When we first started looking into going to JAFAX, we were generally blasé about the entire affair. Yes, it would be a good time and yes, japanese culture was neat, and hey, visiting a new state would be an adventure, but in general we weren’t as pumped as we normally are. This was for two reasons:
1. We really weren’t sure what to expect. On their main website, JAFAX advertised itself as a “Japanese Art, Film, and Animation Expo”. This sounded cool, sort of, but not distinctly anime. While our interests tend to wander, as evidenced by our jaunt into Zombie March, a discussion on Japanese Art didn’t fill us with the same vigor anime does. Anime has girls with large eyes and chests, swords that are impossibly large, gender confused villains and explosions for no reason. Japanese art not so much. Well, the art I’ve seen anyway.
2. Our crew was down by two for the weekend. Sadly, our team is chock full of interesting people who have a nasty habit of having other interests that they pursue. This was depressing, and it was with not-so-filled hearts that three of us loaded the rental car and headed to Allendale, Michigan.
We rented a Ford Focus, complete with new car smell and testy female-voiced computer navigation system. She did not enjoy our shenanigans and made listening to our mp3 players difficult, much to the chagrin of Boss, who was driving at the time. He yelled quite a bit, but in the end became silent as the machine won out and played all the song we weren’t interested in listening to. I recall little of the trip to Michigan, since I mistakenly took a Benadryl tablet instead of a Tylenol Sinus in efforts to quench a killer headache, and consequently became fascinated with Bejeweled on Boss’s Ipod Touch. Occasionally, I remarked on how cool my hand was. The trip, thankfully, did not take too long.
The hotel we stayed in was a Best Western, located in Grandville about ten minutes from Grand Valley State University, where JAFAX took place. The hotel was pretty lively and enough cosplayers stayed there to mix it up with the regular crowd. We greatly enjoyed the pool, especially after the heat of being outside, and the hot tub was glorious. The beds were our biggest complaint, and I have found some floors to be more accommodating. But with the little rest we got, we prepared ourselves for invading the con.
Grand Valley State University has a glorious campus that is really wonderful to photograph cosplayers against. Occasionally, we wished for more shade but some of the shots we got were really exciting. Inside the main programming building, we were greeted, asked to sign in and given a planner of events for the weekend, which was unfortunately not very helpful. That was it: no fees, no badges and really, no hassle. The dealers room and main area was a little crowded, but I doubt during the construction of the University the hallway dimensions ever considered to contain cosplayers. We all moved through pretty easily as most people were accommodating. Main programing and anime viewing rooms were all in lecture halls and comfortably seated everyone who was interested in watching. The artist alley was located in a separate building and was really impressive for such a relatively small con. Recently the smaller cons we’ve visited have had smaller dealers rooms and artist alleys. This was not the case with JAFAX. We were impressed.
The game rooms were also in a separate building. These were on the smaller size and not clearly marked as to when tournaments would begin. We were bummed that we missed the Mario Kart Wii sign ups, as we were convinced that we would have killed. We did, however, spend a great deal of time in the Step Mania room and Saka, our resident DDR master, showed off her mad skills. Turns out that it is exceptionally difficult to DDR to Hare Hare Yukai and do the choreographed dance, speaking from our failed experience. However, the back up dancers we acquired during the song were rather good at finishing up work.
Food was provided in the main area, which was shocking and refreshing. For most of our meals though, we dined outside the convention. Lunch was served at Stir Fry Express, a local chinese restaurant that gave us gobs and gobs of food. It was tasty and fairly cheap, though none of finished what we ordered. Their lunch menu was worth it. Dinner was exceptional. If you ever are visiting in Michigan and are near Grandville and happen to crave a large amount of wondrous food, you must venture out to Kobe Japanese Steak House & Sushi Bar. When we went looking for food places on the web, we were thrown off as most of the reviews noted the steak house as terrible. Our experience was anything but. The food was melting with awesome, the hibachi experience was a lot of fun, and we left with very happy tummys. Then it was a night of relaxing in the hot tub. All anime conventions should come with a hot tub.
And that’s what JAFAX really was. An anime convention. When we first looked at it, we were expecting to see Kabuki plays or crazy Japanese game shows like what you see on MXC. This was not the case. JAFAX is a lively, blood boiling anime convention, filled with enthusiastic cosplayers and committed volunteers. The emcees of the cosplay contest were incredibly helpful, the con staff really obliging, and we felt completely supported by the con. It was well worth the trip up. After going I’m surprised I had never heard of it before this summer. If you are curious about attending more conventions in the Midwest region, consider JAFAX. Not convinced yet? It’s free to attend. Tell your friends.
Tags: Jafax
