Nursery school playtime and Animal Care in Kyoto-shi, Japan
ReportLocation: Kyoto, Japan
Our Kyoto program focuses on community outreach and funding support for our animal shelter in Tokyo. Our volunteers primarily visit the local kindergarten and nursery and help with community cat projects and/or events.Due to the type of work required, we do not require a specific kind of visa (tourist visa holders can apply).
VOLUNTEER WORK: The Volunteer work is split into two main functions : animal and school. The priority is given to animal welfare and schools are the secondary activity.
ANIMAL: We are NOT a shelter. We often host a few rescued animals waiting to be adopted or take part in rescue or sterilization support activities. We take care of community cats and we make sure they have food and water and a warm place to stay during winter. Taking care of the pets is everyone's duty. If you have allergy or if animal welfare is not something you are interested in, this is not a place for you. We are also looking for help with promoting the organisation on social media (publishing pictures and videos, making posters, writing articles) and finding potential adopters. Volunteers may be asked to go out to check on or rescue some animals.
SCHOOL: We volunteer in two different schools in the neighbourhood: a Nursery school and a Kindergarten. Volunteers are asked to play with children and help the teachers in their daily tasks. Japanese children are respectful, independent and playful. They are now used to seeing volunteers coming to their classroom. Speaking Japanese is not mandatory, but it requires some efforts to reach out to the children and bond.
Please also note that these schools are not international schools, so the teachers do not speak very good English. Communication can therefore be difficult sometimes, so extra effort must be made.
The goal of this partnership is to get Japanese kids more comfortable with being around and interacting with foreigners, as well as to allow foreigners visiting Japan to learn a bit more about Japanese culture and way of education. We also want to try to introduce and model responsible and kind human/animal interaction.
Work schedule :
For the Kindergarten : Monday to Friday, 9am to 2pm
For the Nursery : Monday to Friday, 9am-12:30pm + 3:30pm-5pm
LIFE IN COMMUNITY:
Being used to communal life is a plus, and keeping the Volunteer house clean is essential. Doing your dishes and your laundry is not optional, as well as keeping your belonging in your room. Cleaning of the house is shared among volunteers. If the work is not done, and/or directions not followed, volunteers may be asked to leave.
Due to the nature of the volunteer work, we require a 3 week MINIMUM time commitment from all volunteers. We also welcome enquiries from people looking for longer placements, who might want to spend a few months or more in Kyoto.
We very much welcome couples as volunteers but you must be flexible and aware that you may be working different shift patterns to each other and that you will share the bedroom with other volunteers. We do not guarantee you a double bed. We mostly can arrange for couples to have days off together.
LOCATION : Volunteers live in a two story house, in a traditional Japanese neighbourhood. The volunteer house is located in Uzumasa, about a 15 min walk south from the Myoshin-ji Temple.
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS : All volunteers live under the same roof, which is great for communal cooking and film watching. There are 8 beds split across two rooms.
We have a small number of bicycles that are available for use for the volunteers. As Kyoto is a very flat city, many attractions are a short bike ride away (temples, onsen, flea markets, a cinema district, City Hall, Gion district, and more). There are also many nearby places to buy local produce, as well as a few big grocery markets.
Wifi, bikes, laundry detergent, cleaning products, towels and bedding all provided.
IMPORTANT!
The house is old and traditional, this means there is very little sound insulation between rooms and doorways and ceilings are low (anyone over 5"6 will need to duck their head to go through the doorways).
As there are up to eight volunteers in the house and since the space is limited, the need to be polite, social, clean and tidy is essential. An ability to live comfortably in close proximity to others is also essential. Volunteers must be vigilant in cleaning up after themselves and contribute towards keeping the house clean and tidy.
Also, from time to time the volunteer house has rescue pets living there until we can find them a permanent home. Therefore you must be happy living alongside these pets and not afraid to clean up after them and scoop the poop when necessary. We arrange pet care duties on a daily rotational basis.
Please consider this carefully before applying, we want all our volunteers to be clear and happy about the living arrangements!
We hope to hear from you very soon :-)
