Travelling thread/rant/reflection (sorry for stealing your idea Yousef >_<)

[Jayonnaise6105]

I was sorting through a bunch of my manga on the weekend and was hit with a bit of "back in my day" nostalgia. I've always lived in a pretty remote part of my country, and my area never really had shops that sold anime or manga when I was growing up. I also didn't have the internet until around 2018, so I always had to travel out of town if I wanted to look at or buy any of that stuff.

I'd have to get on a 3 hour train ride to my nearest major city, that normally left sometime around 6:30am-7am. I'd have to spend about 8-9 hours in the city before another 3 hour train ride home. It was always long day of waiting & walking.

Despite how much of a pain it was to get up that early, and to spend that much time on the train, just to look at manga and anime merch, I do miss those days. There was this peaceful kind of satisfaction from having spent most of a day outside of my familiar surroundings, usually having the latest tankoubon volume of Yotsubato! as proof that I'd gotten outside of my comfort zone. The exercise probably helped me feel satisfied too.

I would also travel to the same city on roughly the same schedule when they would hold anime conventions. Those were the only times in my life I'd ever cosplayed; as Ash Ketchum from the Pokemon anime, Shirogane Naoto from Persona 4 & Zoro from One Piece (I did dye my hair green for that one). My grandmother would make the costumes for me, and she always did a phenomenal job with them. They were similarly long days, but similarly satisfying too. Those conventions were also a rare opportunity for me to watch some live pro wrestling and pick up some more obscure games/anime/manga.

Nowadays, we do finally have places for that stuff. I can stroll into a local book store and buy manga. I can visit an electronics retailer for (really overpriced) anime DVDs and collectables. A friend and I used to have a running joke when we would visit shops in town: "let's go have a look at the Gundam model kits". The joke being there weren't any shops that sold them, but now there are. There are two shops that do, even.

Maybe I'm just old? Maybe I miss those days when I could take that much time out of my day just to travel and not do all that much with said time? Maybe I'm just not as into anime/manga as I used to be? I don't know. All I do know is that finally having all that niche stuff in my local shops doesn't really feel as special to me as when I had to put in much more effort to see/get it.

If you read this far, thank you and have a lovely day If you didn't read this far, or at all, still have a lovely day goshdangit!

 

[Elwiwi]

I was sorting through a bunch of my manga on the weekend and was hit with a bit of "back in my day" nostalgia. I've always lived in a pretty remote part of my country, and my area never really had shops that sold anime or manga when I was growing up. I also didn't have the internet until around 2018, so I always had to travel out of town if I wanted to look at or buy any of that stuff.

I'd have to get on a 3 hour train ride to my nearest major city, that normally left sometime around 6:30am-7am. I'd have to spend about 8-9 hours in the city before another 3 hour train ride home. It was always long day of waiting & walking.

Despite how much of a pain it was to get up that early, and to spend that much time on the train, just to look at manga and anime merch, I do miss those days. There was this peaceful kind of satisfaction from having spent most of a day outside of my familiar surroundings, usually having the latest tankoubon volume of Yotsubato! as proof that I'd gotten outside of my comfort zone. The exercise probably helped me feel satisfied too.

I would also travel to the same city on roughly the same schedule when they would hold anime conventions. Those were the only times in my life I'd ever cosplayed; as Ash Ketchum from the Pokemon anime, Shirogane Naoto from Persona 4 & Zoro from One Piece (I did dye my hair green for that one). My grandmother would make the costumes for me, and she always did a phenomenal job with them. They were similarly long days, but similarly satisfying too. Those conventions were also a rare opportunity for me to watch some live pro wrestling and pick up some more obscure games/anime/manga.

Nowadays, we do finally have places for that stuff. I can stroll into a local book store and buy manga. I can visit an electronics retailer for (really overpriced) anime DVDs and collectables. A friend and I used to have a running joke when we would visit shops in town: "let's go have a look at the Gundam model kits". The joke being there weren't any shops that sold them, but now there are. There are two shops that do, even.

Maybe I'm just old? Maybe I miss those days when I could take that much time out of my day just to travel and not do all that much with said time? Maybe I'm just not as into anime/manga as I used to be? I don't know. All I do know is that finally having all that niche stuff in my local shops doesn't really feel as special to me as when I had to put in much more effort to see/get it.

If you read this far, thank you and have a lovely day If you didn't read this far, or at all, still have a lovely day goshdangit!

That's sweet that your grandma helped you with the cosplays

 

[Prism Red]

While I live in a bustling town things like games/manga/TCG etc. was hard to find, similarly I had to go to the next town 5 hours away to look for stuff like that, of course I didn't have the means to go as a little brat so I usually went there like once or twice a year during family trip, I'd brought my months worth of saving and buy whatever picked my interest.

Fast forward to present day, there still isn't much in my town, civilization marches on and now my country has interstate freeways which makes a trip easier, I have a car too, and my friends live all around the globe to justify me going for a long drive. I still go regularly like once or twice every 3 months, although not necessarily to go to those fun places but rather the main customs office, all while doing dumb Top Gear-esque challenges along the way but that's another story.