TokyoFriends.com

As many of you heard on the discussion board, I actually ended up going to the TokyoFriends party.

Originally, I was seriously not planning to go. When I first heard about the party, I was completely uninterested. I tend to negatively prejudge anything that uses ‘foreigners’ as selling point.

This seemed to be one of those events that Japanese people attend in order to meet ‘foreigners’ in a safe environment. People who are hesitant to initiate a conversation with anyone of the foreigners walking through Tokyo everyday, can attend events like this in order to make foreign friends.

I ended up going to the TokyoFriends.com party because the night before, one of my friends mentioned that one of his other friends was going to some kind of ‘international party’ on Sunday night. Since my friend was going, I decided to check it out.

I eventually found out that it was the Tokyofriends.com party that my friend was talking about. I checked their website for details, and noticed they were looking for volunteers. I ended up running the ‘uketsuke’ place, taking peoples names and selling them their tickets to the party. For that labor, I got to attend the party for free! Bonus. The usual party fee is listed on their website.

If you offer to volunteer, entrance will be free, and you can help with the front desk, the clean-up, the initial setup, and other tasks that need to get done during the event. After the event is over, the organizers usually try to treat the
volunteers to a night out drinking or something. Of the eight or so volunteers that night, only about three of them had ever attended the event before.

There must have been at least 150 guests at the party. It was rather amazing. There was a pretty good mix of Japanese, and ‘foreigners’ as well. The Japanese ranged everywhere from college students, to ’salarymen’. The foreigners were as equally diverse, with students studying abroad, business professionals, and even military types. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing any foreign women at the event.

The food was lacking, some cheap gyoza, some KFC, some meat and potato dishes, and some pizza were available in limited quantities. The drinks were plentiful however. The atmosphere was fun, and really, this party is a good chance to make some friends if you are living in the Tokyo area. During the party lots of the Japanese will insist on speaking English to you, even if you can speak Japanese, as many really have come to the event to practice their English.

The club is run by a dedicated bunch of young people, and tends to have events about twice a month it seems. Their website is always up to date with the date for the next party.

If you happen to be free on a night of one of their parties, I suggest you give it a shot.