Reid Tomihara: Kamigyo Middle School English Assistant

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For my CIP this semester, I chose to volunteer at Kamigyo middle school as an English teaching assistant.  Kamigyo Middle School is about five minutes away from Doshisha University.

Before I started going to Kamigyo middle school, I had no experience teaching or working with middle school students so I was quite nervous my first day there. When I first entered the classroom, I could tell that the students were very confused at who I was because I wasn’t a teacher and I looked Japanese.  I worked in the 7th grade English classes exclusively. The English teacher asked me to read questions to the kids, to dictate conversations from their textbook and to create an English game for the kids to play.  At first, the kids were very shy but as I went there more and more they became comfortable with me.  I made an effort to try and talk to the kids, which made my time there enjoyable.  Despite the fact that many of the students were too shy to speak up in English, they tried their best to when I talked to them.  At times I felt that my purpose at the school was to get the students excited about learning English instead of actually teaching them anything because whenever I was there the class would do some kind of game or activity.

This opportunity allowed me to get a glimpse of the Japanese middle school culture that I would have never been able to see.  One thing that stuck out to me was the time in between classes.  There was always a five to 10 minute break between classes where the students were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Unlike in America the students did not change classrooms for different subjects, instead during the break teachers rotated between classes or returned to the teacher’s room. During the break many students would go to the teachers room and ask for a certain teacher.  When they did they always made sure to use keigo or honorific Japanese.  However, during class the students spoke primarily in casual Japanese to the teacher.

In the classroom there was a huge contrast between students.  In each class there were always one or two kids who were very vocal and on the other hand there were some who never spoke at all or raised their hand.  At first I thought the kids didn’t know the answer but in fact many of the quiet ones often had the correct answer written down.  This is not limited to Japanese middle school students, many Japanese refuse to speak English because they do not have the confidence in their English ability but in fact, they can understand and speak quite well.

In conclusion, learning another language especially one that is so different from your own is not easy.  But getting kids excited to learn a different language and to see the benefits that it holds can go a long way.  I highly recommend volunteering at a Japanese school as an English assistant because the kids are so lively and it allows you to see a part of Japan that few tourists get to see.

Dean Nguyen: Niko Niko Tomato

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This semester, I’ve had the pleasure of volunteering at a children’s ward located in Kyoto University’s Hospital. The group I volunteered with, ニコニコトマト, is dedicated to giving children admitted into the hospital an enjoyable experience during their stay, through means of various activities including games, story-telling, and making arts and crafts. By participating in this volunteer group, I had the chance to experience what it was like to be a member of a “community” here, and it was a nice change of pace from learning in a classroom. Along with volunteering, I was able to observe and gain a better understanding of the Japanese community as well.

One of the first things I noticed and found interesting when I started was how easy it was to volunteer. The first day I arrived, I was immediately greeted by other volunteers and was asked to help out right away. It wasn’t until after the fact that they realized that I was the student from Doshisha University coming that day to volunteer. My first thought after that experience was that this would probably never happen in the United States, where there would be a sign in system of some sort at least. Still, ニコニコトマト is a special case even in Japan, as a fellow volunteer stated, to her, it was the only known volunteer group to have such a relaxed system. Nonetheless, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of the predisposed notion that Japanese society is so safe that volunteering seems to be much easier to do than back home.

Another interesting thing I noticed was how close the community seemed to be in a hospital setting. All of the children, volunteer staff, doctors, nurses, and parents all seemed to have close relationships with one another, and I feel I wouldn’t typically see this in a hospital back in the United States. Parents gossiped with each other and with volunteer staff members, the children played with each other, and from time to time the doctors and nurses would join in for activities as well. Sometimes, if a parent had to discuss things over with their child’s doctor, another parent, volunteer, or nurse would watch over their child in their place for the time being. Everyone has an understanding on what everyone else is going through, so it’s a really nice support system that they have. To me, this trust and reliance on others in this “community” seems to possible because of the Japanese society’s emphasis on group harmony.

And finally, I was able to get a sense on how Japanese society views foreigners. My first thought, before even volunteering, was that the children would be scared of foreigners, and it would be an issue with my CIP. However, I was gladly mistaken. At first glance, children don’t even recognize that I am a foreigner because of my Asian descent, but even after they do, their opinion of me only gets better! Some of the children there are currently learning English, and as soon as they find out I’m from America, they get really interested and try practicing what they’ve learned on me. There was a time when one of the girls started playing Frozen’s “Let It Go” (one of my favorites!) on the piano, so I decided to sing along in English, and she, along with the other children there, couldn’t help but smile, laugh, and enjoy my performance. Parents also seem to be happily surprised when they find out I’m from America. To them, it seems so fascinating that I came to Japan, and they always ask tons of questions about my home and my opinions on Japan.

Now that my time volunteering is coming to an end, I can’t help but feel grateful and glad that I was able to donate my time with such a wonderful organization. Not only was I able to immerse myself in their community, they made me feel welcome every visit, and were always happy to have me around. Through my experiences, some views I had of Japan prior to coming have changed, and some have been reinforced, but one thing I know for sure is that I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience Japan’s community firsthand, and I’ll look forward to any future opportunities to join another one!

Chang Liu: Table Tennis Circle

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During the spring semester of KCJS 2015, I joined the table tennis circle of Doshisha University. It proved to be a great experience as I had the opportunity to improve my table tennis skills, interact with Japanese students and learn more about their life and culture.

I chose table tennis circle for my Community Involvement Project because I was always interested in table tennis and I didn’t have the opportunity to practice in the States. Since spring semester is a not a good time for KCJS students to join University circles (KCJS spring semester overlaps with the 2-month long spring break in universities in Japan), I didn’t expect to be able to join the table tennis circle at Doshisha. I initially contacted some table tennis clubs outside school but none of them worked with my schedule. Finally, a Japanese friend of mine told me that she heard that the Doshisha table tennis circle still held weekly trainings in February and March. I quickly contacted the circle and joined their training.

The skill level at the circle was professional. The circle held 3-4 training sessions a week, with each session lasting for 3 hours. The training was conducted in the form of rotational one-on-one matches. Around 80% of the members are male. Yet, it would be presumptuous to assume that girls are any weaker than guys—when they are wielding a racket playing against you across the table, you should expect nothing less from a female opponent. Girls in the table tennis circle do not subscribe to the gender stereotype, and the relationship among members in the circle can be best described as “camaraderie”.

People were very friendly in the circle. Some might be perceived as shy at first but once I talked to them, after a joke or two, they would soon treat me as a close friend. I happened to become a very good friend with the captain, as we both shared a passion for cycling and table tennis. He would conduct individual sessions with me to improve my skills. Aside from training, we would always talk about a good array of topics: his part-time job, hometown near Kyoto, favorite food… his girlfriends…and other stuff… of course. Other members would always label him as a “bad boy” (I guess it’s equivalent to the English word Playboy). True enough, he was often absent from trainings due to “various” reasons, which only further raises my respect for him, as he demonstrates a value that is outrageously worth emulating among “salarymen” in Japan nowadays—if you know what I mean. Nevertheless, I am sure he will be a good salaryman in the future given his outstanding leadership skills—particularly in planning nomikai (drinking parties), an important skill that is now apparently one of my biggest takeaways from my CIP.

 

Kate Monkovic: Kyoto Bunkyo English Assistant

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For my CIP this past semester I volunteered at Kyoto Bunkyo School as an English assistant. While initially I thought I would be helping in the classroom as an assistant teacher, my actual job was to meet with high school students after school and help them practice their English speaking skills. The two high school girls that I met with had both studied abroad in Australia for seven months, so their English speaking was better than I expected. We talked mostly about Japanese schools, their study abroad experience in Australia, boys, and life in America. The students were very eager to teach me about their life as students in Japan. I learned that private schools in Japan have many strict rules that students must follow. For example, students are not allowed to dye their hair and girls with long hair must wear their hair tied back. Students are also not allowed to use their cellphones at any time, even after school. In terms of the way school is structured, unlike American students, Japanese students stay in the same classroom for all their classes with the same group of peers. As a result, the students were very close to their classmates and there was a sense of class bonding that one doesn’t see in America.

At first I was disappointed that I wasn’t teaching, but talking to Japanese high school students was a very fulfilling experience. I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk to and learn from Japanese students, while at the same time teaching them about America in an informal setting. After this experience I definitely feel that I have gained a better understanding of Japanese schools and student life.

 

 

 

 

Emily Thurston: Kyuudo

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For my CIP, I chose to do Kyuudo, or Japanese Archery. I had no experience with archery before, so I was certainly expecting a challenge. However, Kyuudo is so distinct from other forms of archery that I did not feel disadvantaged compared to those who had archery experience.

Practicing archery allowed me to get a glimpse of Japan’s hierarchical dojo community. I was expecting it to be somehow more rigid in structure, but my first lesson illustrated quite the opposite. The other KCJS students and I were mostly left to practice on our own, with occasional feedback. Moreover, the sensei even left when to end of the lesson up to us. We practiced for an extra half and hour waiting for her to signal the end of the lesson until we finally realized that it was our duty to do so.

Practicing kyuudo was a very rewarding experience. I learned a lot about proper patterns of speech when addressing one’s sensei. I noticed that even women who seemed to be around the same age as the sensei spoke to her in keigo, indicating that she was their superior within the dojo. Although I did not get to know anyone in the dojo very well, the other members were very welcoming and always greeting us warmly. This atmosphere, as well as the actual act of practicing kyuudo are very unique to Japan, and thus this experience has become an important aspect of my time here.

 

Peaky Yuter: Go

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Mid semester I decided that I wanted to add a new activity to my already long list of extracurriculars, Go. For those of you unfamiliar Go is a turn-based game in which players place black and white stones trying to capture as much territory of the board as possible. Entering the “Go Salon” was an experience. Imagine my surprise when what first comes into view is some 20 Go boards laid out on tables crowding a medium sized room. Sitting at these tables is sea of greying hair. In short, everyone else is old. And when I say old, I precisely mean at a minimum of 40 years greater I am. Sensei starts me out on a smaller 9×9 board playing the Ishitori game. This is a game where each opponent is trying to capture at least one stone from the other. My first opponent is Tanaka-san who is quite the lovable Obaasan on the outside, but hidden behind the mask is a shrewd and cunning player. Another interesting detail is that everyone who comes is female. Either because most men are working on a Monday from 1-5 pm or another reason, the group I consistently play is female. In all honesty, interacting with the various Obaasan who come is somewhat difficult. They speak with rather strong Kansai-ben and seem to be content playing silently except for a comment about the weather every now and then. After about the 4th time coming I finally became an actual Go player—playing on a 19×19 not the small 9×9—and decide to join the Saturday group for a change. The demographic is much different, having men making up a third of the group and including ones whom were not much older than I was. The men were also generally talkative which added a welcome change. With the younger men, who were just learning the game, surprisingly I was treated with similar regard to that of a Senpai showing them the results. As a general point, the younger members of the group were all extremely polite. With the older men, after going beyond the weather pleasantries, we talked about the job outlook in japan and my future plans in relation to Japan. Every Monday—and sometimes Saturday—I enter an arena where, regardless of age, only the best survive. Overall this is perhaps the best “Go”-ing away present I could have hoped for!

Phoebe Horgan: Kyudo

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For my CIP I chose to practice kyūdō, or Japanese archery, twice a week for an hour. I chose it mostly because of my previous experience with archery in the US. I practiced and competed in archery all throughout high school, but once I got to college I didn’t get the chance to keep up with it, and ended up dropping it completely. In my CIP, I wanted to try something uniquely Japanese, but also building off of my personal interests, so I ended up with kyūdō.

I was really interested in learning the differences between kyūdō and archery, as there are many. You draw back with your thumb, not your fingers, and wear this massive stiff glove on the hand you use to draw back the bowstring. You place the arrow on the outside of the bow, not the side closest to you. But overall the objectives of kyūdō and archery are very different. In archery, the goal is to hit the target dead center with precision and accuracy, so you can make the same shot over and over again. Every adjustment you make, and every time you change your form is just to better your score. But in kyūdō, the emphasis seems to be more on the act of shooting itself, and less on the results. There’s a formality to it that you find in martial arts and not so much in sports. Just a couple of months isn’t really enough to learn a great deal about practicing kyūdō, but I am thankful that I had the opportunity to try it.

Even so, I ended up quitting it a few weeks before the end of the semester, due to time constraints and stuff. Anyway, apparently it’s really important to Japanese people to have a proper formal farewell and apology if you ever decide to stop doing something, so the three of us who had continued doing kyūdō all had to go and explain our reasons for quitting and thank sensei profusely for all that she had taught us so far and for taking the time to teach us. Although to be frank, the teaching style for Japanese martial arts is very hands-off, so it didn’t particularly seem to take sensei much time at all. Still, it felt marginally better to have that closure than to just stop showing up, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Jaime Guzman : Aikido

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For my CIP, I practiced aikido at aikidokyoto located a few blocks away from Senbon dori and Imadegawa. From learning how to fall and do shikko to having instructions taught to me in a strange blend of Japanese and English, the experience for me was a fun and interesting one. Although I’ve only been able to practice for a short amount of time, I felt like I’ve learned a lot from both of the sensei, and of course was always looking forward to eating McDonald’s after practice on Tuesday. But in all seriousness, I have very little regrets about my decision to try out aikido. The 45 minute walk to and from the dojo may have felt long some days and the lack of interaction between the other students and me outside of lessons were probably not ideal but that did not take away from my experience at all.

Taking aikido at an actual dojo, in Japan, made me get a better glimpse at what practicing martial arts in a more official setting, and not a college setting, is like. For example, when I did karate back at Amherst, we had to use the gymnasium and did not have an official dojo so we never had to do anything like bowing to the dojo when entering or getting on the mats. We also rarely had to sit in seiza, the only times were when we were late and had to wait for the sensei’s permission to join the class or during promotion, however at this aikido dojo we it felt as if half of our time was spent in this position. When we are waiting for the sensei to start class, when we are bowing to the sensei, when we are observing a new technique before practicing it ourselves, and even for when we do certain techniques, we are required to sit in seiza. At the beginning of the class, my foot would usually feel an unbearable pain but as the class goes on sitting in seiza became a little bit easier. Of course when I walk the 2 miles back to my apartment, I am still able to feel the pain in my ankles but after a certain amount of classes even that became enjoyable and part of the aikido experience.

One main thing I noticed in my aikido class is that when there is a new student that has only been there for about 2 months or so, they’d always pair them up with a much more experience senpai wearing a hakama. For the first few classes, I was rotated among the same senpai until they were certain that I could do the majority of the basic moves before having me actually allowing me to learn techniques. When I did practice techniques it was usually with the same people until recently and I noticed that each senpai have their own way of showing techniques. Some are a lot stricter and forceful while others go through it slowly and walk me through every move. It’s interesting practicing with different people because some of them are fluent in English, some are native French speaker who sometimes try to talk to me in English and Japanese and others only speak Japanese. However the chance to speak in Japanese for me is very limited because I rarely get to speak to anyone after class and when I have it was for asking how to get my gi or a receipt and the person I asked always responded in English.

I’m very grateful for my time at the dojo however I feel as if I have not really been able to fully integrate into the dojo community. I walk there, practice, and then walk like many other people do. On Thursday, there’s always another class following mine and on Tuesday, after we clean, everyone is quick to zoom out of there. I may not be able to talk much with anyone there but at least I’ve learned a lot about aikido and some vocabulary for the parts of the body that I never actually remembered before.

Tyler Bartels: English Assistant, Soccer Circle

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Going into English teaching I had the mindset of learning about the education system, interaction with teachers and students, and preparing for potentially participating in the JET Program (Japan Exchange Teaching). What I soon discovered was I learned much more about Japanese social interaction by interacting with the 7th graders, whose class I was an assistant in. Every week I would go for almost 2 hours and assist in either 1 or 2 classes, allowing me to build a rapport with the students.

I ran into to two types of experiences with the kids. First, the shy kids were hesitant to even look me in the eye. Second, the outgoing kids had no boundaries when asking me questions. I was fascinated that these two extremes existed within the classroom. I had always assumed the Japanese school system was strict and disciplined, leading me to believe that the children I would encounter would fit that image. I found that the teachers and children actually joked around and in talking with the teacher discovered her genuine affinity for the classes. She would describe one class as the “bad boys,” another as having the “shy girls,” and in one case even joked at one girl being as loud as the boys. The point being, I was sorely mistaken on what the schooling system. That being said I was in a public school and can’t speak for the private school system. Regardless, I enjoyed my time with the kids and got a good laugh when they wanted to know if I had kissed my girlfriend before or not.

My second CIP was a Kyodai soccer circle. When I came to Japan the one thing I new for certain that I wanted to do, was play sports with the Japanese. I knew the language barrier would be an issue when trying to forge friendships with other Japanese students. Team sports offer another language with which to communicate, that is almost universal. Whether or not I was able to communicate well in Japanese, after each game we played there was a general atmosphere of closeness. What I found even more fascinating was attending a practice in which the freshmen were present. These freshmen had yet to even attend a day of school, but there ambition to meet new people, and openness to foreigners was shocking as well. Upon finishing practice the freshmen asked me to go to the hot baths after with them, we proceeded to all grab dinner after, and then walked part way home after the last bus had already gone. I can’t say this is the same for other circles, but the most outgoing and open people I have met in Japan have been in these sports circles, whether it be one of 3 soccer circles or 2 basketball circles I’m in.

Katherine Nachbar: Niko Niko Tomato

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For my CIP, I have been volunteering at にこにこトマト where I interact and play with children that are patients at Kyodai Hospital. There are different activities almost every day of the week for them. So, for example, one day will be music themed where the children get drums and bells and play along to music, while on a another day, they will paint boxes.

The kids were shy initially, but once you started talking to them, they became animated and talkative. One time, I asked a little girl if she could play piano, and she started playing “Let it Go” from memory, over and over again. Her friends joined in and we all sang along. We also played hand clapping games. They showed me a game that seemed complicated at first, but it turned out it was a hand clapping game to the tune of “Yankee Doodle.” My friend, Kate, who also volunteers there, told me that this was a popular game in America as well. I discovered that the games young children play and the things they do for fun in Japan are very similar to what I did growing up.

I have enjoyed volunteering at にこにこトマト. Everyone has been very warm and welcoming. I found that it was a great place not only for the children to make friends with the other children in the hospital, but also for the parents to form a support system. Not only did the children seem to be close, but the parents seemed to have formed bonds as well. It was gratifying to see such a caring community.