🌙 🐱 Lunarkitten's Study Log

[lunarkitten]

Hello! I thought I’d try keeping a study log as a way to jump into the WaniKani community and keep myself accountable and motivated during my studies!

Self-Introduction

I’m Kelly, aka Lunarkitten, and I’ve been studying Japanese off and on for years now. I studied Spanish in high school and was decent at it, but was drawn to Japanese ever since I fell in love with Sailor Moon. I naturally picked up some vocabulary and noticed some grammar patterns over the years, but never started seriously studying it until my thirties. Previously I’d worked through Genki I up through chapter five, then hit a block and stopped. I’m back on it seriously again (thanks AuDHD) and working toward finishing Genki I. I dropped off WaniKani for a while, but for Christmas I bought a lifetime plan and now I’m hitting those lessons and reviews every day. I plan on going to Japan this November as a birthday present to myself, so there’s a lot of work to do!

Resources

• Genki I and II, averaging a chapter per week (currently on chapter six)
  • Supplemented with:
    • ToKini Andy’s videos and his website
    • Genki-specific Anki deck for vocabulary
• WaniKani
  • According to wkstats, I’ve guru’d 197 radicals, 257 kanji, and 675 vocabulary.
• Kaishi 1.5k
• Weekly iTalki sessions with a very patient teacher
• Bunpro
• Ringotan, occasionally

Daily Routine

• WaniKani reviews
• 15 WaniKani lessons
• 20 new cards each from Kaishi 1.5k and Genki decks
• Bunpro reviews
• Anki reviews
• Daily Genki work as laid out in Ashiba-App’s Genki study guide
• When I Feel Like It: Ringotan
• Sunday nights: One-hour session with iTalki teacher

Goals

• Hoping to finish Genki II by November (EDIT: shooting for end of July) 2026
  • Would love to take part in an Absolute Beginner Book Club once I’m finished!
• Work on WaniKani
• Improve output and penmanship
• Take JLPT N4 in December 2026
• Move on to Quartet I and II in 2027!

Let’s get started! 日本語を勉強しましょう！

03月03日（火）

During my lunch break, I watched the ToKini Andy video for chapter six and read over the grammar points in the textbook. Considering the て-form caused me to drop Japanese in my last go-around, I am determined to get a good grasp on it before my iTalki lesson Sunday night. This involves spamming this て-form song over and over until I memorize it. Congrats, it’s now stuck in my head. I’ve been singing it here and there at work today. This conjugation drill site was also helpful. I worked on my WaniKani reviews throughout the day but didn’t get to do lessons until I got home from work. I did Anki reviews and tried to study chapter six vocabulary, but my short-term memory was just not working.

03月04日（水）

This morning I had a doctor’s appointment bright and early, so while I sat in the waiting room I hit up Tsurukame and worked on my reviews. I keep getting stumped by 場.

Lunch break means study time! I pulled out a notebook and started working on the textbook activities from chapter six. I really dislike my handwriting; か is difficult for me for some reason. I’m also trying to work on writing kanji. I’ve slacked off on Ringotan so I used Jisho for stroke order reference.

It’s my long night at work and it’s slow, so I squeezed in my WaniKani lessons. Lots of location-based phrases tonight. Ooh, I finally got 電! Another N5 kanji down, only four to go.

Tonight my plans are to finish up textbook practice III and IV, minus the pair work. Anki has been kicking my butt lately so I hope tonight is a little better. My teacher asked me to start memorizing the verbs for chapter six before our next lesson, so I’ll need to work on that some more. Maybe I should move them up in Anki.

[sundrop]

Welcome to the community! It’s nice to see your post

[Shin]

Welcome!! Great to see that you are picking up Japanese again Looking forward to seeing your posts!

[SpiderWeb]

Hi, it’s good to see new people here on the forums. Keeping a study log is a good way to stay motivated and see progress. How is italki as a beginner? I’ve only done video classes for my Spanish which is better than my Japanese so I wonder how much of a floor there is to knowing vocabulary before trying to speak.

See you around

[hrudey]

@lunarkitten

I dropped off WaniKani for a while, but for Christmas I bought a lifetime plan and now I’m hitting those lessons and reviews every day. I plan on going to Japan this November as a birthday present to myself, so there’s a lot of work to do!

That sounds awesome! Having a strong personal reason to want to learn is a huge benefit as well, and hopefully given the ~8 months between now and then you’ll pick up enough Japanese to really shine there. Welcome to the study log crew and keep up the good work!

[lunarkitten]

@SpiderWeb

How is italki as a beginner? I’ve only done video classes for my Spanish which is better than my Japanese so I wonder how much of a floor there is to knowing vocabulary before trying to speak.

It’s great for beginners! My teacher speaks English so we’re able to talk in English if we need to, but she gives directions or asks if I have questions in Japanese. I also try to fill in Japanese words if I know them – for example, she asked me about how long it takes me to get to New York City and I replied, “4時間、車と電車。” So while not a complete sentence, it’s still output and I’m testing my vocabulary.

[Dathmach]

I don’t see why you can’t join the book club now? I’ve been doing it, even though my level of grammar and vocabulary should be higher and it’s been helpful. But especially if you’re talking to someone regularly I think you should be able to.

[shitsurei]

@lunarkitten

I studied Spanish in high school and was decent at it, but was drawn to Japanese ever since I fell in love with Sailor Moon

Well hello, backstory sharer! I hope that you’ll keep up with your log and that it helps keep you on track. But don’t worry if you stray again from time to time. Looking forward to reading more of your learning adventures

[lunarkitten]

@Dathmach

I don’t see why you can’t join the book club now? I’ve been doing it, even though my level of grammar and vocabulary should be higher and it’s been helpful. But especially if you’re talking to someone regularly I think you should be able to.

I probably could, but I’d like to have a better grasp on grammar so I don’t have to look every grammar point up. Maybe after I finish Genki I? Right now I’m trying to work through the Genki graded readers as I finish each chapter.

03月04日 （木）

Woke up to 53 reviews this morning. I called out of work because I was just too tired, so I did the reviews afterward and got an 89%. Lessons this morning had 点ける, which is one of my lesson six vocabulary verbs.

Nighttime reviews were at 91. Every time I get 次回 I think of Goku saying, “次回！ドラゴンボールZ” in the next episode previews, so that helps it stick.

I need to finish the textbook activities for chapter 6 so I can play Pokopia as a reward. My workbooks are due to arrive tomorrow. I tried using a PDF on my tablet and writing in the answers with a stylus, but it takes too long compared to hand writing my answers.

[lunarkitten]

03月06日 （金）

32 reviews as of 11am this morning. Not my best session at 80%. I always try to remember the reading for 向 through the Fullmetal Alchemist ED song “扉の向こうへ”.

I tried to do some of the Genki chapter six activities while I was on the circ desk at work (図書館で働いています！) but there were too many kids in here to focus. Later on in the afternoon it was quiet enough that I was able to do a few activities.

81 nighttime reviews and finished with a 96%. Much better than this morning!

I think I’m going to reset Bunpro and set the deck to the Genki I deck, then go through them one by one and mark them as mastered so I can focus on what I’m learning now. Tedious, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.

[lunarkitten]

03月07日（土）

Woke up to 42 WaniKani reviews and 68 Bunpro reviews. I didn’t catch my WaniKani percentage but it was in the 95% area. I just need to guru six more kanji before I level up! I got 99% on Bunpro, but I keep getting tripped up by their version of 〜てはいけません. I’m not sure why they use 〜てはいけない instead, especially when they say it’s a “fairly formal” way to say you can’t do something.

Since I work my part-time job 4pm-1am (), I did my workbook exercises shortly after my WaniKani/Bunpro. Got through I and II before I decided I was allowed to play Pokopia, haha.

I dropped my new Anki cards from 20 to 10 because some of the words in Kaishi 1.5k were starting to overwhelm me. I’m having a hard time remembering some of the new words.

[lunarkitten]

03月08日（日）

I didn’t get home until technically 3am last night (DST change, yay), so I slept a solid twelve hours. When I finally sat down to study, it was about 5pm. There were 77 WaniKani and 76 Bunpro reviews waiting and I finished with a 93% and 92% respectively. I blame last night.

I missed last night’s Anki session, so there went my streak. I did my Genki cards and I’ll try to do Kaishi 1.5k before bed.

Tonight was my weekly iTalki lesson with my teacher. Although I’m working through lesson six of Genki on my own, we finished up lesson five. We covered “〜しましょうか” tonight and did some practice with reading dialogues and creating our own sentences using 〜しましょうか. I don’t mind being slightly behind because she’s very thorough with going through the lesson and it gives me a chance to work on output. Unfortunately I couldn’t schedule another lesson til the 17th.

Nighttime reviews: 29 WaniKani at 90% and 89% at Bunpro. This has been a pretty rough day for reviews.

[lunarkitten]

03月09日（月）

Back to work today at my quiet little library as opposed to the busier, louder one I work at on Fridays. I had 31 WaniKani reviews and was able to knock them out sitting at the desk – 95% this morning! I keep forgetting 反 for some reason and have a hard time with 点ける since it’s usually written in kana. Only 7 Bunpro reviews and I got a 100% on those. I used my B-Points to buy a cute possum pin; he’s a little friend to motivate me to do those reviews.

I reread the dialogues at the beginning of chapter six and they’re much easier to understand now. I also read the graded readers for chapters five and six. The second reader for chapter five, 動物の島, uses a different style than the typical Genki art and incorporates photographs into the illustrations. とてもかわいいです！ Normally I like to try to read the graded readers aloud as I read them, but I was reading them while at the circ desk and didn’t want to attract attention.

私はセーラームーンの大ファンです。If there’s one word I know, it’s うさぎ. Also, slight tangent: my island on Animal Crossing is named Orenjima because oranges were my native fruit and I thought Orenjima was a fun pun.

Worked on some workbook activities during lunch. I have four pages left for this chapter, plus the reading and listening comprehension. I’m hoping I can start chapter seven at some point this week.

[lunarkitten]

03月10日（火）

One week of doing a study log! Let’s see how long I can keep this up!

I am now officially finished with chapter six! I finished the workbook listening and the textbook reading, so that completes all the practice activities for the chapter!

This morning brought 38 WaniKani (94%!) and 29 Bunpro (89%, new vocab was difficult) reviews. I’m starting on vocabulary from chapter 7 to get a head start.

Now that I’ve got Bunpro set up, I’m wondering if I should go back into Renshuu and set that up to my current progress as well. It’s a little overwhelming. Extra practice never hurts, right?

I set my new cards on Kaishi 1.5k to zero for the moment because some of them are just kicking my butt. I’ll work through the cards I have now and give it a few days to a week before I restart.

EDIT: Made it to level 9 with my nighttime reviews!

[Dathmach]

You only had 38 Wanikani reviews? I’ve been getting around 120 each day and the number only seems to be rising. Tbh I kinda dropped Aniki because of how many WaniKani reviews I get.

[lunarkitten]

@Dathmach

You only had 38 Wanikani reviews? I’ve been getting around 120 each day and the number only seems to be rising. Tbh I kinda dropped Aniki because of how many WaniKani reviews I get.

I haven’t done reviews yet today as of 2pm EST and I only have eight waiting for me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m probably going to leave them til tonight since I work until 8.

03月11日（水）

As mentioned above, I only have eight WaniKani review and twelve Bunpro reviews right now, so I’m going to wait until this evening to do them.

I did some math last night and figured if I keep up the pace of a chapter a week, with a little wiggle room, I can have Genki I finished by the end of April and Genki II finished by the end of July. My trip to Japan isn’t until November, so that gives me time to start on Quartet before I go! /optimistic

章7を始めましょう! Luckily I already know a lot of the nouns in the vocabulary since they’re mostly family words. Bunpro is teaching me the parts of the body that show up later in the chapter. I definitely know the word 頭 thanks to Mamoru’s nickname for Usagi, “お団子頭”. During lunch I watched ToKini Andy’s video for chapter seven’s grammar points, and I think I’ll go back and go through some of the chapter six materials on his site.

[lunarkitten]

03月12日（木）

This morning I had 48 WaniKani reviews (92%) and 24 Bunpro reviews (92%). The ADHD is strong today, I can feel it.

I have absolutely nothing to do right now at work and I want to study so badly, but I don’t think my manager would like that very much. I sneak in my WaniKani and Bunpro when I can.

I redownloaded Ringotan on my iPad and set the lessons to follow Genki. When I was doing it on the Galaxy tablet I use for studying, I had set it to follow WaniKani and couldn’t remember some of the kanji. I wish there was an option to view a list of kanji and tick off what you already know how to write. I haven’t tried Skritter because the price point is a little more than I’m willing to pay monthly for an app. I tried Jitaku 字宅 last night and it’s fine, but I think I prefer Ringotan’s interface and method of introducing kanji.

Going through the Genki Anki deck, I’m getting stuck on the kanji vocab words. For example, I know めがね is glasses, but when I get to the 眼鏡 card I can’t remember. (The 目 radical kind of helps though.) I’m wondering if I should suspend the kanji cards for now since I’m doing WaniKani or if that will just hurt me later. I’m having difficulty remembering some of the vocab so I’m just going to spend some time cramming in Bunpro til I have it down.

Some new books came today! I had the original edition of A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, but decided to get the new one when I placed an Amazon Japan order. I figured the TRY! books would be some good extra practice later since they came very highly recommended.

EDIT: 82 nighttime WaniKani reviews, holy moly!

[soggyboy]

@lunarkitten

I’m wondering if I should suspend the kanji cards for now since I’m doing WaniKani

The answer is yes! Since you’re doing WK I wouldn’t worry about learning kanji with other methods at the moment. You’ll get to them eventually in WK. Also, the more kanji you learn, the faster they will click, so picking them up in the future once you have a good base from wk will be easy. Basically, no need to worry if something is not clicking now.

[lunarkitten]

@soggyboy

The answer is yes! Since you’re doing WK I wouldn’t worry about learning kanji with other methods at the moment. You’ll get to them eventually in WK. Also, the more kanji you learn, the faster they will click, so picking them up in the future once you have a good base from wk will be easy. Basically, no need to worry if something is not clicking now.

Thank you! I’ve gone ahead and suspended all the kanji vocab cards. I think this is another reason I’m getting hung up on Kaishi 1.5k, which I’ve paused for now. I’ll just focus on WaniKani and the Genki kanji at this point.

03月13日（金）

Starting the day with 47 WaniKani reviews (91%, made some dumb mistakes) and 34 Bunpro reviews (88%, yuck). Having trouble with 表.

Work was slow this afternoon so I managed to squeeze in some Ringotan and Genki textbook activities while at the desk. We each have our own laptop so I can have the ebook open and write in my notebook without looking too much like I’m studying.

This came up in my new Bunpro vocabulary the day after the 辛 radical appeared in my WaniKani lessons. How serendipitous.

I work literally all day tomorrow – both jobs, 9am to about 2am, so I have no idea where I’m gonna get my studying in! If I wasn’t saving for this trip to Japan I’d have so much free time.

Did 68 WaniKani reviews before bed (98%) and I’ll wait for tomorrow to hit Bunpro again.

[lunarkitten]

03月14日（土）

Back to work, bright and early. I had 49 WaniKani reviews (95%) and 71 Bunpro reviews (92%).

I was going through the second graded reader for chapter six when I noticed I knew all the kanji in Hokkaido! I looked at the furigana, then looked at the kanji and went, “Wait, I recognize all of these. The readings make sense!” I wish I could stop my eyes from immediately going to the furigana though, I’m seeing a lot of kanji I know in these graded readers.