Ginza! January 28th, 2018

1. Introduction Ginza Toastmasters Club held their latest regular meeting on Sunday,28th January at Kyobashi-Plaza-Kuminkaikan, in Ginza. We heard two wonderful speeches, enjoyed excellent table topic session and learned practical skill at special workshop from the regular member with the guests.

2. Roles Drian Von-Golden, President of the Club, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone with a special attention to guests. There were three guests, including Bin Tang, Arisa (Bin’s friend) and Victor (Drian’s friend). He then handed it over to Toastmasters Yuki who explained the running order of the meeting. Then he invited Drian, special workshop presenter, to the stage to perform his workshop.

3. Workshop Drian led the great workshop of topic “communication” centered around “what the good communicator is”. A good speech is not defined only by the relevance of the content. A good speech is designed to help the audience process the information made available to them. Steve Jobs (powerful, emotional and aggressive) or Obama(open-minded, friendly and easily understandable) is possibly one of the ultimate examples of the good communicators. One of the best ways to ensure “I am a good communicator” is to create positive climate by using joking, summary, repetition or even showing passion. For example, in cases we have different views, a phrase “Maybe I want being clear, I meant to say” is one of the good ways for the conversion to move forward as planned.

4. After the workshop, followed by a short break, Toastmaster Yuki introduced TM Yuko, who declared the Word of the Day, “Quintessential”, which means “most perfect embodiment(example) of something”.

5. Song of the Day Yuki chose “Cruel to be kind” by Nick Lowe, 1979. It's pretty much obviously a couple song. One of the most famous use of the phrase “bona fide, whose synonym “authentic, is possibly this song. Bona fide implies sincerity and earnestness. A bona fide promise is one that the person has every intention of keeping. In this song, a bona fide proposal of marriage is one made by a suitor who isn't kidding around.

6. Table Topic Session Table Topics Master Bin then organized a unique impromptu session on one’s goal in life, which Yossy, Yuki and Makiko participated. Highlights included the prototype sample learned from the unexpectedly business situation in Yossy, the differs brings opportunities after dealing with miscommunication in Israel in Yuki, and recommendation for reconciliation to her clients to protect her goal in Makiko.

7. Prepared speech Then, the first speaker was Yuko, with her special occasion #1 (Mastering Toast) titled “Quintessential guy”. It was a toast recognizing the characteristics of a toast: presenting a toast honoring a person, who is a perfect embodiment of toastmaster. Yuki, ACS and ALB, may you continue to be the perfect example we can emulate, the man who makes a difference in other TMs clubs. The man with the passion. The quintessential guy!

Next to speak was Tomomi with English Rakugo "Awards (hyoshojo)”. Tomomi impressed the audience with her excellent show Rakugo. Broadly speaking, “Award”, is a story that men try to get things going badly but ironically things moves forward luckily. Laughter was provoked in the beginning and it was a running joke among us. She used obvious misunderstandings to mainly tell silly or funny jokes about the topic, to make the audience laugh. One of the best ways to ensure she stood out was to use fan effectively. On Rakugo, a fan often serves not just as a fan, but to represent all manner of everyday objects. In a scene where noodle was eaten in her show, a folded sensu was used to substitute for chopsticks.

8. After the speeches, General Evaluator Yuko invited two brilliant evaluators. We heard from the two evaluators – Yuko for Bin and Tomomi for Yossy.

9. Awards Best Table Topics Award Yossy Best Evaluator Award Bin Best Speaker Tomomi

10. Next meeting The next meeting will take place at Kyobashi-Kuminkaikan(not the usual place of "Kyobashi-Plaza"), on Sunday, 25th February. We will open at 13:00, for the Special Re-Run of Part 1 of Drian Von Golden's Workshop 'Catalyser Communication' by Popular Demand.

The regular meeting time, at 14:00, will continue with Part 2!

President Drian will do Toastmaster. Come over to practice your public speaking!