Club activitie and Faith

 

My artifact is charm. This is pink and a round shape. This is big enough to fit in the palm of my hand.This charm has a white bear, a ribbon, and the name of the club embroidered on it. Also, This is a handmade charm.

 

 I was in the chorus club in high school.  Then, my senior year of high school, my chorus club was selected to compete in a national competition. I was the club president at the time. So, I made charms for all our club members and our teachers in cooperation with the other core members. There were about 50 people in the club. Also, we prepared three different colors because we changed the color for each part.  The white baer called Yome, my chorus club's mascot character. Yome is very important to the club members. KCC is the name of the club embroidered. KCC means "Koriyama Chorus Club".

 We talked about it many times because our faculty adviser was against it at first. Our teacher said " Can you complete it when you are busy practicing for the competition?" No one could answer right away. However, I and core members really wanted to make it. So, we said "We complete this without neglecting our practice." Then, our teacher said "If you're prepared to go that far, I'll support you." So, we worked hard on these charms and at the same time we left no stone unturned in our practice.

 We gave it to club members at the meeting before the conpetition. We made it without telling our club members, so we were very anxious to see if they would be pleased. However, they were pleased. So, we thought that it is good to make charm. Finally, we won the gold award and second prize in Japan.

 

 We gave chram to our club members, but we have some things to keep in mind when giving Japanese charms to people abroad. For example, it's a case of giving it to someone with religious beliefs. The reason why is if a religion forbids idolatry, it is disrespectful to give charm. The way the charms were counted in Japan suggests that they were revered as sacred images. So, we need to either refrain from giving Japanese charms to people who follow such religions, or we need to fully explain to them.

 Also, Japanese club activities show significant differences from those in other countries and have various problems. In other countries, children may participate in extracurricular activities at school or in community activities. So, it is rare for a country to put as much effort into school club activities as Japan does. Also, the participation rate of Japanese children in club activities is very high. Then, all sorts of problems arise. For students, balancing studies and club activities becomes a challenge. Also, the shortage of teachers increases the burden of club activities on teachers. So, the club activities I belonged to devised ways to secure study time. However, to solve various problems in club activities, it is necessary to change attitudes toward club activities in Japan as a whole.