Episode 4
I was surprised when she mentioned the uniforms weren’t gender locked, like girls can wear trousers (which to me is obvious) and boys can wear skirts (less common in my experience), whether or not you identify as LGBTQ+.
5 Likes
Week 4
Episode: 7. コスプレ interview with あやのさん + transcript 
Episode: 8. フィギュア interview with まことさん + transcript
Time Count: 06:56 + 08:49
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
- I’m listening along
- I haven’t reached this part yet
- I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
- I have finished this part
0
voters
4 Likes
Episode 6
Listened rather passively (while doing WK reviews) so I didn’t catch most of it but listening to the English guy talking I was like hmm something sounds a little strange here and then he said he was English and I was like ahhhhhh
5 Likes
Week 5
Episode: 9. 江戸時代 (えどじだい) interview with めぐみさん part 1 + transcript
Time Count: 20:34
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
- I’m listening along
- I haven’t reached this part yet
- I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
- I have finished this part
0
voters
4 Likes
Ep 7
Cosplaying seems so fun, the more I hear about it the more I want to try it some day. But it can probably gets very expensive really fast, even though you can still buy second-hand like she said. And if you are not in a place where this hobby is popular it doesn’t sound so amusing to me to just do it alone and share pictures online.
Ep 9
This episode made me remember this book I’ve bought a long time ago, it’s the French edition here but I did a quick look-up and it seems to have been translated from this one. The book has a lot of beautiful illustrations and talks about a lot of subjects, samurai, ninja, stores, food… hair-styles too, if you were curious after listening to the podcast 
Soooo many different styles, the 大垂髪 ［おすべらかし］for example, more of a ceremonial style for the high-class with a pony-tail so long that it touches the ground (I looked it up for a second on Google and it seems that it was already existing in the Heian period…) or the 若衆髷［わかしゅうまげ］for the boys under 15 if I understood correctly (these boys were called wakashû so, this word + mage). They could shave their head only when they hit 15 from what I’ve read.
The book is really pretty and interesting but I agree with some of the critics in the Amazon reviews section, the yôkai part was too long and the format is a bit too small to fully appreciate the illustrations. I would still recommend it though.
About the podcasts in themselves the hardest part for me are the proper nouns, like the character names in the cosplay episode or even soomething like Google, which is not too hard to understand here with the context but it sounded like “glu-glu” or “guru-guru” to me. But so far everyone in the podcast speaks very clearly, and there are just a few words each episode that I don’t know, so it’s very nice for building confidence (which will be shattered in a thousand pieces with another podcast or movie but… you have to appreciate every win in this learning journey 
)
4 Likes
Ep 9
I usually find the slow, unnatural talking speed of this podcast off-putting, but I didn’t mind it as much this time because the Edo period topic was interesting and I could catch some words I wasn’t familiar with before like 鐘 and 博物館.
I notice that my motivation to go through an episode varies wildly depending on how interested I am in a topic. I guess I also prefer when hosts show off their personality a bit more but welp, I will try to stick through.
5 Likes
I can finally listen along with the club! I’d actually finished 8 episodes before the club started and wasn’t really interested in listening to them again.
Like others, I also found the 9th episode very interesting. I could pretty much understand everything they were talking about. I’ve already added the drama recommendation to my list. I’m excited to give it a try!
5 Likes
Week 6
Episode: 10. シングルマザー interview with ゆりえさん + transcript
Time Count: 16:11
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
- I’m listening along
- I haven’t reached this part yet
- I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
- I have finished this part
0
voters
5 Likes
Week 7
Episode: 11. 四国 interview with フランさん + transcript
Episode: 12. Discord + transcript →
Time Count: 11:04 + 07:05
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
- I’m listening along
- I haven’t reached this part yet
- I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
- I have finished this part
0
voters
3 Likes
How is everyone liking the podcast so far? 
Only 3 more weeks with the club! Unfortunately I will not be able to post at the usual time the remaining episodes, expect 2-3 days delay. Sorry about that!
6 Likes
I like it! Its nice understanding most of what’s being said for once (cough 4989) and the transcripts are very helpful too
5 Likes
Episode 11 Notes
- Japanese teacher guest
- Lives in UK
- Worked in Nagoya for 4 years
- Likes hiking
- Recommends hiking in Shikoku, smallest Japanese island
- Ako’s friend lives on Shikoku
- The nature is nice there
- Lots of temples there
- Covid getting in the way of things
- Stayed in many places
- Staying in temples expensive so stayed in private lodgings mostly
- Ate lots of conbini bentos
- Fish eating story
- Was given sports drinks and fruit from people
- Teaches at Step Up in Brighton, can also do online
Episode 12 Notes
- Can talk to friends on discord
- Not just for games
- Ako talks to her friends on several platforms
- Her patreon people are invited to her server
- She knows it can be embarrassing talking to randos
- She recommends using JP on social media
- Like slack, Discord has a lot of fun emojis
- She doesn’t understand boosts well yet
3 Likes
Week 8
Episode: [13. ベトナム interview with くみさん ]https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/akokitamura/episodes/13---interview-with-eksuk9/a-a1ptlh) + transcript
Time Count: 16:60
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
- I’m listening along
- I haven’t reached this part yet
- I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
- I have finished this part
0
voters
4 Likes
Week 9
Episode: 
14. 相撲 (すもう) interview with ジョージさん + transcript
Time Count: 11:14
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
-
I’m listening along
-
I have finished this part
-
I haven’t reached this part yet
-
I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
0
voters
3 Likes
Thanks a lot @Micki !
1 Like
#I Week 10
**Episode:**15. Instagram interview with しょうたさん + transcript
Time Count: 17:17
Participation
Will you be listening along with us this week?
-
I’m listening along
-
I have finished this part
-
I haven’t reached this part yet
-
I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished
0
voters
3 Likes
I’m a sumo fan and enjoyed the sumo episode last week. I hope non sumo fans enjoyed it too, there was quite a bit of vocab based around wrestlers names or sumo related terms.
3 Likes
l am not a sumo fan and also enjoyed the episode! At least I already knew some sumo terms from Wanikani, especially 力士 (リキシ sumo wrestler WK13)
I have to say that I fell asleep listening to that podcast playlist, and I really felt like–while I’m not catching everything–this podcast is exactly in my sweet spot for improving my listening comprehension at the moment, and I’m so glad that someone nominated it! m(_ _)m ありがとう
(Although I do not like when しょうた先生 speaks slowly)
2 Likes
I procrastinated again… 
the worse with that is the snowball effect, I am several episodes behind now. I still listened to 9 episodes though, so I’m happy with that. This podcast was nice but I’m not interested enough in the remaining episodes so, I will leave it at that, sorry. Good job to the ones who listened everything though, and to the others too if there are people like me who didn’t listen everything. Even one full episode is already one step further than zero 
6 Likes
Thank you @Akashelia and @Micki for organising the club this podcast was nice!
6 Likes