A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Study Log 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱

[Malinkal]

@GolyBidoof

I saw a couple of people discussing SRS practices recently, and how the best SRS is just seeing the items in the wild, and while I agree with that, I look at @Malinkal’s study log with both amazement and anxiety at the same time, because their level of exponential improvement in Japanese by consuming source material is both something I’m envious of, something I don’t want to commit to and something that makes me scream out “HOW DO YOU HAVE ALL THAT TIME”

Deals with the devil

I, probably like lots of others, look at your log every day and think “where on earth does Bidoof get the energy to do all this different stuff split across 15 different hobbies, interests and languages”
example:

@GolyBidoof

3.5h of German classes

On top of learning Japanese, working, travelling around the world constantly, gaming, 7-hour long chats with people on trains, etc!

By comparison, I just have 1 rotating obsessive special interest which I build a system for over time and 100% commit all my free time to for some unspecified period, before switching to something else. Before it was running, before that it was rubiks cubing for a month, before that it was chess for a few months, before that it was typing for a few months, before that it was Rowing for a year or so. Although Japanese is sticking longer than most, and I’m dedicated to this for the next however long.

[GolyBidoof]

@Malinkal

By comparison, I just have 1 rotating obsessive special interest which I build a system for over time and 100% commit all my free time to for some unspecified period, before switching to something else. Before it was running, before that it was rubiks cubing for a month, before that it was chess for a few months, before that it was typing for a few months, before that it was Rowing for a year or so. Although Japanese is sticking longer than most, and I’m dedicated to this for the next however long.

Stick to it for as long as you can! Fingers crossed you manage to succeed, you definitely give hope to people like me by being consistent, ever motivated and getting up all the time ^^

btw, i neeever got below one minute mark in speedcubing, we had a competition at the uni that i signed up for and i came in dead last, ahh, im getting nostalgic, was fun xddddddd

2x2 is my fidget toy though! ^^

[Malinkal]

I got to maybe 35-40ish seconds at best (mostly just so that I could beat my brother by a few seconds). When it got to complicated stuff like memorising F2L algorithms it suddenly got to the point, like with most things, where to get to the 99.9% percentile, it would take 10x as much time for 1/10th of the progress. That’s usually the point where I stop doing whatever hobby it is. Japanese is different because while the relative speed of improvement slows down, in absolute terms, I can still improve at the “same rate” picking up vocab etc and getting better at listening. So it’s a good one to stick with very long term unlike something with bio-mechanical progress rate limitations like speed cubing or weightlifting!

Now I’ve forgotten half the algorithms and would struggle to solve a 3x3 without looking them up. One of those things which deteriorates quickly without practice, but probably doesn’t take that long to pick up again.

(I’ve never solved a 2x2, they do look cool, I don’t know why I never got one…
Also a speedcubing competition does sound cool)

[GolyBidoof]

June 4th, 2025

• 154 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 61 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 lessons on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader

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• Participating in a Nintendo Switch 2 launch event in Berlin!
• Getting to talk to Minimoli in German and telling her that her videos teach me German ^^
• Setting up Nintendo Switch 2 auf Deutsch and playing something like an hour+ of Mario Kart World ^^

Today’s Japanese reviews were very chaotic and split across multiple blocks: I’ve definitely destroyed my SRS timing for a lot of reviews, and knowing that tomorrow I’ll need to do some reviews at 1am will be very weird, but hey, bank holidays, not working on Friday, we just have tomorrow to survive.

I got my delivery from Japanese Amazon with some of the things I’ll be reading over for the Summer Marathon, already managed to unpack them, but today I wanted to focus on a different thing in my Public Diary , so just leaving this as a placeholder for now ^^

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Life

A while back I was using a mental health app where you could track in your mood and select one of five smilies depending on how you felt a day has went, and I was very hesitant to use both ends of the scale in the app back then…
…in the case that a day like today happens ^^

Today was the happiest I’ve been in a very. Very. Very long time. I’ve had a lot of great days this year already, but if there’s a day I want to remember in five years from now, make it today C:

So quick start, new nails today!

Hmmm, I wonder where they came from, maybe from a guy I was interested in (who turned out not to be a guy at all) ^^

Then, on my way back from work, it turned out that my favorite fizzy drink, Spezi, IS ON A DISCOUNT, WOOO

Having realized that, I stocked up on 10 cans xdddd

Then, went back home and created a completely custom design of a card to be printed on a photo printer that I wanted to give to random people when I go on the Midnight Launch, and I printed it in 20 copies C:

Spoiler for this one: people took those cards eagerly and they were out really, really quickly ^^

And if you were there for the Deltarune Tomorrow meme that’s been around forever at this point, I was so hyped to see Deltarune Chapter 3 and 4 come out, that I preloaded it at 5pm and started playing it immediately on my Switch 1 ^^
I still haven’t finished Chapter 3 yet, but I’m just in front of the final boss for the chapter, so DELTARUNE YESTERDAY, IT HAPPENED :DDDDDD

Congrats to Toby Fox for having shipped it!

After I went through a few hours of Deltarune, I started getting ready for the midnight launch, arrived at midnight aaaaand oh God xdddd

There were at least 500 people waiting in the line to get the console, and everyone was given plenty of freebies, a pretty durable tote bag, a notebook, a pen, some pins, really cool things ^^

I ended up chatting to random Icelandic student pair ahead of me that were relatively into Nintendo, but not into jRPG, and I was trying to sell them on the idea of Fire Emblem and Xenoblade Chronicles, but hey, time well spent C:

Also, I hinted at this yesterday, but Minimoli, the German Nintendo YouTuber who I watch sometimes, crossed 100 thousand subscribers today and I managed to met her in person at the midnight launch ^^
We traded a few opinions together and I asked her to take and instax together and she did, how famous is that ^^
On top of that, one of the 20 cards made above ended up with her, I don’t know if she liked it, or is she going to use the card in any way, shape or form, but I’m happy she took it ^^

And then, something like half an hour in, was finally my time to get in C:

And whoops, I know I said I wouldn’t buy Nintendo Switch 2 today, but whoopsie daisy xddd
I’ll cancel my preorder at the Media Markt tomorrow ^^

I swear, it’s 3:30am and I have to wake up in just a few short hours. It’s the shortest sleep I’ll have this whole year so far, but oh well, I’ve had so much fun today that I don’t mind being aBSOLUTELY DEAD every once in a while ^^

Man..........

I’m so content.

With everything that happened today, including Deltarune, Mario Kart World’s Star Cup, including people I spoke with, the atmosphere at the office, my productivity, my friends, aAAAAA xddd

I’m gonna crash really bad tomorrow, but until then, this is the happiest you’ll see GolyBidoof being for a while ^^

[mitrac]

@simias

@GolyBidoof

She was like the only Japanese person I’ve ever spoken with who hasn’t said 日本語上手 to me, that was wild xdd

Congratulations, you made it!

I’m a week late - yes this congrats you have arrived

@GolyBidoof

But I ended up learning a lot from her, and she was really open in terms of oversharing about everything, which I really appreciate from people, in a way I kinda want to become a person like her in the future, but also, I really have to stand my ground and be proud of who I am today, instead of always clinging towards the next north star xdddd

She definitely proved that not being embarrassed of your upbringing and being straightforward is the best way to live your life ^^

Inspiring conversation, thanks for relating some of it here

@Malinkal

I, probably like lots of others, look at your log every day and think “where on earth does Bidoof get the energy to do all this different stuff split across 15 different hobbies, interests and languages”
example:

@GolyBidoof

3.5h of German classes

On top of learning Japanese, working, travelling around the world constantly, gaming, 7-hour long chats with people on trains, etc

And this

Thanks for all the photos of your adventures!

[GolyBidoof]

June 5th, 2025

• 149 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 42 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 lessons on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Misc: tested a few Switch (2) games in Japanese for a few hours

レベル38を解除した！！！C:

The review timings have become really weird over the last couple of days, but with the first lessons of level 38, they should even out by tomorrow 11pm, hopefully ^^

Also, doing Bunpro at N2 feels like solving a puzzle, writing just one word isn’t enough, you have to do: 組み, 立ち, -て, られ, ない, -く, は, ない, so trust me, when I didn’t put it together first try but kept going, my reaction was just xddd

But, no, still really low accuracy on Bunpro today, I skipped through some reviews because they were on Beginner 1-3 and I was like “sure, I can afford not to fail those for now”.

In the meantime though, I spent a while today testing different games on the Switch 2, across languages, both in German and Japanese ^^
I think I’ll set my Switch OLED to Japanese and Switch 2 in German, but ye, Mario Kart World:

Not that many kanji and that makes it difficult to read, but I was able to get all of the gold cups today pretty easily ^^

龍が如く０, I played the intro Ger/Jpn so I was still relying on my context knowledge from that playthrough, it’s a difficult script, especially since it’s being read unwaveringly quickly

ポケモンスカーレット, my biggest surprise of today in terms of reading, because I remember furiously doodling kanji into Google Translate in Pokemon Shield back in 2020 to try to understand anything, and today I actually could understand every single word from the tutorial, so maybe they’re right that Pokemon is an easy game to read after all, I just wasn’t anywhere close to that level then xdd

It could work well in terms of that idea of READING A TON of characters to speed up reading and become familiar with slang, but on my list of games I’d like to play sometime soon, Pokemon Scarlet doesn’t occupy a very high position, especially since MARIO KART WORLD AAAAA

Also, friends sent me over this meme about stiff grammar from Witch Watch and that’s me practicing my Japanese on Bunpro/WaniKani

Hm, aside from that, my TV doesn’t deal well with switching between HDR content or non-HDR content, it looks hyperexposed when it’s not HDR and too bright and washed up if it’s HDR, even after color correction; meanwhile, the Switch 2 display in terms of quality has nothing on Switch OLED, and even less on Steam Deck OLED, so the inevitable countdown towards Switch 2 OLED has begun

Dodged my German classes today, partway because I was too tired, partway because I wanted to at least beat Mario Kart World today. I didn’t have a strong “NO” reaction to going today, but I thought like my lifestyle lifestylecrept a bit too high over the last couple of weeks, so I deserved some time to just rest up. I tested Tears of the Kingdom and Xenoblade 3 in German today though, so at least here’s something ^^

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Life

And in life, slept 5 hours today, was a secretary/notekeeper for another 5 hours after that, recipe for a disaster xdddd

But no, I communicated with my colleagues that THIS WAS AN IMPORTANT THING FOR ME TO GO TO THE MIDNIGHT LAUNCH and of course they were receptive, also, didn’t mess anything up today, so it’s high time to try to rest up today and torture Switch 2 tomorrow again ^^

And on the same note, I’m glad I went for the Midnight Launch for the Switch 2 and grabbed mine there, because my preorder still hasn’t arrived yet ^^

Oh well ^^

Also, we had a bake sale today!

Veeeeery sugary, but it was for a good cause and a donation, so I enjoyed mine ^^

Also, doesn’t the book club for Frieren restart tomorrow???
See you tomorrow! C:

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

Also, doesn’t the book club for Frieren restart tomorrow???

woot woot we’re live

[WeepingWeeb]

@GolyBidoof

Deltarune Chapter 3 and 4 come out,

WHAT I need to get on this

[GolyBidoof]

@mitrac

woot woot we’re live

then one more day of patience please because ive procrastinated today xddd
thanks for reopening it ^^

@WeepingWeeb

WHAT I need to get on this

THEN DO BECAUSE IM WRITING ABOUT IT IN TODAYS POST

June 6th, 2025

• 149 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 51 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 lessons on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Misc: nibbling in a few Switch (2) games in Japanese ^^
• Misc: ordering in Japanese in a Japanese restaurant

Bunpro has public profiles now!

I haven’t customized it really and I don’t use their forums at all, but I’m glad they’re still investing in their service and so far I’m a happy lifetime user!

Satori Reader’s シークレット keeps piling up plot twists on top of one another, I’m actively clicking on the next episode and going like “wait, did that one really happen? ah yeah, that was <then>” xddd
It’s a very confusing story and I’m not sure if I follow all of the story threads, but now that I’m 69 episodes in (nice), I’m not that far away from finishing it!

Did my WaniKani reviews at 1-2am today, so my SRS timings are stick out of whack, but tomorrow might come towards a reset of the timings ^^

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Switch Stuff

First of all, Deltarune! I’m bringing it here, because Toby Fox is a person who started learning Japanese over the course of his game development and he grew very close with his Japanese community, and you can see that he’s a proper weaboo because even in the English version of the game (sorry, playing in English, I really wanted to get the puns!), he still inserts Japanese culture and kanji references, like, very mild spoiler from Chapter 4:

And then Mario Kart, three days ago we said goodbye to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The King Is Dead, Long Live The King ^^

I really hope we’ll keep on nerding out as long as people will be in the mood for it C:
But yeah, playing Mario Kart in Japanese, played some more of Pokemon in Japanese to get to the academy at least and my interface is in Japanese for now, so very slow consumption and very slow immersion, will see if I read Frieren tomorrow!

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Life

Not very exciting today, my mind is still constantly in the MARIO KART MARIO KART mode, I interrupted the mind processes by going to a food court in Potsdamer Platz: where one of the restaurants is owned by Japanese people and does Japanese food, there’s takoyaki, okonomiyaki, udons, but I went with an オムライス today, look how appetizing it seems ^^

I made my order in Japanese today, but the keywords aren’t all that difficult, 注文、カードで払う、こちらに座る、枝豆とオムライスください、it’s nice to interact with others in Japanese, but calling it challenging is definitely overdoing it xdd

On the way back there was a promo campaign for Raffaello, I asked for one and got two and I was like “>:[ I asked for one” and also “: DDDDD omg two raffaellos” xddd

And also, there is a house of Russian culture in Berlin, look who I found right in front of the place ^^

Ehhh, I’m really building a reputation of being a Ukraine documentarian, hope I won’t have to change the name of my thread to that xdddd

All right, jumping into bed and about to finish Chapter 4 of Deltarune, so see you tomorrow everyone! C:

[TakeFlite]

How are you finding Mario kart? We visited a retro game bar in Osaka and relived the glory days of Mario kart N64! Great fun with a sonic themed cocktail in hand. The amount of new mechanics whenever I tried the switch game always confused me and now the whole “world” aspect - I’m getting left behind

@GolyBidoof

aaaand we went to a restaurant car and started chatting about our lives xddd
…
But no, my Japanese definitely isn’t there yet

Maybe not but to me this is sooooo cool, and I bet brand-new-beginner-Goly would be super impressed. Feels like a long way away but I can dream. Being able to say ありがとう rather than areegahtoe is my main win on this holiday.

[GolyBidoof]

June 7th, 2025

• 123 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 44 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 lessons on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Book Club: 葬送のフリーレン第４８話
• Misc: got to the first gym in Pokemon Scarlet!

ah yeah, good day in terms of Japanese ^^

Bunpro was lagging, as per usual, but Frieren Book Club entered new volume, I added a few words to the vocab sheet and played Pokemon Scarlet until the first gym ^^

I haven’t beaten the gym yet, because my Pokemon are underleveled, but did some reading and that was pretty fun, I have a feeling that Switch 2 saved this game from forever being at a dumpster of unoptimized ports and finally the game is playable, even though it’s FAAAR from aesthetically pleasing, I don’t even dare mentioning perfect xddd

Plenty of quick reading though, however, I’ve noticed that Pokemon has some dialogues both with NPCs and in the middle of the fights where the text autoscrolls and you can’t influence the speed of it, when I read all of the words correct the first time, I can keep up, but the velocity is faster than the intro sequence of The House in Fata Morgana when it had autoscrolling text, so one misread and you’ve missed the dialogue box xddd

And in シークレット, we finally got to the Secret, the voice actor is pouring his heart out and I’m going like good for you man

@TakeFlite

Being able to say ありがとう rather than areegahtoe is my main win on this holiday.

That’s a good win, we stan C:
Good luck on being able to tell arigatou in a way that makes you feel like you exert your proper accent ^^

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Switch

Ah yeah, Deltarune Chapter 4
I think Toby Fox dropped the ball ssssliiighhhttly in terms of music in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, but the stories hit just as strong, if not stronger ^^
If there was a thing I could complain about in Deltarune Chapter 1 & 2, it was the trio of main characters feeling a little underdeveloped and not fleshed out, Chapters 3 & 4 are pure SOUL and I enjoyed the character banter so, so much ^^

When I finished Chapter 4 and the display showed “to be continued in chapter 5 in 2026” I jumped out, because I was convinced it’d take another three years for another update, but okay, Toby Fox is ambitious, the more power to him C:

Mario Kart, hmm…

@TakeFlite

How are you finding Mario kart?

I’m cursed by the fact I’m probably a liiitle more devoted to the Mario Kart brand than the usual player, I’ve been to tournaments, I’ve hunted country records, I’ve written guides, pluuus I’ve modded the games extensively, so my opinion is not exactly representative of the general gaming populace, I’m heavily biased by nostalgia goggles and all.

The soundtrack of Mario Kart World is mind-boggingly good. It’s like, you’re buying a bunch of CDs with a video game attached to it, there’s just no questioning that I’m tearing up when the game comes ^^

The new mechanics are pretty fun, they raise skill ceiling extensively and competitions an

…but nostalgia to the old games is getting in the way of me enjoying the game as much as I would like. I keep itching to start GBA Snow Land with 200cc and have the soundtrack play out and me bounce around, but there’s no GBA Snow Land in this game, and neither there is 200cc mode, so I’m going for the next best thing I can.

Today for example I improved my PB on Cheep Cheep Falls by 13 seconds, which is a huge improvement, but I’m still like 12 seconds behind the World Record because of the new mechanics and new handling and all and I do realize that there are really cool mechanics one can use to cut down on the time further… but I’m not feeling 100% motivated to do it? Now I have hobbies outside of video games, I have friends, I have adventures, I don’t want to devote another few hundred hours just to learn the changes in the mechanics between the two games.

So for a while longer I’ll probably stay in the camp MARIO KART 8 DELUXE IS THE BEST ONE and

@TakeFlite

The amount of new mechanics whenever I tried the switch game always confused me and now the whole “world” aspect - I’m getting left behind

yep, I’m feeling the same way as well, it feels wrong xdddd
I’ll keep going for a little longer though ^^

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Life

…oh frick.

I’m in Wesel, Nordrhein-Westfalen, West Germany. xdddd
Listen, it’s on brand, you have to get used to that xddd

But another big special today, I’ll follow through chronologically what happened and you might follow through and understand what happened xddd

I went to sleep at 3:30 and it started getting brighter outside, and I was like “ehhh”, but managed to fall asleep soundly ^^

Woke up at 12:00, grabbed a breakfast and wondered what I can do on this lazy day, other than play some Switch.
I took a bike to a Flohmarkt close by in Berlin, and Flea Markets are always great, if you’re not in a search for “the” thing, but for “a” thing, you’ll always find something ^^

I came back at 3pm and checked up on Discord what my friends are up to, and a close friend of mine sent a message being like “greetings from DoKomi”, and I was like “WHAT ISNT DOKOMI AT THE END OF JUNE???”

well seems like it isn’t xdd

DoKomi is the single biggest anime convention in Germany, one of the contenders for the biggest anime convention in Europe too: much bigger than PAX East, that I can easily tell ^^

So I’m going panic mode, having realized I have the Sunday ticket, but I haven’t even booked trains or buses yet
Trains for same-day connections in Germany are really expensive, so as soon as I saw a price tag of €150 I was like “NOPE” and looked for alternate connections xddd

One thing you have to realize is that Berlin and Düsseldorf are like a 600km train ride from one another:

so one does not just jump in a car and get there, that’d take FOREVER.

One thing you can do however is employ a Flixbus, they don’t increase in price as you get to the date of the departure, but Flixbuses take like 8 hours to get here, so I went with something in the middle… Flixtrain!

Flixtrains have a terrible reputation in Germany for being even more late than Deutsche Bahns that are always late, but I took a gamble and booked a train 1.5h from that point, did very quick emergency light packing and took public transit to the Berlin Central Station ^^

…did I ever mention how much I LOVE Berlin Hauptbahnhof? Everything just feels RIGHT on it, it’s so fun to spend time on, even if you’re not taking a train anywhere ^^

So, normally, Flixtrains are horribly late… but the one I took, arrived in Nordrhein-Westfalen actually 40 minutes AHEAD of the schedule, and we stopped at a random station in Kamen before Dortmund for half an hour to wait until we can arrive at the proper station, so I just took a walk around ^^

On the way to NRW, played some Mario Kart, Pokemon, read the new Frieren chapter and yeah, trains are amazing C:

One thing you need to know about me and NRW: it is my standalone favorite region… of the whole Europe. It just sits so right with me and I love it so much. Some reasons will follow in this post ^^

Each time I travel to it, I try to book accommodation in a different place, because NRW is a huge metropolitan area where every 20 kilometers there is a different town, and everything is connected using a train network and each town is GREAT, so I do my culture exchange by going to different places there, and I did one this time as well ^^

I was looking for a place to sleep in while in the train and found a town called Wesel, north of Duisburg ^^
Duisburg is a good destination to change trains because there’s something to the west, to the north, to the east and to the south of it, so I’ve been to that station many times, got out, bought my Deutschlandticket for the month of June (unlimited public transit across Germany for €58 a month) and set off to Wesel ^^

Wesel was a little bigger than I expected, my hotel was on the other side of the town, so I had a long walk to get there ^^

And this is where we end where the post began: Cafe Extrablatt ^^
It’s a chain of cafe bars across NRW region that has a cafe in every bigger city, and the biggest highlights are:

• it’s always in the strict city center
• it’s open until late hours
• they do decaf coffee and it tastes great ^^

So I had another visit at a Cafe Extrablatt here, and just look, it’s so cool!
Barely made it before midnight ^^

From Wesel it’s one hour with a regio train to Düsseldorf and that’s what I’m aiming to do tomorrow morning, quick breakfast at Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof and off to DoKomi I go!

It’s so crazy to me that literally 10 hours ago I was sleezing around and thinking about completely wasting my day, and then within two hours I was back to doing one of my absolute favorite thing in Germany: riding trains, discovering new cities in NRW and drinking my decaf at Cafe Extrablatt, and I might have lied to you again: decaf latte at Extrablatt at NRW is a drink I love even more than Ultimate QQ Milchtee at Comebuy xdddd

Though, one caveat, I always travel extremely light, and it’s torrential rain outside, and I have no coat or anything, good luck for me tomorrow xddd

So yeah, big update tomorrow, you might enjoy it as well, but until then, see you tomorrow! ^^

(writing this post took me 50 minutes today, lmao xdd)

[Shannon-8]

@GolyBidoof

Deutschlandticket for the month of June (unlimited public transit across Germany for €58 a month)

Awesome deal wow
I should Euro trip soon…
You’re giving me ideas

I’m so glad that you realized in time to not waste your ドコミ ticket!!

I mostly drink only decaf coffee, so it’s good to know about Cafe Extrablatt!

HAVE FUN ATドコミ!!!

[GolyBidoof]

June 8th, 2025

• 147 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 44 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 lessons on Bunpro
• 5 stories on Satori Reader
• Misc: Talked to a Japanese artist from Berlin at DoKomi in Japanese ^^

WHATS HAPPENING IN THIS SECRET STORY BTW xddd
I decided to read more today because this story is just WILD

I feel like I’m constantly deprived on the context and the context is dripfed with story elements like “and this is not my final form yet” xddd
I was lost and confused about this story but now I’m lost, confused and entertained, so good job on the author for pulling this off xddddd

Aside from that, WaniKani took long today, Bunpro took long today, my review block was probably closer to 1.5h today, but that’s because I was also alt-tabbing to Mitrac’s study log and thinking about responses that people have been leaving, so, once again, self-inflicted wound xddd

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Before DoKomi: oversharing time!

You’re clicking on the spoiler knowing all well it’s going to be a narcissistic attention-seeking rant by myself, so if you’re allergic to those, go to the DoKomi segment, there I’ll be narcissistic attention-seeking but also documentarian xdddd

My circles of friends...

…are still great, and I love my friends quite a bit. In fact, one of my longest standing, closest friends today, showed up at DoKomi, and we’ve had a great time together.

There is some really nasty shit happening in the world though that is weighing heavily on their minds, and that reminded me of Mitrac’s study log too. It’s really freaking frustrating that people that matter to me are suffering, and that they have reasonable justifications for their suffering - in fact depression is a rational interpretation of the facts, but with a spice of an forward-angled implication that the cards are dealt and the future is decided.

I can’t say I’ve been through depression, only a few slumps, ups and downs, but I see second hand how big of an obstacle it all is to people’s normal functioning from multiple people I know, and that makes me want to scream out and makes me angry both at myself, that I can’t allow for myself to get in a state like that, and at my friends, that they’ve let depression consume them and they cannot function the way how they used to. But here’s the funny thing, a lot of criteria to fall into depression are out of people’s hands, shit life syndrome, shit politics, and so on, and one does need to make a conscious effort to break that cycle. Listening to my friend today bringing up stories of other people that have been crushed by the system, and then hearing mitrac speak about the same, is triggering that source of self-anger/motivation at myself once again.

I’m not an astrology girlie (should I? xddd), but I find 16personalities to be a fun descriptor of different types of personalities, and I don’t believe a person is a personality, but I believe a person can aspire to be a personality, and I aspire to be the ENFP manic pixie dream girl that cheers everyone up because iF I DONT THEN

1. I’LL GET MYSELF INTO DEPRESSION (boo it sucks xdd)
2. MY FRIENDS WILL GET FURTHER DOWN INTO DEPRESSION (BOO IT SUCKS xddd)

and i don’t know how i’m doing, but i really hope i can find as many someones who will deep down in their heart think back to their interaction with me and think that i’ve made their life, hm, more fun? More engaging? That I made a change to their lives?

Well, my friend today told me that outright and that made me feel warm on the inside again, so manic pixie dream girl again it is. Does anyone need to get inspired to pick up on their long forgotten hobby? I can gush about it to get you inspired to get into that hobby again ^^

But yeah, I had a friend like this in my own life as well, and I held onto her for a while, and she freaking blasted the doors open on my mind and possibilities that one can achieve with adventures in life, and too bad we don’t talk that much anymore, but I know all well she’s aware out there how big of a difference she made to my life. I mean, I outright told her many times, sooo ^^

@GolyBidoof

I’d still love to meet up one day and talk with her about, well, everything, but for now, commemorative friendship is a great description of how I feel about her, and hopefully, how she thinks about me ^^

And also, man. I can’t hide. It feels so validating to have Malinkal leave me a heart every night before I even go to sleep and Shannon jump in here every once in a while and go like “THIS IS WILD. IM GLAD YOU’RE HAVING FUN”. It’s just, I don’t know, tickles positive emotions so, so much ^^

But if anything: no need to worry about my mental health at the moment right now, as I’ve said at the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, this is the fREAKING WILDEST I’VE FELT IN A LOOOONG, LOOONG TIME.

Too bad that friend of mine doesn’t get to hear my stories anymore, but if you’re somewhere out there, and you stumble upon my public diary here, thank you and I hope you’re doing well in the scary world ^^

---

LIFE

DOKOMI WOO

HOW DO YOU INCREASE THE FONT SIZE IN HTML GOOGLE.COM

But before DoKomi though, I gOT ABSOLUTELY DRENCHED IN WESEL xddd

OF COURSE THE TORRENTIAL RAIN PERSISTED, and I needed to jump from one roof, into another, and my hair was a total mess by the time I got to the station ^^

Luckily, the next part of my trip was underground, a metro train from Düsseldorf main station:

Yes, DoKomi is so big in Düsseldorf that they make official city-wide PSAs in the metro about it xddd

I spoke to one girl there who was making her own cosplay jewelry, I sadly didn’t have one of my own because I rushed out of Berlin quickly, but I made it work anyway (more on that later xddd)

But look how cute the chain is! Apparently she got the pieces individually from Chinese stores, then added a chain into that and got a body chain of her own. The goals ^^

By the time we arrived at the Messe, it stopped raining, and MAN, there were SO, SO many people in there. Easily tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands ^^

DoKomi this year has grown EVEN FURTHER in size than before.

DoKomi 2025: Eine Kult-Convention im Wandel

I compared PAX East to DoKomi, by saying that DoKomi was multiple times bigger than PAX East; whiile PAX East used to have one hall and that was it, DoKomi’s halls weren’t that much smaller (if any smaller at all, especially the Artist’s Alley, the companies, the 18+ zone and the gaming zone)… and there were 9 OF THEM. I didn’t get to see everything in a single-day ticket today, which is rare for me, but I only pulled off like a 70% completion run of the Artists Alley and 30% completion run of the sponsors area ^^

Some of my highlights, yees, things I spoke about before! German magazine publishing! Both a stall for Manga Issho was there (and volume 2 coming out at the end of the month, of course I’m getting it!) and Koneko and friends, the biggest anime magazine in Germany, super cool, super would recommend ^^

Of course, The Apothecary Diaries were hUuUuUUUUge and there were hundreds of Cosplayers doing the Maomao cosplay… and pulling it off, very effectively. I need to get better at makeup and do my freckles, grrr xddd

YES
IT HAS POCKETS

Also, the best cosplayer of the whole DoKomi. We’ve bounced off of one another really well and apparently she’s team Die Linke, why would she lie about this xddd

CDs with signatures of actual performers! ReCoda was sick!

<nervous laughter> i wonder when is the last time i took rest now, would have to scroll up for a while xddd

Also, I LOOOVE community art like this, it’s just so cool C:

And DoKomi had its own limited edition sparkling drink for the convention, peachy, €3.50 for a can ^^

I bought many, many things, but it’ll take me a bit to get through these, so maybe tomorrow xddd

And here’s a Japanese artist who’s been living in Berlin for a decade and he’s been making small, postcard sized artwork of Berlin, I spoke some Japanese with him, we exchanged our living locations, favorite places in Berlin, and I got three postcards with Berlin artwork from him, so we stan ^^

ALSO LOOK, A DOLL YOU CAN DRESS UP AND THE ARTIST IS SELLING CLOTHES TO DRESS HER UP

Also, Instax, that’s a very GolyBidoof-centric content ^^

Obligatory frick AI at the voice actors booth:

So in the course of the convention me and my LOOOOOONG time friend met up and we went off for a ramen to the exact same restaurant as me with that other friend for the FFVII Rebirth concert ^^
We also attempted JLPT in the same place, Düsseldorf, a few months ago and I passed my N3, and she didn’t pass her N4, but I’m trying to get her to sign up in the July window once again ^^

AND LOOK LOOK I GOT ME THIS YUKATA KINDA THINGY after Shannon recommended it in Paris and I was like “ehh I should’ve gotten it”, well now I got something similar xddd
My cosplay situation was saved before the end of the convention xddd
Unfortunately, I can already see some of the seams tear bit by bit, so I need to be super careful with it, but how many times in a year can you wear it, like… 365??? Well, 366 on leap years ^^

Also, look, that deer is only half horny, but they know how to use hentai websites, CONCERNING ^^

Also, new Japanese cafe in Düsseldorf (we stan!) and another anime convention (that is in the block I was fully expecting for DoKomi to be in aaaa xd). And, fish with custard, epic C:

So yeah, I’m writing this from my hotel in Hannover right now, taking a morning train to Berlin tomorrow and I hope I’ll eat my breakfast there. Tomorrow’s post will deeefinitely be shorter and less exciting ^^

See you tomorrow! C:

[Malinkal]

@GolyBidoof

It feels so validating to have Malinkal leave me a heart every night before I even go to sleep and Shannon jump in here every once in a while and go like “THIS IS WILD. IM GLAD YOU’RE HAVING FUN”. It’s just, I don’t know, tickles positive emotions so, so much ^^

Here’s some more internet hearts

Summary

What can I say, you post for perfect time for me to read in the morning and get some chaotic good energy before work. And there’s not many people who post such interesting stuff on here about studying, gaming, random life encounters, interacting with Japanese at conventions and places all around Europe and the World, especially not daily. And it’s nice to read the ramblings of someone else to balance out my own. Like on Mitrac’s log, it’s always good to see what people are really thinking and feel a bit more connected to quite random internet study people on the other side of the world. The people I interact with on here are a very crazily eclectic mix of people from all walks of life, and very different both to friends/family back home, and people here in Japan I talk to every day. It’s nice. Being a chronic oversharer myself seeing other people being open makes me feel less… exposed? I guess. There’s lots of things which it’s easier to share on a semi-anonymous place on the internet, half shouting into the void, rather than bothering IRL friends with constantly.

[TakeFlite]

I have no idea how you have the energy to do the millions of activities/hobbies you do, AND learn so many languages, AND write about it on here but I love it. (Not to mention presumably also actually earning a living?)

@GolyBidoof

I’m probably a liiitle more devoted to the Mario Kart brand than the usual player, I’ve been to tournaments, I’ve hunted country records, I’ve written guides, pluuus I’ve modded the games extensively

Ok just a tiiiiny bit. I satisfied myself with beating siblings / roommates.

[Shannon-8]

100% ADHD reactions to Bidoof

aheh
Ah ha! I saw the sleeve change from plaid flannel in the photo with the foxy snack 客子のもち and knew you’d done some shopping!
It’s gorgeous!
I’m unsure how to strengthen those seams! This type of weave does not have much resistance to “pull” forces.
There might be a glue-on “seam tape” example例, but it would probably come off easily, and might only move the “pull line”
PS my friend confirmed that PAX East is more for the actual game programmers than fan base, so that’s why less cosplay
But OMG ドコミ is off the chain!!
On other matters, I admit that I can be afraid of what other people will do and most likely to go into hiding as in this current 政府climate. O.M.G. trembling
How much do I heart Europe?
I’ve noticed many people going historically back in their ancestry and applying for a second citizenship (!!) (previously unheard of)

[YandrosTheSane]

@Malinkal

and get some chaotic good energy

This is the best description of reading @GolyBidoof

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

and i don’t know how i’m doing, but i really hope i can find as many someones who will deep down in their heart think back to their interaction with me and think that i’ve made their life, hm, more fun? More engaging? That I made a change to their lives?

Yes!

just remember at sometime in the future if you need to rely on someone that’s OK, too

I probably leave my hearts far too late for you to see, but know I’m reading like 3-7 days later and seeing it all at once like this:

what? how? really?. OK cool

And then by the time I want to comment like 5 other things happened for you.

[GolyBidoof]

@TakeFlite

I have no idea how you have the energy to do the millions of activities/hobbies you do, AND learn so many languages, AND write about it on here but I love it.

I don’t know how curious you were for a proper answer here, but spoon theory is the answer. I’m really lucky that I don’t have any chronic illnesses or bigger disabilities, but the neurodivergence makes me be acutely aware of the amount of energy I have in a day. I struggle with “low energy” modes, so my modes are always “FULL STEAM AHEAD :DDDD” or “i’m literally staring at the ceiling and i cannot do a single thing at all.”, so to make the most of the spoons I have, I allocate them into adventures and hobbies, and not into things like “cleaning up my room”, “making my bed”, “doing makeup”, “taking the dishes from the sink”…

Living alone is great in that regard, because my split of the chores is...... I don’t do chores, unless something really, really bothers me. I probably should get better at it, but when I’m 夢中 about something, I can have clothes and books scattered across the floor for literal weeks and do absolutely nothing about them, other than pile them up and complain that I don’t know where is the right place for everything

@Shannon-8

On other matters, I admit that I can be afraid of what other people will do and most likely to go into hiding as in this current 政府climate. O.M.G. trembling

I think I’m really blessed with the fact that I already have to do politics myself, so that does strengthen some of my convictions about topics and I can be outgoing about the sources of my beliefs because in some ways, life has already tested them and led me here, but man, reading the internet politics can be really depressing, especially the American ones, especially the ones that align themselves strongly with either one of the American parties ;___;

Poland had presidential elections recently as well, and the result was , but even then reading the internet felt much, much more civil, even though people were vividly upset with things xddd

@mitrac

just remember at sometime in the future if you need to rely on someone that’s OK, too

IM RELYING ON PEOPLE HERE LIKE EVERY WEEK i go like “hey guyss where is my attention for today at malinkal” and i get my dose of attention for the day xdd

I’m still on the mission to diversify friend circles though, and maybe moving them a little more offline, and maybe making something out of the pride month, but we’ll see how it’ll go. Definitely going for Lucy Dacus in a week and a half and Christopher Street Day in July ^^

But that’s definitely my weakness as well: I don’t know how to ask for help, and how to expect help from others, like people on the internet are saying that there’s a crisis of friends that would pick you up from the airport and I go like
“…I don’t think I ever had a friend that I would like to pick me up from the airport”
So if you wanted to help me, and it’s a passive challenge over time and I won’t solve this tonight and you can’t solve this tonight, you can help me out how to ask for help, and I can try to learn what are the acceptable means and what aren’t. So far, oversharing is going great xdd

@Malinkal

There’s lots of things which it’s easier to share on a semi-anonymous place on the internet, half shouting into the void, rather than bothering IRL friends with constantly.

I’ve made my best friends irl, including that one yesterday, through trauma bonding at 3am on Discord over the years xddd
The Real Ones are the ones that won’t be “bothered” by oversharing, but the ones that would go like “UUuUuUUu, tell me more about it” ^^

June 9th, 2025

• 151 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 75 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 lessons on Bunpro
• 5 stories on Satori Reader
• Misc: Badge #1 in Pokemon Scarlet in Japanese!

wuu its been a while C:

I can see my motivation waning already, but I watched the video with Wolfey teaching Anna Cramling, a chess champion, how to play Pokemon and I got a small boost to the motivation ^^

Aside from that, when I saw this:

on Bunpro, my hands just melted, and then I kept pressing backspace, enter, “a”, enter, backspace, grammar, enter, backspace, grammar, enter, next for like 45 minutes. Activation cost for Bunpro is growing really hard and I should just slow down on the lessons, but also the end of N2 is not that far away in there, ehhhh. I’ll make up my mind tomorrow.

Also, I think that Yomitan does way better of a job explaining to me how this grammar works than Bunpro xddd

Secret is absolutely wild. They’ve changed the tone once again and I’m wondering where does the story go from now on, because what I’ve read today could’ve been a final episode, but there’s still like 15 to go or something, so good luck to the storywriters xddd

---

Life

Ahh, Hannover, the city of…

…banning guns and knives between 9pm and 6am??? What happened??? xdd

But yeah, made it quickly to the main station and went back to Berlin, where I spent the whole day d̵͙̫͖̈́̈́̋f̶̻͎͑̀h̸̯͗̌̅͝ǰ̵̪̹͝s̵̖̼̰̿̾b̵̟̂̀͗ͅg̶͈͙̓̒͝ẖ̸̗̦͉̂͌j̷̜͙̎̋s̸̥̱̖̦̄̆͘d̴̢̐̏b̸̡̖̰̰̓͂f̴̲̲͂̀͘h̷͈̩͖̐j̵̭͂̈̐h̴̗̝̅̇̈́͜b̵͇̲̍͌͝j̵͍̫̾̈͂́g̶̘̩̘̥̉́j̶̗͓͐͜h̴̗̮̘̜̓̔d̵̨͙̘͍̕f̶̤̳͎̪̾̍̄ing around and then it was 9pm and I wanted to finally start unpacking from the DoKomi trip… and the America trip… and I’m still not fully done and there’s stuff on the floor still xdd

But I updated my wall with new artworks! Look how pretty they are! C:

And when I was at the Berlin convention (still haven’t unpacked myself from that either, but I picked stuff up from the floor), I got myself this paper doll zine by Mezzo, I saw the artist making them once again at DoKomi, so that was a sign to finally take it out and start putting the doll together C:

The doll is so pretty, I wonder if I can do something with it, like put it on a wall or something ^^

Also, I updated my Europe map I’ve been keeping on my wall for a while, when the pandemic started, I found out that Google Maps had a timeline feature you could enable and keep track of the places you’ve travelled to, so here is a list of some of my adventures since 2020 ^^

Ahh, it would be so cool to go to Ukraine, but, soon ^^

Also, activist/Berlin politics ^^

I went outside in my Kiez for a bit and found some people holding signs and posters for something I didn’t even know was happening, it’s a matter that the media isn’t covering very loudly, but Greta Thurnberg and her activist group got kidnapped, so if you have enough mental energy and want to read about something that would make you go like, “huh”, this is an interesting one to keep track of!

I’m less doomscrolly on this one and more investigative journalisty on this one, like I’m really curious what’s the story behind it

I know @taiyousea cares about this matter though, so just a ping to keep you in the loop: the only way I heard about this story was thanks to this sign so it might not be a highly popularized topic

Either way, German classes tomorrow, I intend on going, so see you tomorrow! ^^

[taiyousea]

Reply

@GolyBidoof

I know @taiyousea cares about this matter though, so just a ping to keep you in the loop: the only way I heard about this story was thanks to this sign so it might not be a highly popularized topic

Thanks for thinking of me! I’ve been watching this go down, glued to the Freedom Flotilla instagram account ever since they woke up to find drones flying overhead a few days ago. And that was when they were still near Malta, nowhere near their destination. It seems that the crew expected to be intercepted at some point in the aid journey and set up pre-recorded videos to automatically post if the ship members couldn’t update their accounts for any reason. At the time of boarding, they were fully within international waters with no one nation’s oversight, so there were no legal grounds for interception. Based on video, their ship was first sprayed with some sort of white chemical to render any food/water aid unusable, and then they were boarded and forcibly removed from the ship. Some say they were rammed by the intercepting boats, as well, though I haven’t seen video of it. As far as I know, the members of the Flotilla included elected political officials, so it truly became an international incident overnight. I’m honestly glad that Greta was there – she’s high-profile and public enough that it would be horrible PR to bomb the ship like the previous Freedom Flotilla boat, the Coalition, experienced back in early May.

I’m staying on top of the information as it comes out! I saw that some crowds in France have already started to demand the release of the French passengers, hopefully drawing even more pressure on the IDF to back off.