I decided on a near whim to head out to Comiket 103. I had a day off, and had already missed the first day, but decided to check out the second day. After all, it’s my first Comiket since Comiket 97!

It took me about an hour by train to get to Tokyo Big Sight, the large convention center in Odaiba where the overcrowded con is held. They recommended to get off at Kokusai-tenjijo (Rinkai Line) as there was construction going on at Tokyo Big Sight station on the Yurikamome line.

I hadn’t pre-purchased any ticket but I was able to buy the “PM” one that was available from 12:30pm for only 1000円. The convention used to be free, but with the overcrowding happening, I can understand why they’d want to thin out the herd a bit, and maybe not go completely broke?

After I got my wristband, I headed up the escalator to the rooftop of West Hall 2, and had a nice trek going around to get to the cosplay area where I wanted to snap some photos first. I decided to make a quick tour through some corporate booths since I had to go by them anyway. Nothing too exciting for me, I knew virtually nothing of the series that were being advertised.

I made it to the cosplay area finally and started lining up to get some photos. In Japan, it’s customary to line up to take photos individually for each cosplayer. There are both pros and cons to this. Con being you end up taking very few pictures, pro being you get the model to yourself for 1-2 minutes (or 5 if you’re an AH and don’t care about other people). I’m always conflicted about which I prefer. I did end up running into a few people I knew and it was nice to meet some new friendly faces.

I ended up skipping the new South exhibition halls as I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to check it out. Comiket has SO MUCH happening that it’s impossible to check everything out. Next time I should probably take a tour of the facility though.

After I had taken enough photos of the cosplayers on the rooftop I decided to head east, over the bridge, to the large East Halls where the artists, hobbyists, cosplay models, and other sellers were. My senses were overstimulated. I knew I didn’t have enough time so I walked quickly through the numerous sections looking at the various artwork available. I did up end up purchasing a couple pieces from a few sellers.

I wanted to see what was in the “New East Hall” so I headed over there next. A dedicated cosplay area for taking photos, and cosplayer booths. I ended up taking a few more photos, and chatting with some people, seeing a tall Chewbacca was unexpected!

I then headed to the South East hall area where everyone was packing up by that point. I had only done the north one before that. I quickly scoped around before joining the large crowd heading away from the convention center, to the subway station.

I ended up diverging however and made my usual pilgrimage over the Dream bridge where many more cosplayers can be found. This makes a great place for late afternoon/evening photos. I then continued on my way to Diver City Mall for some shopping.

I’m glad to finally have had the energy to head back to Comiket! It’s been about 3 years since my last one. it was also only my second convention of the year. I’m going to try to make more time to attend more conventions in Japan next year.

Thanks for reading my journal and I’ll have a video up sometime soon!

Mike