And there was no snow.

After all of the bad weather that struck the areas east and south of Cleveland in January, the area south of Lake Erie stayed clear, which is nothing to take for granted. Anime fans were able to glide over damp roads to the suburb of Independence, Ohio and enjoy the second Ohayocon. The kickoff event for the 2002 anime convention season attracted lots of East Coast convention regulars, and drew some former con regulars back to convention going. It also saw plenty of middle class Clevelanders walking through hotel, wandering through the convention, looking at fans and cosplayers and amazed at what was happening.

Ohayocon was this site's first test of doubling between convention coverage and picture sales, and the experiment went decently well. Plenty of fans dropped by the author's table in the artists' alley, and some bought pictures. There was a steady stream of people looking at cosplay prints from Ohayocon and previous conventions. The sample images that drew the most attention were pictures of an elaborate winged outfit from Nan Desu Kan and a print of three Urusei Yatsura costumers at Anime Weekend Atlanta (that print disappeared overnight Friday).

At the next table over, Rodney Caston of the Megatokyo online comic got lots of interest in his art posters, and spoke about his pleasant surprise over the hundreds of thousands of people who visited their manga site.

The author is used to spending his time rushing around every square foot of a convention - and he still got around - but most of his time was spent in one place. The view of convention life from the table was of waves of crowds heading to popular events - the game show, opening of the dealers' room, the music video contest and opening ceremonies. And things got busy around noon Friday for the opening of the registration desks.

That view also showed that young love was alive and well: the author saw a couple of lovers' quarrels pass by his table during the weekend.

The Holiday Inn where the convention was held had its meeting rooms divided into two areas at different ends of the hotel. You needed a map to find the area with the video and game rooms. The distance may have been one of the reasons so many fans hung out at a unused shoeshine stand at the end of one hall, which was a comfortable place to sit and watch the show of people.

What sort of complaints did the author hear? One man said he heard that staff had taken down his room party flyers, some costumers thought the Gundam Tallgeese costume should have won a costume contest award, and the Saturday dance started way late when the volunteer crew needed more time than expected to switch the main events room over from the costume contest. Once that dance started, however, fans flocked to the event from all over the hotel; some sort of psychic link seemed to tell them that the dance had started, even when they were in another part of the buildings.

Most of the Ohayocon material on this site was uploaded from the author's table using a cell phone, but much came from the high-speed Internet link in the hotel room. Getting that link established was a late-night adventure; the network hub in the room had been unplugged and the line to the hotel server had been disconnected in the room. Hotel staff couldn't figure out the trouble, but a midnight call to Wayport technical support solved the problem in a few minutes. Computer company tech support catches hell for its shortcomings, but this time something went very, very right, and Wayport is to be commended for their efforts.

As with many conventions in the last year, the author had to rush home on Sunday morning. So he missed the appearances of actors Debbie Rabbai and Dorothy Menendrez which apparently were scheduled for Sunday only. Balancing that disappointment was the victory of fast service and good food at the Denny's restaurant across the street from the hotel.

And then there was the author's odd experience at the Saturday night costume contest. He was at his usual perch on the floor in front of the stage, staying as low as possible so his bulk wouldn't block anyone's view, when the final contest entrant walked on. Animator Scott Frazier and the Baranek brothers, one in their Godzilla costume, said they were going to have a Twister match to defend the world and had chosen a person to serve as the Earth's defender. The author was waiting for the punch line when he took another look at a piece of paper held by one of the performers. Someone had written a name on the paper with a pen that bled through the paper just enough to be able to make out the letters from the back...and the author realized it was his name.

And the author got on stage, played Twister with Godzilla, and lost. Badly. And ended up flat on his back, covered by the Twister mat.

Out of four years of convention attendance, that was the strangest experience for the author so far. He's tried to stay out of the limelight while others put on the show, and hasn't worn a costume since...high school? Third grade? (The cat ears don't count.) But while the Ohayocon cosplay surprise was an unusual experience, it also was the highest compliment the author has received for his web site work.

The privilege of attending anime conventions was driven home over the Ohaycon weekend when the Ford Motor Co. announced tens of thousands of factory layoffs. Many of the jobs that will be lost are at plants in the Cleveland area, apparently including the famed engine foundry past which the author rode on his way to the hotel.

But that trouble and all of the talk of recession hasn't stopped fans from planning more anime conventions. Finding their way to the author's table were flyers for a proposed convention in March 2003 in Columbus, Ohio. And a group of fans in New England already has announced an Anime Boston in April of 2003.

Fans just love anime and Japanese popular art too much to stay home and just visit web sites and watch DVD's. They insist on spending the time, money and effort to create more conventions. Maybe they have so much fun that the conventions are more than worth the effort. Or maybe they just enjoy the looks on the faces of the guys in the business suits and the union jackets when they walk into a hotel and see the fans in costume.

And credit the weekend's most profound comments to Steve Bennett of Studio Ironcat. At the opening ceremonies, fans staged a series of short "Solid Snake" skits with prop guns. When Bennett was introduced, framed by the American flag, he picked up a prop AK-47 and said, "I'm thankful for our troops, but I hope the day comes when these [guns] can all be put in museums. War sucks."