This semester, I chose to participate in 2 activities, both sports related: kendo and
\ntennis.<\/p>\n
My experiences with these two activities were mixed. Firstly, as a member of the
\nHarvard Kendo club, I sought to continue practicing while in Japan, especially as
\nlearning kendo in Japan is such a great opportunity. In fact, before the program,
\nI was attending our annual kendo gasshuku near Nagasaki. As a consequence of
\nmy existing kendo connection, an acquaintance was able to introduce me to Kyoto
\nUniversity\u2019s kendo club. It was a great experience to be able to spar with the Kyodai
\nclub members, but also very frustrating. As the official kendo club, most of the
\nstudents had started kendo as elementary schoolers and were thus extremely good.
\nWhile I feel like I learned a lot by observing and sparring with these high-leveled
\nstudents, because they had so much experience practices focused more on sparring
\nand less on teaching techniques. However, like many people in my home kendo club,
\nI only started kendo 2 years ago and thus I need to work on everything from basic
\nstrokes to complicated techniques (waza). I also find that personally, I am more
\nrelaxed when playing someone of about the same skill level. In this respect, if I could
\ndo this again, joining a private dojo for individualized attention probably would
\nhave been better than Kyodai\u2019s club.<\/p>\n
I feel like this negatively impacted my ability to interact with members of the club, because I felt awkward being at such a different level of kendo than them, and in a situation where I felt like I was impeding on their practice. Also, the members of the kendo club used very polite language when talking to me, I felt like there was distance between us. This is completely different than my experiences in the Harvard kendo club, where I feel very relaxed. Part of my problems in interacting with the kendo club were probably also that I didn’t have time usually afterwards to go out to eat with them, and unfortunately, I suppose I kind of sunk back into the woodwork after a while. While I like to talk to people, I’m not outgoing enough to get myself into the fold without someone there willing to help.<\/p>\n
My second activity was one of Kyodai\u2019s hard tennis circles, Whiteline. I had played
\ntennis all throughout highschool, but I stopped after entering college. I found
\nthis experience valuable in attending practices, but since the circle is not very
\ncompetitive, I feel like people of all levels could go. However, even with previous
\ntennis experience, I still have a hard time because Japanese tennis courts are
\ndifferent. While the vast majority of courts in the United States are hard courts, most
\ncourts that I\u2019ve seen so far in Japan are soft courts with a carpet-like texture. While
\nI\u2019m not positive, I believe this type of court definitely changes the feeling of the ball.
\nAlthough many other students may say that being in sports doesn\u2019t allow them
\nmuch time to socialize with their Japanese peers, but Whiteline is very conducive
\nto conversation. In Japanese tennis circles, the 40 odd people who show up are all
\nsqueezed inside 1 or 2 courts, so there\u2019s always a side doing the drill and the side
\nleisurely picking up balls. In these court change times I often talk to the other\u00a03rd years. Overall, the tennis circle was much more sociable to me than the kendo club, but I could tell that the 1st years and 2nd years didn’t feel comfortable talking to me as I was their “senpai” when actually I didn’t really care.<\/p>\n
However, I really enjoyed my interactions with the other 3rd years, and in fact, I recently went to a nomikai with 30 of Whiteline\u2019s third year\u00a0students and met a lot more people. A combination of factors led to this CIP activity being a success: a more open atmosphere, me being at a closer tennis level to the circle members, lots of time to talk, and the willingness of the Kyodai 3rd years to introduce themselves and arrange a nomikai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This semester, I chose to participate in 2 activities, both sports related: kendo and tennis. My experiences w … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080