2006 November 13 Monday.
Snow on the van. Time to get out the long arm of the law. The snow removal operations season has officially opened. It also helps to have a remote control engine starter, used about 10 to 20 minutes before planned departure time. It makes ice removal from the windows so much easier. But wait! I'm getting ahead of myself. It wasn't that cold today. My first gig of the day started at about 10:50 at the Asahi Elementary School 朝日小学校. This was my second time to visit this school, and both times for the same purpose. Give a 60 minute presentation, 99% in English, to either the 3rd graders or the 6th graders. Today it was the 3rd graders. The student's teacher, S先生, started off the class with the song YANKEE DOODLE which the students sang along to while she played the keyboards. By the way S先生 is a very accomplished piano player, and in fact plays semi-professionally with a swing jazz orchestra called A FLAT. I have seen her perform many times. I know all of this, because she also attended my classroom for a while, about 7 or 8 years ago. Anyway, after the kids where finished singing, I gave them a big round of applause, and asked S先生 to play the song one more time on the keyboards, and let me sing it once. So she did. Instead of singing in a serious voice, I sang in the voice of PORKY PIG. I don't think anyone caught on to my poor imitation of the cartoon character's voice. After that, I got out my bag of tricks and started with the COLOR flash cards followed by the NUMBER flash cards. Then I used the WEATHER flash cards, followed by the FOOD flash cards. Into the second half, I went with the ALPHABET FONIX flash cards and that led into my first song of the day. I got out my folk guitar and we sang the ABC song a few times using different rhythms and timings. Next song, Old MacDonald's Farm. An all time favorite with young kids. Then for the big finale, BINGO THE DOG with student clap along, and the whole nine yards. That was the end of my presentation. The class ended with the children singing a very nice song for me in Japanese while S先生 was on the keyboards. I said, "See you again!" and left the classroom. After a few formalities in the school office, I was on the road, headed back to my classroom. Next gig starts at 13:00. No time to eat lunch either. I'm on the busy body diet today. To busy to eat. Maybe I can eat between 14:40 and 15:00. I'll try to squeeze it in. By the way, the photo in today's blog was taken by me on February 19 of this year at Takasu Melody Hall. The woman standing on stage directing the orchestra is S先生 the kids on stage with her, playing swing jazz, are all students at the Asahi Elementary School. Their band is called the Sunrise Cherry Orchestra. I have seen them perform two or three times before, and I must say that they are very good.
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