JAFAX
JAFAX, which stands for Japanese Animation Film and Art Expo, is Western Michigan's primary anime convention. This year it was held over the weekend of June 24-26, 2022 at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is the first time JAFAX has been held since 2019, since the 2020 event had to be canceled due to COVID restrictions on large public gathering, and in 2021 DeVos Place was still being used for a mass vaccination clinic.
Because we needed to be in position to load in on Thursday, and wanted to be well-rested for the heavy labor of load-in, we headed to Grand Rapids, we left home on Wednesday morning. As I was loading the last-minute items into the van, I discovered that a whole bag of apples had spoiled on us, so I had to carry them out to the compost pile before they spoiled everything else.
Even with that little issue, we still got on the road at a reasonable time. We stopped at Sam's Club for gas, only to discover that we'd outwitted ourself and I could've gotten gas for even less at the local Walmart. At least the rest of the voyage was unremarkable, including the trip around South Bend. We made sure to get gas when we were almost up there so we would have plenty of gas for commuting from hotel to venue and still get back to better gas prices.
We got to the hotel around 3:30 PM and I got our personal belongings carried in soon enough that we could go visit the hot tub before supper. Afterward, I spent the evening planning out my latest Odd Prompts writing challenge before turning in for the night.
On Thursday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast. It's a bunch nicer than it was last year when we were there for the two Grand Rapids Comic Con events, and we're actually able to eat in the breakfast nook rather than needing to take our food back to our room. Afterward we took another soak in the hot tub. It seemed to be warmer, although that could've been just the fact that it had gotten more use.
In the afternoon I put together both of my newsletters for the weekend and tried to get some blog posts ahead. I also got a good start on writing the Odd Prompts writing challenge, setting the scene for actually using the prompt. However, I was having trouble concentrating on the task, so I decided to go on StoryOrigin and sign up for some more group promotions and newsletter swaps to promote my existing books.
Finally we headed downtown to DeVos Place, hoping to be there early even if it meant having to circle the block a few times. However, the doors were already open and the dock master let us in. At first he put us on the far side of the dock from the ramp to the exhibit hall level, but then he had us move on over to the ramp.
From then on it was non-stop busy hauling in and then setting up, right until they shooed us out. Since I had to take the van over to the Schribner Street parking lot as soon as I got unloaded, I then had to run over to retrieve it before we could head back to the hotel. There we spent a little time winding down before we turned in for the night.
On Friday we got up and ate the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back to DeVos Place to finish setup. By the time we got everything set up and ready to go, I was so wiped that I sat down to catch a breather and fell asleep sitting up.
At least eating lunch and drinking some caffeinated pop perked me up enough to do business. However, I was still having stuff slide past me way too much, which is not good when money is changing hands. Not to mention that we've had some problems at this venue with shoplifters. I was very glad when the vendor hall closed for the day and we could go back to the hotel and rest.
We spent a little time soaking in the hot tub, then had supper. I decided to spend some time working on another writing challenge, since I couldn't get over the hump on the Odd Prompts writing challenge. Then we turned in for the night.
On Saturday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back downtown for another day of doing business. This time I finally got some items set up that had been missed in the haste of getting ready to open the doors, so we were completely ready like we should've been the day before.
Sales came in spurts all day long, and it didn't help that I was still tired. Although I could keep engaged as long as I had someone to deal with, but if I was waiting for the next customer to show up, I'd keep falling asleep sitting up and slip into a neighboring timeline. I'm sure we probably lost some sales because I was zoned out. On the other hand, this is a small show, so we weren't going to get the level of business we can expect at the giant comic conventions where there are tens of thousands of people.
When we returned to the hotel in the evening, we soaked in the hot tub before supper. Then I finalized my newsletter for the cosmic horror list and sent it out. I also made a start on yet another writing challenge.
On Sunday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back to DeVos Place and got ready for our final day of sales. Foot traffic remained slow, so we started packing all the fiddly stuff shortly after lunch.
Once the doors closed, I retrieved the van and we started hauling stuff out. Near the end we got some actual help getting the structures knocked down and the mini grid units boxed up. Then they hauled the rest of our stuff out to the van so I could sort through and get it loaded instead of having to run the cart back and forth.
When we got back to the hotel, we had supper and I sent my retail newsletter. Then I tried to get my writing challenges done, but I was simply too tired to get the words to flow.
On Monday we got up and had breakfast. Then we packed our personal stuff and carried it out to the van. I had to pull the van under the awning in order to load because we had vehicles on both sides of us.
The trip home didn't go too badly, although I could tell I was more tired than I had been going up. We stopped at the branch of our bank in Kalamazoo and made the deposit. It might not be as big as we would've liked to see, but at least it was decent sized. I did notice more weariness as we rounded South Bend and headed down to Indianapolis, and I was very glad to pull into the driveway and power down the van.
On the whole, it was a good trip, and I'd go back again.
Copyright 2022 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated August 19, 2022.