Immersion Day ・ Study Binge ・ 勉強の豪遊
Got all summer break? A week for spring break? A long weekend? A responsibility-free Saturday? Maybe just a random day coming up with nothing to do?
Consider dipping yourself into a day of total immersion and comprehensible input!
Okay, but what does that actually mean?
“Immersion Spree” “Study Binge” “Japan-At-Home”
There are many ways that it’s been referred to on the WaniKani forums and other Japanese learning sites, but it typically just means a day of sun-up to sundown total Japanese input.
No English in your day unless absolutely unavoidable
- Q. How is this different from the AJATT method? (All Japanese All The Time, total immersion 24/7)
- A. This is a short-term spree for some fun and excitement, and to give ourselves a little boost when the plateau has been feeling extra real lately. Though some people do 100% AJATT every single day, typical experiences indicate that this method can cause intense burnout very quickly.
(Keep reading for some ideas on how to accomplish this)
Studying during your immersion time is not necessary, though you’re welcome to schedule study time into your day if you’d like. You may also want to consider adding study time into your immersion if you are planning an extended spree over multiple days.
[this spot reserved for links to group immersion threads]
How to Create a Day of Immersion
Step 1. いつ
In advance, identify the day(s) you would like to use for your immersion spree.
Because we’re looking for a tight seal of Japanese-only input and output, a decent amount of planning is required to create the best “schedule” for yourself. It might be difficult to plan and execute on the same day.
Step 2. どうやって
What does an ideal day at home look like for you? Are you watching movies? Listening to music? Maybe you play video games in the morning, go to the gym after lunch, read a book in the afternoon, and then watch a cozy drama at night?
By identifying your habits/hobbies/joys, you can use those to create a “schedule” for your immersion day and replace English games/movies/music with those entirely in Japanese.
Step 3. どんな
Check out some WaniKani resource lists or do some research on your own to find the Japanese-language input items you’d like to use during your immersion day and get ready to queue them up! There are activity ideas below to help you create an outline for your day.
REMINDER: Try not to choose input items too far above your current level! We are avoiding all English subtitles and media that is too difficult to understand will become too difficult to enjoy. The bulk of your input should be along your level, with only a few items above or below it.
Further Information
-
Do I have to stay home all day?
No, of course not. However, if you live outside of Japan, immersion can be nearly impossible once you are no longer in control of your surroundings. Going for a walk in the park and listening to Japanese music is great! But once you enter a grocery store and spend 2 hours reading English labels, what’s the difference between that and a normal day? While anything could interrupt on an immersion day and you might need to run errands, we’re simply looking to create the tightest seal around our time for a Japanese-only day. -
Do I have schedule out my day, or can I choose activities at random day-of?
This really just depends on the type of person you are! At the very least, you should already have created an extensive list of items already queued in case you become bored with whatever your current activity is. Maybe the Sailor Moon episodes aren’t hitting like you thought they would - try to have many, many other items at the ready to choose from. For me, having too many things to choose from can lead me to stare at my phone in avoidance, so scheduling out my day works best in my case, but it might be the opposite for you and total freedom to choose might be better!
Activities 
I’ve sorted these by the general amount of time they can take up in your day, but, as always, everything is deeply customizable and these are simply suggestions.
The idea is that, of all of the items you choose, they are fully in Japanese and do not necessitate English/non-Japanese subtitles. Some small things, like your browser or TV menus, might be unavoidably in English, but I wouldn’t worry about changing these unless you’re attempting an ultra-hard mode.
Multi-Hour
- Play some video games (recommendations on Steam) (on Switch)
- Watch a movie (some movie ideas) (more ideas)
- Watch anime (on Netflix) (on Hulu)
- Read a book (find some in your level on Natively)
- Do chores and:
-Listen to music (new J-pop) (new J-rock) (wow who made this playlist idk)
-Listen to a podcast (some ideas)
-Speak along with several levels of Pimsleur
Many Minutes, Possibly an Hour
- Write a Japanese journal entry or blog post
- Watch TEDx Japan videos
- Explore Japan on:
-Mapcrunch (free, not a game but still fun, choose “Japan” under Options)
-GeoGuessr: Japan Map (free to an extent, is a game) - Cook along with Japanese recipes
- Read manga
- Watch some super awkward videos made for Japanese learners in the 90s
- Write a short story
- Record a video of:
-Self-introduction
-Talking about a topic
-Reading the short story you just wrote (¬‿¬ ) - Set yourself to Hardcore mode in the language exchange discord and chat it up
-Speak in the Japanese-only voice rooms
Some Minutes, Less Than an Hour
- Read Japanese news
- Do karaoke with Youtube or Spotify lyrics-view
- Watch/listen to Mikuさん take you through her day (Mt. Fuji) (Kamakura) (Kyoto) and more
- Read some Tadoku books or other short stories
- Play shiritori with yourself
- Write a letter
- Write a page full of haiku
- Make a grocery list/meal plan
Fill in the Gaps
- Talk to your pet(s) in Japanese
- Narrate your actions aloud
EXTREME MODE
- Turn off notifications on your phone for all social media, oh look someone sent a dm- NO! Don’t get sucked in!
- And don’t you DARE take your phone to the bathroom with you
Unless you do this: - Video doom-scroller? Make a Japanese-only tiktok and set up the FYP algorithm in advance to only show Japanese creators
-This also works for Instagram reels, though the algorithm is less sensitive and will throw English videos in as well - Get lost in Youtube too easily? Make a separate account and only use it for Japanese videos - you can also challenge yourself to exclusively leave comments in Japanese when using this account
- Wander too easily on the computer? Set up a blocklist extension to temporarily block websites that tempt you toward English/non-Japanese content, like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, the WaniKani forums (cough)
- Want to tighten up your listening skills? Visit Tatoeba and try to write the sentences you hear without looking (cover your screen with paper or hide half of you browser)
Schedule It!
I mentioned this above, but the best practice in this situation might be to have a super lengthy list/queue of items ready to be put into action for when you’re eventually bored of your previous activity. I’m a big movie person, so my ideal day off is popcorn and literally like four or five movies. Maybe I’ll get fancy and write the Letterboxd reviews in Japanese, too.
A Saturday immersion for me might look like this:
09 
Wake up, read News Web Easy, have breakfast, do 100 WK reviews
10 
Do laundry and vacuum, listen to 水のカン or YOASOBI, scream the lyrics
11 
Continue that until my apartment is clean and「赤ずきん」is stuck in my head
12 Summarize my week in Japanese in my journal, flex recent new grammar (use incorrectly)
13 
Try following a new 弁当 recipe and narrate aloud like I’m on a cooking show
14 
All of those things were done to make me feel better about watching movies all day
15 I’m excited for Suzume so I’ll use that as an example (no subs, remember!)
16
17 
Make a snack, switch to uhh a Naruto movie if we’re being honest
18 (The Lost Tower is my favorite but Road to Ninja is good too i guess pfft)
19
20
21 
Make dinner! Follow the tiny Japanese instructions on the back of the curry box
22 
Scroll Japanese live tiktoks, comment on them because I love when they respond live
23 
Play the GeoGuessr Japan map and try to get over 20k points (I usually get 19k rip)
00 
Do 100 more WK reviews, play Ni No Kuni in bed (this is my fave game to play in Japanese)
01 
Look at how late it is, freak out, watch more Japanese tiktoks until I fall asleep
Things that are NOT my goal during an immersion day:
→ Look up every word I don’t understand (I will write some on a notepad and look them up TOMORROW)
→ Cram insane amounts of books, TV, movies, manga, music in to the point of overwhelming myself
Things I will purposefully avoid doing:
→ Getting locked into my everyday habit of mindlessly scrolling forums and social media
→ Speaking English aloud, unless it is to someone who wouldn’t otherwise understand me, but then doing my regular mumbling and grumbling in Japanese instead
If studying is an important part of your immersion journey, PLEASE add it to your schedule! Don’t feel like immersion must separate from studying, every aspect is extremely flexible and open for personalization.
In general, the most effective immersion day will touch on all four of the main components of language: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening. A day of only watching anime won’t do as much as a day that includes anime plus a book, a short writing prompt, and some speaking practice.
Ready? (✧∀✧)
When you queue things up, you won’t waste any time looking for them or downloading them on the day you want to use them. This is part of the reason why I recommend planning at least a day in advance to ensure everything is ready to go for your fun immersion day!
There are so many more ways to fine-tune an immersion day to your level and interests, so I hope you experiment with what worked, didn’t work, was GREAT, was awful, and report in to help other people work on their own special 日本語だけ days.
REMEMBER: Focus on comprehensible, though a little challenge isn’t a bad thing. The point is not to make yourself feel stupid or lacking, but to help you add real-world context to what you already know!
(if you have more ideas for activities or general information, please add them to the discussion and i will happily add them to the thread!)
), but I should definitely try to get involved with events that happen to match my schedule and stuff like that.
. But even on those days, I rarely commit to immersion before/after.
i’ll replace it!
though i will say i’ve been slowly working japanese into the household for several months now and my partner is able to offer a few funny sentences from memory without being prompted lol