At Demachi Salon, I led activities (Chinese, English, Ink painting, etc.) for a group of elders that come to this elderly care center. Throughout the 2 hour session, we would start with a casual chat while they do their daily health check ins, then I lead the activity of the day, we go on a virtual trip to places in Japan, daily exercise, and games at the end. I really had a lot of fun talking to the obaachans,and they were incredibly nice and warm to young people. The experience really made me appreciate the multigenerational connection. If you like interacting with or want to help elders, I think this would be the perfect place to practice your Japanese! But one advice would be to be aware that a lot of the elders speak Kansai dialect, which can make it hard to understand them at first.

For my CIP I commuted to Mitsuba Kindergarten once a week to help out at the kindergarten for about 2 hours (from 2-4). The kindergarten is a 10 minute walk away from Doshisha’s Imadegawa campus so it was really convenient location wise. The kindergarten is not very structured and my job was basically to facilitate the kids’ play time for 2 hours. I usually spent my time doing puzzles with them, or drawing with them—essentially anything the kids wanted to do. 

It’s a really tiring job but it’s plenty of fun if you like kids. The 3 year olds were more shy so I was mostly approached by the 5 year olds to play. I’d recommend this CIP if you enjoy spending time with kids! It’s definitely rewarding but a very draining experience. I don’t think I learned much Japanese from this CIP but I made a few enduring memories with some of the kids that I’ll treasure. They’re very friendly children and I was expecting to have to try very hard to connect with them but they actually approach you! It was gratifying watching some kids open themselves up to me over the course of my visits. 

My advice would be to think carefully about what you want to get out of your CIP before you make a decision! I did enjoy spending time at the kindergarten but I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. I didn’t learn a whole lot about Japanese culture or language from the CIP but I learned how kids minds’ work and how best to mediate their conflicts. I think you could transfer these skills to work at any kindergarten or institution with younger children.

This semester I volunteered at Happiness Kodomo Shokudou, a children’s cafeteria near Nishioji Station! Every Wednesday I would volunteer from 3-8 PM by preparing parts of that evening’s meal, serving food, cleaning, and keeping the children occupied.

No one at Happiness can speak English, so this was a great opportunity for me to be completely immersed in Japanese for almost my entire day. I enjoyed getting to know the other volunteers at the cafeteria, as well as getting the opportunity to attend additional activities like strawberry picking.

For incoming students, I would highly recommend making an effort to get to know the children quickly and early on. For those with whom I didn’t interact within the first week or two, it became very difficult to talk with them. Likewise, this CIP is loud and engaging, so be prepared to interact with many different types of people!

I was recommended Bazaar Café  by my classmate as my CIP. Of course, since I do not have a high cooking skill that could be compared to a professional chef, volunteering at Bazaar Café basically equals to helping around chores like washing dishes or ironing aprons. Yet, when the kitchen is not very busy, other volunteers or regular staff are very willing to teach me using some special kitchen tools or allowing me to do some side works while preparing the orders.

Clearly knowing how poor my keigo is, I was very nervous on my first day. Luckily, Bazaar Café is a place where everyone is here to support each other, and thus keigo is not something mandatory even when you are speaking with the manager. Regardless of that, I was still able to learn some nuances in workplace culture. For example, there is a co-volunteer, nice middle-aged lady, who always greets me with “おはようございます” even though I usually go to Bazaar Café around 3 pm. Then my friends, also my co-volunteers explained it to me that in Japanese workplace culture, one would always greet his or her co-workers with “おはようございます” when starting to work. Besides, sharing snacks or small souvenirs after a trip among co-volunteers is rather common as a way to build up the relationship.

In addition to my new findings of unique Japanese culture, meeting different kinds of people at Bazaar Café is my best memory within these several months. As some of us might have known, Bazaar Café is like a harbor for minorities, LGBTQ, foreigners, and immigrants. It is also the reason why on my first day of work, the manager suggested me to not ask some sensitive questions on personal background. I then struggled a while on how to get into the group without being sure about what are the topics that I could talk about. To my great surprise (in a good way), they accept me naturally by leading me through the things I could help around and inviting me to share food. After around three weeks, although my co-volunteers are still trying to memorize my name as I was struggling on writing down everyone’s name, I was settled in the kitchen as well as I know where I should put dishes back.

I haven’t mentioned the details of my conversations with these lovely people because it might involve a lot of personal information. Nevertheless, if there is one thing I have learned from this experience, it is how to communicate with your heart. I know it really sounds like preaching or those old talks, but to treat other people with respect and trying to help whatever is within one’s ability range is never a wrong thing to do.