A Day in the Life

So following a common suit, I decided to give you my schedule to show you what a day in my life is like.

6 am
Wake up in a leisurely cacophonous fashion with multiple alarms about half way through the hour. Proceed to dress in business casual attire, which right now is a nice sweater and slacks. Simplistic make up and brushing of hair follows suit. Warm up breakfast which is normally either onigiri or toast. After another two alarms, one warning me departure time is approaching and the next telling me to get of out the house, wherein I then bike a few kilometers to the bike garage near the station. And then walk to the station
The bike garage is normally an official place with some sort of covering where bikes in the hundreds are kept for your return. These places often will cost. Mine is either 200 yen a day or 4000 yen a month. Living in Kyoto has its expenses and this is one of them. Other places will be cheaper. My former city was about 2400 monthly for the bike parking, and I have even heard of some places being free. Either way, you typically need a bike parking garage elsewise you bike might be stolen or impounded. There are regular people who walk around to ticket or take your bike, so be careful!
Notice how I said most places above? My bike garage is some lady's house. The station is use is old and many of its features have been grandfathered into the new rules and regulations. This is because it is an extremely busy intersection, and to tear it up would be to wreck havoc with the city-goers. Also because it is so built up, there is no room for an official parking garage, so a few of the residents decided to make some easy money by using their first floors are bike garages for the commuters. There are 3 that I know of and they actually all very in price depending on who is closest. Mine is the cheapest.

7 am
I have just parked and getting to the station. I take a pretty early train for a bit less than half an hour to the city where I work. By choice, I do not live in that city, nor in a closer city, of which there are several. There is really good transportation in Japan therefore I can really have my pick of the pie in terms of where I live. And thus I live in Kyoto. Who wouldn't right?
From the station, I have a choice of walking or taking the bus. The bus always seems like a hassle; you have to make sure you are on the right bus, you have to figure out the times and the routes, it is all in Japanese, and then you have to wait for it and it actually ends up being about the same amount of time as walking. So I typically walk. Also as a side note, that is totally unlike Kyoto buses, which was much better organized and in English. The walking is just a few kilometers and I figure is a a good exercise and whatnot, at least that is what I tell myself.

8 am
Actually just before it, I arrive at school. There is not really a point for me to get to school this early other than that I like it. I just come in, get settled, open the laptop and plan if needed. I make/print my handouts if I haven't already, touch up power point, write in my blog, you know just anything. At 8:20 everyday there is a small morning meeting with the principal and all the teachers in the office. It lasts less than 5 minutes. Only my junior high school (aka middle school) does this. The bells rings and home room starts for the kids. The first official class is not until 8:45. I may or may not have class at this time. It all depends on my schedule.
Class mostly means me teaching a designated lesson/topic of the day. They usually make it a point to make my lessons to be conversation lessons so that the students can practice and hone their speech to a better perfection.
In my junior high school, I act as the main teacher and have complete run of the class. I teach the entire time on the designated subject, but you would be asked to do any number of things. One common complaint among foreigners is that they are merely a walking tape recorder for the lessons. Meaning they just repeat the words at the Japanese-English teachers command. A person might also be assigned to only one portion of the lesson, like a game, or activity, or maybe only even a 5 minute warm up. It totally depends on what a school needs you for.
My typical lesson will be something like a small warm up, the focal point of the lesson, perhaps a small bit of practice, and then an activity or game that I have designed to make the kids want to participate more as well as to better support the focal point of the lesson. For example a warm up might be some shiritori in English, followed by a page in the book where we discuss a dialogue where I will go over it the first time doing both parts and different voices depending on the day, and then we will go over it in English and then the more difficult points in Japanese. From there we will review the key phrase and I will make them come up with example of how to use it and change it (like would you like ~~?) and then I will have an activity or game for them utilizing that phrase. The Japanese-English teacher will be there the whole time and will support me when asked, but more or less leaves everything up to me. The aid of this teacher varies upon the teacher, some teachers are very supportive and some are pretty non-existent. I even have one who sleeps on occasion. Grading and Reading during my lessons is pretty normal. They are there though to handle the classroom behavior. I am no disciplinarian and since I am a gaijin, if something or dispute happens, it is always better to have another teacher there to mediate the problem and to be able to convey the problem to any other authority if necessary. For example is a fight breaks out between students, I can try to stop it but it is best that I leave it to the Japanese teacher, also my limited Japanese can't convey to the principal what happened. And of course they are there to make sure I don't do anything too ridiculous or our of order.

In my elementary schools, classes run more or less the same. I again have the run of the class and teach the entire time. Some classes have books we teach out of, others don't. The Japanese-English teachers try to be as helpful as they can, getting the students to pay attention, behave, and participate, or if there is a special student, helping them be entertained with me lesson. These teachers often do not speak much English, but are very genial. The English level does vary though and so does their help and input in my lessons. You kind of just learn to adapt for who does what. I have one teacher who follows my every word and helps to translate difficult words like 'brave' from the story in the book.
My elementary lessons are a pretty much the same as my junior high school ones, but at a much lower level. I will have a warm up, the lesson topic or book topic, a short review and a game. For example a warm up is a chant or song often provided by the book, or as compliments of Youtube, and then I will get into the lesson and we will go over all the vocab for that lesson, if it is in the book, there are often some accompanying listening exercises that I will also do. I will then move into some review where I will change the words to ones not in the book so they might try to give some original answers. At this point I might call on some students to answer the question (example: what fruit do you like?) and then will progress into a game or activity that is simple and repetitive so they can remember and easily practice the target phrases.

12:15 pm; 12:35 pm
Lunch time! At this time, the first four class periods are complete. If I am at my elementary school, I get fed the school lunch for a grand total of 208 yen. If I am at my junior high school, I often bring my own lunch, or if I forget, I can order the bento from the bento shop that all the teacher order from for 400 yen. At my JHs, most teacher do not order the bento, preferring cheaper or more delicious food, but there are a few people who are constants on the daily order.
After this, but at no designated time, students have recess, which is greatly diminished in JHS.
The earlier time follows the elementary schedule with their 45 minute classes, and the latter time is the JHS schedule with their 50 minute lessons.

1:20 pm; 1:45 pm
Here, the earlier time signifies when JHS students hit the books for 5th period, and the latter time is elementary. See I told you they had an awesome recess. Elementary students even sometimes go home after lunch, which is not too unusual, and then come back for 5th period. Or if they are a very young grade in elementary, they might only have 4 classes and then the day is over for them. Elementary classes tend to vary between 5 and 6 periods throughout the week. At mine, I think most days are 5 classes and then they can go home, but on days when the first period is scheduled reading time, they have 6 periods.

3:10 pm
Classes are finished and then they have homeroom again to wrap up the day at JHS. Them some students go home, but the vast majority will have some club to attend to. They will go to this club until about 4:30 or 5. I am not really sure if there is a designated time for them to leave. I will occasionally attend the cooking club and the just come and go whenever. Sports teams are perhaps a bit more rigorous.
Since classes are over at this time, I would spend time preparing for the next day, or if I have already, I would spend it as I see fit. Sometimes I visit the clubs, who are always happy to have me, but recently I just study.

4:30 pm
This is my departure time. I am now allowed to go home. And unless I am wrapping something up, or in the middle of something, I am more often than not leaving right about this time. If you have an awesome school, or elementary school, they might let you go home a bit earlier.
From now, I will walk back to the station.

5 pm
I get on the train to head home. Typically during my commute, I listen to music, audiobooks, or more recently, podcasts like japanesepod101. Once I arrive at the station, I return to the garage, pick up my bike, and bike back home.

6 pm
Arrive home and be lazy for some time. Video games, checking the computer, reading, catching up on a TV series. And then if it is not Tuesday or Thursday I will go to the grocery store to get some things for cooking. Something very different in Japan is that I go to the grocery store every day. The refrigerators are much smaller here and it is actually not so common to buy in bulk. I am almost surprised to see 12 packs of toilet paper being sold. It is extremely typical to want to cook with fresh ingredients, thus there are many grocery stores to support everyone's daily visit. There are of course a few super stores, or at least in Kyoto, where they sell things that you might want to stock up on since those products wont be sold in you more local stores. Those stores are also usually a bit farther away. I am talking like a 10 minute drive. Yeah. That, is considered far away here. The normal grocery stores are usually about a 2-3 minute bike ride from my apartment, and I have 3 of them in that range to give you an idea of how convenient they are.

7 pm
I am cooking, or running if it is a Tuesday or Thursday. And following suit, I am eating. On my running days, dinner is still cooked, but usually a more simple affair.

8 pm
More relaxing, or possibly studying.

9 pm
Shower time. Like the Japanese, I have been showering mostly at night. This is actually largely due to I hate waking up early and to wake up any earlier and shower just seems like hell. I still believe that morning showers are way better though. When I lived closer to my schools, I would shower in the mornings, so this is purely because I live farther away and have longer to commute now.
Following is doing whatever I want time, unless it is my one day a week where I clean and do laundry, in which case I do that.

11 pm
Roughly. Its bed time.

Interac Application Process

Interac is a Japanese company which recruits ALT's and places them in public schools in Japan. I currently work from them as an English teacher over in Japan. Here is a little how my timeline and hiring process went with Interac. I got this idea from Jennie over at Kawaii 5-oh and her blog, http://jennieinjapan.wordpress.com whose blog provided me with all the details I was so desperate to have when I was in my own process of applying to Interac.

Please note beforehand that I was situated in Korea at the time of my application; therefore, I had a slightly different experience.

• April 12th: registered with the Interac Network online. 
• May 27th: submitted Interac online application (note there are two short online essays - I think 500 words?) 
• June 2nd: received correspondence from Interac requesting a phone interview 
• June 3rd: Short 20 minute phone interview with Interac recruiting office. 
• June 8th: Notice that I passed the phone screening. Obtained information about next process ( sending in required documents, 6 minute lesson demonstration video and secondary interview session) 
• June 14th: Uploaded finished demo lesson video. 
• June 16th: Sent in application package to Interac head office. 
• June 17th: Online interview with recruiter ( please note that because I was located in South Korea, my interview took place online; however when I talked to almost everyone else, either from America, the U.K. or Japan, they all had in person and often group session interviews) 
• June 22nd: Application package received by Interac. 
• July 1st: References submitted forms to Interac. 
• July 1st: Offer of Employment email. This certifies that I do work for Interac, but does not specify employment. 
• July 1st: Criminal Background Check sent to the State Bureau of Investigation (from within the states) 
• July 4th: emailed camera photos of signed copies of the Offer of Employment 
• July 6th: Application for Certificate of Eligibility sent off. Expected to receive it around August 9th 
• July 11th: Father recieved clean Criminal Background Check from the State Bureau of Investigation and sent off to Interac Japan. 
• July 11th: address update for delivery of CoE 
• July 11th: submitted online resume which is used as a profile to introduce you to the schools. (after I finished this I copied it via that printing to another page option but the words were cut off but after emailing I learned that it was just my image but the actual document was intact) 
• July 12th: Placement Introduction email. An email stating important information concerning insurance and apartment and health checks. 
• July 12th: emailed scanned copies of my TB test required by Interac. I had an x-ray test. Also since I lived in Korea, I had to have them translated. 
• July 18th: Interac received original copy of State Criminal Background check. 
• July 18th: Received Placement: Ibaraki-shi, Osaka 
• July 19th: Best mate Ben Brannan ( http://risingdaikon.blogspot.com/ ) and many others received deferrals for spring semester. For more information on deferral and his own experience that took place on the Stateside then please check out his blog. 
• July 27th: Apartment offer for a Leopalace and free internet 
• July 28th: Apartment offer accepted 
• August 2nd: CoE sent by Interac 
• August 4th: Booked one way flight with Expedia to Japan KIX 
• August 8th: Received schools ( 2 elementary and one junior high) and year schedule. 
• August 19th: Flight to KIX and Arrival in Osaka. 
• August 21st: Entered Osaka City Plaza Hotel for training 
• August 22nd: First day of orientation 
• August 24th: Met Board of Education and last day of training 
• August 25th: Got apartment key and moved in. 
• August 25th: Applied for Alien Registration Card 
• August 26th: Obtained temporary Alien Registration Card 
• August 26th: Applied for Post Office Bank Account 

And to anyone who is wondering, I have nothing but the fondest things to say regarding Interac Osaka. I relly love the staff there. They are really working with you on a personal level and really care about their employees. They really provided me and hopefully everyone in my little orientation group (about 12 people - there was a later one with about 60 people) with a wonderful experience and an equally grand impression of the company as a whole. So it may be nerve wracking waiting for your placement but it will come. And regarding the many deferred, many of them later got placements for october dramatically reducing the number of deferees.
Additionally I am inexplicably happy with my location and schools. They really found me the perfect setting.

Here is my demo video to give you some ideas on your own!



I will post more things about getting an alien registration card and other important things about getting settled later. But if you want me to address any specific issues or answer any questions, espcially about the application process, please don't hesitate to ask.