How hope they've cut away with this?

I'm not sure which question I get asked more.

Is it difficult to make friends in Japan?

Or why do you never smile?

I smiled last Tuesday when I met a friend and we made the groundbreaking discovery.

Oh my God, you will literally kill Bill.

How have I never noticed this resemblance?

This is amazing.

Now I'll admit it seems a bit old or patronizing to make a video about making Japanese friends in Japan.

Making friends is a precious life skill, which should be a Z Z is breathing air, walking backwards or enjoying a pitbull song.

And yet it is a genuine problem.

No diggity, No doubt.

There are many foreigners living in Japan with no Japanese friends, mainly due to the language barrier, but also because it could be easy to get trapped inside the foreigner before in a bubble.

Which looks like that I should know.

I was no exception.

In my first year, I spent nearly all of my time with other foreigners and other teachers, and in my head I turned the language barrier into a much bigger deal than it actually was because I couldn't communicate in Japanese.

Ultimately, my luck changed at the end of my first year when I was walking down the street downtown on this Japanese guy walking towards me was literally shocked to see a foreigner, our rural Japan, on his name.

Waas.

My name that ski mask.

Chris.

Oh, good name.

That's me.

Uh, London.

Yeah, older guy.

And that's how I met my good for a nasty just walking towards each other down the street on a Friday night was definitely not drunk.

You can go, Let's go, Let's go!

And by the end of my second year, I was spending nearly all of my free time with Japanese friends and teaching them key English words and phrases fucking credible in fuck.

Incredible.

Oh, on that transition from big this overexcited tourists to actually living in Japan with many good friends with the cultural and language barriers torm down made me feel that Japan was a country I had a genuine future in after finishing as an English teacher.

So, no, it's not difficult to my Japanese friends in Japan at least.

No, if you follow these three pieces of voice.

So I'd say just by knowing a little Japanese, even the most basic stuff will go a long way.

You'll find people will be far more willing to talk to you.

One thing that helped me practice my Japanese on me Japanese people while removing the language barrier was actually an app called Hello Talk.

And it's become a really popular way here in Japan to meet conversation partners and make friends as well.

It's an excellent language exchange tool as its souls.

A few major problems with the whole language barrier, as the APP uses text, has translation functionality built into it.

You can easily get around these communication problems better still, you can correct your friend when they make a mistake, so it is a genuinely useful language learning tool.

I'm fairly certain half of Japan uses it as the moment you open up and choose Japanese as the language you're learning.

You will get so many people contacting you wanted to chat, and you can also search to find someone who you think might be an ideal conversation partner based on their language ability, the way they are all their personal experience and you could even make free schools through the apples Well, which was really useful.

I've actually made some really good friends on their way.

Talk to radio on practice.

Japanese with you can check out the link below or just search for hello talk.

But it will certainly help you out, particularly in the early stages of language learning when you want to try and practice some expressions, you pretty fun and easy to use for anyone learning Japanese, whether you're in or outside.

First of all, if you live in Japan, don't end up like me in my first year, sat inside with the Grandma Vocal Day, eating cornflakes.

By the way, while we're on the subject of conflicts to afford Kellogg's in Japan, you will have to re mortgage your house on your Children.

Unfortunately, there's only one alternative, and it makes even cardboard seem favorable.

A CZ well is that it has a rather cheeky brand character.

Get ready to set your faces from stun to copyright infringement.

I don't how hope they've cut away with this.

This is tenis Timmy cereal and look what they've done to the Kellogg's Corporal.

Almost identical with too subtle differences tenis Coco has a helmet on sunglasses.

I wish I could have clinched the marketing team.

Tell me.

Sit down to conceive this character.

We should probably think up some kind of original character to help brand the product.

Now fuck it.

Let's just use the Kellogg's cockroach.

What would that be like copyright infringement.

Now, if we put a helmet on the cock crow.

Really?

Yeah.

And sunglasses.

But you learn from my mistakes.

Don't go by this on Dhe was a massive tangent.

Before we came to Japan, I kind of thought the whole standing out was a foreigner thing would lead to me having loads of random encounters.

I thought if I sat in a coffee shop long enough, Japan would come to May.

I didn't.

I met my five closest Japanese friends in the street house party at a work party at a local festival randomly at a bar.

I'd say, If you get a lot of parties where you can meet people in the same social circle, it really helps as it gives us all Blair of trust by knowing that you share a mutual friend.

Although I think I'm starting to read into things too much.

We don't know.

The real secret to making friends in Japan is tip number three.

First of all, no advocating the consumption of alcohol, probably.

But in Japan, alcohol feels less like a drink and more like something out of double doors.

Potions, cabinet, you'll find Japanese people can suddenly speak English after just two drinks.

All of your work colleagues who don't speak a word of English will suddenly magically become fluent outwork party.

For example, one non English teacher at the school road works actively avoided me in the corridor.

The fear of having to use English.

Yeah, after just two beers, a recent party, he was able to talk to me about his favorite bridges for over an hour in flawless ing.

And, you know, it was interesting conversation.

The English aside that you'll find people who usually shy, reserved, another opinionated will suddenly open up.

You might hear the words on their on tattoo tattoo.

My is public stance of what people have on all day at work, so little opinions have kept to themselves on.

It could be difficult to know what someone actually really thinks on there.

Is there real thoughts and opinions on dhe.

Certainly after a few drinks, the floodgates will open up.

In Japan, alcohol is really important in its role as a social tool.

So whether you're a bar is a coyote or a nightclub, if there's alcohol involved, it could be a heck of a lot easier to make friends.

So maybe going to drink something.

So there you get lots of advice for making friends in Japan.

If you have any advice yourself, please leave the coins believe.

As for me, though, I need to get back to working on my new Children's cartoon character.

And only I think the kids are gonna love mochi, the mouse currently passing through here.

Oceana.

It's amazing City.

In fact, you can see the able don't just from the hotel window here, definitely visit the city if you get the chance.

Also, please follow on Instagram and Facebook so you can keep up to speed on what's going on on.

Get useful information along the way until next time.