Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would come to this, but the past few weeks this blog has been neglected because I've been busy launching my very own private English school!
It will be a place where neighborhood children come after school to study English and play language games with me in hopes that I can broaden their horizons and teach them not only another language, but also about different cultures.
I could never have attempted this venture on my own, and I owe all my friends who helped me a very big
THANK YOU!! 
What I started withThis room was originally built as a piano school, but it's been empty for the past five years. It's located directly next to my house, so I approached the owner, an elderly female farmer from the neighborhood, about converting it into a English school. She was ecstatic about my idea, and gave me the room free of charge, assuming I would clean it up.
I asked some people to come lend a hand because there was a lot of work that needed to be done, and I couldn't do it all by myself. I was pleasantly surprised when folks actually showed up to help!
Toku helping outWe had to cosmetically construct and re-panel several of the outside walls that had water damage, but none of us were particularly skilled in home improvement techniques, so it was kind of like the
Three Stooges with power tools walking around.
It wasn't until we got to the last couple panels that we finally learned a little bit about what we were doing.
A couple of our dubious highlights had to be striping nearly every screw with the power drill and chiseling layers off plywood sheets to make double-decker wood chip fittings, which we later discovered were completely erroneous.
The following weekend we started painting.
I decided to go with a red, white, and blue color scheme because of the obvious American connotations, but also because I thought a sky blue building would be eye catching to onlookers.
We got quite a few absent stares from people walking to the nearby train station trying to figure out what the hell we were doing.
What it's shaping up to look likeMy friend Jim told me he spotted the school from the road and had to salute. Not the affect I'd hoped for, but...
The insideThe inside was in much better shape than the outside. It just needed some kiddy decorations and whatnot.
The puzzle mat flooring adds a simple twist to the Japanese style of sitting on the floor, and the picture collage around my desk will hopefully grow in the near future to include pictures of all my students.
One final touch that's not yet completed is a sign board to post outside. My friend Jason was nice enough to come lend his artistic talents.
Everything about this school is a work in progress, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. I got my fingers crossed everything will be okay.
School starts Tuesday!!!
