Name: The Importance of Friendships Living in Japan // Girl Abroad Ep. 21
Uploaded: 2025-03-16T09:06:10.000Z
Duration: 20 min 36 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

To-infinitive

No matter where we are in the world, we need friendships, like we need air to breathe and food to eat.

We crave understanding, touch, honesty, and acceptance.

Most of us have a deep need for a genuine community, authentic communication, and friendship that is rich, healthy, and healing.

Leaving your home, saying goodbye to your family, when at the same time having the desire and urge to explore and see the world can be both confusing and exciting at the same time.

When you're the type of person that has a passion for new beginnings and adventures, you can at the same time experience a sense of disconnection and loneliness, no matter how positive you are about your new life abroad.

Sometimes we lose a sense of who we are after leaving home and start to question where we truly belong.

When we meet and connect with others and experience authentic friendships, our heart feels more at home and complete.

We find strength in knowing that we are understood and accepted.

Friendships are powerful, as powerful as our relationships with our families.

Friends abroad are our new family, and I'm so glad that I have the power of friendships with people who know and love who I am, no matter what.

These relationships are what keep me going when living here, and it's the most needed medicine for homesickness.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

So it is Sunday, and I worked a full shift yesterday, so it was pretty insane.

Today, I'm going to eat breakfast with Kel.

I'm going to a French bakery called Paul's in Kagurazaka, or it's like near Itabashi station.

I've never been there before, but anyway, I'm gonna go to Kel's graduation.

He's graduating today, and poor Kel doesn't have like any close family, not even back home.

I think he just has a sister, and he didn't want to go to his graduation because he didn't have anybody to go and, you know, cheer him on, and I totally understand, so I'm gonna go be there for him today.

In Japan, every friend that I have, it's like family to me, so that's what you have to do when you live abroad, is make friends that, you know, will last and love you no matter what, and that's the most important thing, because if you make your friends your family, that's how you can really survive here.

Having long-lasting good friendships is the key to really staying sane in Japan or in any other country in the world.

Yeah, these friendships are very important to me, and Kel is very important to me, so I'm gonna go see him today.

I'm gonna make some yogurt because I don't know what I can eat there, but I want to kind of fill myself up just a little bit before I go, just in case.

Okay, so I just arrived, and I'm going to find Kel now, and actually, he's gonna be here a little bit later.

I'm gonna head towards exit, and we're gonna get some bread at Paul's.

I've never been here before, but I'm really excited to check it out.

We started talking online about our dreams for our future, and instantly connected.

Anyway, Kel was one of my first subscribers on YouTube, and he stuck with me from the beginning.

Hey guys, I'm at Narita Airport right now, and I'm waiting for Kel.

Kel Preston, I will link his video and his channel down below.

He's probably so, like, nervous and freaked out right now.

We started chatting online because he was preparing to move to Japan, and eventually, we tried to do a collaboration from a distance.

I'm coming to Japan, so let's get on with the video.

My name is Kel, and my channel's name is Mulatto in Japan, and today, I'm going to be going over the top five things that I am looking forward to when I move to Japan in August.

I can talk to him about anything, and no matter how busy we get, or how long we don't hang out, getting together with him is always like I saw him yesterday.

He has been there for me through thick and thin, and today, I am so proud of him because he is graduating for a second time in his life, and he's such a strong human being, and driven, and inspires me to keep going no matter what hardships come my way.

It's my birthday, and I'm like questioning what I'm gonna eat, but I shouldn't.

Like, it's so gorgeous, and I got a pastrami sandwich, and then I got raisin and custard pastry.

I don't know how my body's gonna react to this, but we're gonna stay positive and believe that I can eat everything.

This is so sweet, and it's one reason that I'm going to my graduation.

I wasn't gonna go to my graduation because I don't have...

I don't really have family or friends to attend it, but one of my best friends, Kelly, was gonna come and support me, so that means so much.

That was like the most delicious breakfast I've had in a while.

Don't know how my body's gonna react later.

Okay, we're lost because that's the kind of people we are.

Trying to get Kel to his check-in, but we're having a hard time, so.

I'm talking to myself like every single day.

All right, Kel's about to graduate in Japan.

I'm not gonna lie, I held back a massive amount of tears before Kel stepped onto that stage.

This reminded me of my college years and how amazingly fun they were.

I was driven, inspired, and a hard worker.

Sometimes we forget the people we used to be, and even today, I struggle to remember that girl.

But at this very moment, I remembered her.

We are heading to the Jet Q&A, and what is Jet?

Jet is a Japan exchange program for teachers, and we are going there to meet all of the Jets that are going, and we're going to get some questions answered.

All right, so where are you going in Japan?

It is the farthest north of Honshu that you could ever get.

It's almost like we went on a really long journey.