Manga

Slight confession, which should be fairly obvious to most: I like anime and manga, though I don't consider myself obsessive. However, since I'm in Japan, I do bother to indulge in the nerdiness just a little bit. Probably the biggest thing that the Japanese love, even though it's a bit less common in America, is manga (pronounced, for those of you unfamiliar with the subject, mahn-guh, not mann-ga on mayn-guh). There are reasons why it's so popular here. For one, a volume, or tankobon, is about half the price. North American fans can expect to part with anywhere from eight to eleven dollars. In Japan, expect to lose anywhere between 400 and 575 yen. Also, Japanese manga come in a massive variety of sizes (there are large print volumes, valuable for series with massive spreads, and mini pocket volumes, along with a typical trade paperback size). Another big difference is the feel. American manga volumes tend to be fairly rigid, while Japanese style manga will bend to your hand readily and then return to their previous shape. Far more comfortable. I just hope you like reading Japanese.
My host family owns a decent library of manga, so I've been checking out a couple, especially Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) and Paradise Kiss. I also bought volume 59 of One Piece yesterday, because that arc was HOLY CRAP levels of insane awesome, and because 400 yen is payable in pocket change.