The Hikikomori Reflection (A Holiday Message from the Otaku Author)

I’ve done it again! This will be the fifth year that I’ve managed to give my annual holiday post a hikikomori feel to it. I had wondered if last year would be the end, but why stop a good thing?
The Hikikomori Reflection (A Holiday Message from the Otaku Author)
What if we just stayed in?
Last year, as the world started to return to normal, I wondered if it would signal the end of my hikikomori-themed holiday posts. It might have been had I not been forced to stay inside for a large chunk of the year. A broken kneecap put a dampener on my early-year enthusiasm and not long after starting to feel like normal again, my back went. It’s likely it was from compensating for my knee, but that didn’t make the pain any more enjoyable.
As a result, I wasn’t able to go out as much as I would have normally. Of course, thanks to the new normal that is working from home, I hardly missed any time off work. Is that a good or a bad thing? I’m not sure. There are pros and cons to everything. Had I not been working, I would have probably just spent my days and nights lying in bed watching anime… Hmmm! I may have made a huge mistake…
Anyhow, the outdoors was there and things were returning to a new form of normal. However, some of the measures that were fast-tracked into daily life when we were all playing at the hikikomori life have continued to this day. Rather than not being allowed to go out, we now have the choice to not go out. Most restaurants deliver now. Grocery stores deliver. I have access to almost anything I want and I don’t have to leave the house. What a time to be alive!

The Hikikomori Reflection
While I welcome the chance to go outside, I am forever grateful that it is now an option. I don’t have to drive to the office. I don’t have to drive home. I wake up and I’m there. I can do laundry during the day. Attend appointments when I need to. Admittedly, my employer is amazingly understanding, which is probably why I didn’t mind working when I could have taken some time off. As I said, pros and cons.
So this holiday period, take some time for a little reflection. Think about things. Ponder the inconsequential. Ruminate on events from the past. Consider the future. Daydream a little. Spend time with family and friends. Spend time alone. Do a bit of both. Work out what’s important to you. Make bold statements that mean nothing. Do all that and you too can become an eminence in shadows… Hang on, that wasn’t the angle I was going for, to begin with!
Anyhow, thanks for stopping by for this holiday message from the Otaku Author. Eat, drink, and be merry. Or whatever, you decide. Happy holidays!

Other posts in the series
Year | Title |
2019 | The Hikikomori Trial |
2020 | The Hikikomori Life |
2021 | The Hikikomori Endurance |
2022 | The Hikikomori Emergence |
2023 | The Hikikomori Reflection |
2024 | The Hikikomori Extraction |

Nice post ✉️
Thanks
Happy Holidays! Wishing you a wonderful 2024!
Thanks, and you! Hopefully, it’ll be a great year.