Back to the... High School University

It was a long day. Not only was it the first full and 'proper' day of school after the typhoon (which fortunately spared Kyoto, but messed up badly with the air pressure for quite a long time, making your heart either race furiously or slow down dangerously the other minute).  It was also quite a long and demanding studying day, with lots of new vocabulary in vocabulary-building classes, tricky and confusing grammar tests in grammar lab, and very quickly speaking Contemporary Japanese Society teacher at the end of the day. Got some good news too - I got a job as the Teaching Assistant at the University, 3 hours a week for a start, which I will be properly paid for. Sounds like the big responsibility, but I'm determined to do my best! 頑張ります！

The school starts every day at 9:10 with the first　講時, kooji, so-called 'period'. Each day is divided into 6 1,5 hour long 講時, with 10 minute breaks between them:

1 講時: 9:10 - 10:40

2 講時: 10:50 - 12:20

< lunch break: 1 hour >
3 講時: 13:20 - 14:50

4 講時: 15:00 - 16:30

5 講時: 16:40 - 18:10

6 講時: 18:20 - 19:50

With one or two spare 講時 in the week, I have classes every day from 1st till 4th 講時. My Teaching job requires me to stay a bit longer on Fridays, till the end of 5th 講時, but apart from that - studying, studying, studying :-). With loads of tests, homework and clear commands of what you actually have to study in your own time, it actually does feel like a good old high school :-) 

The sound marking the beginning/end of each period is called チャイム,cha-imu, borrowed 'chime' from English, and sounds exactly like slightly less rich version of Big Ben chime. For me now - it's one of the most beautiful and motivating melodies in the world. It's not only used by schools, the exactly same one marks shifts and breaks in the nearby Mitsubishi factory, which one can hear really clearly in the early mornings :-).

But no matter how tired I come home, I'm not only filled with the sense of accomplishment and joy of doing what I always wanted to do. Before the day comes to an end, I'm getting one of the most beautiful goodnight the human can get, just in front of my little ベランダ (beranda, balcony):

I simply love this very last one - the cloud in the upper left-hand corner resembles some rising moon, and the lamp post suggests some aerials or a radar. Almost like some secret Rebel base in Star Wars! :-)