「Circle (Non-Sports)」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Izzy Hallé: Kyoto Amateur Dance Club

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For my CIP, I participated in Kyoto Amateur Dance Club (Amada), alongside students from various universities, including Doshisha. Each week, we practiced a different dance (waltz, foxtrot, chacha, tango, etc.) taught by the two student leaders—first men and women separately, then everyone together in pairs. The club members welcomed me warmly from the very beginning. One of the leaders, in particular, went out of her way to talk with me outside of dance time, and to give me extra pointers when I was having trouble learning the steps.

I had a bit of trouble participating fully in this club, which wasn’t totally surprising, since before this program, I didn’t have much experience either speaking Japanese or dancing. Also, since the club session had started in the spring, the members had already learned most of the dances we practiced. However, I wanted to try something new and meet people my age, and I was able to do that through Amada. I even met with a couple of friends from the club outside of practice. In hindsight, I should probably have chosen an activity in which I had more prior experience. That way, I probably would have felt more comfortable and been able to participate more fully.

Nonetheless, participating in Amada was a valuable experience. Based on what I’ve heard about most Doshisha clubs, this group seemed to be fairly casual, which I liked. Everyone was dedicated to learning dance, but they weren’t intense or intimidating. Everyone was really kind and patient with me, and pair dancing, along with the casual atmosphere of the club, gave me the opportunity to chat with many different Japanese students.

One of the things that I find hardest about Japanese is knowing how formally or informally to address people, since, for the most part, we don’t have such distinctions in English, especially when talking with other students. I still found this confusing after entering this club, but I was able to learn a bit through trial and error. For example, if I’m not mistaken, most of the members seemed to talk to the leader casually, even if they were younger or less experienced than her. I think this is somewhat unusual for a club, but I’m pretty sure it was because most of them had gotten close during their time in the club. I used mas/desu form when addressing the members, because I didn’t know them well and often wasn’t sure of their ages. I noticed other small cultural differences as well. For example, after practice, rather than leaving separately when we were finished changing, everyone gathered outside, and after a few words of encouragement from the leader, we would all say “otsukaresamadeshita” and go our separate ways.

All things considered, I would definitely recommend this club for someone who has experience dancing! It’s a lot of fun!

 

Heather Heimbach: Kurama Fine Arts Circle

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Doshisha Kurama Fine Arts Circle is exactly how it sounds — the fine arts circle of Doshisha University. Many of the members seem to be studying art at Doshisha, either as an art history major or fine arts. There is a regular meeting once a week, where members gather and practice a type of fine art together. Usually, it is drawing or painting, and the theme is set. In spring semester, I believe that they did more still life drawings. This semester, however, they are preparing for EVE, Doshisha’s cultural festival, during which they plan to sell caricatures and portraits. In preparation for selling caricatures and portraits, all of the weekly meetings I have been to have been dedicated to drawing face portraits.

There are also meetings outside of the regular meetings in preparation for the cultural festival. I went to help only once, and after that it hasn’t fit into my schedule well. One observation about the Doshisha circles is that they are much more active than clubs at my home University. By active, I mean people seem to have a lot more free time to spend at the circle, so they hang out in the clubroom or help prepare for events outside of “regular meeting” times. Some people seem to spend nearly everyday preparing for the festival–which is something that is difficult for KCJS students due to the level of homework, and in turn made me feel guilty for not being able to help out more. From what I’ve heard from Japanese students, the level of work is not that much in college, and so hanging around a circle for a long time is feasible for many of them. 

However, hearing other members talk about the festival preparations, as well having participating in the preparation, has been an interesting experience. As American universities don’t commonly have big college-wide festivals as they do in Japan, I did not realize how much work every circle puts into preparing for the festival. Furthermore, senpai-kouhai relationships become very clear during the preparation, because even if kouhai are taking on a management position, the senpai oversees the kouhai, and always has the final word. The senpai in Kurama often took on roles that no one else wanted to do, and his wallet was used for a lot of the shopping for the event (though the funds used are club funds). Many of the members called him not by his name, but simply “senpai.” Although of course there are multiple upperclassmen in the club, that particularly senpai was referred to as “senpai.”  He was also good about reaching out and welcoming all the members, including teaching me how to play tetris on their game station.

I’m not really a fan of senpai-kouhai relationships, but it was interesting to see the hierarchy in the club. Also, almost all of the members, except for the fourth-years, used desu-masu form when talking. However, no one used the special keigo phrases, like shiteirasshaimasu, as that would most likely be considered laughable.

The good thing is that the regular meetings are fairly easy to get the gist of if you have done art class before. However, many of the members are pretty quiet, though a few are talkative, and many people don’t talk that much while drawing. My advice is that you probably shouldn’t join this circle unless you love art, because otherwise, it could be difficult to enjoy the circle time.

Nancy Tran: Calligraphy Club

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I participated in the Doshisha Calligraphy Club throughout the semester. I use the word “participated” because I did not feel as though I had truly joined the club due to the manner of each session. None of the members make any particular attempts to introduce themselves or help unless you ask them, but with the atmosphere of the room even asking for help is quite difficult. Most of the time, one member helped guide me in learning how to write but his words were far and few between. Since I remained a quiet empirical observer most of the time, I was able to see the interactions between the members more. The other members tend to practice quietly by themselves until the club leader, or who I presume to be the club leader, enters and brightens up the atmosphere by seemingly gossiping with everyone. As this program is in Kyoto, most of the members speak in Kansai-ben. Whenever someone heads home for the day the rest of the members always say お疲れ様. When introducing oneself, the others tend to ask what year you are (何回生) and what faculty you are in (学部), most likely to establish a connection or establish hierarchy of ages. I entered the club hoping to learn calligraphy with my peers and establish friendly relations but it seems as though I was only able to learn calligraphy. I would not recommend this activity for someone who is looking to establish friendly relations with club members due to the nature of the members and the club activity.

John Courson: Student Television Club

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For my CIP activity, I knew that I wanted to do something relating to my major since I’m a Film and TV major at BU, and entering KCJS was solely to fulfill credits towards my minor. I stumbled upon the 学生テレビ局 (Student TV circle) at Doshisha by chance, and knew immediately that it would be a perfect fit for me. At the Student Television circle, you can make any kind of programming you and your partners decide to make. It should be important to note that you don’t need prior experience in TV to join this club, as many of the participants aren’t media majors at all. It’s a club filled with people who like to have fun making TV with their friends. I would suggest anyone interested in joining this club to do so, but know that you will have a hard time if you’re not confident or capable with the Japanese skills you’ve learnt. The circle meets officially twice a week, but you’ll be split into teams, and your team decides on what days to meet according to everyone’s schedules.

My first contact with the circle was through a 3rd year student who acts as leader of the club.  He told me which day in the week would be best according to who he knows usually attends the weekly meetings. Thanks to his thoughtfulness, I was placed in a team with a girl who likes to practice her English, and would happily translate for me whenever I got lost. I found this really helpful since TV is heavily influenced by culture, and I would sometimes be confused by certain slang used during the planning phase. My team decided that since I look like Harry Potter, they want to make a Harry Potter parody trailer. It might’ve been easy to be insulted by this, but I think half of this decision was an attempt to incorporate me into the circle as best as they could. I think they knew if I got a role in acting, it would force me to be involved and make for a fun time. Though parading down Shinmachi campus in a HP robe was embarrassing, I’m extremely thankful for the overall consideration that’s gone into making my time spent in this circle a memorable one by the fellow members.

The best part of this circle is not the quality television content it provides, and in fact the content is probably very lackluster compared to the buTV10 station at home. By far the best part of joining this circle is all of the practice and experience in the language and culture that you get from being surrounded by Doshisha students, being creative and making content together, eating 10pm dinner together after a long day of work, and having takoyaki parties and okonomiyaki parties just for fun. I learnt a lot from these experiences, especially in how people my age interact with each other. I was thrown off at first by the underclassmen’s use of teineigo towards me. I thought it was cold, and a sign that we wouldn’t be able to become friends. Maybe they thought since my time here is only temporary, there’s no point in even being casual with me? I was proven wrong, though, as this is a normal dynamic in Japanese schools, and I was quickly able to make friends across all participating ages easily. I also learnt a lot of slang through jokes and casual conversation. I quickly discovered Japanese jokes are difficult to understand, but the themes of the humor are often universally applicable and equally funny.

I’d say my overall experience with the CIP has been a great success. The students are interested in helping you feel welcome and exchanging cultural insights. I was thrown into a club full of Japanese students I’d never have met without KCJS’s mandatory CIP policy. At first, I was intimidated by all of the kansai dialects, especially since they all speak so quickly with it. But it’s something you can get used to, or if you’re like me and just can’t get used to it to save your life, then you learn to pick out the relevant information. I’ll be forever grateful for the experiences I’ve had. My advice for someone who’s interested in joining any club at Doshisha would be to physically insert yourself. Place yourself in a position to have conversations. Enter the club room with a smile on your face and greet everyone. When the members are split into groups conversing and you feel left out, walk up to them and insert yourself into the conversation. They won’t think you’re strange, they’ll be relieved that you aren’t awkwardly standing in the corner of the room anymore. Ask questions and be genuinely interested in the people you meet. And never say “no” to an invitation to do something fun, even if you’re concerned that you won’t have time for your studies. Your time in the CIP can become the best part of the program experience, just like it has for me.

Jamal Tulimat: Klexon

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For my CIP activity, I participated in Kyoto International Club Klexon, a conversational club where English speakers come to speak with Japanese participants who would like to practice their English. The club met once almost every week from 7 to 9 PM at the Wings Kyoto Center. The two hours were split into parts; for the first one, I usually got a new partner every ten minutes in a way similar to speed dating, where I talked with them about anything ranging from our daily lives to our opinions on recent political developments. For the second hour, several Japanese participants and I made a group of five to six, where we got to speak in a way similar to friends on a group outing. Although we were usually given topics to talk about, I found it more helpful to talk about things that often come up in conversations to help the Japanese participants improve their English.

Participating in Klexon was a great opportunity to make native Japanese friends and feel more like I’m participating in the community. I was a bit sad at the beginning thinking that I was not going to get much of an opportunity to practice my Japanese, but luckily after the first week, I got to go to the local bar with newly made Klexon friends where I spoke with them in Japanese while sharing a nice drink. After immersing myself more in the club, I began to think of Klexon as more of a social place where one meets friends rather than a place where one comes to do work. The more I participated in Klexon, the more I bonded with friends I made there. Eventually, several KCJS student participants and I got to make a group chat with our Klexon friends where we scheduled meet ups and outings on some weekends. On one Saturday, we all got together and went to the Kyoto Shibori Museum where we learned different dying techniques before we each got to dye our own scarf in wonderful patterns and colors.

Even though English is my second language while Japanese is my fourth, participating in Klexon really helped me understand my progress in Japanese, further showing me what I needed to focus on to get better. For example, after seeing where Japanese people commonly made mistakes, I was able to reflect on expressions that were difficult to say since they did not translate between the two languages very well.

Needless to stay, Klexon was a significant part of my study abroad and language study and I’d recommend it to anyone who is willing to go out of their comfort zone to make friends. My tip is – if you want to get to know someone, ask for their LINE! It’s easy and most people will say yes. Klexon is really the experience that you make out of it!

Derek Hong: Ritsumeikan Wadaiko DON

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For my CIP, I participated in Wadaiko DON.  Wadaiko DON is a student-run taiko circle at Ritsumeikan University.  At my home university in the US, I am a part of a taiko club run by Brown and RISD students called Gendo Taiko, and I wanted to see how a wadaiko circle as run by students in Japan differs from a taiko club run by students in the US.

My initial contact with the club was difficult since I was still getting used to having full conversations in Japanese.  However, the students in the club were welcoming and readily willing to let me participate.  The amount of time I needed to put into my CIP was a little higher than usual since practice was usually twice a week for at least an hour, but I was determined to try and participate as much as I could.  During practice, I had to quickly get comfortable using plain forms and, more importantly, using casual speech.  In the end, even though I’m still not fluent in casual speech, I was able to hear how the friends talked to each other and gave instruction.

It is a bit regrettable that my time in the taiko group was so short and that I needed to commute far to participate.  It made it difficult to spend enough time with them to really practice my Japanese and get a sense of how they are outside of the taiko circle setting.  That said, I think it was a great insight into how student circles are run in Japan.  For the most part, there are a lot of similarities between Wadaiko DON and Gendo Taiko.  We are both student run groups, we both practice together as a group, and we play many of the same styles.  Further, like Gendo Taiko, many of the Wadaiko DON members started taiko only after entering the circle.  As for differences, Wadaiko DON is about twice the size of Gendo Taiko and, as such, they are able to perform at a much higher potential level.  For each performance, they hold auditions to decide who can participate.

On the whole, I’m very glad that I was able to participate and be accepted into a Japanese university student group, especially one that concerns taiko.  Wadaiko DON performs at a very high level, and I am very thankful to be able to have seen their mainstage performance, participate in regular practice, and perform in the Takase-gawa Sakura Matsuri (pictures and videos below).  The Wadaiko DON members were extremely welcoming and helpful even when I didn’t quickly understand their instruction.  Even though the language barrier made it difficult to interact smoothly with the groups usual happenings, this was a unique experience that could only have happened during my study abroad.  I am especially glad to have participated in the Takase-gawa Sakura Matsuri, during which I was able to see the carrying of the Mikoshi from the perspective of the parade that went down Teramachi-dōri.  It was a unique perspective on Japanese life and the continuation of tradition.

On the day of the Matsuri, the weather was sunny and warm, and the sakura blossoms were just beginning to lose their petals.  As the wind swept through the trees, the petals flew up and floated down gently, breezing in the background of the crowded streets.  Even though it was my first sakura matsuri, I had the feeling that it was a picture perfect representation of what sakura matsuri could be.  People of all ages attended, from the elderly who came to experience the annual matsuri once again to the children who are sure to have made fond memories.  Anyone can participate in the carrying of the mikoshi (“portable shrine”, although its significance is far deeper than the English translation would make it seem) throughout the streets and, within the large group of mikoshi carriers, there was a strong sense of community and participation in tradition.  As the large parade processed through Teramachi-dōri Shōtengai and the narrow streets adjacent to it, onlookers came out to see this once-a-year event.  The spot of the festival, the Former Rissei Elementary School, seems to have been particularly chosen because of its long history.  At the taiko performance, a woman danced among the taiko players.  Although out of the ordinary, it seemed like she and her family had attended the Rissei Elementary School before it was decommissioned and that she was moved to the point of dance by the once-again lively atmosphere of the school.  Instead of letting the building fall into disuse and be forgotten, the matsuri brings life to the location.  Although the Takase-gawa Sakura Matsuri is only in its 38th year, the tradition of matsuri goes far back in Japanese history.  Even though it was my first matsuri, I felt like there was deep significance in the passing of cultural memories through events like this.

I hope to bring these new perspectives on taiko and matsuri back to Gendo Taiko and try to inform the way we put on matsuri in our own communities half-way across the world on the East Coast.

第３８回高瀬川桜祭り　神輿

三宅太鼓

Khanh Ta: FBI Filmmaking Circle & Kyotographie

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For my CIP this semester, I decided to continue the CIP that I previously did during the fall, which is my filmmaking club at Doshisha University. Even though during the spring, Doshisha students have spring vacation from February until April, FBI club still has a lot of filming activities depending on the projects and students. Hence, one of the club members that I am close to actually invited me to join the shoots for her project during this time, so I was able to continue with this activity. I suppose, similar to how many student film projects in America are very network based, here too at Doshisha and Japan at large, film is also a network based domain.

Since shooting schedule is very irregular, there are weeks when I don’t have CIP participation. However, there are also weeks where we meet 2-3 times a week for around 4-5 hours in order to film the many scenes required for the project. Sometimes, shoot schedules are also adjusted based on the weather; especially, Kyoto often snows a lot during spring, so we had to reschedule twice. Our roles also vary depending on the day of the shoot; every member always want to try new responsibilities during a film shoot, so sometimes our roles are exchanged between one another. This is quite different from the US, since our roles are often decided during the pre-production stage, and people usually stick to that role throughout the entire project rather than changing it up day by day.

As aforementioned, since FBI doesn’t meet as regularly during the spring, I decided to join another activity as well for my CIP, called Kyotographie. Through a friend I met on the internet who is currently working at this company (a media editorial agency), I was introduced to Kyotographie. The company is currently organizing for an international photography festival in Kyoto, and they need volunteer help, so I decided to join as well as introduce it to my friend from E class, Kasey Huang. The fact that I was able to find a volunteering job to apply for and even introduce my friend to it really reminds me of networking experience in America as well. Originally, I wasn’t sure of how networking is like in Japan, but this experience proves to me that it is actually very much the same.

At Kyotographie, I get to utilize some of my advertising and communication skills from my actual major, combined along with Japanese, for work. From trying to connect the company to many different local universities in Kyoto to trying to expose the festival and events to many Japanese media outlets and students alike, these experiences allow me to do what I usually do best in English, only now in Japanese. At first, I was originally afraid that my Japanese wasn’t good enough to be used in the work place. However, considering this is a very international company, many people use both Japanese and English; while everything is mostly spoken in Japanese, many technical PR, advertising or art terms are in English, so I was able to do my work just fine. Thus, I feel that this volunteer is a great stepping stone for me to prepare myself for the workforce later if I manage to get a job and live in Japan.

In general, for those looking for CIP, my advice for future students is that having around two or more CIP experiences during the spring would be ideal. This is because even if your CIP are guaranteed to meet, you’re not guaranteed to meet as regularly as the fall semester.

Xiaoxi Wu: KU Amateur Dance Club

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During my stay in Kyoto I participated in the activities of Kyoto University Dance Club (社交ダンス), where I managed to immerse myself into a Japanese college club vibe. Since I’d never danced even a single time before attending the club, I was quite nervous on the first day, and found myself just as clumsy as I expected at the dance practice. Yet learning to dance is not the point of joining a dance club in Kyoto; rather, it was to interact with my Japanese peers on a regular basis so that we both could serve as かけ橋 through which we were able to understand each other’s cultural background better.

The Dance Club holds activities as often as 3 times a week. Each time lasts for 3 hours. I tried to commit as much as possible to the club activities, but I was also busy with schoolwork, so I often ended up going once or twice a week. One thing I found interesting though was the fact that the club claims to have between 20 to 30 members who have signed up for club activities, but almost every single time only those 6 or 7 same members showed up. Occasionally we would be lucky to have others join us but that was pretty rare. One of the club members told me that this phenomenon is quite common among Japanese university circles, where you would expect some members to regularly show up and become the core of the circles while others who rarely show up are labelled ‘ghost members’ (幽霊部員). I’m glad that I didn’t become one of the ghosts.

During the 3 hours of club activity we would practice different forms of 社交ダンス such as Tango, Waltz, and Samba, although I still have difficulties even now in distinguishing them from each other. To be frank, dancing is not my thing, but thanks to the warm-heartedness of my Japanese peers I was able to enjoy the activity sessions as much as I could. They knew I had never had experiences in ballroom dance and my Japanese wasn’t that good, so they treated me with patience and taught me step by step. Although more often than not I still ended up messing up with everything, I do not regret joining the Dance Club, because other members regarded me as a normal, functioning member of the club too. The opportunities to interact with Japanese peers are absolutely the most valuable experiences I’ve had so far. Therefore I highly recommend the KU Amateur Dance Club even if dance is not your thing, and on a side note I’m pretty skeptical that someone is actually worse than me at dancing.

Charlie Tran: Klexon

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During my time at KCJS, I participated in a Japanese-English Conversation program called Klexon. Klexon is similar to speed dating. People sit in rows facing each other, and then talk for ten minutes until they have to switch partners. After about 6 cycles, everyone is randomly placed into groups and group conversation begins. A piece of paper with the week’s topic of conversation is handed out at the beginning of the session. However, one does not need to talk about the conversation on the sheet; Klexon is basically free conversation.

In Klexon, I noticed that most Japanese people are learning English because they believe it is a necessity for their job, so their motivation to learn is quite high. Also, since they know that this is a conversation program, I feel the Japanese people in this program are more comfortable with talking to foreigners and generally are not as shy as Japanese people outside of the program. Therefore, there is no need to have worries about conversing because they are quite easy to talk to.

Although KCJS is a program to learn Japanese and Klexon is a program to help Japanese people speak English, I chose Klexon with special purposes in mind. Those purposes were to learn more about Japanese culture from different perspectives, to make Japanese friends, and learn more Japanese from them. During the program sessions, you can talk about anything with the Japanese people, so I took this liberty to ask them about Japanese culture that couldn’t be learned about in a class or in a book. For example, I learned about different dialects around Japan and popular slang Japanese people were using. At the end of the program, I would invite the people I was paired up with to go out drinking at a bar or an izakaya. This was a great way to strengthen our bonds and become friends. Also, we would speak in Japanese, so I was able to practice my Japanese conversation quite a lot. I highly recommend choosing Klexon as a CIP because it is fun, you can learn a lot, and most of all, make many Japanese friends.

Kanoa Mendenhall: Jazz Bass

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Although I initially wanted to explore and try a new activity, I continued playing jazz bass (my line of work back in America) for my CIP here in Kyoto and Osaka. It has been a wonderful experience being able to participate in the Kansai jazz scene while at KCJS this spring semester.

As all jazz musicians do to get introduced to the local scene, I started off by going to a jam session in the area in order to meet local musicians. This was one of the main objectives of my CIP – to continue going to a regular session that had other members consistently participating.

The first session I attended was a weekly jam hosted by Kyoto University’s student-run jazz circle. The sessions were how typical jazz jam sessions go; a newly fused band collectively chose standards from the Great American Songbook and improvised on these tunes. Students from KyoDai as well as students from additional neighboring universities were involved in these sessions. Getting to know these students from various areas eventually led to participation in other jam sessions at other universities and venues.

As the semester progressed, not only did I get to know fellow musicians my age, but also people from a wide age range who shared a similar passion for jazz. Meeting people from different backgrounds and generations allowed me to practice my keigo and respectful expressions a fair bit. In addition, I had to do quite a lot of writing/messaging to people who I had just met at each session, which was good practice.

One aspect that varied a bit from gatherings in America was the formality, such as saying よろしくお願いします to all of the other members on the bandstand without fail before playing each tune (at jam sessions). This surprised me quite a bit at first, and was a shock compared to the cold, cutthroat atmosphere of New York jam sessions. Also, it has been confusing to decipher the distance between musicians and when to use honorifics. The jazz scene in Japan is unique in the case where numerous musicians have studied or lived in America, therefore demonstrating the vibe and casual approach of American jazz musicians (slang, handshakes, affirmative shouts during performance, etc.), yet there are still limits to how close you can get to a person, especially if there is a rank/age difference. I once called a club owner (who lived in New York for multiple years, knows jazz culture well) that I thought I had established a firm connection with (after multiple casual interactions) by their first name, and they reacted quite hostilely. It took some time getting used to, but overall I found that musicians in the Kansai area are friendlier and supportive of each other, which I wish there was more of in New York City.

These jam sessions ultimately lead to a few performances in formal settings, called by members I met at jam sessions such as the one at Kyoto University. The performances typically involved rehearsals and preparation beforehand, and involved some energy and time. Nevertheless, they were highly rewarding, and I’m especially grateful to the teachers and friends from KCJS who came to my gigs. Continuing music while in Kyoto was one of the highlights of my study abroad experience, and has provided much joy and language practice as well as career connections that are sure to be useful in the future. There were some language barriers at times, but music, especially jazz, is a language and mode of communication itself.