It has been a minute since Japan Expo – I’ve been so busy, I didn’t make a post about this con yet! But it was a great experience, and I feel like it deserves a post!

So – July 2026 I went to Paris for Japan Expo. Zibartas Cosplay had the honour of being invited to judge the ECG international cosplay contest and since we’re a team, I was there also. This was such a huge convention – I have been to many large ones, but this one was unique in the amount of really impressive cosplays and the very interesting Japanese area. 

But I am getting ahead of myself! I knew beforehand that it would be insanely hot. It was forecasted up to 38 degrees, and being a Nordic viking, this was some of the hottest weather I’ve experienced. I packed very light cosplays, obting for wig-free and mostly fabric-based cosplays. We arrived the day before the convention and decided to go for a little walk around the hotel. After an hour, we almost both had heat strokes from the insane heat and had to lay down for a while. We didn’t venture outside the hotel or convention halls after that experience, haha.

I spent much of the time of the convention at Zibartas’ booth, assisting him with photos and prints etc. We had quite a lot of visitors whenever he was there, so it was really great to meet a lot of nice people!

Whenever the judges were busy with judging, I took breaks to walk around and got to see some of the convention. I feel like I walked so much, yet barely managed to see half of the convention. There was just so many booths of all kinds to see! There was board games, fan-booths (like a cool Fallout one, for example), anime, more western fandoms, books, merch, materials, artist alley etc etc. My favourite area was the Japanese artist alley, which consisted of handmade crafts sold by Japanese craftsmen- and women. It was so unusual and they were so enthusiastic, you couldn’t help but walk around with a big smile in that area. 

The judging team felt like a really good one, whenever they were free, they and their helpers (including me) would spend time together and we had so much fun. There was good chemistry and communication. That waas lucky, because the contestants were all amazing, and I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to choose who should win what!

I was happy to get to see a cosplay show at such a high level – it was genuinely entertaining and I enjoyed it a lot! I do wish the English translator had had a bit more time and volume, because I feel like a lot of translation was left out, which was sometimes confusing. But I was really happy when the Danish team won both Best Costume and Audience Favorite!

The whole week(end) ended with a legendary pizza-party for all the participants and judges. Despite the hotel not turning on the AC in that part of the building, it was an epic night, and although I met many people for the first time, it was an emotional goodbye at the end of an intense, but awesome convention.

The next morning, we left the hotel before really getting any sleep and returned to Denmark on a luckily uneventful flight.

All in all, it was a really great experience, which I hope to repeat some day (but perhaps with slightly lower temperatures)