Manga and Cosplay Festival - Hasselt (BE) 6/7-9-2025

This amazing opportunity came to me by surprise when I was having a chat with the photographers from Cosplaycloud at Atsusacon. I had never heard of the Japanese Garden in Hasselt, let alone of a two-day cosplay festival where the perimeters of the garden are open for photoshoots! Of course this was a no-brainer so tickets were bought and a new costume was commenced!

Ever since I made Suki I had the idea of making another Onna-Bugeisha, a female samurai, in tones of grey and black. I had just over a month to crunch this costume and of course I wanted insane details like a leather oni mask and a leather kabuto helmet, so time was short and nights were long but it was so worth it to have an accurate costume for this amazing setting!

The first day was absolutely amazing and exceeded my expectations by a kilometer. The garden is stunning and around every corner there was something new to see like Torii gates, shrines, authentic houses and huge koi carps! I managed to see every part of the garden and participate in the forest photoshoot from Cosplaycloud before I decided to call it off early since I would be going back the next day with my mum.

Both my mum and my little brother joined me the next day and we hurried to make it in time for the Cosplaycloud photoshoot in the ceremonial house! My mum made a gorgeous silver kimono for the occasion and we got some great shots together. After photos it was lunchtime and it was definitely the best Japanese food I ever had! Onigiri, chicken curry, fried chicken, chicken teriyaki and steamed rice with veggies... I could barely move after all the food. Unfortunately the heat really affected us (armour and 30+ degrees don't go well together) so we decided to leave earlier than planned. That meant we missed out on the waterfall photoshoot but I think I'll come back here sometime in low season for photos because the garden is just absolutely stunning!

I also found a painted travel stone on the first day and got to hold a turtle duck (from Uncle Iroh!) the second day!