Perth - September 2011

Bogans, bad driving and an insane abundance of cranes aside, it was very good to be back in Perth.

Here's a bit of a behind the scenes look at what happens during possibly Neko Nation's biggest weekend of the year.  ^^

Thursday

A dash to the airport and it seemed like it was wasted as our plane was hit with numerous delays, thanks to an engine problem, this delay ended up going for 6 hours so we didn't get into Perth by around 9pm.  After all the delays and drama, we pretty much ended up crashing as soon as we got to our base in Perth.

Friday

We woke up, went to Ikea and got breakfast as is the tradition with every show.  We ended up sorting out last minute things which we were supposed to do yesterday but the plane flight really held us back.  We collected up the sushi, re-packed our bags for Neko Nation and the Tokyo Hardcore stand and left for The Bakery.

 

We arrived at 5pm and slowly the staff for the event trickled in, the stalls got setup, the catgirls worked on their outfits and last bits of makeup and the DJ's started practising on the decks, we got some staff sushi in, while Eugene start getting some photos before the action started happening.

The doors opened and for once, there was very little to stress about.  Tokyo Hardcore had a bit of a less than stellar showing and I spent a fair bit of time behind the store although it was good in the sense that I got to talk to see my various Perth friends on the night and barely not having to deal with too many issues or problems.

 

Once we shut down the stall, I ended up getting a chance to properly party and I had an absolute blast dancing and properly being able to run free in the venue.  I finished off with my set which I had a bit of fun with even though the event was dying and I had to come off one epic set from Susannah.

Went over to the after party, barely anyone could hack it on ITG so it was mostly fighting games although I didn't stay long due to getting tired and having to get my sexy sleepy catgirl back home to a bed more comfortable than the Game City floor.

Saturday

You know it's a good night when your body is absolutely wanting to kill you.  Mostly sleep deprivation and an aching body, we decided to go to Iku Sushi and test out this whole cheeseburger sushi thing which everyone was raving about the night before, I had a bit and it was delicious but there wasn't much left by the time I got to it.  We aimed to eat 18 pieces between the two of us and we were struggling to get through it.  Honestly, it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten and it's quite possibly in my opinion the best sushi place I've ever been too, up there with Sushi train.

The second part of our day involved meeting up with one of our sponsors Attitude Oz who wanted to talk to us about the Miss Alternative competition.  For those who don't know what Miss Alternative is, it's a beauty pageant that is aimed at goths, punks, ravers and the alternative scene in general.  Basically we met up with the couple who run Attitude Oz who are pretty awesome and lovely people doing something absolutely huge and amazing both with the competition and the business.

 

We ended up getting the chance to work on the Melbourne heat which is virtually the alternative capital of Australia so while Adelaide would have been convenient this will be a big chance for us to do something really big and different, although it is in an area which I'm fairly familiar and experienced with.

We came back home in the evening and I got down and cracking to power through 5-6 hours of solid accounting work for Tokyo Hardcore and a bit for Neko Nation as well.  My life may involve sexy catgirls, delicious cocktails and wild parties, there's an unglarmous side to make this happen.

Sunday

While I said there's some unglamourous sides to my work, there's some pretty amazing parts of my life and I think today was the best day of the trip.  Topless catgirl photoshoot.  Enough said.  I still pretty much shake my head in disbelief that this is all happening.  XD

After that was done, we met up with the Perth Anime Committee who specifically invited us down to one of their general meetings.  We had a chat to the various committee members who gave the go ahead to create a catgirl cafe for Wai-Con plus the ability to create a Neko Nation afterparty for the con, which should be a whole heap of fun to put on and also I can't wait to actually party on the night as well.

We later met up with Eugene and Arty.  Absolutely lovely pair of people, I spent most of my time talking to Eugene, discussing Kafe Jijo in regards to our new cafe and sharing his wealth of experience in the cosplay and anime convention community which was invaluable knowledge to walk away with.  We discussed Neko Nation and just a good chat about life which was a chat I walked away from feeling mindblown and very satisfied with, it was possibly the best chat I've had to someone all year excluding some of the ones I've had with Susannah.

Had a bizarre night which saw the car I borrowed in Perth being locked in a garage, having a weird playfight with Susannah which saw most of my left arm covered in all sorts of bruises and scars.  Then having to call it an early night, although I did hear from my old friend Mark in Singapore about doing business with him, so it looks like I could be set to make it internationally soon.  XD

Monday

So the trip so far had been amazing and perfect, we got some last little bits sent to Adelaide and looked forward to a day which we thought would continue our awesome streak.  We got the exact opposite.

We had a meeting with our graphic designer for Tokyo Hardcore, basically we had a deal where I'd complete his tax in exchange for Susannah getting some graphic design work done.  Unfortunately he didn't actually hold up his end of the bargain.

We ended up being offered a free tattoo session so he was kind enough to offer us a lift, I'll give him that, however we wasted time doing circles in the city for no reason and he if I didn't yell out, he was going to take an illegal U-turn right into the path of a 4WD which would have T-boned my catgirl.

It didn't get much better after that with him swerving down the freeway at 100km/h, while trying to hold the GPS and read it with one hand, and spending most of the trip driving with one hand while rambling like a speed addict.

Thankfully I took over with the trip but things got worse when he proceeded to rant about Neko Nation staff members for 30 minutes, made even worse by claiming that he had a psychological condition which apparently meant he had every right to do so.

All this drama and fighting meant I ended up not getting a tattoo at all despite all of my promises to have one.  Things got more insane and dramatic and I was amazed that he didn't crash the car.  So yeah, had one person pretty much completely ruin that day.

Tuesday

We got packing and left for the airport early next morning.  Last minute dramu aside it was quite an amazing trip with lots of amazing adventures, people and times, plus we managed to cheat death as well, XD.

Looking forward to being back in Perth in January but for now, definitely happy to be back home in Adelaide, I'm looking forward to catching up with you all soon.  ^^

Nekos, Sushi and Lasers

I find it amazing with everything that has happened with Neko Nation, it wasn't until the last event that I finally got to realise what a special event that I created was having been stuck with all sorts of work on the night that it was the first proper opportunity to actually enjoy the night that I'm so heavily involved in.

This tour is going to be the biggest and toughest challenge I'm going to face yet, the tour is going to cost thousands of dollars to put on, there's around 100 people involved whether directly working on the night or being involved in other ways such as venues, sponsors and suppliers.  It's something which is proving to be insanely time consuming and stressful.  It wasn't too long ago that I was holding multiple jobs and full time study although there's no way I can hold all this while putting on the tour.

I've put my sanity at risk, as I'm trying to this tour with poor health both physically and mentally.  I'm working insanely hard to get it all done, even though I'm far from a condition to do so.  I'm putting this ahead of everything right now which is building up stress and keeping me away from the world.  However the show must go on and to be honest, it's likely to all go quite well as I do believe I've got a great team of people who help out at all the shows to make this an amazing tour.

I'm starting to feel the nerves kick in and the pressure of a big new undertaking, Adelaide will be changed a bit for the tour although thankfully it will be easier in comparison to the other shows.  Perth will be an interesting show as it is getting the biggest venue by far on the tour and it's a bit of a risk to change so much after the success of the past two shows but I do believe Perth should be brought to the next level.  The Melbourne and Brisbane shows, I must admit, I'm scared shitless to put on these new shows in very new locations but I do believe I'm prepared and up for the challenge.

I do have complete faith in the event, however the scale still does scare me, I've recently completed a step-by-step guide to running the Neko Nation events and it's around 100 steps, multiply that by 4 for each city on the tour and it's becoming overwhelming.  I'm contemplating what the next step is as Susannah is playing less of a role in Neko Nation due to Tokyo Hardcore so there is more and more work.  Add on top a whole bunch of other commitments as well, it's a scary time, and I'm having to sacrifice friendships, my relationship and spending time with people, looking decent and having a good place to live.

Here's hoping it all works out for the best.....

A Reflection

It didn't take too long for 2011 to be the craziest year of my life and this certainly shows no signs of letting up!  What started looking like a pretty average year, has seen it go huge in so many ways.

It's interesting to see what's happened with Neko Nation which originally started off as a small side project to fill in my university holidays has now turned out to be virtually my full time job.  It's insane to compare that first event with two catgirls and four DJ's in that small club in Perth to the hardcore extravagant Adelaide show that occured earlier the month.

In between then I've watched insanely rapid change, which has seen me travel around various cities, get involved with numerous businesses and go on some pretty awesome adventures which have really made my year.  There has been a tremendous amount of hard work, as a matter a fact, this year has been an epic juggling act of survival with workloads constantly increasing, regardless of how much work and education I've tried to shed.

I'm still mindblown at the rapid pace of the year to finally feel that I'm starting to actually go in a direction I like, I remember saying that studying accounting and getting a career would be the aim until I found something I really wanted to do and it seems to have come by way faster than I would have thought, maybe it's still far from perfect, the stress is far from outweighing the awards at the moment as things are very unstable with all the projects I am involved in at the moment.

I've enjoyed this year, Susannah has made my life absolutely complete and amazing and shown me a world that I only ever dreamed, not only that but made it look viable and believable.  Susannah has been an absolute goddess and an unbelievable perfection.  I took a gigantic gamble with Susannah but it didn't take too long for me to decide that she was perfect for me and to commit to a marriage.  While some might think it's a bit insane early on, the reality is we're handling so much responsibility and problem solving with our businesses that a marriage isn't going to be too difficult in comparison.

There has been a huge craziness that she has brought into my life which is scary to deal with at times, the rapid pace we move at times is attrocious for the heart rate but makes for some interesting adventures and stories.  It's definitely been a crazy year to look back on but the thing is there are some quiet and well rested moments and she has been the absolute best to me in regards to looking after me which is a nightmare to do for those who've seen me at my worst.

Yes I do realise that a lot of this is quite all over the place, but there's a lot to let out even if it's not all in order.....

Neko Nation Radelaide!!!

Just wow.  I remember the first Adelaide show being quite amazing but my god did this show completely blow it out of the water!

First of all thanks to everyone who helped out with the event, there's so many people to thank, from our lovely sponsors, stalls, catgirls, DJ's, venue staff and of course my partner Susannah for helping put this one, there's seriously around 20-30 people who help make this show happen in Adelaide and I'm very grateful for all the help and support I get to put on a huge event like this.  I'll thank everyone on the Neko Nation blog soon.

The reality is though it's the fans that make the night amazing, when you see a queue of around 40 people lining up in the cold rain just to be the first in, it was just phenominal to see how dressed up everyone was, I've had an event promoter come up to me in awe curious to know how he can make people dress up at his events but the reality is, this is just the Adelaide anime/cosplay scene at it's finest.

I had a lot of fun chatting to people and it's pretty awesome that I'm being awed at a bit and slowly turning into this mini celebrity.  I'm really loving all the social attention I'm getting because even though running the event I may be a bit popular the reality is I rarely get to see anyone, most of my time is spent doing business with Neko Nation and Tokyo Hardcore, so I don't get much time to see many people in a personal setting.

The Adelaide crowd never ceases to impress me with how behind the event everyone gets, you can tell that everyone in Adelaide has been craving something like this for quite a long time, I'm currently a bit overrun with people who want to help out and get involved, I even had one guy offer me a discount when I was out shopping on Saturday.  Seriously little things like that really make my life great and make me feel like I'm doing something important.

I'm very happy and blessed that I've found something that not only I like doing but many other people do enjoy a lot as well.  For so very long I sit in front of spreadsheets, emails and running around sorting out logistics, that it's nice to see that it all is worth it in the end.




Thank you everyone, it was such an amazing night and unlike other nights I managed to actually have time to get away from working on the event to actually enjoy the event with you all, I didn't speak to everyone and those I did, I barely got much of a chance to talk to people for longer than a few minutes but I did enjoy all the time I had with everyone and also behind the decks as well, it's the first time I've really had much positive feedback, so I hope to impress more of you soon and also get some more of you behind the decks, involved in the event and just there!

Really happy with everything that has been achieved, Adelaide you seriously rock.  <3