Ginza! December 24th, 2017

1. Introduction

Ginza Toastmasters Club held their latest regular meeting on Sunday, 24th December at Kyobashi-Plaza-Kuminkaikan, in Ginza. We were gripped from beginning to end-we heard three beautiful speeches, a table topic session and a special Champion Interview from 2017 Tall Tale Speech Japanese Champion.

2. Roles

Eva, Vice President Educator (VPE) of the Club, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone with a special attention to guests. There were five guests, including Yamazaki (from Eva’s friend), TM Makiko Mizuuchi, TM Masayo Arai, TM Tomoaki Uchiki and TM Toshimitsu Kiji. She then handed it over to Toastmasters Eva (herself) who explained the running order of the meeting. She introduced Timekeeper TM Matsumoto, Yeah counter Yossy, Vote Counter TM Kiji, Grammarian Uchiki, and TM Matsumoto who declared the Word of the Day, “Ring the bell”.

3. Song of the Day

Yuki chose “Winter Wonderland” by playing the music. All the members and guests stepped on the stage and sang in a choir. The choir sang beautifully exceptionally well.

4. Table Topic Session

Table Topics Master Masayo then organized a fantastic impromptu session on reflection of 2017 and expectation of 2018, which Yuko, Kiji, Yamazaki, Makiko and Uchiki participated. Highlights included the 2017 best speech (Rikyu) in Yuko, the 2017 worst speech (beauty tax) in Kiji, the 2017 best person (international conference) in Makiko, the 2017 worst accident (North Korea atomic bomb) in Yamazaki, and the 2018 expectation (propose to his girlfriend to marry) in Uchiki.

5. Prepared speech

Then, the first speaker was Yuki, with his technical presentation #3 (The non-technical audience) titled “Try hard to die hard”. His technical presentation covered the topic of French cheese “Comté. “. Yuki’s was an informative presentation about learning the process of Comté. making and health benefits in Comté. His ending surprised with the unexpected connection of Comté and his annual health check. His material was tailored to the needs, interests and knowledge levels of the audience, and was presented clearly and logically.

Next to speak was Yossy with his speech titled ”Fintech“. Yossy impressed the audience with his outstanding presentation “Fintech” by using creative visual aid. Broadly speaking, Fintech, financial technology, is anywhere technology is applied in financial services or used to help companies manage the financial aspects of their business, including new software and business models. His speech discussed a commitment to advanced technology that we believe will offer the foundation for Fintech innovation, as well as unprecedented social value. His topic captured the audience attention effectively and boosted our interest in Fintech.

The Last speaker was Eva with her CC #7 titled “Joy to the World”. Her holly story revealed the Life of Jesus-From His Birth to His Death. A Picture was worth a thousand word. Eva took us back to B.C., where and when Jesus was born and was lastly coming back to the modern times. One of the best ways to ensure she stood out was to create three memorable moments- she sang in the opening, used a powerful gesture in the main and ended with hope, a smile, and a positive emotion. The last message, “Faith, Hope and Love”, she left was positive!

6. Champion Interview

After the short break, Eva led the special interview of 2017 Tall Tale Japanese Champion TM Kiji who delivered “Momotaro” at the contest. He gave us some tips to grab his target audience attention by driving content performance. Keeping audience attention was one of the biggest challenges facing contestants. His Toastmasters Club was one of the best places where he could freely express himself and learned through practice how to move, influence and motivate others.

After the interview, General Evaluator Yuko invited three exceptional evaluators. We heard from the three evaluators – Uchiki for Yuki, Tomomi for Yossy and Yuko for Eva.

7. Awards

Best Table Topics Award Kiji

Best Evaluator Award Yuko Honda

8. Next meeting

The next meeting will take place at Kyobashi-Plaza-Kuminkaikan, on Sunday, 28th January, at 14:00. Yuki will be the Toastmaster of the Day. Come over to practice your public speaking!