Toronto Arrival

We arrived in Toronto and felt like we had crash-landed onto another planet. It wasn't just the usual sixteen lane juggernaut known as Highway 401 (four-oh-one), Canada's busiest highway, that must be negotiated to get in or out of the airport, we had inadvertently landed ourselves in the midst of an "Anime" convention.

Sixteen lanes of joy...Highway 401

Don't know what "Anime" is? Neither did we, but, it was the height of coolness to be twenty-something and part of the 15,000 strong crowd that showed up for the three day convention. Our hotel and a few others around the airport were crammed full of attendees, most dressed in costume.

For the uninitiated, Anime (according to Wiki), "is a term used to refer to Japanese animated productions featuring hand-drawn or computer animation." Within this definition, there are all kinds of genres. Conventions have grown up around this industry where aficionados join together to dress up in costume, participate in masquerade balls and plays and attend workshops etc. The costumes are an important part of the appeal and the fashion is "Japanese Lolita". Lolita fashion (in case you didn't know ;-) ) includes such subgenres as: Gothic, Sweet, Classic, Punk, Sailor, Princess, Casual and others. Anime is a big industry, but, was totally new to us.

We spent a very enjoyable couple of weeks in Toronto attending to business and getting caught up with family and friends.