SakuraCon 2022: A Convention I Won’t Forget

SakuraCon 2022, held between April 15th and 17th, is a convention for all kinds of anime fans to go to! Conventions are such an amazing way to connect with new friends and create unforgettable memories with people. One of my first experiences at SakuraCon was getting to meet a bunch of my online friends or friends I had met in November at KumoriCon.

The Con started off with me meeting up with my friend who had agreed to stick with me and match with me every day of SakuraCon. We had decided to go do ballroom dancing lessons together for the ball which consisted of people cosplaying characters in large dresses and gowns that would take place in a few hours. We went, and failed horribly, both of us stumbling everywhere. Mainly I thought because I am insanely uncoordinated! Soon after, time came for the ball, we went back to our hotel and got changed. After changing and doing our makeup for the ball we headed back to the convention center and made our way to the ball. Everyone was in gowns and suits and looked gorgeous, people were dancing together, making wave trains and we even made a conga line at one point. Someone cosplaying Xiao from Genshin Impact came over to me at some point, I had never even met this person before and they just asked me to dance with them and they taught me a simple way to do it and allowed me to practice with them. They gave me the confidence to just go around and ask random people to dance with me.

Once the ball had ended, my friend and I decided it was time to go change back at the hotel for the rave. We put our matching shirts on and headed back to the con once again. When we got there I received a text from another friend asking to meet with her. So once we met up she dragged us to go to the dance circle and we danced there. Everyone was so respectful, everyone was taking turns going in and out of the circle, people would just go in and go across and grab some random person to dance with and everyone around you would hype you up. The environment was so good. After awhile, we were exhausted and decided it was time to go to the hotel around 11pm. 

This was all just from Friday of the con and it was one of the best nights I had ever had, I would do anything to experience it for the first time again. I met so many lovely people and mutuals who I had planned to hang out with. Everyone who goes is so friendly and welcoming as well, I recommend even if you don’t cosplay that you go to a convention when you have the opportunity. A few upcoming conventions are Emerald City ComicCon in Seattle, Washington and KumoriCon in Portland, Oregon. 

As for Saturday, which was the second day I spent most of the time walking around the convention just talking to people. I also went through artists alley and bought a bunch of stuff. Unfortunately I missed out on the autograph session for Robbie Daymond, who voices Akechi from Persona 5,  due to the fact it was at max capacity. 

Later that night, after I had gone to the hotel and took a long, much needed break, soon it was time for the second rave. It was a lot less fun due too the creepy men and lack of respect from everyone, unlike the first rave. but I got to spend it with another mutual and lots of friends. Pretty quickly into the rave we got bored so we went and sat outside the rave and played charades with our little group, even random people next to us hopped into our game of charades. We didn’t end up leaving until 1am when we were kicked out due to curfew. 

Concluding my con experience, it was an amazing experience and I 100% recommend everyone to go to a con at least one time, whether you cosplay, meet with friends or if you just go to walk around and admire. There’s also more than just anime conventions as well; for example, Emerald City ComicCon in Seattle, which focuses mainly on superhero-type games and comics, will take place in August.