「Institution」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Emelyn Madrigal: Kyoto University Running Circle Anpan Independants

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I joined the Kyoto University Anpan Running Club where twice a week sessions were held along the Kamogawa river, with university students representing multiple universities in Kyoto. The set routes included 4km vs 8km, however you are free to run more or less.

This is a perfect opportunity for those who want to stay active while also immersing themselves in the Japanese culture and daily life. I personally loved that I was able to experience just a normal part of a Japanese student’s life.

I will say however that this activity requires a person to be extremely extroverted and proactive in forming relationships with the other Japanese members as they can be very shy towards foreigners, and it can be easy to simply run on your own along the route. No matter what CIP activity it is, remember that you are in charge of reaching out and keeping up with new relationships.

Eve Koslofsky: Volunteering at Mitsuba kindergarten

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Above is a portrait drawn for me by one of the students at Mitsuba!

For my CIP I decided to volunteer at Mitsuba kindergarten. Each week I went to Mitsuba and for two hours I played with the kids and helped them out with small tasks. I feel like I learned so much from this experience, both in my language skills and my cultural understanding of Japanese schools. The kids were all so sweet, curious, and friendly, welcoming me into their classroom with open arms. The teachers were also very generous, something I was very grateful for whenever I was confused or stuck! Anyone who is interested in this CIP, I would say give it a shot – especially if you enjoy working with little kids and want to work on your speaking or listening skills.

Raymond McCaskey – Kyoto Justice Baseball

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My CIP was joining a local baseball team in Kyoto and practicing with the team / getting acquainted with the players and coaches. I play baseball at my home university, so I thought exploring Japanese baseball and the culture surrounding it would be interesting and something I could bring back to the states.

I learned quite a bit and realized the culture of teamwork and equal loads in helping out during practice. Even in a not extremely competitive environment / league, the players all hustled and helped out in a number of ways from finding equipment, clean up, and even assisting in drills for other players.

My advice for incoming students would be to find a CIP that you can really connect with and be invested in. I think having a common passion for baseball and a relative sports culture connection really helped spark other connections with other people in my CIP, even if nationality and language were worlds apart. Having a genuine interest, knowledge, or curiosity in whatever CIP you select will help everything that follows be more smooth and less stressful in my opinion.

Noah Goldfischer: Katsura Running Club

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This semester, I joined my host father’s best friends community running club. This long distance informal running club meets twice a week to run from Katsura station to various iconic locations throughout Kyoto. I joined them once a week on Saturday or Sunday mornings.

A lot of the members of the group were training for a 100 kilometer race in early October, so I was really pushed to run further than I had ever before, even completing my first half-marathon. We went on runs to Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari, and various other iconic locations in Kyoto. Not only did I have the opportunity to push myself physically, but I also had the opportunity to push myself linguistically as I would be running for multiple hours engaging with and getting to know other members of the community. My favorite part was the fact that after our morning run, I would be so proud of myself for getting out of bed and immediately accomplishing two really difficult things: running over 15 kilometers and practicing Japanese with native speakers.

I would really recommend this CIP to people who are willing to push themselves to the max. As a casual runner who would run maybe twice a month before doing this, this definitely would push me physically and mentally. However, even if running is not your thing, I would recommend any KCJS student to do a CIP that takes them out of their comfort zone and pushes them to their limits. Running, just like the process of learning Japanese, is something that is painful and difficult, but it is the fact that it is a challenge that makes the process worthwhile and satisfying.

Faith Li: Ikebana at Kadou Enshu

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My CIP activity is Ikebana–the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as  kadō. 

I’m taking lessons at Kado Enshu, a school which has locations in Marutamachi (group lessons), and Kitaoji (private lessons). A typical Ikebana lesson for me lasts around 1.5 hours, and consists of arranging my flowers (almost always in upright , moribana  style), with some suggestions from Sensei throughout the process, and then with some final tweaking from Sensei.

Here, I want to share the pros and cons of taking Ikebana lessons, as well as some advice:

Firstly, Ikebana is definitely one of the pricier CIP choices! I paid 30,000 yen (around $200 USD circa 2024) for 8 lessons per month. On top of this, I also paid a 2500 yen annual membership fee, and maybe around 30 USD for a kenzan  and flower scissors. KCJS is able to cover a portion of these fees, but there will still be a sizeable portion (well over $100 USD) left to pay. I believe that these prices are on the cheaper side as well!

Next, is the fact that you’re not going to get a lot of Japanese practice in–you’ll be silently arranging your flowers for the bulk of the session, and this is very much a solitary activity. This is especially true for me , since my Sensei speaks fluent English, so he often just spoke to me in English. If language immersion is a priority for you, I’d recommend something like volunteering with children.

Finally, like any traditional Japanese craft, Ikebana requires a lot of patience, and I ended up progressing slower than I expected. So, don’t expect to progress too rapidly, since it’s an art that’s meant to be perfected over one’s lifetime. Make sure that you’re sufficiently interested in Ikebana to be willing to do the same style of arrangements for pretty much 2 months straight!

If you’d like to pursue Ikebana, I highly suggest purchasing at least your own kenzan and scissors. As for the Ikebana vase, the actual Ikebana vases are quite expensive (hundreds! shudder), so I just use this random bowl that can fit a kenzan and some water. This way, once you bring your flowers home, rather then sticking them in some random vase, you can re-arrange them yourself at home. Kadou Enshu provides me with kenzan, flower bowls, and flowers while I’m practicing during class, but the only piece of my arrangement that I’m allowed to keep and bring home with me are the actual flowers.

Ultimately, I’m glad that I chose to pursue Ikebana, because it’s something that I wouldn’t have the chance to study in America (at least not without an exorbitant fee), and I would consider this a more transferable skill as far as traditional activites go (unlike something heavily ritualistic and intangible like Sado ), since I can certainly continue to make floral arrangements in the future as well. Also, it’s just a super Zen activity with a beautiful philosophy and history behind it!

Maxwell Maveus: Ikebana at Kadou-enshu

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I practiced ikebana (生け花), the art of traditional Japanese flower arrangement, at the Kadou-enshu school under the headmaster Ken Ichiju Ashida. I primarily created works under the moribana style, learning how to prune and shape plant materials, ikebana’s components (shin, hikae, gyo, do, and tome), and some of ikebana’s philosophical bases. 

I had been interested in ikebana before coming to KCJS, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to train under an ikebana master in Kyoto—let alone in private lessons in his home. My typical lesson consisted of 1.5 hours (that always sped by) of learning what each flower/plant he had for the day was, considering where everything should go, and placing the materials in the kenzan. The most invaluable component was the advice the headmaster gave me at the end of each session—he would carefully sit in front of my arrangement, make subtle changes while describing why he did them, and transform my amateur work into something beautiful. 

I advise all incoming students doing private lessons to acknowledge how kind most instructors are. I was scared to accidentally offend my headmaster by speaking up when I wanted to do something different than his arrangement chart he made for each lesson, but the whole time he encouraged me to do as I aesthetically saw fit! You will have so much more fun and grow closer with your CIP instructor if you aren’t afraid to be your (polite) self.

Nikolas Martin: Weaving

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 I did my CIP with Kawasaki-sensei, a renowned fiber artist in Kyoto, where he taught us how to weave in his studio. From scarves to mats, Kawasaki-sensei and his wife Yuri-sensei, taught us everything from the basics to more advanced techniques for weaving.

I spent ~5 hours a week with them learning how to weave and it was defintiely one of my highlights of being in Japan. Kawasaki-sensei and Yuri-sensei are probably two of the nicest people I have ever met; always showering us with compliments and spoiling us with snacks every time we went (they were indeed delicious!).

For anyone interested in weaving, textile, or fashion-related, DO THIS CIP!!! It taught me so much related to my field of interest while also being in a very supportive and comfortable environment. However, I do recommend anyone going into this CIP to do a little research into weaving related vocabulary in Japanese, as it makes those first few times easier and makes communication with the senseis smoother if they can understand what you are referring to or asking about. As I said, please do this CIP! And if you do, tell my senseis I said hi!

Jayden Fedoroff: Volunteering at Bazaar Cafe

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For my CIP, I volunteered at the Bazaar Cafe, which is right down the road from Doshisha University. The volunteer work consisted of primarily helping out in the kitchen. I would wash dishes, clean up the kitchen, and during down time, I would chat with the other volunteers and customers.

I thought that volunteering at the Bazaar Cafe was very fun! The volunteers and staff are incredibly friendly and the atmosphere was very laid back. Some of the days, the cafe was very busy, and during those times I had to wash a lot of dishes and there wasn’t as much time for chatting. However, when the cafe became less busy, I was often treated to a free lunch and I got to have some very nice conversations with the other volunteers.

I would highly recommend this CIP to students that really want to practice speaking casual Japanese (and Kansai-ben.) The volunteers are very laid back and kind, so they’re very easy to talk to. However, I would recommend also checking what the available times are for volunteering. I volunteered on Wednesdays from 12-2PM, which is when the cafe would occasionally become busy. If you would prefer a time that is less busy, I would recommend volunteering in the afternoons (around 2-4PM.) They are also very accommodating, so if you can’t come in during your usual time, if you let them know in advance, you can just come in the following week or reschedule for another time that week.

Noah Bell: Kyūdo Lessons

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A picture of me about to fire an arrow

For my CIP this semester, I had the opportunity to learn Kyūdo under Furuya Sensei at the Kyoto Budo center. For about 2 hours each week, we worked hard to learn the forms and etiquettes of Japanese traditional archery. Our lessons were conducted entirely in Japanese.

The experience was quite challenging at times, but super rewarding since you could see steady progress each week. On top of that, Furuya Sensei was super kind and had a good sense of humor. He was hard to understand at times, but he knew we were trying our best and would show how proud he was of our effort which made me feel super happy and grateful.

If you’re looking to learn Kyūdo, my advice would be to let yourself make mistakes because you are going to make a lot of them. There are so many practices that everyone around you will already know, so don’t feel embarrassed if you mess up or get corrected as it’s all part of the learning experience. Also, I would say to try not to worry too much about your success in hitting the target. KyÅ«do, like many Japanese traditional arts, is about form above all else. If you get the forms correct, accuracy will follow, not the other way around.

Bryan Wang: Yoshida Daycare

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I  had actually started out working at a cafe, but after a couple weeks I ended up switching to working at a daycare. I mostly just helped around the daycare and played with the kids, who were all super sweet. They were all very curious about me and American culture as well, so it was fun talking to them about that. One challenge I faced was communication. A lot of the kids spoke very quickly and with a lot of slang, so it was hard to understand them at times. But the kids were surprisingly patient with me and kindly explained what I did not know. The senseis I worked with were also very kind and accommodating and were happy to help with anything I had questions about. My biggest piece of advice is to not be afraid to ask questions. Even if you end up embarrassing yourself, you’ll inevitably learn something!