Yoga Trip in Japan: Yoga Classes

Before leaving for Japan, I searched the Internet to find some yoga studios and classes in my hometown so that I could practice while I was there. Since my hometown, Sapporo, is one of the biggest cities in Japan, you can imagine how many studios I had to choose from. There were so many studios and classes available that I couldn’t decide which one to attend.

Even with my limited knowledge of how yoga is practiced in Japan, what surprised me was that there were no free first classes. No matter how much I researched, I couldn’t find any studio that offered a free first try-out class. If I wanted to practice yoga, I’d have to pay a fee to attend a single class. The only other alternative that was offered was to pay for a membership – and I certainly didn’t want to do that!

I couldn’t figure out how people could pay for a membership without knowing what the studios and instructors are like? How would someone know which studios are good? I’m guessing that since the Japanese community is so small, it was probably by word of mouth.

But that didn’t help me! I didn’t know which studio and instructors were good so how could I decide which one to attend? So what I did was ask my sister-in-law – and that was a smart move because she recommended a studio located in the middle of downtown. I checked online to see if there was a fee I had to pay and was pleasantly surprised to see that there was no fee – yippy! And there was a basic yoga class just on the date that I was free. How lucky I was!

Now that I’ve found a yoga studio, I’m really looking forward to having my first yoga class in Japan. We’ll see what’s going to happen next! How exciting!

[tags]Japan, yoga class, yoga studio, yoga and fees, yoga membership, sapporo, yoga practice, free class[/tags]