Well, let me tell you. I actually stumbled across this information in a previous column of Community Connections titled “Hiroshima Jōhō a-Netto: An Online Treasure Trove of Community Information”, which was written by one of my predecessors, Karlee Keyser, back in August 2015. It was thanks to that article that I found a way to further develop my interest in woodworking.

It offers a great way to continue hobbies or find new interests, get involved in volunteer groups in your community, as well as proves information about a whole host of events. That is why I feel I should once again champion the website in this edition of Community Connections!

There is only one problem: the website is only offered in Japanese…

In this article, I will give you a basic run down of how to navigate the site. Head over to http://www.a-net.shimin.city.hiroshima.jp/anet/index.html to get started.

For the sake of walking through an example, let’s say you are a budding watercolour artist that is looking to find other like-minded folk in your community. Start off by heading to “Groups・Clubs (団体・サークル)” either at the top of the page, or down the side where you can go directly to “Art・Culture (芸術・文化)”. You will be taken to a list of categories. Clicking on “Art (美術)” will take you to more specific options relating to the fine arts, such as “Western painting”, “Design”, and “Japanese painting”. You guessed it, click on “Western painting (洋画)”. You will end up at a page resembling the picture to the right, with a list of different groups and their activities. In this instance we are looking for “Watercolor (水彩画)”. Once you’ve scrolled through and found what you’re looking for, you will be confronted head on with information about the group.

The information listed usually follows the picture to the left. This can be quite daunting, but head over to http://ejje.weblio.jp/ or http://jisho.org/ (or your preferred online dictionary) and start plugging in vocabulary to try to make sense of it all. It’ll be worth it!

Remember, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Centre offers a CIR consultation service on the fourth Wednesday of every month (reservations are required). If you are looking for more help finding your new hobby, or even with anything else related to Hiroshima, get in touch!