Pen Pals?

Ohayou gozaimasu! / おはようございます。

When I was thirteen (in other words, over a decade ago) I befriended a couple of people in Japan that I had met through an internet pen-pal site. We exchanged letters, talked books, movies and celebrity J-Pop worship. It was one of the most rewarding things I had ever done in my young life, but I eventually fell out of contact with them because my parents were still convinced that everyone on the internet was a sexual predator or serial killer (not having the opportunity to speak with them further I cannot refute this claim, although I find it highly problematic :p).

Well, several days ago I decided to take the plunge and have begun studying Japanese in earnest which has been a goal of mine for quite some time. With numerous books on the market, plenty of free internet resources and a few friends nearly fluent in the language themselves I felt like I had a fighting chance. But what I didn't have was that all important pen-pal. So, for the second time in my life, I set out to find a pen-pal.

Let me tell you--things have drastically changed.

At the end of the 90's the only people looking for pen-pals were students and those genuinely interested in cultural exchange. Unfortunately these days half of the pen-pal sites around are nothing more than casual matchmaker sites in disguise. It took me a good couple of hours to find a site that wasn't completely focussed on international nookie.

After a bit of sleuthing I managed to stumble upon InterPals, which is a pretty impressive site that lets you search for friends in any country. InterPals is focussed on providing its users a place to go in search of pen-pals and all other forms of culture exchange. Anyways, I had been on the site for less than a day before finding who is now my new pen-pal from Chiba, Japan. It's been a few days now and we've already exchanged several letters; I'm quickly re-discovering just how rewarding it is to break down the barriers of geography and immerse yourself in another culture.

Take some time and find yourself a penpal: it's the best way to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar region (apart from actually moving there) and a pretty cool way to make a new friend.

Hiya Taeko-chan!