In addition to leading the training, I’m scheduled to teach four workshops during my stay here.  Still battling jet lag, I literally “hit the ground running” starting with the first weekend of teacher training on April 21 and the first workshop, “Surya Namaskar A & B” on the 27th.  I chose this topic because its rich with resources–variations, modifications,  and the repetition of asanas that reference anatomy & kinesiology relevant to the practice of yoga. This was a workshop for teachers with over 35 young instructors attending.  I was overwhelmed by the response and trembled as I took a seat before the group.  As the workshop got underway, my nervousness subsided and I began to connect to their movements, their breath and the words flowed. A workshop that was supposed to be three hours quickly turned into four.  I love this photo of beaming participants taken at the end of the workshop.

The First Weekend

First Weekend of Teacher Training

This 200hr training that began on April 21 and runs until July 1, has a total of 28 students enrolled!  This a huge responsibility since it’s the first training I’ve led and on my own and without an assistant.  In addition, it’s being taught in Japanese and translated as I speak and write. The translator (Tomoko ) works by my side throughout the entire day. We start out each day with a practice and I spend the rest of the day lecturing, writing out sequences and lessons on a board which she translates in tandem.  This is an arduous process but, amazingly it flows well and the students seem to stay “tuned” in and understand the material.  Their manuals and books are written in Japanese (The Yogaworks Teacher Training manuals; Pantanjali’s, Yoga Sutras;  B.K.S. Iyengar’s, Light on Yoga; and Leslie Kaminoff’s, Yoga Anatomy.  The training in the US has a few more books, but these aren’t yet available in Japanese. However, there is still a way to bring that content into the training with additional assignments.

THE TOKYO DIARY:  April 18 – July 2, 2012

I arrived in Tokyo on April 18, my first visit to Japan, to lead a Teacher Training for Yogaworks.  I’m staying in Gotanda, a neighborhood in the southern corner of this sprawling metropolis, Tokyo.  Gotanda is the “business district” and many major corporations are headquartered here: Shisedo, Subaru, Microsoft and more.  I’m staying in an apartment up the street from massive the TOC building. The photo above was taken one rainy morning in downtown Gotanda during my first few days here.  I was told that I just missed the cherry blossoms, but these trees were flowering and the petals drifting down the stream created a tranquil scene.  It rains  a lot her, almost daily and I was told that the rainy season doesn’t start until June!