Kimi Information Center, the gaijin-friendly organization that helped me find an apartment and which supplies me with private English students, called me this morning. Would I be available to take on a new student on Wednesday evenings? I hesitated a moment, but said yes.

Like most Nova teachers, I work weekends—my days off are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I've already got a student on Tuesday nights, so my acceptance of this new one means that my daily schedule is effectively locked down. I'll be on the clock seven days a week from now on.

The work itself is easy. Many of these students just want to have an everyday conversation, in English, for 60 minutes. They're willing to pay quite handsomely, too, which is what makes the work so difficult to turn down. Kimi sets a base rate of about $25 U.S. an hour, which is actually on the low end. Some teachers I know make twice that. I probably could too, if I showed a little more initiative, but I like the fact that my Kimi students meet me in Ikebukuro, usually five minutes from where I live. Your $60/hour students expect you to come to them.

For those of you playing along at home, yes, this means exactly what you think it does. Acquire enough private students (not hard to do, with websites like 121 Sensei and Find-A-Teacher), and you can make $2000 or $3000 a month just for having a few hour-long conversations each day. No day job required.

But there is a downside. Now that I have fixed commitments seven days a week, I've pretty much eliminated the possibility of taking a 2-day trip to Hiroshima or hanging out all afternoon with friends. It's not like I was doing any of those things before, mind you. But now I can't. I'm gradually turning my lack of a life into money.

I just hope I can buy it back when I need it.