Comments on: On Caring About Your Lonely Friends in Japan

By: Denis

Denis — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 22:13:47 +0000

Everything you say connects my scatterbrain thoughts. Bravo

By: On Pilgrims | This Japanese Life. | 生命を外面九天です

On Pilgrims | This Japanese Life. | 生命を外面九天です — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 08:57:39 +0000

[…] This all might sound arrogant, if you believe that breaking down an identity is something people should be proud of. If that’s true, it speaks more about your relationship to your identity than it does to mine. In the West, we’re told to be proud of who we are, to wear the quirks and charms we pick up like scars or trophies. But we’re also expected to be proud of our ability to adapt, to don new traits and attributes, to be able to navigate a variety of radically new contexts. All of this should really only be appealing to people who long for a complete overhaul of “who we are.” It reflects this puritan idea of purifying the inner world so we aren’t full of noise. […]

By: Johnson

Johnson — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 07:06:38 +0000

Beautiful to read, I think everyone can relate to this completely on every level, whether they’ll admit it or not.

By: Doin’ It Right | 近海る(Kin Kairu)

Doin’ It Right | 近海る(Kin Kairu) — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:25:13 +0000

[…] smoking and the “apologizing” culture of Japan. He has one particular article about loneliness in Japan that has really stuck with me and, quite honestly, I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. […]

By: Morgan

Morgan — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 12:23:36 +0000

Yea. I live in Sapporo. Met a Girl from here in NZ 7 years ago. We had sex, and one of my semen went into her egg. That became a person, whom is also in Sapporo now too. 6 years old. I’m so fucking lonely I can scream. I’m like Michael god damn Jackson. I’ve only just discovered your writing dude, and it’s great. You obviously think, and care enough about your own existence to at least attempt creating something interesting. You succeed. Thanks. Nice tune you attached here as well. I like that kind of music. I really don’t know what to do about my loneliness. I’ve been feeling hopeless lately. Like, yea, this is it…this is how I have to live out my life. It kinda makes me rage. I’d rather rage than feel hopeless and depressed. I really don’t know what to do. But thanks for writing. A good friend is hard to find. But maybe, like you say, the fact I need a “good friend” is why I’m so lonely. It still doesn’t change the fact. Everyone is entitled to a good friend aren’t they? Or is that just in the movies? Maybe it’s all just in the movies.
1984

By: lauralubot

lauralubot — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 05:34:15 +0000

I don’t think I fully gave this the attention it deserved when you first wrote it. Maybe lonely people don’t like hearing about how lonely we are? But we do. We just don’t really know what to say about it afterwards. I’m sure glad you invited me to hang out around this time last year, regardless. And glad for all the times we got to talk, which was fun and stimulating but which never got us any closer to really knowing each other. As maybe we’d prefer.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 22:18:17 +0000

I just want to say wow. This was really touching. Each new paragraph I read was as if I was reading a line about myself that I had no way of expressing to others before. You said it perfectly. I met my best friend 7 years ago, and it’s as if we are soul mates. I’ve had other friends, but as you described, I felt like they thought I was too clingy, too desperate for companionship that they thought I was a bother. It’s a hard lesson to learn to not be this way, to listen as well as tell. To not think that what you have to say is so much more fulfilling than what others have to say just because you’ve kept it inside for so long. I’m applying for the JET Program for next summer, so this blog is very good advice. Thank you so much for your eloquent words.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 12:38:48 +0000

OMG. I felt like I was reading about myself. I’m in Japan now and experienced exactly the same things!

By: Jas

Jas — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 14:42:41 +0000

Beautiful Writing… I read it all, and copy pasted many sentences to my personal notepad… You are gifted, honestly sharing is one of the scariest thing that anyone could do. Thank you

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 05:18:02 +0000

Thanks for sharing those personal thoughts.
I’ve had to change school several times as a teenager and observed the same ineptitude in being open to others peoples ideas and emotions.
But if you look at it, all that overanalysing is extremely inefficient compared to just getting out there and learning to communicate with people naturally via doing so. At least for me it was.

The interweb is a strange place though. Where a German writes personal thoughts as a comment to an American living in Japan on his blog.