As usually in recent years I opened convention season with Zjava. This time it was Zjava 15, a nice anniversary. Sadly it fell on the same weekend as the final of Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy (Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity). Because of that I had to choose between convention and a smaller event held by my local club. It was a tough decision, and in the end I decided to go for the con.
Attending programme
Two years ago I was surprised that I didn’t play anything at a gaming convention which Zjava certainly is. This year it came to me with no surprise. I am wondering whether I should change my priorities and get back to playing at this con? Well the future will tell, but for now I can describe what I did.
In my memory I attended many programme items during Zjava 15, yet upon checking it seems that it was not the case. I spent large part of Saturday in the programme rooms but that was it. In total I listened to five items, of which I would like to mention two I liked the most. First of them was devoted to the Japanese theatre rakugo. The beginning was a theoretical introduction about the history and nature of the said form of art. The latter part was a presentation of one rakugo play. I enjoyed the play very much. It was a short form and the story was very funny. Now I know that I would love to watch some more plays. Of course it would be best to learn Japanese and see those in Japan, performed by the masters of rakugo, but this is quite unlikely. Yet I will be looking online for the translated versions.
Rakugo presentation.
The second item to mention, was a talk about how magic and faith affect coherence of the worldbuilding. Presenter showed how he sees the the impact of magic or existence of gods (as we know them from fantasy) on the worlds. He pointed out that in many cases this is not the case and magic is just “thrown into the world”. It is done without a deeper reflection on how it would affect society and technology. The talk was very interactive and it changed more into a discussion between the presenter and the audience.
So what did I do?
So how did I spent Zjava 15? Well, it seems that I spent most of my time talking. It started in the train on my way to Warsaw. I bought the train ticket myself and planned to read for almost three hours. Yet “because of reasons” I had to change the train, and a friend had to change the train too. In the end we landed in the same carriage and chatted for most of the trip.
On the table in the front you can see a small cards for making your own haiku.
Then the whole Friday afternoon I dialogued with people. Those were not long conversations (at least most of them), but I had to greet everybody, exchange a few words, walk around the con, and it was already time to go to the hotel. On Sunday however… I visited a team room to chat with my friend for a bit. The “bit” took over two hours. For most of our chat I drank tea almost constantly. I am not sure how much I drank as the tea bowl was very small. Yet I tried at least five different teas, most of which had more than one brewing… It was a great time. I had the opportunity to talk to my friend and also to listen to her talking about tea, and explaining the secrets behind it. She mentioned about a tea festival taking place in Poznań in the autumn and I am quite tempted!
I missed social part of Saturday and I should not do that. Five programme items didn’t fill in my whole day. Apart form conversations and wandering around the con I got the chance to visit tea room (although my friend was busy with a group of people then). Because of the visit there Saturday was also a day with a lot of caffeine uptake. I also visited the fan table of the students’ unions from Japanese philology. There I created a haiku. In fact I just played with words and my creation cannot be called haiku, yet it was fun. In the evening I went to a bar to meet fannish friends who were not at Zjava 15. The place was full of other people form the con too so it was like convention pub evening.
Tea room – preparing matcha
A good opening
Last year I didn’t attend too many conventions, and I am not sure how many I’ll visit this year. Yet Zjava 15 was a good one to open 2026 season. To me it was a calm beginning spent with many friends. Moreover, I had no tasks during the convention, so it was a great option to relax.
Seems I was not the only person who had a great time.
Getting to and from Zjava was a challenge, as I wanted to check on new train carrier. Let’s say I was not very impressed and for the future I will stick to the tested carrier. It has its issues but never made me as mad, and travelled with them many times. Yet this is another story and it doesn’t impact Zjava itself.
You can find more pictures in my FB gallery.
My next post will appear closer to the end of February.