Strawberry Milk Tea

I've always been astonished by the interest that Asian Ball Jointed Dolls generate. I had been worried that no one would show up for any of the panels, especially since some of them had been scheduled at 10:00am-a time when most people were a) sleeping b) still registering or c) racing to the dealer's rooms. And for the first panel of the day, batchix's panel on her Machina dolls, no one had shown up. I was not surprised given the time of the panel but it is disheartening especially since it can be nerve wracking to prepare a panel and then not be able to give it. I do hope for next year that they do not schedule panels so early.

So by 3pm on Saturday I was surprised to see a pretty full room at my panel, "Exploring Doll Culture in Japan." I had decided to combine my panel with Batchix's and start off with a general introduction to BJDs since the main BJD panel would not be until Sunday. We unpacked and displayed our dolls-Batchix's Luts Shiwoo elf, redrosin's Volks Rinon, and my Volks Williams, Megu, and adorable little Toppi.I explained a bit about the differences between subcultures in Japanand the west then explained what BJDs were all about before passing the mike to Batchix. Batchix did a wonderful job describing her production process-everyone appeared to understand the cost and amount of work that goes into producing one of these dolls if not the details.

Next,redrosin and I took over and explained our experiences in Japan. Wecovered the shops (Volks, Soom, and the second hand retailers), Volks Dolpas, and Volks Owner's Appreciation Events as well as the smaller exhibitions such as I-Doll and Doll's Garden and how we were able to visit them and participate in those events. I showed a lot of photos of these events and places. I also bravely showed the video of my Omukae (welcoming) ceremony-which I humorously described and got a lot of giggles once that famous song "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" played. Afterwards we realized we left some things we wanted to say out but were pleased with our discussion.

On Sunday, I helped Aimee Steinberger with the General Introduction to BJD panel. It was more of a basic description of ball joint dolls followed by a Q&A session. We got lots of good questions and even some interesting ideas on where the development of BJDs could go next-robotics used to help stabilize dolls so they could hold certain poses better? Afterwards, we invited everyone up to the front to get a better look at the dolls, which is where that picture in the LA Weekly was taken. I was answering a question and had no idea that photo had been taken. Those sneaky LA Weekly gals!