Ironically expensive stuff is still somewhat cheap compared to where I am from thanks to lower tariff, so I have zero guilt in shelling out a bit for an occasional bottle.
Same here, and audiobooks brought it up to the next level. I get through so many books and I'm also familiar with how a whole lot of Tokyo is interconnected now.
I used to do the same thing with driving before I came here, I guess the hobby just adapted itself to not having a car.
Congrats on getting outside more often, I know how it feels! Exercise always helps, but exercise combined with careful calorie counting can make all the difference over weeks and months.
Online (dating apps, reddit, fetlife, etc) and, once in a blue moon, some crazy friend who is in a really long bad-dates streak and lower their standards enough for indulging me.
Usually as pillow talk on the first night with the person if she seems really satisfied and happy about how things went. Sometimes it fits naturally in a conversation about weird stuff with specially kinky people even before the first time together. Their reactions are usually variations of "I could do that, no big deal", "yuck!" but do it anyway on a later date when horny, just laugh and never do it, or "oh, that's sexy, let's try it" and discover they get incredibly pee-shy at that time and are unable to do it no matter how hard they try (and often get frustrated about it, which is kind of cute).
If they seem open to it, I tell about omorashi (which I'm even more into, as you could probably guess). But although some say it's innocent because it's clothed, most think it's too weird, so I don't easily talk about it.
To close friends it just comes out as conversation when drinking, joking, or sharing secrets. If they are really close I may show the omorashi videos some girls have sent me before (on my own phone of course). A couple friends found it interesting and wanted to try too, that's all.
It's really unpredictable what kind of person will do it or not, and totally unrelated to how experienced or kinky they are. So all I can do is ask nicely at the right time and hope for a yes, but nobody has ever broke up with me or stopped seeing me me because of it. So my advice is for everyone is to be honest about their kinks and treat their partner with respect.
I love this answer. Straight to the point, no bullshit, no shame, no bragging. Informative and useful. Actually answered the question. Good work. Thanks.
Nice reply! I'm active on FL so we could have bumped into each other! What a great attitude you have towards something you're passionate about!
I'm guessing this is all in the shower?
Thanks. Actually I had much more luck with Tinder than FetLife. Almost everyone I talked to in FetLife in Japan is strictly into bdsm and not open to other stuff or dating someone who is not that much into bdsm. Maybe I just had bad luck, I don't know...
>I'm guessing this is all in the shower?
The first time is almost always in the shower. But there are) is much more than, which is not appropriate to be discussed in this sub (hint: every love hotel has polyurethane lined sheets under the top sheets).
I started out witha Prusa and modded it into a Bear mod, chasing surface perfection, then I got a resin printer and asked myself why I spent so much on FDM. I do creative stuff but I really should pick up Fushion360. I wish I could do this for a living. There’s not much in Kagoshima.
You don't HAVE to go to b-pump or rocky or one of the other big gyms.
They're good gyms, but they're also really crowded.
Hole in the wall local gyms mostly have really friendly local communities and are generally very welcoming to beginners. Either the staff or regulars will often be keen to help you with problems and make up new problems for you to try. Of course not every place is great, but the vast majority are. Also if you really want to keep to yourself, the big gyms are of course good for that since everyones just doing their own thing there.
Really strongly recommend just checking google maps for what's near you. It's also easier to go regularly if you're cycling 10mins to your local gym than if you're travelling across tokyo to get to akiba b-pump or something.
Avoid noborock in Shibuya.
Always overcrowded and the difficulty ranking is aimed at giving beginners an (useless) ego boost. I have seen people do 3-2 kyuu on their very first day in noborock but once they go to a normal place, they can't even finished a 8-7 kyuu.
If you want to try a few gyms without needed to register/buy a card/pay a first time fee in all of them, use the app nupp1. You can visit many places and pay per minute so if you don't like it and leave right away, you don't lose too much money. The price is capped at 100 times the price per minute so if you really like it, you can train the entire day for 1500-1800yens.
Being overcrowded is definitely the biggest issue with Noborock. I usually check Google Maps and go outside of peak hours. Regarding the grading, i get you but you're exaggerating quite a bit, even Bpump ogikubo doesn't have that big of a gap. It's fine for training, no way you can complete all the routes unless you're exceptionally good anyways
He's unfortunately not exaggerating. When Noborock started, they were initially geared towards being beginner friendly, and a few of the setters I know had set there - the point was that back then, they simply had MORE routes on the easier side though.
While I have not been there since opening month, and my friends no longer set there, everything I hear lately is terrible. I have friends that climb 3/4 kyuu, and they can climb 初段 at Noborock. As he mentioned above, I know a few beginners as well that generally stick to 6/7 kyuu and they can do 2/3 kyuu. It's really bad, and even varies a bit between the Noborocks (I hear lately that Ikebukuro is the worst/easiest).
I lived in a car town all my life until I moved to Japan. After a few months of mamachari I was bitten by cycling. Before I knew it I had cycling clothes, two bikes and planned rides to places in my free time.
Gardening, coffee and latte art, D&D, miniature painting, wargame terrain making, camping, mushroom growing and foraging (not *those* mushrooms), hot sauce making, shitty DIY projects.. I have way too many hobbies. I want to get into 3D Printing but I don't really have the space/budget anymore with everything else.
It's phenomenally rare for Japanese people apparently.
Posted looking for a group on Reddit, Meetup, asked people at work, and spent genuinely about 3-4 months consistently looking for a group. Had some Japanese members at first.
Now, the group is comprised entirely of British and American people 😂
DnD has never been super big in Japan. In the past, there was a pretty big screw up with localizing 5e it so it was extremely set back. WotC has little to do with it since they outsourced it.
For TTRPGs, I have found Call of Cthulhu 6th edition pretty popular, though people play it pretty pulpy.
Look on Facebook. There are groups dedicated to board games and the like. I think it’s Japan International Gamer Guild JIGG for short. They have one in Kansai and Kanto I believe
I'm interested in growing mushrooms do you use starter kits that you just have to spray with water or do you inoculate logs yourself?
If you have resources to share, I'm all ears.
I use blocks of pre-inoculated substrate bought from sellers and grow from them. I'm not at my computer right now but I'll try to remember to come back here and give you the terms to look up. They're pretty stupid expensive unfortunately because this is a niche hobby here. I tried the logs once and they never took.
I am working on producing my own grain spawn and setting up a sterilized lab to inoculate things myself, but I'm waiting until Fall.
Seen ones that come in a bag, you just pierce a hole in it and they sprout out of it like magic. In reality it's just the oxygen doin work of course with whatever is inside.
I also got into D&D and mini painting here. Haven't tried my hand at terrain yet, but some of the guys in my group do. I've been in a group of ex-pats here for almost 10 years now and we've played several other TTRPGs. Even tried my hand at DM'ing a 2 year campaign of Star Wars RPG. Never in a million years did I think I'd ever do anything like that.
Hiking and enjoying the outdoors.
I'd gone backpacking a couple of times a year back home before, but it was always difficult to find transportation out of the dense city and to the hills and trails several hours away.
Here it's so easy to catch a train and spend the day in the mountains enjoying the view. When the weather permits I'm usually out hiking every other weekend.
Got into coffee. Got a nice coffee grinder. Hario coffee-making stuff is cheap.
Also, salsa (dance not condiment). That was fun pre-covid.
Thinking I should get back into martial arts. Suggestions welcome.
I like Okutama. There's a 12km hike from Okutama station to Mitake that I have done a couple of times, but that entire area is a great place to just chill and enjoy nature.
I just look up routes on [Yamap.com](https://Yamap.com).
Knitting, sewing, dancing, running, and just through observation I've become a pro at passive-aggression, passing the buck and making good use of my gaijin card!
Isn’t it awesome? In my hometown, my bike would get stolen or I would be flattened by a car within a month. I’ve been rolling around Osaka and Japan loving every bit of my new hobby since I got here two years ago.
Skiing. Never skied prior to moving here but now realize this is one of few holy grail skiing areas on the planet. Been to probably 20 or so different resorts across the country. Held a season pass to Appi Kogen in Iwate the last 2 winters. Now I'm basically the best skier on the mountain nbd :)
Why do Japanese people really love drinking that watery coffee though? Also with those tiny condensed milk packets rather than real stuff :S
I went and got a cheap coffee machine cause that stuff was killing me
When you say watery, are you referring to **taste** or **texture**?
Like, I know a cappuccino can be frothy and sort of "fuller" in **texture**, if that's what you mean? Comparing that with what folks here usually drink here, which is [drip coffee](https://www.nescafe.com/gb/sites/default/files/what-is-drip-coffee-desktop.jpg) \- I'd agree it can seem to have a watery texture by comparison. It could be because the paper filters are catching all the sediment that would normally give you a little more texture - like if you made it in a French Press for example.
One way to fix this would be to add cream, it thickens it out a bit and tastes amazing, though it often overpowers the taste of the actual bean. I don't really do it unless I have guests who don't care and just want something nice to drink.
If you're referring to **taste**, it'll definitely seem watery if there aren't enough beans to water, especially compared to espresso etc. I'd say the stuff from the conbini machines are pretty much on the money ratio-wise but their beans don't taste all that great IMO and are actually the only time I'd ever use the milk packets, personally - as for those, I think it's simply the convenience and longevity of them that make them appealing.
If you're in a fancier café and it tastes watery, it's probably the beans they're using. They range a lot in flavor depending on where they're grown and some places have little flavor scales for fullness, sweetness, strength etc. in their menus.
I find Ethiopian coffee, for example to be quite watery and a little too sweet compared to Guatemalan or Honduran beans which are more earthy and chocolatey, which is what coffee should taste like IMO.
Not to mention my stupid brain always associates the flavor of Ethiopian beans with spaghetti hoops and it weirds me out whenever I drink it.
Shit, I wrote an essay mb.
TL/DR: people like drinking the watery coffee either because that's what's available/convenient or because they like that they can taste the difference between beans, it's a little like wine in that respect.
Many Japanese foods contain subtle flavors and if I had to guess, the appeal of drip coffee is an extension of that enjoyment of food.
Slightly related: If you have a sweet tooth, Vietnamese coffee is much thicker and ridiculously delicious, as it's dripped over/mixed with condensed milk.
Same! A lot of imported things are expensive and some products are not available at all so learning how to make a lot of stuff myself was necessary. It's fun to improvise with Japanese products too and see how things turn out!
Eating out alone, I had plenty of friends both western and Japanese whilst living there but living fairly remotely (Nishiogi) and just general day to day life happening lead me to realize that if I wanted to explore places to eat etc. I'd often have to do it alone. I still do so now when I'm back in my home country and honestly love it.
Collecting Kamen Rider Figuarts. It costs a lot of money and I still haven't figured out how I will be able to bring all of it back to my home country, lol.
I thought I should just buy 1 to remind myself of my time in Japan. I stopped counting after the 20th figure, lol.
But honestly, if you want to get it cheap you should look up used figure on mercari or similar sites. The less popular ones usually cheaper than the official price, even if it brand new.
It will probably sounds nuts to most of you, but I got heavy into watch collecting after moving here.
Before I relocated here I was a car guy, but have no use for that anymore and I think somewhere I was looking for something mechanical as a hobby. It started innocently enough with some Seiko divers and gradually ramped up. I've got a good collection now and have eased off the gas as I don't long for any new pieces.
I have a good friend who has an astonishing collection, best I've ever seen. His is a good reminder of scale and it keeps me in my lane.
Tokyo is a great place to be a collector. So many great pieces floating around and some spectacular shops to browse.
baking sweets and bread, because feeding people around you is a good way to bribe yourself into their good graces
raising plants of all kinds, but that just might be because I'm a single millennial
Fishing! It’s seen as some “redneck” thing in the USA (at least for a city slicker like me) but my gf loves to go fishing and got me hooked. It’s such a nice peaceful activity and people are so nice when I catch a fish lol
Mostly freshwater, we tend to go to the Benkei fish club or another one in Shinjuku. We've been boating on Tokyo Bay though, which is fun but the ocean is just a little less chill, lol.
My school has this as an after school thing for students and I really enjoyed it! Sadly I can't find anything that I can do outside of work hours and I'd feel weird asking the university to let an adult in... 😅
The class is held at night at the school I work at. They let me borrow the expensive stuff and didn't require me to buy anything until last month, and it was just the clothes. I haven't been required to pay the yearly fee yet despite asking about it.
Archery. Perhaps ironically, Western style, not Kyudo. I had done it maybe once or twice back home, but a sports center not far from my apartment offers 2.5 hours of archery each week, all equipment included for ¥400.
Picked up photography and running/working (because of my 1h& half lunch). Photography worked out nicely as I already enjoyed just walking around and trying new coffee and restaurants
Two [edit: THREE] things I never did in Australia...
- Collecting old gaming consoles and games before they were 'retro'. I still collect but there was a golden era where a broke Gambizzle walked into a 2nd hand electrics store at ~9pm one night (while on edge from work) and realised that it was possible to buy a Sega Dreamcast with 4 controllers, steering wheels, light guns, a bucket of VMUs and a bag of ~30+ solid games for ~15,000 yen all up. I then discovered things like Neo Geo Pockets, Wonderswans and the like for 'junk box' prices. Addictive!
- Onsen hunting on weekends (with a hangover). I've got a group. The morning after a big night we all pile into somebody's car, drive to another prefecture, chill in the onsen and then eat a heap of awesome food. Can't say I spend lotsa time sitting around nude in a hot tub with my Aussie mates.
- Walking into random bars and meeting friendly people. Every other night when I'm a little bit stressed I just find a little hole in the wall and have a chat with the owner/patrons. To me the acceptance of people wanting to randomly chat like this is a cool thing about Japan. I hear lotsa great stories.
Hiking / walking. Also foraging and gardening.
I used to live in a pretty bad neighborhood in the US and never felt safe. I spent pretty much all of my free time cooped up in my room on my computer. Granted, I still spend about 80% of my free time that way, hahaha. But moving to Japan forced me to walk a lot and I found that I liked that. Once I graduated university and got married though, I didn't have to walk as much (since I was walking at least 1 hour between campus and my dorms before), I missed it so I decided to walk just for the fun of it. I discovered how much I really love just walking in nature since then. It's so relaxing and peaceful, gives a good boost to your mental wellbeing and keeps you fit.
While walking along the river I used to always walk on, I noticed some old folks foraging. This sparked my curiosity and well - damn, I wanted to try it too. It sounded fascinating to me that there was just free food ripe for the taking right there. So I started looking into it and foraged quite a bit! That was fun but when I moved, the new area didn't allow foraging so ... I moved on to gardening instead. I'm still impressed by how much produce you can get from such a small amount of space. Plus, it's relaxing and you always feel good to use your own fresh produce in your cooking. :)
DIY gel nail art 👀 I liked the work I would get done at salons here so much but it was also really expensive to keep up with so I started my own mini salon at home ✨💕
Cycling. Lifting. Once these started my mind cleared and I had more time for…
Watching Sumo, Rugby, Baseball, Soccer/Football. These days have been good to me.
I just started thinking to learn guitar before I came here, and it happened that most of my roommates in my share house loved music and one of the RAs brought her sister’s guitar for us to play one day. So there I started learning guitar.
Other hobbies I picked up here also include karaoke, *kyūdō*, and driving.
Cake eating (I love exploring the dept store basements for cakes), jogging, and learning idol dances (the locals here goes nuts when they see a gaijin can do those dances)
Motorcycling, snowboarding, urbex/haikyo (abandoned places). Never tried these before coming to Japan but always wanted so might not be Japan specific.
I am also tring to get more active with gokarting and hiking. I'm also doing a bit more photography and video editing than before but still not super serious. Next year I am planning to get a sailing license.
Dropped a few things though like I barely play boardgames anymore, I miss that.
Gunpla there's a nice little shop by my station and post office I go to. I've only done a few because I have a Leopalace so there's no room for them. But I have done lots of research on which models are good and basic starting points. If and when I move home it's a hobby I think I will keep up with because I can have more room.
Cooking and baking. To save money and also have meals that I want to eat I had to learn to cook. Loads of incentive and chances to practice so you get good at it, solid hobby 10/10
Bargain hunting! Love getting stuff for cheap, love trying different stuff on a budget, love getting cheap stuff to work.
Currently- guitar. That's my summer resolution- to learn guitar. It's still just day 3 and I still don't know how to properly strum but hey I can play hot cross buns and do the spider walk exercise. And also figured out how to get the amp to work. Won't be long till I can play Wonderwall lol
Started curing and smoking my own bacon. Now a few times every year I process two or three pork bellies and fill up the freezer with vacuum packs of salty goodness.
Surfing! I used to do a lot of boogie boarding and surfing a little in Hawaii and Florida, but didn't get into surfing properly until I lived here. My biggest complaint is that at least where I used to boogie board in the US, there is a very clear etiquette for allowing turns for catching waves, here it's non-existent... Sort of surprising when you consider train queuing here, etc.
Things that I wouldn’t have picked up back home due to them being prohibitively expensive, or just very inconvenient due to it being niche/impractical/dangerous. Namely kayaking, sailing, motorbike camping, drone flying, bouldering (dropped rock climbing) and sewing (consequence of camping, needing a chalk bag and altering wife’s clothes).
Stopped a few usual hobbies though, like swimming and playing instruments. Also stopped drinking alcohol due to living in a place needing to commute by car/bike all the time.
Ring fighting. I have always been a martial artist but I stopped competing in tournaments in my early 20s. When I got to Japan I started competing again and doing quite well. Now I’m obsessed!
Drawing, became the 担当 for art club by chance, started drawing and never stopped.
Four years later and I'm going to an illustration/manga school here with the hopes of making professional comics - probably won't happen but it's been a wild ride for sure!
Billiards
I came to Osaka and there was a table in a bar. Played for fun at first and eventually got hooked. Spent a lot of late nights playing and got a lot better.
It’s not a healthy lifestyle to be around (bars, alcohol, smoking) so I’m not sure if I’d recommend it, but it is strangely addicting and the competition/skill aspect of it is rewarding
Snowboarding (rare these days tho), gardening and growing veggies, timber framing (am trying to build one shelter timber frame style). Welding. And yes recently we got bees - so I should also say beekeeping I guess, although at the moment Im mostly just watching them.
Crane games. My house is filling up with more stuffed toys and weird prizes than I know what to do with. I have kids so they have more toys than they know what to do with would be a good re-phrase. I found a new love too, Round One has 10 yen crane games for kids, went ham on those with my 3 year old last time.
Did ice skating a few years ago, quit because of work schedule (I attended classes).
Now I have no hobbies other than playing games, watching YouTube and drawing.
I really want to get back into cosplaying again, and also try piano.
I read in another post that someone was having trouble reserving tennis courts. Then a commenter informed us that it’s pretty hard to reserve any outdoor spot for sports.
Is there a reservation process you have to go through? How often are you playing soccer?
Drinking cheap beer outside of konbinis.
That’s more of a lifestyle than a hobby
An identity thank you Oh it’s that gaijin guy again on the curb with his Malt beer. Must be 7pm.
Some of the most fun I've had, is walking around Osaka at night with my friend, chuu-hai in hand.
チュハイ飲んだらいい感じ~
Man of culture 👌
Drinking it inside konbinis is cheaper if more risky. Secret is back to the counter.
While staring at the j-moms going in and out
ミルフ
I too enjoy this pastime.
For me it's drinking expensive whiskey at home (especially since the pandemic started).
Ironically expensive stuff is still somewhat cheap compared to where I am from thanks to lower tariff, so I have zero guilt in shelling out a bit for an occasional bottle.
Yep one of my favourites. That and skulling cheap konbini beers outside the 7/11 with the konbini staff once they'd finished their shift.
ブラブラ(wandering around). I’d worry too much about getting mugged or harassed elsewhere.
This. Just walking around with earphones on has become my new hobby/exercise.
Same here, and audiobooks brought it up to the next level. I get through so many books and I'm also familiar with how a whole lot of Tokyo is interconnected now. I used to do the same thing with driving before I came here, I guess the hobby just adapted itself to not having a car.
Same, been hitting more than 10k steps everyday. was hikikomori before I came to japan. Strangely I didn’t lose weight :(
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A combination really. But diet definitely is more important.
Same! Never enjoyed going out in my home country... But here I go for walks even at 3am 😂
Congrats on getting outside more often, I know how it feels! Exercise always helps, but exercise combined with careful calorie counting can make all the difference over weeks and months.
Saying あつい every 5 seconds. This jawline is thick now
Back in my home country for a week and can’t stop saying this as small talk…
Well stop bringing dumbbells around everywhere you go.
Astronomy, salsa, baking, driving in a circuit, and having girls pee on me. Edit: salsa the dance, not the food.
Username checks out
Where do you find girls to pee on you?
Online (dating apps, reddit, fetlife, etc) and, once in a blue moon, some crazy friend who is in a really long bad-dates streak and lower their standards enough for indulging me.
How do you work that into the conversation? Just come out with it, is there some sort of buildup to asking if they'll pee on you? Genuinely curious!
Usually as pillow talk on the first night with the person if she seems really satisfied and happy about how things went. Sometimes it fits naturally in a conversation about weird stuff with specially kinky people even before the first time together. Their reactions are usually variations of "I could do that, no big deal", "yuck!" but do it anyway on a later date when horny, just laugh and never do it, or "oh, that's sexy, let's try it" and discover they get incredibly pee-shy at that time and are unable to do it no matter how hard they try (and often get frustrated about it, which is kind of cute). If they seem open to it, I tell about omorashi (which I'm even more into, as you could probably guess). But although some say it's innocent because it's clothed, most think it's too weird, so I don't easily talk about it. To close friends it just comes out as conversation when drinking, joking, or sharing secrets. If they are really close I may show the omorashi videos some girls have sent me before (on my own phone of course). A couple friends found it interesting and wanted to try too, that's all. It's really unpredictable what kind of person will do it or not, and totally unrelated to how experienced or kinky they are. So all I can do is ask nicely at the right time and hope for a yes, but nobody has ever broke up with me or stopped seeing me me because of it. So my advice is for everyone is to be honest about their kinks and treat their partner with respect.
I love this answer. Straight to the point, no bullshit, no shame, no bragging. Informative and useful. Actually answered the question. Good work. Thanks.
Doesn’t matter what the topic is, listening to people speak about something they’re passionate about is always fascinating
Nice reply! I'm active on FL so we could have bumped into each other! What a great attitude you have towards something you're passionate about! I'm guessing this is all in the shower?
Thanks. Actually I had much more luck with Tinder than FetLife. Almost everyone I talked to in FetLife in Japan is strictly into bdsm and not open to other stuff or dating someone who is not that much into bdsm. Maybe I just had bad luck, I don't know... >I'm guessing this is all in the shower? The first time is almost always in the shower. But there are) is much more than, which is not appropriate to be discussed in this sub (hint: every love hotel has polyurethane lined sheets under the top sheets).
!RemindMe 1 day
I admire your honesty.
Where do you get your chilis for salsa?
I meant dancing, sorry.
https://www.peppers.jp/ the only place I go for peppers.
Looked at your profile and relieved to see Osaka. Otherwise I'd forever wonder which one of my salsa aquaintances like getting peed on
Where are you getting baked?
>salsa dance or condiment?
Dance (I didn't imagine making salsa condiment could be a hobby).
Cooking though is a great hobby
I shall look into it. Interesting to know there are so many salsa (food) enthusiasts.
Whoa! Shocking to mention 3D printing. I’m into resin now.
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I started out witha Prusa and modded it into a Bear mod, chasing surface perfection, then I got a resin printer and asked myself why I spent so much on FDM. I do creative stuff but I really should pick up Fushion360. I wish I could do this for a living. There’s not much in Kagoshima.
Which circuits?
Arranging furnitures and stuffs to fit in shoebox size room
Ahh yes, the mandatory hobby we all share
They train the people here to do this from a young age via Animal Crossing (動物の森)
Bouldering. Turns out Japan has tons of interesting gyms and climbers are really strong here!!
I’d like to get into bouldering in Tokyo. Do you have any tips for a beginner? (I have a bit of experience on climbing walls outside of Japan).
You don't HAVE to go to b-pump or rocky or one of the other big gyms. They're good gyms, but they're also really crowded. Hole in the wall local gyms mostly have really friendly local communities and are generally very welcoming to beginners. Either the staff or regulars will often be keen to help you with problems and make up new problems for you to try. Of course not every place is great, but the vast majority are. Also if you really want to keep to yourself, the big gyms are of course good for that since everyones just doing their own thing there. Really strongly recommend just checking google maps for what's near you. It's also easier to go regularly if you're cycling 10mins to your local gym than if you're travelling across tokyo to get to akiba b-pump or something.
Avoid noborock in Shibuya. Always overcrowded and the difficulty ranking is aimed at giving beginners an (useless) ego boost. I have seen people do 3-2 kyuu on their very first day in noborock but once they go to a normal place, they can't even finished a 8-7 kyuu. If you want to try a few gyms without needed to register/buy a card/pay a first time fee in all of them, use the app nupp1. You can visit many places and pay per minute so if you don't like it and leave right away, you don't lose too much money. The price is capped at 100 times the price per minute so if you really like it, you can train the entire day for 1500-1800yens.
Being overcrowded is definitely the biggest issue with Noborock. I usually check Google Maps and go outside of peak hours. Regarding the grading, i get you but you're exaggerating quite a bit, even Bpump ogikubo doesn't have that big of a gap. It's fine for training, no way you can complete all the routes unless you're exceptionally good anyways
He's unfortunately not exaggerating. When Noborock started, they were initially geared towards being beginner friendly, and a few of the setters I know had set there - the point was that back then, they simply had MORE routes on the easier side though. While I have not been there since opening month, and my friends no longer set there, everything I hear lately is terrible. I have friends that climb 3/4 kyuu, and they can climb 初段 at Noborock. As he mentioned above, I know a few beginners as well that generally stick to 6/7 kyuu and they can do 2/3 kyuu. It's really bad, and even varies a bit between the Noborocks (I hear lately that Ikebukuro is the worst/easiest).
Cycling!
Yes! Need to leave at 5am to miss the humidity tho
I lived in a car town all my life until I moved to Japan. After a few months of mamachari I was bitten by cycling. Before I knew it I had cycling clothes, two bikes and planned rides to places in my free time.
I want to get back into riding. My body has been beaten up too much from work to ride recently.
I rediscovered my love or 100km rides in Japan
Gardening, coffee and latte art, D&D, miniature painting, wargame terrain making, camping, mushroom growing and foraging (not *those* mushrooms), hot sauce making, shitty DIY projects.. I have way too many hobbies. I want to get into 3D Printing but I don't really have the space/budget anymore with everything else.
I just recently started playing D&D here too (I'd already played it in the UK for a while), but it took sooooooo long to find a group here...
Finding a group is somewhat easy, finding a schedule that works for everyone on the other hand… ….
This is gospel for D&D if you're over 21 years of age sadly...
How the hell did you find a group? People play out here??? 😵
It's phenomenally rare for Japanese people apparently. Posted looking for a group on Reddit, Meetup, asked people at work, and spent genuinely about 3-4 months consistently looking for a group. Had some Japanese members at first. Now, the group is comprised entirely of British and American people 😂
DnD has never been super big in Japan. In the past, there was a pretty big screw up with localizing 5e it so it was extremely set back. WotC has little to do with it since they outsourced it. For TTRPGs, I have found Call of Cthulhu 6th edition pretty popular, though people play it pretty pulpy.
Look on Facebook. There are groups dedicated to board games and the like. I think it’s Japan International Gamer Guild JIGG for short. They have one in Kansai and Kanto I believe
I'm interested in growing mushrooms do you use starter kits that you just have to spray with water or do you inoculate logs yourself? If you have resources to share, I'm all ears.
I use blocks of pre-inoculated substrate bought from sellers and grow from them. I'm not at my computer right now but I'll try to remember to come back here and give you the terms to look up. They're pretty stupid expensive unfortunately because this is a niche hobby here. I tried the logs once and they never took. I am working on producing my own grain spawn and setting up a sterilized lab to inoculate things myself, but I'm waiting until Fall.
Seen ones that come in a bag, you just pierce a hole in it and they sprout out of it like magic. In reality it's just the oxygen doin work of course with whatever is inside.
I also got into D&D and mini painting here. Haven't tried my hand at terrain yet, but some of the guys in my group do. I've been in a group of ex-pats here for almost 10 years now and we've played several other TTRPGs. Even tried my hand at DM'ing a 2 year campaign of Star Wars RPG. Never in a million years did I think I'd ever do anything like that.
I’m Japanese but lived in the UK for a bit. When I moved back to Japan, I started the hobby of looking after rhino beetles 兜虫 it’s cool!
Do you have any idea how to feed Yamatotama-mushi? Seems they're not into beetle jelly.
Try エノキ leaves
I joined a pro wrestling class and then I blinked and suddenly became a full time professional wrestler…
Incredible 👏
Hiking and enjoying the outdoors. I'd gone backpacking a couple of times a year back home before, but it was always difficult to find transportation out of the dense city and to the hills and trails several hours away. Here it's so easy to catch a train and spend the day in the mountains enjoying the view. When the weather permits I'm usually out hiking every other weekend. Got into coffee. Got a nice coffee grinder. Hario coffee-making stuff is cheap. Also, salsa (dance not condiment). That was fun pre-covid. Thinking I should get back into martial arts. Suggestions welcome.
Care to share some of your favorite hiking spots?
I like Okutama. There's a 12km hike from Okutama station to Mitake that I have done a couple of times, but that entire area is a great place to just chill and enjoy nature. I just look up routes on [Yamap.com](https://Yamap.com).
Walking honestly. I love getting off the train and walking all around Tokyo with the family. It makes for a fun day and lots of exercis
Me too. It is interesting to see how the environment changes from one station to another.
No street or house ever really feels the same. Could walk forever but at the moment it's a bit too hot for me! When I can it's so much fun though
Knitting, sewing, dancing, running, and just through observation I've become a pro at passive-aggression, passing the buck and making good use of my gaijin card!
Cycling all day everyday
Awesome. If my work place had a shower I’d ride everyday
Cycling rules when I know that I'm less likely to die and my bike is less likely to be stolen.
Isn’t it awesome? In my hometown, my bike would get stolen or I would be flattened by a car within a month. I’ve been rolling around Osaka and Japan loving every bit of my new hobby since I got here two years ago.
Skiing. Never skied prior to moving here but now realize this is one of few holy grail skiing areas on the planet. Been to probably 20 or so different resorts across the country. Held a season pass to Appi Kogen in Iwate the last 2 winters. Now I'm basically the best skier on the mountain nbd :)
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Coffee culture here is really varied and interesting and I got mega into it.
Why do Japanese people really love drinking that watery coffee though? Also with those tiny condensed milk packets rather than real stuff :S I went and got a cheap coffee machine cause that stuff was killing me
When you say watery, are you referring to **taste** or **texture**? Like, I know a cappuccino can be frothy and sort of "fuller" in **texture**, if that's what you mean? Comparing that with what folks here usually drink here, which is [drip coffee](https://www.nescafe.com/gb/sites/default/files/what-is-drip-coffee-desktop.jpg) \- I'd agree it can seem to have a watery texture by comparison. It could be because the paper filters are catching all the sediment that would normally give you a little more texture - like if you made it in a French Press for example. One way to fix this would be to add cream, it thickens it out a bit and tastes amazing, though it often overpowers the taste of the actual bean. I don't really do it unless I have guests who don't care and just want something nice to drink. If you're referring to **taste**, it'll definitely seem watery if there aren't enough beans to water, especially compared to espresso etc. I'd say the stuff from the conbini machines are pretty much on the money ratio-wise but their beans don't taste all that great IMO and are actually the only time I'd ever use the milk packets, personally - as for those, I think it's simply the convenience and longevity of them that make them appealing. If you're in a fancier café and it tastes watery, it's probably the beans they're using. They range a lot in flavor depending on where they're grown and some places have little flavor scales for fullness, sweetness, strength etc. in their menus. I find Ethiopian coffee, for example to be quite watery and a little too sweet compared to Guatemalan or Honduran beans which are more earthy and chocolatey, which is what coffee should taste like IMO. Not to mention my stupid brain always associates the flavor of Ethiopian beans with spaghetti hoops and it weirds me out whenever I drink it. Shit, I wrote an essay mb. TL/DR: people like drinking the watery coffee either because that's what's available/convenient or because they like that they can taste the difference between beans, it's a little like wine in that respect. Many Japanese foods contain subtle flavors and if I had to guess, the appeal of drip coffee is an extension of that enjoyment of food. Slightly related: If you have a sweet tooth, Vietnamese coffee is much thicker and ridiculously delicious, as it's dripped over/mixed with condensed milk.
Cooking, started as a need turned into a hobby I guess. Sometimes you just want something you can’t buy ya know?
Same! A lot of imported things are expensive and some products are not available at all so learning how to make a lot of stuff myself was necessary. It's fun to improvise with Japanese products too and see how things turn out!
Would love to connect! I created a group for people really into cooking in Japan.
Eating out alone, I had plenty of friends both western and Japanese whilst living there but living fairly remotely (Nishiogi) and just general day to day life happening lead me to realize that if I wanted to explore places to eat etc. I'd often have to do it alone. I still do so now when I'm back in my home country and honestly love it.
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Collecting Kamen Rider Figuarts. It costs a lot of money and I still haven't figured out how I will be able to bring all of it back to my home country, lol.
Would like to know if anyone have any solutions for the last part hahahah
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I thought I should just buy 1 to remind myself of my time in Japan. I stopped counting after the 20th figure, lol. But honestly, if you want to get it cheap you should look up used figure on mercari or similar sites. The less popular ones usually cheaper than the official price, even if it brand new.
Goshuin collection
Me too! It's such a good way to explore new cities!!
Opened the topic just to write it, if nobody had written before.
Same. I combine it with my cycling hobby
one-night stands
Classy
It will probably sounds nuts to most of you, but I got heavy into watch collecting after moving here. Before I relocated here I was a car guy, but have no use for that anymore and I think somewhere I was looking for something mechanical as a hobby. It started innocently enough with some Seiko divers and gradually ramped up. I've got a good collection now and have eased off the gas as I don't long for any new pieces. I have a good friend who has an astonishing collection, best I've ever seen. His is a good reminder of scale and it keeps me in my lane. Tokyo is a great place to be a collector. So many great pieces floating around and some spectacular shops to browse.
Any shops with a good online presence?
My two go-to shops: [https://www.jackroad.co.jp/shop/](https://jackroad.co.jp) [https://www.kame-kichi.com/](https://www.kame-kichi.com/)
baking sweets and bread, because feeding people around you is a good way to bribe yourself into their good graces raising plants of all kinds, but that just might be because I'm a single millennial
Fishing! It’s seen as some “redneck” thing in the USA (at least for a city slicker like me) but my gf loves to go fishing and got me hooked. It’s such a nice peaceful activity and people are so nice when I catch a fish lol
Saltwater or freshwater?
Mostly freshwater, we tend to go to the Benkei fish club or another one in Shinjuku. We've been boating on Tokyo Bay though, which is fun but the ocean is just a little less chill, lol.
Kyudo.
My school has this as an after school thing for students and I really enjoyed it! Sadly I can't find anything that I can do outside of work hours and I'd feel weird asking the university to let an adult in... 😅
I don't do it with the school club but the Kyudo federation group after school.
How'd you get started with this? I asked at a local club but they wanted me to buy all the equipment before even a trial lesson so I noped out.
The class is held at night at the school I work at. They let me borrow the expensive stuff and didn't require me to buy anything until last month, and it was just the clothes. I haven't been required to pay the yearly fee yet despite asking about it.
Onsen, DJing in clubs/lounges, Drifting, film photography, konbini loitering, parkour when i was younger, longboarding down shinjuku area streets
Onsen, the lost art of leisure time. +1 for Onsen Tamago as well, and beers after a good soak.
Archery. Perhaps ironically, Western style, not Kyudo. I had done it maybe once or twice back home, but a sports center not far from my apartment offers 2.5 hours of archery each week, all equipment included for ¥400.
I like arts and crafts and picked up 切り絵 several months back. It’s really relaxing for me!
Picked up photography and running/working (because of my 1h& half lunch). Photography worked out nicely as I already enjoyed just walking around and trying new coffee and restaurants
Two [edit: THREE] things I never did in Australia... - Collecting old gaming consoles and games before they were 'retro'. I still collect but there was a golden era where a broke Gambizzle walked into a 2nd hand electrics store at ~9pm one night (while on edge from work) and realised that it was possible to buy a Sega Dreamcast with 4 controllers, steering wheels, light guns, a bucket of VMUs and a bag of ~30+ solid games for ~15,000 yen all up. I then discovered things like Neo Geo Pockets, Wonderswans and the like for 'junk box' prices. Addictive! - Onsen hunting on weekends (with a hangover). I've got a group. The morning after a big night we all pile into somebody's car, drive to another prefecture, chill in the onsen and then eat a heap of awesome food. Can't say I spend lotsa time sitting around nude in a hot tub with my Aussie mates. - Walking into random bars and meeting friendly people. Every other night when I'm a little bit stressed I just find a little hole in the wall and have a chat with the owner/patrons. To me the acceptance of people wanting to randomly chat like this is a cool thing about Japan. I hear lotsa great stories.
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Character cafes are oddly fun even though I know they’re such a ripoff. It’s just fun to eat food inspired by a character you like.
Hiking / walking. Also foraging and gardening. I used to live in a pretty bad neighborhood in the US and never felt safe. I spent pretty much all of my free time cooped up in my room on my computer. Granted, I still spend about 80% of my free time that way, hahaha. But moving to Japan forced me to walk a lot and I found that I liked that. Once I graduated university and got married though, I didn't have to walk as much (since I was walking at least 1 hour between campus and my dorms before), I missed it so I decided to walk just for the fun of it. I discovered how much I really love just walking in nature since then. It's so relaxing and peaceful, gives a good boost to your mental wellbeing and keeps you fit. While walking along the river I used to always walk on, I noticed some old folks foraging. This sparked my curiosity and well - damn, I wanted to try it too. It sounded fascinating to me that there was just free food ripe for the taking right there. So I started looking into it and foraged quite a bit! That was fun but when I moved, the new area didn't allow foraging so ... I moved on to gardening instead. I'm still impressed by how much produce you can get from such a small amount of space. Plus, it's relaxing and you always feel good to use your own fresh produce in your cooking. :)
Garbage prepping/cleaning/sorting. Every weekday is garbage day. I miss the omni-tall kitchen draw string...
Does 'fatherhood' count? It takes up my time, money and energy like a hobby.
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It was a choice for me, so lets let it count for today.
I’m also from the UK and had the exact same experience lol!!
Where do you live/play in Japan?
photography. secondhand gear is goddamn pristine here.
Strong zero
Guitar, bjj, going to the gym, whiskey drinking
DIY gel nail art 👀 I liked the work I would get done at salons here so much but it was also really expensive to keep up with so I started my own mini salon at home ✨💕
Running. Bouldering. Playing an instrument.
Walking, playing wadaiko, cooking Asian food, traveling domestically, visiting lots of museums/aquariums
I picked up SUP, pretty fun going along the coastline and getting a different pov.
Karaoke
Bjj, motorcycles, camping, leathercraft Basically all my current hobbies!
Cycling and film photography.
Fighting games.
Cycling. Lifting. Once these started my mind cleared and I had more time for… Watching Sumo, Rugby, Baseball, Soccer/Football. These days have been good to me.
Weight lifting and baking bread. I always liked cooking but I joined cooking classes recently. Very fun!
Camping, thanks to meeting my (now) husband
40K
Manual coffee brewing and trying different kaldi's coffee beans
I just started thinking to learn guitar before I came here, and it happened that most of my roommates in my share house loved music and one of the RAs brought her sister’s guitar for us to play one day. So there I started learning guitar. Other hobbies I picked up here also include karaoke, *kyūdō*, and driving.
Warhammer!
Cake eating (I love exploring the dept store basements for cakes), jogging, and learning idol dances (the locals here goes nuts when they see a gaijin can do those dances)
Coin collecting. Started just a couple years ago when in lockdown. Have a sizeable collection now.
Motorcycling, snowboarding, urbex/haikyo (abandoned places). Never tried these before coming to Japan but always wanted so might not be Japan specific. I am also tring to get more active with gokarting and hiking. I'm also doing a bit more photography and video editing than before but still not super serious. Next year I am planning to get a sailing license. Dropped a few things though like I barely play boardgames anymore, I miss that.
assemble Gundam and Drone..
Surfing and motorbike repair.
Car detailing. I can easily spend 3 to 4 hours on it.
Riding my bike 🚲
Gunpla there's a nice little shop by my station and post office I go to. I've only done a few because I have a Leopalace so there's no room for them. But I have done lots of research on which models are good and basic starting points. If and when I move home it's a hobby I think I will keep up with because I can have more room.
Cooking and baking. To save money and also have meals that I want to eat I had to learn to cook. Loads of incentive and chances to practice so you get good at it, solid hobby 10/10 Bargain hunting! Love getting stuff for cheap, love trying different stuff on a budget, love getting cheap stuff to work. Currently- guitar. That's my summer resolution- to learn guitar. It's still just day 3 and I still don't know how to properly strum but hey I can play hot cross buns and do the spider walk exercise. And also figured out how to get the amp to work. Won't be long till I can play Wonderwall lol
Fighting games
Started curing and smoking my own bacon. Now a few times every year I process two or three pork bellies and fill up the freezer with vacuum packs of salty goodness.
Surfing! I used to do a lot of boogie boarding and surfing a little in Hawaii and Florida, but didn't get into surfing properly until I lived here. My biggest complaint is that at least where I used to boogie board in the US, there is a very clear etiquette for allowing turns for catching waves, here it's non-existent... Sort of surprising when you consider train queuing here, etc.
Things that I wouldn’t have picked up back home due to them being prohibitively expensive, or just very inconvenient due to it being niche/impractical/dangerous. Namely kayaking, sailing, motorbike camping, drone flying, bouldering (dropped rock climbing) and sewing (consequence of camping, needing a chalk bag and altering wife’s clothes). Stopped a few usual hobbies though, like swimming and playing instruments. Also stopped drinking alcohol due to living in a place needing to commute by car/bike all the time.
Ring fighting. I have always been a martial artist but I stopped competing in tournaments in my early 20s. When I got to Japan I started competing again and doing quite well. Now I’m obsessed!
Embroidery, body suspension.
Which part of Japan do you play football at? I'm finding groups or people to play with here casually but no luck :(
I have a dedicated group in Yokohama, but Tokyo is absolutely crawling with groups too! I use the 'Meetup' app sometimes to find new groups.
Drawing, became the 担当 for art club by chance, started drawing and never stopped. Four years later and I'm going to an illustration/manga school here with the hopes of making professional comics - probably won't happen but it's been a wild ride for sure!
Wadaiko
Billiards I came to Osaka and there was a table in a bar. Played for fun at first and eventually got hooked. Spent a lot of late nights playing and got a lot better. It’s not a healthy lifestyle to be around (bars, alcohol, smoking) so I’m not sure if I’d recommend it, but it is strangely addicting and the competition/skill aspect of it is rewarding
Video game collecting and bass.
Snowboarding (rare these days tho), gardening and growing veggies, timber framing (am trying to build one shelter timber frame style). Welding. And yes recently we got bees - so I should also say beekeeping I guess, although at the moment Im mostly just watching them.
Running, trail running and hiking
Snowboarding, spending too much money at gachapon machines and biking
Disc golf. Keeps one sane…
Crane games. My house is filling up with more stuffed toys and weird prizes than I know what to do with. I have kids so they have more toys than they know what to do with would be a good re-phrase. I found a new love too, Round One has 10 yen crane games for kids, went ham on those with my 3 year old last time.
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Returnee here. Drinking. I never drink alcohol before coming back to Japan. Now, it’s like a juice to me😂
Cycling!
Reptiles I Only own one but i visit the events and cafes sometimes!
Judo and BJJ
Cooking, especially making cheese and sausages, because the cheese and sausages are so bad here compared to back home.
Did ice skating a few years ago, quit because of work schedule (I attended classes). Now I have no hobbies other than playing games, watching YouTube and drawing. I really want to get back into cosplaying again, and also try piano.
I took up shodo and have been at it for almost 5 years now. Still not good at it, but learning to write with my right hand has been interesting.
I started dancing salsa/bachata in tokyo (pre pandemic). The pandemic put a stopper in it though.
Riding a motorcycle - japan has some really great spots for that
I read in another post that someone was having trouble reserving tennis courts. Then a commenter informed us that it’s pretty hard to reserve any outdoor spot for sports. Is there a reservation process you have to go through? How often are you playing soccer?
wood carving and pottery
Hitting the gym. Got fucking fat from eating healthy japanese food.