"Trading Broke the Barrier between Cultures!"

#PokemonGO: I wanted to say a first thanks to Niantic for doing what I, cynically, thought would never happen; trading in Pokemon Go.My wife and I are USA expats living in Japan. We've played Pokemon Go here for almost a year. We benefit from large pools of roving players hitting raids as soon as they spawn, which has been a great aid in getting legendaries. The only let down is being unable to bond with our fellow players due to the language barrier and no need to interact with us foreigners. A smile or a wave might be given, but usually it's just a stare or two at us.Well today, that changed.Wife and I were getting our Regice when an older Japanese couple approached us. They asked where we were from and we replied with "USA."They both went "great!" and then asked, almost warily but happy, if we had Tauros. Now the Wife and I used to have a herd each, but we dumped them around Gen 3 because, yah know, trading wouldn't happen. Well, luckily, we had two each.Our new Pokemon friends, added in our games, were so excited, except that they didn't have the Stardust necessary! So we agreed to meet at a park a few hours later.Well, patience paid off and not only did we make two new friends, the wife and I are 151/151 on Kanto.I got a nice Japanese caught Mr. Mime! Exclusive to Japan for a brief window during an event.Trading made this possible and Pokemon Go has definitely been a fun and helpful guide for us in Japan. We're now stocking up on Farfetch'd and will be bring back a gaggle for friends in America and hopefully making more friends 'til the cows come home, as it were.TL:DR; Trading Pokemon got my wife and I interacting with the Japanese and everyone benefited from filled Pokedex! via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2yxKHsM