There are few better icebreakers in the world than having a cool hobby. Except maybe being very very attractive. That also works well when trying to socialize. But for those of us that haven’t won the genetic lottery and can’t quite afford the plastic surgery, a cool hobby is a nice second place.
I’m serious. Have you ever tried telling that interesting stranger that you take a super secret codebreaking class on the weekends? You should! You’ll see how much they want to talk to you after that! And if they don’t, you can do better!
However, what are some cool hobbies out there that you can do without breaking the bank or your back! Here’s where anime comes in handy.
I should specify that these are hobbies I would do, or pretend to do, and not necessarily the actual coolest hobbies out there. There’s a girl in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei who collects tails. Not a typo, actual tails…
5. Yuru Camp – Camping
Honestly, I am not a camping sort of person. I have often said that as a species we clawed our way out of the much in order to avoid having to do things like camping at all costs. What I am though, is an introvert.
Those quiet scenes of Rin all alone with the scenery and her little diner almost convinced me to go buy a tent. It just seemed so peaceful and relaxing. That is until her personal space got invaded. That show is really an understated horror masterpiece!
Then I remembered that I live in a country where temperatures are usually 30C or -30C with very little in between and snow and freezing rain get immediately replaced by mosquitoes and the urge passes.
4. Princess Jellyfish (design)
So here’s the thing. I really liked Princess Jellyfish. And I loved how their odd hobbies brought everyone together. But for me, I related most to Kuranosuke. Which is really odd. I wanted to be him and my first instinct was to say that I wanted to crossdress as a hobby. Then I remembered that for me it isn’t actually cross-dressing and wearing clothes is a bit of a stretch to be called a hobby.
So instead, I’m going to say I want to design pretty/weird dresses. And then wear them. Mostly I want to wear them. At some point, you have to accept that you’re a basic b.
3. Chihayafuru
I never managed to get into the anime. I don’t know why. I know it’s good, I enjoyed every episode I watched and then I just stopped watching it. It’s one of those shows I will surely get back to at some point. I did watch enough though to be impressed with Karuta.
Karuta is amazing. It’s a card game where you match cards to create (or recreate) proverbs. I always thought the idea of it was deeply romantic. To be good at it you have to memorize all these sayings and haiku and then translate them into a visual representation. What I didn’t expect is for Karuta to be so intense and aggressive! It’s an actual physical sport! I would 100% be super interested if someone told me they played Karuta on the weekends!
2. Tsurune
Look, it’s archery. There’s nothing that weird about it but at the same time, I don’t know anyone right now who does archery in their free time. And I want to. I really want to know an archer. Archers are cool peeps!
The fact is, I have wanted to try out archery more seriously (as in more seriously than the handful of random times I have done it in the past) for years now, but I never got the chance. Watching Tsurune each week just twists that knife. Maybe it will be my next hobby.
1. My Dress-Up Darling (Cosplay)
Is it cheating since it’s technically just wearing things again…
Ok, here’s the deal, I have always said that I really liked putting costumes together but actual cosplay is another story. Having to wear often uncomfortable get-ups for hours. Overheating and getting painful bruises from ridiculous accessories, having strangers really really enthusiastic about meeting you or taking your picture. All of these are things that I wasn’t so keen about.
But setting up a private photoshoot with a couple of friends, WOW that looks like fun. I wanna do that big time. And I might have an idea who to ask 😉
So there you have it, 5 hobby ideas to help you break the ice. Now that I look back on it, maybe these aren’t hobbies that will help you get the interest of everyone out there. But they will definitely get my attention so there’s that…
I’ve gone so far as to look at Karuta sets online to buy. I loved the show and I really thought that would be a super cool hobby that would double as a way to continute to improve my Japanese language skills. (I cringe at even calling it a skill at this point) I haven’t watched Tsurune but it is on my list. I have looked into lessons as I went to a Japanese festival at the senior center some years ago and they had the archers – and the TAIKO drummers there. I fell in love with both, and the archers do have a organization here with lessons, as do the drummers. The festival was our last public outing before COVID… so it’s all fallen into the cracks a bit. My latest binge is Rakugo, although I’d like to go see it somewhere more than actually perform it. Is that a hobby? So yeah, anime has certainly introduced me to some hobbies that I find really interesting and might even want to pursue. Oh and of course, March Comes In Like a Lion makes me want to learn Shogi. And I’ve wanted to learn Mahjongg – real Mahjongg played with humans LOL – forever. And I want to shout out to XXXholic which actually is the first place I saw and wanted to learn archery.
Hikaru no Go was definitely a big one for me when I first saw it in my teens. I actually got a how to play Go book with a portable playing set that I still own. Whistle! (Mainly the manga) got me briefly interested in soccer close to that same time. I was always interested in geography, but Yugo the Negotiator helped me geek out a bit with the different locales and facts about world cultures or how the dub corrected a big mistake in the Japanese version when it came to Pakistan.
I tried archery a couple of times – once in middle school (it was a P.E. class elective) and once as an adult (because I had a friend who was semi into it). It turns out it really hurts your fingers/arms after a while (yes, even if you wear the proper equipment), and it also turned out that I absolutely do not have a natural talent for aiming at/hitting a target with any accuracy whatsoever. XD
Sports anime make me want to try some of the sports I see. Like; I kind of wanted to try Volleyball after season 3 of Haikyuu. And Blue Lock makes Soccer sound more interesting than I think that it is.
Ohh I did want to try volleyball as well.
I get to learn Gunpla building not by watching anime but through a Youtuber named Robert184 and cemented my love for Gundam, specifically the Universal Century timeline.
I should check out that YouTuber
I’ve done archery since I was about 4 (now 28) and was the president of the archery club (and started the anime club lol) at my college =) Highly recommend the hobby, while Tsurune is a little boring for me (the hit/miss scoring in kyudo vs the numerical scoring I’m used to was hard to really get invested in) it’s a very accurate portrayal of the relaxing nature of the sport if you practice it with mindfulness of your form and technique. And that target ‘thwack’ sound is unmatched.
For me, when I watched Bamboo Blade I was so inspired to try Kendo that I did wind up taking a very basic “Japanese Swordsmanship” class
I wish there were Kendo classes in my area. I should look it up
There have been so many anime that have inspired me to learn Japanese traditional cooking. I think Ghibli films and all their glorious food scenes really encouraged me to try making the dishes. Though I haven’t learned to make many things, it has been lots of fun. And tasty too! Oh, and Trigun inspired me to start learning the Japanese language and encouraged me to add Asian languages into my language learning hobby.
Cooking is a big one. I liked it seperatly from anime but I have definetly been inspired to try specific recipes
I used to shoot at things with a toy bow in my childhood, I was good enough to shoot accurately with just sound.
Also, I suppose anime is the reason why I want to learn Go and Shogi. Though the bigger reason is because both of these games are so different from chess, and in the case of Shogi, I really like their low rates of draw.
How did you learn to shoot?
Iwakakeru!: Sport Climbing Girls
made me want to start climbing again. I’ve even got the kids involved.
Hinomaru Sumo made me want to give that a go, but alas there’s no sumo places near me so I had to settle for all you can eat bbq instead…
Ohhh Sumo is intriguing.
First one that comes to mind for me personally is “Hikaru no Go”. It got me playing Go, reading about it, watching pros play… and then I stopped. Not sure why, the game is great.
On the flip side, an anime that I watched because it involved a hobby of mine, is “Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls”. There was a lot of fan service, but they used proper terminology and moves, so I got hooked.
How could I forget Go! I loved that showw and I still want to play Go because of it. And majung because of Saki