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Notes -
So, when it comes to ways to meet new people and get experience "talking to strangers," I've more than once been pointed to bars as a place for striking up conversations with people you don't know. And yet, I've been to the local bar a few times (despite my very limited budget and medical reasons for not drinking), and not once in the hours I've spent there have I seen anyone strike up a conversation with anyone else. Just a bunch of older men sitting alone, drinking and watching sports.
The same is true with the "bar" portion of the local restaurants that serve alcohol and have "bar seating." For that matter, I don't think I've seen a conversation start in a restaurant that wasn't among a pre-existing group.
So, is this just me? Just a product of the sort of places I frequent (for certain not-terribly-frequent values of "frequent") given my poverty? A product of Anchorage, Alaska being a particularly antisocial place? Or was the advice not all that great? Are there some better places?
In my own experience meeting people in bars is easy in Japan, which has an active social culture in such places (it helps that I'm not Japanese and therefore not tethered to norms of uchi/soto or insider/outsider.) Back in the US my experience used to be more similar to yours, but that was not the most urban area. I sometimes feel like most non-urban-dwelling Americans just stay home, or meet online.
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