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What are called "clubs" back in the States are referred to as "circles" (サークル) in Japan. Also, they tend to be bit more intense than clubs in the US. For example, it's not uncommon for students in the US to be a member of many different clubs, but only attend some of the meetings at each of them. However, in Japan your circle is your social group, it's your commitment, so people tend to take attendance and participation to heart, and most tend to be members of only one, MAYBE two circles. That being said, one nice thing about the imma-foreigner-card is I'm pretty sure I don't have that same expectation of die-hard devotion.
So now that you know about circles, today I went to the juggling one. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but there is now one thing I know for sure: they are absolutely incredible. One of the mid-level members (from the looks of it) said that they are probably one of the best juggling groups in Japan. Let's just say that if you stack my juggling up next to them, I might as well be trying to use my feet. I figured snagging pictures on the first day might be a bit strange, but trust me, of every juggle-able object I've ever picked up, they can do more of them, more smoothly and with more tricks.
That being said, this means that I am going to return to the US as a new juggler. Of the roughly 30 people there today I met about 3 of them, but from those three I've already started learning how to do some tricks with two diabolos at once, and I can't wait to see where I'm at in a year. Juggling with them was much fun, and I'm definitely going to get a lot better, but I haven't juggled seriously for about 5 months and my hands could feel it (see figure below).
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| Diabolo Hand: Note red marks, which shall soon be callused |
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| Non-Diabolo Hand: Note mundane normalcy |
So why, you may ask, did I only meet 3 people today? To be completely, honest it was intimidating in there! Not only was everybody significantly better than any juggler I've ever met, but I also don't exactly know many Japanese words that apply to juggling (although I got by), so I didn't exactly barge into the middle of everything and start begging these masters to show me the way. That being said, the people I did meet seemed pretty cool. The first guy I met was a 3rd year student as well (三年生, as they say in Japanese), and the next person was also very friendly, and as it later turned out seems to be in some sort of position of power within the circle. The only other guy I met was the only other person being as quiet as me, and turns out he's a 1st year student (一年生), so we both kind of bonded over our awkward newness. Sort of. He is the fastest speaking Japanese person I have ever met (and potentially ever will meet), so I had some trouble figuring out what he was saying. Also, in his relative shyness he would put is hand close to his mouth every time he spoke, which wasn't helping. But we eventually got to talking a wee bit and he seems nice. Anyway, let's talk circle politics:
Another factor that added to the general intimidation at the beginning was a slightly observable presence of Senpai-Kouhai relationships (先輩ー後輩). This is basically the Japanese version of "I'm older and higher up than you", although here it's more of an implicit thing. Senpai = older (or veteran), Kouhai = younger (or rookie). You can notice in the language people use who is being more respectful to whom, and also by interactions, both group and individual, how different people of different status are perceived by other members within the group. In many ways this club would be a sociologist's dream. You can even notice subgroups within the organization. The diabolo-ers, the club jugglers, the ball jugglers - each with it's own subsequent members. And then me and the first-year, juggling on the outskirts. But hey, you can't climb the ladder in a day, and the fact that I'm on the older-end of the spectrum (as well as being able to claim ignorance) helps (I think).
Once practice was over (I was there doing diabolo for 3 hours straight), I just followed the flow of people outside where everybody began to congregate in an open-ish area. I don't know if this is a regular thing, but the girl that I met (the leader-y one) asked if I wanted to get formally introduced to the group. To translate it into English, my basic response was "uh uh uh uh uh sure?". Anyway, so I gave my little "hi I'm a study abroad student" intro and got the names of a couple more people (will I remember them, most likely not. I'm bad with names anyway, let alone Japanese names), and more importantly I think it placed me up a notch on the political ladder. All in all though, it was a lot of fun, I'm going to learn a lot, enjoy it, and definitely get a different view of student life in Japan
