The thing that makes me the most money hear in Japan is teaching English but it is not really my favorite ting to do.  What I really like doing is teaching yoga.  Because of the language barrier I had been just doing the occasional private lesson but that all changed the other night.  Seven people (4 women and 3 kids) came to do yoga.  It was for a free class that I offered as a way to drum up some business.  The women all work with Satomi at the town hospital and one of them brought her three kids.  Amazingly fun it was.  None of the members had tried yoga before so we got to start from scratch.  They claimed that most of my Japanese made sense too!

Because I have to keep things simple linguistically, I have been describing the yoga that I teach as movement and stretching linked to the breath.  I apologize to all of you yogis and yoginis out there who just rolled your eyes because yoga is much more profound than that.  Yes it is.  And, maybe it isn’t too.  If I find out the answer I’ll let you know.  The good part is that everybody understands my simple explanation and can latch onto it from minute one.  Overly simple or not, every had a good time and claimed to have left feeling better than when they arrived.  Some of that had to do with the yoga, I hope but I believe that some of it had to do with having kids and adults together in the room.  The energy was great!  In addition, the adults didn’t feel obligated to be overly self-critical of themselves as often happens.  If the kids didn’t understand they got my attention and I helped them.  Soon, the adults were more open to receiving some advice and correction on the poses.  It was fun for all, me especially.  I love the spirit of community that comes from yoga (or most activities that we do in groups).  I’m hoping we get to continue our yoga together.  I’ve been pondering the idea of family yoga for a few years but had never taken the pluge.  In my charmed life it just came my way.  What a lucky guy I am.  More luck may be on the way.  One of the free class members is going to see if we can use the Buddhist temple by her house for the classes.  That would be an added bonus.

**I want to post about our cat Famish soon.  I’ve made Famish the topic of the first Green tea Dreamer Project Poll.  If you haven’t voted in the poll (and I’m betting that you haven’t) at the end of the the post “The Peril of line Drying Pants,” please cast your vote.  As of this writing zero people have voted and it’s making Famish sad.  Thanks for your enduring support.  It makes me giddy seeing how many regular readers I have.**

The Green Tea Dreamer