, and thus instantly break the good rapport I had.

Final Thoughts

There's an appeal in being someone else, in playing a role. This is something I've been doing in some form or another for over half my life. It lets me get out of my own head and temporarily overwrite my own habitual behaviors. It lets me be larger than life for a while.

And at the same time, it feels like people are more real at events like this. They can be royal geeks and not care. They're just having fun in their ridiculous outfits, celebrating something they love; it's the direct opposite of the unforgiving, judgmental, ultra-competitive energy at a club. I wish there were more events like this.