Adam Lowinger: Doshisha Hiking club

I continued with the Hiking club from the fall term. Because of this, there is really not a whole lot of new content that can be added.

Consequently, I’ll just repeat the basic outline and experiences from my previous post. In general, the group only goes on a hike once a month. We once again went to Diamonji, due to it being a relatively easier hike. This allowed for the new study abroad students (both from KCJS and other programs) to get a feel for it. Other meetings were just running along the river (about 2-3 km) to build endurance.

Most of the communication in Japanese was done before and after the meetings since no one really wants to talk while running.  However, I got their early a lot. This allowed for me to play video games and talk about anime with the other early birds. After the runs is when they would talk about upcoming events and hikes. Both sections proved to be a good way to practice casual speech in Japanese.

Outside meetings, the club hosted several drinking and all you can eat parties, which were basically as informal as could possibly be reached.

So if you want to see some good scenery and have a more casual CIP, it’s a good experience.

2 thoughts on “Adam Lowinger: Doshisha Hiking club

  1. Seems to be a very relaxing circle and a great place to socialize with Japanese people. Was it hard to converse with the other circle members, or were they very open and invited you to play games with them?

    • At first, conversation was rather difficult on account of them speaking both in Kansai-ben in addition to casual style. However, they were inviting, so it was easy to adapt. Since I am habitually early to things, the other early birds and I would usually play Smash brothers to kill time. As in the University of Chicago, this was a great way to begin conversation and get to know people. Also, the President (Tsubasa-san) always had an electronic dictionary on him in order to ensure key information was understood. As the time progressed, less English was used overall by both of us. So the answer to your question was that they were inviting to the point that conversation was not hard.

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