Hana, Momiji, Megumi, et alDolpa!OMG! I still get excited just looking at the pictures! It was finally the morning of Dolpa! I was awake most of the night -- too excited to sleep -- but the alarm clock didn't officially go off until 4am. We got ready at light speed and were out the door of the ryokan by 5am. I was afraid that the trains weren't running yet, but they were actually pretty busy. We caught the subway from Minowa to Ueno, from there, the JR Yamanote to Shimbashi and from there, the monorail to Tokyo Big Sight. We could tell that we were going in the right direction by the people with doll bags and rolling suitcases that kept joining us at every station. We got there by a little before 6:30am. We made the mistake of just following the people off the train -- this was our introduction to the Japanese lemming process -- only to discover that we were all rushing in the direction of the big manga convention that was happening at the same time. We weren't the only ones to discover that we were going to the wrong way, judging by all the people we passed going back with doll bags. Once we figured out our mistake, we headed back to the main plaza of Big Sight to wait with about 200 other people. No one seemed to know where to line up, so we just milled. That is until there was a second lemming incident across the inner hall, only to be stopped by someone from the manga convention. Finally, we played lemmings for the third time down a narrow staircase to the lower level -- the whole time, I was wondering if the empty escalator behind us went to the same place -- to finally join the official Volks line that was already about 500 people long. Damnit! Once in this line, we waited, listening to Volks employees shout at us through bullhorns. Finally, they started pulling people off the front and sending them to various lines. When it was our turn, we had a bit of trouble asking which line was for Limiteds (I thought that there would be a big "A, B & C" somewhere) and which was for the Tenshi no Sumika. Finally, we got going in the right directions and waved goodbye for the next three hours. Robert's limited line evidently was very stressful and confusing and mine was almost as much so. I was unlined and reline no less than four times! Each time I was led through a door, I would think "Yes! Finally in!" only to be put in a slightly differently configured line. They had handed us all numbers and I was #110. In the third line configuration, they put us into rows of 50. At about 9am, they let the first 50 in and then at about 9:25am, the next 50, and then I waited. I was really sweatin' it! I didn't get into the Tenshi no Sumika shop until about 10:30am, but there still seemed to be a number of people from the first 100 still in line and, luckily, just about everything that everyone wanted was still available. Looking at the one or two items in other people's baskets, I was worried that all the signs were announcing some kind of limit to purchases, but when I got up to the register, it seemed to be no problem. The people were so nice and helpful and really helped to reduce my stress. As soon as I was finished at the TnS shop, I rushed over to the "A Life Garden" booth and, luckily, they still had the red frilly shirt I had longed for for Shu. After that, I spent the rest of the day going through the 511 dealer's booths. It was just so amazing! So many beautiful dolls and things. I probably spent too much -- our current budget is proving it -- but I could have spent ten times at much. The pics below are a bit out of sequence because I didn't take any pictures when we were waiting in the morning; it was just too stressful. These pics were taken after I had gone through the dealers booths and had taken the pics of the following pages. However, they help to set the scene.  This is a blurry pic of the TnS Shop of Doom, minus the posts and chains that formed the final line I stood in.  This and the following pic are of the "Tearoom" area while the bingo game was going on.  I sat next to these adorable twins. When I asked to take a pic, everyone at the table hopped up to give me a clear view.  She's stretching, but still looks happy, doesn't she?  There were also a number of cute Blythes there as I will show later on.   Dolls getting in on the bingo fun.    On stage was Daddy Volks (someone, help me with his name), doing the number calling. My camera is lousy at zooms. |