「Circle (Non-Sports)」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Leila Lin: Kyudo and Doshisha Student TV Circle

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This semester I’ve been going to Kyudo, or Japanese archery practice twice a week at the Budou Center. I was fortunate that on my first visit I met Kawaguchi Sensei, a petite and energetic 80-year-old woman. She was wonderful despite the language barrier and we’ve all come to really love her. Other than we few gaijins at the dojo, everyone else, mostly Japanese, has been practicing there for at least a while. I was surprised at how tirelessly Sensei devoted her time to teaching us, some of us knew zero Japanese. Other members of the dojo do not normally come up and talk to us, but if I ask for help or questions in general they have been very patient and kind. The dojo is also very international and I met so many interesting people there. Three professional artists (pianist, photographer, multimedia artist) from German started practicing with us around the same time and we’ve cultivated friendship and been going to their performances and such.

For me at first, as someone who has practiced Western archery before, I was surprised to find how ritualized Kyudo is as a martial art. I wasn’t very sure if I could stand the endless aisatsu, or greetings, or the left-foot-first-right-foot-second sort of ritualized steps, but slowly I’ve gotten used to it and begun to appreciate the beauty in these traditions. Life in Kyoto has been quite busy and overwhelming but I found my times at Kyduo, twice a week, to be the most calming. It’s only at the dojo that I can clear my head of everything and just focus on one thing, the arrow.

My second activity is the Gakusei Terebi circle, or the Doshisha Student TV circle. GakuTere makes TV specials, documentaries, commercials aimed at Doshisha students. This sounds very intense but the atmosphere is very relaxed. My circle-mates have been very friendly especially considering how little I understand and speak Japanese. Since I was the only person joining the circle this semester (because most people joined in April), I was invited to many hot pot parties or events of that nature, which made me feel very welcomed.

The biggest difficulty with Gakusei Terebi, however, is definitely the language barrier. Unlike Kyudo, where you don’t need to communicate with others too much most of the time, communication is everything in Gakusei Terebi. People speak very fast there, mixed with kansai-ben, and, in typical Japanese fashion, never ends a sentence and just goes on with 〜て、〜て、〜けど…, so it’s easy to lose track of what one’s saying. This is not to say that I did not enjoy the experience at Gakusei Terebi. I’ve been to both bangumi-making sessions and their parties, and even though I am still in the kengaku stage and can only say that I understood about 40% of what they say most of the time, I have enjoyed and value my experience at GakuTere very much.

Gabe Beckerman: KIXS

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I have been going to the 食事会 for the Kyodai International Exchange Circle every week. Other than the 食事会, I have attended a couple 飲み会, which have given me a chance to make more Japanese friends. Furthermore, contrary to what I at first thought, participating in a circle that is designed specifically for exchange students has not put me in situations in which I am likely to speak English, but rather, almost all of the members speak only in Japanese with me. Many claimed to not really speak any English, or said they were focusing on other languages.

My main goal for a CIP was to make more Japanese friends, as I have felt that I have not had enough opportunities to meet Japanese students at KCJS. I believe that participating in KIX has fulfilled this goal. Furthermore, it has made me realize the extent to which my Japanese language improvement depends on my own decisions. Being in Japan does not necesarilly mean always being in a Japanese speaking environment. Through KIX, I have been able to make Japanese friends with whom I speak in Japanese almost exclusively. Finding these friends through KIX has made me realize that especially when studying abroad, everything is worth trying at least once.

Sandy Lee: Zainichi Korean Study Group

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The Zainichi Korean Study Group has been working towards showcasing exhibitions regarding Korean Schools in Japan at three different major school festivals in Kyoto.  Students met outside of club time to prepare for the actual exhibitions. Work was separated between students. Some made the handouts, some made the posters, etc. I helped out near the end of the preparation by coloring some of the posters and tracing.

The first exhibition was held at Ritsumeikan University.  I helped set up the room and the exhibition by hanging up posters and arranging the photos exhibition. Afterwards, I was made to wear the traditional hanbok/chagoli dress and stand on the street to pass out flyers to festival attending students. However, I was able to bond with some of the members there who were passing flyers along with me. The next exhibition is at Kyodai and Doshisha afterwards. Similar to Ritsumeikan, I also dressed up in the traditional Korean dress and passed out flyers to passerbyers. The people I bonded the most with are those who were with me passing out flyers. Because I showed up on the last day, I also helped clean up the exhibition. After the cleanup on the last day at Kyodai, we had nabe party. I think it is really important to be able to attend all of the food functions because that is where you can talk with members. At the Doshisha exhibition, I was more able to talk with the staffers because I was able to stay inside the exhibition room more of the time than standing outside passing flyers.

The school festivals have definitely helped me bond with my group much more than attending the bi weekly meetings could have. At the meetings, I did not really recognize anybody and there was little opportunity to talk. Through the festivals  I was able recognize more faces and am surprised that people actually know my name. Hence, showing up at all of the meetings do help you become recognized by the community. Although I did not show up to help out at all of the festival days, I showed up at least once at every location: once at Ritsumeikan, twice at Kyodai, and twice at Doshisha. The more I showed up, the less awkward it had been when I tried to start conversations with people, whether it was commenting or offering food. Spending a lot of time together with the same people helped people become more easy around me. Also, because the festivals are multiple days in a row, being able to see someone in a consecutive amount of time really helped people recognize me. A lot of photos were taken of us during the events and in the preparation. Being able to be in the Facebook albums online I think is a success. Communication wise, the head of the group has really taken a great care of me because she kept sending me updates, called me to invite me to a field trip, and I have also responded to all of them. Sometimes I email her questions and received responses. I think this however depends on how big the club is and how interested they are in opening their group to foreigners. Exchanging contact information with the regular members was also a great step forward for me. One of them even gave me his business card because we talked for a couple of days.

My failure so far is not being able to remember people’s names. I always ask people’s names during the introduction but I can never remember them. Having Facebook helped a little bit, but it is still quite difficult. Most of the time I do not refer to people by their names and it has worked well, except in the cases in which I need to use the “you” pronoun. Everyone knows my name and I feel bad that it turned out this way. But, because I am staying here for a year, I think I will come to know everyone’s names. I definitely look forward to the next gathering or function. Participating in the festivals helped me break the ice, but I think it is your own will to show up, participate, and to reach out that makes the differences.

Calum Galt: LGBT Groups (G・Front Kansai and Gradations)

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This semester I decided to try to involve myself with the local LGBT scene by participating in both G・Front Kansai, a region-wide group that appeals to all ages and demographics, and Gradations, a much smaller student group based at Doshisha University. I decided to do this for both intellectual and personal reasons. My major is women’s studies, and I have a particular interest in issues of sexuality and gender, especially in Japan, as it provides an extreme point of comparison to Western conceptions of sex and gender. I wanted to experience the way queer people live in Japan, if only vicariously, by becoming involved with them socially. Personally, as a gay man, I also wanted to see what my Japanese counterparts were like and to become more or less accepted (even as a token gaijin). My experiences this semester have been a mixed bag, some meeting my hopes and some falling short.

Unlike my senpai, Adam Roberts, who did the same activities as me, I found Gradations rather then G・Front Kansai to be the more enjoyable group, perhaps because we wanted different things from our groups. Having said that, I share many of the same objections he had to both circles. The lack of events, the low participation rates, and the many awkward silences and palpable feeling of being separate from the group put me off quite a bit. Any gains I’ve made in getting close to my circle have been gradual, especially considering the few opportunities I’ve had to meet with people. I’ve focused almost entirely on Gradations, as  the events are more geared towards college-age students and thus involve my peers. It also helps that events are on mostly on or near to campus. In contrast, I found G・Front’s events awkward because of the age gap between me and the few members I’ve encountered. The distance I had to travel to Osaka and the awkwardness of the meetings put me off and I didn’t go back after my first few attempts. Gradations, not without its awkwardness, was still friendlier that G・Front, especially after people realized that I can in fact speak Japanese.

Gradations events consisted of 飲み会 and ランチ会, or drinking parties and lunch meetings. The drinking parties were the most enjoyable because everyone was able to relax their inhibitions and have fun with everyone, whereas the lunch meetings were often awkward affairs with a very clearly split between nihonjin and gaijin, with regular members having conversations in small clusters and gaijin separated from the main group. I found this the most frustrating, and sometimes skipped lunch meetings because I preferred to eat with other friends in KCJS and have real conversation. I still have another semester, though, and I’m determined to involve myself more in Gradations and hopefully break down some barriers with the time I have left. I only wish that there were more activities and more participants, which I imagine could happen if the group weren’t so secretive (another point of frustration, but admittedly a necessary one). I may consider taking on a second CIP next semester (KIX or Kyodai’s LGBT group perhaps) in order to expand my opportunities for interacting with Japanese students.

Christina Banoub: Art Circle

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I joined an art circle at Doshisha for my CIP. It wasn’t my first choice of activity. However, I love art, and I was looking forward to having a dedicated time for art—which I have not really had since I entered college.

 

I went in knowing that a circle in Japan is somewhat though not entirely comparable to a club in America, but not certain what differences I would notice. I noticed that, in Doshisha’s “Kurama” drawing circle at least, the kohai and senpai dynamics mattered—though to what extent I couldn’t really grasp. Not everything was hard to grasp, however.

 

The subject matter of the circle made sense. The circle has weekly meetings that center around practicing a particular art method and subject (still life, portraits, pastel, colored pencil, water color, etc). One member of the club, usual a more senior member, taught the method they were studying or familiar with. Most of the members were art majors, and extremely talented so I felt as though I learned a lot, and it left me feeling my lack of practice and ability.

 

At the same time, all the members work independently on their own projects, and have a chance to display their art on several occasions. Since I was only staying a semester in Japan, I did not have time to complete anything or display anything, but I would have if I stayed for a year.

 

As for the social aspect of the club, I have to admit it wasn’t very easy. As I mentioned before, the hierarchical aspects of social interaction were hard to discern, and the members seemed to expect that I wouldn’t understand. However, instead of trying to make it clear, they just ignored the issue. This might sound ideal, the foreigner not having to worry about cultural norms, but when the rest of the circle is using these social practices it is awkward to be the only person not doing so. I would recommend asking at your first contact, “what year are you?” and “what should I call you?” That might seem awkward, but it makes things smooth later.

 

All the members were very friendly, and during the meetings chatted naturally with each other and tried to include me in the conversation. I have to say, that as much as Kansai dialect as I picked up during these conversations, just as much went over my head. The club members were very busy, so they didn’t seem to meet outside the pretext of the meetings very often—if at all. So I didn’t have the opportunity to meet members elsewhere. However, as it is an art circle where art is the goal, I didn’t feel as though they were simply excluding me.

 

However, this does seem like a club that needs more than a semester of participation to truly become meaningful. Art takes time, and art students in Japan are just as busy as in America. So I would recommend this to year long students only.

 

Alex Breeden: Volunteering with Agricultural Groups

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I did my CIP through a volunteer agricultural organization called Mori No Megumi, or “Blessing of the Forest”, where I worked both on small vegetable plots in northern Kyoto and larger, more remote rice fields in the mountains east of Kyoto. What kind of activity we did varied every time we went there. The first time we did rice harvesting which was a really great first experience since I hadn’t ever worked with rice before. Moreover, the work required conversations about exactly how the rice should be cut, bundled together, and then put through the machine. On other occasions, we fertilized cabbages, cut weeds, and sorted rice. Even activities which sound like they would be boring, like hand sorting rice, turned out to offer their own unique rewards such as creating more opportunities for conversation. In fact, rice sorting gave me the chance to practice keigo as one of the volunteers spoke to me using honorifics. Thanks to recent class discussions I was able to understand her pretty easily and then follow her shift to less formal speech. It also provided a chance to reflect on what sorts of situations polite speech should be used in since I would have never expected someone to use keigo when speaking to me since the volunteer group was pretty laid back.

 I also went to the Kyoto University agricultural circle twice, though we didn’t do much and for whatever reason my friend and I didn’t really connect as well with the people there as we did with the people at Mori No Megumi.
 There weren’t any real language problems, or really any major problems for that matter. I was a bit worried about having to get boots and not being able to find them, but I was able to borrow boots from the group representative every time.
 One of the parts I enjoyed about my CIP which I don’t think you necessarily get in other groups was the wide range of ages of the people participating. This allowed me to see how age groups interacted with each other and myself get interaction not only with people my own age but also with older people. Also, I got to see some of the cultural differences in more rural settings, like the burning of pretty much anything that’s considered trash which occurs on a much larger scale than in the US. 
 My advice to future students is to try and do your CIP with someone else because if a group has two people asking about participating it’s much more likely that at least one of you is going to get a reply. That and when you suddenly blank on vocabulary you know but have momentarily forgotten the other person has your back.

ヒュー・タラ：KIXSや会話サークル

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秋学期のはじめに、アニメサークルや京都アニメーションなど、たくさんのところへ「見学させて頂けませんか」というメールを送ってみましたが、返事が来なく、結局国際交流に関するCIPをやることにしました。今CIPとしてやっているのは、KIXSという京都大学の国際サークルを参加することとEJKGという英語・日本語の会話グループを運営するのを手伝うことです。

KIXSでは毎週の水曜日に京大で食堂会が行われるのですが、週一回放課後に通っています。たくさん日本人と知り合って、飲み会やパーティにさそわれるので、なかなか良い交流ができそうな感じです。会話サークルは、毎週の木曜日に行います。日本人とも外国人とも会うことができて、運営がアメリカでやっていたサークルでの任務と似ているので、楽しんでしています。これからこの二つの活動で日本人の友達を増やして、日本語を練習していきたいと思います。

ゲイブ・ベッカーマン：京都大学国際交流サークル (KIX)

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私はCIPとして、最初は差別や人権問題に関する非営利団体でボランティアしようと思いましたが、色々な所にメールしてみても、返事が来ず、あまりボランティアする機会がなさそうでした。それで、スペイン語の能力を生かす活動も楽しそうと思い、大阪にあるスペイン語教室に連絡しましたが、そこでも活動する機会がないみたいでした。

第一週目にKIXについて聞きましたが、あまり国際交流サークルには興味がありませんでした。なぜかとういうと、メンバーに英語で話しかけられたり、あまり日本語を練習する機会にならないかと思いました。しかし、 CIPの探しがうまくいかなかったので、一回でもKIXに参加してみることにしました。KIXでは、毎週、京都大学の食堂に食事会が行われています。晩ご飯を食べながら、メンバーと会い、楽しい会話をしました。最初の食事会で、漫才がとても好きなメンバーに会え、食べながら笑っていました。それで、英語を勉強したことがあるメンバーがいましたが、英語以外の外国語を勉強している人が多く、一回も英語で話すこともなく、日本語たくさん喋れました。あまり同志社の日本人の学生に会えるチャンスがありませんが、KIXを通して色々な日本人の友達が作れそうです。また参加するのを楽しみにしています。

ジェローム・モラスキー：EMBG（京大のロック音楽のサークル）

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CIPの説明を初めて聞いた時、京大とか、同志社大学のサークルに入るのはこんなに難しいと考えられませんでした。一ヶ月間半ぐらい前インタネットで同志社大学のライラック・レインボーズと言う音楽サークルについて読みました。でも、そのサークルにメールを出しても、返事は来ませんでした。それを受けて、外のサーックルを捜しました。ネクサスの言うサークルにメールを出しましたが、結果は同じでした。

その週末、パーティーでライラック・レインボーズのメンバーに会いましたが、やっぱり入るのは多分難しいと言っていました。それに、その人は「普通のミーティングは京田辺キャンパスである」と言いました。京田辺は遠くて 、不便だから、ライラック・レインボーズに入るのをやめました。

でも、僕と一緒に入りたかったKCJSの学生の友達がZETSと言う京都大学の音楽サークルのメンバーの友達を作って、その京大の学生は「今週の水曜日、ZETSのミーティングに来て見てください」と言いました。一緒に行ったら、ZETSの皆さんは親切で、私たちは同じ興味を持っていたから、すぐ何人もの友達を作りました。ZETSのリーダーと相談した後、係の人が「今は入れるかどうか分かりません」と言いましたが、外のEMBGと言う音楽サークルのリーダーを紹介してくださいました。その人は、「来週もう一度来てください」と言って、私たちはうれしくなりました。

次の週の金曜日もう一度行って、その時EMBGの皆さんといろいろな事について話しました。聞いたら、「ええ、もちろん入れるよ」と答えてくれてよかったです。そのミーティングが終わったら、みんなでお好み焼きのレストランに行って、おいしい物を食べました。食事が終わった時、地下鉄への道が分からなかったが、EMBGのメンバーが車で連れて行ってくださいました。次の金曜日、EMBGのライブに行きました。EMBGで、別のバンドがありませんが、何かを演奏したかったら、外の楽器を弾いている人々と一緒にその曲を練習してもらえます。今回、二つのバンドが演奏しました。曲が全然知らなかったけど、演奏していない学生がモッシュピットとか、ダンスもしていたから、やっぱりその経験はすごく楽しかったです。小さい教室であったし、とてもうるさかったから、終わったらあんまり聞こえなくなりました。その時も、いろいろな友達が作れてよかったです。

外のライブで演奏をしたいので、今時間があれば練習しています。今まで一人だけで弾いた事がありますが、バンドで演奏するのも楽しそうです。

エアロン・ブラウニング：ロック音楽のライブのサークル

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日本に来る前に、KCJSのCIPとしてロックなどのエレキ音楽のサークルに入ることにしました。その決定には理由がたくさんあります。まず、中学の時から、ドラムが叩いています。高校生の時はThe Kindergarten Circusというガレージバンドとナッシュビルで演奏をたくさんしました。それで大学に入学するまでに、もう若い人のロック音楽の文化に興味を持つようになりました。その間に、日本語のクラスを取り始めました。二回生の秋、この二つの興味を合成して、日本のグループサウンズについて論文を書きました。それから、学究的な基本を作りました。僕にとって大切だし、楽しいし、面白いので、研究や、経験を、続けたかったんです。

クラスメートがしたいCIPのプロジェクトを決める中、ジェロムという同じクラスにいる友達と喋るようになりました。同じ情熱や目的があるから、一緒にサークルを探すことにしました。いろいろなむずかしさのせいで、すぐに見つかられ買ったけど、僕らは頑張って、「たく」という京大の大学生に手伝ってもらいました。ある日、「たく」さんと遊びに行く時に、僕がZETSのことを話すと、「たく」さんはZETSのメンーバーの友達がいると言いました。つぎの日、「ひろ」さんという人にメールをもらいました。メールで、「ひろ」さんは京大で次のZETSミーティングに誘ってくれました。 そして、先月のある日、木曜日に、僕とジェロムさんはそのビルに行ってみることにしました。４共という京大のビルには、毎週の木曜日と金曜日にかっこいい音楽をする人でいっぱいになります 。そこで、「ひろ」さんと会って、他のZETSというサークルのメンバーと喋って、ちょっと知り合いになりました。賑やかでわくわくしました。しかし、ZETSに入るのはちょっと難しいので、他のEMBGというサークルにはいることになりました。両方のサークルが同じビルで集まるから、大したことはなかったです。 本当に、その初めての経験はとても楽しかったです。

その時以来、４回EMGBとZETSのミーティングやエベントに参加しました。ライブ（エレキ演奏）をたくさん見ました。自分でリッキーというEMBGのメンバーと２曲演奏しました！今まで、それをするのはすごい事で、学期の将来を絶対に楽しみにしています。