I recently got into a study abroad program for the next semester in Tokyo and I’m wondering if me being from the US will make it harder to make friends because I’ll always have an extra layer of “out-group”. Does being from another country make making friends more difficult? Or does it have the opposite effect where people want to meet you because you’re from somewhere else and that’s intriguing to them? I’ve heard variations of both online and I’m wondering which is the most true. I’ve been to Japan before, but never long enough to be able to make friends so this will be a new experience for me. I don’t want to spend the entire semester feeling isolated, but I also don’t want to overstep people’s boundaries and seem too “in your face”. If anyone here has any experience making friends in Japan as an international student, advice would be greatly appreciated.
