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。
For my CIP, I had the chance to work in the Funahashi research lab at Kyoto University. To be honest, I was doubtful that the opportunity would come together at all. Three months is a fairly short period of time to contribute, and I certainly know nothing about animal research. Nonetheless, Dr. Funahashi exceeded my expectations immediately, not only by replying to my email but even inviting me to observe an experiment the very next week. Particularly because I also work as an RA in a lab back at home, I was excited about getting the chance to see what a lab in Japan would be like. Since I also didn’t have much experience with monkey research, I was also particularly excited about seeing these methods in use.
My main concern was that I would not have many opportunities to actually interact with my professor and the researchers in the lab, as everyone was fairly busy with their work. Moreover, without too much time or significant training, the number of things that I could actually help with were fairly limited. In the beginning, this is exactly what happened. After my initial tour of the lab, my main task was printing graphs. A lot of graphs. On top of that, I occasionally missed the memo when my professor went to conferences, and got locked out from the lab once. It wasn’t exactly the ideal opportunity to participate in society.
However, as time went on and my routine began to settle, I started to find excuses to talk with the other people in the lab. It would generally start with someone asking me if I wasn’t bored, printing graphs all day, and then the discussion would continue from there. I was finally able to have conversations! I got to hear about all sorts of topics, ranging from the added difficulty of having to publish scientific papers in English, to comments on Kyoto and Japan in general. When I brought back omiyage from Ise (which in and of itself made me feel a little bit more like a part of the gro up), we had a conversation about how many schools will go there as a class trip. As time went on, I also began to be able to contribute in more ways. I was able to help beyond printing graphs, and even got to help with the monkeys once. These sorts of experiences were not only exciting in their own right, but they also helped to create more opportunities to ask questions and speak with the other members of the lab.
This development took a fair amount of time, and it’s unfortunate that just as I begin to really start to make progress, I’m going to have to leave. I think a particularly large obstacle was having only a fairly small group of graduate students and my professor to interact with; apparently undergraduates don’t work as research assistants particularly often. I would have liked to meet more students, but given that Kyodai was on spring break, there also haven’t been any seminars or courses I could sit in on. (As a result, I’m glad that I also got to participate in KIX occasionally as well.) Overall, however, I think that my experience in the lab was a positive one. I got to maintain some sort of connection with neuroscience even while in Japan, and I got to get to know a group of interesting, friendly people.
To be honest, I wasn’t too confident anyone was actually going to let me choose kyudou for my Community Involvement Project, let alone willingly accept that my three days of attempted archery at Girl Scout camp was more than enough experience to dive right in and mangle my way through this well-respected, traditional Japanese sport. But I wanted to try, and my job was made infinitely simpler because I shared my enthusiasm with two other KCJS students who assured me that I would be a pro before I knew it. Thank god everyone had more confidence in me than I did.
By the first week I had been unsurprisingly labeled “一番弱い学生、” or “Number one weakest student,” by my sprightly seventy-something year-old kyudou teacher. I think we were all a little surprised at how easily we slipped into a rapport with the teachers and our more senior classmates. Apart from the routine greetings, or aisatsu, performed at the beginning and end of practices, there were few cultural hurdles for me to accidentally crash into. On top of that, the teachers kindly teased us as they corrected our form or told us to stop chattering among ourselves (much like our friendly reminders of “日本語だけ” in the Fusokan).
Sensei takes us to buy our uniforms at a kyudou store in Shiga Prefecture
Two and some-odd months later, I am shooting a bow that is as tall as I am into the center of a bale of hay at an alarmingly fast speed. Last practice my senpai and teacher all commented that we had become “上手” – skilled. I take their praise with a grain of salt, because in comparison to my teacher’s over forty-years of training, my measly two seem almost disrespectful. At the same time, the older students (most middle age) are always so helpful, understanding, and truly warm to us that I cannot help but want to try my best and understand as much as I can about kyudou every day I am at practice. Every practice I will inevitably receive an invaluable instruction as to more gracefully lower my bow, or how to tie my obi, or even a piece of chocolate or a cell phone charm. So, perhaps that comment not only applies to kyudou, but also how we have slipped into an easy routine with the dojo and it’s inhabitants. Although I may be living in Japan sans a host family, I feel as though the kyudou dojo has quietly and without much ceremony swept us under its wing.
I may be able to measure some of my growth by how accurately I can shoot an arrow or go through the motions, but kyudou, like many traditional Japanese endeavors, holds itself to a standard closer to artistry than sport. Kyudou is not about hitting the target at the center. Hitting the target at its center is simply the outcome that follows the feeling of shooting your bow with a conviction and accuracy that rings through your very core. It comes up through the bow as the string snaps back, and spreads through your body like a release of adrenaline as you keep your eyes steadily fixed at the target. If you feel that, whether your arrow hits or not is not luck, but inevitability.
Emily and I wear our new uniforms for the first time and our Senpai are impressed
My time at the kyudou dojo can’t really be summed up by how well I came to shoot an arrow, or how heavy a bow I can draw, but instead how at home I feel taking my place in the practice hall with these people who so unquestioningly let me give it “the old college try.” In the dojo it doesn’t matter if I am a foreigner or a woman or a college student. I am simply someone who wants to shoot with conviction, and so is everyone else. And on Mondays and Thursdays from four-thirty to five-thirty, I let that feeling ring through me like a bow after the string snaps back into place, and everything is right.
毎週、日曜日と木曜日にカマラタさんとガムさんと一緒に弓道をしています。始めは、矢を全然使わせてもらえませんでしたが、先週から弓道をし始めて、初めて弓と矢も使わせてもらえるようになりました。私達はすごく嬉しくなりました。先生は優しくて元気な方で、何か分からない時、いつも助けてくださいます。先生は私のことを「一番弱い学生」と言っていらっしゃいましたけど、 この頃 先生は他の先生に私達について「上手になったよね」とおっしゃっています。もっと上手になったら、先生と袴を買いに行きます。そうしたら、練習する時袴をはかなくてはいけませんから、私達は学生でも袴をはくつもりです。
川口先生と私
弓道のお稽古はすごく楽しいですけど、他のアメリカ人と一緒にしていますから、多分一人で CIPをしている学生に比べたら、経験はちょっと違うと思います。違うと言っても、まだ日本ならではの経験ができます。例えばこの前、武道センターに行ったところ、先生が買い物をしていらっしゃったので、いらっしゃいませんでした。それで、自分たちだけ練習をし始めました。でも、練習が終わりそうになった時先生がお帰りになりました。だから、私達は練習するための道具をぬいで挨拶をしなければいけませんでした。その後で、練習のための道具をもう一度つけて、五分ぐらいだけ練習しまた。私達がこれは日本らしい習慣だと思いました。でも一方で、先生は私達に携帯電話のストラップを買ってくださるような方ですから、もちろん厳しくありません。私達三人はこれからも弓道を続けています。KCJSの終わりまでに袴をはけるようになるかもしれません！
出来た！
僕の専門は認知神経科学ですが、これはどのように認知や心理などが脳から生み出せるかに関する学問です。もちろん、KCJSでは、これについての授業がとれませんが、日本にいる間、日本の研究制度も体験したかったので、CIPとして京都大学で行っている研究グループでボランティアをしようと思いました。
そこで、京大の認知情報学の船橋新太郎教授に連絡しました。船橋先生はサルを用いた研究をしていらっしゃいます。先生に研究所を見学させてもらい、実験を見せてもらいました。現在、サルの大脳（詳しく言うと前頭前皮質）に刺した電極で神経細胞の活動を記録していらっしゃいます。
まだ大学生だし、研修など受けていないので、データ解析しか出来ませんが、研究室に行くのは本当にいい機会だと思います。そして、先生や大学院生は優しいし、研究室にみんあ集まっているので、日本語でのお喋りも出来ます。ブラウン大学で、研究した事ありますが、アメリカでの研究と比べると、日本の研究はどう違うかに興味があります。