Ethnography: Japanese Leisure Activities

I'm glad we had extra readings (& the internet), because the Nakama pages raised a lot of questions - such as "what exactly constitutes a culture club* (ie is it traditional Japanese culture only, like calligraphy, flower arranging, etc, or does it include other arts and activities?).

I also wondered if the students at university that cited a benefit was "more free time" were comparing it to their last year at high school or to their lives if they had gone straight into the labour force (& as an avid reader (when I have time), it should be noted that the last category in the chart, "more reading time", & "more free time" are synonymous ;)).

I also wondered if those part time jobs were a bit like many college students in the US looking for internships & if they would help them with finding a place in the workforce when they are finishing college, or if they are solely for extra finances - or perhaps a combination, not an internship, but will demonstrate that the person has done work and therefore understands turning up on time and responsibility a bit more than a club/circle membership might.

I also was wondering at the volunteer activities - if this is the traditional Japanese volunteering, where an envelope of money is provided at the end, or the new volunteering introduced with the Olympic events that sensei had to help train people about, where you do not get paid for volunteering... I haven't found any more information on that yet.

I was at a leaving meal on Friday for a JCCC student who is about to go to Japan to study abroad for 5 months, so I copied and pasted one of the lines from the what are clubs and circles extra pages (https://univinjapan.com/bukatsu/part03.html) and sent it to him - he didn't seem to believe some of the older members of the group when they told him that there would be people quite happy to take him to onsen & maybe other places too -  "Among cultural clubs, there are international society groups that promote friendship between Japanese and international students. They usually organize parties to help students mingle and events where Japanese students guide international students around tourist spots in Japan." So that was a timely piece of reading.

I enjoyed watching the provided videos, although the third was private and unavailable.  The video with the giant club/circle fair was interesting and reminded me strongly  of the gauntlet of clubs that you had to run in freshers' week in the UK to get out of the registration hall with your new student ID & your schedule for the first term...  I'm not sure why she was amazed and surprised at the students queueing up to put their tables away at the end.  You tidy up after yourself.  But then, I am from England where queuing is nearly the national sport...

I only joined three clubs at my first university - I was at UCNW/CPCG (University College of North Wales/Colleg Prifysgol Cymru Gogledd) which is at Bangor in North Wales (& checking the spelling of the welsh name version, I have discovered that it has been renamed to Bangor University, since 2007... One was MethSoc (methodist society - it was highly recommended to me by someone at my home church as a good source of free food), one was the scuba club (I had wanted to learn to dive for ages and this was a really cheap and convenient way to do so, and dovetailed nicely with my marine biology degree too) & the last one, I rather fell into by accident - I was at one of the regular concerts that happened at the student union, and I think there were three different visiting bands on that night, and I had been chatting to the lass running the merch shop most of the night, so at the end, I just naturally started to help her pack up, and then carried on helping, and then got dragged to one of the (now closed) union bars (we had 3, including one in the basement so you didn't have to walk too far from the washing machines or baths to get a pint.  Very civilised). And discovered that by helping out like that, I was now a member of stage crew, which gave free tickets to events and three free drinks for each event I helped with (plus the inaugural pint which everyone donated some to and had to be consumed standing on a rickety milk crate in a down in one.  My time, despite the adverse conditions (in addition to the wobbly crate, some people had added ice to the mix, though nothing worse, I had been watching carefully) was 7 seconds, which apparently is equal to my father's best time.   What can I say?  It's a gift.).  Even after I started rock climbing and mountaineering, I didn't join the BUMS (Bangor University Mountaineering Society), because I already had mountaineering friends to hang out and climb with. I also ended up playing bridge every Saturday night with the people in the rooms round mine in halls of residence & some of their friends.  That used to last till stupid o'clock, but the next day was Sunday, so who cared? :D  Friday  nights I used to hang out with some other friends, and watch really bad late night tv till 2 or 3 am - which included American Gladiator & Legend of the Three Kings, a dubbed version of an anime show, which was the first anime I saw that I knew was anime... as opposed to the dubbed G Force in the 70s which was actually Gatchaman :D.  There was no anime club at Bangor then (& maybe still***), but we didn't miss a Friday :D.

But at freshers' week, there was a long long row of tables with associations represented, and all trying to get fresh blood to sign up.  You could come away with enough leaflets to equal the weight of several text books if you weren't careful. You would still see the lists, the gauntlet to run in the second and third years, but they knew you were a lost cause by then, and you were wise to what was happening by then.

The interesting thing there is that at high school we were all told that we needed to be diverse and interesting people, with lots of activities so that it would look good on our college application forms.  Nothing like that was ever told to us at University (even if any of us actually visited the career advice person before the last week of the course in desperation ;)), so if anyone joined a club, it was all because we were interested in doing that activity for its own sake (& maybe for free booze, in the case of the stage crew or free food in meth soc ;)).  I think that's rather nice for the clubs - people are there to enjoy the activity not to be seen to be there and put it on a resume.  If someone is enthusing about a topic, they know the person listening is actually interested rather than ticking a box on their application for diversity of interests or well rounded human being.

That's apparently a strong contrast to Japan, where college extra-curricular activities weigh heavily into hiring decisions... I suppose if you have people with equal degrees, all with a perfect grade/the  same grade, you need some other way to differentiate between them, and randomly checking interests and just how they seem at the interview could lead to a lot of interviews.  The extra-curricular activities (or recommendations from the extra-curricular club leaders) may help winnow things down/shift things in your favour. Speaking of which, Warren from the Nijikaiwa group said he could email 先生 and tell her that I had been attending meetings regularly if I needed him to for extra credit... I started going about 2 weeks before the course started & have been joining after class each Thursday except last week.

I know very little about US college life**, other than seeing the March Madness stuff on TV every year (& the virtual league events online run at work for some extra fun/morale events that don't cost anything - I came second in that one year and got a little trophy despite knowing virtually 0 about basketball & the various colleges ;) :D).

They have intercollege competitions in the UK too, and they give scholarships for the people selected for the team/good prospects - a friend got one to St Andrews for hockey (field hockey that is - the other hockey barely exists in the UK.  If you say hockey there, everyone will think of field hockey, not the ice form). Scholarships are less necessary in the UK (or used to be), because of the paid tuition & means tested grants available from the government.  Over the last few decades, that has been steadily eroded though.  But no one in the UK really pays any attention to the college sports competitions, except for the participants - it isn't televised, and I believe most people for things like league football (soccer) are recruited direct from high school, not from university. 

I think I was in my third year at my first college before I discovered that we had school colours & you could get a scarf with them on it... (it was in a corner of the student union gift shop, in the back behind all the other much more interesting things, like chocolate or bath plugs that fit the student union baths (you have to have your own plug, but the baths are free then - it was very civilised - you could drop your dirty clothes in the washing machine****, go down the corridor to the bar and get a pint of beer, come back and have a bath, and when you got out, both you and your clothes were clean... and you could have another pint while they dried, or save the money and lug a large backpack of wet clothes back up the hill to your house to drape on a clotheshorses and try to dry them for free)).  

As for JCCC, they have good/cheap/free gym access for students & they used to have both a credit & continuing education fencing program, but I'm not aware of any associated clubs that people could join to encourage practice in their own time.  I don't know if there are any clubs associated with the other sports that use the facilities.  I did pick up a leaflet about student activities when I was at the library one time, but nothing much seems to happen over the summer semester... all the leaflet does is point you to the right website anyway, which is https://jccc.campuslabs.com/engage/

And I want to put a comment in here that I made on Ebeling-san's blog post on this so I won't forget it - I think that the US spends too much money, time, and attention on sports in education, and on particular, specific sports.  There are other clubs at schools over here (according to friends), but they barely get any attention or funding, and thanks to the way the education system is set up & the universal fixation on those same few sports, most people's best chance of a scholarship is through a sports scholarship, which doesn't encourage the variety, or the well-rounded development of a person.
https://ebelingej1s2022.blogspot.com/2022/07/ethnography-japanese-leisure-activities.html?sc=1658947340975#c640606366652138238 

* and listening to Boy George whine that he used to be cool is not the answer... 

** despite being enrolled at one now...

*** Yes, I know my footnotes are out of order, but I had to go back and admit that since typing that, I have gone to the website and found that they have at least 2 anime societies, and there's also a specific Disney society too.  Lots of the societies that I knew have ceased to exist, and lots of new ones have sprung up - for instance, there's K Dragons, for kpop interests (& it's a welsh dragon in the logo, not an Asian one ;)).

**** the washing machines at he student union were the same price as the ones at the halls of residence & cheaper than laundromats, and unlike the ones at the halls of residence, the water actually got hot, and they got the clothes clean, instead of greyish... As for the baths, it didn't hit our gas bill & I didn't have to compete for bathroom access in a house with one bathroom and four occupants to have a decent length bath with enough hot water...