Japan's 'nerd culture' almost mainstream
Subculture of comic books, life-sized dolls takes over Tokyo neighborhood

YOKOHAMA, Japan - Masa puts his arm affectionately around Konoha’s sloping shoulders on the couch in his apartment and gently brushes her hair from her bright blue eyes. Iris stands behind them, decked out in a frilly dress.

Masa speaks warmly to Konoha and Iris, greeting them brightly each morning and when he returns home from work, but they never answer. His companions are life-sized dolls.

“She doesn’t have to talk, because I enjoy her as a doll, not as a substitute for a person,” Masa, a 32-year-old computer engineer who asked to be identified only by a shortening of his first name, said of Konoha, his favorite.

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//** for a collector and a hobbyist, this will look like to be normal, and it is a hobby, theres nothing wrong to it, but to others it will look like that it is weird. well i'm glad that they have this hobby for the all geeks who havn't got a girlfriend, and im glad that I didnt ended like that. its good that I changed when I transfered in a different school back in high school hahhahah. **//