It was difficult to make Japanese friends when I first arrived in Sapporo. I studied for a year on the Monbusho Scholarship at Hokudai. I stayed in a dorm called "Keiteki-ryou." My room was in a special wing for foreign students and graduate students. Also, all of my Japanese classes were held in a special building called the "ISC", or International Student Center. Most of my teachers were Japanese, but there were almost no Japanese students visited the ISC.

So, there was little chance to talk with Japanese students.I wanted to make some Japanese friends very badly, so I decided to go out and try. After a few months, I had met a number of new friends! It just took a lot of effort and courage.

If you have courage, and make an effort, you can make friends too when you go abroad. Here are a couple of episodes from my Hokudai days...

I went to "International Parties" for college students. I went to a place called "Apaturida" near Hokudai and met a couple of girls that I stayed in touch with for many years, even after Hokudai. Sometimes, international parties or "conversation time" events are not so much fun, but you can usually make friends there.

Also, I would often go to Odori Park and hang out. I would listen to guitar players. One time, I met a couple of musicians, and talked to them for a while after their performance. After they went home, they told their parents about me, and the family invited me to dinner! I became friends with their family and would go to their house every so often.

One time, I took part in Keiteki-ryou's Fall Festival. I did sumo wrestling in a red fundoshi! It was very difficult to make friends or even talk with the Japanese residents of the dorm (except when they were drunk, ha ha.) However, I became better friends with the international students at the dorm, because we participated in the sumo wrestling as a team.

Lastly, I decided to take a special class with regular students in Hokudai called "Kansai-ben as a Foreign Language." I had to do a funny project in class. I acted as Momotarou in a video skit. I had to do my lines in Osaka dialect!

Anyway, I'm sure if you have courage, you can make friends with the residents of the country you go to. It's tough, but if I can do it, you can too!

Good luck!

See you!
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