RAPPORTO/ Haru Comic City 17

Ok, this is going to be a hard job XD
The report for Haru Comic City 17!!
Basically, the Comic City events (there are a TONS-- Haru, Super, Spark and so on, and the convention happens also in Osaka and Fukuoka) are the same thing of Comic Market, mere doujinshi selling/promoting event.
For this reason they happen for a limited time (this one started at 10 am and ended at 3 pm-- And most of the stands were already closed by 2.30 pm...) and are FULL OF PEOPLE ;_;

This report wants to pose also as a guide for those who'd like to join the same event :3
First, an introduction!
The Haru Comic City happens at Tokyo Big Sight, in the artificial island of Odaiba, Tokyo Bay.

Here's a map of the place, courtesy of BigSight.jp: The places relevant to our interests are the halls, where all the doujinshi circles are placed, called on this maplet East Hall (東) and West Hall (西). As you can see the two places are quite far from each other, so you're expected to plan your visits carefully so to optimize your time.

Of course going to such a convention in Japan is not the same as attending one here in the West.
It's prohibited to smoke, take pictures, cosplay and a series of other things, so to not slow down the shopping of the other visitors.
The Comic City website offers a guide in English language to avoid troubles with the staff and the other visitors, explaining how to behave during the event. Please, check it.

Then, let's talk about the "pamphlet", as they call it in Japan.

The "pamphlet" is VITAL!

It works as the "ticket" for the event, you can't enter if you don't have a copy, and you're not supposed to leave it anywhere but on your person during your whole visit.
You can buy it in advance in any otaku shop in Japan; when I went there I tried to buy it at Animate and Toranoana in Akihabara, but of course it was long sold out ;_;
I managed to buy it at the convention but-- It's WAY BETTER to buy it in advance. This way I couldn't plan my visit and wasted a lot of time, looking like a beggar as I tried to look for my circles ;_;
But let's take a look of how the pamphlet is organized! The first pages show us what series can be found in each hall.

Then, maps of each hall with the stands.

The list of circles with their locations.

The details of each hall with the circles' "cut".

Now, let's go with a pair of explanations on how to find your stuff!
Let's say, that, for example, I wanna get Gundam delicious porn. I find the title on the first pages, those listing all the series featured in each hall.

I see that I can find my Gundam at 西1, which means the first pavillion in West Hall.

Now, I go to the "cut" section of the book to look for Gundam circles in 西1...

I find a very cute one featuring Char x Garma ♥.
The little number on left-top of the "cut" (in my case "17") is the number of the "table" of the circle.

To find the "row" to localize the table, I need to look at the letter under which my "table" is listed.
Here's け.
So, my circle is located in hall 西1, space け17.

Now I need to go back to the maps of the halls, and find the table 17 on row け on the map of 西1.
And here we go, it's on the top right, facing the wall :D

...Of course the tables are marked with both rows indication and numbers, as you can see on this picture, spotting a table on the み row:
Then, what else can I say?
As an otaku experience it's difficult to explain how STRESSING, FULFILLING and CRAZY the whole thing felt, but I must say that I wouldn't mind to make it over and over XD
Again, my only regret was that I got there way too late for my standards (that's what happens when you travel with a group of huge people and you're the only fujoshi there :/), and most of the circles that I wanted to check were already closed or sold-out ._. --No cute Char x Garma for your Dae ;_; !!!

Now, to close this report, a few pics that my friend managed to take with her cellphone (LOL, Italian no Jutsu XD)

A view of a tiny slice of 東1 :3
The 東 hall was dedicated to manga series... The circles that you see in the pic sold Yondemasu Yo, Azazel-san stuff :3

Getting down to the main entrance of the West hall from the escalator.
Here you can have a nice view of the entrance, and how big and crowded the place was.

Chilling out at the main entrance of West hall.
The Comic City are not just a doujinshi selling event, but also a place where software companies can promote their comic-making products. The people sitting at the right of this pic were watch a demonstration of a new tablet, for example.
In this hall were also sold screentones and such. Everything was insanely expensive, so I avoided it XD

Well, at the end of the games, I got back from the convention with this booty: Even now, I'm trying to not think about how much money I left there XD

And that's it, I hope that you found this article exhaustive! If you have other questions about it, feel free to drop me a line here, I'll reply promptly ^_^

Daeva.

PS: For the making of this post I'd like to thank my friend Yuriko Tiger who shared a good ammount of their pics with me ♥