Otakon 2022 (a non-anime fan perspective)

I attended one day of Otakon 2022 (July 29-31) at the Washington DC Convention Center on a guest pass, courtesy of my daughter who is a long time volunteer convention staff. This was the first in-person convention since COVID-19. They had over 40,000 attendees, the highest number ever for Otakon! Must be the pent-up desire to attend a Con in person. It was entertaining to check out and take photos (with permission) of the cosplay participants. Some of the more interesting costumes are posted here.

What I liked about Otakon 2022 was that they required attendees to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Verified attendees were then given a wrist band and allowed admission to the exhibit halls and conference rooms. All attendees had to wear masks; it was good to see that this was enforced because there were people everywhere and no way to maintain physical distance. Due to the huge numbers, some sessions had long lines of people waiting to get in.

Cons are not just for anime fans only, there were a good number of educational sessions. I attended sessions on "Color and Kimono", the ultimate bucket list of places to visit in Japan, living and working in Japan, a demo on Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arrangement), and a couple of technology related talks.

There was also a Makerspace lab where participants learned to make lanterns and origami objects, supplies provided. Below are the paper cranes that I made, with patient guidance from the staff in the lab and fellow participants.

In the early evening, I attended "Masquerade" briefly where participants performed in cosplay skits. There were more sessions at night. I really wanted to attend Furoshiki, the art of Japanese fabric gift wrapping, scheduled for 9 pm. But my brain was tired so I went home at about 7 pm instead. Maybe next year ...