Making friends with native Japanese - difficult task?

This thread is mainly addressed to our members living in Japan for already a couple of years.

I wondered if it is hard to make friends with native Japanese people. After all, whenever I read the forums I never see any of our fellow Japan-loving members referring to any actual Japanese people. It seems like even if they're living in Japan, they are "separated" from the (for example) Japanese collector's market like we all are - like the Gaijins who go for overpriced loose SFC-games in the Super Potato!

Have any of you guys, who have lived in the land of the rising sun for a couple of years, made friends with native Japanese people? Maybe with Japanese retro-game fans or otakus even?

It just happens to interest me since I've sort of talked to quite some Japanese people when I was in Japan in 2007. The thing is, I don't know if it could have become a (game-based) friendship if I'd have lived there for longer or if they'd just sort of "tried to preserve their face" by talking to me friendly.

I guess it could be very interesting to make friends with a Japanese video game freak. I think so because the few minutes I talked to that Ketsui nerd'o (425mio 2-ALL Ura-Loop) were some of the most exciting of my gaming life, LOL! He knew SWY personally XD

So, tell me! Who do you know? Not FC_Zion I bet!;-)

 

my few cents:

most of my japanes friendships are comming from my work, or friends from my working colleagues. non of 'em are really game oriented, though some of 'em know/knew the old shit like pce, parodius, r-type etc. so somtimes there are some discussions about those good times whilst flushing some beers.

since i'm already quite busy with work, family & visitors on a regular basis (the old friends from oversea), there is just few time left to meet up with the japanese crowd.

and as some of you might know, meeting up with people on a regular basis isn't so usual in japan, as we know it from the western, where good friends meeting up at least once a week for some casual talks and dos.

this may also quite differ if you start your life in japan as a single person.

nevertehless, I wouldn't mind to know some good native PCE or retro buddies here in japan to have a cool meet up once a year or for a regular akiba etc. trip or so (like they did in those pce offline-meeting days)

When I first came here, I have started some talks on japanese BBS blogs etc. to find some like-minded people, but i have found out fast, that few of em must be like very lazy, passive otakus, which do only share their interessts via the net. who knows?

 

Just depends on your daily grind. I had way more back when I was out clubbing/partying every weekend. Then when I got a real job, my social life took a dive but I played a lot of VF. So, more Japanese friends, justa different world. I also hung out with people from work some, but not a lot. Now, I work alone, so that's out, and I go out very little. I go to arcades almost zero, unfortunately. So, much fewer Japanese friends, but much fewer gaijin friends as well.

 

Y'know, I was wondering this sort of thing the other day.

 

In my experience most Japanese have friends that are either part of their work life or from high school. My self, I have a few Japanese friends but only 1 is nothing to do with work and actually a gamer. We met in a game store owned by a sort of friend I once knew. I remember the first day we met he took me to this shop in his Subaru Legacy (good taste in cars too) only to have my ears filed with some rocking Thunder Force arranged sound track! Man, that's when I knew this guy was going to be a good mate. He loves Sega, loves the 16 bit days of Mega Drive and Technosoft and even likes similar cars to me.

Yakumo

 

if japanese don't have many friends then how come they can organize so many orgies?

 

as GP mentioned, there's a lot of different circles you can find yourself in through work. I've a good smattering of Japanese friends, ranging from a bunch of guys i know from playing football, people at work, and people i've met through gaming. Most the Japanese friends i have are from drinking/partying going all the way back to 2000, strangest friendship has been with the guy who used to deliver curry to our house (spawned from literally just standing chatting when he delivered the curry) who i've played football with for over 5 years now.

but yes, several friends are "gaming based relationships" - one friend in particular we got talking because of mutual Sega fandom/PS2 disappointment (it -was- 2000, give me some slack!) and we're still good friends to this day, a few i met through the wife who seems to know everyone games related out here!

I'd suggest hitting one of the gaming bars is a good start point, though building a true "friendship" from that is probably still a bit tricky, but you could definitely chat about gaming. Actually, "the Master" at 16 Shots is definitely worth talking to about Retro... especially Tecmo (huge Tecmo nerd)

 

I have on gaming friend who I met through YJ -- we bid against each other, and on each others stuff. He knew my site as well, so that helped.

Money

 

Japanese don't have TEH HIV like those filthy foreigners!

that said, i have had talks with the usual mouth breading western retards who go on about "i will not use a condom for anyone" or "you don't go swimming with your jeans on" so... perhaps the Japanese a right? Then again, pigeons can count higher than these particular mongberts IQ so i shouldn't read too much into it. If you're over 24 and still a social spaz, then nature should be allowed to delete you as far as i'm concerned.

 

DISCLAIMER: I am not a patron of fuuzoku businesses but reading about adventures and misadventures in said places is one of my favorite things to do to kill 5-10 minutes here and there. That being said, they're usually at least mildly entertaining (and sometimes flat out misogynistically {?} hillarious.) But, sometimes they ain't pretty:
Click Me

EDIT: Apparenly Jan Jan is one of the few places w/ J-Girls that will take gaijin. 2 blow jobs = 3000 yen in the day, 4000 at night. The cab to get there would be double that.

 

That doesn't sound too bad after all. I believed there was a bigger line drawn by the Japanese to separate themselves from "Gaijin"... although I've experienced the opposite, but then I was just a visitor and did not meet any of those guys twice.

@Yakumo
That sounds great, knowing an owner of a game store! He must have been in a position to acquire quite some interesting items for cheap I guess
I can understand why you seem to get along so harmonically^^"

@GP
Isn't prostitution, just talking about vaginal sex though, illegal in Japan? I think I have read that vaginal sex is only offered as a "freebee", for instance in Soaplands after the actual service so it doesn't count as 'sex for money'.

 

Yeah, exactly. It's illegal, but..

Police really don't seem to do anything about it. I'm living in Sendai now, and within the confines of our red light district there is a police station. My guess is they either don't care to bust the people for such business (might want some action on break) or they are paid not to intervene. Most likely, if the police did intervene, the couple would say that the sex was consensual and the money was just for any nonsexual activity.

Some others told me their opinion is that police can't tell whether or not the actual building is involved in any of that kind of activity. If they were really curious, they could just search the website of whatever business looks shanty. Or, they could even search Youtube.

I saw a sign on a building the other day which interested me. It said 風俗営業許可 (Fuzoku Business Permission). I could be wrong, but I was told by a Japanese person that one can go there and get permission to establish a Fuzoku. If it was a big deal for police, I'm sure I wouldn't see signs like that, but fortunately, they exist.

 

LOL and I was so looking forward to my 3000 yen BJ TOO!

 

though id expect to record it for that!

 

風俗営業許可
Means they have a fuzoku license. Fuzoku entails all legal sex acts, which is just about anything other than good old fashioned fucking. Other deviant styles which were illegal in some Southern states under sodomy laws until recently are all fair game. As such, NO WHERE in Japan will "full service" be on the menu. However, it generally comes down to the girl and the establishment. It's probably easier to get away with than selling drugs as the business is, for the most part, done totally behind closed doors.

On the flip side, if a place does not have a fuzoku license, and you get even a tug at the end of a massage, that's technically illegal. How illegal is anyone's guess. My guess is that all the Chinese girls in Shibuya pulling you in for a massaji are in places w/ no license.

I'm also curious as to what having a license entails other than cost. Regular checkups? The story above is going to end really poorly for some Japanese salarymen. Taking that shit home isn't going to be a picnic. You can't just get rid of it with some antibiotics.

Sorry to derail the thread, but this is obviously quite important.

 

Hey, Tatsujin, I'm still here! (Just no Fuzoku trips, okay?)

 

LOL, yeah. I remember when you told me, you well going back in few month. It was in 2006 or 2007.

So where are you now? Still up in Sendai area? We could have a Game Bar(s) trip at times, when you're in Tokyo clime

Oh well then:crying:











Don't worry about that ;-)

 

The place I was talking about wasn't a fuzoku, though. The sign for it also listed things such as 内容証明, 車庫証明等 and various unrelated permissions.

I assume it's where you obtain the license, then.

 

You might be right on that.