Fangirling Overseas

Amanohasidate, Jaapn

I've always been a fangirl. X-Files, Sailor Moon, alpacas, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, jellyfish... It doesn't really mater.  I pick something and decide, yep, in lieu of friends or personal milestones, I will obsessively talk about this one thing until I have successfully driven the few remaining people I have off my Facebook feed.  Perhaps I should be a little less of a Nerd Tourist when I am out and about, but I love automatically having something to do when I am at a loss.  Once you pencil in time for eating, bathing, drinking (sigh), walking around the "main areas," and doing whatever it is one is supposed to do, having some sort of nerdy hobby can fill the remaining time nicely.

Warning.  This is pretty much just a big list of things and places with no coherent story or point.  I guess this post kinda acts like a, "so what are you into" answer at a blind date.





Hobby One: "I Collect..."

One of my favorite things to do is collect picture of different manhole/sewer covers.  I started doing this a couple of years ago in Japan when a coworker pointed out that every area in Japan has it's own design.  This is probably the cheapest, most practical hobby I have picked up.  It's kind of amazing how different these can be all around the place.  This hobby also requires the least amount of writing.

Dublin, Ireland

Oslo, Norway

Now, the photos of sewers is probably the absolute best thing I could possibly collect.  Obviously, packing isn't terribly difficult, every different place gets a checkmark, and I can afford this one.  My other collections...

Super Dolfie in a deerstalker???
(My MSD Mare)

This is probably what Heaven looks like.

"Hometown Kitty" hand towels bring me joy.

 


Hobby Two: Locations!!!

Shiratani, Japan. Kodamas don't photograph.

If you are a fangirl, you can sometimes waste entire days in other countries checking out locations where shows were filmed or used as references.  The cool thing about fangirl sightseeing is that you usually end up in places that you would have NEVER bothered with without that geeky connection.  Which is a real shame.  If a place is impressive enough to be filmed, it is usually worth visiting anyway, right?  Yakushima's forests were used by the artists who worked on Mononoke-Hime. I am not an expert hiker, but I do like a nice walk, and Yakushima will be one of those places that will forever set the bar.

Beware of mannequins coming to life.

Last October, everyone who heard my itinerary for my trip included Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm,  Oslo, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Dublin immediately made some sort of choking/coughing noise when Cardiff was listed.  Even folks in Cardiff asked, "why???" Cardiff was LOVELY.  The harbor area, the city-center, the surrounding villages, the coasts... and, of course, Doctor Who stuff.  If it wasn't for Doctor Who, I never would have ended up in Cardiff.  And, actually, on that note, I wish I had scheduled more time in Cardiff!  I arrived in Cardiff three days before the Doctor Who exhibit, the main thing that drew me to Cardiff, reopened.  Luckily, I found out that "Bad Wolf Bay" was only a two-hour bus ride through, I was told, very beautiful country.  Dunraven, like Shiratani, is one of the most beautiful, magical, delightful places on Earth.  The bus from Cardiff drops you off in the middle of nowhere outside a pub with about ten houses in the surrounding area.  The walk to the coast takes about a mile along a fantastic collection of old fences and walls.  The beach/park has an abandoned castle ruins, loose sheep, the expected rolling hills, and those amazing cliffs I am glad I didn't blow off of.  (I was there, by the way, the day Hurricane Gonzalo was passing through.  No rain or clouds, but the wind was impressive)

London is one of those places where I felt the most ridiculous scheduling time for location-hunting...but...  Honestly, when I left London back in '06, like I think I've mentioned already, I never thought I would be back!  Nor would I be back in my favorite city while nursing a serious BBC itch.  I couldn't secure tickets to the taping of QI or Top Gear, but I certainly had enough time to check out Speedy's Cafe and St. Bartholomew's, two of the major filming locations from Sherlock.  

Surprisingly yummy.

"This is my note."

And then, yay filming locations, sometimes you just find yourself at places from movies or TV shows you might not care a great deal about. Knowing that OTHER people care, however, makes them a little more enjoyable and interesting.  

Or Troy

Like the Di Vinci Code.

Or Narnia

Hobby Three:  In the Workplace

BOOM.
Lesson plans for my adult classes.

It seems really important to have some sort of gimmick as a teacher.  Every school has that one teacher who is striving to own every frog magnet post-WWII.  Every school has that one literacy teacher who is stuck hard on some YA novel.  While I was teaching in Tokyo, Japan and I (yes, the entire country) decided Benedict Cumberbatch is just the best thing ever, which made writing lesson plans a bit easier.  I also embraced anything "gross" or macabre as part of my teaching persona just to have something to talk about in the break room.  Hell yeah, I went to the parasite museum last week!  Of COURSE you should send me photos of some dead animal you found on the street.  (True story.)  Being a fangirl gave me something to talk about right away with people who usually seemed to become more comfortable talking to someone who was clearly not intimidating or serious.

My TEFL teacher in Turkey seemed to get a kick out of using my dorkiness in class.

Hobby Four:  "Well, I'm bored.  I bet I can find..."

 Okay, I have mentioned Sherlock a few hundred times in this post.  I feel like I should be less repetitive on this point, but since I can probably never mention my fixations again outside this post, it is best for me to get my fill now!   In the past, I would sniff out stores or areas where I knew I could find something that had an image or a tie-in to whatever I was into at the time.  "Hmmm, Sunday morning... I bet if I channel surf long enough..."

Why the frack did I post this pic?
What's happening to my face???
I could have found a BETTER pic...

Anyway, with my current level of Sherlock... amusement, my goal is usually to find something Conan Doyle everywhere I go whenever I don't know what else to do.  Whether it is the classic stories, the older adaptations, or the currently running series, you can find Sherlock something almost anywhere.

Spotted some Sherlock fans in Granada, Spain

Sherlock!  Showing on the flight
from Seoul to Bali!

I know that face!  (Kadikoy, Turkey)

Easy enough in London...

Edinburgh, Scotland

Kadikoy, Turkey (Spot the 'Lock)

Dublin, Ireland

Edinburgh, Scotland

Stockholm, Sweden

Oslo, Norway

Canakkale, Turkey

Sherlock/Benedict Cumberbatch
selection in Futakotamagawa, Japan.

It's fun enough.  It gets you outside your hotel/hostel, and as long as you don't BUY anything, it's cheap.  It's a bit like having an Easter Egg hunt waiting for you anywhere you go!

So, having reached a stopping point here mainly because if ~I~ am bored, I can only imagine how you feel if you have managed to skim through to this point, I stop.  I am a bit curious about other fangirl or fanboy travels.  What do other nerds do out there?  I want to level up my game.

Live long and prosper.