Afraid that visiting Japan with only tourism in mind might turn out to be quite lonesomd

8 comments

1. You can work in Izakia etc on a WHV. You will learn a lot more Japanese working in them, than you would at a language school.

   You will then also get paid for it too.

2. I’ve done lots of tourism trips for 12 to 14 weeks before, but because I lived there previously I was primarily going for the purpose of hanging out with friends and seeing people I already knew. I imagine only doing touristy stuff would be isolating without more direct interaction.

   I second u/Karlbert86 in regards to the part-time recommendation – if you don’t need sponsorship from a language school, then you can learn a lot of Japanese this way and make local friends much more easily.

   You can also try joining with a local sports group. I played volleyball with a bunch of hobbyists and made a lot of friends that way. You can ask around at local gyms, or there might be posts hung up there.

3. I’m heading over next year too! Maybe try picking up some hobbies now, before the big trip!

   I think that enrolling in boxing/aikido is a great idea! Team sports like volleyball are a great way to meet people too

4. I did a working holiday in 2018. 9 months of 98% “holiday”. I budgeted for a years worth of spending and didn’t intend to get a job, but found a fun gig doing food tours so when I got bored I did some. At most it was like 10 tours a month (each tour was 3 hours).

   I made a lot of friends mainly through church and my hobby (skating). This was a decent amount of about 20 close friends whom I kept in contact with even after leaving and have reunited with since I came back for work.

   I didnt stay in Tokyo either, it’s pretty easy to make friends wherever. However, I did come with about N2 speaking/listening ability (non-existent reading/writing though). My church friends were 50% bilingual so that was fine but I definitely needed my Japanese for my skating friends.

   Also made a lot of temporary friends while traveling. I took 1-3 trips per month to other prefectures and kept a photo album on my phone of people/locals I met while traveling. Those are fond memories I look back on too, again, Japanese ability helped a _lot_ as I often went to less-known areas not aimed at foreign tourists.

   I think it depends what you want out of your stay. If it’s to see Japan, sure you might get lonely especially with the language barrier (IMO at N4, you’ll probably be stuck in an loop of the same basic questions with anyone you’ll meet). However if you live in a bigger city like Tokyo / Osaka / Nagoya, you should be easily able to connect with English speaking foreigners through events, groups, hobbies etc to fend off the loneliness. A lot also boils down to your personality. All the best 🙂

5. Current working holiday visa here 👋

   I’m N4 self studying N3 here. I also didn’t want to pay tuition that could go to travels. I typically go to Starbucks get a coffee, maybe 300/500 yen size pending, £3 a day. Spend maybe an hour or two studying. Still cheaper than a years language school. Then maybe the same in the evening at home.

   I’m not working at all, and will vouch it can definitely get lonely fast, days feel very long with no work and no groups or friends. Though personally I don’t mind it.

   Izakaya are great for working and also learning Japanese (as guest or employee) for socialising.

   If you’re going with a company like world unite, ask to meet the people there. I’ve done that recently and made a bunch of connections.

   But my advise would be to schedule your day to day, hour to hour. It’s easy to underestimate how much free time you’ll have, and that’s when the loneliness will sink in.

   Good luck!!

6. Depends on a lot of factors. Right now tourism is basically non existent for foreigners which will be your biggest obstacle. N4 is not enough Japanese to be able to make any meaningful relationships with locals that don’t speak English.

   So your biggest issue will be not having many like minded people to Hang out with. If tourism is what you want I suggest you wait till the borders officialy open that way when you go to places like hostels, tourist spots and hotels there will be other people like you to hang out with.

   Most the foreigners that already live here have jobs and families close friends so they won’t be actively looking for people to hang out with.

   So to sum it up. In my opinion I would do one of two things . Ethier wait till tourism is back or go the language school route. If you choose the latter you will have some like minded people with a like minded goal. That being said you will be busy and many of your adventures will ethier be eating/drinking or short trips.

   Ethier way I hope you find something.

7. In my experience a lot of the other Western people who I met in Japan tended to be quite individualistic and almost loner types. The reality is that as much as there will always be opportunities out there to meet people moving to a new country as a foreigner is going to put you in positions where you’re on your own a lot of the time (at least at first while you get settles).

   Now that can 100% be reduced and mitigated with effort, consistently putting yourself out there, taking advantage of opportunities, expanding your boundries. Especially if you speak Japanese somewhat and are eager to use it. But I do think having a baseline comfort in being able to chill by yourself is an asset. Even just going over there with an understanding that you need to proactively go out and make friends will put you in a better position than otherwise.

8. If you’re in a bigger city, definitely check out any language exchange meetups. You can practice and improve your Japanese with locals and not have to worry as much about the language barrier as they will be learning English and you’ll probably meet other foriengers too