Meeting New People in Osaka?

[terebi_fanatic]

Traveling to Japan for 2 months in summer (july/august), most of the trip will probably be alone.

Can you suggest some ideas of where one can meet new people?

So far I got these in mind:

- Attending Japanese language classes
- Staying at a Sakura house type of place
- Volunteering
- Rub up against strangers in tight public transport situations (J/K, kinda...)

Do you have any other ideas or thoughts about the suggestions above?

[Greji]

".....Rub up against strangers in tight public transport situations....."
Do you have any other ideas or thoughts about the suggestions above?

What else could there be?

[wuchan]

What else could there be?

Soapland?

[terebi_fanatic]

Soapland?

I was told by a little tiny Yakuza fucker in a loud rude manner: "JAPANESE ONLY!".

Wanted to knock out the little prick... the sign read in English "PRETTY WOMEN". Why do you post stuff in English if it's "Japanese Only"??

As you can see the memory is oh so fresh...

[BigInJapan]

I was told by a little tiny Yakuza fucker in a loud rude manner: "JAPANESE ONLY!".
Wanted to knock out the little prick... the sign read in English "PRETTY WOMEN". Why do you post stuff in English if it's "Japanese Only"??

One reason some of those places don't want foreigners coming in is that they figure you won't speak any, or much Japanese, and that this could lead to trouble.
I remember quite a few years ago some buddies of mine wanted to go a shadier type of establishment and the guy at the door said "No gaijin", but when we responded in fluent Japanese, his comeback was that gaijin-san are too big (pointing to our crotch area), and that the girls would not be able to "handle" the situation, so to speak. Alrighty...

And, the guys you see in the street or at the door are generally just touts or chinpira, not full-blown y-boyz. The heavies usually only make an appearance when enforcement is needed.

[FG Lurker]

Can you suggest some ideas of where one can meet new people?

There are groups around that have regular "international parties" that you might try to attend. WhyNot!? JAPAN is one such group, there are probably others.

You might also try reading one of the free magazines like Kansai Scene to see what events are on. The Kansai Flea Market is a free classified ads publication that sometimes has event ads.

I'm sure there will be a few events over the summer while you are here. There are also lots of gaijin-oriented bars around and people are usually pretty friendly as long as you're not an obvious asshole.