your typical after-school routine?

27 comments

1. My hours are 8.15-4.15. I usually leave between 4.15-4.30, 5 at the latest. Well unless it’s English club then it’s a different schedule.

   I tend to get groceries or pay bills after work. Then I come home and either go on an hour walk or maybe play a little PlayStation. Then, I have dinner, shower, do any chores, and prep for the next day. I chat to my fiancé around 9.30pm and then head to bed around 11.

   Once a month, I go to a conversation club and definitely would like to join a club but having four schools means it’s a little tricky.

   My area is quite inaka so I tend not to go out much in the week as it would mean around an hour round-trip of driving and I’m tired after ES.

2. I have different schools every day. I like to exercise but as my partner is immunocompromised I avoid the gym cos Covid/colds etc. In summer, once a week I do track and field club, other days I go home and jog or go to the swimming pool. In winter, I usually cross country ski a few evenings after school.

   Once a week I attend eikaiwa for adults and get time back from my BOE. I have a weekly online Japanese lesson too.

   So it’s quite busy even though my town is small. On Fridays we usually go to the izakaya and kareoke. Any spare time is spent playing video games!

3. I’m 8:30-4:15 and work at 3 schools. Every day except Friday I leave once I’m done and drive home. I relax, go to the gym, then get groceries after the gym since there’s a supermarket close to the gym. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I hang out with friends who are other JETs!
   Fridays I’m at a middle school so I join volleyball club for a bit then head home and go to the gym!
   I have a car so getting around is a lot faster/ quicker, though I’m rural so not much to do tbh

4. My official work hours end at 4:30 but I volunteer as basketball coach after school so I usually finish around 6:20 everyday. After that I clean up my desk and prepare my class basket (fill it with the next day’s textbooks/worksheets/materials etc.). I get home around 6:45, either go to the gym or play video games, eat supper and pass out early 😅

5. I may be an outlier but I usually stick around after school hours to speak with the teachers and, most importantly, spend time with the students, whether it’s working out together or watch them practice for a game. Since I live quite close, I don’t mind staying for longer as all I do is shower, clean, cook, watch some YT, and then go to sleep to be back at work around 8:25am.

   I also do English club twice a week, but those are within the school hours (4pm-5pm).

   I do groceries every Wednesday and Saturday and prep so I don’t have to worry about getting anything on the way home.

   And lastly, I attend basketball, baseball, and volleyball games for my school when I can on the weekends. Got a basketball game coming up Sunday and I’m so excited because they won the last one by two points!

   Really, it’ll depend on what you want to do. But most likely, going home on time and doing whatever you like afterwards wins based on majority of the answers here in this thread.

   I wish you well and to have a good work life and work environment! Those are what can make a difference in your soon-to-be new experience working and living abroad!

6. My work hours are 8:00 – 16:00. I usually go straight to the gym (30-40 minute walk) and then get home around 19:30 or 20:00 from Monday – Thursday. On Fridays I usually go straight to the station to catch a train to Matsuyama so I can spend the weekend with my girlfriend.

   Rinse, repeat.

7. 4 days of the week I’m sitting at my BOE waiting for 4 pm and I clock out right away as typically I’m just messing around on my computer doing nothing. One day I’m at the town eikaiwa until 5 and I like to help clean up after so I’ll be done around 5:10 those days. I usually walk home after clocking out then immediately walk to the gym. I live in a small town so if I need groceries or anything it’s a 10-minute walk away, though my choices are pretty limited.

8. Official work hours are 8:20 to 4:05, one junior high school.

   I usually stay till 4:20 or later to chat with colleagues a little or have short meetings with my JTEs. Sometimes I stay for staff meetings that can extend beyond that too. Though thats out of personal choice as I wanna keep myself up to date on school stuff.

   I actually want to do a badminton club as some of my students are interested, but my school is pretty small and I’ve been told its difficult to start one so theres that

   I live real close to my school, so about 3 mins drive back home. I’ll usually stop by the convenience store before I head back home. Once or twice a week I’ll drive out of my village to do some grocery shopping. Other than that, it’s either cooking dinner or just chilling. Most of the time I don’t have anything to do after 6 and I just do whatever I want.

   Weekends I’m usually out for a drive or hiking somewhere in the mountains.

9. I’m a junior high school jet. I leave immediately when my contract hours end. All the students and teachers are just doing clubs and I don’t really want to play any sports with them. I TRIED to start an English Club but then Covid hit and that never happened again. I have a lot of stuff outside of school that I do. I help out at a friends Eikaiwa (English conversation class), I do a private Eikaiwa and Culture Club at the local Buddhist temple, I play badminton, I have a Japanese study group. I do most of my shopping at the local small town market just up the street, so I try to do all that before I get home. Bank is in walking distance as well. Sometimes I take a walk to the convenience store if the weather is nice. My contract hours end at 3:45pm. I really enjoy my work and my students and my job but for me, I don’t need to stay after my hours are over. I have so much stuff going on outside work.

10. My hours are 8:30 – 4:30, though I drive from the BOE office using a BOE vehicle and return it to the office after school. So I leave my house usually just before 8:00, and arrive between 4:50-5:30 depending on how long I hang around the school.

    Recently I joined the art club at one of my schools, though I honestly just go to spend time drawing and of course connect with the students better. I took up drawing around their age so I’m hoping in drawing with them and talking, I can inspire them to keep up with their passions.

    After work I sometimes go to the grocery store, though I recently signed up for a nearby gym. So now I come home, go to the gym, come back and eat, tidy up, and have a couple hours of leisure time that I fill with games, drawing, or music.

11. I finish at 4:05, I will sometimes talk to my boss or fellow BoE ALT if they’re there and if I feel like it / have something to do there, for 15 minutes maybe.

    I arrive home at 4:15 if I go straight home. I often go to conbinis, stores, train station mall, old local hobby shop, 100 yen store, AEON supermarket etc, before I arrive home. Or I will just ride my bike up hills for fun.

    Once a month or so I go to English club at one of my schools (I will go more if I get the opportunity).

    You will have vast amounts of free time, finishing at 4 is insanely healthy and freeing.

12. My school is quite rural. My house is in the city. There is only 1 train every 2ish hours. I leave my house at 6:50 in the morning, get to school around 8:10, sit there for 20 minutes before my official time starts.

    I finish at 4:15. My train isn’t until 5:20. So, I help out with drama club some days or mark/redo any lessons. When I get home around 6:30, I cook dinner or heat up leftovers and do one of the following:

    1) Cry about how tired I am

    2) Watch netflix

    3) Grocery store

    4) Have a Japanese lesson

    I bought a piano couple of months ago but honestly had no time to properly sit down and play it. I think I am in an unfortunate minority that has a dreadful commute and has no life outside of school.

13. I walk across the road to get home at 4. Then I either go meet friends and go out shopping or go to the gym or stay home and watch netflix if I’m tired. Or maybe go to a cafe to study. Basically exactly the same as what I would do in my home country except in Japan.
    Actually a lot better than in my home country as I have no responsibility or work stress at all and can literally just do whatever I want.

14. Depending on my school I either finish at 16:00 or 16:30, but am always home by 17:00. I commute by a mix of train and bus.

    I usually do the grocery shop while I’m waiting for the bus home from JHS as I finish there at 16:00, my bus isn’t until 16:25 and there’s a supermarket right next to the school and bus stop.

    When I get home I’ll make dinner for myself and the boyfriend, making sure I’ve got enough for my lunch the next day as I don’t have kyuushoku.

    Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays I have my dance classes which I’ve been doing for the past year and had a showcase for back in March! That was the most fun so am looking forward to taking part next year!

    On my free days I often find time to call home. We’ve only got an 8 hour time difference at the moment (9 in winter) so we’ve found a good routine for calling!

    Sometimes I’ll even go out to grab dinner with friends if we’re feeling social, which is often!

    I’m usually in bed by midnight

15. Just leave. Deviate between grocery shopping, daiso and the drugstore depending on what I need. Every Friday I stop by the JP Post to withdraw whatever money I need for the coming week.
    Will then go home and chill. Do a little cleaning, make a quick dinner and settle into a night of video games

16. I would hang out with clubs in my first couple years. Kendo, student government when they met, volleyball, art, robotics, table tennis, soft tennis… My apartment was about a 5 minute leisurely bike ride from the junior high and also pretty close to a grocery store. I also was close to a few convenient stores and tried all the different food that they had. I also had a car as some of my elementary schools were farther out.

    My pred just left school when he was done teaching and I got that perk my first year. Meant that some days I was done after lunch. But then I was required to stay until 4 after my first year. That switch made me feel less inclined to stay later. I could get off early some days, then stay late some days to balance it out. I felt like I had a ton of time to go exploring, cook, drive to nearby ALTs, and shop. I tried to watch a movie every night (piracy laws weren’t really enforced for foreign content and the bookstore had a huge rental selection – but this was before the advent of streaming services).

    But I also had a summer English after school type program that ran for about 8 weeks and that ate up 2 hours of my Wednesday evenings.

17. My first year (many many years ago) I had 5 JR high schools that would rotate every 3-4 weeks. At first I stayed after school and if the teachers were ok with it, I’d join in various sports clubs usually rotating to a different sport everyday. As the year went on at some schools I stopped joining the clubs, maybe teacher in charge or even students weren’t as welcoming or commute home was too long, and at the other schools I’d make an effort to go everyday. The schools I did John clubs I had the best relationship with teachers and students. Teachers would invite me out with them and students would be more engaged in class and very talkative between classes. Each year after my first, as teachers changed and students graduated, it became harder to keep it up and probably by the start of my 4th year I had just stopped joining in.

    If you have any interest in sports I’d recommend at least giving it a try. I played multiple sports all the way through college, so it was easily a no brainer for me to join in. Most schools have non sports clubs as well. Non of the schools I taught at had English clubs, but there was Brass band, art, flower arrangement and one school had a tea ceremony club.

18. I have to stay at school an hour and twenty after I finish classes, I get off at 4:50. During this hour I would play guitar with the schools rock band club, or go running in the nearby park, sometimes by myself, sometimes I would joining the schools track and field club. 5 minutes on bike to get home, would go to the grocery store on the way and get what I need for dinner if I’m cooking. There was a few meetup groups I would join up with a few days a week too, running clubs, meditation, arcades, boxing ect. If you are a JET in a larger city you can definitely make friends going to these. ESID, but if you are very very close to your school like me you can go home on your lunch break, go to the grocery store, do laundry ect. and be back for school and be more free in the evening.

19. I live across the street from the middle school, so at 4:15 I clock out and get some veggies at the local veggie stand and go home and make some dinner. Spend an hour talking to SO. Sometimes there is a community event going on I go to (mondays there is a conversation group, once a month a cultural event involving cooking, that type of thing.)

    Yesterday I borrowed the weedwhacker from school and trimmed around our apartment. Last month I cleaned the drainage canal /ditch of debris because it had a lot of dirt in it.

    The elementary school is 10 minutes by bike, but I end up catching up to the kids meandering home usually and walk with them through the town. There is an old temple nearby that the priest only visits when conducting funerals so sometimes I pull down weeds growing on the bell platform.

    On clear nights, I take my camera into the gulley where the river is and snap some pictures of the milkyway.

    Other days I just enjoy some gaming.

20. Every year I seem to have more and more things to do after school. I finish work at 4 or occasionally 3 if I ran a community English class that week. I usually have some kind of activity on from 6:30-7:30; On Every second Monday I help run an English café. Every Tuesday I do taiko. Thursday alternates between taiko and my community English class. Friday is generally some random event.

    Between work finishing and activities starting I will sometimes get groceries or fuel on my drive home and then go for a walk and have dinner. In winter I shovel the snow from my parking spot instead of going for a walk (it snows heavily for 4 months straight in my town). On my one free evening, Wednesday I try my hardest to relax with games or books.

21. You will NOT catch me at work after 4:15 lol. On my commute days there’s a grocery store next to the train station, so I do my shopping on Mondays and Tuesdays. I sometimes get home pretty late those days (1.5 hour commute) so you won’t catch me doing much. During the week I’ll go to the gym, go for a run, grab coffee or dinner with some friends, or sometimes we’ll grab a drink by the river. Sometimes I just go home and watch Netflix though!

    Edit: I forgot- I do Japanese lessons once a week on Thursday evenings!

22. I have to work an average of 7 hours per day, balanced throughout the week. Officially that’s 8:30 to 16:30 with an hour break, but actual classes often mean that I work 8:00 to 15:30 with a 30 minute break. Or maybe 8:00 to 16:30 with a short lunch one day, and 8:30 to 15:30 and a long lunch the next, to balance it out.

    I drive home, but sometimes stop at different places on the way. Grocery store is nice and quiet still around 4, gets busy at 5:30. On Thursdays I teach 6 elementary classes, so I’m exhausted and I reward myself by going to a cafe to study or just chill until 6pm. Sometimes I hit the gym or onsen, or take a drive or walk around town.

    Most importantly, I don’t do overtime. If I stay late doing something, I make sure to balance it later in the week (or month) by leaving early. This is my BOE’s policy though, it varies, because ESID 😉

23. Cry

24. Unless I have club I’m leaving after 4:30 every single day. Only exceptions are for when I’m asked to help students prepare for eiken, interviews, etc. all of that is logged as daikyuu which means I’m compensated for it later on. Recently started taking japanese classes once a week from a community center and kyuudo lessons twice a week at the martial arts center. You do what you want with your time.

25. So I live like 10 mins on foot away from my school. I usually hang around 15-30 mins to just chat with the kids with club activities it’s a great way to connect with the kiddos. I do my grocery shopping afterwards, I’m lucky that the supermarket is just across the street from my apartment Sometimes I’ll ride my bike for 40 mins to the next town over just to get Starbucks. I go straight home on Mondays cuz my school doesn’t do club activities on Mondays, and on Fridays since I usually go on weekend trips so I catch a train to Tokyo then onwards to wherever I planned to travel to.

26. Wake up : 750
    Arrive school by 825 then find out my schedule for the day. If I’m not busy I study or work in the wood shop. If I’m REALLY not busy I’ll go back home and do chores.
    Leave school after class is done. I have an agreement with the teachers that it’s pointless for me to be there doing nothing. But in return they can message me anytime for any reason. Mostly this works out in my favor. But occasionally (like twice a year) I get a text at midnight asking for a lesson by 8 am
    After school I practice kyudo, nap or grocery shop. Then make dinner and hang out with my fiancé.
    Bed around midnight.

27. I’m in elementary school and go to several schools, but my typical after-school routine for the past 4-ish years has generally been:

    Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Chorus practice with the school club.

    Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: Volleyball with the team (I play after chorus on Wednesday/Thursday).

    On Tuesdays after chorus, I also play badminton with some friends.

    Otherwise, I go to the gym in the mornings.

    ​

    So something like:

    Wake up at 5:30/6 AM. Go to the gym til ~7:50, then go to work.

    Work til 4PM, then join club activities depending on the day. Club-related stuff usually ends ~5 or 5:30 PM.

    Go grocery shopping on the way home (walk or bike depending on the day and how I feel), get home around 6:30-ish PM. Do housework, shower, etc and chill til I get tired, sleep and repeat.

    ​

    One thing I strongly recommend is to leave at least an hour or two for yourself every day to do the things you want to do for yourself. I absolutely love participating in school-related functions and making memories with the staff, students, and their parents, but I would go insane without time for myself.