My CIP work with \u306b\u3053\u306b\u3053\u30c8\u30de\u30c8 has been extremely rewarding.\u00a0 I\u2019ve volunteered at a hospital back home, but my work at Kyoto University Hospital has given much greater opportunity to interact one-on-one with young patients.\u00a0 Everyone involved in the program \u2013 a group largely composed of older Kyoto women \u2013 is remarkably devoted, spending multiple hours every week preparing and putting on any number of activities.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve noticed that the overall environment is warm and relaxed without sacrificing productivity.\u00a0 Everyone busily chats about their family, hobbies, and hometowns as they work diligently on things for the next week.\u00a0 Recently we\u2019ve been working on decorations for the New Year, but in the past we\u2019ve made Halloween treat bags and Christmas-themed treats.<\/p>\n
Still, I found myself wondering why these women, who could be doing any number of things with their time, continue to devote themselves so unfalteringly to the program.\u00a0 As I spoke with them formally for class, listened to their usual conversations, and did research into the program\u2019s history, it became clear to me that the reason many of these women continue to volunteer stems from desire to help the suffering families of the hospitalized children.<\/p>\n
In fact, many of these women\u2019s own children were at one time hospitalized at Kyoto University Hospital.\u00a0 Because of this, I think they are intimately familiar with the pain and worry that a family with a sick child suffers.\u00a0 Rather than move away from their own painful memories from the hospital, the women return every week to help total strangers.\u00a0 In a newspaper article I found about the group, the author reprinted a letter sent to \u306b\u3053\u30c8\u30de by a parent whose young daughter had passed away during her hospitalization.\u00a0 Though she suffered terribly, \u306b\u3053\u30c8\u30dewas able to give her a little bit of fun and happiness.\u00a0 For that, the family expressed deep gratitude.\u00a0 Seeing those words, I felt like all the afternoons I raced from class on my bike to make it to the hospital on time were totally worth it.<\/p>\n
Above all, what I\u2019ve enjoyed most about my time with \u306b\u3053\u30c8\u30de is the fact that nothing marks it as exclusively \u201cJapanese\u201d.\u00a0 I think many of us have grown up with American films and television shows that, while not necessarily belittling Japan, offer a largely static image of this country.<\/p>\n
What I mean is, that when I talk to friends back home about my time here, they often rely on their knowledge of characters like Mister Miyagi from The Character Kid<\/i> as a crutch in trying to understand Japanese culture.\u00a0 I would be lying if growing up with these kinds of images hadn\u2019t quietly influenced my own assumptions about what \u201ccommunity involvement\u201d here would look like as well.<\/p>\n
In a certain way, I think I allowed these American images of stoic, polite, and ultimately traditionalist characters color what I expected of the people I\u2019d be volunteering alongside.\u00a0 Given my limited experience with Japan prior to coming to Kyoto, I might have expected terms like \u548c, \u7518\u3048, or \u5efa\u524d somehow made their way into my day to day volunteer conversations.\u00a0 After all, cultural products like The Karate Kid<\/i> teach us that Japanese people, in their alien cultural sagacity, only speak to foreigners in metaphor: the cherry blossom is a human life, a sweet karate kick is a crescent moon.<\/p>\n
Of course, these stereotypes didn\u2019t hold true.\u00a0 The people I met through \u306b\u3053\u30c8\u30de weren\u2019t interested in talking about tea ceremony or how to show your true heart through origiami.\u00a0 Rather, through volunteering at Kyoto University Hospital I came to realize something that was ultimately far more comforting than one of Mr. Miyagi\u2019s sermons.\u00a0 That is, it doesn\u2019t matter where you go \u2013 five minutes away from Amherst or halfway around the globe \u2013 good people are good people.\u00a0 Despite all of our cultural differences, language difficulties, and painful histories, we can still connect through our basic human desire to help others, to realize our good will through action together.\u00a0 The extremely foreign becomes remarkably accessible when you realize that in the end, we are all human.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My CIP work with \u306b\u3053\u306b\u3053\u30c8\u30de\u30c8 has been extremely rewarding.\u00a0 I\u2019ve volunteered at a hospital back home, but my work … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080