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United Kingdom

5

It was a great experience in a great city! Highly recommend. The JCN team is very helpful and always looking to improve. The housing situation had it's issues but Luis was active in acknowledging them and trying to improve. We feel sad to leave as we ended feeling at home in the city. the the school programme is also a great way of getting to know more about Japanese culture while contributing to the local community.

about 2 years ago

United States

5

Overall, I really enjoyed my time volunteering with JCN in the the school program. The language barrier between volunteers and students and teachers is challenging, but you learn to communicate and interact effectively within a short amount of time. Luis, the program coordinator is wonderful. He really makes it a priority to make sure we are comfortable and takes our feedback very seriously. The volunteer house definitely needs a lot of maintenance, but at the end of the day it offers everything you'd need. It seems like management is taking steps to improve areas in the house. Thank you!

over 2 years ago

United States

5

Staying at JCN in the beginning was a bit rocky as the houses were not in the best shape & we had to deep clean severely. But Luis was absolutely great in attempting to make the best situation for every volunteer. The cat program hours could be improved for volunteers to be able to explore more without being back at a certain time, but he was highly flexible. I appreciated the communication & understanding that Luis provided, & he is constantly making improvements to the houses to make them as comfortable as possible. Luis is also really funny, a gryffindor, & it ended up feeling like home!!!

over 2 years ago

Netherlands

5

JCN was an interesting experience for me. I learned a lot about cats, Japan, management.. I always felt respected and valued. The work-cat the school-was hard: physically arduous+there was a lot to do. It was often evaluated with me however, and coordinator Luís made true effort to adapt the work/hours so that the experience was good and fun for me still. The location is also great; public transport closeby+bikes make it easy to visit beautiful spots. I struggled a bit with the accommodation- the (c)old Japanese house by myself was lonely+not in the best shape. Absolutely loved the cats & managers!

over 2 years ago

JCN replied

We feel blessed to have had Kyra in our program. She is kind, hardworking , focused, always going way beyond what was requested from her, respectful, an absolute joy to talk to and much more. She was a true lifesaver.

Everyone will be lucky to have her as a volunteer.
Thank you

Germany

3

JCN is a wonderful organisation! They truly the school about the cats and prioritise their well-being at all times. Although the work wasn't easy and I felt exhausted at times, it was rewarding to leave a clean space for the cats at the end. Luís is a good host, very caring and funny :) The volunteer house is old but feels like home, with tons of amenities to use and very (maybe too) comfy beds ;) It's located close to the main sightseeing spots and there are bikes available to explore the area. All in all, you really notice that the house and volunteer shifts are constantly being improved!

about 2 years ago

Spain

4

My volunteer was with the kids at the the school I had such a great time, learned a lot from their daily life, you can find a lot of difference in the way of teaching the children and it's behavior. The coordinator Luis is great and it's making his best to have everything the best way possible and tries to adapts the schedule if you are in need. Even though, I need to talk about the volunteers house. It's an old house that really needs an investment, we had to deal with some unwanted visitors. Once they take cares of that and empties all the closest for the actual volunteers, it will be great

over 2 years ago

United Kingdom

3

Overall we had a fun time during this work exchange. the the school program is really good, the kids are sweet and it nice to get involved in the local community. We also liked meeting a lot of other traveler's from all over the world. We didn't do the cat side but it was nice to be able to still see the animals whenever we wanted. The scheduling was also good and could be changed. However the volunteers house needs some serious work. The doors and walls have holes in, there's animals living in the walls and rat droppings in the kitchen. It was full of dust that caused my allergies to play up.

over 2 years ago

United States

4

I had a really good experience at JCN. I was in the the school program, the teachers and kids were amazing. I met some great people here who made the experience so fun. The location is pretty good, it's a 10 minute walk to the nearest train station, and close to lots of temples and shrines. With all of that said there were some problems too. These were mainly in the cat the school part of the program so I can't speak on specific things, but from what I heard it seemed like people were having to work overtime without their hours being counted, as well as people having personal issues with management.

over 2 years ago

Spain

1

Sadly, volunteering at JCN hasn't been a good experience at all. My own personal experience at the organization was horrible, and ended up with me being kicked out, without having a place to go. it's hard to summarize everything that happened in few sentences, I just wanna say that they don't the school about the volunteers and they did not treat us the way it should be done, moreover privacy and empathy are two values they should absolutely learn. At least the volunteers were very cool and it was lovely meeting them :).

over 2 years ago

JCN replied

Unfortunately things didn't worked out with Miguel.
Way before any volunteer join our program, they are inform of our rules and standards so there's no misunderstanding about our requirements of our program. Miguel saw those as suggestions instead of actual rules. So, since day one Miguel was strongly invested in changing everything so the program would fit him best without any concern or care about why the programs is designed as it is.
This confirmation environment lead to volunteers leaving the program earlier because, and I quote " Miguel made it hard to stay for even a few days".
For those reasons we decided to part ways immediately.

We hope Miguel can find a place where he can be happy.

Brazil

5

Minha estadia foi ótima! A casa realmente não é nova, mas era confortável. Seguimos todas as orientações em relações a comida e lixo, por isso não tivemos problemas. A experiência com as crianças foi incrível, realmente foi surpreendente está tão imerso na cultura Japonesa, apesar disso uma das escolas tem um horário um pouco mais difícil, pois são 5h divididas em dois turnos, mas recomendaria o trabalho e voltaria. Os anfitriões estão sempre dispostos a ajudar, então qualquer coisa que precisar, você deve conversar com eles, Luis e Célia nos ajudaram e fizeram nosso tempo melhor.

4 months ago

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