Sports + Club Showcase

There are over 200 clubs in Senshu University, such as 茶道（さどう）, 弓道（きゅうどう）, and 書道（しょどう）. This week's entry will have a focus on sports and their associated サークル (known more as 部活 (ぶかつ). 部活（ぶかつ）and  サークル is slightly different, with 部活 bringing more of a focus to sports or physical activity.  Baseball and soccer are a huge sports in Japan, and we hvae heard Senshu university has a strong team. (explainable as we see them practicing hard almost every time we pass by the practice fields). There are 45 sports clubs that do activities such as hiking, cycling, skiing, judo, karate, bowling. It seems there is much more variety here compared to the University of Calgary's recreational sports clubs.

We attended a sports taikai run by the resident partners today. All the games we did were relay and team style, and we really felt the communal atmosphere that is especially strong in Japan. There were games such as flag snatching and relays with three-legged races and zockeying (cleaning the floor with a towel. It looked harder than it seemed. )



This event was really fun, and we experienced the sports festival experience. We should do the same thing in Canada for team building and such.

After living together with Japanese students for over a week, we have come to know a student who is in the kyudo（ 弓道） club, We sat and talked with her to know more about this club.

Kyudo is a standardized traditional art practiced to train the spirit and the mind. Archery developed at around 250 BC around the same point the first Japanese bow was invented. Bows transformed from hunting bows to a way to develop personally in about the seventeenth century (from kyujitsu to kyudo).

Here is the information we obtained from our short interview of person A (name not disclosed for privacy reasons). She said she joined the club in the beginning of high school, and the kyudo club looked especially cool.  She is now a second year in Senshu university's kyudo bukatsu. The club hold practices five days a week. There are four types of practices: shiai (practice for upcoming matches), shihan (where the teacher comes in a teaches techniques to the club), free practice (people can practice whatever they want), and shinsa renshu (tests). The tournament period is June and so there are more shiai practices during May and June to prepare. Person A has developed really toned arms from using the 12 kg bow.

Person A showed us her shooting form, and we were astonished by how a calm settled over her and her actions were slow but precise, with power behind every action.

In order to enter a club, students can go to the club and try it out to see whether they like it or not. If they liked it, they have to express that they want to join this club, and write a club entrance notice. This notice is then handed to the club leader. There was no fee needed to enter the kyudo club, and the membership is continual to the upcoming years. Though, the equipment is mostly paid out of the own pocket. Person A bought gloves, practice elastic resistance bands, etc. Leaving the club is relatively the same procedure, a resignation notice is needed to be given to the club leader and then you can just leave. It seems they do not have a club governing body like they do back in Calgary, and it is much less formal, with less paperwork (insurance, membership fees, budgets are not needed). There are probably people who run the club financially, but it seems like just a gathering of people with same interests.

We were also interested in how a kyudo match worked, and were provided with this information. A match is usually 2 hours long, and there are two schools facing each other. There is an individual competition and a team competition. In the individual competition, the person with the most points after 20 arrows wins. For the team competition, there are 5 games with 3 people on each team. Each person gets four shots at the target. The target center is worth more points and it is worth the same everywhere in the same area. The outside is worth less points. The target is about 25 cm in diameter, 28 meters away, and one can imagine the accuracy needed for this sport.

Here is a record sheet from the match.


All in all, for sports enthusiasts, Japan is a wonderful country to be in. There are really many ways to stay active and to have fun, with a mix of traditional arts and modern sports. It is really an eye opener.

-Sharon and Sherry (ｼｼｬ）