Hello all you lovely people,

Friday - I'm sitting on a plane flying from Tokyo to Fukuoka. Somewhere below me is Mt Fuji. She may reveal herself -apparently she is quite particular about when she does.

I am loving being here - so nice to have some time in between one thing and another being here for 2 weeks instead of 8 days. I was fairly dizzy after my flight - 24 hours door to door. After a hot shower, sitting down which as how they have them here, I was refreshed enough to go out to a 5Rhythms class, just. We got there half way through but I don't think I would have lasted 2 hours anyway. There is a Japanese teacher (Sahaja) who lives in Holland that I have met twice. Since I came here she is now coming about every two months. It was great to go to her class and strengthen our relationship which was important to do for the work as well.

Next day, after 7 solid hours sleep I had one of the best massages I have ever had. 2 Hours of swedish massage expertly done, finished off with some cranio-sacral. Heaven. We swept the floor a bit and couldn't find the dustpan. I really knew I was In japan when she said, I will make a box to put the rubbish in, and got out some newspaper on the floor and made an open box - origami not as art but for daily functional use.

I feel like a kid here lots of the time :) am perfecting my bowing and saying "arigato gozaimasu" - thank you very much.

Later that evening (Wednesday) Mana, my host, organiser and friend took me to her calligraphy class in a nearby temple. A couple of photos are attached. I had so much fun, very unexpectedly. The teacher was amazing, it was very liberating and fascinating the way she taught. I invited her to come to my class as my guest the next night which she did and enjoyed - a lovely exchange.

The next day (thursday) Sahaja came and collected me and we went to a park, shrine and people watching. The metro/train system is very efficient. There is a diagram on each platform which tells you which carriage to get on at, so when the train stops at the station you want to get off, the door is opposite the exit. Developed by a mother with young kids :)

95% of signs are in Japanese -so navigation on my own is pretty tricky - I know how to get around in the area Mana lives though, which is quite old, narrow alleys and streets, beautiful, with character. I will take some more photos of that when I am back there.

I have had many talks with Mana and Sahaja clearing up some expectations and communication mishaps. Nothing serious but in all my busyness at home i have let some things slip that needed clarifying -for example the workshop I am teaching this weekend has 5 paying people on. When my agenda is to earn money that is not helpful... but Mana's agenda is to introduce 5Rhythms to a new part of Japan - Mana's contacts are all through Findhorn so those are the people she is attracting. She expected more people to sign up - she has offered to cover some of the venue/accommodation/travel costs for the weekend which I have accepted.

Sahaja and I needed to talk about teachers teaching in the same country, her now teaching here more, should she have had more of a role in my 'tour'? Things like that. We didn't know each other well. It was great to spend time together yesterday, really helpful and then in the evening she decided to translate, much to Mana's relief both because she was so busy on the door welcoming people and her English is not sooo good. There were 40 people at the class last night in Tokyo and it was fantastic. I have never had a 5Rhythms teacher translate before and it obviously added a lot of depth to the evening. It was more like we were working together, almost co-teaching. It was her first time to translate and she was very pleased with how it went and is now much more intetesed in me coming back and us working together so that is great.

I get about a solid 4/5 hours sleep and then wake early, and drift until I get up - I hope this improves.

Everyone is talking about the recession here - and prices are exorbitant. My massage was half price at £45. Entry to my 2.5 hour class was about £25! A one day at my workshop is £150! I still don't really know how much money I will have to take away with me when I leave - and whatever happens the opportunity to be here is a bit of a miracle to me. I am very happy :)

Now I will meet up with Liz in a few hours (YEAH!) and then tomorrow I start teaching a workshop and she will give a concert in the evening. Sunday Mana, Liz and I will drive 3 hours to a hot spa area in a national park where we stay and relax for 2 nights before heading back to a very full 5 days of work.

hoping you are all well and finding goodness in your days.
love
Deborah

Tags: Japan, Personal, workshop, Travel, Asia