Photos by West Smith

When I first moved to Seattle from my small town in Alaska, I was enamored by the amount of 24-hour options this city had. Living right between the neighborhoods of Green Lake and Greenwood, I was walking distance from two classic North Seattle 24-hour diners, Beth's Cafe and Shanghai Room. I was able to get a chicken fried steak with milkshake at a moment's notice, any time of the day.

After the pandemic, Seattle's 24-hour establishments quietly went away. Some switched to reduced late-night hours, some closed altogether. Even the 7/11 by my house started closing at 11 p.m.!

I get it, it’s most likely not worth the cost of staffing to run that kind of business, but I still miss it. Which is how I ended up at Sakura Con, the largest anime convention in the Northwest, at 4:30 a.m. this past weekend. Unlike other fan conventions in the area where the show floor closes at 6 p.m., Sakura Con is a 24-hour convention, meaning once the doors open on Friday at 8 a.m., the con does not end until closing time on Sunday at 4 p.m.

I don’t know anything about anime, but as a lover of both conventions and 24-hour businesses, I challenged myself to stay at Sakura Con as long as I could.

3:21 p.m.

Knowing that I am planning to stay at the convention as late as possible, I arrive later than I normally would.

The convention is in full swing, with crowds of cosplayers crowding every inch of the convention hall and every step of the escalator.

“Are you cosplaying a character from an anime?”

“No. I’m just a fan of Hatsune Miku. This cardboard cut-out of her is a one-to-one scale.”

“What do you like about her?”

“I just like what she stands for… some people say she stands for trans rights, some people say she just stands for freedom.”

4:18 p.m.

“Is that a real tattoo?”

“No, it’s eyeliner… I’m thinking about getting a real one, though.”

7:05 p.m.

I feel a tangible vibe shift as the daytime crowd leaves the convention hall around 6 p.m. and the nighttime crowd begins to arrive.

7:30 p.m.

“My goal is to get 20 hugs a day.”

“How many have you gotten so far?”

“18.”

“Has it been mostly guys or girls?”

“It has been a lot of guys.”

I am hug number 19.

7:55 p.m. 

Religious evangelists parked directly in front of the main entrance/exit to the con are screaming into a megaphone about how we are all going to Hell and will burn for all of eternity unless we repent, yada yada yada.

Some guys in maid outfits might find these protesters a bit intimidating, but most people at Sakura Con seem to think of them more as props for a photoshoot than aggravated aggressors.

8:15 p.m.

While using the bathroom on the sixth floor of the convention center, I feel the ground beneath my feet start buzzing and see the water in the bowl start rippling, like that scene in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex's heavy footsteps are shaking the water glass. Little did I know that two floors below us, the convention center expo hall has been transformed into a massive concert venue. Reol is performing her first show ever in America to one of the largest crowds I have ever seen in Seattle.

I walk in at the end of one of her songs, just in time to hear her say, “I do not speak English.” The crowd erupts with cheers and applause.

There are so many large screens broadcasting Reol’s performance across the venue that for the first song, I find myself photographing a screen across the room next to the stage because I thought it was actually her.

9:00 p.m.

Reol’s show lets out, and anime fans trickle out of the convention center and gather at Ethioblue C-Store, a convenience store that is directly under the convention center, on Pike Street. 

Sakura Con does not sell alcohol inside the convention center, so Ethioblue has become the unofficial late-night gathering spot for Sakura Con attendees. This is a key part of the Sakura Con experience.

If I had to put a number on it, I would say 90 percent of the people here tonight are buying White Claw.
“I’m looking forward to the dance. I’m just going to go in there and let it all out. There is no judgment in there, ya know?” a Sakura Con attendee tells me while standing in front of the convenience store.

“What does letting it all out look like?” I ask.

“I dunno, I’m probably just going to, like, jump up and down a bunch.”

 

The Sakura Con dance starts at 11 p.m., and at this point, it feels like the event that everyone is here for. Everyone is preparing in their own way, either with alcohol or some kind of snack that you would only find at a convenience store located under a convention center.

10:08 p.m.

“We’re dressed as characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 7. It was just announced four days ago that it was going to get animated. My friend [in the green] is dressed as a character named Gyro, and we thought it would be funny to take a picture in front of the Gyro Stop.”

10:18 p.m.

“What made you want to dress up as M. Bison from Street Fighter?”

“My smile, man. Everybody tells me I’ve got the same smile as the character.”

10:21 p.m.

One of the biggest draws of Sakura Con is that they have the largest free gaming suite of any anime convention on the West Coast. Tons of arcade and pinball machines are brought in from Japan, all set to free play. No quarters needed. The arcade is one of the attractions that stays open for the entire weekend, so no matter what time it is, the arcade is still open.

10:28 p.m. 

I see someone play Dance Dance Revolution so well that when they finished, the entire room stands up to clap for them. Their performance transcended gaming and moved into performance art.

 

10:30 p.m.

“You think this is a cosplay? I’m just a simp* for a V-Tuber**.”

*Simp is an internet slang term describing someone who shows excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically to someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship.

**A V-Tuber or virtual YouTuber is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement.

 

10:51 p.m.

I stumble into a massive ballroom-turned-movie-theater that is showing fan-made anime music videos (AMVs).

I stay for a music video set to Michael Jackson’s "Billie Jean" and Macklemore’s "Can’t Hold Us."

Having semi-recently watched the VERY incriminating HBO Michael Jackson documentary, Leaving Neverland, I can't help but feel grossed out. I turn and ask the guy next to me: “Damn are we still cool with acquitted pedophile Michael Jackson in 2025?"

He shrugs and says, “You gotta separate the art from the artist.”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m Jewish, but I still listened to a Kanye West song this morning, so I get it,” I reply.

“Well, it was easy for me to stop listening to him because I never liked his music.”

11:24 p.m.

Down the hall from the AMV theater, I open a door that leads into another massive ballroom. Chairs line the walls, but the center of the room is completely empty.

A table towards the back has two people arguing into a microphone.

“The earliest cat girl anime may have been as early as 1994," the debater says. 

I’ve just entered “Zapp's Spaceship of Love: Great Big PERV Debate!” The topic being debated is “Cat Boys vs. Cat Girls.”

The man next to me throws his hands up in confusion and frustration.

“This isn’t even a debate, they’re just having a conversation! They should be using the Lincoln-Douglas debate format for something like this.”

 

12:01 a.m.

Mahjong is a tile-based game that originated in China during the 19th century and is massively popular in Asia. The Mahjong room was scheduled to offer Mahjong Lessons as well as free-play tables until 3 a.m.

The Mahjong room was absolutely popping at 12:01 on Sunday morning.

“I usually have to drive an hour and a half to play with my Mahjong group, I don’t do that much, so I am excited to be able to play Mahjong at Sakura Con.”

There is a feeling of tension and frustration in the Mahjong room that only grows stronger as the night goes on. I can sense how desperately people want to be gambling in this room, and how frustrated they are every time they win a hand that they aren't allowed to bet on.

 

12:15 a.m.

At this point in the night, I can feel that people are tired. The energy is shifting. The crowds are starting to thin out, and the rooms are starting to feel bigger. 

A security guard explains to me that although this is a 24-hour convention, you cannot sleep here. You cannot lie down. But you can stay in the convention center as long as you are sitting up. This transforms the convention for me, as it now feels like a Japanese-style game show. How long can you stay in the convention without lying down? How long can you sleep sitting up without falling over?

Everywhere I look, I see someone was in the Sakura Con Seated Sleeping Position™.

 

12:21 a.m.

“Does this game make you want to shoot someone in real life?”

“What? No dude, I understand that this is just a game.”

12:45 a.m.

While people stealthily sleep one floor above us, the Sakura Con Saturday Night Dance is in full swing below.

EDM music weaves in and out of hard breakdowns and popular anime themes. I think about the attendee who told me they were going to “let it all out,” and now that I’m here, I totally get it.

12:25 a.m. 

I step out of the dance to get some air, and when I try to go downstairs, security stops me to say that the front entrance of the convention center and a few blocks of Pike Street are currently shut down due to a gas leak.

Earlier today, a fire at the Cheesecake Factory on Pike Street forced parts of Sakura Con to shut down. Are these things related? Am I going to die at an anime convention? If there is an explosion, I wonder if I’ll be able to react fast enough to get a cool photo.

These are my three thoughts, in that order.

 

I ask the firemen if they want to be included in one of the photos, and they say maybe after they get this gas leak sorted out.

1:21 a.m. 

Inside, the dance rages on, totally unaware that there is a gas leak outside and that this whole city block might explode, Greenwood 2016 style.

 

2:36 a.m. 

“We’re still here, not that we have a choice. We parked in the parking garage on Pike, and the gas leak has us stuck here. We’ve been trying to leave since 1 a.m.”

The gas leak has locked down the Hyatt Hotel parking garage, meaning anyone who parked their car there during the convention is now stuck until the gas leak is contained.

3:07 a.m.

My DNA is telling me I should not be out anymore. At this point in the con, my options are pretty limited. The Mahjong room has closed for the night, so I can either be at the dance on the main floor or I can play games at the arcade on the top floor. The crowd is thinning out for both options, and both are littered with people sleeping.

 

 

3:20 a.m.

The gas leak is contained enough that Pike Street has reopened, and people are able to get into their cars in the Hyatt Parking garage.

I hear two guys sitting on a bench together arguing about whether or not this is the horniest place on earth right now.

“Not that many people are having sex, but everyone here wants to be having sex,” one of them says.

3:25 a.m.

I didn’t notice this before, but all day and all night, doors have been closing around me, shutting off parts of this massive anime convention. When I arrived in the early afternoon, I had two convention buildings full of events to explore. Now, I am in the old convention center, and my two choices are the dance or the arcade.

3:37 a.m.

A con attendee dances alone to a remix of "Pokémon Theme."

3:34 a.m.

Electronic dance music blasts so loud I can feel it vibrating the organs inside my chest, and this Fallout: New Vegas cosplayer sleeps through it.

 

3:53 a.m.

I came to Sakura Con with the goal to watch the sunrise from the convention center. As the dance downstairs plays its final song, I’m standing pretty much alone in the Sakura Con arcade. I play one game of pinball, and the ball goes right down the center three times in a row.

I feel like my time at Sakura Con is coming to an end. I ask an employee in the arcade what I can do at this point in the night, and they tell me I can play arcade games until 8 a.m., when the trading card game rooms open back up, and that’s about it.

4:15 a.m.

The dance is over, and with it, so is my time at the largest anime convention in the Northwest. I call an Uber.

“I can’t believe it’s 4 a.m.,” I say out loud to no one in particular.

“Trust me, this is nothing—we’re just getting started,” says a man in a lab coat as he walks off into the morning light, drinking a Monster energy drink.

 

4:46 a.m.

I’m home, lying in my bed. I know I am, but a part of me is still inside the convention center. As I write this, it’s been a full two days since I left the building, but when I try to sleep, I close my eyes and feel like I am in one of those giant liminal convention center rooms with people lining the walls and shuffling past me. I don’t know if it’s the lack of sleep or the gas I inhaled, but for better or for worse, Sakura Con has changed me forever.