How old are you and how old are your friends?
I’m 28, PhD student, and I realised I attract a lot of (Japanese) people 5-7 years younger (like 21-23). Sometimes I feel like asking some of them to hangout but it seems weird considering the age difference.
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Im 32, and my friends age ranges are from 29-45
Once you get married and have kids, you just kinda hangout with other married people with kids, because at that point its about lifestage more than age.
I feel like people over 30 just have too much going on to take on any new friends… younger people have more free space in their lives, so to speak. They’re also more open to meeting new people
I’m in my mid thirties (43) and hang out with people between 25-50.
I’m early 30s and have friends ranging from 20 to 40+. Though the much younger/older friends are mostly online. Meatspace friends are more or less within 5 years of my age.
I honestly appreciate both ends of the spectrum; it helps to know what’s coming up in life (older friends) and not turning into a fossil quite yet (younger friends).
Though, I have a feeling this is a limited time perk; late 20s and early 30s is probably the last part of my life where I’m young enough to relate to college aged kids to an extent while giving relevant feedback/advice without seeming too creepy. Hell it kinda gets weird as it is, but oh well. At least it’ll never be weird to have friends from all over the world (i.e. hearing about the war from both Ukrainians and Russians from their own mouth’s rather than through a media filter really helps to calibrate your perspective)
tl;dr diversity of friends/info good.
When I moved to Japan at 19 years of age, my friends were all in their early 30s and had young families. Now that I’m 28, and have a beautiful family of my own, I don’t hangout with anyone except the group of foreigners who play Pokémon Go once a month in our city.
I don’t see age as an issue personally. As long as your friends are like-minded and enjoy similar activities. When I first moved over, those guys with their young families wanted to go out drinking every weekend. And it was enjoyable for a few months but just wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing and we slowly grew apart.
I’m 32 and single. my friend group ranges from 24 to 36 or so. I think “stage in life” matters a lot more than age, for example I met this 30 year old guy at a meetup who was great, interesting conversation etc. but he was doing a PhD and still had the “student partying on a budget” mindset. like his favorite bar to go on weekends was a 1,000 JPY nomihodai in Shibuya where probably we were the only people over the age of 25 if we went together. someone who is 24 but lived abroad, has been working full time in an office job for a few years etc. probably has a lot more in common with me.
As you’re a student that seems reasonable. Many people go straight for master’s degree after graduation so they are very young. I’m a masters’ student (early 30s) and some of my friends are 22-24. People above 25 can be quite divided such as those who are already married can’t hang out with the single ones as much, so the friend pool can skew younger if you’re single.
My only best friend I’ve made is another foreign guy and we’re both 32. Everyone else I’ve made at least decent friends with are within 10 years older and younger. 22-42, basically. The only one who feels comfortable just vibing in the tatami room with me for no particular reason other than to shoot the shit? Same age.