Hobbies can be great to help you relax, focus your energy, learn new skills, engage the outdoors, or so many other positive effects on your life. The members at TOM are full of passionate otaku with a diverse range of personalities. So when we asked them to share their current hobbies, we were excited to see what everyone would share. Take a look, and remember, it’s never too early or too late to start a new hobby!
Staff Nickname: Agatha
- What’s your hobby?
- Houseplants (especially succulents) & balcony gardening.
- How long have you been doing it?
- A little over two years now.
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- I moved to a place with more room to keep plants.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- Succulents are pretty easy once you get used to the idea of neglecting them for weeks or months (and not watering them until they start getting visibly shriveled). With regular houseplants, though, certain symptoms of overwatering can look almost exactly the same as underwatering. So if they seem unhappy, it can be hard to decide what to do.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- I really like chopping & propagating plants! The early stages of growth are so much fun to watch. It feels especially magical with succulents, because you can just pluck off some leaves and leave them on a plate or a paper towel on your desk (don’t even need any soil yet). It might seem like nothing is happening for weeks and weeks, but then tiny roots and baby leaves start appearing out of nowhere.
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- I propagated a bunch of new baby echeveria from the leaves growing on a flower stem. (My photo shows their three-month progress from October to January.) I’d read that leaves plucked from succulent flower stalks have a much higher propagation failure rate than regular leaves, but I guess I got lucky!
Staff Nickname: Kirho
- What’s your hobby?
- Cosplay
- How long have you been doing it?
- 7 years
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- I went to an event and saw people doing it. So I wanted to try too.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- It's expansive 🤭. Also rules are not the same in every country.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- Making friends! I met most of my friends at events or online.
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- Not yet but with a friend I will soon rent a studio in Japan for a photo shoot!
Staff Nickname: pchw
- What’s your hobby?
- DTM (Desk Top Music)
- How long have you been doing it?
- Since I was in college.
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- I first became interested when I started listening to original vocaloid songs on Nico Nico Douga. So I thought to myself, why not try making my own.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- Setting the time aside to actually make the songs and not producing something that’s the same or similar to a song already been made.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- Seeing listener reactions to the song once it’s been uploaded
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- Having a video I uploaded reach tens of thousands of views
Staff Nickname: NinjaTrixta
- What’s your hobby?
- Streaming Video Games
- How long have you been doing it?
- About 5 years
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- It was around the second year of the pandemic, and my podcast co-host had started streaming games on Mixer (rip) and Twitch. I wanted to learn new skills using OBS, and honestly, I just love sharing games and experiences in video games with others.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- Enjoying a game too much and trying not to go over my set stream time, especially on weeknights.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- Interacting with everyone in chat and capturing moments together. My community has made up so much stream lore filled with the characters and adventures from games we’ve played that I honestly couldn’t be more proud.
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- Honestly, it’s continuing to stream 4 nights a week and being there for my community.
Staff Nickname: Charida
- What’s your hobby?
- Chainmail
- How long have you been doing it?
- I’ve been doing it on and off for about a year now.
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- I first saw it online and it looked really interesting so I did some research and then I decided to buy jump rings and get started. You only need jump rings and a pair of pliers so it’s pretty easy to begin. My goal is to learn to make all my accessories as well as some bigger wearable pieces like armor.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- Trying to figure out the right size of jump rings needed for a project or a design can be tricky. You need to know the aspect ratio of the rings which takes a bit of math and calculation. Also buying jump rings in bulk is difficult in Japan.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- Seeing a bigger design take shape from such small pieces is very satisfying. I use stainless steel jump rings so the finished products are long lasting which is great cause it takes so much time to make.
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- I made a full length chainmail tie as a gift.
Staff Nickname: Nidate
- What’s your hobby?
- Taking trips to Hokkaido and traveling around on motorcycle
- How long have you been doing it?
- Somewhere around 2 to 4 years ago
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- A previous co-worker of mine used to ride a motorcycle, and it looked fun.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- My motorcycle is 24 years old. If I’m not careful and neglect it, it’ll sometimes stop running.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- It makes me feel like I can travel anywhere.
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- I finally ended up living in Hokkaido.
Staff Nickname: Steven
- What’s your hobby?
- Keyboards (the computer input device)
- How long have you been doing it?
- Like….5….years?
- Why did you decide to start or what got you interested in it?
- It wasn’t really intentional really but I got a new keyboard at the time and discovered aftermarket keycaps. You know, different colors or themes. It was a pretty easy way to customize my keyboard but then I saw people online talking about different switches and how that affects the sound and feel. I kept reading and THEN I found out that the material of the keyboard itself also has an effect and then you’re suddenly chasing a very specific combination of parts and materials.
- What do you find most difficult about the hobby?
- A lot of keycap sets and keyboard cases/PCBs are often only made in very small production runs and you just can’t run to a Best Buy or whatever to find them. There’s only a handful of stores online that sell this kind of stuff and it’s very limited, so you’re fighting for pre-order spots and there’s often production delays. Kind of like the scale figure hobby, actually, now that I think about it.
- What’s the most enjoyable part of your hobby?
- It’s always satisfying to come up with a theme for your build like a color or one that’s based off your favorite character and you’re sourcing all the parts over months, waiting for the right stuff to come in stock and then finally putting it all together.
- What’s your biggest achievement or accomplishment?
- I put together a build using a keycap set I really liked and I talked about it online and the keycap designer left a comment that was like “hey I designed those! I’m glad you liked them!”