The Weekly Loop

The 9to5 Japanese Routine

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Once you’ve finished Kana Bootcamp and the JP1K Starter Deck, you’re ready to step into the full 9to5 Japanese routine.

This is where the schedule becomes the engine of your progress.
It’s simple, repeatable, and sustainable — the same loop every week for 2–5 years, adding up to 10,000 words and thousands of hours of exposure.

🎯 The Goal

Follow a time-boxed weekly schedule you can sustain with a full-time job.
Learn ~100 new words per week (through mining).
Log ~20 hours of Japanese every week (~1,000 hours/year).
Reach ~10,000 words in 2–5 years → fluency at 95% coverage.

👉 20 hours/week may sound like a lot, but think of it as a part-time job. If you can commit to working 15–20 hours a week at anything, you can commit to this. For most people, it’s very doable.

🗓 The Weekly Routine at a Glance

Monday–Friday (The Grind)

Morning (~1 hr): Anki reviews + ~20 new cards auto-released from your weekend mining.
Daytime (~1 hr): Passive listening (ripped audio from last week’s mined episode).
Evening (~1 hr): Raw immersion (anime, drama, or film — no subs).

👉 Total: ~3 hours/day (1 hr Anki, 1 hr passive, 1 hr active).
👉 Optional: Add extra raw immersion if you have time. Personally, I stick to 1 hr/night because it’s realistic with a 9–5.

Saturday (The Engine)

Morning (~30 min): Reviews only (no new cards).
Evening (~2 hrs): Mining session with MPVacious.
- Work through one full episode line by line.
- T1 = 1 unknown word (ideal).
- T2 = 2 unknown words (fine if simple).
- Never T3+.
- Aim for ~100 clean cards → Anki will release them 20/day Mon–Fri.

Sunday (The Glue)

Morning (~30 min): Reviews only.
Evening (~1 hr):
- Rewatch last week’s mined episode raw.
- Watch one more raw episode of anything for variety.

👉 Weekly total: ~20 hours = like working a part-time job at Japanese.

📊 Weekly Totals

Anki reviews: 6 hrs (1 hr Mon–Fri, 30 min Sat + Sun).
Mining: 2 hrs (Saturday evening).
Raw immersion: 7 hrs (1 hr/night Mon–Fri + Sunday bonus).
Passive listening: 5 hrs (1 hr/day, Mon–Fri).
Total = ~20 hrs/week (~1,000 hrs/year).

🔁 Why This Loop Works

Predictable: Same structure every week, no decision fatigue.
Anchored: Saturday builds your next week, Sunday reinforces the last.
Balanced: Anki (reviews), passive listening (background), raw immersion (active) all accounted for.
Scalable: Even if life gets in the way, you can fall back to “bare minimum” (reviews + raw) and stay on track.

🚀 The Road Ahead

Following this routine is how you’ll reach the 10,000-word milestone:

~100 new mined cards/week = ~5,000 cards/year.
Realistically, as your vocab grows, this will taper. That’s why fluency falls in the 2–5 year range.
By Year 3 (~10k words, ~3,000 hours logged), you’ll already be functionally fluent.

🗂 Learn the Days in Detail

This overview gives you the big picture. Next, dive into the posts that explain each day:

✅ Weekly Loop Checklist

Finish Kana Bootcamp
Finish JP1K Starter Deck (~800 words solid)
Start the Weekly Hub routine
Commit to Saturday mining, Sunday rewatch, weekday immersion
Log ~20 hours/week (~1,000 hrs/year) — treat it like a part-time job
Stay consistent → 10,000 words in 2–5 years

This is the core loop.
It doesn’t change. You just keep repeating it until Japanese becomes natural.

Mine on Saturday. Review daily. Immerse nightly. Rewatch on Sunday. Repeat.

That’s the 9to5 Japanese routine.

Continue on to learn all about Saturday: Mining Day