Anime Expo 2007 website
http://www.anime-expo.org/

Long Beach Convention Center, June 28-July 2

Photography MJ-Battle

I was unable to attend last year, opting to spent two weeks in Japan. This year’s Anime Expo was moved from the city of Anaheim to Long Beach, which is closer to the LAX airport. The Anaheim Convention Center had a ‘Home, Garden & Active Adult Senior Expo’ instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t pre-register for AX months in advance. It was sort of a last minute ‘I’ll go if you go’ thing. So at the door, a 4-day badge costs $60.

It was going to be a completely different experience from my first anime convention back in 2005 because I wasn’t volunteering this time. I saw this expo 100% from the spectator standpoint and will report it as such. I was anticipating waiting in the registration lines. I did hear that they mailed out badges beforehand to those who registered early enough. So I figured the lines should be shorter this time around, right? (Boy was I wrong on that one.)

Some pre-expo anxieties:
* How’s the morning traffic and how early should I leave? I did a trial run on Tuesday June 26. It took me 15 minutes from the 405 to the 710. You could imagine thousands upon thousands of anime lovers driving to the same place clogging up the freeway.
* Where will I park? Turned out to be $8 a day.
* Food and restaurants? There’s an Outback Steakhouse, P. F. Chang’s, and a Chili’s on Shoreline Drive.
* How long do I plan on staying each day?
* Will I cosplay? Well, I did buy some sandals over the weekend at the mall.