Circles & Friends

I have no idea what possessed me to become so assertive in making Japanese friends but lately I have been putting myself out there in trying to start conversations and meet people in a way I have never done before. Back in Hawaii, I usually did not make an effort to deepen relationships beyond simply being an acquaintance or someone to be used as networking. For one, I already have a group of friends and I’m more individualistic in terms of my goals and hobbies in which I did not feel a need whatsoever to go out of my way to make friends. But that has absolutely not been the case in Japan. In Japan, I have a constant urge to make Japanese friends and meet people not only for the sake of improving my Japanese, but also to make memorable experiences.

In a previous blog I mentioned that I joined several circles which are called English Speaking Society (ESS) and Lingwave, both of which are international clubs. I figured it would be easier to make friends here as most likely everyone would have an interest in international students or at the very least English. Although they are called international clubs, ironically there has been absolutely no use of English whatsoever and a whopping two-three international students out of dozens of Japanese students. My Japanese is nowhere near perfect but luckily for one of the circles I had no problem speaking comfortably with the members. Everyone was extremely down to earth, friendly and extremely passionate about learning languages and traveling. It was truly astonishing for me as a vast majority of the people I meant in life have absolutely zero passion in learning languages or even traveling around the world.

On this day, we were supposed to have a “picnic” at Shinjuku Gyoen Park but the weather ended up being absolutely terrible with temperatures reaching 40 degrees and light rain resulting in us improving on the spot. We decided to wander around the park for a bit, then shopping, and finally settling at a cafe. The weather ruining everything and us scrambling to make the most out of the situation made everything much more entertaining. I learned that none of us in the circle knew each other whatsoever which made talking to one another much easier. It truly was a pleasure talking with people in a completely different language, with a completely different culture, and yet have so many similar interests. I never get nervous meeting people when meeting fellow people speaking English but its not the case for meeting Japanese people. I don’t have a hundred percent confidence in my Japanese speaking and I can not speak anywhere as nuanced as my English speaking abilities thus I was honestly slightly nervous about how the experience would go to the point where I was wondering if I should even go. But I am absolutely glad I put myself out there in what I thought would be an uncomfortable situation. Its moments like these which made me glad I studied Japanese and studied abroad as I would never have had such wonderful experiences otherwise.