A friend here strongly advises that we join the Tokyo-American Club. Does anyone know about this club and can tell me more about it? Are there other similar kinds of clubs?

Hi Anne,

The Tokyo American Club is pretty popular with people on expatriate packages here for a year or so. Most long-term residents of Tokyo are not members (to the best of my knowledge). Here is the link to the club:

http://www.tokyoamericanclub.org/

As you can see, membership is extremely expensive and the application process is somewhat complicated.

That said, I have visited the club once as a visitor (well, I sort of snuck in actually) and it was pretty impressive: a nice library, pool and restaurant. It seems like it would be a nice place to meet people.

There are all sorts of hobby clubs in Tokyo, depending on what you're interested in: there's international friendship clubs, flower-arranging clubs, computer user clubs and so on.

Hope this helps,

Karen