Cosplay Chess

"Cosplay" or "costume play" is probably one of the more unusual distractions among many young Japanese. Basically, it's dressing up to a whole new level. I'm talking about kids putting on some very elaborate make up and highly detailed costumes to represent some character from various sources - commonly from manga.

Yesterday, while being out on my usual photo walk, I stumbled across what seemed like a cosplay convention. Permission is required to take photos of the kids, but I did sneak in this shot.



I mention this because I just noticed that cosplayers outside of Japan seem to include a chess game in their conventions - specifically, human chess! Like in this video (and there's plenty more on YouTube).