Well. The first week of school is over and a lot has happened but I haven’t had either the time or energy to write much. I’ll try to catch up today.

Tuesday was tiring with 6 50 minute classes and I was looking forward to the 4 and 5 class days on Wednesday and Thursday. My sharp eyed Sensei however noticed the gaps and signed me up for “volunteer” conversation classes just so that I would not be bored. It must be one of those words that don’t translate well as I was informed about classes after the fact so from now on it’s 6 classes every day.

Friday the other student on my class of 2 had to take the ferry to Korea so that she could get her visa renewed which left me alone for the day. I used the opportunity to go over some of the areas where I was a bit behind. Being in the spotlight all day is tiring. I had taken the train in a little earlier than usual which put me right in the middle of rush hour and finally got to experience the Japanese packed commuter train. It was raining and nearly 30 degrees which added to the experience. It’s not one that I want to repeat often.

The teachers at GenkiJACS are all very good. I have had 6 different teachers this week and have enjoyed working with all of them. Two of them are men which is a first for me as all of my previous Japanese teachers have been women. The syllabus is well structured and there are no discontinuities between the classes. So far we haven’t written any long formal tests but have short in class quizzes. This along with the the homework are used to highlight any gaps in understanding. We cover 1 chapter in the Genki textbook each week which is a quick pace.

Monday is a national holiday so the school is closed. When this happens instead of classes there is a field trip offered so on Sunday the students from the school will (as far as I understand) being pulling a float in a parade at some local festival. I will find out more when we meet at the school in the morning.