Hmmm... I don't know. Maybe it's the people you're hanging out with, or maybe it's the people I'M hanging out with, but I only know one person who does sadou and she's one of my English students, not even really a"friend" per se.
Most of my friends are moms who have no time for their own hobbies though, so maybe they ARE interested and just not able to do it right now?
That "things aren't so difficult without Japanese" thing...ARGH! *pulls hair* It drives me crazy when people just seem to EXPECT random Japanese people to speak English. Sure, at an international hotel or a tourist attraction, maybe not EVERY staff member is perfectly fluent but it's reasonable to expect that someone there will be able to help you. But I used to work with people who'd just go up to the JR station guy or someone working at McDonalds (and really, since when is being bilingual a requirement for flipping burgers?) and just babbling away without even asking "Do you speak English?" first... it really gives foreign residents a bad name, IMO.
Plus, those people often live in Japan for YEARS without ever really experiencing Japanese life. When I was an exchange student I tried REALLY HARD to avoid "international student clubs" and things like that, and even then, after a year I think I had made more stupid cultural faux pas than I care to think about. It just takes more exposure than that to really know a culture... one of the reasons I shy away from most novels about Japan. Someone who spends most of their time hanging out in English-friendly bars in Roppongi does not know ANYTHING about the Japan I know and love. (Not a novel, but the exception is Lost in Translation, because that's about short term visitors who don't pretend to know everything about Japan, and IS a pretty accurate representation of a first-time visit!)
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Most of my friends are moms who have no time for their own hobbies though, so maybe they ARE interested and just not able to do it right now?
That "things aren't so difficult without Japanese" thing...ARGH! *pulls hair* It drives me crazy when people just seem to EXPECT random Japanese people to speak English. Sure, at an international hotel or a tourist attraction, maybe not EVERY staff member is perfectly fluent but it's reasonable to expect that someone there will be able to help you. But I used to work with people who'd just go up to the JR station guy or someone working at McDonalds (and really, since when is being bilingual a requirement for flipping burgers?) and just babbling away without even asking "Do you speak English?" first... it really gives foreign residents a bad name, IMO.
Plus, those people often live in Japan for YEARS without ever really experiencing Japanese life. When I was an exchange student I tried REALLY HARD to avoid "international student clubs" and things like that, and even then, after a year I think I had made more stupid cultural faux pas than I care to think about. It just takes more exposure than that to really know a culture... one of the reasons I shy away from most novels about Japan. Someone who spends most of their time hanging out in English-friendly bars in Roppongi does not know ANYTHING about the Japan I know and love. (Not a novel, but the exception is Lost in Translation, because that's about short term visitors who don't pretend to know everything about Japan, and IS a pretty accurate representation of a first-time visit!)