Bed at 3 then out to brave the Tokyo subway system at 9, fun fun! But it was worth it as I popped in to see the British Council, mainly to chat about the exchange projects. We were going to have a chat the other week, but things got a bit too busy. Today though…

Recently I’ve really been feeling the big gap between bookstore gigs which last 50 minutes and have a broad range of teachers, and the real professional development workshops in which you really see a progression as the teachers improve. Financially as well, the free bookstore gigs attract good teachers, but also the ones who just…

Spent the morning running around changing hotels, then over to Shibuya to have a chat about organising an adults eikaiwa show using the Genki English songs and games. I might as well put the wheels in motion whilst the idea is still fresh! Shibuya is the Japanese city of fashion and has some pretty cool…

Things just seem to be on a roll at the moment. Today’s workshops were just brilliant. I had no idea how many people would turn up, and I wouldn’t have thought that many of them even knew Genki English, but the the room was overflowing, with people standing at the back and taking up just…

Today was the JET Programme Tokyo Orientation where 1,500 new JET teachers arrive for 3 days of being jet lagged, hungover and getting an onslaught of being thrown head first into Japan. It’s also the first time I’ve attended ( well, except for the time when I first came myself, of course). And today was…

Kagoshima is one of the interesting cities in the World, where the people who were deciding where to build it must have said “Where shall we build our new city?” and someone said “Oh yes, right next to a live volcano!”. As you do. So today was a “mini conference” sponsored by JALT and the…