it’s flying like this from now on, the end is in sight, がんばれ〜！
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Thank you!!! Your encouragement means a lot 
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Level 45 already! So swift?!
A bit more nervous about staying on track these next few days, as Sunday is the JLPT. I don’t have high confidence, but I’m going to review the grammar I studied this year so it’s fresh in my head at least. And I will do my best! No matter what happens, I aim to carry along at a pace where I won’t burn out, finish Wanikani, and move forward to other regular study practices.
I was delighted by many of the kanji on level 44. I will now make a little list of my favorites from this level.
- 竜 Dragon
- 吉 Good Luck
- 桃 Peach
- 朱 Vermillion
- 梨 Pear
- 嵐 Storm
- 姫 Princess
- 雷 Thunder
- 狐 Fox
- 芽 Sprout
There are always a few kanji I’m excited to learn, but for some reason, this level was flooded with exciting words.
I’m doing great with managing apprentices and leveling up quickly, but I can feel my retention beginning to slip at later stages. Still trusting the process, letting myself forget some things, trusting my brain to handle new lessons.
Tomorrow, Onward!
(Even if I don’t pass the N2 this year, a win from this week at work: a very important company president visited from Japan and I spent 10+ hours straight interpreting for him. I was not used to speaking with him, nor him to me, so I had to concentrate acutely on fast, unfamiliar, Very Important speech. I had some troubles and slip ups, but for the most part kept up, and maybe even did a good job sometimes! So even if I can’t pass the JLPT, I can somewhat interpret for a president!
What a stressful week lol, can’t wait to relax when it’s over. The origami advent thread has been very cozy and grounding.)
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That sounds much much more impressive than N2 anyway!
Good luck with the exam, but the important part is just carrying on moving forward and getting better, regardless of the result, like you said
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Thank you!! I’m nervous about the test, but regardless of what happens, I’m glad to be seeing some progress and have new goals for the new year 
Let’s keep going~
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This is real world, practical application of your Japanese and a much more accurate reflection of what you can do in the language. But I get it, it’d still be nice to have that certificate.
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Great achievement! I’m sure you’ll be fine with the N2 exam, but if not, you can always do it again if you want to.
Fingers crossed for a good result. Congratulations on speeding up the WK levels!
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Oh boy. Hello. I am so exhausted it is all I can do to make this post before I slug off to bed with some tea. I made it to level 46. Kind of a chaotic week, lots of big mental tasks, and I took the N2 on Sunday!
Hoping things settle down soon. Will be back to say hello again soon. And maybe reflect on the N2? Idk im so tired wheeee bai
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This is all happening so quickly I can hardly keep up with log posts. I’d like to check in soon, when things cool down, to reflect on this year and plan for next.
In the meantime, I leveled up! 47!
I am farther behind on vocabulary than ever before, still finishing up items 43 aha. The effect of this is that kanji are becoming easier to forget once they are up for Guru 2 and beyond. Nonetheless, I knew this would happen, and press forward.
Taking 1 day off for the JLPT rearranged some of my time intervals and definitely had an effect on my memory for new items from that time! But now that I’m back to strictly reviewing 3x a day, things are sticking better.
It’s kind of a drag to review so constantly, especially for my last set, where I’m in kind of a haze and want to focus on relaxing/fun things to make the most of my night, But such is the toll. I’m going to make it to the end of 60 in 2026.
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I have not been well. I had many ambitious plans for the new year, including posting all sorts of reflections and plans in this log. But I haven’t been well and haven’t really had the energy.
There’s something to be said for building a habit over the past two years, because work and chugging Wanikani reviews have been about the only two things I have these days. To be honest, I thought I might chug away to level 60 in silence, and put off a level 60 celebration post for some years until things feel better. But today I thought, it might be nice to have a leveling up record. So here I am. I don’t know that I’ll manage to be consistent with these, but I’m still moving forward.
After getting stuck on 47 a while, I spent a bit longer on 48 getting my apprentices below 100 before leveling up to 49. 49! I’m almost to the last ten.
I am far behind on the vocabulary, as in, I am still working through the end of level 44.
We shall see what happens. I might get through everything by April if I’m lucky. Wow, after all these years…
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I was just wondering where you’d got to. I’m a little bit below you now on the WK ladder. Trying not to build up too big a backlog of vocab…
Anyway, hope you’re feeling a little better.
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Thank you 
Hopefully things will be a bit better soon. I’d like to be engaged here for my last ten levels.
We are right around the same pace! So little left, yet so long to go. We are almost there
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Despite everything 
a few thoughts
(I am relieved to have passed. If I hadn’t, I would be signing up to take the N2 again in 2026. Instead, I’m in a bit of a new position. I’m not going to worry too much about taking the N1 any time soon. Mostly, I want to feel comfortable with Japanese. Maybe I’ll take the N1 when I’m comfortable.
In the meantime, there is lots of practice to be done. I hope to detail these practices as I go along.
I wish I had gotten higher scores in each section, but to be honest, the score aligns almost perfectly with my feeling from taking the test. I felt confident or good for about 50%, and unsure or bad for the other 50%. Funny how the bad half really demands attention after the test is over.
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I made it to level 50! The last ten levels, I can’t believe it.
I’ve noticed a few things at this stage in the game!
- I’m moving quickly and levels behind on vocab. When I finally do vocab lessons, I’m picking them up fast because I’ve spent so long reviewing the kanji. But until I do vocab, kanji are harder to remember on their lonesome.
- Kanji meanings are getting a bit more obscure. ‘Embankment’, ‘Amass’, etc. It takes a bit more mental fortitude for them to stick.
- I’m leveling up faster, so it’s a lot to juggle! But I’m going for exposure over perfection right now. I’m trying to read a news article every day, so I’m seeing these new kanji in the wild already. It’s encouraging and reinforces better than SRS on its own.
I’ll be forging ahead through the last ten, and playing catch up with vocab on level 60. I’m looking forward to it!
I had a very rough end to 2025 and start of 2026. I’m still struggling but I want to record some of my study reflections, accomplishments, and goals when I’m doing a bit better. For now I keep with my baseline Wanikani. Man, if there’s anything this program has taught me over five years, it’s how to show up and keep doing the thing.
One very bright pick-me-up was finding out I passed the N2. I didn’t get a super high passing score, but I made it! It feels really good to know that I’ve come this far and am moving in a direction. There’s no way I could have passed the N2 last year. It was a far-off dream in 2022, even. I am very glad.
toodle-oo
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I really do think this is the best kind of SRS! I’d like to read more news….but there’s only so many hours in a day and I’m committed to reading books this year.
And congrats on the N2 pass - what a confidence boost!
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Thank you so much! And yes, I can say that after about 5 days of reading the news each day, I’m noticing a boost in speed and recollection 
I went from clawing my way through one article on the first day to reading 2 or 3 a day by the end of the week. Yomitan is such a great tool! I’ve just been reading NHK, but if you have other news recommendations I’d love to hear. My range has been quite limited to crime, snowy weather, election news, and Olympics…
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Moving right along~ reading 1-3 articles every day with the help of Yomitan recently. It’s shocking how many kanji I’m recognizing everywhere, even though I am a very slow reader and my vocabulary is lacking. There are hardly any unrecognizable kanji I’m encountering left. What an amazing feeling! I can’t believe it, after years, here I am in 現実.
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Level 52~ These kanji are becoming definitively more obscure. I’m going to keep moving forward at a steady pace. I read articles M-F of this week, and am learning that vocabulary + speed seem to be my biggest inhibitors. I look up a lot of words with Yomitan, but rarely struggle to pick up the meaning of sentences or paragraphs grammatically. My recall is getting better as well, in the past I’ve tended to forget the beginning of a sentence by the time I got to the end. I’m starting to follow the flow of written word! This is just from reading NHK, though.
Once I get through Wanikani I’ll have to work on developing my vocabulary through reading and Anki. This week I read some interesting articles about the election, a cryptocurrency heist, a newly developed strawberry variety, and the sentencing of a truck driver.
In news unrelated to Japanese study, I’m wanting to get into regular movement again. Things were going well until December when my life seemed to fall apart. This week I tried a new gym-space and learned how to do some olympic power lifting for the first time. I wasn’t sure I would be into that sort of thing, but I actually had fun, and now I feel sore! I also started pole dancing again, and I’m hoping that by building strength in the gym I will level up my pole dance and ballet!
Its funny, showing up for these Wanikani reviews every day is strangely akin to power lifting (I speak as if I’ve done it more than once lol). You have to focus on holding form for your reps and rest plenty in between so you can show up for your next session ready to go.
My favorite animal crossing villagers have always been the jocks lol
Edit：I forgot to add! I started studying Japanese prefectures this past week. I spent the week making Anki cards for every prefecture with pretty pictures, emojis, etc. I’ve always known it would be beneficial for me to become familiar with Japanese geography, especially as I often meet people and often don’t have a clue when they say which prefecture they’re from. But recently as I’m reading so much news, prefectures are coming up a lot, and it’s exciting to be building a frame of reference. I’m learning about 4 prefectures a day!
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That sounds exciting! 
Hopefully you aren’t sore for long
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I think my legs are just now starting to recover haha :'D just in time to do it again ~
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