Furu Anime Panikku

During my part-time job as a guide for Japanese students, I had some rather interesting encounters. I met a couple of cute girls in the group that I brought around of Valentine’s Day. They didn’t look their age, just like how I don’t look mine. And we are of the same age!!! It’s such a pity I didn’t take any photos. I forgot to bring my camera to the job, and my phone’s camera sucks. Also, I was a little too caught up at looking at them. LOL, I’m half-kidding. But man, I sure regret not taking photos. Maybe I should have asked for their email addresses.

A photo of me and the girls in my group should have actually been in this spot…

On the following day, I brought my second group, which happened to be an all-male group. When I first met them, I began to rant mentally about how screwed my day was going to be. Almost all the guys in the groups dressed up like yankees, probably the worst kind of people you would want to bring around. Fortunately for me, I was dead wrong. This is one of those times where I agree with the saying “Looks are deceiving”.

Those “Yankees” only appeared to be yankees. It didn’t take me long to realise what they really were, despite them looking anything but otaku.

When I brought them around to the various fashion shops, no one bought anything. However, once we went to the Kinokuniya at Bugis Junction, they started shedding their masks and revealing their true selves. When they saw shelves and shelves of manga, despite the manga being in English and Chinese, they were as excited as a little kid in a candy store. All of a sudden, they were brimming with energy and enthusiasm. One guy even bought 4 chinese volumes of Lucky Star, explaining to me that Chinese manga was a rare find in Japan. He probably wanted to bring it back home as a trophy of his Singapore trip to show off to his other friends.

They’re otakus in disguise

Now you know what makes a good present for a Japanese otaku.

After knowing what their interests were, I proceeded on by bringing them to Sim Lim Square to look at games, as well as Sunshine Plaza to look at anime merchandise. They didn’t buy any other anime stuff though, since the stuff back in Japan would be so much cheaper.

Through conversation, with crappy lower-than-kindergarten standard Japanese on my part, I learnt that they frequent Akihabara. Since the start of this year, they have already been there 4 times. From where they stay, it takes a 2-hour train ride before they arrive at Akihabara. That’s means a total of 4 hours for a trip to and fro. Their Saturdays or Sundays are probably fully spent at Akihabara.

秋葉原へ行きたい！！！

By being with the guys for a quarter of a day, I realised that high school Japanese otakus aren’t as extreme as some of the high schoolers here. Their purchases are rather limited as compare to some other local otakus of the same age whom I know.

I guess the only real hardcore ones are the working-class Japanese otakus.

As for my job, it made me come to the realisation of how badly my Japanese linguistic skills suck. I can’t even hold a proper conversation with the students. Still, I’m very grateful to them for not laughing at my frequent retarded speech mistakes. I should improve with practice, I hope.

Edit : Special thanks to Sentinel011 from The Bonkurasu Brigade.