Kids Classes!

Ok, the first two weeks of kids classes are over. Man I am tired. All of my classes are great but there are two that I have a lot of trouble with. The first is an AK level class or Mini Kids. This is a class with parents and their young young young offspring, usually about ages 1 to 4. They are so much fun but one of those classes is having a failure to launch situation.

Here is how the first class went...
Kadade a little angle of a one-year-old came strolling in with his mother. This kid is Gods gift to teachers. He was happy the entire time, he did all the games and giggled like a babydoll. I wanted to take him home. Then came the other two.

The first was Yuuta. He was about three years old. If anyone has ever heard my mother describe what I was like as a child, then just envision a male, Japanese version of that. This kid was running all over the classroom. He kept turning the tv on and off and playing with the toys. And whenever he would find something interesting he would hand it to me and say "teacher here". It was cute but I need him to learn with the rest of the class. Then there was Yuki. A little boy about four years old. He is timid. I approached him as I would a wounded animal. I walked up slowly, smiled and said in a whisper, "hello Yuki".He looked at me and immediately started crying and screaming. He did that for the entire class.

Can't wait until next week.

New friends

So the last couple of days have been great. I was invited on Thursday morning to a yoga class by a co-worker. It had been years since I had done a class like that but I figured it would be relaxing. The class was great! It was held in someones home and their cute little Japanese offspring were running all over the place.

That was a great distraction to help ignore the sweat and pain pouring off my muscles. After that workout I felt so good that I am defiantly going back for more next week!

The rest of the day was filled with shopping and hot pot lunch. As we were all talking, I found out that they were both Japanese rock fans. In particularly, TM Revolution. I saw him in concert back home at the House of Blues. Next thing you know I'm headed to the Ze Ze train station.

For those of you who have no idea who or what TM Rev is, let me explain...
TM Revolution stands for Takanori makes a Revolution. Takanori is the singer. Anyway he was broadcasting an interview at this radio station and there were rumors that he would sing his new single.

Well he ended up Not singing but watching all of those screaming Japanese highschool girls chasing his car was worth the entire trip! We even joined in. When in Rome etc.

Now today I have my first group of kids classes. Me and many many little screaming children.

Please pray for my life. Lol

The Update.

So there really hasn't been much to blog about lately. I have been teaching nearly everyday and traveling to different parts of the city.

The other day I went to teach in a new city however. I went to the Toumyoike School in Nara. The are was as beautiful as I remembered it. There were rolling hills of grass and fields. Bamboo forests three stories high and farms scattered everywhere. I'm really glad to travel there twice a week.

Tomorrow I start my first round of regular classes. For the moment I only do FTLs but starting on the 12th I get to start teaching my kids and minikids classes as well as the Jr High classes too. I'm pretty nervous about those. The FTLs are strait forward but the kids classes will require me to establish rules and to act like an adult. I really hope the little ones don't eat me alive.

Today I journeyed to Osaka Castle. It was built  by the great Shogun Toyatomi Hideyoshi in the 1500's. It was impressive. The museum inside the castle had the very sword that Hideyoshi's Vessel used to cut off Toyatomi's head during the Seppuku ritual. SWEET!!!!

Also I was able to witness the first cherry blossoms of the season in Osaka. Even though there were hundreds or cherry blossom trees around the castle, only about five of them were in bloom. The others will all blossom in the next couple of weeks. The trees I did see were beautiful. they even had a light fragrance to them. Plus the blossoms with the historic castle in the background was almost too much for my nerdy brain to handle.

I am making reservations at a capsule Ryokan in Kyoto for next thursday night. My hope is that on thursday I will be able to see the cherry blossoms at Himeji Castle. This Castle is said to me the best and the most impressive in Japan. I'm so excited to see it!! I hope that everything works out.

!!!!!!Look for the pictures of Osaka Castle on Facebook!!!!!!