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The story
On 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board, a 34-year-old single thread starter posted looking for a new hobby. Suggestions poured in covering everything from shogi, bass guitar, and hair removal treatments to mountain bike downhill riding and travel, though the OP gently shot down suggestions like pickup artistry and gambling. What stood out was how much the thread leaned on posters’ own firsthand experience — one commenter shared having played shogi for three to four years after starting in their 30s, another cited a concrete figure of “13 sessions for 110,000 yen” spent on hair removal, and someone mentioned their company even has a light music club.
What people said
A hobby's no fun unless you're the main character in it, in the end
So really, pickup artistry is about the only option left
Is pickup artistry really something where you're the main character though?
Pick whichever one you like
Gambling's a hard no for me
Yeah
That works
I learned the rules a bit back in middle school
I was in a similar spot and started shogi after turning 30 too — I've kept it up for about 3 or 4 years now
There's a decent-sized online shogi population, so if you use an app with a solid matchmaking system you can easily play against people at your own skill level
Eating local food with local women, and if you're lucky, checking into a hotel afterward
No other hobby is that physical, primal, and fetishistic all at once
Pickup artistry's a no from me
Sorry
You get it, huh
Beauty stuff is fun — start with hair removal and your interests just keep expanding from there
I'd actually been considering hair removal
My beard's thick and shaving is a pain
Engaging with it means you lose
That's totally normal these days
This country's finished
Better to do it before your beard starts going gray
How much did it end up costing you?
Saunas, horse racing, and eating are basically the only things I enjoy
I feel that, I feel that
I started bass at 30 and joined my company's light music club
It's ridiculously fun
You play bass too?
Me too 😳
Wild that your company even has a light music club
Feels great, but costs money and comes with responsibility
Cars cost a fortune to maintain in Tokyo, so if anything it'd be a motorcycle
Though someone mentioned golf, so maybe you do have money
13 sessions, around 110,000 yen
That's not even that expensive
Re: #53
Well obviously I'd be happier if it didn't cost money
It's gotta feel better than a motorcycle
A bicycle seems better for your health at least
It really is fun, huh
What bass are you using?
Mine's a YAMAHA BB734
Mine's a white Fender JB-75
I'm a sucker for block inlays 😳
I wear sunscreen
I use "Anekin" (short for the famous gold-bottle ANESSA sunscreen)
Also the MUJI cleansing oil for sensitive skin
Even though I'm only out in the sun for like 30 minutes a day
🥺☂
What's "Anekin"?
Where'd you go?
Taiwan — super easy to get to. The food was great, and I just went with the flow, catching a pro baseball game and a music concert. Really fun
I actually lived in Taiwan for work once
Heard pro baseball's gotten pretty popular there lately
Now I'll try all kinds of entertainment if I think it'll make her happy
Once you've got a kid, going to the toy section actually gets exciting
It's fun imagining how they'll react, and then when you actually give it to them they're genuinely happy about it
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
“Threads that hand a single person a hobby” are a recurring genre on 5ch, one that tends to draw replies from single people in their 20s and 30s with money and time to spare. This time, easy-to-start-solo hobbies like shogi and bass guitar were suggested alongside more costly or physically demanding ones like hair removal and mountain bike downhill riding, and the main point of friction was the OP repeatedly saying they’d prefer something that doesn’t cost money. On the hair removal front, posters traded concrete figures from their own experience, like “13 sessions for 110,000 yen,” which is genuinely useful data. As for shogi, one poster said they started in their 30s and have kept up online matches for three to four years, suggesting that well-developed matchmaking apps have lowered the barrier for self-taught beginners. There were also a few replies that veered into criticizing the OP’s character for turning down suggestions, though that’s treated here as a tangent separate from the thread’s main thread of hobby-hunting.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (“Nandemo Jikkyo G”) thread “A Thread to Give Me (34), a Single Guy, a New Hobby.”
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