Animal Yoga at Nonohana

Nonohana is one of our favorites. Our friend Tamako-san works at Nonohana as a chef. These kids eat well! We frequent Nonohana for our cooking exchange and Mike's weekly English conversation circle. In early October, Tamako's boss asked her what they should do for their pre-school "fitness day". She jokingly brought up that I could lead Yoga. He didn't take it as a joke, and next thing I know I'm getting paid to teach Yoga!

But, before the Yoga, each preschool class took turns showing off some moves they'd been working on...

We also distracted some of them quite a bit.


The kids welcomed us, and had even practiced an English greeting for the event!

Well... I can't really say I taught any Yoga. We just made shapes with our bodies and while listening to Lullatone. It seemed to be just what the kids and all their parents needed. With about 50 kids plus all their parents, we needed the whole gym. We had a little powerpoint of animal pictures projected, but the kids seemed much more interested in the animal sounds Pippa yelled into the mic as I demonstrated a pose.



I have a lot of "favorite" days in Japan, but this will probably top them all. The highlight of the day for me was when we did "dragon", which was really a big conga line version on follow the leader snaking around the whole gym.
After tiring out the kids, we went out to lunch with the Nonohana staff. Couln't have done it without Pippa, and wouldn't have a bomb soundtrack and pics without Mike, and, of course, wouldn't have had the gig if it hadn't been for Tamako's innocent joke about me "teaching" Yoga. Much love!