“WHERE YOU CAN FIND PASSIONS AND MEMORIES!”
A DAY AT TOMO FAIR:THE JAPANESE ADVENTURE
As cosplayers and gaming maniacs, we often seek out events where we can meet fellow enthusiastic cosplayers and gamers. There are plenty of events in the Netherlands, like Dutch Heroes ComicCon, and the rest of Europe, with Gamescom in Cologne as the world’s biggest event. But how do you even find the most interesting events and conventions? Many events and conventions are small, local markets that don’t get any spotlight in the news.
Our team from All-Involve, who report on events, conventions, local shops, and more, including cosplay and gaming-focused enterprises, need to know about these things, visit them, report on them, and hopefully excite YOU, the public, to go and visit next time. One evening, our CEO of All-Involve, Ruben, was sitting on his couch and scrolling through his phone when he saw a colorful and vibrant video on TikTok that caught his attention. A video of people dressed as their favorite characters, dancing or showing their skills as artists, and a video gaming section quickly made him think that we didn’t want to miss it, and he shared it with the rest of our team. That’s where the power of social media lies. That’s how we learned about TomoFair.
What’s TomoFair, you may wonder? On their website the organizers describe it as a “Japanese pop culture event featuring anime, cosplay, gaming, Japanese market stalls, workshops, shows, a wide variety of street food, and much more”. As big fans of Japan and its culture, we were sold. Before the event, we had a talk about things we wanted to see, try, and buy. When the day came, we were hyped.
Before we could plan the team trip, we had to look into who would be available to be there. We got Aga, Liam, Ruben, and me available to get together and go to TomoFair Utrecht to enjoy and experience Japanese culture as a team! To get a taste of the Japanese-inspired food! To get a glimpse of the world of cosplay, anime, and manga!
Having been to multiple conventions and seeing a lot of people showing up in cosplay and having fun together, seeing them in group-themed cosplay outfits, and doing poses together, we felt like we wanted to be part of that culture as well! We wanted to see what it is like to be a part of this culture too!
OUR JOURNEY TO TOMOFAIR!
It was an early Sunday morning on a beautiful but chilly September day. On the 27th, Liam, Ruben, Aga, and I gathered to go to Utrecht for TomoFair. From where we were, it was a 2-hour drive, so if we wanted to be there at 10, we had to leave at 8. To some, it may seem very early because who wouldn’t want to sleep in on a Sunday? Well, we didn’t. And we didn’t mind. We were thinking about all the kawaii stuff we’re going to buy.
While the car was warming up, we had one last cup of coffee before we had to hit the road. Around the beginning of the trip, we took a quick stop at the gas station for another round of coffee, where Liam took about 10 sugars in his drink. When it was time to hit the road again, we joked about leaving Liam behind by driving for a short bit before he got in the car, this drew a few laughs.
On the highway, when we were going past a car, Liam would ask: “Skeeth, do you think these people are going to TomoFair?” And it didn’t stay with that time only, he repeated the question on multiple occasions when we were going past another car. When driving past a farmer’s field, he even asked: “Skeeth, do you think these cows are going to TomoFair?”
So far, I had only laughed when he asked the question, but this time I felt like answering him, saying that I indeed thought they were on their way as well.
We were getting closer to Utrecht when a nice looking racing car overtook us. Ruben felt challenged and decided to overtake it in return. The guy in the racing car noticed this, smiled at us, and we raced for a little bit on the streets of Amsterdam. We joked: “Do you think he is going to TomoFair?”
“I WAS SO GOOD THE GAME COULDN’T HANDLE IT!”
Alarms set at 5 am. A line for the shower, because we all slept at the office.
A beautiful day was about to come. A beautiful thing was about to happen.
We were all half awake, but more than ready to make the day to come into
a memory to never forget. We were about to go on a Japanese adventure…
Follow the cosplayers!
We are listening to the radio, singing along with songs that we know, enjoying the ride to Utrecht. The sun is shining through the clouds and it starts to get a bit busy on the road. More cars that we can overtake, more jokes that we can make about if they are on their way to TomoFair.
After having breaks along the way and singing a few songs that were on the radio, we finally arrived near TomoFair. We had the windows rolled down, we looked around, but no signs told us that we were close. If not for the GPS, we wouldn’t have found the place. We took a turn into a street in quite an industrial area where TomoFair would be, we still didn’t see any signs. We did suddenly notice a couple of cosplayers standing just outside the gate in a group together. Since TomoFair is an event mostly based around cosplayers, we knew we must be close now. So, Ruben drove a bit further to search for a parking spot on the next street. After judging his parking skills, we got out and walked towards where we saw the cosplayers.
The moment we walked into the street where we saw those cosplayers, they were gone, making us once again wonder where the entrance is exactly. When we got to the exact spot, there was this industrial gate with a few people sitting down next to it, wearing safety jackets that made them look like they were guarding the area. Beyond the gate, there was
the group of cosplayers we saw when we drove past. A clear indicator that this was indeed where we needed to be, despite the industrial look it had and the lack of signs that this was TomoFair. Aga took out her phone for the tickets so we could go past the guardians of the gate and enter the outside chilling area. There weren’t a lot of people there yet, at least not in that chilling area.
There was one guy who was dressed as a woman and had a sign around his neck with the text: “Free hugs“, Liam was the first who went for a hug with him, after which the ‘free hug guy’ went inside. I myself felt left out and went after the ‘free hug guy’. That was the first time of the day that I went into the building. Not to look at the event, not to look at the market stalls, but going right past them to chase down a guy for a free hug. After Aga and Ruben got a hug as well, it was time to get on our first quest of the day: Find where the toilets are.
DISCOVERIES AT TOMOFAIR!
First quest has been completed, stomachs are grumbling, time to find something to eat! The perfect moment to start searching for where the fun activities are as well. More cosplayers enter the building, the hall is getting more crowded and we try to move ourselves through the groups to find the food that will satisfy us.
We went on to the second quest of the day: Find something to eat for lunch. Near the toilets where we were standing, some market stalls mostly sold drinks but not really food to enjoy for lunch. Therefore, it was time to browse around and search for the stalls that did sell something to eat. This quest turned out not to be that easy, there weren’t a lot of stalls that offered good lunch options. Aga then spotted one that offered karaage and asked the rest of us if we were fine with that. I myself had never heard of it before, so I asked her what it was. She explained to me that it is fried chicken in Japanese style. I am always up for trying something new, so I had no objections.
We had to wait a moment for the karaage to be done, but luckily we didn’t have to be bored while waiting. Right in front of the food stall, there was a dance floor where you could play the dancing game Just Dance. Crew members of TomoFair were dancing to the song “Cake by the Ocean”, a song by the American pop rock band DNCE. The crew members were showing off their dance skills perfectly in sync with what was on the screen. It was quite enjoyable to watch them, definitely putting on a good show while we were waiting.
When they were done dancing and left the floor, Liam felt inspired and took the spot to show off his own skills. He was doing some movements with his hands, having some trouble going through the menu of the game to pick a song. The song he ended up selecting was “Daddy”, a song by PSY, but I doubt that he selected that song on purpose and just went with the accidental selection from what looked like random movement.
Nevertheless, he did his best at dancing to the moves on the screen and had fun. The rest of us had fun as well, but that was mostly by watching how his dancing was random as well. In fact, it was so random that the system couldn’t keep up with him and froze, so he joked that he was too good for the system to handle. Good timing, as lunch was ready by now, so it was time to sit down and enjoy the karaage anyway. The karaage was very tender and juicy, but the portion was quite small. Enough to fill our stomachs, though, for now.
“TENDER, JUICY, AND GONE TOO FAST!”
MORE FUN ACTIVITIES TO DO!
“DOING KARAOKE, A CLASSIC JAPANESE OUTING!“
Walking around the market stalls with our bellies full, we browsed around the hall to get a good feeling of where is what. Doing a quick overview, looking at the items on display, knowing how big the hall is gives us an indication of how much time we can spend in certain areas.
Not finding a lot of interesting things around the stalls yet, we quickly arrived at the main stage where an open karaoke was going on. Anyone could join the stage without signing up beforehand. The stage was empty and one of the organizers was calling for people to come on the stage to sing. Liam loves doing karaoke, as he does that at the office and at other team outings as well, so this was an easy decision for him to get on and sing. The song that he chose for this occasion was “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber. Ruben, Aga, and I joined the audience to enjoy his performance. From the back of the audience, we sang along with the lyrics, at least the parts that we know.
Near the end of the song, Liam asked for volunteers to join the stage and called us specifically. Once again, I felt like he inspired me to join in on the fun, so I got on stage and sang a song as well. I decided to pick “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys, which is a song that is familiar to the team, as it was also one that multiple people at All-Involve had sung before. I put my heart and soul into the performance, trying not to just plainly stand and sing but to also give a bit of a show while doing so. Moving around the stage and showing emotions that fit with the lyrics that I was singing. More people in the audience also recognized the song and sang along with me.
Once I got off the stage and joined Aga, Liam, and Ruben again, we continued browsing the market stalls. Turns out that they had already started doing this a bit while I was singing as they bought some rice wine at a stall and offered me a bottle. It was very welcoming after the performance I gave. After a couple of sips of the wine, which had a taste I couldn’t really place but was still enjoyable, we walked around the market stalls together. There were katanas on display, tables full of manga as well as lots of anime art. But there was one stall that made us all stop and see what they had to offer, a stall of a shop called “Keanu’s Mead”. They offered different kinds of bottles with alcoholic drinks. Fruity ones and herbal ones.
The one that stood out to me the most was the “Enchanted Blade” one. A fruity mead with some subtle herbal notes. It contains a lot of ingredients, too many to name here, but the ingredients that stood out were passion fruit, coconut, and mint. The guy behind the stall advised me to use it for creating exotic drinks and recommended that I experiment with it and find out myself what works best.
THE EPIC RETRO SECTION!
Not just our bellies were full now, our thirst was satisfied due to the drinks we tried. Our bank credit was getting smaller. Our bags were getting heavier. Our feet were getting tired, yet we moved on as there was more to explore. From a distance, we could hear something was going on at the main stage.
The best thing to do after trying out cocktails is head back to the main stage and see if we can join another activity. They were now hosting a Cosplay Dating Show, just for fun, so I joined as one of the people the contestant could pick from. The contestant was a girl in cosplay and she asked the participants some questions, like if we like cats or where we would take her on a first date. She didn’t pick me at the end, but it was fun taking part in it, though. Feeling a little defeated, it was time to move on again. There was another area upstairs, we had to take a little bit of a steep set of stairs to get there, but luckily there was a railing you could hold on to. Once we managed to climb our way up, we were in an area where there were retro arcade machine set up. Retro games like Mortal Kombat and Dance Dance Revolution. You could play them for free, and we made use of that, or abused it, if you will. I myself started playing Mortal Kombat while Liam and Aga showed off their moves on Dance Dance Revolution.
There was also a table with a mini race kart track which was based on Mario Kart. Once I got to the table, Liam was already trying to race with one of the karts. The emphasis on trying, as the kart flew off the track on multiple occasions. He joked that he was too good for it, as it couldn’t handle him, taking us back to when he was too good for the Just Dance system, bringing some laughs. Being afraid that we were going to break the Mario and Luigi karts, we stopped racing with them.
A workshop was being held next to the arcade area where they showed us how to make a button that you can pin to your shirt. First step was to draw something on a piece of paper. Anything you want, basically, as long as it fits in the circle you had to draw in. Liam and myself took part in the workshop and got to drawing. I had some troubles with getting inspiration of what to draw for myself, eventually I ended up trying to re-create a stuffed animal in the form of a dinosaur that I once got from someone.
Next up they showed us how to make use of the pressure machine. The drawings were put on the metal part with the pin at the back and you had to use pressure to get it on. I do not know exactly how it worked, as they put it in the machine and I had to lower the handle with some force. The back side was now attached, last step was to put a transparent protective layer on the front. The woman helping out with operating the pressure machine told me to release the handle, flip the button, put the layer on, and then lower the handle again. I barely lowered the handle enough before taking it back up. The woman was afraid that it ended up ruining the button, luckily enough it didn’t and I was able to pin it on my shirt with no worries. For the remainder of the day, both me and Liam were proudly wearing it. We still have it displayed at our homes.
“WOULD YOU DARE TO COMPETE?“
A GLIMPSE BACK ON THE DAY!
We went back down those steep stairs, back into the market area. It was time that we buy some merchandise we liked before we leave the event. There was a moment when we saw a stall that sold artwork in the form of mouse pads, wallets, napkins, posters, stickers, and more. Aga bought some wiping cloths for her glasses, one with an image of “Mew” from “Pokémon” and one with an image of “Totoro” from “My Neighbour Totoro”. She also bought a small folder, with Ditto on the cover, for her Pokémon card collection.
The rest of us just looked around and didn’t buy anything else. After we felt that we had browsed all the stalls enough, it was time to head to the exit and get on our way to have dinner together to end the day.
We got back to the car, Ruben as the driver again, and searched for an all-you-can-eat restaurant nearby. It is the typical closure at All-Involve, every time that we go out to an event or convention.
We have a drink together, eat dinner, and look back at the day we had. We all enjoyed it a lot, especially the jokes we made together and the fun we had with other people. It was quite a unique experience, especially singing in front of an audience and taking part in the dating show. This all makes us curious to see the differences between TomoFair in Utrecht compared to in other cities. One thing that is for sure, we can’t wait till we can make more memories like this again, so we’ll definitely be coming back to TomoFair!
It was starting to get late, our feet were getting tired from walking the whole day, we felt like we have seen and experienced everything we could there. It was time to wrap up what we were doing, finish the games we were playing on the arcade machines and do some final purchases before we had to go.
“GAINED LOTS OF AMAZING MEMORIES!”
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