Sam's date!

Sam arrives at the appointed time and place to find Hanako happily waiting at the meeting point. The convention center is absolutely flooded with people, many of whom are dressed as assorted anime characters. Hanako beams at Sam and gives him a wave before walking over and joining his side. She speaks, but whatever she says is lost in the din of excited anime fans. Judging by the program booklet in her hand that she's pointing to, it's reasonable to assume she is probably discussing the events and tables she would like to see.

Sam realizes that this was a terrible idea, and attempts to fight off a sensory overload in the crowded convention center, with strangers pushing at him to get to where they're going.
(Rolling will+self soothing instead of will+charisma)
Sam Dekker carried out 8 launched of one d6 :

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Sam is extremely uncomfortable and feels his lungs contracting around all these people. He hates every second, but Hanako continues to point excitedly at the program booklet, presumably talking as well, judging by the movement of her lips. She pulls him towards the entrance.

Sam follows. But doesn't make any meaningful contributions aside from being present and trying not to freak out. Presumably, he's sweating more than normal

Bodies are pressed together like sardines as the pair make their way to different booths where Hanako leads Sam to as he has no apparent preference for where he's going. His whole concentration is focused on not losing his shit as she goes from booth to booth getting autographs from voice actors, animators, manga-ka's and other 'celebrities' that Sam is unfamiliar with. Just when he is about to completely lose it, she pulls him into a seat in front of a stage featuring a cosplay/karaoke competition.

Sam takes the opportunity of being seated, and not caring about a cosplay contest happening in front of him, to catch his breath and try to calm himself down with some Towers of Hanoi.
Sam Dekker carried out 10 launched of one d6 :

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Sam is considerably more calm by the time the winners are crowned. They appear to be a duo dressed as characters from a fighting video game who sang the theme song to a fighting anime. Hanako gets pretty excited and cheers them on... presumably. Her mouth is open anyway.

After the contest, Hanako and Sam find a quiet corner outside and sit down for lunch. From a small cloth bag, Hanako pulls out a pair of lunch boxes, one for herself and the other for Sam. She prays before the meal then opens it up to reveal some cute, pig-shaped rice balls, a heart filled with corn and green peas, and several pot stickers. She looks at Sam and says something, apparently awaiting a response.

"What?" Sam says. And he hits record to have his deck record audio.

She repeats herself.

((Got any sound filters? You can add their rating to a perception check if you have them. Otherwise just a flat perception check.))

((don't think so. My plan was ton open up audacity on the audio file I just recorded of her and amplify it.))

Perception:
Sam Dekker carried out 7 launched of one d6 :

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Though he replays the audio a few times and tries to play it louder, the only thing he makes out is the word "favorite". The rest just sounds like ambient noise.

Sam does his best to approximate an encouraging smile and nods.

Hanako seems satisfied with Sam's response and lunch goes on without a hitch. While they are eating, Sam notices some cosplayers watching them as they chat and eat their own lunches. At first he doesn't recognize them because of their costumes, but the more he looks at them, the more he starts to realize he's seen their faces before. Due to his incredible memory, he remembers that he saw them at the Kozakura-ikka base, though he didn't interact with them directly at the time.

Sam watches them. He doesn't do anything to be sneaky about it.

He also watches for them in the matrix.

The cosplayers don't appear to be doing anything special on the matrix. They have AR animations going on around them to accent their costumes (little virtual pets, glowing magic symbols, emoticons and the like) but they do not appear to be currently doing anything active with their devices. When Sam starts looking at them, they stop looking at Sam.

Sam keeps watching.

Eventually they finish up their lunch and move on. Sam and Hanako also finish their lunch then Hanako pulls Sam to a Q & A panel with some voice actress that apparently does the voice of a cute mascot character from a monster catching video game/anime series. Sam has no knowledge of the anime, but is familiar with the game at least. No matter what question the audience asks, the voice actress responds with animal sounds and pantomime. The audience loves it, including Hanako.

Sam likes sitting and not paying attention to panels much more than being jostled by strangers. Since he isn't currently fighting against hyperventilating, he spends the panel still on the watch for Kozakura-ikka gang members.

Perception
Sam Dekker carried out 7 launched of one d6 :

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With nothing better to do, he scans the crowd and recognizes two members, neither of whom were with the members he saw before. They appear to be actually paying attention to the panel and either haven't noticed Sam or are doing a good job of not making it look obvious that they did.

The panel eventually ends and a screen is brought out showing trailers introducing the next season's new anime series. There's a middle school slice of life show, a baseball show, a fighting show, three horror shows, two fantasy shows, a magical girl show, 5 absurdist comedies, a scifi yuri show and a cyberpunk harem show.

Sam says more attention to the two members than he does to the panel or the trailers that come after.
But, from the description, even just sitting around through the trailers sounds interminable.
Sam eventually gets bored and pulls up a game to occupy himself.
It's a game he can play effectively in AR, but not just Towers of Hanoi. I don't feel like coming up with a jokey game, but it's some kind of ccg.
He tries to both play the ccg and also keep an eye on the two members, but he is pretty distracted.

The pair eventually leave somewhere halfway through the trailers, making no indication that they noticed Sam. Sam barely notices them leave as he starts to get into the ccg. Before he realizes it, the lights go on and the trailers are over. Hanako is smiling and asking a question again... he thinks.

Sam tries smiling and nodding again.
He makes a note in his notes app to build a miniature parabolic microphone over the weekend. A lapel pin sized one that he can use without it being too obvious. Maybe wireless, and built into a ring.