Why are teammates/friends ignoring me?

i'm in a japanese hs, but my japanese isn't good enough
that I can express how I feel, but i understand what most people say.

the people in my club (bukatsu)that are the same age, never hang out with me. At first I was being myself, but I had to tone it waaay down because I was too ''American'' for them. These people never include me in anything. If I run into someone in the same club, I say hey to them, but they ignore me and continue walking. I ask them questions like ''when does club start?, ect.'' and they reply, but after that they completely ignore me and I just follow them to find the location of where club is because I am usually never notified about any schedule to club. It's been like this for 4 months and I'm getting sick of it. I want to leave club because I'm always alone, but the senpai will despise me and lots of chaos will go around.

I tried making conversation to one of them, but he told me to ''damare.'' or shut up.

These guys are always on and off. i can't tell if they are nice to me or not.

It's summer and I found that they hanged out without me and now I'm really upset because one of them (who was slightly nicer) knew I wanted to hang out, but I was never invited.

Do they not like me because I'm different from Japanese society? because I don't blend in? because of my bad japanese? (which they also mock.)

about the mocking, they sometimes teach me dirty words and tell me a differnet meaning to it like ''beautiful'' so I would use those words, but luckily I already knew what the words meant. They also repeat what I say, which I know is mocking because it i didn't even try to be funny.

am I getting to mokustasu or what? I'm just fed up with these guys and this club I'm in.

I'm sure it isn't because you are horrible. If I may be quite blunt, I think it is because for many Japanese (not all, of course!), anything different is automatically not good. As a foreigner, you are different. It is not your fault at all. The news in Japan these days is full of nasty high school students doing bad things.

Also, high school age is tough. I hated high school personally, all the bullying and what not. I do hope you are able to find a friend or two, but you may be experiencing the cliche 'the nail that sticks up gets hammered down', and I am sorry for that.

Again, please realize that not all Japanese are like the members of your school club, but I find that Japanese culture is often romanticized by many foreigners, the cell phones, anime etc attract many young people, but honestly, it is hard to be Japanese. The pressure to conform, what happens when you don't, etc.

Good luck and hang in there!

I've only been to Japan once. never been in a Japanese high school and have only met a handful of japanese people.

The simpilest advice I could give you would to find new friends. If they don't want you find a new club or some new people who do accept you. Thats the best advice I coudl give you. They are very close minded, meaning the people in your club, and are not open to anything different I guess so just find some peeps that are. Good luck dude.

you're being trampled. you need to be a bit more aggressive, they are taking advantage of you. show them who's boss by being more aggressive/alpha male-ish and they will stop acting like idiots, or at the very least they'll respect you when you're around.

i'm not advocating violence but you may need to get a bit rough with some of your sparring opponents when you're doing sports.

you're already unpopular so i don't think you're going to be able to fix that in a high school environment. but you'll at least be able to command some respect from them.

Do they not like me because I'm different from Japanese society? because I don't blend in? because of my bad japanese? (which they also mock.)

Yes. But do realize that it's not some phenomenom that happens only in Japan. Many foreign exchange students in America get the same treatment. When I was in high school in America, we had two Japanese exchange students and they were pretty much shunned by the other students and they hanged out with each other.

Find new friends. Concentrate on your studies. Things will get better.

I don't think it's because you're not Japanese, but I suppose that someone found some kind of a reason to ignore you, and those who are friendly to you had to follow suit because they are scared of that someone. It can happen to any local kid in any country.

Kids say that talking to adults doesn't help, because that will be acknowledged as "chikuri (telling on)", but I do know several cases where senior high school students were saved just by talking to their guardian, teacher or school counselor.

At least you can talk to your (host) parent about it.

They're teenagers. What, you think this kind of thing doesn't happen in American high schools?

when i was in hs, i preferred hanging out in a small circle rather than w/ a bunch of hypocritical individuals. i may be invisible but the few friends i m close to mean the world to me. ya dun hafta hav a lotta homies, 1 or 2 true homies will keep ya happy. in friendship, less is more.

I don't know what club you belong. But your teammates don't sound great.

High school kids tend to form cliques with bullies and cowards in any country.

You probably look very different from other students. Unfortunately Japan is an extremely conforming society and it surfaces a lot during high school period. Athletic clubs are usually the worst.
It takes a gut of Barak Obama to befriend you in an environment like that.

The kind of guys who can be your friend are also somewhat of outsiders themselves.

If you really like the sport, perhaps you can join an adult club outside the school.

Hope some of those will help your situation.

OP wrote "At first I was being myself, but I had to tone it waaay down..." - you don't think that had anything to do with it? You have shown these people your true colours (which obviously didn't sit well with them), and although now you are easier to get along with the damage has been done. Small steps now - it will take time though.