Working Hours

Full-time foreign teachers at Japanese schools are expected to work the same amount of days and similar hours every day as their Japanese counterparts. This means that during summer, winter, and spring breaks we actually don't have any breaks... Meetings and lectures are scheduled during these holidays to keep us off the streets. Even the Sundays which are very valuable to most teachers to get some R & R are sometimes rescheduled as working days. In my case, I am also coaching the school's soccer team which results in zero holidays. If there is only practice on the weekends, I try to get one of the other teachers to supervise the team so that I can spend some time relaxing at home.

I just realized that after this non-stop weekend there is again a fully scheduled week with the Japanese national holiday (March 20th Shunbun-No-Hi) filled with a practice match re-scheduled from Sunday the 22nd because that day freshmen will come to take placement tests. This will eventually result in a 20-day non-stop working streak if I don't collapse before that.