Time Non-Japanese Activity Japanese Activity

0:00 Sleep Listen to Japanese news or other monotonous audio

6:00 Wake up

Shower

Breakfast Listen to Japanese news/music (including in the shower)

Read Japanese news online

7:30 Walk to school

Read/do homework assignments in lab Read Japanese books and/or listen to Japanese music while walking

Listen to Japanese music while reading English

9:00 Attend classes (lectures) Write out class notes using a kanji-kana hybrid shorthand that isn’t real Japanese (English syntax and nuance, liberal interpretation of kanji keywords) but that uses real Japanese symbols

Listen to Japanese music when walking between classes

Use a PC running a Japanese OS to take class notes

12:00 Programming in the lab Listen to Japanese music while coding

Do SRS reps during breaks

15:00 Baito (Part-time job) Listen to Japanese music

Read Japanese websites

This, by the way, is the baito where I was given the nickname “Katsumoto” (→Khatzumoto), because I was always doing Japanese stuff, and because my student supervisor liked Last Samurai.

17:00 Play Ultimate Frisbee Read and listen to Japanese while walking to and from the playing field, but basically no Japanese during play. My ever-present Japanese books would sometimes start conversations about Japanese.

19:00 Hang out with friends

Watch movies

Surf Internet

Clear up extra reading/homework assignments if necessary Read Japanese websites

Listen to Japanese music

Add new Japanese SRS cards

Watch a Japanese movie

Do Japanese SRS reps while watching an English-language movie (if the non-Japanese-speaking friends were feeling neglected 😀 )

Speak Japanese with Japanese friends and get roundly abused for the tiniest error — or even for speaking too slowly! Aaaaah…tough love. I taught my Japanese friends to be cruel by insisting they not let me get away with saying anything “un-Japanese”. It takes several repetitions of such a request until people know you’re not just feigning humility. But once they know…oh boy.

