Hello Everyone! As requested by a couple people and a desire to social pressure myself into studying more, here is a study log.
Current levels:
English 
(Native)
Japanese 
(Failing the N2 level)
Chinese 
(I can read some stuff)
Background:
English : My whole school career and college degree were in English
Japanese : Passed the N3 in winter 2022, taking the N2 for the 4th time this winter
Chinese : Duolingo very casually
Japanese study background:
My aunt is Japanese and my uncle speaks the language so I was exposed to it at a young age but didn’t properly learn anything beyond a few words until I started taking Japanese classes at 17. After that I studied abroad in Japan the next two summers and took a further two years of classes at my university. Post graduation I moved to rural Niigata where very few people speak English so it was a pretty sink or swim situation for much of my work and life. At work it is pretty much 100% Japanese outside of the classroom, even with the English teachers. Despite this, my Japanese level still leaves a lot to be desired, even though I have become somewhat fluent when it comes to working in a school.
Wanikani what?:
I do most of my Wanikani in my free time at work, which there is a lot of. The max number of classes I have in a day is 4 so that means at least 4 hours a day to study just at work, because it is rare to be asked to prepare anything for the classes. I am but a humble English puppet. However, I do not study as much as I should, as evidenced by taking the N2 for the 4th time lol.
To dive into some stats a little, I am 1011 days into Wanikani, 5192 items learned, level 33, and 236,923 reviews in.
That averages out to 234 reviews a day and 46 reviews per item learned. In other words: I am bad at this.
The only thing I am truly doing wrong is I tend not do my reviews on the weekends. In other interesting factoids, I couldn’t read until I was 9 years old and most likely have dyslexia, which actually makes a language with visual variety like Japanese easier for me to read. Being nearly 9 years into studying and still struggling to pass the N2 isn’t great and in the past I got made fun of for my skill vs years studying ratio, but at least I didn’t give up and can do pretty much everything myself here in Japan, if sounding a little dumb while doing it lol.
Overconfident advice time
The most important part of living in another country and learning the language is letting go of your fear of saying something wrong or sounding stupid. You are going to sound dumb and make mistakes. First month here I told my mechanic I want to “work my squirrel” (risu wo hatarakitai) instead of “pay my lease” (ri-su wo haraitai) and here we are five cars later with me telling them all kinds of car words because my cars keep breaking. Who knew old cars could be so good for your language learning!
Today is my 4 year Japanniversary and my final year as an ALT. Earlier this month I applied to a graduate school here in Japan and the entrance exam is November 6th. The goal now is entrance exam and N2 grind.
WHAT I STUDY/PLAN TO STUDY
Wanikani(obvs)
Grammar/Vocab N2 books
Japanese books (アズカバンの囚人、人体と細胞、夜は猫と一緒、whatever else I find)
English books (to try to increase my attention span and regain the ability to sound intelligent in English)
So much f*#!ing paperwork for grad school (did you know you apply by SNAIL MAIL and need to list every school you ever attended starting at SIX YEARS OLD?!?)
Text and talk to le bf(henceforth referred to as Mr. Engineer) in Japanese longer than half a sentence
Review enough science to pass the exams and not die in grad school (I only have six days tho lol)
!
40 min of getting my new car and contract explained to me
also appeased the Duolingo Owl