The holidays can be tough for foreign nationals in Japan. For those hired in the summer, the thrill of being in a new country is starting to fade. Open social media feeds and you'll be bombarded with photos of family and friends back home celebrating. If you're not careful, you can fall into a rut.
Luckily, TELL Japan is a just a phone call away. The nonprofit has been serving the international community here for 45 years, specifically through its volunteer phone service and professional counseling.
"TELL started out with the Lifeline phone service in 1973, and was then known as the Tokyo English Lifeline," Lifeline Director Vickie Skorji tells The Japan Times. "It grew out of a similar Japanese service called Inochi no Denwa, which had started up the year before. They were getting a lot of calls from foreigners needing help, so TELL developed from that."