A week in the life of the intern.

Lawrence again. It was brought to my attention that though a lot of people understand what the purpose of the internship is and what some of the things I do are, few people know what I actually do in a day, so here goes.

Monday- One of my two non-training days. I've set up a private lesson in the evening and I teach the adult Shiramizu English class from 8:15-9:15.

Tuesday- Another slow day with the first real bit of work being 3 one-hour Shiramizu English classes from 3:50-4:50, 5:00-6:00, and 6:10-7:10. The adult training at Shiramizu starts at 8pm.

(A few times a month I go to Takagi Sensei's Guseikai Dojo in Tokyo, so Tuesday is normally the night I catch a ride with Arakawa Sensei.)

Wednesday- Shiramizu's "senior" class at 10:30am-12pm, after which many of the Sensei and students go for lunch. Then it's a short break until the 5:30-6:30 and 6:40-7:40 Shiramizu English classes. Lastly, I've put a private lesson from 8-9.

Thursday- Thursdays I head off into Nerima, in Tokyo. I teach at a private education centre there and, between the working hours of 11am-6:30pm, I currently teach 9 students spread out over 6 seperate 50min sessions. Then I head back for training at 8pm (which I'm consistently late for since it takes 1.5hrs to get home from Nerima).

Friday- I usually have a private lesson in the morning around 9am for an hour. Early afternoon I head out to get to a different private English centre for two lessons, 4-5 and 5-6. Then it's back to the dojo for the 7:30 start of the 2hr Shiramizu high performance class.

Saturday- Quite relaxed. The only real set routine I have is training from 7pm-8:30pm. Otherwise, it's left open for tournaments, training camps, private lessons, or simply exploring Tokyo.

Sunday- Whenever possible, I go to Hasuda, which is a city nearby. The community centre there offers a free Japanese class from 10am-12pm so it's a great place to meet some friendly faces and practice the language. Similar to Saturdays, it's left open for karate activities, private lessons, just to run errands, or see sights.

It does, at times, seem like there is quite a bit of free time and in a way, there is. Part of it has to do with the fact that the Working Holiday visa only allows a maximum of 20hrs of work per week. The other part is that there used to be a position for the intern at a nearby kindergarten Monday to Wednesday mornings, but the program changed right before I arrived. I was informed about a similar type of position in another kindergarten but the adminstration there hasn't really acted on it beyond saying they were interested.

Aside from that though, the free time really gives me time to train. The dojo rarely has classes in the morning so it's easy to get in some self-training. As well, there have been opportunities to help out with Shiramizu's kindergarten classes which are great fun.

So there you have it - the weekly me!