FanimeCon - Day One - Early Arrivals
"Now this is a hotel lobby!" was the comment overheard from a fan who walked into the Santa Clara Westin Hotel, the home of most of FanimeCon's events. 
"Now this must be an anime convention!" might have been said by someone who spotted Kevin Bennett of Studio Ironcat, just off the plane from Japan and asking for this picture to be taken so that Sachiko Uchida would know he was actually at FanimeCon.
Kevin Bennett then rushed outside to make sure that brother Steve Bennett, Ironcat's art director (in the grey sweater and fresh from Katsucon, two weeks earlier), was on hand for a rare West Coast appearance.
Here's one of the reasons that fans attended FanimeCon: Hiroyuki Yamaga, the co-founder of Gainax, the studio which produced Royal Space Force, His and Her Circumstances, and Neon Genesis Evangelion (along with a host of follow-up Evangelion games). Yamaga promised some revelations about Gainax' plans for new projects.
Waiting for Yamaga and the rest of the show was this group of fans, the lead pack of those expected for the four-day weekend. They were on hand several hours before registration opened and the first events took place.
Rob Miles of the Bay Area Anime Society was on hand to keep the peace and deal with those who were looking for a room at the last minute (volunteers got crash space, he noted). Miles said he wants to be a "personality of the week." Be patient and wait until June, he was told.
First FanimeCon event, of course, was this video room. The convention took up most of the meeting space on the hotel's first two floors, with other events scheduled to take place next door at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
...and the mundanes were also accounted and present: this meeting of builders was one of several which hung on at the Westin on Friday, getting in their last shot before anime fans took over for the weekend.

Day One
Day Two
Day Four