OMG, there is a torrential downpour and thunderstorm going on right now. I’m heading out for the parade in a few moments. -_-

So this morning was hilarious. (I find most horrible things hilarious after the fact.)

So I’m wearing Ulala from SC5. Normally I am white as a sheet, so I decided I could use a little color. But I didn’t want to be tan tomorrow or yesterday, so I got a special bronzer that you can use on your body. I applied it everywhere. (Actually, Nick applied it while I tried not to touch things.)

But it’s washable, and as soon as we went outside it started running off of me. I was all, “OMG, it’s streaking and dripping and spotting!” But then I discovered the real problem: It rubbed off on everything I touched. I ruined India’s pudding gloves (luckily Anna had my Sheryl gloves in her purse, so India switched for the not-brown ones.) I was afraid of standing near people in white costumes.

After the big photo shoot they led us all inside and I was like, ‘PHew, made it without getting tanner on anybody but India!”

And then the doors opened on 15 beautiful young Japanese women in ridiculously expensive and beautiful white kimono. OMFG! @_@

I begged a towel off someone and Anna and I rubbed it all off of me, thus saving the day.

I am the princess of terrible cosplay ideas!

OMG, WTF, FWD’s LJ FL?

Really, everything is totally fine! I promise I am not secretly sobbing into 45 yards of bubblegum pink dupioni. Everything is totally fine, and we are having an awesome time. Really, don’t worry about us at all! There’s totally no reason for drama. We knew what we were getting into bed with. There are no surprises here, and we’re totally cool with it. We’ve already got what we got in this for, and everything else is just awesome, beer-flavored cake.

We had some minor drama this morning. I was awakened by India showing up in tears because she had accidentally left her Madam Red wig in a closet in Tokyo. They’re overnighting it here, but we had to go in costume to meet the deputy mayor of Nagoya and visit the convention bureau. We considered a last-minute costume switch where India wore my Ciel costume and I wore her Madam Red and just flat-ironed my own hair and tried to make do, because it is red. But then I grabbed the costumes list to see if anyone else had a costume with red hair, and India ran over to ask Iris from Team Finland if she could borrow her Esther Blanchett wig. Finland pulled our fat out of the fire, and we ran down and got on the bus.

Half of Team Mexico got a bunch of mosquitos stuck under her dress at the prefecture office and they bit up her legs.

Everyone in Nagoya is obsessed with Team Finland’s awesome Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas costumes. Zhao Yun from Team China went to the office dressed as Zhao Yun from 3 Kingdoms. It was awesome. (Zhao Yun is his real name. He does Beijing Opera and is super tall. He is super good-looking. So is his partner, but his partner is 16, so we’re all, “Aaaaahh! We are cougars!” and now we’re not allowed to talk to him.)

Australia spent $1000 at Cyperous yesterday, and now they’re the rock stars of the group.

Leonard brought us giant grapes! They’re the size of ping-pong balls, and they’re all perfectly spherical and uniformly colored. They are fantastic amazing mutant science grapes.

We are totally fine and having a great time! Everything is good. ^_^

I haven’t made many purchases so far. In Tokyo, our hotel had an enormous red marble pool and there were hot pools and cold pools and saunas and herbal pools, and I hadn’t brought a bathing suit. So we were at a mall and I bought one. It is blue and not super interesting, but it was $30. It has the most padded top you have ever seen! It’s almost a cone bra. The cups are so hard it is like there are turtles in there. But then we never made it to the pool. Sigh!

It was my mom’s birthday on Tuesday, and the hotel sent her flowers. We figure they got the information from her registration.

Yesterday I passed a design bookstore and went crazy. I got 3 books on complicated sewing techniques to make weird, architectural clothes with big strange holes and tucks in them. I’m super excited to try them out when I get home. There is a shirt that makes it look like you have a digital wormhole opening in your chest, and one that makes a skirt that looks like — you know in the movie Enemy Mine when there are those sand holes that suddenly open up in the ground and suck you down in? — It looks like that. But the samples are all made out of this fantastic white linen or gray wool, so it’s all really subtle and weirdly sculptural. Like Comme des Garçons. I also got the 3 volumes of Kimono Hime that I didn’t already own.

Also, I went to a store that sells traditional Japanese makeup and I got a big book on how to do Kabuki makeup. (If you don’t know me that well, you might not know how badly I want to look like an onnagata, or female role specialist, sometimes.)

But I’m just a fan of crossdressing from the very concept straight through to the execution. We also went to the Takarazuka theater in Tokyo and I got a bunch of stage books.

OH! And this was not a purchase, but it was fantastic: The Christian Dior flagship store in Ginza has Nicole Kidman’s 1997 Oscar dress on display with Marion Cotillard’s from 2009. They are even more spectacular than you can possibly imagine. I contorted myself into all kinds of positions to get a look at the hand-knotting on the back mesh, and the embroidery. Then we got in a little bit of trouble because Anna tried to take a picture.

We got to see these in person!

On Tuesday we went to a place near Asakusa where this old couple and two young assistants have a tiny shop and hundreds of kimono, and they style you up as a variety of things.

Renee and India dressed up as maiko. Anna and I dressed up as oiran, or super high-class prostitutes. You can tell because of our big hairstyles, front-tying obis and lack of socks.

Yesterday we went to Odaiba and saw the giant Gundam statue, which was awesome. It moved and smoked and its eyes glowed.

We got to Nagoya last night at around 9:40. The other teams all took a bus, but the organizers hadn’t told us about the bus, so we had gone and purchased shinkansen tickets already, so we took that in. It was much better, because it only took an hour and a half on the train, but the bus took 5 hours. Ed from the WCS picked us up at the station, because they didn’t know what hotel we should go to until we got there. We thought we were at the Trusty Sakae, but it turns out we’re in the Nagoya International Hotel. It’s nice.

Today we had the meeting where we brought in our lighting cues and met with the stage managers to tell them what we’re doing. We had a few moments where we totally thought we were going to die, but it turned out OK in the end. Basically, we’d been sent last year’s rules and instructions, so it said stuff like “All teams must enter from stage left!” and things about what kinds of sets and props we could use. But it turns out the rules are different this year, and they forgot to tell us. Entering from stage right is no problem for us, but it turns out India can’t have help with her costume change, and a bunch of our transforming set pieces aren’t allowed this year. (They were OK according to last year’s rules, but they changed this year.)

It will be OK, though. I’m a little disappointed about the set pieces, because we had a great thing going where the set would bloom into huge flowers all over the stage. We can’t do that now, but it wasn’t really essential. It just looked cool.

While we were in our meeting, Team Australia went to Osaka to go to the Cyperous store. I’m jealous! I hope we can make it out after everything is over.

Tonight we have a big karaoke party with all the other teams.

wabisabi_made from WCS Team Mexico sent me a link to an amazing doll site I had never seen before. http://www.enchanteddoll.com/

It’s by a woman named Marina Bychkova who does 1/6 scale ball joint dolls in porcelain, and her work is just exquisite. A lot of the outfits are made of cast silver or dye sublimation printed fabrics. I’m really interested in the latter technique and wonder if it is something I could use at some point.

She has an amazing sense of color, which is something I’m really impressed by.

I particularly love the effect of this one.

God, I keep seeing things that make me want a pixie cut.

It appears they have chosen our judges for the WCS! ^_^

http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/e/info/090717a.html

“2009.07.17

Entry for general judges of The World Cosplay Championship has closed

Entry for general judges of The World Cosplay Championship closed at 10a.m. on 17th(Fri) July. World Cosplay Summit Executive Committee chose 10 people by lot. 10 general judges will examine The World Cosplay Championship on 2nd(Sun) August.”

Anyone have any recommendations regarding this little garter/gun thingy? They don’t have them ready made, do they? I am complete ass with props.

Bleh. Stupid last-minute costuming! @_@

Edit: Gun question solved.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.