My work week starts on Tuesday, one of my two late days (meaning that I start work at 1 PM instead of 12 PM.) By Japanese standards, 15 minutes early is on time, so I usually get to work 20 – 30 minutes early to give myself time to prepare and help with the morning cleaning. I used to show up at 11:30 AM every day, even on my late days, because I needed time to prepare for my classes. Now that my prep time has dropped significantly, I can actually start to take advantage of my late days. Tuesday is also a very light day with an average of 4 – 5 classes and several hours in the morning with no classes at all.
Classes start on the hour before 7 PM and at 10 after starting at 7:10 PM, and run for 50 minutes. The last class of the day starts at 8:10 PM and goes until 9 PM. After that, we take care of a few closing duties (attendance, no-show calls, printing out tomorrow's schedule) and typically leave between 9:10 and 9:30 PM. It takes me 10 minutes to walk back to my apartment, at which point I quickly change out of my work clothes and heat up dinner and some tea. I don't have time to cook at night, so I like to cook four days worth of food Monday night and eat it over the course of the week. Depending on how tired I am, I get into bed sometime between 11 and 12 PM and wake up like clockwork at 8 AM (whether I would rather sleep longer or not.)
Wednesday is a reasonably busy day, though not as much so as Thursday and Saturday. I teach one of two company lessons on Wednesday, which involves driving to the company office and teaching an hour and a half TOEIC vocabulary and business English lesson. Because of travel time, this is effectively a three-hour chunk of my day, and I almost always have two classes right after I get back. Thursday is my cleanup day, which means vacuuming and taking home the burnable garbage (a small cost saving measure, since it's free for people to throw garbage away at home.) The vacuuming is in theory supposed to be done in the morning before students arrive, but that's effectively impossible, so we do it the night before instead. This means I spend an extra 15 – 20 minutes vacuuming Wednesday night before I go home.
Thursday is one of my busiest days, with back-to-back classes, a company lesson and a staff meeting. With no office hours, I generally have to prepare for every class the day before and/or work through lunch. Lunch is at 2 or 3 PM every day, and is a long time away from breakfast at 8:30 AM, so I often eat a piece of fruit right before leaving the house to tide me over. On my busy days, I mostly just run downstairs to the market, grab a bento (box lunch) and eat at my desk. The slower days give me the opportunity to eat something else, though I only know one place in the department store with a picture menu and reasonable prices.
Friday is my other late day, and like Tuesday is relatively light. Since I can only effectively cook four meals worth of food on Monday (given the size of my kitchen space, dishes and refrigerator,) I normally eat out one night a week. There's a ramen place I like close to my apartment; it's a little pricey, but it's the only place I know that's open after 9 PM (everything else in the area closes at 9 PM) and it's good food. My only other option would be to grab another bento from a convenience store, but I don't really want two bentos a day. I'm still working out the best day to do this, since Thursday I'm carrying garbage home and Friday I have to go to bed early, but it's starting to look like Wednesday is the best choice.
You may be wondering why I go to bed relatively early every night and have so much time to kill in the morning. The reason is that Saturday starts at 10 AM, two hours earlier than any other day. It's also my busiest day, with a solid seven classes and the most students. I need to be out of the house by 9:30 AM, and I can't afford to sleep late every other day and change my sleep schedule just for one day. Every class on Saturday starts at 10 after, with the last class starting at 6:10 PM and going until 7 PM. After work, if we don't go out and do something, I like to stop by the supermarket near my apartment before it closes and grab a baked sweet potato and tofu for dinner.
Sunday and Monday are my days off, and I like to take advantage of that free time to actually do some laundry and cooking. I've gotten in the habit of making soba noodle soup Sunday night because it's relatively quick and easy, saving the bigger and more elaborate dishes for Monday night. Lunch is usually a sweet potato or something at a nearby restaurant. Any writing that I have to do for work, such as preparing discussion articles and progress reports, I take home with me and do on the weekend. It's nothing I really want to do, but I don't feel that I have time at work and it's way easier on my hands to do it at home. Monday is also a much-needed housecleaning day, where I clean up the surprisingly large amount of dust that settles into my room every week. I could honestly stand to dust twice a week, but I don't really feel like I have the time. If I have time, it's always good to go for a walk, catch up on correspondence or do some creative writing!
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