Hey all. Thanks for making me a moderator of the site. I promise not to screw things up (Rome would kill me! LOL). I will be posting here after samurai classes. I'm copying my first post from a few days ago and pasting it here so it's a little more accessible. I can't promise all my entries will be this long, but I'll try to include as much detail as I can.

Hey all. Life's been hectic lately. Had lots of stuff to do in LA and then had a lot of stuff to do back at the "real" job today.

OK, so I totally boned it and forgot my camera. OOPS! I will be sure to pack it next week for class. It seems that Mickey already got her questions answered, but I will reiterate: Rome expects his biography to be done in December, and is so busy dealing with the Japanese side of things, he can't even think about translating it to English. He said he would like to, but we have to wait until the Japanese version is done first. After the release and everything, then maybe he can think about the English version.

As for the days I spend with Rome, well it's one hell of a workout, I tell ya. Rome is a GREAT teacher. He is quite the taskmaster, and wants nothing but perfection from all of his students. He is great at gauging where a student is at in their experience level. For example, if a student is a beginner, he just wants them to get the hang of the various forms (called "Katas" in Japanese). Once a student learns the basic movements, Rome will start to fix the little things about the student's form. As for myself, I have a problem with a particular slashing movement called "dogiri" and Rome is always on my case about it. One of the things that makes Rome's class so fun is that while it is very serious, there are always moments of levity where Rome will poke fun at someone. It's a nice change of pace and breaks up the class really well. Another cool thing about class is that all the students help me with my Japanese, and I help them with their English. Rome is not excluded from this. I love to help Rome with his English! When I referenced the problem earlier that I have with "dogiri" for example, Rome said "Heel always go up... you have bad habit, heel go up!" Then he asked for clarification in English, so I said, "Your heel always comes off the ground." Now Rome criticizes me in perfect English. HAHA!

After samurai class, some of the students put their swords away and continue training with Rome. Usually, after a two hour break, they will reconvene at one of the student's apartment for Acting class. I asked a fellow student if I could tag along one time but was told that the entire class was in Japanese, so it might be difficult for me to follow along. Last week, I thought I'd ask Rome again, just to see what it was all about. Besides, hearing everything in Japanese helps me with my language learning anyway. I was surprised when Rome said that it would be great if I was there, because they are running lines in English, and it would help them to have a native speaker around.

Rome's acting class focuses a lot on improv. As a voice actor, improv is great for me, because sometimes I'm forced to make decisions on the fly. A lot of the exercises are fun, and they work on getting you to be able to think on your feet. After we're all warmed up, we'll run some scenes and take input from Rome. As a voice actor, since all you hear is our voice, we're used to using a lot of motion and expressions with our body to convey our performance. Rome had me shut down all of my physical quirks and stand perfectly still to deliver my lines. His direction was to convey as much emotion as I could without moving. What a great exercise this was for me! If I keep refining this skill, then it will just make me a better voice actor when I put the body movement back in. I'll be conveying more emotion with my voice and my body... I'm excited to go on some auditions with this new found technique. Afterward, Rome paid me a very high compliment and said that I had a great natural instinct and that I make good emotional choices as an actor. WOW! That is high praise because that is something I've worked very diligently at. It was nice to hear that from someone so accomplished as an actor as Rome. That really made my day. Afterward, we all went out to Denny's for a late dinner. While we were there, Rome asked me to evaluate his class. I told him it was great, and that he's both a great samurai teacher and a great acting teacher. Rome said, "yes, that is a gift I've been given from God. I don't say 'I'm a good actor' or 'I'm a good samurai' because I feel I'm just ok at those things. What I do say is that 'I'm a good teacher' because I can see a students hidden talents and pull them out of that student." That he does, and it's pretty darn cool to watch.