I decided to volunteer at an animal shelter for my CIP. I mainly took care of the dogs, and the members at the center would teach me how they walked, trained, bathed, and played with the dogs, as well as how they cleaned their enclosures.

I was able to interact with the other members quite a bit, as we would always take care of the dogs together, so if we were playing or walking them then I was able to engage in conversation with them. I also really enjoyed spending time with the dogs, and it was clear that the people at the center cared a lot about each of them.

I would advise future students to try starting a conversation with the people at your CIP. I was always nervous that maybe the other members wouldn’t want to talk to me because I’m a foreigner and my Japanese is far from perfect, but whenever I worked up the courage to ask them a question about themselves or the dogs we would always end up having a nice conversation, and it was a great opportunity for me to practice Japanese and connect more with the culture.