Apartment Hunting

Woke up at 7:15am, cornflakes and milk for breakfast, then set off for school. Spent the morning finishing off prep for today’s Grade 3 lesson. Then had class with 3-2 in period 2 because of some schedule changes (3-1 has been shifted from today to tomorrow). It was actually a pretty good lesson. Couldn't call it perfect because they took a while to quieten down in between games, and I had to repeat simple instructions (that they already know the English for) several times. But otherwise it was good. They repeated the stationary vocab after me nice and loudly, learnt “May I borrow your…?” successfully, and played Karuta obediently (no tears!). Spare 3rd and 4th period, so I got permission from the vice-principal to quickly go to the post office to pay car insurance, and car tax. Done in less than 10 minutes, and then drove back to school. Lunch today was ramen! Had good conversations again with the kids. Today’s conversations revolved around favourite foods (the ranked their favourite noodles), favourite Disneyland rides, favourite sports, and summer holiday plans.

Last class of the day with 6-2 in period 5, and it was just an average lesson. I think because we’ve been repeating birthday/months stuff for so long, they got a little bit bored of it. They still did the birthday card exchanging activity, but a lot of people were being lazy and just showing the cards to everyone and being like “Is this your’s?” in Japanese. At least they all know how to ask “When is your birthday?” and answer when their own birthdays are. I checked this at the beginning of the lesson. Spent the rest of the afternoon doing lesson prep. Got off work at 16:10 after having a quick meeting with my JTE for tomorrow’s lunchtime English broadcast, and the 5th grade teachers for tomorrow’s lesson. Headed over to a nearby ALT’s apartment complex to view a vacant room! Since my 1st year on JET is coming to a close, I can have the freedom to move places, and I really want to move to a cheaper place so that I can save more money. The apartment is close, literally 3-4 minutes-ish drive straight down from mine. The location is pretty perfect because it’s still super close to my school, and also it’s practically right next to the tollgate, so it’ll be very convenient in winter for snowboarding season! I met the landlady in her café downstairs, and then she took me upstairs to show me the room. It’s very tiny - basically the size of my current Leopalace room, but instead of a rectangle, it's one big square. But I don't mind tiny spaces at all. She said that apparently that’s why it’s been vacant for so long – it’s just too small and narrow for many people. Because it’s so tiny, the rent is accordingly cheaper at ¥23,000 a month!!! So cheap!!! Plus ¥4000 a month for the parking space nearby, that’s still only a total of ¥27,000. What a deal, when compared with my current room + parking space which is a total of ¥53,860. She gave me the contact details of the real estate company who’s in charge of her building, and also gave me some free orange juice. I hope I’ll be able to move soon, and that maybe I can get out of this current apartment lease earlier!