{"id":8859,"date":"2018-11-22T12:16:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T03:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/?p=8859"},"modified":"2018-11-22T12:16:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T03:16:11","slug":"__trashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/2018\/11\/22\/__trashed","title":{"rendered":"Gina Goosby: Bazaar Caf\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

While searching for a CIP, I was recommended Bazaar Caf\u00e9 by an alumna. It seemed to tick all the boxes: people-focused, near to campus, and intentionally inclusive. Actually volunteering there proved all those things true. My volunteer time comes after the lunch rush, so I\u2019ve seen a whopping six orders leave the kitchen during my time at Bazaar Caf\u00e9. This is not, in fact, a bad thing: I have more time to talk to and get to know my co-volunteers. On my first day, everyone introduced themselves to me with varying levels of additional info about where they\u2019re from, their relationship with the caf\u00e9, and so on. I was wringing my hands over remembering all the names and not forgetting keigo<\/em>, but I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s no problem.<\/p>\n

Maybe it sounds a bit strange to say some of my best memories so far involve me halfway to my elbows in dishwater. Maybe it\u2019s even stranger if I say that washing dishes was part of the fun. But it\u2019s the truth! The conversations I\u2019ve had over the sink at Bazaar have ranged from heartbreaking to uplifting to hilarious. Through my fellow volunteers I have learned about the state of queer persons in Japan and the infrastructure for mental healthcare. One of my co-volunteers feels that Japanese media tends to \u201cother\u201d queer persons quite brazenly. I\u2019m certain that mindset is common in the States, too, but according to that person, the opinion that sexual and gender minorities are fundamentally different from the rest of society is normal even among younger people. For persons with mental illnesses or disabilities, support varies. There is a solid effort being made to integrate the disabled into society by finding them meaningful work opportunities. However, social stigma around mental health issues like depression as well as addictions is still far too high. While learning about these sorts of differences can be somewhat disheartening, such insights into Japanese society are valuable in better understanding the country I am in and whether I would choose to live here long-term.<\/p>\n

Aside from the big stuff, there were plenty of smaller day-to-day things I learned to. Regarding politeness, for example, on my second day, I was struggling to speak in keigo when someone told me just to chill out. That is not to say that speech registers are not important \u2014 there\u2019s a time and a place for keigo, but it\u2019s not to people you work alongside every week and come to regard as friends. Of course, I\u2019ll still use polite form with certain stock phrases, but for the most part I am learning to match the speech register of my partner (no thanks to my textbook!). For cultivating personal relationships, going with the flow will take you a long way.<\/p>\n

Bazaar Caf\u00e9 is always one of the highlights of my week, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go there for my CIP. Whether or not it\u2019s my official CIP next semester, you can bet I\u2019ll be there often!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While searching for a CIP, I was recommended Bazaar Caf\u00e9 by an alumna. It seemed to tick all the boxes: people … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080 →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":464,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_locale":"ja","_original_post":"8859"},"categories":[158,54,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}