1/20 - The Boston Trip!!

 Hi everyone!! Welcome to the grand blog post about my Boston excursion on Friday and Saturday!! This is going to be a long one, with codes, convention thoughts, and some small hauls!! 

I had three goals for this trip: Go to Anthro New England with friends, Go to Newbury Street (specifically Reiwatakiya and MoreFun), and dye my hair!! I had about 48 hours to get this all done! 

So, let's start with the detailing of my codes!

Friday Code

Dress: MA*RS 

Bow: MA*RS 

Necklace + Belt: Rainbow + Cititrends/DIY

Shoes: Aliexpress

Wig: Prisila (x2 FX-05, x2 VM-03, x2 VM-02, x1 J-807, all in LiYe)

Coat: Thrifted at Savers

Overall thoughts: I've worn this dress before but the point of clothes is re-wearing. I think styling with different boots, coat and wig helped give it a new look! I'll be honest, I never really read these type of boots as Agejo, but they worked well with the co*de and they actually were a great choice for a weekend of a lot of walking. These shoes are platforms but have a low heel gradient(? idk what that's called). Also someone thought I was Junko Enoshima and honestly... yeah I can kind of see it. Big pigtails... gyaru make... yeah.

Saturday Code

[Image here]

Setup: Yuki from Taobao (MA*RS Replica)

Bow: Yuki from Taobao (MA*RS Replica)

Necklace + Belt: Rainbow + Cititrends/DIY

Shoes: Aliexpress

Wig: Prisila (x1 FX-05, x2 VM-03, x2 VM-02 all in LiYe)

Coat: Thrifted at Savers

Overall thoughts: There is nothing wrong with re-using the same accessories in two days. In a way, I think it makes more sense in terms of consumption. I originally wasn't going to wear these boots, I had packed my DML boots but my feet were like "please, no, just wear the flatter boots". Fleece lined tights helped so much for another day. Also, because I dyed my hair and the color of my roots matches my LiYe pieces well, no back piece! I also now don't have to worry about my roots showing up weird through the bangs, so we're down to one single pair, yippee!!

Also for both days, did not figure out how to get bottom lashes to stick. Friday I was rushing to get ready since I drove in, and then Saturday I just... couldn't get them to work!

Ok, so I guess the best plan of action on documenting is by each day, so let's start with Friday!

Friday - Anthro New England

I have never been to a furry convention before. I love to experience new things and I have some friends in the fandom so I went to join them (also so I had an excuse to be in Boston and go to Newbury Street). 

I was warned it wasn't like an anime convention at all, and I definitely felt that after day 1. There's not really a lot of... corporate and professional networking aspects I noted. A lot of anime cons these days have corporations coming in, and with tiktok and the rise of the influencer and the societal acceptance of anime and cosplay, you do kind of go to a con where you can't tell if someone is there for a fun time or just to network. At the furry convention, I didn't see a single corporate booth at the con. There's already the stereotypes that a lot of furries have really high paying job and come out here for fun, but then there's also the true money making in this fandom is the creative jobs of drawing furry art or just fursuit creating in general. There is this in cosplay for sure as well though, it just felt more prevalent here from what I saw + talked with other con goers.

The other thing is you do get a few people dressed as characters from franchises, like pokemon, digimon, etc. (I actually am looking into fursuit head making for a FF14 cosplay, so going to this con also helped me understand that!). Most people are dresses as their OCs, and some may only have one character to dress as. My friends only had one head each. You'd think its disgusting, but there's specific cleaners and sprays I saw them use at the end of each day which is pretty typical! The con actually smelt better than an anime con tbh. So people aren't bringing out their best costume everytime, it's just fun dressup time. Also fursuits are expensive. Heads can range from a few hundred to a few THOUSAND. 

With those combined, I just felt like I was in a room with folks who just were there to have fun, which reminded me of pre-covid conventions as a teen. It just felt very nice. I also got a LOT of compliments on my outfit and someone had the same kind of boots as me and we got to squee about it! It was so fun!!!

For panels, I'm used to anime con panels which are Q&A or mostly lecture style, the 2 panels I went to on Tuesday were pretty chill! First was a one piece panel, where we had a brief intro, a kahoot of very niche questions I barely knew anything about, and then a 30 minute yap session! The second panel was a Webkinz panel, which had coloring and activity sheets, and we just hung out the whole time and talked. It was super nice, I usually don't go to panels at cons, I may try to see if some of the anime conventions have more of these.

The dealers den introduced something very cool to me that I don't see too much at anime cons, indication plates/patches. These seem to be pretty common! They're basically plates you attach to your badge to let folks know your pronouns, energy levels, if you have any issues with sight or hearing etc. I think this is super helpful for when you're unsure to approach someone or if you're wondering pronouns, or to just know if someone may need you to speak a little louder! I considered buying some, but by the time I went back to that booth... my god it was so crowded. The booths themselves were very furry oriented, so I ended up only buying some super cute keychains for myself and my sibling. Like anime cons though, the merch halls are suuuuuper duper crowded so I didn't last for long.

After that, I sat at a bar, got a mocktail, and then retired to my hotel for the evening. I ended up not doing night time at the con which my friends who did told me I didn't miss much, there was a lot of organizational issues. Boston convention centers always seem narrow, the Hynes has the same damn problem for me. I think Anthro New England could benefit from utilizing a part of the Hynes convention center, hell, even the Providence Convention center might work, but I think it was a biiiit too big for the Westin one we were at some points.

Also, here's me in my friend Abyss' fursuit head.

Friday - I dyed my hair

I don't get to dye my hair at home due to the old porcelain, so finally... time to dye it. I did however not get the bright blonde as promised on the box. It's blonde for sure, but not like I fully bleached it. I used a foam solution from john frieda which was weird but the application process was much cleaner than typical dye. After I washed it off after letting it process for like 40 mins, I realized it might be the perfect color for my prisila wigs. So I was like oooo... we're gonna hope it dries that color, which it did!!!!

Ok, onto Saturday!

Saturday - Newbury Street

My goal for today was to go to reiwatakiya and morefun, I ended up getting there before reiwatakiya opened, so I stopped into newbury comics and got the strangest creature... a pink shiny hiney bear... I am very vulnerabile to cute little guys, and this guy just called out to me, and he was also cheaper than a labubu have a seat????????? Like whaaaaaat??? At reiwatakiya, I ended up grabbing two liquid glitters, two sets of nails, and a gyaru themed hello kitty keychain!! I also had someone compliment my outfit as I was leaving and they were so nice!! I am always so like AHHH THANK YOUUUU when people compliment me. It really makes me so happy hehe. Please enjoy the picture of this little fella.

I forgot to take a picture of the reiwatakiya stuff all together... but it was cute i swear. 

At Morefun, I ended up not buying anything but I did have another person come and compliment me and they were sooooo sweet and so nice I was like, I hope you get the blind box you want!!!!!! People are just so nice.

After that, I realized there was a PHOTO BOOTH PLACE RIGHT NEXT DOOR!! I always love seeing Cindy post her photobooth photos, so I was like... fuck it lets take some. The photobooth place is called "Memory Shop" and it was so cool! You pay 8-10 dollars, but they have free accessories + decorating, and some sets you can use. I did one set of front on photos and then I had to take some in the elevator lol. The lighting in the front on set is spectacular, it made me look like a diva for REAL. I would love to go to these with some local gal pals in the future, or maybe there's one closer to me in RI... hmmmmm....

After that, I was getting hungry, so I headed into Jonquil's Bakery as I remembered the 3d printed pastries I had with my friend Naz a few years ago were sooo good, and I got a hibiscus tea because haha... hibiscus... gal... It was kind of shocking at first, but I ended up getting used to it in the end!

After that I ubered by to our hotel and dropped everything off and went back to the con.

Saturday - Anthro New England (and I actually stayed late)

We signed up for the furry logic room which was a fun escape room! We ended up finishing it in 30 minutes and I really enjoyed it! 10 people going at an escape room can really speed things up. It was super well put together and our game master was very cool too. Highly recc if you end up at a furry con.

We went back to the hotel to where I put on a onesie and took off my make + hair as it was killing me, and we went back for some late night activities! We tried going to the hunger games panel but as we found out you had to sign up early + so many people did no one we knew got chosen = we left. The others went to an 18+ panel but I don't really go to those, so I went to the bar and had another mocktail and then went up to get in line for the legendary, the amazing, the spectacular... JERMA985 PANEL. I was SO excited for this. I ended up getting early in the line and befriending a group of nice people who were also at ANE for the first time! The panel itself was just us watching Jerma clips, people doing jerma impressions, and it was so fun. I ended up leaving early to try and catch karaoke, but the line was so long I gave up and went back to the hotel and sleep. I have forgotten your names but divas from the Jerma985 line... if somehow you found this blog: heyyyyy!!!

Overall thoughts

I thought the con was really nice! I think going to a con where I'm not into the subculture of furry-ness helped me with my issue of "I feel bad if i'm not at the con the whole time". The people were super nice, and there was no drama for me. I was definitely exhausted on Sunday and that's more of a personal social battery thing. I wish I bought of those badge indicators... I will have to find that seller online or see if my friends know. I think if you want to check it out if you have some friends in the Furry space, give it a consideration! Also I know people are like ooo they all smell... The only smell was the smoking area outside... which ya know... smoking

Also just going out in my OTT codes, not a lot of weird looks or rude comments. Some folks thought I was dressing up as a character, but once I explained it's just what I wear they were like "ah ok, nice!!!". And ofc, the two lovelies on Newbury street, you are so sweet and I am manifesting a wonderful 2025.

Now, I will complain about one thing. Hotel Valet Parking. I'm not sure if this is a Hilton thing or just this valet parking, but they were overly pushy and even tried to open my door the moment I stopped my car in the hotel loop. VERY weird. I could rant about this more but ah... it's over so i'll just not be staying at that hotel again.

It ended up snowing a lot so maybe no Monday bingo tonight :( I don't think the roads are getting plowed anytime soon.