All work and no play

I finally have time to breathe! After getting back from Hawaii and Las Vegas I suddenly realized I had to prepare for a 2-week English seminar for Middle School Students. I thought the seminar was in late August, but I got a call saying it started in late July (I went into panic-mode for a little bit). I didn't have time to rearrange my normal lessons to make room for the seminar, so I did the seminar in the day, my normal lessons at night, and did makeup lessons whenever I could fit them. For 16 days I worked from 10am-10pm and thank goodness we have Obon holidays this week (3 days off to worship your dead ancestors) or I would be dead myself.

Incidentally the Japanese have a word specifically to describe death from working too hard (karoshi), which nicely demonstrates the Japanese ideal that work should always come first. It seems to be a given that work even comes before your own health and the school that held the seminar is a perfect example... the entire seminar was planned beforehand and each teacher had their own classes, and there was no room for getting sick because no one could replace you.

By the way the school offered me a full-time job starting in September and I decided to take it because my VISA expires in October, and they'll sponsor me for a new one. I debated on whether or not it was the best way to get a VISA but decided to take it in the end. Mainly I was worried that we don't get any national holidays or sick days or paid vacation, but they make up for that in the four weeks per year that the school is closed and there aren't any classes.

It's an English cram school and my work hours would be 4pm-10pm on weekdays. I'll have to keep working my part-time day job at the high school until the contract finishes, and I may renew that one in April if my health isn't suffering. I like those classes. I've also been letting my night classes know that I won't be able to teach them on weeknights anymore and have been looking for teachers to replace me. Unfortunately several of them don't want to switch teachers and I've foolishly begun to offer Saturday classes to students that seem most bothered by the change. Truthfully I love my students and don't want to let any of them go, but there just won't be enough time in the week to continue them all.

So starting September I'll be working roughly 55 hours a week. Holy smokes just seeing that number is making me worry. It's been easy filling up my schedule because I'm not working it yet, but we'll see how I feel when it actually starts. Working so much is pretty normal for most Japanese people, and now I'm truly becoming Japanese.

P.S. - photos from my trip in the next entry, I promise.

P.P.S. - Oh, I just remembered it's my birthday today! Happy Birthday to me!