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Will's Tour Diary - updated daily!
Will's tour diary - What? Why? When? Where? - Shows - Seminars
Up at 4am - long drive to Sapporo. Normally I would be all grumpy about such an early morning departure but as we climbed the mountain road to the Hidaka Pass we saw the sunrise and it made up for the fact I had had so little sleep.
We made it to Nishi Tobetsu Junior High School by 10am. We were to do a presentation on the use of games. From the outset there seemed to be some confusion as to which timeslot we would occupy. We had been invited by Tara Robertson to fill the ALT slot, on the basis that the local ALTs had been given insufficient notice of the seminar details to adequately prepare, and more importantly because the Hokkaido ALTs wanted to see a GenkiEnglish presentation. The teachers present were suggesting that in lieu of ALTs, Japanese teachers would be filling all the slots. While the matter was still in the air there was an official welcome and we brought a little laughter to the gathering, as we, along with the other ALTs present, introduced ourselves.
A trendy looking goateed teacher by the name of Teruyama came to the rescue and offered time in his slot. We accepted, and 1.30 pm saw 30 Japanese teachers and ALTs unrestrainedly throw themselves into our power-packed presentation. During the Gokiburi game it was gratifying to see 40 year old junior high school teachers get into the spirit and move around the classroom as cockroaches, fish, frogs and monkeys. Tara's monkey was impressively loud enough to be the real thing.
Our presentation was a hit! Lots of happy, inspired teachers. Teruyama mentioned visiting his junior high school - he will contact us later.
We crashed a lecture by a university professor from - Komoto Sensei. The topic was pronunciation and listening, so we were most attentive. Naturally we did rather well in the short (English) listening quizzes. Afterwards we had a chat with Komoto Sensei, a US educated academic who told us straight up "Call me Eugene!" He spoke flawless American English, and let us pick his brain on a range of linguistics/teaching topics.
We got a phone call - we have shows in Aichi Prefecture.
Back in Sapporo we dropped in at the swimming school where Hiroaki was on duty, clad in his speedos. The pool was jam packed with children slicing through the water as they executed endless laps. The school has a tropical atmosphere - warm, wet - the perfect place to work if you live in frigid Hokkaido.
Ikuko cooked dinner. We don't want to ever leave Hokkaido.
Will
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Opinions expressed in this diary are personal views of Will Jasprizza. They do not necessarily represent those of Genki English, especially where he is slagging people off or making jokes which sounded better at the time!!! Please be understanding!
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