When I first attended one of Nagare Parkour\u2019s training sessions, from the moment I stepped out of the station and saw everyone gathering in the park, I immediately felt like part of the group. Since the atmosphere was so much like that of my club back in Ann Arbor, I was able to feel at home. I think that friendly and open atmosphere kind of inherent in the attitude of traceurs (practitioners of parkour), as well as my attitude toward parkour. I attented a few jams, or large parkour gatherings. There were so many people that it was hard to memorize anyone\u2019s name. At the second jam, one of the guys shared that sentiment and said something along the lines of, \u201cisn\u2019t it enough [for now] that we remembered each other\u2019s faces?\u201d That made all my nervousness about names vanish. The parkour world is full of some of the strangest and friendliest people in the world. I realized that\u2019s no different here in Japan than anywhere else. Everyone attends to learn, to grow and to enjoy the atmosphere and each other\u2019s company. I\u2019m really glad that I was able to find a group, to continue practicing parkour with while I\u2019m here in Japan.<\/p>\n
Recently, I\u2019ve mostly been training apart from the group with a friend that I made at the first jam. That relationship is probably the most equal of the friendships that I\u2019ve made through the community involvement project (CIP). Even though I taught\/ran the last couple training sessions we had, I\u2019m learning just as much as I\u2019m teaching. Being able to speak both English and Japanese, or the fact that each of us is learning the other\u2019s language is a huge asset. It makes it a lot easier to share experiences, terminology, and ideas. We\u2019ve even had the chance to chat via Skype a few times with another fellow traceur from Hokkaido.<\/p>\n
As for the Kitanotenmangu Taiko Group, I feel like an honorary member. While that\u2019s a good feeling, I think I could describe it as a very \u201cfor the time being\u201d kind of feeling. They\u2019ve been so kind to the three of us (I attend Taiko practices with two other KCJS students), so much to the point where I feel that sometimes they are over-accommodating. There are times where the leader will go out of his way to explain things in English without even trying to speak Japanese. There are some points that make it hard to feel like a true member though. The most difficult of those points is the fact that the group meetings are so infrequent that it\u2019s hard to feel like we are really contributing or learning very much. I still have yet to learn everyone\u2019s name. In addition, I actually haven\u2019t learned very much about how to play Taiko, since the practices are for the most part run follow-the-leader style. All that being said, I\u2019m looking forward to next semester. With every practice, we become a little bit more a part of the group. It\u2019s not much, but every practice we help set and put away the drums, and I might go as far as to say that until this week, in that alone did I feel like an active member of the group.<\/p>\n
This past weekend, Miao and I went to Kitanotenmangu to cheer on the group at one of their performances for the Fall Festival. We half-jokingly asked (in Japanese of course), \u201cWe\u2019re not going to perform, right?\u201d Well, to our surprise, they said, \u201cOf course, we\u2019re going to have you play the songs you memorized.\u201d I think we were both half in despair and half laughing at the hilarity of the situation. Up until that point, we hadn\u2019t even put the proper names together with the pieces which we had haphazardly memorized. I thought it was going to be a disaster. It turned out to be a great time and an experience that I will probably not find anywhere else (except in the next two performances in the coming weeks). They lent us all the performance gear, from happi to hachimaki and even took us up into the main part of the temple for the preperformance prayer. To have us perform the little that we knew somehow demonstrated just how much confidence in us and\/or willingness to include us that the group had. And it felt good.<\/p>\n
Overall, the CIP aspect of KCJS has been a very good experience so far. Ideally, the groups would meet more frequently, but as it is, I\u2019m still gaining a lot and I think there is potential for me to give back much more in the coming semester. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I first attended one of Nagare Parkour\u2019s training sessions, from the moment I stepped out of the station … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080