I arrived at Tokyo Big Sight around noon - a bit earlier than planned. There was a crowd, of course, but I was relieved to find no line to enter the convention space. Unfortunately, the lack of a line outside meant one thing and one thing only: those who had lined up previously were already inside. Passing through the entrance, I found myself in the midst of an otaku mosh pit.

Initially, I just moved forward with the crowd, eventually finding myself in the East Hall. Conveniently, this is where most of the tables selling print doujinshi were located. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, so I merely perused the aisles, occasionally stopping to thumb through a book here and there if the crowd allowed. After 15 minutes of being lost amongst the most pornographic of doujinshi (and, thus, being pushed and shoved by the most perverted of otaku), I fought my way back out to the concourse and joined the throngs headed for the West Hall.

There, I found mostly doujin games and music. While crowded, the West Hall offered more room to breathe compared to the East Hall, so I spent a bit more time exploring and soaking up the experience. Still, nothing caught me eye, so I continued upstairs to the industry booths. The atmosphere was much more lively there, with professionals hawking their wares. Of course, free swag was easy to come by - before long, I had a bag in each hand and enough tissue packs to soak up Tokyo Bay. I swung by the Aquaplus booth and made my first purchase of the day: a bag of mystery goodies. Clearly, there was much worth buying from the industry booths, but I was looking to conserve money, so I made my exit to the rooftop cosplay exhibition area for some photo taking.

It was hot. It was packed. Still, I wasn’t in costume, so I figured I had no room to complain. I worked my way through the crowd, occasionally pausing to snap photos of interesting cosplayers. Photographers outnumbered cosplayers by a significant margin, and with the hot sun beating down on me, I didn’t stick around for more than a half hour or so. As I returned to the air conditioned confines of the Big Sight, I received a text message from Yagami, a friend from the Megatokyo discussion forums, informing me he was due shortly at the convention site. I fought my way back to the main entrance and patiently waited for his arrival.

After a bit of phone tag, we managed to find each other. With the end of the convention a couple hours away at that point, we decided to make a quick attack to meet some people and make our desired purchases. Yagami has industry connections, so when I say “meet people,” I mean meet people. Our first stop was the booth belonging to Yoshitoshi ABe, creator of Haibane Renmei and character designer for Serial Experiments Lain. ABe-san was quiet, but friendly, and was kind enough to give us free copies of his newest book. He also entrusted Yagami with a copy to deliver to the booth of a friend - that friend being Range Murata, character designer for Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6.

After meeting with Murata-san, we split up to make our purchases, agreeing to meet once again in an hour and head to Shinjuku for dinner. I returned to the East Hall and bought a few books, and before long, it was time to depart.

Of course, with the end of the event approaching, there was a mass exodus to the single train station serving Tokyo Big Sight. Thus, I finally got to spend some time standing in line. Everything moved along efficiently, however, and after a short time, we boarded a packed train and set off for Shinjuku. There, we chatted between slurps of ramen, and called it a day.

I’ve always wanted to experience Comic Market at least once, and I can’t say I’m disappointed. Oddly enough, having seen the event played out numerous times in anime and manga series devoted to otaku life (such as Comic Party or Genshiken), everything had an uncanny familiarity. My expectations were fulfilled in every way.