The importance of having local friends, not just expat friends

My first few years in Japan were spent mainly with expat friends. I did have some local friends, but the vast majority were people in the same situation as I was–I guess there was something about all being in the same situation that made life easier to deal with.

We have a family of our expat friends leaving today, moving on to their next place for work in Germany. Their kids were our kids closest friends, and I'm honestly sitting here quite sad after spending time with them yesterday, feeling a lot more emotional about it all than I'd expected.

With some of our expat friends moving to Europe today, it reminds me of the importance of forging local connections, too. Pic: Kyle Glenn/Unsplash

It reminds me of the importance of having local friends, too – because otherwise you're going to have a constant state of people coming and going, and that can be really emotionally taxing. Of course, expat friends are great – like I mentioned above there's that immediate bond that you're all fish out of water, so to speak, and bonds are quickly forged as a result of that. But local friends are typically here permanently – they'll be your constants, even when the rest of the world feels anything but.

Are your friends here primarily locals, expats, or a healthy mix of both?