Do you know anything about Tottori? Do you know where it is? Maybe Tottori is one of the least familiar places for many Toastmasters in Japan. Now I would like to believe it has created history.

      Tottori Toastmasters Club was chartered on November 23, 2009 after conducting three demonstration meetings since September of the same year. Achieving the charter within three months seems to be so special that I have often been asked what the secret for the success was. I would say it’s simply because people in Tottori have wanted such a friendly but challenging space where they can learn and grow like Toastmasters. Once people knew about Toastmasters, they were courageous enough to jump into the new world, which I’m really proud of as one of the locals as well as a founder of the club.

      You may have heard that Tottori has a huge sand dune. The ripple marks on the sand there are so beautiful. The marks are made by the strong breeze of course. The drier the sand is the faster and more clearly the marks appear. I do believe that Toastmasters is a breeze that people have wanted to draw many beautiful figures on the land of Tottori with. And the breeze is being waited for in many other areas in the whole country where there is no Toastmasters club. May the breeze from Tottori reach there!

       We hold regular meetings on every second Sunday from 14:00 to 16:30 at Tottori City Fureai Kaikan near JR Tottori station. So far we have about 30 members and expect several guests to join at each meeting. Since the club was chartered in a very short time, we have much to learn even little by little but steadily.

       Last but not least, on behalf of all the club members, here I would like to express our sincere thanks to fellow toastmasters from Speak-up, Kyoto, Kansai, East-Kobe and Okayama Toastmasters clubs who have been offering generous support and help to us.