Inspired by this post. Also, please excuse my French – we need it for the pun to work.

The Amazing Race coming back and my “drop everything to watch it (within reason)” approach reminds me I do have a pretty savage sense of wanderlust, but…okay, enough waffling. I miss overseas travel and the borders are opening up enough again to do so.

So this lightbulb went off as I was feeding said wanderlust with travel blog posts: is there an anime version of that? Are there places I want to go because of certain anime, things I want to do, anime I want to watch before I…y’know…?

I’m pretty open-minded and willing to go on pretty much anything – even though I have a mild fear of heights, only fixed by secure footing and no way to feel the wind through the walls (so ski lifts are not very kind to me, but I’d be game for Ferris wheels like the Cosmo Clock 21 if they fit my requirements…come to think of it, I don’t remember ever going on a Ferris wheel before).

Bucket List: Visit Japan (…Again)

This post is outdated somewhat now that I’ve been once, but I do have my sights set on visiting Japan again – the fact it was the last place I went pre-COVID be damned. Now that I have the wherewithal to go with my own wallet, I should do so before I waste half of my life at a full-time job (…or maybe I’ll waste it at this one – I mean, the secondhand smoke and serving party drinks will /hj, /s)!

This time I want to go on my own terms, on an English-speaking tour at the very minimum and letting me get hopelessly lost in the city at worst. I do have an entire list of places in Japan I haven’t been to yet and intend to go to someday so I won’t regale you with the full thing, but there are a few off-the-beaten-path places, like the rakugo theatre in Shibuya mentioned in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu‘s manga back pages, and some very well-known places I didn’t go to in 2019, like Tokyo Tower.

Sidenote: Aside from that and places where my family are (I hear I have a distant relative in Scotland and I’ve never been there, for one thing…), the only other foreign destinations I have my sights on are the Sherlock Holmes museum in London (because of Detective Conan, natch) and, as noted in the award post, New York (…for a bagel…for a reason that has been forgotten by even me at this point).

F**k It List: Go on the Attack on Titan Trampoline

Before you start yelling at me, “What the heck?!”, that was a real thing at CRX. It was popular, too. However, stick around here long enough and you know I don’t really like Attack on Titan. I suck at physical things like trampolining. It makes sense both together is a big nah from me.

Bucket List: Go to an Anime Collab/Butler Cafe/Animal Cafe

I hear anime collab cafes can be quite pricey, but you pay for the experience, right?

I missed out on the maid/butler cafe at CRX, too, but have zero taste in maids (and hosts are too flashy/expensive for me), hence this. That said, cute animals are completely in my wheelhouse if it doesn’t involve taking care of them, so I’d definitely check out an owl cafe or a cat cafe if it were on the agenda. …that said, I’ve heard there is a cat cafe in the city where I live, but it’s low enough on the agenda that I’ve never gone.

F**k It List: Anime Con Rave

I’ve heard of them before, but the closest I got to one was DJ Kazu’s performance at CRX with the wotagei.

I’ve never been to a nightclub…you might be surprised that despite some level of social anxiety on my part, that’s been coming and going on my bucket list ever since I came of age to do that legally (because nightclubs and EDM are considered a classic combo). However, my job experience has pretty much scarred me from going to places which serve alcohol with loud music on the speakers.

Again, combine things that don’t mesh with me and…yeah, nah.

Bucket List: Go to the Hot Springs (Again)

I did actually go to the hot springs at my hotel in Hakone in 2019 and Boueibu means I’m vaguely versed in Japanese bathhouses in general, but this time, I’m referring to a more local hot springs near the coast of where I am (which had a discount via Japanese club membership pre-COVID…but obviously I can’t do that in 2023 without outing myself as graduated). My siblings are planning to go around Christmas time this year in fact, but I have HypMic streams to run over those days.

F**k It List: Solo Camp in Japan

YuruCamp makes it look exciting, but…there’s a reason those girls need part-time jobs while they’re still in school. Going to Japan just to solo camp must be a pain in the behind, especially when Japan is not known for camping-primed wilderness as much as other countries. Me being a homebody (or whatever the travelling equivalent of one is), I’d rather stick to a hotel. Or, although I’ve never tried either for accomodation, a ryokan or AirBnB.

Also possible for either side of the list is going to an anime event which is won by lottery, due to the low guarantee of getting what you want.

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As for the anime I’d rather die before I’d watch, I have rattled them off before…although most of the time I have tried them in some form and would probably die on a subsequent attempt instead. For example, I gave the anime of Haikyuu a go during an anime club marathon and I predictably hated it, because I knew what characters were going to show up later, due to partially paying attention during anime-related gossip amongst Haikyuu fans. I’ll also die before I watch Aharen-san or Shikimori, for similar reasons.

There’s nothing like an intersectional blog post to get the words going! So what would be on your bucket list, or worse, your f**k it list?