Sapporo Pioneers Toastmasters Club

It was a posh meeting venue, located on the 2nd floor of Linkage Plaza next to Sapporo TV Station. The meeting room of 50 people was bright and white. The whiteboard, the tables, the chairs, were all in white. I arrived at the Sapporo Pinoeer Toastmasters Club 50 minutes in advance. I turned on the lights, sat in the room feeling excited that I could make it to the one and only Toastmasters club in Hokkaido this evening, the 14th of November, before returning to Taipei tomorrow.

President Sayama arrived ten minutes after me. He took my advise to rearrange the room layout for a change. As two early birds, we had a chance to discuss the toastmasters activities in general. I told him that I was very optimistic about the potential in developing Toastmasters clubs in Hokkaido. The Sapporo Pioneer is a small club but of great quality, I'm sure it will play an important role to give birth to many Toastmasters clubs in the north country of Japan in the future.

Nine members showed up for the meeting. In two hours meeting time, I could remember all their names. The meeting started on time, followed by the opening thought of Toastmaster Tobino. After Toastmaster Nakayama, Toastmaster of the Evening, introduced the meeting program, Toastmaster Uraguchi announced the Word of the Day, POSH.

I was delighted to deliver an impromptu speech on my journey in Hokkaido for five minutes before the tabletopics session. The tabletopics master Mano invited all members to comment about the Beaujolais Nouveau, which was due to lanch tomorrow, the third Thursday of November. After 10 minutes intermission, two heavyweight prepared speakers Konichi and Sato were on stage. Both of them are advanced speakers. Toastmaster Konichi delivered her fourth speech "The Press Conference" of Communicating on Television. Toastmaster Sato delivered her third speech "The Demonstration Talk" of Speaking to Inform.

I was honored to invited to add a few words after the general evaluation session. Of course, I expressed my thankfulness to my fellow toastmasters members for their posh achievements. And I encouraged them to form a Toastmaster Magazine reading group among themselves and listen to Talkingtoastmasters for the interviews with the authors of Toastmaster Magazines.

After club meeting, we went to an Izakaya for the second party. Toastmaster Ikeda was the only male among four female members, Nakayama, Konishi, Sato, and me. The Izakaya was so warm and cozy, the waitress was so sweet and friendly, the food was super delicious. While most members drank Oolung tea, I challenged a bottle of Japanese sake. I even thought about performing a short clogging dance upon request (Yes, I'm obsessed with clogging dance, and I carry my clogging dance shoes whereever I go).

We didn't leave the Izakaya untill almost 11:30PM. We hugged one another and bid goodnight in front of the Izakaya. I was told that it would snow tomorrow! Toastmaster Konishi offered me a lift back to Sapporo House. I wore a big posh smile into my dream!