I feel kind of silly asking this but it's something that has frustrated me over the years, so I figured maybe I could get some advice from others on here:
I've been a fan of Japanese anime and manga for over 10 years, and I've had an incredibly difficult time trying to meet other fans or people who have similar interests. I only have a few close friends who I grew up with in high school, but they don't really care for a lot of my hobbies anymore. I know this will sound kind of pathetic but I've only met like two people in the last 8 or so years who even knew what anime was, and they both moved. One solution that seems simple is to just go to anime conventions, but my job requires me to work on the weekends and unfortunately almost all conventions I've ever checked out online for scheduling lands on some of our busiest days during the year, and I'm the only person in my position on the weekend at my job so I can't take it off. I live in Western MA and I've tried looking for clubs around the area but it's a dead zone out here. I've been told there are a ton in Boston but that's about three hours away.
I looked into online services for meet up groups, and I've only found a few and from the people I've talked to online they are rather sketchy guys so I didn't really feel comfortable. Anyway, hopefully this isn't a dumb question, I just wanted to get some suggestions and any tips would be really helpful. :)
I've been a fan of Japanese anime and manga for over 10 years, and I've had an incredibly difficult time trying to meet other fans or people who have similar interests. I only have a few close friends who I grew up with in high school, but they don't really care for a lot of my hobbies anymore. I know this will sound kind of pathetic but I've only met like two people in the last 8 or so years who even knew what anime was, and they both moved. One solution that seems simple is to just go to anime conventions, but my job requires me to work on the weekends and unfortunately almost all conventions I've ever checked out online for scheduling lands on some of our busiest days during the year, and I'm the only person in my position on the weekend at my job so I can't take it off. I live in Western MA and I've tried looking for clubs around the area but it's a dead zone out here. I've been told there are a ton in Boston but that's about three hours away.
I looked into online services for meet up groups, and I've only found a few and from the people I've talked to online they are rather sketchy guys so I didn't really feel comfortable. Anyway, hopefully this isn't a dumb question, I just wanted to get some suggestions and any tips would be really helpful. :)