So, I went to the Tokyo Wonder Festival Summer 2008 (Wonfes) last Sunday. Well… I’ve been living in Tokyo for 5 years and right in Akihabara for the past year, so I don’t get surprised much. However, my first Wonfes was a bit shocking.

Most of the otaku are waiting right when it opens and dash to their favorite booth to get the toys. Takashi went there from the start, so check out his post information on the Wonfes early morning lines (actually, some people wait in line since the day before). A lot of the toy companies produce Wonfes exclusive stuff which can be resold for double, triple or, I’ve even heard, 5 times the retail price. Anyway, here’s my little report on the Tokyo Wonder Festival Summer 2008!

I took the monorail from Shimbashi Station to Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center. The monorail is fully automatic - no one operates this thing!

It’s about 12:30 and past the rush of hardcore otaku. I actually thought a lot of people were leaving when I arrived… However, in comparison to amount of people at this event the amount of people leaving was tiny.

Finally, I’m in! It was very hot and humid outside, and I was hoping to enjoy a nice cool convention center. Little did I that this giant, high-ceiling con could be heated up by over 45,000 people! It was hotter inside than outside! Do you see the big escalator in the all the way in the back? Isn’t in strange that no one is using it. (Explanation Below)

The escalator suddenly went the opposite direction at around 10:00 am that day. They say the weight of all the people on it caused the the escalator to stop then reverse. It seems that 4 people were lined up per step even though it was meant for only 2. An NHK cameraman got the whole thing on tape!

People everywhere!

I finally got to the cosplay area. (In Japan, there are designated areas to take photos of cosplayers because, as you see, if you stopped a cosplayer in this mob, you’ll get a lot of angry otaku.)

When I first got outside, I noticed many cameramen or cameko patiently waiting in line to take photos of cosplayers. Some people were very professional - holding a reflector in one hand while taking pictures. Since some of them spend like 10 minutes taking pictures, the popular cosplayers may have a several hour wait! No, they didn’t have signs up with the wait time like in Disneyland.

Cosplay food made in bulk: Yakisoba!

Here are some cosplay pictures:

And last but not least…

Kamiya is just having a quick smoke before saving the world.