Once a week I went to Mitsuba Kindergarten (separate from elementary school) for three hours in the afternoon for after school activities. As a volunteer I was a supervisor, but my role was mostly to play with the kids. It felt like I was back in kindergarten for a few hours every week, it was a lot of fun. For this CIP be ready for the kids to want to be picked up and always want piggy back rides.
This past semester for my CIP I did calligraphy every week. There were six of us who got together every Wednesday to sit down, do some calligraphy, and talk. Everyone in my class was so helpful in my progression every week and in understanding my limited Japanese abilities.
This CIP was an amazing opportunity to progress my language skills while making meaningful connections with local Japanese people. I left each lesson with a feeling of accomplishment and confidence. Occasionally, some of us will stay after class for 15 or so minutes and just talk about whatever is going on in our lives, which was really wholesome!
In terms of advice, I would recommend studying calligraphy-specific language so you can understand the instructions. I would also say that knowing stroke order is particularly important as well. That being said, my class was so accepting of my mistakes and helped me correct them. It is a great learning environment!
Sado, or tea ceremony, is a traditional part of the Japanese culture where beautifully coordinated movements are executed to not just serve matcha but also mentally pursuing the essence of the act. In my sado CIP this semester, I was able to learn a lot of the deeper meanings behind what is used during a tea ceremony depending on the seasons as well as successfully learning the way of a bon temae, or a tea ceremony on a tray.
We had our sado lessons every Tuesday for a couple hours in a very beautiful chashitsu with a view of a beautiful river underneath an old ryokan. Our sensei is a very experienced and elegant sado teacher with many years under her belt. She was so incredibly kind to us throughout the semester and we got to experience a hinamatsuri lunch followed by wagashi and matcha, a tea ceremony at Heian Shrine for the sakura season, as well as a hanami lunch under the beautiful sakura trees in Shiga-ken.
For any incoming students who is interested in learning sado, I encourage you to give it a try as it is something so different from anything I’ve ever done before. And because it is such a traditional part of the Japanese culture with so much history and different aspects to it, being able to experience it in the heart of Kyoto was a mind-opening experience.
For my CIP, I volunteered on a weekly basis at 深草幼稚園, (fukakusa yochien), a kindergarten near Fushimi-Inari. My tasks included playing games, drawing, and otherwise having fun with the kids, as well as preparing Japanese picture books to read and translate into English for them. Aside from just playing with the kids, we also got to teach them many English words, sing English songs, etc. to try and raise their English ability.
I really enjoyed this CIP. The kids are all incredibly cute, extremely nice, and very open. My only worry going into this volunteering program was that it would be difficult to connect with the kids, but that wasn’t true in the slightest. They are extremely excited about your presence, and will happily invite you to play games with them. The kids are very passionate and energetic, which definitely brightened up my days.
If you enjoy working with kids and want the opportunity to see how kindergartens in Japan work, I highly recommend volunteering here! The professors provide an excellent support system and are very clear about the rules. The opportunity to see the kindergartener’s gratitude was a pretty unbeatable feeling, so I’d strongly encourage new KCJS students to apply, even if they haven’t worked with kids before and are just curious!
Me and the other volunteers with the Yochien’s Senseis.
For myCIP project, I participated in volleyball circles for both the Fall and Spring semesters, In the Fall, I participated in two circles, called SANDLOT and L Volleyball, both of which are circles of the Doshisha University. In the Spring, I joined a new circle from Kyoto University of Molten Volleyball.
All three circles I was a part of had distinctive dynamics, and the level of skills also varied greatly. The two pictures below are from a tournament I participated in during the Fall semester and a regular practice session with the Molten Volleyball circle.
One advice from me would be to start conversations with new people actively. Japanese students are very friendly towards international students. However, they can be a little shy to start a conversation, so reach out to them and you will find that they are very easy and enjoyable to talk to.
My CIP activity was doing yoga every Friday or Thursday at Yoga Tamisa studio near Karasuma Oike station. I was instructed by Asako sensei and, usually, in the room in the attached picture (all in Japanese).
I really enjoyed the course because I always felt included and the more I went, the kinder I felt the staff became. It was very relaxing after a long week and I enjoyed having conversations with Asako sensei and other participants after sessions.
If you are someone that wants a CIP that’ll bring you tranquility, I strongly suggest participating in yoga because you won’t feel different from anyone else, participants range all skill levels, and everyone is extremely kind.
For my CIP, I joined the Kyoto University Judo Club and Enshin Dojo. At both of these clubs, I had a great experience and made a lot of new friends. As I already had been doing Judo in the U.S. for a couple of years, it was a great way to build on skills that I was already developing, while experiencing it in the place where it was invented. The two dojos were fairly different from each other: the university club held practices almost every day for two and a half hours and focused on newaza (ground techniques) more than tachiwaza (standing techniques). Meanwhile, Enshin dojo held practices twice a week and had people of all ages participating. Even for me as someone who is really passionate about judo, the Kyoto University team was a lot, and if I had continued attending the practices at the same pace throughout the semester that I was at the beginning, my whole experience in Japan would have consisted of judo. I really do feel that I got to make some meaningful relationships through the sport/martial art, and I’m certain that my Japanese improved greatly as a result. I’m really glad I had the chance to practice judo in Japan, and if you would like to as well, I would definitely recommend Enshin Dojo!
In my CIP, I participated in the Klexon English Speaking Circle, a college student and adult circle of Japanese people who want to practice and learn more English, and foreigners who would like to help, or make new friends.
As I will be working as an English teacher in Japan after the program ends, I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice teaching English, and speaking in a way that is more conducive to learning and understanding. In my time at Klexon, I gradually noticed myself varying my speech complexity and speed for different participants based on their levels that I had gotten used to, and I also was happy to see great improvement over the year in their own English capabilities!
My advice for incoming KCJS participants would be to pick something that is related to what you are passionate about for your CIP, and keep an open mind. If you just leave your CIP after the required hours, or don’t participate in the extra social activities that may happen with members outside normal meetings, you could end up missing the opportunity to meet people who are as passionate as you, and make friendships that will last long after the program ends.
I volunteered at Happiness Children’s Cafeteria this semester. Every Wednesday I would help serve free meals to local children. The nonprofit also runs a cafe and does study sessions for the students on Mondays.
Volunteers would set up, serve food, eat and play with the kids, and clean up. There was essentially no English spoken, so I was able to practice my Japanese, too.
Advice: Try to help as much as possible. I found that they didn’t usually tell me what to do, so I had to be proactive in offering.
My CIP this semester has been at Taiwa’s La Carriere culinary school in Kyoto. La Carriere offers a variety of lessons (including dessert and baking tutorials), although I largely participated in group introductory cooking lessons conducted in Japanese.
La Carriere was a blast – it was calming and fun cooking and learning to make different kinds of dishes (and eating the product of our hard work felt so redeeming). It was a bit tricky to keep up with the Japanese lessons at times, but the teachers were understanding and helped us keep pace.
I would advise new students to not be afraid to try activities that look intimidating. I would also say it’s important to keep your expectations realistic when choosing your CIP activity. I expected the CIP of a cooking lesson to be an incredibly social place where I could meet new friends, but as it turns out the fast-paced environment of an instructor-led lesson isn’t the best place for that. Nonetheless, I had a great experience and a blast at La Carriere.