Mitaka Greening Center

Description:
Mitaka Greening Center is a cooperative selling a wide variety of agricultural products  such as vegetables, flowers, plants, fruit trees, and eggs produced in Mitaka.

Level of Japanese: Lower-Intermediate 

Responsibilities: Interns occupy a very broad and fluid role, assisting with cashiering, packing produce, stocking shelves, organizing items for sale, and sometimes labor-intensive activities such as weeding.

Address: 〒181-0004  Shinkawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 6 Chome-30-22

Distance from Campus:
16 min 🚋
12 min 🚲

I think my community engagement experience was useful in the fact that I was able to connect with strangers despite the language barrier, which is especially useful during my time studying abroad in Japan. However, even when I leave Japan that experience was a useful reminder that it is possible to slowly enter a new community and by bringing my own experiences, I am able to share something new with them as they are sharing their experiences with me. I am capable of helping out even if it’s not much and making a positive impact in the same way they positively impacted me by letting me in.

No matter what I was doing, everyone else was always very helpful, and would spend time making sure I knew what I had to do and had everything I needed to do it.  They would drop everything to help me if I had a question, and always made time for small talk between or during tasks.  It was a very close-knit environment, and I came to realize that Mitaka on the whole is like that, too.

Doing what amounted to essentially a part-time job in a country where I was not fully comfortable with the language was a difficult, but very rewarding experience.  My ability to communicate with both the staff and the customers increased quickly, and by the end of my time there I felt like just another member of staff.

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