When you call yourself an Otaku, what do you mean by it?

[DARK OSAMU]

The litteral translation of Otaku is house or home. In japan it started being used as slang like Joe the Almighty has explained, for people who don't leave their rooms for anything except the bathromm and school. It is used for this reason because a japanese Otaku is nothing an American Otaku is like. Otakus here are panzees compared to a Japanese one. Over there the "otakus" have a computer with the net logged on, a tv with some anime or video game playing while they are on the net, and stacks of books piled high EVERYWHERE in the room, and mind you their rooms are TINY. They only leave the room if they have too and they stay in "otaku" mode from the time they wake until possibly the same time 2 DAYS LATER before they got back to sleep. Being called an Otaku in Japan is actually taken as an insult. So if you go there it's wise not to say it towards someone or about yourself as if it were "cool" because over there it isn't a cool thing to be called.