Anime Expo 2023 Update: Map, Artist Alley, Ichiban Market, NIS America & Gashapon Little Tokyo

Find your way with the #AX2023 Convention Map and Area Map! Scour the Anime Expo campus for new encounters, treasures, panels, activations, friends and more!
Register Now: https://t.co/4xnjv9nETq
Hours and Maps: https://t.co/5c2LLUeI6a pic.twitter.com/E770FFLT7v

— Anime Expo (@AnimeExpo) June 14, 2023

Wow, Anime Expo is giving us a lot more info now

Welcome to the Kentia Hall! Find your favorite artists, fashion brands, trendsetters, and more! Calling all Annex exhibitors and Artist Alley Artists, comment below your table number and what you're selling! pic.twitter.com/D4ifHWdb70

— Anime Expo (@AnimeExpo) June 13, 2023

Anime Expo is proud to open Ichiban Market for our attendees to get a taste of an authentic Japanese market! Get transported to an immersive culinary and cultural experience that makes you feel like you are walking down the streets of Japan! pic.twitter.com/8zJr1oMR98

— Anime Expo (@AnimeExpo) June 14, 2023

 

Be sure to swing by booth E31 in the Entertainment Hall to experience six exciting game demos, a stamp rally, cosplayers and exclusive AX 2023 swag!

Take part in the Stamp Rally to win an expo-exclusive Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless acrylic keychain! Join us for The Roadmap to Disgaea 7 & Red Moon Day Celebration panel taking place Saturday July 1, 2023 at 7PM PT!

Dive into the developmental journey leading up to Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless and gather to celebrate Red Moon Day with your T-Shirt to receive a special 2023 Red Moon Day pin!

And, if in Little Tokyo during AX, check out the Gashapon.

With over 200 machines stacked up high, it looks like the perfect place to try your luck and find some fun figure to stick hidden somewhere in your house or show along your window sill.

Gashapon Bandai Official Pop-Up Store

Little Tokyo
Location: 319 E. 2nd St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hours: Wed-Mon, 12PM - 7PM (Closed Tue)
Shop will run from Feb 1 - Aug 31. 

What the heck is a Gashapon? Seen in anime and Japanese video games all the time, gashapon are
vending machine-dispensed capsule toys. There different from the ones you see near super market entrances because they usually cost more with better made products and these are officially Japanese in origin. The name is from what the machine sounds like in Japanese. Two sounds happen when operating one of the vending machines. First, the"gasha" for when you hand-crank the machine and then the "pon" for the  capsule landing in its tray. And, that's how you have its cute name.

 

If you head over to Little Tokyo you can grab toys/stuff to put on your desk from anime/video games and more. What also makes them different than our capsule machines that just getting gum, sticky hands or a fake mustache is the random toys you can get. Many from Japan are just based on random subject like nature or memes. Or just your character doing something they normally wouldn't like their taxes. It's fun to try and collect all the figures in the series, sort of like collecting every toy from a Happy Meal line.