anchor.diff:  
   [[img-books]]
   .These are all the books and work files I'll study. On top we have the first part, in the middle my Kanji book and on the bottom we have the second part of the Minna no Nihongo books
  -image::books.jpg[books]
  +image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/school/books.jpg[books]
   
   From Monday to Friday, I commute to school. One trip from my apartment to school takes around 50 minutes and consists of approximately 2 kilometers of walking and traveling by train. This means I walk almost 4 kilometers on a daily basis, which is very good to maintain my health and weight! I currently have the goal to walk at least 8000 steps per day, which I easily manage to do now.
   The 34 Vulcanus trainees are divided into smaller groups of 6 to 8 people. My class is called 星 (Hoshi: Star) and I have two main teachers 渡邉先生　(Watanabe-sensei) on Mondays and Wednesdays and 柴田先生　(Shibata-sensei) on Thursday's. What about Tuesdays and Fridays? Well, on those days the teachers switch from classrooms by shifting either clockwise or counterclockwise. So, in total I learn Japanese from 4 different teachers. This is in my opinion a good approach, because each teacher has her (all my teachers are women) own approach and style of teaching. Next to this, it allows us to improve our listening skills since we're confronted with different voices. All the teachers are really kind and what really impresses me is the effort they put in each lesson. They try to make each topic as attractive as possible to the students by involving their personal preferences and experiences into each conversation. Besides teaching us Japanese, they also offer help when we had some troubles that don't consider the language class. For instance, I received a notice from Leopalace about the alarm system of my apartment. I asked Watanabe-sensei for a small summary of what was written. It said the alarm system had to be upgraded and I had to make an appointment with the security company. Since my level of Japanese speech is still far from feeling comfortable to have phone conversations, I was really glad that Watanabe-sensei spontaneously offered to make the phone call herself.
  +
  +[[img-watanabe]]
  +.These are all the books and work files I'll study. On top we have the first part, in the middle my Kanji book and on the bottom we have the second part of the Minna no Nihongo books
  +image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/school/watanabe.jpg[watanabe]
  +
  +[[img-shibata]]
  +.These are all the books and work files I'll study. On top we have the first part, in the middle my Kanji book and on the bottom we have the second part of the Minna no Nihongo books
  +image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/school/shibata.jpg[shibata]
  +
  +[[img-itou]]
  +.These are all the books and work files I'll study. On top we have the first part, in the middle my Kanji book and on the bottom we have the second part of the Minna no Nihongo books
  +image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/school/itou.jpg[itou]
   
   
   School starts at 9 o'clock. We have school periods of 45 minutes, followed by a 10-minute-break. After 4 school periods we have lunch from 12:30 to 13:30. The number of school periods we have in the afternoon alters: normally we have 2 periods, but sometimes the final period is a private lesson for a subset of the class. It might also happen that we get an additional third school period in the afternoon, which is called 'Conversation Class'. In this class, we learn some typical vocabulary used in common situations (paying groceries, ordering food in restaurant, booking train tickets, visiting the doctor...) So school either ends at 14:15, 15:10 or 16:05, but in general it is 15:10. School is fun, but really intensive. I really need to stay focused all the time. Therefore I'm really longing for the breaks sometimes! A lot of vocabulary, verbs and grammatical structures is crammed daily into our heads, which is why you often have to revise the lessons in the evenings to keep up with the pace. You cannot afford yourself to run behind or you'll start to dig a pit from which it is really hard to get out again! The homework we get is mostly making exercises on the previous lesson and studying new vocabulary for the upcoming lesson so that we can focus more on the new grammatical structures during the day. Below, I have added a video published by the school itself that summarises their teaching method. It's takes around 40 minutes! Be sure to put on the English subtitles! ;-)
  
positive.code: 
  What really makes my life at school complete are the two typical elements each school has in anime: the typical Japanese school bell jingle and a roof top where you can walk around, sit on a bench and have an occasional lunch break! The school bell is a very soothing sound, which is totally different from the harsh ring in the elementary and secondary school I had. The rooftop has a small view on the buildings around the school. It is really calm over there! The perfect place to come to rest during the brain melting Japanese studies!
  
  In short: school is intensive but a really great experience. I still suck a bit at speaking spontaneously though, especially when I need to conjugate verbs. However, Sašo found a Japanese conversation classes near our station in Kawasaki! Last week, we joined these classes and meet twice a week to improve our natural speech. We were heartily welcomed from the beginning and were immediately invited to join the Tuesday's group to a trip to Ikuta Park for a picnic and a visit the planetarium. This way we'll try to truly master the Japanese language!
  
negative.code: = Studying Japanese
  
  What have I been doing in Japan until now? Besides visiting some nice places　and events like Akihabara, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo Game Show and Kamakura (the latter will be the topic of my next post) I've spent most of my time in Shibuya. Sidenote: I really recommend you to visit the https://vulcanus.stanovnik.net/[*blog*] of my Slovene buddy, Sašo, for some awesome pictures of Akihabara and other places he visited (which I mostly joined) Why Shibuya? I study in a private school over there: http://www.naganuma-school.ac.jp/[*The Naganuma School - Tokyo School of Japanese Language*]. What could I possibly be studying over there? It's not Computer Science I can tell you ;)
  
  