Okay, so you've gone through your apprenticeship, and now you've managed to get your first professionally translated book published nationally. Congratulations. You have a decision to make.

Is this your profession or your hobby? If it's your hobby, that's great. That means your day job isn't so much a day job as a career, and translating manga and anime is something you do to supplement your income. And when meeting more "mundane" people than your standard anime and manga fan, it will be an interesting way so strike up a conversation. Making money while reading "them comical books" is far more acceptable to the non-fannish world than just reading them.

But if you want to make translation your profession, then you will eventually have to give up your anime and manga hobby, and, for sanity's sake, get yourself a new hobby or two.

It won't happen at first. In the beginning, you will be doing translations on the manga that's assigned to you, and spending your off hours engrossed in the latest book from the company you work for or a competitor's. Or sitting in a darkened room watching the latest anime to come off of Japanese television. But eventually, you will go to one of those "mundane" parties, and after exploring the conversational possibilities of a person who works on odd foreign entertainment, somebody will ask, "So, what do you do for fun?" The glib answer, "With work as fun as this, any other fun would be a letdown," will probably serve to set your conversation partners into polite chuckles, but that doesn't mean you can dodge the question yourself.

If you're doing full-time manga and anime, you need something else. Anything else will do. Most of my hobbies (and I have quite a few) came from things I did with family and friends while growing up or during my college days. For example, I was plenty fannish already when I took up hiking with friends.

The main point is this: when you have to work on your hobby, it's no longer the best hobby in the world for you. Hobbies are meant for relaxation -- taking your mind off of your daily stresses -- and if your hobby includes your daily stress, then it's time to find something else.

There's one other place where a non-anime/manga-related hobby comes in handy. A standard introduction to a Japanese person will usually include the question, "What's your hobby." If you know golf, then you're home free, but if, like me, the links never quite linked to you, then it's best to have another answer ready. Popular hobbies in Japan are sports such as tennis or skiing, studies such as learning a second (third or more?) language, movies, books, or music. But the question is supposed to be a conversation starter, so if your hobby is the same as your conversation partner's, be prepared with a good knowledge of the trivia involved in your stated hobby. And having your hobby be the same as your profession will cut off the conversation pretty quickly.

My suggestion for hobbies is anything that gets you away from your computer. Something that has to deal with the outdoors is probably best, but any change of scenery will help you separate you from the hours you spend with dictionaries and computer files.