{"id":35600,"date":"2014-07-14T02:10:34","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T06:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=35600"},"modified":"2014-07-22T20:45:42","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T00:45:42","slug":"community-involvement-on-jet-dont-be-afraid-to-start-from-scratch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/14\/community-involvement-on-jet-dont-be-afraid-to-start-from-scratch\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Involvement on JET: Don’t Be Afraid to Start From Scratch"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jayme Tsutsuse<\/a> (Kyoto-fu 2013-2014), organizer for\u00a0Cross-Cultural Kansai<\/a>, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting August 2014!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cross-Cultural<\/a>

Cross-Cultural Kansai’s Summertime Picnic at the Kamogawa river in Kyoto, celebrating global identities with delicious food, beautiful weather, and amazing friends.<\/p><\/div>\n

At the JET Program\u00a0Tokyo Orientation\u00a0last summer, we were all told to get involved in our communities as much as possible. It seemed like good advice, so I jotted it down in my list of goals, expecting this\u00a0promise\u00a0to somehow become\u00a0less vague\u00a0once\u00a0I settled in.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure how I envisioned it would happen. Obviously there wouldn\u2019t be\u00a0a\u00a0community, gathered with open arms, ready\u00a0welcoming me in when I arrived.\u00a0Fair enough. But really, what were we supposed to do?<\/p>\n

A friend suggested that I check out Meetup.com, and I was surprised to see how popular it was in Kansai (not nearly as expansive as New York or London, but still!). Every weekend, I\u2019d join events in Osaka or Kyoto, and I never failed to fall deep into conversations with new friends about our backgrounds, where we came from, how it affects who we are today and where we want to go in the future. I loved listening to their stories. And the more I came across these\u00a0stories, the more I thought about\u00a0how great it would be to create a space for them, a community premised on sharing these parts of ourselves.<\/p>\n

For the complete story, click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu 2013-2014), organizer for\u00a0Cross-Cultural Kansai, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting August 2014! At the JET Program\u00a0Tokyo Orientation\u00a0last summer, we were all told to get involved in our communities as much as possible. It seemed like good advice, so I jotted it down in my list of goals, expecting this\u00a0promise\u00a0to somehow become\u00a0less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[73,4,7,1216],"tags":[467,998,1287],"class_list":["post-35600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-articlejournalism","category-blogs","category-life-as-a-jet","tag-community","tag-jet","tag-kansai"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t