「Circle (Sports)」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Rose Gellman: Doshisha Hiking Circle and Kyoto AcroYoga

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For my CIP, I joined Doshisha University’s Hiking Circle and did Acro Yoga in the Kyoto/Osaka community.

Hiking Circle

I wanted to join a Doshisha club to meet students my own age, so I decided on hiking circle. The first time I went, we hiked Daimonji (a small peak in the city). It was thrilling to make small talk with other people who enjoy the outdoors in Japanese. The hiking day was fun, but most of the meetings are training (short runs along the Kamo or through the Gosho). If you are someone who likes to get outside for long day hikes, I might recommend a different CIP. Having a commitment in the middle of every Saturday can make it difficult to do other things with your weekend. That being said, the club members were warm and welcoming and are used to having foreigners join for a short time.

One thing that is different about hiking in Japan compared to the US is that trails are so accessible. I loved being able to hop on a bus and go for a short hike anytime I had the day or afternoon free. Most trails have some sort of religious significance, which was fascinating to learn about and worthwhile to experience.

Acro Yoga

I am in the circus club at JHU and have been practicing Acro Yoga for a few years, so when I found out there is a thriving acro community in the Kansai area, I was thrilled to join. In Kansai, most of the acro is in Osaka, but there is a small and growing community in Kyoto. The Kyoto community is extraordinarily warm, and has a nice mix of Japanese people and foreigners. Hearing Japanese in a class environment was exciting because I could understand the directions, and already knew the poses. The Osaka jams had more advanced acro, but also more foreigners, so I used my Japanese less. In both places, I met really lovely people who were open and eager to communicate.

The acro class environment was a great place to practice casual speech. I spoke to the teacher using です/ますform, but even though most of the participants were older than me, we were all students, so we spoke casually. Acro involves detailed communication between the flyer and the base, which is hard even in English. It is especially difficult in Japanese, where both the language and culture emphasize deferring to others. I’m grateful that I had this safe place to practice both Japanese and Acro and was able to engage with the local community doing something that I love.

Phillip Hicks: Pacorn Tennis Circle

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For my semester in Kyoto, I played tennis as part of the Pacorn tennis circle. The group would meet every day except for Wednesday, and would play on several courts at a large tennis center. On average, 30 people would attend, being anywhere from 18 to 60 years old with varying skill levels. Each session had different groups of people, however there were a few regulars who I got to know during my time in Pacorn. Each practice started with a warm-up, usually with four to six people on a court, and would include groundstrokes, serves, and volleys. After everyone was ready, we would start a set of doubles or a baseline game.

My first practice started off a bit rocky, however as the day progressed, I found that everyone was very friendly and didn’t worry too much about honorifics or social hierarchies. Instead, everyone just wanted to hit and have a good time. This attitude remained the same for my other practices, with the club members being eager to hit and talk during the breaks.

Playing tennis in Japan was very similar to playing in the US, with many of the words and drills being identical. In addition, since many of the other members who I hit with were around my age, our playing styles were also quite close. On the other hand, the signal for “out” in Japan is what could be considered “in” in the US, leading to some miscommunications. In addition, Japanese tennis players seemed to be more reserved than their American counterparts, with few relying on loud grunts and even fewer expressing anger on the court.

From casually chatting with locals to competitive match play, my CIP experience as part of the Pacorn tennis circle has been fantastic. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to meet new people and get some great exercise.

 

Julia Selch: Doshisha Hiking Circle

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For my Community Involvement Project (CIP) this semester, I continued to participate in Doshisha’s Hiking Club. Because Japanese students were on spring break for a few weeks of the semester, we were not able to meet as often as we did in the fall. Nevertheless, on the weeks that everyone was able to assemble in our club room for our Saturday afternoon meetings, we would usually head for the trails of the mountains surrounding Kyoto or go on training runs in Gosho, the imperial palace that sits right by Doshisha’s campus, or by the river near campus.

More than just working out and going on hikes together because we had to, it felt like we all were interested in staying active because we all really wanted to. I noticed this in particular this semester, because many of the club members showed up for our meetings despite being on vacation. Even though many of them had other obligations during their spring break, they still made the effort to come out every Saturday. If I could place why this was so, it’s because they all valued the community we’ve built and all wanted to see as much of Kyoto as possible by foot.

I’ve spent practically every Saturday this year with the hiking club. I have really enjoyed these meetings, because it’s felt like I’ve been part of a team, despite not being Japanese, and despite not speaking perfect Japanese all of the time either.

So, if you’re looking to stay active and to be a part of a great community, check out this club!

Cynthia Vu: Figure Skating Club

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This semester, I joined Doshisha University’s Figure Skating Club. They have practices one a week from 6:30am-8:30am, but the location of practice changes with the season. From November to March, the practices are held at Kyoto Aquarena; however, from April to October, the rink is turned into a pool. Due to that reason, practices are then moved to Osaka.

I joined a sports club this semester because I wanted to meet more people my age. The club members are really dedicated, so pretty much everyone goes to practice every week. I was honestly surprised by how dedicated they are. Some people live in Osaka, so they wake up at 4 in the morning just to make it to practice on time. Another girl I met lived too far away to make in time for practice, so she sleeps over her friend’s apartment in Kyoto the night before practice. I was considering quitting the club for reasons that will be explained later, but when I saw everyone put their all in the club, I thought it would be rude of me to not do that same. Because of that, I continued with the club.

Another thing I found really interesting was the club dynamic. It was always the first years responsibility to set up the music and clean it up at the end of practice. I offered to help, but they would always politely refuse and say it was the first years’ job. The upperclassmen have other responsibilities, so setting and cleaning up got delegated to the first years. I also think it is a way to make all club members more involved aside from just having fun and skating. The senpai or the experienced members’ responsibility to teach and guide the inexperienced members. Aside from one day, I never saw a coach at practice. The captain would decide how practice would run and lead the drills. There are many experienced members (experienced as in they started skating when they were in elementary school) who would give advice to beginners and teach them new tricks. I really appreciated it when the captain came by to check up on me and helped me with the basics.

I really did enjoy the club and was even able to go watch a figure skating competition. I am actually happy that I continued to go to the club, but I did not get as close as I hoped. I was a total beginner; the only thing I could do was clumsily skate forward. Because of that, every time I practiced, I would do laps around the rink by myself just to learn the basics while the other members were running drills and practicing their programs. Perhaps if I was more skilled, I could have integrated more into their practice. Since everyone is seriously practicing, there are not many opportunities to talk to them. Of course there are some people in the club I am really comfortable with; but at the same time, there is still a disconnect. If you decide to join a sports club, I really recommend joining something you have experience in to help ease the integration.

Adam Lowinger: Doshisha Hiking club

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I continued with the Hiking club from the fall term. Because of this, there is really not a whole lot of new content that can be added.

Consequently, I’ll just repeat the basic outline and experiences from my previous post. In general, the group only goes on a hike once a month. We once again went to Diamonji, due to it being a relatively easier hike. This allowed for the new study abroad students (both from KCJS and other programs) to get a feel for it. Other meetings were just running along the river (about 2-3 km) to build endurance.

Most of the communication in Japanese was done before and after the meetings since no one really wants to talk while running.  However, I got their early a lot. This allowed for me to play video games and talk about anime with the other early birds. After the runs is when they would talk about upcoming events and hikes. Both sections proved to be a good way to practice casual speech in Japanese.

Outside meetings, the club hosted several drinking and all you can eat parties, which were basically as informal as could possibly be reached.

So if you want to see some good scenery and have a more casual CIP, it’s a good experience.

Julia Selch: Doshisha Hiking Club

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For my Community Involvement Project (CIP) this semester, I participated in Doshisha’s Hiking Club. Our weekly Saturday meetings would usually consist of either traversing the trails that the mountains surrounding Kyoto have to offer or going on training runs in Gosho, the imperial palace that sits right by Doshisha’s campus. I really enjoyed these Saturday meetings, because they allowed me to stay active while also allowing me to see a bit more of Kyoto.

The most surprising aspect of this hiking club, to me, was that the members were overwhelmingly male. Including myself, there were only two or three women at most at each meeting. From my experience with hiking clubs back in the States, I am used to more female participants. This made me wonder whether or not hiking in Japan was a slightly gendered activity. Nevertheless, this did not inhibit me from feeling comfortable in the club – everyone was friendly and willing to talk!

I really loved being a part of this club. I liked challenging myself to get to know the Japanese members better, even if sometimes my words came out a bit jumbled. And so, if you’re looking to get active and to see what Kyoto has to offer, I recommend checking out this club!

Joey Ye: Ping Pong Circle

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For my CIP, I participated in the Ping Pong circle within Doshisha University. The club met twice every week on Wednesdays and Fridays, usually for about three to four hours at a time. Before coming to KCJS, I had only played ping pong recreationally, but I had experience playing tennis before so it was not too difficult to catch on. That being said, even though the circle only played at the club level and were not the official varsity team, they all were really skilled at ping pong.

Coming in, I was nervous not just because of the gap in my ping pong skills, but also because I was not confident in my own Japanese speaking ability. However, I quickly found out that all of the club members were very accepting and friendly no matter their own skill level. Even after classes started again for the Japanese school year, I seemed to be the only new member to join the club as everyone else already knew each other and were at a high skill level. Still, none of them seemed to mind just rallying with me rather than playing actual games and a lot of them gave me tips as well as helped me practice certain shots each time.

In terms of the actual CIP goals, trying to balance speaking Japanese and playing ping pong at the same time was challenging. Not with standing that it took most of my concentration to play ping pong since I’m not too good at it, the Japanese members did not usually talk to much of their own accord since they were focused on the game. Thus, most of the responsibility was on me to initiate conversations and keep them going. The primary purpose of the club is of course ping pong, so I spent a lot of my time either trying to talk while playing, which not many others did, or while I and others around me waited our turns to switch in on a group rotation. Each week followed the same format in terms of how practice proceeded, so once I got the hang of that it became easier to find openings to have conversations.

All in all, the ping pong circle was one of the highlights of my first semester. While the ping pong circle was like any other club sport that you could take part of in America, joining the club was a really easy way to make more Japanese friends, something I highly valued. Though the CIP requirement is to just participate for at least an hour a week, the activity is definitely enjoyable enough that I was more than happy to spend more time just playing or hanging out with the other students. For anyone keen on making more Japanese friends, the CIP activity is a great route to go, and honestly joining more than one circle or club on your own time will be well worth your while as it comes at no cost to you except for some of your free time.

Adam Lowinger: Doshisha Hiking Circle

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For my CIP, I decided to join the Doshisha Hiking Circle (official name is along the lines of “circle for people that love to hike”). My reason for joining was simple: I wanted an extracurricular that would provide a way to stay in shape. Of all the various sports I can play due to being partially blind, the Hiking Circle met at the most convenient time and location. Since it also would allow me to see Japan and get some fresh air on the weekends, I joined as soon as possible.

The meetings themselves are very calm and relaxed. Usually, I show up about 20 minutes early and get a few rounds of video games in with the other early members. This is a good way to practice casual speech and informal grammar. When the meeting proper starts, we check the weather. If it is raining, we do some drills in the stairs. If it is a clear day, we do some running near the campus. The point of these drills is to build endurance for when we do go on a hike. That happens about once a month, with those meetings taking up a good half of the day as opposed to the usual two hours. The length, however, it not just the hike, but of the shopping and sometimes dinner that we do afterwards.

Moreover, the members themselves are very accommodating. While I did use (or rather attempted) to use the correct polite speech style when I introduced myself, I learned in hindsight that this was probably not necessary. In general, they welcome any study abroad student (there are four others with me) if you routinely show up and keep in contact. The President Fuji-san (yes, that’s his name), was very helpful by always carrying an electronic dictionary to make sure I understood both important hiking instructions necessary for my survival and the college student vocabulary the members use. Later, I learned that he carried this because he is trying to learn English. As a result, we are helping each other learn new languages.

Ultimately, I would say the Hiking circle is a good way to develop an understanding of Japanese culture.  Be it the simple “こにちは” s to fellow hikers on the trail or the trash talk in games of smash, you learn how casual Japan works and feels. In addition, I learned about various social gatherings. This ranged from participating in a 飲み会 (a drinking party) to going to a hot spring. In each instance, I learned the procedure and etiquette for each event.  Joining this club has made me smarter, happier, and healthier during my time in Japan.

Katie Roth: Basketball Club

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For my CIP I attended FREE basketball club in Kyoto. The group was a mix of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Doshisha students, and girls and guys (though they didn’t mix sexes during scrimmaging), so I was able to meet various people from the area (or distant area since some live further away like Osaka). We meet at one court and alternated who scrimmaged, while the other team sat out. At my home institution I play varsity level basketball, so I wanted to stay in shape and continue practicing even though I was aboard. Unfortunately they didn’t meet as regularly as I’d like, generally two practices a week, but I recognize that it is a club and not a University team; still if you’re looking for something more rigorous, I’d suggest looking elsewhere.

I was definitely nervous for my first practice. I was almost lost until I saw a girl with basketball gear on, and was to follow her to the gym (I was too nervous to ask for directions; my level of Japanese was that low). The basketball representative I got in contact with introduced to me the girls team, and I did a brief introduction, but they didn’t seem very interested in me at the time, which is understandable because I’m a foreigner and because I’m not very good at Japanese. The actual activity of basketball was fine. I was bigger and stronger than all of them, but they were quick and hustled the entire time. I definitely had to be less physical though and had to tone down my excitement. It’s hard to explain but the girls weren’t as “in it” as the guys were. The guys gave more high-fives, claps on the back or shoulder, hardier exclamations of joy, and generally more aggressive. The girls didn’t have that same energy. I had to adjust, especially when it came to bullet passes. The girls also didn’t have the same fundamentals and basketball IQ I’m used to seeing from girls our age. They didn’t quite understand spacing, when to screen, how to play help defense, how to rotate defense, etc. And most of these girls played in high school too. Having been here a while, I recognize that basketball isn’t as big in their culture as it is in the US, so the talent and interest is also different. But like I said, they had great speed, stamina, and hustle, which is just as important.

It honestly took almost two months for the girls to be more comfortable with my presence. The guys from the get go were cool with me, just because of my skill, but I wasn’t able to interact with them because of the alternating scrimmage system. We still don’t talk much off the court, my interests just didn’t align with most of these girls’ interests, but we communicated a lot more on the court. There were more “good jobs,” “nice pass,” “good shot,” “gomen,” “screen,” “good game,” being said, and that was an important step in my mind. While I don’t think I would have been best friends with any of these girls, I think my level of Japanese did hinder my experience, so study because it will save you a bunch of hardships (and watch Slam Dunk or Kuroko no Basket)!

At the end of the day I can’t judge an entire population based on my interaction/experience with this basketball club, but I still think I learned a lot about Japanese people and culture.  There was some bad and there was some good from this experience, so overall I’m glad I did it.

Circle (Sports), KCJS 29 (Fall 2017), Sewanee: The University of the South

Alexander Hall: Kyoto University Basketball Circle

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This semester, I continued my CIP from last quarter, which was Free Club, a basketball circle at Kyoto University. I spent the semester getting closer to my friends from the previous semester, while also getting to know people that I hadn’t known quite as well. Through the semester, I met alumni (which are called OB in Japanese – short for Old Boys), older members which only came occasionally, and, when the school year changed, new members who were coming in from high school. As such, I got to sort of experience all of the differences in the relationships between Japanese university students based off of age.

The thing I focused on most was levels of politeness in speech, which is what I struggle most with in Japanese, behind only kanji. Perhaps what I found most surprising was not the differences in speech style per se (as in sentence endings, etc.), but the differences in content. For the most part, members of the same year did not really filter things out when talking to each other. They made fun of each other, made stupid or dirty jokes with each other, and overall talked like most guys do in the United States on basketball courts. If members were separated by a year, the older members would not filter very much, but the younger members would be careful to tone down when making fun of the older members. What I found most interesting, however, was the differences in speaking between members separated by two or more years. Of course, the younger members were very polite, making sure not to appear rude. I expected the older members to not filter at all – however, they were extraordinarily nice to younger members. A fourth year, who would crack jokes with third years who made mistakes, would often give advice to first years when they did the same thing,

My advice for future students would be to pay attention to these sorts of things. Everyone knows about です・ます and 敬語, but in reality, we all make mistakes with these and are often forgiven. However, we are not really taught which sort of content is appropriate, even though this is just as important. Therefore, I would suggest to future student to use my experience as a rough outline for university circles, but also to pay close attention to interactions between differently aged members in order to navigate these things.