In my early twenties, something I read and heard alot about was how difficult it is to make new friends once you're an adult, let alone good friends. And for a good while I kept the same few groups of friends from University and a few from previous jobs. In my experience, this started to ring more true as the years went on.

I never would have thought I could have a friend like Chiho.

In Aug 2022, I decided to start learning Japanese and installed an app called HelloTalk. From there I'd spend a few nights a week hopping between voicerooms, meeting and talking with strangers from Japan learning English. It was in one particular voiceroom while I was not up on the stage (the place to actually talk) that I first met Chiho.

Her English was great but more importantly... I fell in love with her voice.

And like the idiot I am I commented from the audience while Chiho was speaking; 「いい声だね〜」(Nice voice).

She would later tell me that she thought I was another weirdo.

It turns out that Chiho was half Japanese half Vietnamese and that she liked connecting with other Vietnamese people around the world to help her understand the other half of her culture as she was born and raised in Japan, lucky me.

From there we became friends (read: she added me to her Vietnamese boy collection) and before I knew it, we would speak so often that she just felt like she had always been around. It just felt like I had known her all my life.

It's just so easy to talk with her. Even till this day, the more I learn about her the more I think "where have you been all my life?". It's almost kinda scary how many things we share in common and yet we lived across the ocean from eachother and two completely different worlds.

Then in Oct 2023, I finally got to meet her in Japan it was incredible. We took a road trip together to Gunma and the feeling of just sitting in the car talking along the way is definitely one of my favorite memories. It just felt so familiar and normal and I realised again, it felt like I had known this person for the longest time. Something I always like to say is; 「前世に多分僕たちは知り合いだったね、田んぼで一緒に働いてたかもしれない。」(We probably knew eachother in our past lives huh? And we probably worked together in the rice fields). I wish I could have spent more time with her while I was in Japan.

My favorite photo of Chiho from our Gunma road trip! カラオケあります！!

Chiho, I probably expressed this so many times already but I am so lucky and grateful to have you in my life.

ちーちゃんに会って本当に本当に良かったと思ってるよ。親友になってくれても本当にありがとうございます！いつもありがとう！ここからもよろしくね〜