I was getting a bit worried this morning! I usually do the Tokyo Bookstore shows in the store itself. But it tends to draw such a big crowd that people from the other departments start complaining! So this time the event was in a different building. And as what probably should have been expected a lot of people couldn’t find where it was!! So the morning group was a little small to say the least! But they were mostly Genki English fans so it was cool to try some new stuff. First off was Rock, Paper, Scissors, then “When, When, When” ( my current favourite!), then a bit slower with “Creepy Crawlies” , the new Food Song and a big “Where are you going?” to finish on a high note! The tiny little kids really got into Creepy Crawlies, even the really shy ones!

Maruzen also changed the format for these events. Usually I don’t really like doing presentations for kids, they’re fun but not really worth travelling to Tokyo to do. But if I say it’s just for teachers or parents then the kids get really bored and start distracting their parents! So this time the store decided to do 3 sets, two for kids with a load of songs ( or for those teachers who just want a free eikaiwa lesson – cheeky!), and then a serious professional development workshop at the end, with no activities but just hard core information and Q&A style problem solving. And I must say it worked very well! We should have done this ages ago!

So first off in the afternoon a lot more people turned up ( including one very genki guy at the back who knew all the words and gestures and turned out to be Hazelrah from the discussion board!), and the room was pretty full. I also got requests, which is good! The CD5 songs are a little tricky to teach in 10 minutes, so I threw in some older songs to liven things up first. We started with Rocket Launch, then Doctor, Doctor, then as everyone was so pumped up I went straight into “I can do it!” and the kids nailed it straight away – very impressive and a testament to the power of started with something easy! I was feeling quite genki by this time so took a gamble and had a go at the slightly more tricky “Under, on, in” song. The kids got the hang of using their chairs well, and the adults were great role models! By this time my voice was also getting a bit tired, so I basically did all that theme just using the software and didn’t speak at all! The animated mini lessons make it so easy. And once we had a go through the song, I tried it again with the dragon remix. But the kids just had the most shocked faces when Mr Monkey got eaten!!! So as we had a projector, I got all the kids to the front and got them to play the computer game where they have to save Mr Monkey back from the Dragon’s stomach by playing a computer karuta style game. Now that was really good as well as the kids were hopeless!! All the teachers were trying to cheat and translate the answers for the kids, and I was like “no way!! Be quiet! Let them learn for themselves!”. The teachers were horrified and almost scolding the kids for getting things wrong, but the whole point of those games is that they make mistakes and learn that way. If they can answer all the questions straight away, they don’t need to play! And as it’s a game they can play it for ages without getting bored. Although I do have to admit it took quite a while! But I was quite happy as the teachers could really see that the kids were getting better and better the more they played, as they slowly figured out what all the phrases meant. A very worthwhile use of 20 minutes!

So then finally I decided to close on the “When, When, When” song again as I quite like it and it’s a genki ending!

After a quick break it was the time for the workshop and all the kids were happy and tired so sat very happily at the back! And very luckily most of the teachers were elementary school teachers, some of them having travelled a very long way to get there. So I was very happy to be able to do an elementary school workshop, because after all that’s what I support most, giving all the kids a chance not just the ones who can afford private lessons. And the teachers lapped it up, asking loads of great questions and leaving with considerably more confidence than when they started. And after 4 years of trying to persuade the bookstores that I really want to do teacher only workshops, they saw how it all fits together, and there truly is a lot supporting all the Genkiness. And I got invited back to do more next month!

So a fantastic day all round, the kids enjoyed a mega show, I got to test the songs in a show format, and the teachers came away with a lot of their problems seeming a lot less serious. Cool!

So then the after gig party and just like last night, far too much beer! But who cares, it’s Sunday tomorrow!