I’ve started trawling around the Touhou Image Board recently, when I noticed a thread planning a big meetup of Touhou fans in the California Bay Area. Since I just happen to be conveniently located in the Bay Area, about 2 hours from the meetup spot, I figured it would be a fun day out, so I hit up a friend who lives in the area, and he was nice enough to let me stay with him. The plan for the day was to meet up at the Hakone Gardens for a picnic, then whoever wanted to would tag along to Gamba Karaoke in Cupertino.

The gang's all here!

I ended up running a little late due to getting horribly lost and taking a wrong exit off of 680, but the meetup still went well. By the time I showed up, most of the eating was done, but I arrived just in time to wander around the park with some of the people here. The Hakone Gardens are amazing, and the garden has the look and feel of the real deal in Japan, so it was a great place to stage the meetup. They even had a fairly robust picnic area, where we were able to set up food and chat.

Afterwards, 8 of us went over to Gamba Karaoke in Cupertino for 2 hours, where we switched off between singing random Touhou fan music and SUPER MANLY GIANT ROBO THEME SONGS. Had an absolute blast. Afterwards, 6 of us went to Ringer Hut and had Japanese food, followed by 5 of us going to a friend’s house and playing Hisoutensoku well into the night.

The whole thing was awesome, and I can’t wait for the next one, which is apparently scheduled for some time in December/January. Gonna be great. Thanks to everyone that showed up!

Posted by Will Raus Personal