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Will's Tour Diary - updated daily!
Will's tour diary - What? Why? When? Where? - Shows - Seminars
Shukunohe Primary School.
The first show hit a minor glitch - during the opening warm up music the 1st and 2nd year students jumped up and down so hard on the sprung floor that the CD skipped and the music stopped. In addition it was so cold that we had to speed up the pace of the show to keep the kids moving so they didn't freeze solid.
Clad only in our Genki English t-shirts WE needed to keep warm too - we threw in a lot more jumping and spinning. To avoid frostbite we will have to invest in indoor shoes.
The 2nd and 3rd shows went off without a hitch, and then it was time for school lunch. Richard, Hutch and I ate in the year 6 classroom and tortured everyone with Japanese puns so bad the tetra-pak milk nearly soured. Afterwards, in the playground we became human jungle gyms as hordes of small children clambered over us. I practiced human weight-training. In the simple upward lift I managed 10 reps using 1st year students, but could only manage 1 rep using a year 6 (check the diary 2 days from now to see how sore I will be). Following the shows I felt surprisingly genki, but after playing with the kids for 20 minutes I was shattered. But happily so.
The whole school waved goodbye and we took off to meet the local Superintendent of Education. He was a cool gent - quick to laugh - and showed us the awesome beach views from the plush offices of the Taneichi Town Hall. We were jealous.
Travel tip #187: Anyone passing through Taneichi - the post office ATM handles international credit cards. Once you work out which way to insert the card.
The rest of the day was spent driving to Sendai, ...km away. We had planned to be away by 2pm but meeting Hutch's boss, chatting about GenkiEnglish stuff (Hutch: You guys should sell the t-shirts) meant we left around 4. At 8ish I was feeling a bit sleepy so I caffeined up at the Morioka Mr Donuts. Easy access powerpoint upstairs. Richard and I shared the 6 pack 'nikuman' - only 780yen. Nikuman is Japanese for 'fatty meat bun', with the emphasis on the word fatty. Immediately after eating, having failed to find anything resembling meat, we resolved never to put ourselves through this ordeal again.
By the way, Morioka's quaint bridges and Eiffel tower lookalike got our thumbs up - a good looking town. And the parking in front of the station is cheap - 100yen after 8.
The highway was clogged with slow-moving trucks so we took the Genkimobile onto the expressway. Downhill she performed admirably. Uphill we were left crawling along at 40km/hr in an 80 km/hr zone. Fortunately there was lots of downhill. (80km/hr is the top speed limit on Japanese roads - not that many people observe it)
We took the Murata-cho exit just after Sendai. Anna braved the chill, met us and led us to her palatial apartment. It looked like a hotel, only larger. She revived us with tea and in return Richard fixed her answering machine.
Anna is English, and blue eyed, and we were immediately reminded of Anna Warren in Nagano. How to distinguish between them when making reference to 'Anna'? Since Anna Warren had been wearing a bandana when we met her we decided to call her 'Bandana Anna'. Anna Gerrard we christened 'No-bandana Anna'
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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