IrishOboe

To the horror of my JTE’s I left the plans for the PTA presentation to the last minute. I managed to finish and give a pretty good lecture. I was lucky that Shimizu sensei was willing to translate what I said on the spot. It was a lot of fun because I had the audience doing so much. There were about thirty people (mostly parents and teachers) and I started right away with an Irish dance warm up. This really loosed them up and set the tone for the evening. I talked about what I studied at school and played oboe for them and taught them “What’s up” and “okay” in ASL (American Sign Language). I talked a bit about cultural differences between America and Japan then I played my whistle and talk with the basic step to the reel. I used a new way of teaching and it worked quite well. I was very please at how many people got it. Everyone sure had fun, too! Looking at the pictures my dance posture is not so hot, but hey, I’m learning life isn’t about perfection, but communication. They didn’t hear the greatest oboist or see the greatest dancer, but they sure enjoyed it! I ended exactly after an hour, but sharing PBJ took a while and they had a number of questions. It was a really fun evening. Perhaps the best was seeing the Kyoto sensei (vice-principal) foot-loose and fancy free dancing to Irish music! Only a foreigner could get away with something like that . . . ;)