The Old School Otaku Lounge

My vacation time must be scheduled for next year. I want to use a week of vacation to go to an anime convention in Atlanta. Davemerrill please give me the details about that convention; and please let your cellist buddy know about me. I would want to know of some other anime conventions that you guys recommend because I will have two weeks of vacation time leftover.

You can get all the information about AWA here: http://www.awa-con.com/

It's going to be September 26-28 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel + Cobb Galleria Centre
+ Sheraton Suites Galleria. Full details on the event are at the website. This year will be our 20th year, so there will likely be a lot of commemorative programming.

I'm also going to be going to Anime North, which is May 23-25: http://www.animenorth.com/live/

Otakon I probably won't be attending, but it is a great show, and freakin' huge: http://www.otakon.com/

I have been to Anime Los Angeles in the past and I had a great time. It's in January. http://www.animelosangeles.org/ala/

Thanks a lot! I glad you responded promptly. We have meetings to schedule our vacation next week. Do you know the protocols for crossing the border to Canada? I do not have a passport; do I have enough time to apply for one to have before May? I have no criminal record. I heard it can take like six months to get a passport. I will schedule one week to be at AWA next year. I think it will be a very special 20th anniversary convention. Looking forward to it. I am going to the site now. ^__^

Yeah, I think you need either a passport, or one of those "enhanced" drivers licenses to cross the border. That shouldn't be too hard, though--you just have to wait a while for either, if I recall.

Project A-kon's 25th convention will be in 2014 so Nitro & I will both be going (well, as usual!). I'm curious to see if they'll be doing anything special for it, hopefully they'll consider trying to get some cool guests or something.

You need a passport to cross into Canada and what's also important, to cross back into America. They have passport cards now that are good for land crossings (but not for air). I renewed my passport this past summer and it took about three weeks; it might take longer for new passports, though. I got both the card and the book and used them both when we went to Boston a few weeks back.

I've read a lot of scare stories about border crossings, but I have crossed the border at least twice a year for the past eight or nine years and I have never had a problem. The most anyone's done is check the trunk. Air travel requires the same sort of TSA check that every other flight requires, with an extra half-hour or so going through customs when you land. Crossing the border by land means you stop the car and the guy checks your passport, asks you some basic questions about where you're going and how long you're going to be there, and whether or not you're carrying anything you shouldn't be carrying, like firearms, illegal drugs, or large amounts of cash, liquor, or tobacco.

If you say "convention" as the purpose of your visit, they might think this is a business trip and start asking you if you're going to be performing or working in Canada, which requires work permits and paperwork, so if they start down that line of questioning just tell them it's a Japanese animation festival and you are not there as a performer or an employee, just a tourist. I find the more you tell them, the more bored they get. Usually I just say I'm going to visit friends and family. Have an address where you're going to be staying, they like to see that.

Niagara Falls has consistently been the fastest and most polite crossing. Fort Erie/Buffalo is fine as well. Crossing into Detroit is a pain, the border agents have an attitude and are looking for trouble. The Sarnia crossing is in the middle of nowhere, but is really pretty. The Lewiston crossing is usually the busiest, with the longest waits. I don't know why. This summer we might be finding out what the crossing is like between Vancouver and Seattle.

The important thing to remember is that the border officers on either side of the border can turn you away or detain you for any reason whatsoever. It's their call. Getting annoyed about the wait, or irritated at the questions, or self-righteous about "why do you want to know that?" will not help you at all. (I know nobody here is likely to have these problems, this is a standard thing I like to remind people of.)

yusaku wrote:I heard it can take like six months to get a passport. I will schedule one week to be at AWA next year.

You must have either misheard or misremembered, or whoever told you that was just completely wrong. Perhaps somebody mistakenly meant that it takes six weeks to get a passport, but it actually only takes four weeks. You can get a passport in two weeks if you pay the expidited fee.

http://travel.state.gov/passport/proces ... _1740.html

Dave, greg, and usamimi thanks for the input. I found a site to expedite the passport process. I will use it to get my documents. Here is the link:

http://www.expresspassport.com/index.as ... MgodA3IAEw

Fortunately, you won't need to expedite a passport. 2014 is still over a month away, and you won't need a passport until those cons you plan on attending. Like I said, it only takes 4 weeks to get a passport. You have plenty of time!

yusaku wrote:Dave, greg, and usamimi thanks for the input. I found a site to expedite the passport process. I will use it to get my documents. Here is the link:

http://www.expresspassport.com/index.as ... MgodA3IAEw

As others said, you have plenty of time. Just put in your paperwork as soon as you can. I mean, why wait? Just get it over with. If it's a money thing prioritize it, put it above that extra 8-pack of Coca Cola.

I would not pay an outside firm like the link. I believe that all one needs to do is go to any major US Post Office branch, pay the extra fee and you're done. I would fear identity theft from a site like above.

Yeah, I agree. With how much identity fraud goes on nowadays, it'd be safer to do it through the post office or other official channels.