A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Travel & Friends & I'm A German Citizen Arc 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱 🇨🇳

[GolyBidoof]

@DIO-Berry

Does that mean it was your birthday??

my birthday is in august, and it wasn’t a birthday of anyone - the getting a gift was getting one for a friend, not for me ^^

@TheNerdyNova

(Explanation you didn’t necessarily ask for ) It’s from the Gundam series!!

I DID ASK FOR THE EXPLANATION THAT WAS INTERESTING thank you C: xdd
I’ve only listened to the soundtrack of gundam unicorn because SAWANOOO but i know how much lore and love there is in the gundam series ^^

April 14th, 2026

• 31 reviews on WaniKani
• 11 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 元号百合アンソロジー第１〜２話
• Book: 日本人の知らない日本語４（ベルギー, p３９まで）

So the way how 元号百合アンソロジー works like is that it goes through different time periods in Japan, and there’s a different yuri story for each of those:

I’ve read through the first two so far, because of how popular 明治 is in fiction, I already felt pretty familiar with the aesthetic, but 大正 era is something that’s pretty unknown to me, and just reading the manga from that era did not effectively help my head to set it apart from 昭和 for example ^^

though, the aesthetic does remind me a little of Anne of Green Gables ^^

The first story was kept a bit more in a seduce’y spirit, the second one was a desperate yearning/longing fixation on a person, I think the 明治 one was more fun ^^

ALSO THE TEXT IS SO SMALL IN PHYSICAL WRITING

And also, I created some widgets for my main screen with all of the platforms I use to learn languages, the widgets look something like this:

And they do auto-update and are receptive to changes on actual webpages!

So Japanese study is slowly moving ahead ^^

Also, the author of 日本人の知らない日本語 mentioned in a writeup that Gent has really electric street trains (路面電車) that people in Gent call “trams” and I’m like “awww C:”

I kind of forgot trams weren’t that popular in Japan in the first place, AND ALSO:

Berlin’s Amazing Trams and What We Could Learn from Them

BERLIN MENTIONED
(actually the next section in the book is about Germany!)

---

Life

Well you would be misled by those colors, even though the temperatures are picking up here, the skies are just as grey as always, so we substitute it with cardboard cutouts xddd

But hey! I found a really cool thing today! A box with trinkets that people can pick and choose, you leave something and you get to pick another thing. It seems like this one has been made by an influencer, but so far it has been kept really well and people have been filling it in C:

THERES SO MUCH HUMANITY IN THIS BOX I APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH
stickers, and wristbands, and plushies, I didn’t have anything to swap that day, so I also didn’t take anything, but I left myself in the guestbook and left a tiny Internet Checkpoint there, wonder if anyone will ever pick it up C:

BUT MAN IT WAS SO COOL THAT SOMEONE MADE THIS INCENTIVE AND THAT NOBODY DESTROYED IT
(there has been a guard of the mall right behind the box looking if anyone is looting it by any chance, im not sure if they’ve been in contact with the influencer, but it kinda felt like he kind of wanted to protect the box, even out of his own volition. cuuute C:)

And aside from that, played some Pokemon Polished Crystal today, and, wow. This hack is what a 12-year old me was imagining Pokemon Crystal was like when I played it for the first time.

Pokémon Polished Crystal 3.1.1 Sinjoh Ruins

There are so many weird events in it that just push on headcanons and also…

…I mean… xdddddd

See you tomorrow! C:

[SpiderWeb]

@GolyBidoof

There are so many weird events in it that just push on headcanons and also…

Lol, the Cynthia fights really traumatized a generation of Pokémon players so much they decided to put her in every game. I haven’t been a big fan of Pokémon since I had trouble getting into black and white but I enjoy seeing challenge videos sometimes, like the ones where you beat the game without leveling up or something that was never intended. It’s still fun to see other people enjoy it but it’s not something I’m as into anymore. Romhacks are great though, they’ve been making these fake Pokémon games for as long as there have been real Pokémon games.

[Enigmaxprincex]

@GolyBidoof

@TheNerdyNova

(Explanation you didn’t necessarily ask for ) It’s from the Gundam series!!

I DID ASK FOR THE EXPLANATION THAT WAS INTERESTING thank you C: xdd
I’ve only listened to the soundtrack of gundam unicorn because SAWANOOO but i know how much lore and love there is in the gundam series ^^

My only memories of Gundam are from the original series I watched as a kid. I’m not quite sure if it was the only reason or factor that made me fall in love with mecha as a child. I haven’t watched any of the other Gundam stuff and I would assume that’s a good thing, since there are a lot of them (if I’m not mistaken) and I don’t think I can keep up with the lore or maintain it in my mind. However, my love for Mecha or anything related to such categories will never die (I also never built a Gundam model, but I intend on changing that when I travel to Japan )

That was all a side random comment from me for some reason I’m not sure why though

@GolyBidoof

And also, I created some widgets for my main screen with all of the platforms I use to learn languages, the widgets look something like this:

And they do auto-update and are receptive to changes on actual webpages!

I just wanted to say that this is quite beautiful and the background is so cute I like this a lot (this was the main reason I wanted to comment )

@GolyBidoof

(there has been a guard of the mall right behind the box looking if anyone is looting it by any chance, im not sure if they’ve been in contact with the influencer, but it kinda felt like he kind of wanted to protect the box, even out of his own volition. cuuute C:)

I’m pretty sure the box won’t survive without the guard but it sounds like a nice idea

@SpiderWeb

but I enjoy seeing challenge videos sometimes

I can currently recommend these (there are of course others, but I don’t remember all of them This is just the last one I had in mind)

[GolyBidoof]

April 15th, 2026

• 59 reviews on WaniKani
• 19 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 元号百合アンソロジー第３話
• Podcast: 1h15m of Jelly Jelly Radio!

Hello Jelly Jelly Radio, my old friend! I have a few episodes to catch up on right now

Unfortunately, I realized when I was listening to it today that I actually… understand way less of it than I remembered. Of course, pace yourself with difficulty, don’t push yourself into something you don’t get - I had a few moments when a keyword was mentioned, like a name of a game or Board Game Arena and for the next 30 seconds I understood everything, but then I’d lose train of the conversation and I wouldn’t be able to tell a single sentence for the next few minutes again, so, sigh, I’m still not good at Japanese xddd

But yeah, Board Game Arena and discussing different games that can be played online, for a small fee, you have the access to a lot of board games online and you can play them with friends, you don’t even have to own the games to play them!

And さきこ was in Korea and she was telling stories of eating food, meeting people, including a grandma that followed her from place to place, finding board game places in Korea, mentioning a lot of names of proper nouns and her struggles with hangul, cool episode, I wish I got more of it ^^

Also, Nick Cage’s younger sister xdd

Also:

…exactly as I started my reviews, sigh xddd

Also, the Bunpro graph is only trending up now… N1 is going to be a tough slice of the cake there ^^

---

Life

Listen, I have no idea why do you believe that way but I’m gonna need some proper elaboration on that statement for me to be able to process it adequately ^^

FINALLY. SUN. I got myself a new set of nails, a little nature, a little sakura ^^

And yeah, sakura is coming around! This is exactly the 花見 season in Berlin now C:

I saw somebody cycling today that had the coolest thing at the back of her phone, a Pokemon card, I needed to take a picture xddd

Also, small politics tangent today: because right-wing politics, regardless of the location, always require for an enemy to be made up for people to start being scared of them so that they would be able to sell a solution to the thing that people are scared of, whether it’s immigration, or queer people, or whatever. Today I found out that the next threat that right-wing activists in Berlin invented is… car-free city?

And it’s like, wow, it seems the movement of car-free mobility in Berlin has finally been acknowledged seriously by the right wing government. Now that it’s an official threat… how do i join??? xddddddd

But yeah, today went to the queer book club and had some conversations on how non-binary people seemingly have a stronger connection to witchcraft and spirituality, and I was like "uUuUuUuuuuuU’ xdd
I was able to borrow the copy of the Blood Book and I’ll give it a shot to find out how does one become a witch properly, it sounds really fun ^^

Today, a lot of conversations has been about our creative plans for the next few weeks, two of us are participating in the zine, a lot of catching up on movies, obligatory me tangent about yuri manga, we also have a bigger group to watch the finale of RuPaul’s season 18, and yeah, I’m always looking forward to the next meeting with them ^^

See you tomorrow!

[Enigmaxprincex]

@GolyBidoof

And yeah, sakura is coming around! This is exactly the 花見 season in Berlin now C:

@GolyBidoof

But yeah, today went to the queer book club and had some conversations on how non-binary people seemingly have a stronger connection to witchcraft and spirituality, and I was like "uUuUuUuuuuuU’ xdd
I was able to borrow the copy of the Blood Book and I’ll give it a shot to find out how does one become a witch properly, it sounds really fun ^^

I wonder what a Witch Bidoof would be Hopefully friendly (Here’s a Sakura so that I’m on their good side )

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

wow, it seems the movement of car-free mobility in Berlin

must be a pretty big movement if the CDU is headlining against it, nice

[Shannon-8]

Crazy to be against car free city… It pretty much applies to London at the moment, I believe…

I (heart) your nail color theme this month…I was going to beg that it be from the cover of your Korea/Japan mangas that you posted recently (scrolled up, but didn’t see them at the moment) … But then I didn’t, because that’s rude of me… But then you independently selected those exact colors, and I feel oddly extra satisfied. Is that weird?
…I smiled a lot when you told about your guests appreciating the thoughtfulness of your hospitality. Awesome (also smiled because: Mom mentioned! :D)

sigh on the wiccan thing
One of my sisters is rather into that
Is it real?
Beliefs are different, but not necessarily bad
…That Sis has always felt sensitive AND like an outsider

[GolyBidoof]

April 16th, 2026

• 27 reviews on WaniKani
• 16 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 元号百合アンソロジー第４〜５話（終わりまで）

So I was wondering why was there such a tonal shift in this manga between the 昭和 and 平成 eras, and as it turns out, this is the biggest gap between eras, 63 years for this story ^^

I didn’t realize that they actually synced it up with when the eras were starting, but now it makes a bit more sense that I look at the years ^^

It’s interesting that Japan has specific years form specific eras, I can probably call 2001, 2007, 2016 and 2020 the tipping points in my recent memory in the western culture, I don’t know if any of those is more relevant than the other dates, though time weirdly started shrinking a bit after 2020. Maybe I simply became an adult ^^

---

Life

So earlier today I started looking for Paulaner Cola cans, because they’ve been promised in the supermarkets, but they’re still missing
Doesn’t matter if they’re free or they’re paid, but the article made me a little excited ^^

I followed three spots labelled in this article, an all of them looked roughly the same: a wall of posters for the drink, and then you can’t drink it anywhere

Still on the lookout for the drink and I will report if I have found it!

It’s a pretty funny article though, because I much prefer the zero-sugar Paulaner drinks, and somebody in the article wrote:

Aufreger: Warum gibt es keine Zero-Variante?

Doch der Launch hat auch einen massiven Kritikpunkt. In Zeiten, in denen Coke Zero oft die normale Variante überholt, verzichtet Paulaner komplett auf eine zuckerfreie Version.

User hennessy ist fassungslos: „Ich habe absolut kein Verständnis, warum Paulaner keine zuckerfreie Variante mit auf den Markt bringt…“ Die Community vermutet wirtschaftliche Gründe und schlechte Erfahrungen aus der Vergangenheit. Der_Erwin kontert: „Weil’s bei Spezi [Zero] sch** schmeckt. Haben gelernt und das Geld gespart.“*

NO IT TASTES GREAT, WHAT ARE YOU ON XDDD

But in my searches for the drink, I did stumble upon a few fun murals and neighborhoods ^^

And, eee, I thought this was something like “for getting good luck”, but the more I keep looking it up with translators, the more it looks like a name of a company of something

but speaking of for getting good luck, i’m gonna need for you to convince Miniso to sell that poenguin to me or I’m gonna scream ^^

See you tomorrow! C:

[hrudey]

@GolyBidoof

It’s interesting that Japan has specific years form specific eras, I can probably call 2001, 2007, 2016 and 2020 the tipping points in my recent memory in the western culture, I don’t know if any of those is more relevant than the other dates, though time weirdly started shrinking a bit after 2020. Maybe I simply became an adult ^^

Time expands to fill in the gaps and as one ages, there’s fewer gaps. This shift in perspective brought to you free of charge, though it might not even be worth what you paid for it still.

[akatsukinoluna]

@GolyBidoof

I remember that one of the reasons why fujoshis claim that yaoi is better than yuri is that yuri by nature tends to be pretty unproblematic with the depictions of the characters, and fujoshis project themselves into every character in heated rivalry, but here, we’ve just got… a nurse smoking and riding a bike xdd

I’m confused… How does that make either one better or worse?

@GolyBidoof

said it before with コミック百合姫, i’ll say it again, this is definitely not a level 18 manga

Yeah this series is my fault, and I’m glad you and the other user have finally come along and graded it. I’ve stopped grading manga in this level range at this point tho.

@GolyBidoof

I think this manga does get a bit more interesting judging on the next chapters in 百合姫, but this volume ain’t it yet ^^

@GolyBidoof

In terms of me enjoying the manga though… ehhhh…?
it’s this weird intersection of an author wanting to be edgy and kinky and quirky and you being able to tell that the author’s personality type probably isn’t “edgy” or “kinky” or “quirky”, I do appreciate it as a specific kind of a normie fantasy though xddd

Yeah it’s one of two titles I’d offer to someone curious about either age gap or student/teacher. Tbh I was pretty underwhelmed at the beginning, but somewhere mid vol 2 it started to grow on me, to the point that I began looking forward to it. I found the ending pretty tasteful as well.

@GolyBidoof

元号百合アンソロジー第１〜２話

I still need to read this!!! I have it, and need to read it!!

I can’t wait till my boyfriend moves in, so I’m home more, and I have easier access to my books. For now, SAO and Yona tho! and whatever else I get momentarily distracted with

[GolyBidoof]

@akatsukinoluna

I’m confused… How does that make either one better or worse?

It’s just that I have a feeling that someone might have had a less-than-ideal definition of what counts as a quirky, edgy or COOL character because there is a pressure for women characters to be written a certain way when men characters can be written in all sorts of different ways without pressure

@akatsukinoluna

I still need to read this!!! I have it, and need to read it!!

ITS COOL WOULD RECOMMEND C:

April 17th, 2026

• 50 reviews on WaniKani
• 17 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 猫と私とドイッチュランド第１２〜１５話
• Book: 日本人の知らない日本語４（ドイツ, p５４まで）

Two separate looks at Germany from the eyes of Japanese people today! And funnily enough, the culture exchange bits and noticing stuff about people’s day to day life are some of my favorite parts of studying Japanese, so definitely won’t complain ^^

First, it’s been some time since I read some ながらりょうこ, and this time she tried baking a cheesecake, gasped about German cereal, praised the fact there’s so much vegetarian food here…
…and came to an imbiss to get all sorts of middleeast…I mean, Berlin, cuisine xdd
This is really similar to when pizza was brought over to America and was made an American thing, a kebab, a falafel, a halloumi, those are just famous Berlin dishes now, German cuisine, I’m glad that everyone agrees ^^

No pictures in the menu, りょうこ will draw them for you ^^

I really like her observations about cultures ^^

And in the Japanese that Japanese People Don’t Know, the section about Germany was a little more boring than I expected and focused mostly on the experiences of being a teacher in Germany, not even what was so cool about it, but there have been some photos from German universities! And the writeup in this section was about seasonal food, and the food of spring - asparagus! I still haven’t had it this year, but it absolutely is a German thing and I’m feeling hungry just thinking about it ^^

And look, expressions that carry across languages, アッ ソウ。xdddd

---

Life

Red Letter Media intro clip rolling around, this is my VCR Repair Station ^^

No, today our Schiller-Bibliothek library had a special event, a clothes exchange! You might remember that just a few weeks ago, I got myself way more clothes than I needed in sizes that haven’t been perfectly right, so I brought some of them back to the circulation ^^

I did end up getting a few pieces too, but this wasn’t a queer clothes swap, the colors are significantly downgraded compared to the queer one C:

But one thing I realized as I was swapping the clothes was that the library was FULL today. Like, people laughing, trading homework and tips on how to pass abitur out loud in the library, and that made me feel really nice C:

I brought my laptop there and decided to do some body doubling and going through some admin work, because there’s a lot of things happening to me in May and I’ve been executive dysfunctioning myself from actually doing those things. And a lot of opening letters and responding to emails xdddd

But I did it! Body doubling in a fun library bursting with laughter has been HUGE!

Anyway, the library is relatively small compared to other libraries in Berlin, but it does have some banger offerings! You can even borrow some books to learn Japanese language in it, though that’s the extent of all of the books ^^

…and they definitely do not stray away from openly political topics even in the recommended books, even though the local government of Berlin probably wouldn’t approve of it

Also, HEY, I GOT SEMINARS FROM THEM FOR THE WORKS COUNCIL! Thank you ver.di for my social democratic upbringing ^^

See you tomorrow!

[GolyBidoof]

April 18th, 2026

• 21 reviews on WaniKani
• 22 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 猫と私とドイッチュランド第１６〜２２話

More reviews on Bunpro than on WaniKani? BLASPHEMY, UNHEARD OF, or, it do be like that sometimes, i’m just farming ghosts on N1 reviews again

Also:

YOU ARE NOT MY MOM DONT TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE

Good sentences though, i think i got both of them right before revealing the meanings ^^

Volume 2 of Me and Cats in Germany was hovering around November, December and early January, and in some of the chapters I read today, りょうこ was surprised about the fact you can buy fireworks in a shop before New Year’s, and then went to Oberbrücke to celebrate the New Year’s

…just because you can, doesn’t mean you should xddd
I was sweating bullets waiting for the cat to get scared of fireworks, aS MOST OF THEM DO ON JANUARY 1ST IN GERMANY, but no, not even an acknowledgement that fireworks are scary for the cats, wholesome manga must stay wholesome ^^

But having finished second volume, I reaffirm the statement that me and ながらりょうこ are basically doing the exact same thing in life, except that she does it through drawing manga and with cute cats and i’m doing it by smashing capslock and oversharing politics of local neighborhoods xddd

---

Life

As above, here’s more Berlin!

Took my DSLR for another walk as I learn new features and how to target the pictures, and I’m really impressed with how some of those turn out!

And damn, it really does make you feel like you’re in Alex Garland’s Civil War (2024) when you go around and take different pictures of things ^^

So in case you don’t know what Die Partei is, they’re a satirical movement (also a political party) whose main goal is to make fun of the people in charge who are being incompetent

I was snooping around with the camera and the guy waved at me and asked me to come to him, told me that he has a METRIC TON of stickers and dumped like, a hundred on me xddd

I don’t know what to do with the stickers ^^

Me and the RuPaul friend went over to see The History of Sound in a cinema and ahhh, gay yearning biopic from a relationship that was doomed from the beginning, you’ve gotta love it C:

See you tomorrow! ^^

[GolyBidoof]

April 19th, 2026

• 29 reviews on WaniKani
• 27 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Book: 日本人の知らない日本語４ 終わりまで

aaaaaa the amount of reviews on Bunpro xdddddd

I shouldn’t have started N1 before May, but alas, it is a part of my regiment now ^^

Also, guess who finished her fourth book in Japanese this year?

No, the cursive for Latin characters does not differ this much between different places xdddd

But it does differ pretty significantly in Russian, they do have a different alphabet though, but I remember having to try to write Russian cursive when I was learning thje language in school xdd

I’m a little torn on the book, because the target audience of it is obviously Japanese people, and not me, who would want to call bullshit on a lot of factual wrong observations that have been made to make the story feel more engaging, and I see the other reviewers on WaniKani did just that and rated the book 3/5, but on the other hand, I find it really adorable how many facts about Czechia they were able to find and how they tried to explain how Swiss culture works like with multiple languages

One of my thoughts about stereotypical Japanese approach to telling stories of travel I’ve read in the past vs my experiences of traveling, is that the Japanese people stories about traveling I’ve noticed make a big point how DIFFERENT everything is, and how the difference is blowing their minds, while my approach to traveling is more like… “damn, check out the Nett Hier sticker in Vietnam” or “aha, yes, there is a kiełbasa in the menu over here as well!”

And I do think that both approaches are legitimate and both surface different aspects of why traveling is important, but I kind of wish the book did a better job on converging the cultures rather than “OMG YOU WONT BELIEVE. THE STUDENTS IN OXFORD ARE SO TIDY AND WELL ORGANIZED. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN THE STUDENTS IN JAPAN, HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THEY DO”

Though, maybe this is a bad take, because i’m also fascinated about things like “the fastest escalator in the world being in czechia” or “switzerland having different languages depending on the part of it” xddd

I don’t know, the vibe was a bit off compared to the stories of traveling that interest me the most, if I ever have a good take on that subject, I’ll update you ^^

also, subliminal messaging from bunpro…

---

Life

…and I finished the book because I went to Pausify book club earlier in the morning today!

I haven’t been in a while, so it was fun to overshare my Japanese reading goals with other people once again, another tangent and rant about Murakami vs Sayaka Murata, I sat in a group with two people I met before, though when Murakami came around, our side of the table became really quickly polarized ^^

oh deer.

And yep, today was the RuPaul’s season finale day! Had a four-person group, one of the friends works in a bakery and just dumped all of the unsold cakes from today on us, and we were like YESSS CAKE :DDDD

Of course, we started oversharing and yapping and around 10:30pm started an aggressive push being like “HEYY MAYBE WE REALLY SHOULD START WATCHING THE EPISODE AT LEAST???”, those are my favorite types of meetups ^^

The drag queen that ended up winning was one that I was relatively happy about, so congrats to her! And yeah, work tomorrow, so see you tomorrow ^^

[araigoshi]

@GolyBidoof

No, the cursive for Latin characters does not differ this much between different places xdddd

That “german” “K” looks more like a ゐ than anything! Maybe a £ sign is the only other thing that it reminds be of

[trunklayer]

@GolyBidoof

Interesting that this phrase could have different interpretations.
It can be interpreted as “If it needs to be done, you might as well do it as soon as possible, like, tomorrow”
But it can also be interpreted as
“Well, better leave this for tomorrow… And then for tomorrow’s tomorrow… And so on!”

Anyway, as always, thank you fur sharing and best of luck with your studies and other cativities!

[GolyBidoof]

@araigoshi

That “german” “K” looks more like a ゐ than anything! Maybe a £ sign is the only other thing that it reminds be of

German cursive as a concept is pretty interesting in the first place, but it’s no longer taught by almost a hundred years and it kind of doesn’t look the way how the writers of that book have been presenting it ^^

Deutsche Kurrentschrift

April 20th, 2026

• 6 reviews on WaniKani
• 8 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 違国日記 第１６〜１７話

Back at this manga again, I bought a few volumes with Jintor’s referal and today I tried reading it without Mokuro just directly in the Bookwalker window

Part of the difficulty of this manga is less with the vocabulary that it uses (though it is a bit difficult too), it’s filling in the gaps in the conversations that stop with implications of how the dialogue would continue if the person were able to finish the sentence, but they don’t.

I think the manga earns a lot in my eyes by making me stop and contemplate what the scene means in addition to what the actual written text means, and it’s still piercing your soul through ^^

Fixing sleeping schedule, so reviews earlier and less today!

---

Life

I haven’t checked on the German manga publishing in a while, so I cycled to a manga store called Manga Mafia in Mitte to collect my quarterly dose of manga samplers to read in German ^^

In the shop, there are four walls full of manga like this, plus some stalls in the middle for light novels and webtoons, and then there is an English section, which is like, YYYYY xddd

puts even more emphasis on the importance of learning German language and also I’m really curious how does it compare to Düsseldorf ^^

But yeah, one of the catalogs for manga is called Manga-Countdown and its format is really funny, it reminds you of the phonebooks that had EVERY SINGLE PERSON’S NAME and their phone number printed out, but in this case it’s every single manga to come out in the next couple of weeks ^^

And I found a Shitsurei and hey hey LAIN MENTIONED

(@Italy or sth xddd)

And going out, I finally found a proper photo box for Paulaner!

They asked me to take some photos in myself… so I did, but the photo boxes are always weird xdd
WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE PICTURES??? HANG THEM ON A WARDROBE OR SOMETHING?

I do realize it was probably supposed to be a collaborative experience judging by the promotional material on the booth, but alas.

Having the photo did make you eligible… for a free can of the cola though!

And as much as you could make a point that I was hyping up this brand and doing free PR for them, I did have a few sips to have a feel for them…
…and the taste is like, significantly missing something, it’s not that well rounded out xddd
It reminds me of those low-budget supermarket colas, plus since the zero version is not available, it makes your saliva just taste like sugar and it made me a little woozy

So great aesthetic for the can, really fun fetch quest (once you actually get to find them in the city!), but the product is probably not among my future purchases, unless I were to find them in Japan or something ^^

I’ll stick to Spezi for now!

See you tomorrow!

[shitsurei]

@GolyBidoof

And I found a Shitsurei

Good job!
We do like to hide in small enclosed spaces surrounded by books (bonus points for manga).

[Italy]

@GolyBidoof

Fixing sleeping schedule, so reviews earlier and less today!

I am genuinely so glad to hear
I Have been seeing you struggling with this for a good while

I’ve been struggling with sleep due to work and personal issues for a good while too, and yesterday I managed to finally go to bed before 4AM, can you believe that?
so
I am really happy for both of us!

Ooo wait manga post…

@GolyBidoof

Am I mad to be really pleased by this? The format I mean, it feels very safe
Like
It makes things very clear
Very tangible

Like it gives me a sense of control

@GolyBidoof

(@Italy or sth xddd)

Sees lesbian flag

Oh god nnononono

have you by any means witnessed my ham mincer arc???
Noo nonono not you seeing my at my lowest

Alright Eh it happens
Thank you, you have reminded me of this

I am ballin i am faded i have losterol

WE ARE so ballin right now (this is not hoe you use the word ballin) I love bring reminded about this here video

Oh god, ham mincer arc…jesus…

@GolyBidoof

Having the photo did make you eligible… for a free can of the cola though!

Cola und free promotion for nicht gut cola? Yippe

[queenofthegods]

@GolyBidoof

the Japanese people stories about traveling I’ve noticed make a big point how DIFFERENT everything is, and how the difference is blowing their minds

This is VERY true. It comes up a lot on Japanese TV as well and in the English textbooks. Like I had to teach a whole section about how “omg Americans eat ramen burgers” (we do not lol) and just generally zoo-animal-ifying foreigners. Like I’ve had to be put through many “oh, what do you think queenofthegods sensei can’t do because she’s a foreigner?” Or “let’s teach queenofthegods sensei about Japan because she’s a foreigner and foreigners are sooooooo dumb about Japanese stuff!” classes. Like my whole job was to be a stupid and shocking at times lol. Thankfully a lot of kids would call bullshit like “dude she knows Japanese” or just respected the fact that I was their teacher and had been around for a while vs a lot of coworkers treating me like I was some zoo animal who could never understand Japan or life. Obviously I fielded a lot of “do you have ____ in the US?” questions and a lot are legitimate but there is also a very strong culture of exotification in media and unfortunately in the English classroom.

[GolyBidoof]

April 21st, 2026

• 63 reviews on WaniKani
• 36 reviews on Bunpro
• 2 lessons on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: 違国日記 第１８話

槙生 being a film bro? Stranger things have happened ^^

Good film choice btw ^^

But man, because I did less reviews yesterday, today I just banged my head on Bunpro (screenshot rel ^^)

Reviews on Bunpro take 3x as much time as the WaniKani ones to me on average? Remembering the grammar is really tough, and since I already have a lot of ghosts, for now I’m just passing myself the “Beginner” grammar points even if I don’t know them yet

I’ve been thinking for a while whether to buy Tomodachi Life to play in Japanese, I heard it’s really hard to share Miis with other people though and you have to create them from scratch. The main premise still looks really cool and I still remember having played the demo, so today involved me going around Japanese pages and looking up promotional materials for the game ^^

---

Life

Quick update, because I lost my fight to going to sleep early tonight ^^

I went to the writing workshop again! We had a prompt to keep iterating on our ideas for Desire & Regret and as much as I’m trying to tackle it from a fictional angle, non-fiction and my personal thoughts on the topic come to me the fastest. Maybe I should just repackage those thoughts as “it’s not me who’s having them, it’s the fictional character!” and call it a day ^^

In the second part of the workshop, we split into groups and asked ourselves what our ideas for the stories would be, and then we turned to speed dating with writing prompts, over which I’ve learned that one of the writers is a member of a political party and she regularly participates in events around the city: cleaning up garbage on the streets, stammtisches, speeches in different places, that sounded really cool!

All of the things related to political party planning are in German though, so if I wanted to get some more study, instead of going to a language course, I could just try my best to join a few of their food meetups before committing to party allegiance? I do like my political contributions too ^^

But yeah, I can probably only manage one active language study in my head at a time, says a person who does 50 tiny micro-lessons in German every day regardless ^^

See you tomorrow!