A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Travel & Friends & Language Study Slump 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱

[GolyBidoof]

jeez, the last post hit it big xdd

But today I’m waking up in just a few hours, I promise I’ll address the comments and read your study logs before too long ^^

February 2nd, 2026

• 51 reviews on WaniKani
• 6 reviews on Bunpro (it always feels like it’s at this number xddd)
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Podcast: 40m of Jelly Jelly Radio
• Manga: かげきしょうじょ第５幕

Ahhh, the best podcast is back, they’re organizing their first podcast in-person event in Japan in just a few days, a session of Catan over the course of an evening:

【渋谷宮益坂店】カタンしか勝たん！【毎週土曜日】 | JELLY JELLY CAFE ボードゲームカフェ

さきこ was very excited about the event and wanted to recommend for everyone to come, so Malinkal, you might have an opportunity to spend an evening in a fun way, iiif you’re into podcasts and board games ^^

Aside from that, I went back to かげきしょうじょ as I was in the city today and it reminds me a bit of a gender-swapped version of Jack Jeanne, only women play all the roles on the stage, including male roles, sometimes it takes best girl to become best guy, or something xddd

Only preparations in this chapter though ^^

Also, I swear, some of the sentences in the Kanji Learner’s Course are so weird, I find it interesting how they write words that don’t easily glue in English sometimes, and then they give you an explanation in English… like this xddd

I was on board with “Old age is a pretty tough”, but “not for sissies” is, eee, a creative choice xdd

---

Life

Oberbrücke!

Here’s the names of all of the Berlin districts, mine is Wedding, so I always try to find it first in the mazes xddd

On the note of Wedding though, on the New Year’s Eve, somebody shot fireworks straight on the platform and caused a lot of infrastructural damage, and since then, the ring network doesn’t stop at the station called “Wedding”:

…even if it were functional, I’d still have a lot of walking from that station anyway

But it’s especially painful because today, on the coldest day of the year so far, Ver.di recommended the union of public transit workers to strike and no public transit was available except for S-Bahns:

Berliner Nahverkehr fast komplett eingestellt: BVG-Streik hat begonnen – was...

which meant I had to walk even MORE today xddd

And it wasn’t just regular walking, because my mom came to Berlin today!
Together with the friend of the family, we’re flying off tomorrow ^^
Today they both were really happy that it’s only -11 in Berlin and not -18 how it is in Warsaw xdddd

Anyway, cool things!
There’s a plant-based Rewe on Warschauer Straße! I’ve never been, but I’ve always been curious what kind of products they offer ^^

And look, product placement, but because it’s Asian, it’s good xddd

…and for some reason after two decades… ads for World of Warcraft? It’s 2026, what kind of people still haven’t realized how much of a hellhole that game is xddd

Anyway, getting to the airport in a few hours, tomorrow’s update might be a bit later than usual, going to the West!

Hopefully, see you on the other side! See you tomorrow! C:

[Malinkal]

@GolyBidoof

さきこ was very excited about the event and wanted to recommend for everyone to come, so Malinkal, you might have an opportunity to spend an evening in a fun way, iiif you’re into podcasts and board games ^^

If I lived in Tokyo maybe..
I’ve actually played the Japanese version of catan a fair amount here a while ago, taught me 騎士 and reinforced 資源 very heavily

[Italy]

@GolyBidoof

was -10 and all of my limbs were freezing by then

Now that looks awesome

@GolyBidoof

We were not allowed to have our phones in, so just listening to the things the whole time, but they give us this cute stamp from the logo of the program ^^

I reeeally love tats so this is so cool!

@GolyBidoof

WELL EXCEPT THAT I ALSO HAD TO CYCLE BACK AND EEEEEE

Putting this here just cause I really liked the delivery, rhe mixture of words and the image without really a why

@GolyBidoof

The snow is pretty cute though C:

I… of course you have to draw something on the snow, finally someone who gets it
I really love weird mediums, I love drawing on dust for example
Doesn’t snow here a lot though, so this is awesome, thank you for this image, thank you for wanting to do that !

@GolyBidoof

But it’s especially painful because today, on the coldest day of the year so far, Ver.di recommended the union of public transit workers to strike and no public transit was available except for S-Bahns:

In the worker’s rights in the worker’s rights

@GolyBidoof

Could finally go back into the ふつつかな悪女 world and try to understand it word by word, because there’s no way for me to get it otherwise ^^

The new episode of 違国日記 was great, it made me want to read the manga afterwards! And this panel wasn’t in the anime, that’s the banner for the 10th chapter of the manga, sweet C:

And in terms of 推しの子, this season is heavy on ルビー, really happy about it, she absolutely slays ^^

AAH I KNEW SCROLLING UP WAS WORTH IT THIS IS LOVELY THIS IS LOVELY, what a great great artstyle C:
Ah what visuality <333 I adore this

@GolyBidoof

And unfortunately I did fail my JLPT N2, 67/180 ^^

Who cares you got cool manga you’ll catch her next time

Take care of bidoofy!

[GolyBidoof]

@prath

I’ve always thought that I’m super introverted and don’t need people around me but lol I’ve been learning so much about myself ever since I started living alone. Living alone in a “room” (more or less welp) does feel like a test of endurance to me. just this one immediate thought though, I’m yet to finish watching the video

I think the best part about living in a room is that if you set your mind to it, you get to pick the exact level and intensity of social interactions with the others, and you can do it not to co-depend on one another, but just to get to hang out with one another instead… and that’s why “friendships as adults” are difficult xdddd

@Enigmaxprincex

I believe in you You got this Next time when you’re taking a test, just remember that we believe in you and that we’re rooting for you and this will help you focus on the test

THANK YOU ENIGMA I BELIEVE IN YOU TOO

---

February 3rd, 2026

• 94 reviews on WaniKani
• 1 lesson on WaniKani
• 7 reviews on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: かげきしょうじょ第６〜８幕（第２巻終わりまで）
• Book: きまぐれロボット, p40->p166 (end)
• Game: 3h of Pokemon Legends Z-A

See, that’s why I said that this slump is something I’m not even sure myself, because I could be saying that I’m not interested in Japanese that much anymore, but because I don’t have that many other things I’ve come up with to load on a plane, I’ll just end up doing 6+ hours of Japanese regardless

I did feel a little less driven than usual however, but I boosted it up with some Kinokuniya and walking around today ^^

I’ll definitely do less Japanese tomorrow, but that’s not because of a slump, finally arrived ^^

Three small tangents with きまぐれロボット:

• when I showed this book at the queer book club, the only other person in there who lived in Japan said that their ex had that book on his bookshelf, and they can’t look at this book without thinking about him, awww C: xddd
• I saw this book brand new at Kinokuniya today! I spent a bit looking over the kids section of books and those ones that would be recommended and it was there in the section of books that had a similar cover! This release I’ve got from the Japanese-German center is from the year 2020, so in fact this book is a bit newer than I thought!
• …this book is really hard to read. For some reason, Natively rates it as level 21, but even with full furigana, it was filled in with technical words I was seeing for the first time, and were important for the flow of the story, so over the course of a few stories, I completely missed the point of them because I wasn’t using a translator on the plane. Maybe it’d be a bit easier to me if I’d be using something like Yomitan, but out of the 4 books I’ve read so far, this was the one where my reading comprehension was at my lowest

But it’s okay, because we’re at slump era, we don’t care about improvement for the time being ^^

Aside from that, I did overcheck a lot of things in かげきしょうじょ just to be sure and that led towards me enjoying the series a bit more, even though it did slow me down significantly ^^

And Pokemon Legends Z-A, it still. hasn’t opened up yet, still in the tutorial section, still a lot to go until I’ll be flowing through this game, but I want to finish Pokemon Legends Z-A before too long because it will be relevant One Day Pretty Soon ^^

And new word on WaniKani today!

Life

@Shannon-8

Enjoy your “big trip”… Apperently, it’s on the same day as my “big trip”… So, as usual, we will be actively moving in different circles on the same ball of mud and rock in the universe.

We indeed are ^^

Welcome from New York once again~

I switched to using the retro blurry handheld camera again, even though it fell down today and now each time it starts it says “LENS ERROR 2” before it starts up and allows for me to take a picture xddd

But yeah, on the way, in the airplane, they gave us a free pizza, which was wild xddd

Also, lots of cans of drinks and lots of going to the bathroom xddd

There’s a lot of snow in New Jersey and New York right around now too, a bit warmer than in Berlin or Warsaw for now, but just for now though ^^

Of course visited the Nintendo World…

VERY WELL DESERVED BTW

And ooh, in Barnes and Noble found a few (editions of) books I’ve never seen anywhere else, there’s the third book by Lindsay Ellis I only saw as an ebook and some really nice editions of Alice Oseman’s books ^^

I heard a lot of German language in the streets today for some reason xdd

And, of course, Kinokuniya, here are the current trending books C:

That explains why the podcasts I’ve been listening to have been highlighting Project Hail Mary, they released the novel and gave it a cover with Ryan Gosling, so now every Japanese sci-fi fan is legally obliged to read this book xdd

Also, awww, caligraphy competition C:

(I’m not laughing, I’d lose xddd)

Times Square in the dark, hi to the King Kong xddd

11-SEVEN, as the Americans flip the dates each time anyway xddd

And yeah, fun place anyway C:

Also, the fountain at the Bryant Park froze solid xddd

Tomorrow we’re planning on slowly accessing Brooklyn for the first time?

The goal for our stay in New York around now is to just BE HERE and not rush and soak the climate of this place (yes, I made purchases at Book-off and Kinokuniya already xddddd)

See you tomorrow!

[taiyousea]

bidoof is back in the states!!! COME TO SEATTLE

[GolyBidoof]

SURE IM COMING CANT WAIT

(only 11 days on a bike, damn ^^)

[taiyousea]

@GolyBidoof

(only 11 days on a bike, damn ^^)

hey that’s not so bad

[queenofthegods]

@GolyBidoof

Welcome from New York once again~

Say hi to Mamdani for me!

[pocketcalamity]

@GolyBidoof

I really need to read more of her novels; Loveless was great!

@GolyBidoof

And, of course, Kinokuniya, here are the current trending books C:

Obligatory Kino visit, good on you for having your priorities sorted! Have a great trip!

[Shannon-8]

Ah, Brooklyn. I only have that one recent experience from when I was there for the wedding…my friends stayed at the snappy “retro” Ace Hotel in Brooklyn (guitar available, and record player turntable with vinyl records in the rooms), and we walked to the Devoción coffee shop, where their art on their paper coffee cups were nice. We enjoyed the view of Statue of Liberty from a stroll along the waterfront from Brooklyn and got a slice of famous New York Pizza at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria near that promenade… Other friends rented a house (with a few dead cockroaches; typical New York) in the middle of a heavily Jamaican neighborhood…

I look forward to seeing your hot takes on a “leisurely 20 mile stroll across New York”

PS come to Chicago! It’s a much shorter bike ride than Seattle from New York
I’m back for a while–but may be asleep

[GolyBidoof]

@Shannon-8

PS come to Chicago! It’s a much shorter bike ride than Seattle from New York

Genuinely interested, I also have another Discord bestie in that area, just looking for a bit of an excuse to warrant taking the leap to go there ^^

If I’m going to be planning a trip to Illinois specifically, I’ll let you know long in advance, same for Mitrac and Akashelia probably C:

February 4th, 2026

• 57 reviews on WaniKani
• 4 lessons on WaniKani
• 5 reviews on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: さよなら絵梨p0->p101
• Made an order for food in Japanese, asked follow-up questions and praised the chef ^^

New lessons on WaniKani once again!

I know this one as “drool”, and I tried typing this in today, and WaniKani gave me a warning that it’s only in a specific context, so no “drooling over” prospects in life, it’s the donuts drool instead ^^

Aside from that, you can tell that Fujimoto is a cinematographer because a lot of this one-shot, Goodbye, Eri, looks like this ^^

it’s very artsy and very much something like Hideo Kojima coded, and the way how Eri’s eyes look dead and tired is also art to pull off ^^

It’s my first manga I got from Kinokuniya in New York this time and I thought I’d read it more today, but this manga does get pretty hard to read and heavy, and I sound like a broken record when I say this, but at least there is someone else who agrees with me this time around xdd

In general, a few months ago I thought Natively was a great platform for the discoverability of things across different difficulty levels, I no longer believe that, the rating system is decent amount broken and I can no longer count on Level 21 to be any easier than Level 26 or anything xddd

Maybe it works better for books or anime, ehh xddd

I think I’m going to transition away to using Natively more like Letterboxd than a graded reading site instead ^^

---

Life

New York!

(finally got a good picture from The Brutalist ^^)

We took it to South Ferry today, to travel to Staten Island, the south-most part of New York

It was very snowy, as the whole New York, but thanks to the combined efforts of the local community, they were at least able to make the walkways walkable ^^

As a suburban residential district, there haven’t been that many things to sightsee there, but the local communities have been fun to see C:

And the Mexican boat terminal!

The ferry to get there is 100% free of charge, so that’s pretty unexpected for NYC standards… I’m sorry xddd

Unfortunately, my handheld camera kind of died around then, with the Lens Error 2, I realized that the mechanism responsible for stabilizing the image is gone, and it still allows for you to take the picture, but

• a) you will get 20 second boot each time to take a single picture
• b) the bottom part of the image will be cut off, because the sensor is tilted down
• c) every picture is blurry even if you stand still,

so thank you for your service, €10 handheld camera from 2010, it was fun to use you ^^

(i’ll be looking for a different one here ^^)

We took it to the observational deck at WTC One, which is almost as high as Tokyo Skytree C:

The city down is looking stunning~
I WANT TO THANK YOU pier, cuute C:

Walking through the Brooklyn Bridge…

…with the sunset close by C:

…and then the same bridge from Manhattan Bridge!

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO NICHOLAS THOMPSON IS WE NEED TO LET HIM KNOW THERE IS A RUN UPTOWN THAT HE NEEDS TO ATTEND xddd

(ofc i scanned the QR code xdddd)

Chinatown!

We went to a Japanese restaurant in the Chinatown and I did make our order entirely in Japanese, praised the cook, asked for extras, though because the rest of the group could not understand Japanese, when the waiters haven’t been talking to me, but the group, they spoke in English xdd

Hot pot and dim sum!

And then, right next to Chinatown, Little Italy!

And to wrap up the day, we went to the Central Terminal for trains and it’s BIIIIG, it’s a really cool train stations, Americans, embrace your train stations C:

We completely went off script and did completely different things than we wanted to do today, but maybe that’s for the better, if we just went Brooklyn,

@Shannon-8

“leisurely 20 mile stroll across New York”

I doubt we’d make 40k steps then ^^ xddd

but it makes it really hard to predict what we’ll do tomorrow too, AMC, Mexican food and an art gallery would be nice, we’ll see though ^^
We still want to go Brooklyn one day though!

@Shannon-8

seeing your hot takes

NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY SUBURBAN TRAINS ARE REALLY COOL AND NOT JUST THE SUBWAY SYSTEM I WISH MORE PEOPLE WERE USING THEM INSTEAD OF JUST CARS
well at this point this probably isn’t even a hot take bUT THIS NEEDED TO BE SAID xddd

See you tomorrow!

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

I can no longer count on Level 21 to be any easier than Level 26 or anything xddd

Congratulations! Your Japanese has passed the stage where previously distinctions like ‘at what earliest level is this at all accessible’ were obvious especially at the beginner level and you are now in the ‘I can find nuance in anything aimed at natives and it all feels the same level’ stage

[Shannon-8]

Ha ha ha
Mitrac is right!

For all of your frustration, I’m still before that stage… so I couldn’t put a “level” on anything if I were forced to…

I hope you continue to enjoy New York. Everyone is probably stressed by the weather, so it’s funny that you find it to be much warmer

I especially enjoy the “peeking through the chain fence” photo.

[shitsurei]

@mitrac

Congratulations! Your Japanese has passed the stage where previously distinctions like ‘at what earliest level is this at all accessible’

I fully agree, but I actually have a theory that you’re only able to tell the difference very well around +/- 2 levels around your ideal level. Anything below that everything is easy and you don’t have the friction anymore that you did at the time. Anything above that is just “hard” with no real nuance in what is making it too hard for you.

[GolyBidoof]

@shitsurei

I fully agree, but I actually have a theory that you’re only able to tell the difference very well around +/- 2 levels around your ideal level.

that’s a good conspiracy theory, i buy it ^^

when i had a call with brandon, i brought up the fact that the algorithm is a bit iffy and there should be a bit more guardrails in place, and he said that he doesn’t want for one individual person to have too much of an influence over the rating of a specific book/manga, wHILE IN FACT IT TAKES EXACTLY ONE PERSON TO BANISH A BOOK FOREVER xddd

me being rambly

if you grade a manga a level 20 when you add it, maybe it could get to level 22 before people start going like “oh yeah, this is less difficult than another manga that people rated level 22” (another example of a manga a person added at level 20 despite it warranting being level 27) and it’s just over at this point xdddd

okay, enough on this topic xddd

February 5th, 2026

• 54 reviews on WaniKani
• 9 reviews on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Manga: さよなら絵梨p101->p208 (終わりまで)
• Book: 平家物語夢を追う者p0->p11
• Game: 15min of Pokemon Legends Z-A

Well, at least I’ve started ^^

This book was meant to be the hardest of the three I borrowed out at the beginning of January, and yes, indeed, it has words that I can’t even predict the meaning of when I read them, but it’s still full furigana and it does a good job at telegraphing what words are important for the progression of the plot, and which ones are just decoration

I think I read a while back from a Japanese person that Japanese people feel pressured to know all Japanese characters, but sometimes it feels hard for them to keep track of those, and I have a feeling that this book feels like it respects that pain and it tries to challenge people to read extra words, but not penalizing them if they don’t, even though I don’t feel exactly on the level of the target audience of this book yet ^^

I might park it for a bit because of Adventures In Real Life, but I like how that book treats me ^^

---

Life

Bit of a different style today, because it’s a little bit chaotic to keep track of all of the places you’ve been to if it’s been in double digits xddd

I’ll highlight the things that made me go, HMMM xddd

I found an exhibition of the posters of Dawn Baille and I wasn’t even aware how influential she was on the movie posters ever since the 90s, whether it’s Truman Show, Silence of the Lambs, Barbie, she’s done them all

Also, Japanese-inspired Mexican, absolutely blursed fusion foods ^^

I also found a vending machine that was selling you mystery boxes with art from local artists, and mine was really adorable and because I had no idea what I was getting myself into before getting this one, I’d say it’s probably money well spent C:

WELL THIS IS A GOOD PRICE AINT IT

(the vending machine wasnt this price xddd)

Very adorable cafe, aww :3

…though on the downside, it had those aliens just in front of them xddd

…that was a part of a halloween store that had all sorts of different outfits, including

WHY ARE THEY COSPLAYING GERMANS I DONT GET IT xdddd

…Elmo at the Public Library loves you, even if you’re gay, I wonder what kind of a love is that, is “elmo” a Greek word for his kind love as well?

And hoo, Rockefeller Building, both from the bottom and the top:

I kind of like the idea of Olympics being really soon, but me mostly missing all of that makes me a little upset ^^

It’s so cute that they wrote an entire story in Spanish for the Spanish kids, there’s a ton of the language here!

We’ve had Mexican today and I’m really happy with my serving, the best seasoned guacamole I’ve tasted so far C:
It indeed does make a difference to taste it from a Mexican cook xdd

And we went and saw No Other Choice in the AMC cinema today, I saw the legendary Nicole Kidman ad ^^

ALSO, HOW MAN Y CALORIES, WTF????? xddd

We come to this place… for magic.
We come to AMC theaters to laugh, to cry, to care.

Because we need that, all of us,
that indescribable feeling we get when the lights begin to dim.
And we go somewhere we’ve never been before;
not just entertained, but somehow reborn.
Together.

Dazzling images, on a huge silver screen.
Sound that I can feel.
Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place likе this.
Our heroes feel like thе best part of us, and stories feel perfect and powerful.
Because here, they are.

pretzel

ok im imagining work in progress xddd
i should DM WaniKani mods one day xdd

OK OK SHEESH

I could or could not be meeting up with a friend in New York tomorrow, fingers crossed and I might let you know how it went!
Good night and see you tomorrow ^^

[trunklayer]

@GolyBidoof

Tagging @Malinkal and @maurice620, because… because meow!

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

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

vending machine that was selling you mystery boxes with art from local artists

This is so amazing, I want to find one now

[Zakarius]

@GolyBidoof

WHY ARE THEY COSPLAYING GERMANS I DONT GET IT xdddd

Those aren’t just any old lederhosen… those are 𝒟ℯ𝓁𝓊𝓍ℯ ℒℯ𝒹ℯ𝓇𝒽ℴ𝓈ℯ𝓃

@GolyBidoof

pretzel

forbidden floor pretzel

Loving all the cityscape images you’re sharing - that evening light and glow so good!

[GolyBidoof]

February 6th, 2026

• 71 reviews on WaniKani
• 4 reviews on Bunpro
• 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
• Magazine: GOAT: 美 prologue

So here’s an embarrassing story: I actually misread the character of 美 as 羊 and I was going like “why is there a sheep in a magazine about a goat” xddd
The moment I replaced the sheep with beauty, things started making sense ^^

It’s still a magazine about goats, what is beauty doing there xddd

For more context, me and my New York Friend went over to Kinokuniya today to inspire one another with recommendations for things, and I was mostly going like “that’s cute and all” until THIS showed up:

From what I’ve been made aware, this is a compilation of writing pieces by a ton of writers, including essays, short stories, think pieces, all connected through the shared topic (beauty in this case)

It is on Natively and it does have a book club that Mitrac and eefara are already participating in and My Friend From New York is about to join ^^

I think that for a price of 464円, it’s an absolute no-brainer to get, even if you’re not intending on reading much. I’d like to read at least a few stories, but as you’ve seen with 羊 vs 美 just a few words above, it might take me a while ^^

---

Life

And here’s the New York friend, @akatsukinoluna ^^

We’ve talked yuri manga, Natively staffing, native language media consumption habits, Korean language, we’ve been to Kinokuniya, Book-off, we walked around Bryant Park, I introduced her to the Vast World Of Bubble Tea and it was really fun to hang out with her today ^^

(sorta goth tbh)

So much so that for most of the day I actually haven’t taken that many photos xddd
(she did, of many books in Kinokuniya she was planning on annoying her friends with xddd)

Thanks for meeting up today 暁月のルナ, it was really fun C:

But yeah, Kinokuniya is really well connected and I took it off to the north of the city afterwards~

ok im imagining now what xddd

Super Smash Bros Melee swag with NBA games, we stan ^^

I heard that Gray’s Papaya was supposed to be this iconic place for hotdogs and they are famous with celebrities and in the movies…
…I think I’ll stay with currywurst for now though, it was definitely an experience with the amount of grease and fat xddd

We ended up eating Georgian today…

…and we were entered on a raffle to win an all-inclusive trip to Georgia (only for the people in America because it’s hard to orgnanize flights otherwise, I do appreciate the thought ^^)

The water in Central Park is completely frozen over, and yes, you can walk on it, and yes, of course I did xddd

…also, what happened to her face

And oooh, this is where Saturday Night Live is shot… I only missed it by one day then

Continuing on the success of PRETZEL, here’s T I L E
(it doesn’t have the selling power of a PRETZEL, but we stan regardless xddd)

(rare picture of Times Square without an ad because they’re replacing the ad and it made me go “uuuu” xddd)

And yeah, the bootleg factories have caught up on how to increase the labubu target demographic, turn it into bricks xddd
(I’d ironically/unironically assemble those!)

LA BOO BOO

See you tomorrow ^^

[Shannon-8]

Eek! It’s great that GolyBidoof got to meet akatsukinoluna at one of her favorite bookstores this time, instead of missing each other!
Bryant Park was very crowded with people hanging out in the summer. Was it still packed with vendors and artists etc in the cold cold winter?

Georgian food sounds warm
Love me some boba
LoL @labubu