I was due to present this afternoon, but got a call from Nellie’s asking if I could do 2 presentations today. That’s no problem as it means I can show people more stuff. Mind you at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, this was one of the toughest seminars I’ve had in ages. Everyone was fine by the end of it, but there were quite a few people who were just seemed to want a free hour of English and weren’t too happy I was doing things all in Japanese!! Then for the rest of the day it was pretty much quiet.

I went to see the some other presentations. One was quite good with a good emphasis on teaching the kids praise words like “Wow! Great! Well done!” etc. They also have a new video series out. It looks quiet good, but I really doubt the motivation behind it. It was really in the “let’s learn to teach the foreigner about Japanese customs” style. And I think this type of international understanding is one that is already done far too much over here (I wonder when the next time I’ll be told how to use chopsticks will be…). We’ll see how it goes, but I always feel English and other languages should be used as a tool for the kids to learn about the rest of the World, not to learn how “different” Japan is. But anyway.

My afternoon presentation was a lot better than the morning, Fukuoka people are really supportive and there were a lot of people I knew which made it really easy to whiz through a load of songs and everyone had a great time. The only problem as far as the bookstores is concerned is that they sponsored today’s meeting, but most of the people already have all the Genki English materials. So I guess I’ll have to get cracking on the new products to keep the shops happy! Then in the evening I was shattered again.