A weekly class or club
Pottery, cooking, dance, bouldering, running. The best friendships come from repetition, not one-off events.
We asked people living in Tokyo how long it took to make their first real friend here, and what worked. The answers were surprisingly consistent.
The people who made friends fastest almost all did the same thing: one thing, every week, with the same faces. A pottery class, a running club, a language exchange, a climbing gym. One person told us it took "around a month" after joining local community events and clubs. Seeing the same people again is what turns an acquaintance into a friend.
The second thing that worked was one-on-one plans. A coffee with one person builds more than a night at a crowded mixer, and it's much easier to suggest a second time. That's exactly what Buy Me a Matcha is built for: it's the only app made specifically for English speakers to make real friends in Japan, friends-only, English-only, one-on-one over a matcha.
Pottery, cooking, dance, bouldering, running. The best friendships come from repetition, not one-off events.
Japanese people who want to use their English are looking for you too. Move it to a café once you click.
One lunch outside the building does more than months of small talk at a desk.
Buy Me a Matcha for one-on-one café meetups in English, friends only. Meetup for group events, Bumble For Friends for swiping.
Most expats in Tokyo make friends through something they repeat every week (a class, a club, a sports team, a language exchange), through work or school, and through one-on-one meetups from friend apps. Repetition is what turns a first meeting into a friendship.
It takes effort, mainly because adult life in Tokyo is busy and routine-based, not because of the language. Tokyo has a large English-speaking community, so it is very possible without fluent Japanese.
Many people say their first real friend took one to three months, usually after joining one weekly activity and saying yes to early invites.
Buy Me a Matcha is the one built for English speakers in Tokyo: friends-only, it matches you one-on-one and helps you pick a café to meet. Other common options are built for something else: Meetup for group events, Bumble For Friends for swiping in many countries, and language-exchange apps for practice.
Weekly classes and clubs, international and language-exchange events, gyms and running clubs, coworking spaces, and quiet cafés for one-on-one meetups. Neighbourhoods with many international residents include Azabu, Ebisu, Nakameguro, Shimokitazawa and Kichijōji.
No. Many expats build their first circle entirely in English. Learning some Japanese helps over time and opens more doors with locals.
Buy Me a Matcha shows you people in Tokyo who speak English and also want new friends. You match, pick a café, and meet one-on-one over a matcha. Free, and not a dating app.
Get it on the App Store