[samurai007]

For me, I made some of my best friends by meeting with the local Volunteer Interpreter and Guide Club. They took me around the various local temples and historical sights and practiced their English and ways to describe the scenes. We used to kid around that I was their "practice gaijin" for when "real foreigners" came to the area to visit. (Of course, I was a foreigner too, but since I lived there, traded English for Japanese lessons with them, went to their club parties and get-togethers, etc, I was sort of an honorary member of the club). They and their friends and families became some of my best friends in Japan.

I also became good friends with several of the teachers I worked with. Many of the teachers just kept things on a professional level, as you said, but some of them seemed to really take a liking to me, and we'd hang out, play tennis together, go out for dinners, sightseeing on the weekends, etc.