I went through my schedule for the week in my head:
Finish finals, prepare for my panel, go to rehearsal 4 times this week, perform in 4 concerts, do my panel, get ready for the roadtrip after the convention ends, learn my Ocarina music, get ready for my Japan trip…
And after going through all those major tasks, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. It was Finals week at school, and it was my break compared to my schedule for the weekend and beyond. However, after having finished the Fanime part, I can safely say that I am thankful for all the difficulties because the end result of everything was amazing.
Day Zero – The Calm Before the Storm
I slept in to a comfortable time, content to know I had finished finals and was free from the responsibility of school. I did some housework, bought some new clothes, and then made my way to the Convention Center. Historically, lines for Fanime badge pickup on Day Zero have been anywhere from 5 hours to 10 minutes, and this year set a new standard.
There was no line, and the most time consuming part of the process was finding my QR code and getting the scanner to read it. I arrived early to account for line length so I could go to Joe Hisaishi concert rehearsal on time, but I suddenly had 3 hours to spare. I wandered around and talked to some friends, played Ocarina in the lobby, purchased the first of many street hot dogs, and made my way to rehearsal.
Rehearsal with Joe Hisaishi was a surreal, fantastic, and wonderful experience, and a hot dog beforehand wasn’t necessarily the best choice (given that I met him personally that night).
Side note: I have a separate post about my experience performing in the Joe Hisaishi: Live Concert, which you can see here.
Day One – One Short Day
I parked at my college (conveniently near the convention center) for free thanks to it being graduation weekend, then made my way to the convention center. As I do every year, I played some Super Smash Bros in the gaming hall then ran into some friends to explore the convention with. We played some games, looked at some cosplays, grabbed lunch for one of their birthdays at a diner, then scoped out the dealer’s hall to see how to spend money later on.
In the dealer’s hall, one cosplay that stood out to me was a Pikachu. Someone wanted him to hold a WWE champion belt prop, but it ended up looking like Pikachu had brutally consumed a WWE champ.
I played Ocarina while walking with them, and one person even stopped me, made a request for a Zelda song, and then hugged me in appreciation. It was unexpected but nice.
I took some reconnaissance pictures of the ocarina booth so my friend David could see if there was anything he wanted to buy from them as well, then headed to my first concert with Joe Hisaishi.
Side Note: I did not buy anything from the dealers that day. I remained strong.
Day Two – Return of the Daniel
Saturday rolled in, and after a shift at work and my Grandfather’s birthday party, I hurried to the convention center to quickly meet with friends, immediately leave them, and rehearse music for my Ocarina panel.
This was the first day my co-panelist Daniel, who I met at MAGfest when he helped Ocabanda in a major way, would be coming to the convention, and we had a lot of work to do to sound good. We found a relatively clear spot, and got our music out. We had 3 songs to work on: a medley from Mario Odyssey, the theme from Princess Mononoke, and some Zelda tunes.
After an hour we decided to drop Mario and focus on Mononoke. The Zelda music we spent a few minutes on and both knew what to do. These songs were all arranged for multi-chamber ocarinas, which are more or less 2 or more ocarinas in one that have more range and in some cases can harmonize with themselves by playing multiple chambers simultaneously. We got pretty comfortable with our music, definitely didn’t help some friends sneak into the con, and then we performed our 2/3 parts work in progress music for them. David was to be the 3rd part.
The music went well, and we then went to La Victoria’s Taqueria for some burritos and their famous Orange Sauce. Daniel, who doesn’t go to school in San Jose every day, rarely has this sauce and savored every moment of it. My friends and I had a great time, then the choir members among us made our way to the Joe Hisaishi concert of the night.
Day Three – THE PANEL
The choir had an early matinee as well as the usual evening concert, but I (with permission) skipped the evening one. In the brief period between joining the choir and the Sunday night concert being added as an extra performance, my panel proposal was accepted and they offered me the Sunday evening slot, which I took.
That morning, my friends David and Roxy arrived from Los Angeles, I gave David the Ocarina he’d be using, and I went to go sing. The concert was our best performance yet! I changed my clothes into my Dream Daddy cosplay to match with Daniel, and then David joined us for a final rehearsal. Daniel and I checked in for our Ocarina panel, set up, then it began.
I reserved a 100 person panel room, and at least 60 people showed up. Given how obscure ocarinas are in America to nearly everyone but Zelda fans, I was really happy with how many people showed up. Half of those people were friends coming to support Daniel and me, and the other half were the organic crowd with no undue influence from the panelists.
At the panel, I gave the majority of the information, and I set up Daniel as the jokester. We discussed the history of an Ocarina from creation to modern day, played a couple songs throughout, including part of Careless Whisper as one of the jokes and the Zelda medley with just Daniel and me. At the end I introduced David, and we played Mononoke before taking questions and ending the panel.
I got great feedback afterward, and David, Daniel, Roxy, the Ocarina booth tabler (Laura), and I all went out for dinner at Veggie Grill before splitting and heading home. David and Roxy stayed the night at my house, and they had a great time meeting my cats to finish off a great day.
Over the next few days, I received many messages from friends asking on where to start with Ocarinas. My general recommendation is the Night by Noble Plastic Alto C – a great instrument for a starter/traveler. Purchasing through my reference link helps me and the blog, so if you’re curious about starting with playing an Ocarina, click above!
Day Four – The Final Day
I spent the morning making my purchases in the dealer’s hall, which was just an Alto G ocarina from Laura’s booth. There was one final Hisaishi concert, which I have more details about in the other post. David and Roxy attended (which was their main reason for stopping in San Jose), and we planned our roadtrip to Seattle for the Ocarina Festival at the end of the same week.
In summary
Fanime was a great weekend with nothing but ups. While I would have liked to have had more free time at the con, I’m really happy about how I spent my time. I hosted my first panel, sang in multiple concerts with a legend, and got to see some amazing friends every day.
On top of that, it was the stepping stone for the road-trip to and from the US Ocarina Festival that Ocabanda attended in Seattle afterward. I’ve had a lot to be excited about, and I am immensely thankful for all these opportunities.
Best of luck to everyone,
-Andy
For a preview of the roadtrip, here are a couple pictures…
Stay tuned 😉
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Andy Cormier 