So having had a couple of weeks of vacation that are now over, I decided to spend some of it looking for places in Temple to buy anime stuff.

That, ummm… didn’t work.

Temple is a town of maybe 90,000 people, and I’d guess about two actual Japanese people, give or take. And maybe twenty “otaku” (and i’m using that term broadly to include people like me, who aren’t really otaku). Alright… fifty.

Maybe a few more, I dunno. But the point is, it’s a small town in Texas. That kind of culture hasn’t taken root here, as far as I can tell.

So first I went to see Otakutopolis. They’re highly rated on Google, and said to be run by some people who like anime, etc. I wasn’t expecting actual Japanese stuff, but I thought, hey, maybe there’ll be some cool stuff to buy.

Otakutopolis is gone. Closed. Kaput. Sayounara, will the last person out of the parking lot turn out the lights.

I couldn’t find any mention of this anywhere on the net, so I put in Google Maps that it’s permanently closed. That got changed to temporarily closed, so maybe they’ll be coming back at some point in the future. Rumor has it they’re moving to Belton.

Okay, so I thought, why not check some other place out while I’m out. So I went to Terp’s on North Adams. You know, the area that got hit by the tornado, though that store is a bit to the east and was mostly spared (owner said he found his sign on the golf course though).

Terp’s is a great place, but it’s not for people interested in Japanese anime/pop culture.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. The owner (Terp) knows his audience, has to make a living, and is probably going to make a much better living selling comic books, you know, Marvel, DC, etc., than niche Japanese anime stuff. Still, for my purposes, It had very little I was actually interested in. I bought a couple of things I liked anyway to support local (he has some anime stuff), and the owner is very friendly and passionate, but I’m just not into superhero/comic book stuff, and never have been. If you like comic books, etc., you’ll love that place, but it’s just not really for me.

There’s also a place at the mall called Peekaboo world (I’m guessing that’s a play on “weeaboo”). It’s got some fun stuff (including something called “sakura densya”, which is a diorama you have to put together and was singularly the most frustrating thing I’ve done in years, though I got it in the end). It’s got cute stuff, slightly more anime stuff than Terp’s (including posters of anime girls in swimsuits, rowr), and is slightly more targeted towards people like me. Slightly. And it’s also hella expensive. But I guess that’s what you get for being in a mall.

I hope Otakutopolis comes back. That’s the kind of place I’d like to support.

Anyway… that’s all I’ve found in Temple. There’s more in Austin, but I don’t feel like driving sixty miles to get to it. I do miss Kinokuniya though, even though I spent way too much there and it’s probably for the best. I got lots of good manga at Half Price Books, I kind of miss that too. Maybe I’ll make a weekend of it someday.

Temple’s an alright place to live. My neighborhood is mostly safe and quiet, I have almost everything I need within a quick drive, the city is just big enough to be convenient and just small enough to not be annoying. But some things… some things you just won’t find in a city this size. Too bad it tends to directly correspond to my chosen hobbies.