Job Discussion Forums

Precise · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 140

Can you seasoned gentlemen and gentleladies describe your typical day in Japan? What's your routine in regards to getting through the day. How do you squeeze in some fun time around your work schedules, varied as they might be?

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

well I get up around 8, the wife and I try and get in some exercise, maybe do some market shopping, run some errands, or a spot of house cleaning. After lunch I head into work, have a break around 3, then dinner @6, home around 9-10.
I work Tue-Sat so Sunday Mondays are either bumming around the house, hiking, shopping in the city, catching up with friends, couple of other things.

Precise · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 140

osakajojo · Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 229

wake up at 8:30
have breakfast
go to work
come home at 1:30
have lunch
play with my daughter
go back to work at 4:45
come home at 9:30
have dinner
play with my daughter
watch tv or mess around on this computer
go to bed listening to Howard Stern live on Sirius

jademonkey · Joined: 30 Mar 2007 Posts: 180

Let's see...
I would wake up between 8 and 11am, study or loaf around, then jump on my bike and ride to work for a 1pm start. Work all day until 9pm, maybe a quick beer after work, then either go out for dinner with the wife or perhaps down to the local yakitori shop (one of the best in Tokyo) for a beer and a yarn. On the weekends, shopping or maybe a daytrip out to Hakone (which my wife is thoroughly sick of) or somewhere similar. Every time I'm allowed to escape for more than a few days, either go down the coast to Kyushu or (cash permitting) have a look around other Asian countries.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Eikaiwa days.
Get up around 7am. Take care of home affairs (laundry, returning/renting videos, shopping, post office, etc.) before noon. Go to work after lunch. Work until 9pm. Return home by 10pm. Watch videos, read, do computer stuff till midnight. Weekends free.

High school and private lesson days.
Work 8:30 to 4pm, Mon to Fri. Have 1 or 2 private lessons until 8 or 9pm (with dinner at home often rushed in between; wife was pregnant then, so I did most of the shopping and cooking). Saturday have 1 or 2 private lessons from 10am to 2pm. Rest of weekend spent with wife.

High school days.
Wake up at 6am. Get to work at 8am. Work and meetings until 6 or 7pm (later on weeks with exams). Get home half an hour later. Dinner and relaxation with family. Bed at midnight. Every other Saturday work 8am to 2pm, plus work sporadic longer hours on festival days, open house, etc.

University days.
Wake up at 6am. Get to work by 8:30. One or 2 classes a day. Do online research. Leave around 6pm. Dinner and relaxation with family. Weekends off.

AndyH · Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 417

Get up between 8:00 and 9:00.
Help wife with the baby, eat breakfast, check e-mail and play around on internet.
Leave for work around 11:00 am (some days earlier)
Get home around 9:15
Check e-mail and play around on internet.
Go to bed around midnight.

Sunday: Help wife with baby, shopping for groceries, sometimes rent a movie.

About once a month I'll take a trip into Tokyo.

I love being a dad, but life is a lot different now, then when I was a single guy in Japan!

Precise · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 140

Thanks for the posts. It sounds like you guys have very long working days. This is surprising considering many other ESL hotspots such as Korea don't require you to work more than 30 hours a week.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Long days, yes. Long WORKING days? Well, sometimes. It depends on how your job is structured. Nobody ever said the Japanese work system was efficient. Hint, hint.

And, as for conversation schools, you may be in the office 40 hours a week (depends), but the usual number of classroom hours is 25-30 per week.

User N. Ame · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 222 Location: Kanto

womblingfree · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 826

Here are my routines for working at an eikaiwa and as an ALT.

Eikaiwa:

Get up at 12 noon, have a shower, get the train into work, eat something from Doutor, office meeting (only on Wednesdays), teach a 50 minute class at 1pm maybe, go for lunch until 5:50pm, get back and pull a lesson out of a box, teach three classes until 9pm, go to an izakaiya with students and co-workers, then maybe onto karaoke until the last train, fool around till 4am, repeat.

ALT:

Wake up at 6:10am, rush out the door listening to my iPod, make the 90 minute trek to Chiba from Ikebukuro, teach four or five classes in quick succession to groups of 50 kids whilst sleeping for 120 seconds between classes, repeat until 3 or 4pm.

The ALT job may sound like a nightmare in comparison but when there were no classes my head teacher let me stay at home (unknown to my dispatch company Laughing

) This meant absurdly long holidays during school breaks! Also they let me out as soon as my classes finished even though I was meant to stay till 4:30 every day. Sometimes my last class would be at 12 Smile

Also getting out of work at 3pm was nice but getting up at 6:10am was not.

The social life was far better at the eikaiwa, but luckily quite a few of my friends from there were still around when I got the ALT job. No one from the high school really socialised outside as they were too exhausted!! Still in touch with my great head teacher though. Wink

TK4Lakers · Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 159

6:15am : wake up, shower, quick breakfast

7:00am : out the door for a 10 min walk to the bus stop

7:30am : arrive at school, sit around, yawn, wipe the desks

8:30~12:20pm : classes/open periods, lunchtime

1:15pm~3pm: go to elem. school and teach

on mondays I'll usually go home to tutor for an hour.
other days, play club sports with the students until 6-7pm.

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Up at 5:50 am, make bento lunch for me and my partner
On the train at 6:40
At work by 8:25
Prep and teach 3-4 classes, mark papers, grade input, chase absent students to do tests adn get their homework, plus English afternoon activities
Leave 4:30 pm
Catch train at 4:40pm, knit, read or crash part of the way
arrive at home station 6:15
at dojo or gym or lake for a bike ride by 6:45
Give up at 8:30pm
Home by 9:00pm Make dinner, do laundry, listen to podcasts, chill, meditate
Bed by 11:30 at the latest

Oh, but there's Hell Day when I have night school

Do the usual commute to work, put in a full day, then on the train by 4:40pm
Arrive at closest station to school by 5:20pm
get a quick dinner
at school by 6:00pm
class finishes 9:00pm
home by 10:30pm if I'm lucky. If I'm really lucky, I got a seat half the ride home.
Like down and die at 11:00pm

rebecca432 · Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Osaka, Japan

10 am Alarm rings. I promptly push the snooze button
11 am Get tired of alarm ringing and get in the shower
12 pm Go back to bed
1 pm Get out of bed and eat breakfast and get ready for work
2:30 pm Leave the apartment for the ten minute walk to work
3:10 pm First lesson of the day
Lunch depends on shift so anywhere between 5:30 to 7:30
10:40 pm Shift ends

11-2, 3, 4, sometimes 5 or 6
Go home, eat dinner, go to karaoke or the bar, surf the net, waste time

On my days off, I go to the store, do laundry, and try to take day trips to places

My schedule seems very laid back compared to those of you who have real teaching jobs (no matter what anyone says Nova is not a real teaching job) and those of you who have spouses and kids. Now if I could just get out of bed and do something in the morning I'd have it made.

Gypsy Rose Kim · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 151