Japanese Club Meeting

I still got jetlag.. I'm awake and need to do something! Anyways...my first free day without guides nor a set schedule, except for the meeting in the morning that is. I run down to the local "Family Mart" one of those Japanese convenience stores about a 3 minute walk away from the dorms to grab 3 rice balls; 2 for breakfast and 1 for a snack. I meet up with Sergio and we hop on the bus and are on our way to meet up with Momo who is going to take us to the meeting.

The meeting was very interesting; actually I was amazed. The group leader is quite revered (not in the Kim jong-il sense). The leader arrived at the meeting a little late and the students broke into a cheer and excitement as he arrived (especially from the girls); almost as if he was a celebrity. The second one arrives and he gets the same reaction I get the feeling that the students of this club are quite tight together.

We head into a meeting room, one with tables arranged into a large rectangle. The 2 leaders sit at the head and the rest of us file down along and grab a seat. The meeting starts with introductions from the international students.
We stand up tell them our names and then say a short blurb about ourselves. The leaders do the same and in the interest of time (there were 30 students at the meeting) we skip the rest of the introductions and get on with the meeting (note: 30 students came out to a meeting on a SATURDAY!).

The meetings run in Japan are done similarly to the student meetings I have seen while I was an undergrad in university. The leaders would direct the meeting with a few opening remarks and then pass control over to each student to report in on what they've been doing. The one big difference I noticed at this meeting is that the Japanese students are very emphatic. They would say things like "I did [etc etc] and it was very hard but I got the job done" or something like "I met up with the international students and did [etc etc] and they seemed to have a good time" or something to that effect; they seem to like using many positive qualifiers in addition to what they have to report. About an hour pass after the students report in (lots of reporting in to do) and then we move into a Japanese style meeting room (we sit on the floor).

getting into the room
sitting down

The second half of the meeting comprised mainly of planning. They had a lot on their plate to do. The new term was starting meaning they had to organize student drives, international student events, pamphlet production and more. I was very amazed to see how active these students are. When asked when they had spare time to run events over a series of 6 days, it was amazingly easy to get 5~6 volunteers to every event. I remember in most of the meetings I used to sit at, work would be distributed to people instead of the other way around. They are also very attentive too when it comes to listening to each other. During the entire meeting, although there were people talking in the background, not once did we have to tell other people to simmer down.

The other things I noticed about the Japanese students is that they are very energetic and they laugh, a lot! Every 5~8 minutes the entire entourage would end up in some kind of group laugh after something funny happens or is said; they are quite comical. Sergio, who studied public health in his own country in Nicaragua tells me that this is exceptionally healthy (perhaps this is one of the secrets behind their longevity?).

I take up a small assignment from the club to help them communicate to the international students. I'll be acting as translator to help them direct events in English for people that can't understand what they're saying in Japanese. Although we have an international group of students (many who I have not had the chance to meet in depth so far) it seems that the common language denominator which everyone has studied to some degree is English.

The meeting ends after 2 hours and the students stick around for another hour to hang out and chit-chat. For a while... the meeting was quite amazing; 2 straight hours and nobody was worn down. I have a few new friends that want to contact me via e-mail! Damn it.. I need an internet connection in my room and that's going to take me 2~3 weeks for the internet company to install.