At about 7pm though - several of us started to have head spins as we'd been to busy to eat lunch and our bodies were crying out for nourishment. Some of the boys went for a KFC run and Risa-chan, Ogi-bo and I went up to our "girls with ocean view" room to see if we could catch the fireworks. Managed to see the occasional flash over the buildings in the way.

At 8pm still no sign of the boys - I hit the mini-bar - well beer is a kind of food isn't it?

9pm - no boys but there is a huge traffic jam spreading as far as the eye can see.

9:30pm - ring the boys - naturally they are stuck in traffic - and are being tortured by the smell of greasy chicken wafting through the car. Apparently however they are just down the road...

10:30pm the boys burst into the room with arms full of unhealthy greasy junk food and a feeding frenzy ensues...

Having gorged on fried chicken carcasses and mashed potato with gravy (which I haven't eaten in about 4 years cause the KFC here doesn't sell it), we waddled back down to A.O.H. and kept working.

Went back to room at 4am.

Passed out.

Thursday July 5

Crawled out of bed (if you are beginning to suspect that I'm not a morning person you've hit the nail right on the head) Risa-chan and I got brekky and met the boys at the Booth - rushed around adding the final touches.

Dragged Karaoke-man off to get our Press Badges, which took forever as the room had been changed twice and we had no clue where we were going. Got badge, grabbed camera and dashed over to the opening ceremony, took some pics and watched the Guests of Honour being announced. Some of the entrances were rather spectacular - Scoot Frazier appeared with a small harem of Chinese-clad girlies and Noburo Ishiguro appeared in video format - with the sad tale of the Art Land studio fire and some of the footage from it. Although it wasn't all doom and gloom and the fact that he started holding up a piece of paper with the word translate on it throughout the video began a huge series of copy-cat "translate" jokes...

Suddenly realized that the Dealers Room was about to open and escaped to go back and help out at the Booth.

Ten minutes before it opened I did a Clark Kent in the dunny and making her debut was the world's first Punk-kei, raven-haired, chain-smoking Rabi en Rose.

A blushing one. It was the first time for me to try cosplay and I confess that I was really embarrassed. Luckily I didn't have much time to think about it has the floodgates opened and a stream of excited AX attendees started to pour in. Actually the time I spent at the booth has become rather a blur... remember talking to a few people and answering lots of questions...