Artist's Impression of my yoga teacher

So today I attended a free trial lesson of Bikram Yoga. This is otherwise known as 'Hot Yoga' or, more troublingly, 'Hollywood Yoga', which I refuse to call it.
Up until now I've been learning Ashtanga Yoga, and thankfully they turned out to be fairly similar. The major point of difference is that in Bikram the studio is heated to 40 degrees. It's like doing yoga in a sauna. The idea is that the heat makes your body more supple (thanks for the English lesson, Dad) so the poses are easier to achieve. Plus you sweat buckets, so it acts as a detox cleaning all the impurities out of your system at the same time.
I am very glad I had done yoga for a bit before trying this version out. It was hardcore (hope I'm not breaching copyright... li'l bro). The artist's impression above is not that far from the truth. If it had been my first experience ever, I think I'd have been overwhlemed and maybe even put off.
Because the one-and-a-half-hour lesson was all in Japanese, it was like an extra challenge for me. I learned some interesting new vocabulary. I also realised that if I can follow a conversation with my head stuck somewhere in the vicinity of my ankles and sweat dripping into my earholes, then my end-of-year listening test should be a piece of cake.
I was actually quite nervous about going. Not only do I get anxious meeting new people, I'm also not wild about stirpping down to shorts and t-shirt at any time. I was concerned, too, that the other (mainly female) classmates would be put off by having a lanky, white, Mister Bean-like character present when they swivelled their bits into places the sun don't often shine. I worried for nothing. As the poses were so tricky, everyone was just focused on themselves and keeping in their own space. They weren't bothered by little old me. In fact, it was a great advantage to be male after the class as I didn't have to compete for a shower at all, whereas a lot of the women had to wait in line for ages to get a cubicle.
As the school has just opened, it was all modern and clean and perfect. They provide you with all you need - mats and towels and soap and shampoo and the like. Very good service. There's also a healthy juice bar attached for socialising afterward, and all manner of therapies offered I have no intention of trying.
The location was very 'Tokyo' aswell. It was on the third floor of a relatively large building. The first two floors were taken up by a massive pachinko parlour. As those of you who have been here before know, these gambling-machine venues are the noisiest, smokiest, most decadent places in the city. And yet no-one bats an eye at having an oasis of health and calm and zen sitting atop one. I guess with real estate the way it is here, ya takes what ya can get. I imagine Dublin is no longer that far behind.
The staff of the yoga school were good - they didn't push the big sell on me. I think they were too busy chuckling at how long I took to read through the contract - I mean legalese is difficult enough in English but in all those squiggly characters...well... I am my mother's father's grandson and will not sign something until I'm pretty sure I know what I'm putting my name to. It was funny some of the things they checked out. Apart from the regular health and liabilty wiavers, I also had to swear that I was not a member of the yakuza (Japanese gangsters), that I wasn't tatooed, and that I wasn't pregnant. I'm pretty sure I was good to go on all three.
The whole school system is very convenient and flexible. they have three branches dotted around the city, all of which are close to somehwere I usually need to be. You just buy lesson tickets and can use them for any scheduled lesson over a period of two months. It's great that I don't have a fixed lesson time - my schedule can get a bit dicy so it's nice to have that freedom. And I really don't think it was expensive at all - it worked out as about 20 euro a lesson - God bless deflation. On top of all this, I can book everything over the internet, playing nicely into my continued phobia of telephones.
Overall, a great experience. I even ran into an old friend I haven't seen in months...maybe years. I barely recognized her without her makeup (thank god she doesn't read this blog - I'd be murdered) But I mean it was quite a shock - she didn't have any eyebrows - who knew they were painted on.
Anyway, now I'm feeling all bendy and relaxed. My cirulcation is pretty good too - though I'm sure I'll be back to my icy norm before nightfall.
Until then I'll take my positive yoga energy and bid you namaste.