Amateur astronomer looking for stargazer friends

Hi there !

I'm a French man living in Japan (north of Saitama prefecture) since ten years. Married to a working Japanese lady and father of a 7-years-old kid, "daddy at home" is my main job. When I do not cook nor manage our home, our garden or my son's schedule (daily moves, homework...), I practice amateur astronomy, observing the sky at night, sometimes taking pictures. I often go in the mountain area (Saitama, Gumma or Nagano prefectures) to have a better view and avoid light pollution the best I can.

Dunno if it's the good place to ask, but I'm in search of English-speaking (or French-speaking, who knows ?) amateur astronomers. I'm a member of a Japanese association of stargazers located in Toda, but unfortunately for me, my Japanese is so poor that I can't discuss properly with anyone : it's a pity - and quite a frustration - not to be able to share your passion with appropriate people.

Are there some amateur astronomers in this community ? I would be glad to meet them online and who knows, maybe later, under a starry sky !

Jean-Louis

Welcome to JREF, @Balenk! I'm afraid my knowledge of astronomy is limited to a couple semesters in college and an appetite for documentaries, and I've only played with telescopes a handful of times. I'm also not in Japan at the moment, but I do enjoy talking to people about things they're passionate about. Could you tell us a little about what you find inspiring about astronomy?

I'm not sure how many astronomers are around here, but one thing this forum can help support is working on your Japanese, which can help improve your life in Japan in so many ways. If you have a desire to study and work on your language skills, perhaps down the line we can help you with some vocabulary so you can practice talking about things you find interesting, like astronomy?

Thanks for your kind answer ! I'll try to tell more about my hobby :

It's not easy to explain why that activity, more than others, has always been the one I needed to make my life better. Maybe Astronomy is the most "philosophical" of all sciences, touching to both our origins and our ultimate fate ? And I'm quite sensitive to the aesthetic of what I'm looking at : galaxies, nebulae, planets of our solar system... even the moon looks nice, in basic binoculars. So many mysteries, so beautiful things can bee seen at night : why would I not pay attention ?

As concerns Japanese language, believe me : I tried, I studied, I invested time, money and efforts... near for nothing. It's always said that anybody can learn any language : that's a lie. We all are different : some people feel very comfortable with mathematics, when for others, it's just torture. Well, unfortunately for me : I'm "Japanese proof"

About the same topic (astronomy), I have a question :
Does someone knows about an online forum, in Japanese or not, dedicated to Astronomy or at least, to space sciences ? Or even to natural or "hard" sciences ?
On such a forum, I guess I could find some amateur astronomers

Balenk said:

About the same topic (astronomy), I have a question :
Does someone knows about an online forum, in Japanese or not, dedicated to Astronomy or at least, to space sciences ? Or even to natural or "hard" sciences ?
On such a forum, I guess I could find some amateur astronomers

Click to expand...

These days Facebook is where a lot of such forums are located. Also reddit.