IROHA　Club

Sweet Home for International Souses
I-Ro-Ha English-Japanese Club

We are a support group designed just for you, an international spouse as well as the at-home mother in Japan! You are interested in the world around you, want a variety of activities for you (and your children), and are proud of your choice of accompanying & at-home mothering for your families! We know, because most of us have experienced being an accompanying spouse as well as at-home mothers, too!

You need a support group that understands your special needs as an accompnying spouse & an at-home mother in Japan, and we're it! We are the first support group specifically for all foreign spouses:

Here are some of the things that make us special:

The I-Ro-Ha Club is a nonprofit self-help group!

We meet during the day, mainly on Mondays when at-home wives and mothers most need support!

We have an established support system for our own sake. Our members are ready to help you every step of your new life in Japan! You can come to see us for advice, ideas, help and even simply for chatting!

We believe being a mother shouldn't isolate you, so mothers may bring their children with them! For meetings, groups set up children's space with volunteer babysitters (the children think they are at their own club!) and at activities, having children present is considered a natural part of life!

We know being an accompanying spouse or an at-home mother in Japan means making a financial sacrifice, so no registration fees are required, and we collect only 200 yen(adult) and 100 yen(for bringing any number of your kids) per attendance day!

At-home mothers of any age children are welcome! We know you still need support as your children grow! And of course those who have no kids are welcome too!!

Let's set up luncheons and get-togethers so every International and Japanese member can network and exchange ideas, and we have special homepage and other support just for you, the members!

What types of activities have been carried out?

We now have around 20 members, and we have done several activites, such as brush up English, Japanese, problem-solving workshops, Japanese cooking, Multinational cooking, sewing, Karaoke,.......some members are now practicing hard to become an Origami Instructor, too!
Our members are also dispatched to Japanese elementary and secondary schools as a guest teacher, to cooking classes as a cooking instructor, and to private English schools as a guest speaker!

We are even planning to organize classes of foreign languages, international cooking classes, a dance class, a sewing class, etc. for Japanese people!

If you would like to join our Club, we'd love to have you!

Inquires:
I-Ro-Ha Club
Room 302, Yokoyama Bdg.(Dark Brown Building)
North of IZUMI You Me Town
Saijo, Higashi-Hiroshima

Please come to see us on Monday, 10:30-12:30

What types of activities are suggested ?

The activity groups we can add are unlimited. Please let the membership know the kinds of things you can help start through this Club and then as you join, enlist your help and desire in starting the new, broader activities.

Simple activities including a casual park day, a local field trip to someplace must be fun, playgroups for kids, lunch bunch, cooking club, book club and other interest groups as more other members join and help organize them. The more spouses who are involved in actively planning our Club's activities, the happier and more successful our Club members will be.

Principle:
That accompanying spouses must be free to choose their personal path to fulfillment.

Goals:

To provide a support group for accompanying spouses who chose to come to Japan for the family

To provide a support group for mothers who choose to stay at home to raise their children

To provide a forum for topics of interest to spouses and mothers

To help children in the group
To help those who wish to brush up English and Japanese
To perform service projects daily, monthly, yearly, to make our life in Japan more meaningful and fun.

How the I-Ro-Ha Club began?

Nerli, a wife of an international student, who used to work as an assisstant professor of a university in her country, suddently became an at-home mother in Japan when she decided to accompany her husband ................. in 2001 when Nerli realized she was tired of being alone at home, she wanted to meet other at-home mothers and she wanted to find other at-home children for her son to play with. But she discovered there were no other organizations that met during the day and allowed her to come with her little son, a preschooler.

Around this time, she was introduced to Mimi, a Japanese.

Mimi, a freelance interpreter, had already experienced of being an accompanying wife several times since her husband is a researcher who attends international conferrences where the attendance of a couple is required at the receptions, etc. Going abroad with her husband and a son as an accompanying wife, must be a joy, everybody forces her to believe so, and Mimi tried to think so, but..........when she first accompanied her husband to England in 1994, she realized a kind of unsatisfactory feelings in herself of being just an "accompanying" person. Since then, whenever Mimi accompanys her husband, she had become to prepare for her own "accompanying wife"'s program in advance, such as, studying the language of the destination country, searching for programs for her and her son to participate in the destination country, etc.

Mimi when she met Nerli, was delighted to share the same experiences, they thought there should be many more spouses who can share the same feelings, and the two decided to start a brand new organization just for accompanying spouses and at-home mothers, and this is how the I-Ro-Ha Club was born in May, 2002.

The first Club activity was focused on brush up English, using the excellent talent of Nerli as an English instructor, with a share of Mimi's current study, Cross-Cultural Psychology, and with a great help of Mitoshi, who brought a unique and ideal Japanese lesson. Gradually, not only the international spouses but also Japanese members who are interested in meeting them got together. Now the presence of foreign wives of international marrages, enriches the diversity of the Club members. It has been so successful, we got to know many spouses and children from all over the world who live here and there in Hiroshima.

Our dream is to have this kind of activities across the country and around the world! So that whereever we travel inside and outside the country, you know whom you go and visit, and meet and talk with.

We are looking forward to meeting you, and having you in our Club activites! Everyone is invited!!