Enjoy your last few weeks in Japan and good luck with the 山登り and the move! I hope you can share your experience of conquering Fuji-san here as well!
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Climbing FUJI ! 
Just chiming in to post a little update since some of you were interested in my Fuji hike!
There are 4 trails on Fuji: the Yoshida trail (popular and beginner friendly!), the Fujinomiya trail (shortest and steepest, also popular), the Gotemba trail (sand sand sand), and the Subashiri trail (forests high up!). My friends and I hiked the Fujinomiya trail about a week ago and it was sooooooo fun!
The day of the hike was suuuuper misty so admittedly the views were pretty much all white:
my friend and I bought matching waterproof gloves hehe
We were originally going to arrive at our hut on the 8th station and rest there during the evening to wake up in the early hours so we could hike to the summit for sunrise. Buuuut after chatting to some other hikers, it turns out sunrise visibility was unlikely due to the cloud cover AND a thunderstorm was expected for the next day. So - in order to avoid the thunderstorm - we hiked to the summit the first day. It was indeed still white but the wind was craaaaaazy. It was wet and cold, but very very cool! And getting to the top felt like such an achievement!
The next day, there was less mist so we could see more views. And it was really beautiful to be above the clouds!
All of us were in such good spirits the whole time ~ it was so much fun and I’m so happy to have gotten the chance to hike Fuji! There were so many good omens (my shoelace snapped en route to the 5th station but a kind shopkeeper gave me a spare of his, the wind pushed us up on the ascent and down on the descent, we bumped into a friend of ours who was hiking a different trail when we arrived etc.) which made the trip feel extra special! Not to mention, after being mildly worried about the hike for a few months, it wasn’t toooo difficult. The hike I mentioned in this post:
was definitely harder, which surprised me! I suppose it makes a big difference hiking in hot summer sun vs the misty cool air/rain of Fuji.
Anyway, that’s all 
While I’m here, I’ll give a little update just to say I have been doing zeeeeeeero Japanese hahahaha I have just over 1 week before I move from Japan and I’ve been busy busy busy with admin chores and goodbyes. So, August is going to be a MAD burst of Japanese revision to compensate for this huge chunk of time off haha and to make me feel connected to Japan when I inevitably get sad I’m not there anymore
Hope you’re all doing well and having nice summers! I’m excited to get back into a study routine soon <3 see you then!
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If I can ever afford to got to Japan this is top of my list
Soooo jealous!
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back at you, thanks for the photos. AMAZING!!!
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HELLO EVERYONE!!! The biggest of 久しぶりs !!! After taking a month off, it’s time for a soppy life update…
I’m back in the UK and have officially moved from Japan 
I can’t believe it. There were many tears on my final day there. I feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people. Everyone helped me so much and I’m so glad I met them. There’s a sadness in the certainty of how transient this period of my life was: I’ll never live in that city again with all the same friends and coworkers. For example, some of my friends also left Japan this summer so I couldn’t replicate it even if I returned. This fact makes me treasure the memories so fondly. It was so so special. Of course I’ll keep in touch with many people, but I can’t help but feel a little melancholy. But that sadness in no way takes away from the deep love I will always hold for the life I had in Japan. Besides university, it was my first time living independently in my own apartment. It was my first full time job. I ran my first half and full marathons there. There were so many new core experiences I had there. So, I’m so happy I randomly decided one winter day to take the leap, write up that job application, and eventually move out there.
Being back home is nice but feels a little strange - despite having lived in Japan for 2.5 years, being back here makes me feel like nothing has changed. I’m back to being at home, looking for jobs, and feeling uncertain. But, of course, so much HAS changed and I’ve grown in a lot of ways. I’m also moving to the USA (for the first time) in just under a month, hopefully to embark on another cool adventure!
This month in the UK feels like the liminal waiting on a train station platform, having just alighted from one train and waiting for the next. But instead of just waiting, I want to try and establish routines to set myself up for as smooth a transition as I can.
Of course, when I lived in Japan, I had plenty of natural exposure to Japanese every time I left my house. If I’m honest with myself, I think that might have enabled some laziness in my study habits (“Oh it’s okay I didn’t do my wanikani reviews today because I said ありがとうございます at the konbini earlier”, そういうこと). But now that I’m no longer in Japan, I’ll need to solidify the habit of studying Japanese intentionally and really put in the effort and time. Not to mention, as some of you may remember, I’m going to start learning Russian at some point this Autumn as it’s my partner’s first language. So I’ll be facing the double challenge of not only having less background exposure to Japanese in my daily life but also starting the journey of learning two languages simultaneously.
So, as much as this month is quite busy what with meeting friends and family and job hunting, it’s important for me to finally wrap up this break I took from studying Japanese in order to 1) solidify the habit in time for my next international move 
and 2) overcome the upcoming decrease in Japanese and increase in Russian 
!
At the moment, this just looks like doing my wanikani reviews. I did 211 on tsurukame today but with a shocking accuracy 
I still have around 500 reviews so I’ll hopefully continue to whittle those down over the coming days…
I also noticed today that Duolingo’s Japanese has FINALLY added voice questions!!! I’m super happy about that timing-wise since I’m presumably going to have much less speaking practice than I used to. I’ve mentioned many times on this study log that - while of course Duolingo is not perfect - I love using it as a gateway study tool after taking long breaks from studying.
So, for the rest of August, I think I’ll do wanikani and duolingo. After my move to the states, I’ll regroup and strategize a new study plan which incorporates Russian too 
I’m going to track those two things this week to hold myself accountable soooo this also means I’ll likely be more active on the forums again. Expect lots of notifications from me as I catch up on all yall’s studylogs hehe
I’m writing this at midnight and all of it felt very stream of consciousness so I’m sorry if it was a nightmare to read haha! But thank you to any who did! I’m excited to get back into studying! Chat to y’all soon 
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wanikani  |
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Duolingo  |
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Diary  |
Monday
先月この言語ロッグで、8月に私の日本語日記を書き続けたいと述べた。もう中旬ということを知っているハハ！でも、目標だと考えると、全然してないことより遅れてしたことのほうがいいと思う。だから、今日から毎日日常について短いポストを書き戻るつもりだ。例えば、今日銀行に行って、友達の働いている店で彼と会って、晩御飯はバーガーを食べ楽しんだ！また、ワニカニした！ 
Tuesday
新しい仕事を探すために、全然できない程最近家に忙しすぎる！掃除とか, お姉さんと出掛けるとか、たくさんこと。それで家にいる時、大切な目標のために全然何もしない。だから、家のことを退くために、今日母の事務に一緒に行った。
Wednesday
今日父と尋ねて、一緒に古くて黒白的な映画を見た。楽しかった！だけど、父と私はあまり近くない。それで、彼とよく尋ねない。
This entry was a total bust hahaha used deepl to check:
- black and white films
モノクロ映画 - We’re not close 親しくない
Now gonna do some reviews !
Thursday (belated)
本当に木曜日という昨日は家のWi-Fiを使えなかったから、昨日じゃなくて今日は日記をアップする！昨夜付近の公園でコウモリを見るために歩きをした、母と友達と。楽しかった！
Friday
今日は気持ちはちょっと悪かったから、日中ベッドにままいた。漢字のレビューをした。仕事からお姉さんは帰った時、私が嬉しくなるために、彼女は私に好きな晩御飯を料理してくれた。親切な姉妹がいる.
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USA! USA! USA! 
Glad to see you checking in! Good luck with the hectic times ahead!
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お久しぶり
I was going to interrupt after the first sentence but you got my thought covered with the second one 
Honestly I feel like changing country is a brutal experience, so take it easy on yourself, there will be many feelings over the next few days / weeks / months!
Moving to a new continent again and learn a new language again is actually a pretty good strategy to keep you distracted from not being too sad on what you have left behind! Good luck with everything, super nice for us that you are checking in here 
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Great to see you back 
and what an incredible experience. I can’t believe you’re upping sticks for even more international adventure!
OK just one thing, it’ll be a wild ride since it’s an election year, but I promise Americans aren’t (for the most part) as crazy as you will experience in the first months when you arrive. Really we (they) (my identity is becoming questionable) are mostly nice and are capable of having normal conversations. That just goes out the window before presidential elections these days.
So… get good at changing the subject and I hope you have fun!
I share these feelings with y’all too 
it’s comforting to know others who have shared that experience
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off topic oops
It’s even contagious! I was at a birthday party last week, having fun connecting with friends until somehow the conversation went to that, I couldn’t really see what was the point of discussing it so much when none of us were American citizens or living there, was thinking the whole time I could have been reading something in Japanese instead 
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off topic
Yes here too! I’m always thinking, people, take advantage of not being American right now and let it go after a single round of omg wtf ikr!
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I hope everything with the move went well. Your life is probably pretty hectic at the moment, but whenever you have the time to come back to the forums, I’ll be happy to see you again 
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@hotdogsuplex your message is not only super cute but serendipitous! I logged onto wanikani only yesterday for the first time after being on vacation mode for the last few weeks! They’ve been busy but wonderful:
- In August, my partner visited me in the UK and finally met all my friends and family. It was their first time visiting there so I jam-packed the itinerary with soooo much fun stuff! It was awesome
- And this month, I moved to the USA!!
- Now, I’ve spent the last week or so since I arrived meeting a bunch of people and job hunting. This week, I have 2 interviews so wish me luck everyone!
Thanks everybody for your lovely messages replying to my last post! Also - regarding your warnings of crazy Americans during election season - I myself am half American hahaha so I can’t be too harsh on everyone ^-^
I can now say that my Japanese studies have pretty much taken about a 2 month break. One of my coworkers from Japan messaged me in Japanese, and I was humbled when I read it and wrote my reply 
- needless to say, studies need to resume haha! So for now, let’s try a daily routine of:
- Japanese practice (wanikani or duolingo)
- Cyrillic alphabet practice (to begin Russian studies woop woop)
- and my Japanese diary
At the end of the week, I’ll regroup :>
Thanks everyone for sticking around during my hiatus! Hope you’re all doing well 
Tue 17
Japanese practice
Cyrillic practice
Japanese diary
ワニカニサイトでオンラインブログの友達からのメッセージを感謝した。いつも通り優しいんだ。
今日から、二つ言語を練習するつもりだけど、難しいかも。まだ仕事を見つけなかったから、毎日たくさんやらないと。仕事を応募するとか、インタビューのために準備するとか。それで、日本語とロシア語を勉強するために、忙しすぎるかもしれないと心配している。でもさ、私にとる言語を勉強は大切な趣味と思う。それで、忙しくても、勉強し続けたいんだ。
Wed 18
Japanese practice
Cyrillic practice
Japanese diary
今朝、私は歯科所で仕事のためにインタビューされた。びっくり、私にインタビューしていた女の訪ねた質問は厳しすぎなかった。色々な質問を答え頑張ってみた。Shadowing Trial Session のために、女が来週の月曜日にまたきてほしいって頼んだ。それで、私はよく頑張ったみたいで、嬉しい！
Thu 19
Japanese practice
Cyrillic practice
Japanese diary
今日私は悪く感じた。悲しい時、好きな人とでも何も言えない。ノンヴァーバルになる。今日は同じだった。でも、彼氏と彼の母と私は散歩した。感じはちょっとよくなったけど、まだ悲しい。それで、今ピザを食べろうと思う。
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I hope that pizza has magic powers that make all your sadness melt away 
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Hey everyone ! Some updates:
I got a job! I’ll be starting on Monday!!!
I haven’t been doing much wanikani at all woof - I did a short review session today with pretty rough accuracy and still 637 waiting for me (do I go on vacation mode again???)
But I have been doing duolingo hehe so that’s something!
I really miss being in the thick of deep daily Japanese practice but life is just crazy busy and novel atm!
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It’s great to hear how things are going, I hope you’re settling in well and congrats on the job!!!
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Thank you !! Everyone’s replies and well wishes mean so much to me 
It’s such motivation to really try and get back on the horse because I wanna be active on the forums again too to chat to all you lovely people!
I have a couple hours today to hopefully make a dent in my review wall (660 reviews) before I’m going on a trip this weekend 
so I’ll check back in later…
Later
I did:
- 20 minutes of wk reviews
- 10 minutes of duolingo
- 10 minutes more of wk
I did around 160 reviews but 30 more just came in which was demoralizing haha but hey, something is better than nothing! I forced myself not to listen to anything while doing the reviews so I didn’t get distracted and used duolingo as a “fun reward” when I got bored of reviews. I think this is a good strategy haha
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久しぶり皆！最近すごく忙しかったから、まだ日本語を勉強し戻っていなかった。毎日新しい仕事を楽しんでいて、ロングデイスタンスの二年間の後でよく彼氏と出掛けることも楽しんでいる。暮らしは良いよ。Buuuut, I have 860 reviews on wanikani with no immediate steps to dealing with those so,
I decided to go back on VM! However during my lunch break today I read a little bit of Akira Volume 2. I plan to bring a notebook in tomorrow and I’ll do some more writing and reading. That’s what is fun to me, not reviews! So for now - while I’m evidently in a non-study phase of my life - I’m gonna prioritize fun immersion and reading > boring reviews for my studying ! Something is better than nothing as I always say!
Hopefully check back in tomorrow - hope you’re all well y’all!
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and by notebook I guess I mean scrap piece of paper from the office lool - only could read/write a few sentences since I also videocalled my sister during my lunchbreak buuuut it’s just enough to remind me again how fun it is :>
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I wanted to ask this for some time if it’s okay.
How did you begin writing in japanese?
I am really intersted in learning how to write.
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I chose a manga I enjoyed and just copied out the sentences as I read along If I couldn’t read the kanji clearly I used the ‘search by radial’ function on jisho.org to find it through process of elimination. I still can’t write kanji on my own by recalling it, but I’m definitely a lot faster/more confident when copying than I was before I started this.
Good luck!
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