diff --git a/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/client/Socket.java b/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/client/Socket.java
index 2fb57df..e7aaae2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/client/Socket.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/client/Socket.java
@@ -189,8 +189,10 @@ public class Socket extends Emitter {
 
     /**
      * Connects the client.
+     *
+     * @return a reference to to this object.
      */
-    public void open() {
+    public Socket open() {
         EventThread.exec(new Runnable() {
             @Override
             public void run() {
@@ -206,6 +208,7 @@ public class Socket extends Emitter {
                 transport.open();
             }
         });
+        return this;
     }
 
     private Transport createTransport(String name) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/parser/Parser.java b/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/parser/Parser.java
index df9dc7e..511b0fa 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/parser/Parser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/github/nkzawa/engineio/parser/Parser.java
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ public class Parser {
         }
     }
 
-    public static String byteArrayToString(byte[] bytes) {
+    private static String byteArrayToString(byte[] bytes) {
         StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
         for (byte b : bytes) {
             builder.appendCodePoint(b & 0xFF);
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ public class Parser {
         return builder.toString();
     }
 
-    public static byte[] stringToByteArray(String string) {
+    private static byte[] stringToByteArray(String string) {
         int len = string.length();
         byte[] bytes = new byte[len];
         for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {