My CIP was joining a local baseball team in Kyoto and practicing with the team / getting acquainted with the players and coaches. I play baseball at my home university, so I thought exploring Japanese baseball and the culture surrounding it would be interesting and something I could bring back to the states.

I learned quite a bit and realized the culture of teamwork and equal loads in helping out during practice. Even in a not extremely competitive environment / league, the players all hustled and helped out in a number of ways from finding equipment, clean up, and even assisting in drills for other players.

My advice for incoming students would be to find a CIP that you can really connect with and be invested in. I think having a common passion for baseball and a relative sports culture connection really helped spark other connections with other people in my CIP, even if nationality and language were worlds apart. Having a genuine interest, knowledge, or curiosity in whatever CIP you select will help everything that follows be more smooth and less stressful in my opinion.