The JYC Blog - October

In October, the Japan Youth Collective focused on Communications.

For the first Catch-up session, the Collective visited The Embassy of Japan in the UK. They were tasked with finding out about cross-cultural communication and the UK-Japan relationship. Staff at the Embassy introduced their activities, answered questions from our curious Collective and hosted cultural workshops as a taster of the Club Taishikan activities the Embassy runs for schools; participants tried both Japanese calligraphy and yosakoi folk dance - dokoisho!  

During the Japan Lab in October, participants worked on expressing themselves effectively with The Speakers Trust. Many participants had identified this as a skill they wanted to improve so The Japan Society was pleased to see everyone challenging themselves and giving it their all. At the end of the session, everyone gave a presentation in front of the whole group reflecting on their experience of the Japan Youth Collective programme so far.   

Otsukare sama deshita (お疲れ様でした, ‘thank you for all your hard work’) to all our Collective participants!  See you next month!

JYC Members' Voices

October Reflection by Lyra 

In the first catch-up session we visited the Japanese Embassy which was a super exciting opportunity. We had an amazing talk about Japan and their connections to the UK from Dipika who works at the Embassy and afterwards got to ask her and her colleagues questions. I found it really interesting hearing more from a person who moved from England to Japan and how they found it, as well as hearing from people who have recently moved from Japan to England and how they've found it here. 

We then did two cultural workshops that were both completely new things to me. The first was calligraphy; we got to use the proper equipment and learn how to write a few kanji. It was both fun and relaxing as well as hobby and I would definitely be interested in trying again.  

The second was yosakoi, it was very different from the relaxing calligraphy and was very active and energetic, but I found it equally fun. I think all the movement and activity was a really good finish to the day.  
 
At the next session, we worked with someone from Speakers Trust on our communicating skills. It was a big learning experience for me and surprisingly fun. I was really impressed by Hilary. She was charming and engaging, and I could easily pick up the things she taught us. 

We did a lot of small activities but one that really helped me was learning to give a short introduction of ourselves to the group. I was quite nervous, but we got a lot of praise and feedback which really helped. We also learnt how to tell a good story or make a good point while keeping the audience engaged which I think is a really great thing to learn. Overall, I learnt skills I will definitely be using in the future and feel much more secure when doing public speaking or even interviews. 

October Reflection by Prince

In October’s JYC session we had the opportunity to do a workshop with Speaker’s Trust to help us develop our public speaking skills. During the workshop, we learnt about how to be confident and firm, and to be engaging with our audience while speaking with clarity – I remember initially thinking that this was a real step outside of my comfort zone. However, as we continued into the workshop, I learnt that I should just be myself and speak from the heart, and to get good at anything and make progress, I just need to practice more! This workshop was extremely helpful at developing this core skill which will help us with our final project as well as other endeavours we get up to later in life. 

October Meet Up by Hana 

Aside from attending official sessions at The Japan Society, we got the opportunity to have a little meet up at Café Bar Nécco for Halloween! The food was incredible and there was a comfortable ambiance. It was lovely to meet up with everyone outside of the JYC sessions, dress up and have fun - definitely a date to remember! 

October Meet Up by Ratna

On the 26th of October, we all met up outside of our Collective hours. We went to Café Bar Nécco and took part in their Halloween costume contest. The Japan Society kindly paid for our drinks and snacks, which shows how courteous they are.