My CIP was volunteering at the Kyoto Food Bank, sorting donated food into categories by type and expiration date to get the food ready to donate. There were also events that the food bank would participate in, like having a booth at a festival, taking and giving donations, and recruiting new volunteers. I was able to get to know people from many different backgrounds, as volunteering at the food bank is a great way to connect with the local community and feel like you’re making a difference. 

My advice to incoming students who want to do volunteer work or work with the Kyoto Food Bank would be to learn vocabulary that you think you might use while you’re working. For example, at the food bank, it’s important to know words like “expiration date” and the words for various foods that would be relevant and important for communicating with the other volunteers. Speaking of, it’s also important to take every opportunity you can to get to know the other volunteers and attend any special events that your volunteer work may offer! These events help give you a chance to get to know people more deeply and really engage with the community.

This semester I’m continuing to volunteer at the Elderly Activity Center. Similar to last semester, I go every Monday to help coordinate the 生きいきサロン. Most days I get ~20 minutes to lead a fun activity related to Chinese culture, but there are also days when I do more assistive work such as moving chairs, checking in on group activities, o just chatting with obachans. This semester I’m also taking advantage of my CIP to conduct independent research on aging in Japan, and I had the chance to talk more in-depth with several obachans participating in the 生きいきサロン. Partly because of that, I’m able to build deeper relationships at CIP and feel like I’m more welcomed and accepted there. I would highly recommend anyone interested in social work or working with elderly people to volunteer here. The staff are amazing and always supportive of my project, obachans are sweet and passionate about talking to young people, and the center seems to be pretty short of hand. For students who are not as nihongo jouzu yet, don’t be afraid of going out of your comfort zone, you will be surprised by welcoming and understandable people are. Even though talking to obachans with strong kansai accent felt so daunting initially, my mastery of the dialect has improved so much over the two semesters of interacting with them.

For my CIP I volunteered at a 児童館 (jidoukan) once a week. It’s like a daycare for children to go to after school, ranging in children from ages of like 6 to older elementary schoolers. As a volunteer I get to play with the children, and make sure nobody gets hurt.

 I greatly enjoyed my time here as a volunteer, every week I got to practice listening and talking as I played along with the children. I was surprised how much I could learn from them, one kid even taught me how to play shogi. Though at times it could very loud, and a lot of things may be difficult to understand. So I definitely recommend learning about the Kyoto dialect early on.

For those who are thinking about their CIP coming in, I would greatly recommend volunteering in a Jidoukan. The children are usually sweet and aren’t yet shy of foreigners and are in fact the opposite, greatly infatuated with how u look. And even if you can’t understand them or they can’t understand you at all times, they will still love talking to you. It’s perfect for those who may feel easily embarrassed about speaking mistakes, as the children don’t really care and there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. And for CIPs in general, the sky’s the limit. Go and find something you want to do or try something new.

Every Wednesday from 12 – 3 pm this semester, I traveled to Ōhara, Kyoto, to volunteer at a school (京都大原学院) as an English teacher. I got to eat lunch, give an American cultural presentation, play games, and participate in English lessons with the students there. The students ranged from 1st to 9th graders. Despite volunteering as an English teacher, I got plenty of opportunities to speak Japanese with the students and staff! 

The bus ride is about an hour from the KCJS campus, but the trip is worth it! The kids were always excited to see and talk with me, especially when they learned I could speak Japanese. The students truly wanted to know about me and what life is like where I am from.  I highly recommend this activity, especially if you want to improve your speaking and listening capabilities, are curious about how the Japanese education system works, or want genuine conversations and interactions with Japanese speakers. The first few weeks were difficult and kind of awkward because I was unfamiliar with the Japanese school system, and the kids were unfamiliar with me, so I ended up being the teacher who got lost often and nodded a lot, but by the end, I was able to communicate with the students effectively and hold conversations in Japanese with them, usually about cultural differences or shared interests like food or games. 

If you’re considering attending KCJS, my advice is to be patient with your CIP. Conversations might be slow (or non-existent) at first but don’t hesitate to ask for clarification and keep looking for common interests or experiences that you can connect with. I wasn’t perfect, but when I started this activity, I understood maybe 20% of what was said to me and ended it understanding around 60%. Even though it is not 100%, this increase is massive compared to what I could do back home and gave me plenty of enjoyable moments and memories with the students at Ōhara. 

This semester, I have been volunteering at the 上京老人福祉センター, participating in the weekly 生き生きサロン and leading mini-lessons related to Chinese language and culture. Initially, presenting in Japanese was quite intimidating, but everyone has been very tolerant of my mistakes. I’ve enjoyed my time at the salon and getting to know the obachans, and I hope to return there during the Spring semester.

For future students, I would suggest finding a CIP that truly interests you. It may take a bit of time to figure out what do you wanna do, but don’t hesitate to ask for help from sensei and others. Also, don’t let your Japanese skills deter you from pursuing your interests but have faith in yourself to learn and adapt.

My CIP was volunteer work at the Bazaar Café, which was mainly involved in me washing and drying dishes with other volunteers. Throughout, I was able to have a number of opportunities to speak with the other volunteers and gain some language practice.

         This CIP was enjoyable, as it gave me chances to meet and speak with Japanese people outside of the students I usually interacted with. As far as when I went in, it allowed for much more freedom than some of the other CIP activities, which was very convenient for me if I needed to change my schedule and go in on a different day than I normally would.

         I would recommend this CIP if you want to have relative schedule freedom and an activity that is very close to Doshisha. In addition, at this CIP or any other one, if you need help with anything or simply want to start a conversation, just ask a question. All of the other volunteers are very friendly and are happy to help you learn the ropes of what you need to do, and in my experience, they love talking about all sorts of topics, both having to do with themselves and asking questions about you and your studies.