Right now the main cool Japanese stuff I’m working with other than anime and manga is imperial Japanese propaganda (gunka, the Imperial Rescript, etc). History is quite interesting.
EDIT: Also watching koara-sensei’s Japanese video essays on politics, economics and history - with clearly provided Japanese subtitles.
Oo exciting have fun 
I promised a banger, here comes a banger. Like, subscribe, ring a bell, idk what you do on WaniKani, I’m not a travel blogger ^^
Language: Oh yeah, did a lot of Japanese study today, even unintentionally so, I tried the Fujiki Consulting Services today on Satori Reader and really liked it ^^
Anyway, tomorrow’s WaniKani number might be really REALLY high and because I might be switching timezones, I might have to do at least 2, maybe even 3 review blocks, same for Bunpro.
Life:
Far From Home Arc, Day #2 C:
You know what? I’ll divide this into section, because today’s post is going to be gigantic. I hope you stick for everything and that you like it, but let’s go around step by step and section by section ^^
I’m doing it this long because I want to send this post to all my friends and my family so that they would have a centralized source of truth of how I was today ^^
I looked up on Google Maps at like, 1pm, that there is a Japanese Travel Agency in Paris in one location and I just decided to walk to it lured by Google Maps. Most blursed decision of my day, for many reasons xddd
It was huge, even bigger than the Little Tokyo in Düsseldorf, and I just went and kept doing window shopping for like, dozens of minutes xddd
And remember when I said
?
I’m sorry, I was completely wrong, I take it back xdddd
And so, SO many Japanese restaurants throughout the city, at least five times as many as in Berlin, I’m probably being serious.
Ahh, I didn’t expect for there to be this much, frfr 
…is doing exceptionally well. I’ve known about it before, but I didn’t necessarily understand the scale and why? I hope that with the pictures above you’ll understand why is it as big as it is xddd
I found the issue of Manga Issho in French with a promise that the next issue would come out in June, looking forward to it very strongly ^^
In addition to there being a LOT of localization and translation houses, the second-hand market is doing really strong as well, you can stumble upon a random used bookstore and pull out something like a second-hand copy of the other manga of 薬屋のひとりごと, I intend on not reading this ever in my life because it’s in French, but damn, it looks really pretty, feels nice to touch and look at the price point xddd
There are two more Japanese bookstores in Paris than there are in Berlin. Coming in at exactly two sharp xddddddddd
I’ve been looking around Berlin, but to no avail. So imagine my surprise when I’m walking across the Japanese district and I stumble upon…
…an actual Book-Off. With a legit section for used manga in Japanese xddd
To be honest there, there is a 70%/30% split between Japanese things and French things, there is impossibly much French manga in there, some French video games and DVDs/CDs, but the Japanese section is a legit Japanese section xdddd
I got decision paralysis and didn’t end up buying anything after like an hour of standing there, but this is where my attention was drawn to JUNKUDO Paris, a bookstore with new, fresh manga, books, japanese reading materials…
Of course, there is a crazy markup on the prices, something like 3x the Japanese price, but I still bought the first volume of 気になってる人が男じゃなかった, so I have it both in German and in Japanese right now, we stan ^^
Sooo, going out of the Junkudo bookstore, I found a flyer for Japan FES in Paris and at that time I knew I was done for and my day has been decided at this point xddddd
I was able to speak to the guy organizing this in Paris, at first, we tried English, but since he was struggling with it, I just decided to switch over and start struggling in Japanese myself instead xddd
Told him of my travel plans (I didn’t tell you yet, I’m waiting at least until I’m in America to spill the beans xddd), told him about other Japanese things I saw today, some food I ate and asked him to make one of the Japan FESes in Berlin, we never seem to get those xdd
But for real though, by comparison, the Japanese culture in Berlin is nothing compared to Paris, Düsseldorf feels a little less fanbase’y and a little more utilitarian, but Paris fanbase definitely is bigger. I was so surprised by the fact there even was Paris FES there in the first place.
I didn’t end up buying any onigiri because I really can just get them in Berlin if I felt like it xdddd
But yeah, wheel cake, that looked really fun! I got deterred by the price though, because how much can I spend for food, for real xdddd
So, there is one more Polish bookstore in Paris than in Berlin… at ONE in tot- okay, I don’t know that, I never looked for a Polish bookstore in Berlin, but I never found one either xddd
Of course, all of the relevant recent magazines from Poland, did I say that I love magazines? I love magazines ^^
There is a book that teaches reading for kids back in Poland that runs down the generations called Elementarz Falskiego, admittedly, I didn’t learn reading from this one, but my mom did and she bought me one when I was a little older ^^
The author, Marian Falski, wrote it over the soviet occupation and it’s been standardized as The Book to teach you the language, and keeps getting new editions since.
What can you learn from it? Interestingly enough, looking at this release strongly reminded me of Japanese books for beginners, or even Satori Reader, with a big font and short, concise texts that are supposed to teach you specific wordplay and understand differences between words.
“And here is a doll.
And there is a doll.
But it’s the same doll.
That’s Ala’s doll - Lola.”
“Lola doll is three. And Tola is four.
Ala has as old as Lola and Tola.
So how old is Ala?
Ala is 3 + 4 years = 7 years old.”
“Tiny [bear] - tiny [doll]” “Pleasant [bear] - Pleasant [doll]”
Look at the wordplay there ^^
I’m really curious to find something like this in Japanese too ^^
Ever heard of Thorgal? I remember one of my parents’ friends was a huge fan of the comic, but all you need to know for the sake of this thread is that it’s a fantasy series inspired by Scandinavia that got its own pop-up exhibition in Paris for a while. Thorgal was drawn by a Polish artist, Grzegorz Rosiński, and I was like POLAND MENTIONED and stayed at the exhibition for a while ^^
The comics are heavily manga-stylized and I’m like 80% sure that some of the 2010s viking manga might have been inspired by Thorgal as well, so you know, equivalent exchange of ideas ^^
For many historic reasons, Russia and France are really close to one another and this pains a lot of activists, be they French or Ukrainian… or even Russian, for the ones that left the country and don’t want to look back. Don’t get me wrong, I know a few people from Russia and one of them is one of my closest colleagues at the Works Council, I think Russian people that are outside of Russia are very diligent, ambitious and hard-working…
…but, Ukraine is currently one of the most FUCKED countries on the planet, making it the worse that even if the war were to end tomorrow (and it definitely won’t), demographic crisis will bring the country to its knees in decades regardless.
I try to carry Ukraine and their culture ideas within myself (something something nails, but non-literal too, including donations, art pieces, buying clothes from Ukrainians, etc.), but I really have a feeling that the Ukrainian culture is more or less doomed at this point.
Though, one thing that objectively kinda sucks about people selling Ukrainian stuff on the streets is that you know that the money is going into their wallets and not their countries, right? xddd
It’s still nice to support individual people, but, sigh.
Слава Україні! I really hope that you grow up to be strong and courageous people, I want to visit Ukraine one day and say thank you to all of the people that still decide on propagating the culture then ^^
Always a funny topic, but I have a feeling that France has a bit of a different conclusion than something like Scandinavian countries do. Scandinavia feels like it tries to put an equality sign between men and women in every area available, while France feels like trying to empower them through their beauty.
It feels weird to be pandered to in so many different ways at the same time, I can’t make up my mind for a France persona of mine and I haven’t bought any French clothing today, grrrr xddd
Of course, I’m sure there is a lot of casual sexism and misogyny involved, but there’s also Samus Aran on a wall going to Montmartre I’ve never seen in any other country or city before ^^
So do I want to be pretty, or do I want to be smart? Ughhh, too hard to make up my mind xddd
Surprisingly good, it almost doesn’t look as if it was burnt in the first place xdddd
Paris is also known as the capital of food, and despite me falling for a few Japanese traps here and there, I still had a full on Parisian experience, would recommend C:
My mom is a huge fan of the Paul patisseries, so I pulled in and spent a while absorbing the mood ^^
Here’s an egg benedict I had for dinner…
53.500 steps, 41.1km on feet.
I’m not a professional hiker, but I’m pretty proud of my result regardless. It’s been a true joy to just walk by everything and see the life happen in the background, so I hope I’ll get to do it again sometime!
Overall, I was really surprised by Paris today: it was my first time visiting the city in years, and first time by myself. I was 100% convinced I’d find it boring or overrated, but instead it left me with a feeling of disappointment that Berlin is so far behind on Japanese culture compared to Paris xddd
I have a humorous point where I claim that I hate French language and I never intend on learning it at all in my life, and it does slightly save my mental load. At the same time though, with so much stuff culture-related available in France, and the fact they heavily invest into it year by year (picrel):
I’m a little sad I don’t know any French, but if I actually wanted to set off and start grinding it, it might be the number one easiest foreign language to learn in Berlin after English, I feel like, so I could always give it a shot ^^
Paris today was GREAT and I enjoyed it so, SO much C:
Yeah I’m never making a post like this again xddd
It was a fantastic day though, would heavily recommend ^^
So see you tomorrow, hopefully from Cambridge right next to Boston, if they pull me at the border, then probably Dublin, Ireland ^^
It’s nice to see some Japanese related travel outside of Japan on here! I didn’t realise Paris had such a large amount of Japanese culture
Ah! Your way of following things where they lead when you travel is paying off again! That was fan TAStic! Thanks for sharing.
I’m actually surprised that you didn’t get that green dress, it would look really good on you
Myself, I would have bought the doge Shiba Inu toe socks! 
Level 34 on WaniKani woop woop C:
I thought that today I’d finish the legacy Wii U Xenoblade X for good, but I kept getting distracted with sidequests and character stories and by the time I landed in Boston, I only started doing the final chapter of the Wii U campaign, so I’ll still have a bunch of listening material to go.
As previously, Xenoblade X dialogues in Japanese are very straightforward, but that doesn’t mean I understand them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the emotional power of them xddd
My today’s block of reviews was very awkwardly spaced out because of a 30-hour long day and I managed to do a Level Up and Apprentice 2 promotion on the same day, just for the sake of maintaining the streaks though. From tomorrow on I’m back to one block of reviews late after stuff happening in the same format as previous ones ^^
But this means that the next level up on WaniKani might be faster by 20 hours compared to the previous one? And it might get even more awkward on the way back in mid-May. Ehh, timezones.
Here’s some of the things I didn’t burn today, sadly
Also, life, Far From Home Arc, Day #3, I’m in Cambridge right next to Boston! Today’s 30 hour day just keeps going and going and I think I’ll just finish it pre-emptively because I’m about to pass out ^^
I went for a walk between the Cambridge/Boston borders at the Charles River and would you guess what, I was the only person taking this walk across all of the sidewalks through the walk xddd
Of course, very long traffic lights, absolutely no jaywalking allowed with absolutely no zebra crossings in sight, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that xddd
But hey, look at this, I found the Nett hier sticker!
For more context, the local government of Baden-Württemberg created this design as a tourist kinda thing and anyone can grab any amount of those online for free as a promotional material xddd
It instantly makes you think as if you’re back at home, which is great, because I’m already starting to miss home xddd
Article about the sticker in German!
From now on, for the next two weeks, my dominant timezone will be EST, so expect things to be a bit late 
The plan for tomorrow is to first, try to fight the jetlag, two, have a very lovely breakfast, three, maybe take a regional train to Salem, where the Witch Trials were being held? I’m looking forward to see the capitalist answer to the apology for murdering people for decades for them revealing symptoms of mental illnesses or them casting astrological curses on other people ^^
Most preferably, in the form of a witchy sticker I could put on my laptop or something ^^
If anyone had any great recommendations for Boston/Cambridge/Salem (something something @nerdqueen666), shoot away! C:
See you tomorrow! C:
This is just the tip of the iceberg — I could go on and on, so let me know if there’s anything more specific you’re curious about and I can send more ideas! 
Love your new travel log 
omg and now I have to get to Paris for my Japanese cultural fix?! Dusseldorf isn’t gonna do it after seeing all that
Enjoy Cambridge!
Loved reading about your adventure in Paris, thanks for sharing! Funny because I lived there many years ago but it was before taking a (serious) interest in Japanese things, so all those things were new to me! Not the Polish library though, I had been there before hehe. Makes me want to go back and visit in any case! But 53.000 steps wow, I’m impressed! You must have slept really well the following night. Have you heard of this thing called the metro by the way xD
dont get me wrong, i both used metro and walked on the same day xdddd
that’s one thing i really love about active sightseeing, yes, i’m sleeping extremely well every day around now xdddd
Hm.
Is it time to finally put my mind where my mouth is xddd
I feel like such a hypocrite in most of the cases, but that’s actually a difference I could tangibly make if I were to just exclude it from my study regiment?
I don’t have any great alternatives for production though, so that is going to hinder my ability to be active in the language, but maybe I shouldn’t have relied on Duolingo to do production for me in the first place?
I’ll sleep on it, but man, I wish I wasn’t living through the current socio-economic events in the world xdddd
WaniKani: 秀 just evades me every time, grrrr xddd
I’ll have to come up with a way to associate it in my head ^^
Bunpro: still doing N4, still straightforward
Satori Reader: did the 聞き耳ラジオ at two difficulties, I thought I actually understood the stories on harder better, but that might be because that was my second listen to the stories ^^
Life:
I felt like today was two days, and going to Salem was great and I enjoyed it a lot… and then I made a mistake and went to a work event early xddd
One part of a reason I’m in Massachussets right now is because my company summoned me for a thing similar to an offsite here, and I’ll be stuck in one until Thursday, so no exciting updates from the trip until then, but man, the AI conversations.
I think I’m even more upset at the people that say “I see what you’re saying, it also pains me, I think about it sometimes, I wish I could do something about it” about generative AI… and completely disregard the conversation and just move to a different person five minutes later xdddd
Which, admittedly, I’m guilty of the same thing with Duolingo, so that might be the test of my beliefs.
But man, I’m so scared of people that just take the attribution of all of the works of humanity at face value and say “it is what it is” and then cheer on the removal of the IP laws. It so angry about this frfr xddd
But Salem! No skyscrapers in sight, a lot of local shops with local artists, and went to a few museums of the witch trials. I thought the idea of witch trials was overstated to me, because I was really convinced this was going for a long time in Salem, but apparently almost all of the activity came down to just a few people and only one year, so THANK GOD ^^
Still, really sad the witch trials happened to people regardless. I went to see their memorials, and people still leave flowers in there!
I was very much in an extroverted mood so I was stopping at every counter being like “so do you have any like, certifications for how does one become a witch” and “do you have any spells that could cheer up my friends and make them smile?”, and I learned a few things about the community, the centers and, eeeee
Hope that it’s not too big of a whiplash from the previous picture xddd
Also, cool story, Salem is sister cities with Ota in Japan, I tried reading this sign in Japanese and got a lot from it, so TIL!
And as for
I got the work people to grab an Uber together and tag along and visit this restaurant and then we got the menus and started ordering things…
…and this is when we realized that the menu actually is from a different restaurant, Izakaya Ittoku, in the exact same area, in the exact same hall xddd
We’ve had a nice dinner and I introduced one colleague to okonomiyaki, and myself had an onigiri and some ramen, but that isn’t what was advertized to me, grrrr xddd
Porter Square Books though, I really liked the bookstore there ^^
So anyway, tomorrow, work event, I might come as a rain/thunderstorm cloud because it’s gonna be the generative AI conversation, but I’ll try to enjoy it for as much as I’d be able to ^^
See you tomorrow!
Satori Reader has a spring discount!
“Support a team that cares deeply about helping you succeed with Japanese” 
Today I did the 壁の穴 story and it was pretty sweet, though the second episode was like double the size of a normal episode on Satori Reader. The length creep is absolutely a thing as you go down this list (and I like the fact that it happens???) xddd
And yeah, WaniKani today, I feel as if I were just at the start of the level and I’m already Apprentice 4 on the radicals, interesting pace ^^
Only 26 N4 grammars left to finish N4 Bunpro, I was zoning in and out in the reviews today and definitely passed in more than I should have, but I hope that the grammars still stuck in my mind and I’ll get them right next time.
Still no tool found for Japanese production (I’m breaking the streak on Duolingo… maybe… probably…?), I know that Akashelia does correcting sentences of other people, there are topics here like “one sentence of Japanese a day”, but right now might not be the best time to decide for one, I will be focusing on real life stuff happening for the next two weeks.
If anyone had a good recommendation for Japanese production tools, let me know!
Life: yep, very eventful, very work-related, I’m scared at how many people come at me casually at 8pm and start talking about work as if we’re still on the work time xddd
Like it’s time to start talking about rats living in the holes in the wall in Japanese, but it seems like whenever I switch the topics to them, a person just walks away and finds a different person to pester about work topics xddd
Us walking through the North Station, looked pretty much San Francisco-ish with the inclines and houses and all ^^
I don’t know, I thought I was getting really good at this entire extraversion thingy and I found it easier to talk to everyone about anything, but I found out at this offsite I’m absolute ass at extraversion if the topic people want to talk about is what we’ll be working on at work xddd
It really drains me, and makes me go cynical, and there is a clear implication that there is one correct answer to the question and if you don’t agree with this answer, then people will treat it as if you’ve answered correctly regardless and just skip over your opinion ^^
It both is a skill that you can practice and become good at, and is a skill that I kinda don’t want to be good at, so I’m not feeling all that great networking over this trip.
But hey, the food is so, SOOOO good.
See you tomorrow! C:
#DuolingoBoycottYeesForReal still going great xddd
Today’s story on Satori Reader was 隣人 (The Neighbor), and the scariest thing in there was the narrator’s voice, she’s really putting it her all into this story ^^
Makes it easy to follow though C:
On Bunpro, honorifits are showing up towards the conclusion of N4 and I’m not very good at honorifics aaaa xd
Despite me thinking I’m already (past) N3 level, I remember my B2.4 Japanese classes were doing those N4 honorifics towards the end of this course (and I also struggled with お帰りになる and the likes of them), so, you know, that’s the fun part of learning your language without having strong fundamentals ^^
Not much interesting in the word of WaniKani, but I’ll be halfway through level 34 tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s reviews might be a bit late, but I’m still hoping to get them done before midnight Eastern ^^
Life:
BINGO ON A BOAT
BINGO
ON
A
BOAT
Sadly, to win this round, you needed to have a plus sign of bingos, so I was two spaces away, ready to start belting out (Everything I Do) I Do It For You if it comes, but then someone came with a bingo ahead of me, so boooo xdd
I think Fate/Stay Night might have done irreparable damage to my perception of favorite times in the day, because golden hour is cool and all, but the blue hour definitely takes the spot for me ^^
WaniKani flattens out the HDR images to 32-bit images, but believe me when I say that the oranges in this picture are really really strong in the original version ^^
Tomorrow me and one colleague are sneaking out of the morning activities and we want to go and hit the MIT campus, go to the main buildings and maybe take an Instax picture or something. Also, tomorrow, our company will make a big party for us to sum up the whole offsite, which is the reason I’ll be late tomorrow, but man, I really need to start preparing:
Difficulty level around here: very hard xddd
Ugggggh yes I am currently trudging my way through でございます and なさい etc. on Bunpro. SUCH A HEADACHE!
I hope you are enjoying your time in Massachusetts. I love that I recognize all of the places you are posting pictures of!
５月でしょうか ^^
I’m halfway through Level 34 on WaniKani today, because of that, had some extra lessons today, but I’ve practiced all the kanji from this level and we’re 5 days away from Level 35.
Bunpro keeps harassing me with honorifics, so
Satori Reader had a pretty big update today, there’s a completely new story called 枯れた木 that I can’t access yet because I’m not premium, so I did 座間９遺体事件’s trial today and interesting, interesting, that’s true crime xddd
Life:
This year is really weird so far, as in, when I think about individual stories, so many different stories happened in 2025 already (just scroll up, lmao), and when I think about both the amount of them and each one of them individually, they seem so long and so drawn out in my head…
…but also I lost track of the calendar in early March aaand it’s May xddd
I thought that by filing in this study log, I’d cherish every day, and I do, but I don’t cherish every week, every month, etc. xdd
Is this what being grown up feels like?
I had a relatively funny moment today when I saw this building:
But yeah, to be a student of MIT in 2025, ahhh, a girl can dream xddd
Me and a colleague went through the whole campus and found their anime club, let’s all join it remotely, would be fun to crash their parties xddd
So we’ve had a fancy/dance party after work today and man, people at that party were reeeeally bad at dancing xddd
I’m also bad, but I’m shameless, and while most of the people were just moving their fists up and down to the rhythm, I might have had an actual stage presence at least for a few minutes ^^
But a retro of the offsite: I started off really defensive and finished really spotlightish, none of them are positions that are popular of people, so I don’t think I’ve made many allies over the spotlight, but hey, it’s nice to sit in the introvert corner and nod my head to people telling their stories there C:
The offsite is over and I’ll be doing freestyle sightseeing for the next week and a bit, tomorrow I should be taking a bus from Boston to Hartford and we’re going down East Coast one city a day, to return to Boston in time for PAX East.
I might start digging through nerdqueen’s list tomorrow, maybe there is something I’d like to do in there!
See you tomorrow! C:
Today’s review block was pretty long, despite no Duolingo, I still went for over an hour. I went a bit slower today than yesterday, because the accuracy rate needed to be reinforced, but I feel a little stronger today than yesterday, so study pays off ^^
Bunpro however...........
For now, I’m allowing myself to pass honorifics even if I don’t get them first try, because I know that ghosts will just pad out my review sessions, but when they get to Adept, I’ll let myself be failing them one by one and slow down my reviews a bit. I know I’ll try to take it a bit easier after N4 and slow down for N2 items, because those grammar items (both honorifics and N2) will be too important to simply mess up ^^
Life:
I’ve decided to go to the next item on the line of @nerdqueen666’s list of recommendations for Massachusetts, Brookline, and it was really, really pretty C:
I lucked out with weather today, because we’ve had a ton of sunshine and something like 26-ish degrees (80F?), so I could walk around and see everything in full bloom C:
I walked through the whole Harvard St from Brookline Village all the way to Allston, and as for my highlights, saw the Coolidge Corner Cinema (that is doing some moviegoer programs and has film marathons including Lord of the Rings; also, shows anime, they have a version of Millennium Actress and I think one of the remastered Ghibli movies now? Mononoke-hime?), Brookline Booksellers was really big and had more than just books: plenty of pretty wares and sweet, motivational items, but I think the two coolest things I saw have been a game store called Replay’d, and an Asian market called Sunrise, which, AAAAA C:
of course got myself a few tiny little TREATS C:
One thing that made me really happy about that region was the amount of pro-art, pro-labor and anti-exploitation activism that was going in there, with posters, electricity boxes and e-ink displays all in favor of different issues:
Boston can be intimidating, but I feel right at home when I see labor law activism and it makes me the more incentivized to do well on the Works Council election in mid-May ^^
Also, halfway through Harvard St, there was this crevice:
It’s a really nice incentive!
Right now, I’m in Hartford, Connecticut, and POLAND MENTIONED
POLAND
MENTIONED
There’s a fair few references to Polish culture here, there’s a park called Pulaski Mall, I saw a church of the Polish congregation with a Polish flag right next to American one, that was neat ^^
Tomorrow I’m planning on going here to the Connecticut Museum of Science and maybe to the public library, and after that, I’m setting off to NEW YORK CITY 
Looking forward to tomorrow, should also be great ^^
See you tomorrow!
This is a really good idea! I might steal this because yeah…I am strugglin’!
Yesss! Looks like you had an awesome day. It really is such a beautiful area – so many cute shops and beautiful houses to daydream about living in…
Yes!! It really does make me love living here to look around and see public art, graffiti, and other displays of unity and respect. This makes me feel like I need to learn more about the history of the city I live in!!
Hope your travels in Connecticut and New York go well!!
Japanese: really tired today, got a lower accuracy rate both on WaniKani and Bunpro than usual today, though the Satori Reader story about falling birth rates was fairly understandable to me, even though this topic has been done to death by now ^^
The second part of this story had a connection to the aging society, and who would have thought that with less kids, there are more old people… So far I’m not doing great at solving this societal problem ^^
Though, the Frieren Book Club was nice today, I did the chapter when I still had the energy and I could focus on the stuff written, it seems there are a few key expressions that one must prepare themselves for, like 防御魔力, and they get repeated many, many times
Also,
Life:
Oh my Lord what an exhaustingly long day today xddd
Woke up at 9am in Hartford and went to a breakfast place that in the menu had an option with a meal called… KIEŁBASA. POLAND MENTIONED C:
The place was called Ashley’s Restaurant and even though the decor isn’t the greatest, and the waiting times did take a while, it really was an experience of having a True American Breakfast 
and I had a bottomless coffee in there, would recommend ^^
(I’m not a coffee drinker aaaa) xdd
On my way downtown with my suitcase, two separate people in their cars stopped by me and were like “do you need any help”, and I was like “I’m literally walking downtown, what’s the issue” xddd
I know that they were weirded out that anyone were walking on the sidewalk, yet alone with a suitcase, but walking is FUN for me, I like WALKING xdddd
I made it to Connecticut Science Center and, ehhh, I literally have a top3 boringest job EUNE+EUW+NA, at least I’m not an accountant, but I can’t wait to see who I end up becoming when I grow up xddd
There was a temporary exhibit on the whole film process of creating Pixar movies, start to finish, with drawing, sculpting, modeling, lighting, materials, physics simulations, animating, rendering, I’m sure I’ve forgotten like 100 things, but those people that work in there really are passionate and their passion just RADIATES onto me ^^
They had plenty of permanent exhibits on energy, sports, genetics, geology, space, and I was looking at the areas labelled as being for kids and being like “that sign won’t stop me because I can’t read” C: xddd
Ahhh, going to science museums is so cool, Angela Collier, when’s the next video, I need science
I made it through to the Public Library in Hartford, and wow, it’s pretty big, but above all, properly funded: it looked like a library that was similar to my local library in Berlin, but was organizing a lot more events, and I got some American cabbage seeds for myself for free, nice nice ^^
On my way to the bus station, Street Church people saw me and gave me free food and water because it was pretty hot outside and they had too much food, I told them I have money to afford it and they should leave it to a stranger, but they were more interested in grabbing me for a chat than hearing me reject the gift xddd
So yeah, bus to New York, dropped the luggage and OOOOF.
I don’t know how to map the city. I’ve mentioned above that I’m most likely neurodivergent, but I’m good at keeping the external stimuli overwhelming me in most of the cases, maybe to cities of the size of Paris. Just put on noise cancelling headphones and keep walking xddd
SO THIS STRATEGY DOESNT WORK FOR NEW YORK XDDDD
I only walked for like 4 hours today, visited many shops, but those four hours of just walking next to people exhausted me way more than the whole day in Brookline/Hartford yesterday xddd
Where is the talking to people and establishing a friendly connection with them? xddd
But either way, saw Times Square, a few times, saw the Nintendo NY store, went to Rockefeller Center, trekked across Broadway, went to Central Park, saw a few Korean and a few Japanese stores, had a New York Pizza, bought postcards, took the metro and, walked a toooon.
I saw Book-Off in New York and that was exactly what I expected the Parisian one to be: 80% English things and 20% Japanese things, the proportions worked much better in Paris there ^^
Though, Kinokuniya is LEGIT, they still have one and a half floor entirely for English-related things, but in the magazines section they have EVERYTHING, including back issues of my favorite magazines ^^
Of course, price markup is really big, but I’m glad they even have the things in the first place C:
Also, I’ve got the sixth volume of Frieren now, I’m going further with the book club ^^
And then, after a mere 29k steps, decided to conserve my energy, took a bus to New Jersey and I’m spending the night here, doing reviews as it rains and thunderstorms on the outside ^^
I’ll try to eat my breakfast tomorrow in New Jersey because I need for the stimuli to even out before I torture myself with New York again xddddd
Unfortunately, mapping New York is a challenge that went over my loosely connected brain, I’m still here for another 19 hours and I’ll probably want to see your Statues of Liberty or Brooklyns, but if anyone had something that’d bring me to my knees, please post it over, I’ll try visiting it tomorrow ^^
Tomorrow’s plan after NYC is to take a bus to Philadelphia at 8pm and stay the night there, but my host from booking.com is acting reeeeally fishy and I asked the staff from booking.com to intervene, they’ve sent me a message that they will be doing conflict mediation and I should DM them as soon as I notice something not working tomorrow, so worst case scenario, I’ll just get a refund and need to do some fast thinking to find a place to sleep, but I’d just rather have that place to sleep ^^
So, see you tomorrow! C:
All the Japanese stores and things you’ve been able to find are so cool! I am definitely going to check out a couple that you have mentioned while I’m up here in the Northeast. Glad you’re having a good trip!
…wait, am I seeing this right, somebody’s subscribed to Satori Reader???
Well, I really don’t like the whole idea of bite-sized listenings because I can’t even turn on my interest machine and I’m already at the end of the review block, so yes, I decided to dip into the spring sale and part ways with this oh-so-precious $5.40 to build skills to understand what Yuyu says in his podcasts in the future xdddd
I know Yuyu has his own podcast with subtitles on YouTube, so eventually I’ll probably have to transition there, but for now, let me pretend I’m being so productive by listening to one episode of a podcast split into 14 parts and pretend I’m doing 14 blocks of review in a day xdddd
So, the four-kanji word Yuyu uses as his life motto is 悠々自適. A little on the nose, and the 猫みたい bit is 
, but good for him xdd
The 10-part story about him working up so much to talk to a girl and then it turning out that it was an older woman is Oh So Japan-coded, man, just talk to her about Night is Short, Walk on Girl you seem to like so much xddd
(Good choice btw ^^)
I saw a novel for it in Kinokuniya yesterday, but I’m feeling like attempting to read it around now wouldn’t be much fun, I need a little more fluency and a little more focus to derive fun from this intense degree of wordplay ^^
But yeah, being here in America definitely spoils me in terms of how effortless and how omnipresent conversations with other people seem to be ^^
Ehh, reading other story logs makes me envy other people for having… GOALS, in terms of Japanese language, mine is coasting and vibing, but that means that if life provides me with something exciting, I’ll just deprioritize Japanese again, so having a more overarching goal than “read The House in Fata Morgana” would be nice. Something like “become a part of a Japanese fandom” or “work in Japan” or “make Japanese friends and talk to them in Japanese”, well, you have to start somewhere ^^
After the Far From Home Arc I might have a Grind Languages Arc, where in a week on Monday I’m starting Japanese classes again, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ll be having German, plus the book clubs, let’s see how I go ^^
Life: So starting off in New Jersey, I saw a real true actual 本物 squirrel today xdddd
Went for a breakfast at a restaurant that went crazy with the amount of salt it had in everything, to the point I was really hungry but just stopped at one time because my mouth turned into a salt rock and from that point on, my saliva tasted like salt for the rest of the day. Sodium overdose, is that a thing?
Then took it off to New York and, I did a tooon of things, so let me focus on just the highlights ^^
First, the Statue of Liberty, there is a point right at the tip of Manhattan where you are supposed to see it clearly.
So here’s the Statue of Liberty from that point and a 10x zoom.
…
…
…
(I tried recreating The Brutalist poster with the 10x if anyone is into that xddd)
Then I went to the Wall Street and did my rosary to S&P500 for it to ever recover above the pre-February levels, hopefully, not through new sources of exploitation though xddd
(金玉 anyone? see, that word was useful xddd)
I saw what remained of World Trade Center monuments, and, man, this is such a depressing story. There is a list of every person who passed away in the collapse engraved on a metal right in front of it, and you can feel the sorrow all those years later. I wonder what the octopus and harambe had been doing right in front of it though???
Then I went to New York Public Library, because, stan libraries, and would you believe me if I told you they had a PUZZLE ASSEMBLY CORNER?
The section for events was really cool, さすがね ^^
There is a Japanese market in the town called Hashi Market that is a legit store that just has everything you can think of, and treated myself for a lunch there, which would’ve been delicious if NOT FOR THE FACT MY SALIVA STILL TASTES LIKE A SALT ROCK xdddd
But I love the selection of things they had in there.
And then went the 5th Alley all the way south, took a metro back and went to Lego and Uniqlo ^^
Lego is really cool and themed around New York, check those things out!
While Uniqlo had practical things, さすが, but they also had some New York-exclusive designs that I liked and here’s some pics of it ^^
The code one is sick, also, Uniqlo had a small bookstore area too!
I kinda wish Uniqlo did full body print shirts, because I don’t like for the prints just to be confined to a rectangle ^^
And that’s when my New York story takes a scary turn, because it was raining really hard and I wanted to see so many other things. I ended up seeing them (xddd), but got my bag completely wet in the process. And then, made it to the bus in rain, delayed by 40 minutes (:3), and of course my host in Philadelphia was sketchy, of course I needed to go the booking.com route and find a 3* hotel here. It’s reeeeally expensive, but prettier than I expected, and breakfast is included, so I should get enough energy to see Philly tomorrow. So far, I’ve only seen those ^^
And omg, I’ve read enough AO3 to know where this is going, dirty minds!!!
Anyway, I wish I could press the pause button on this trip, my mental fatigue is catching up with the physical fatigue and I don’t even know what I’d like to do, but not sightseeing is high on the list of my desires xddd
Well, we’ve got a week to go, and tomorrow evening I’m going to Baltimore, so except a cool update from Philly tomorrow!
See you tomorrow! C:
Damn, the reviews on Bunpro are spiking again, and had a low accuracy today, I’ll take a break between N4 and any potential N2 in the future, because otherwise I’ll get flooded with ghosts ^^
I’m at 169 of 177 of N4 grammars, so there’s three more days of regular study and then pause, and then I’ll きちんと learn honorifics, I swear xddd
Today I was trying to continue the 隣人 series on Satori Reader, but my eyes are closing now, so five stories is plenty already, though the narrator does act terrified and that’s really engaging xddd
In terms of language goals, guess who managed to beat her first jRPG in German/Japanese ^^
Xenoblade X even before the remaster was one of my favorite games of all time, but the remaster adds so many QoL things and makes the game so enjoyable, that… you know what, I’ll bring the topic back in the life section ^^
If only I decided to get into games again and play through The Hundred Line: Last Defense Army or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but I still haven’t finished Lost Records, so I need to give myself a bit of a buffer there ^^
Life: .......Philadelphia was unexpectedly amazing xddd
My goal for today was to slow down, rest up and chill for a bit, and it worked at first: I like myself the most when I’m in the Frieren mode and I’m looking for all sorts of unnecessary spells around the world, and I found a few, check them out!
The spell for creating a platform underneath your feet (it also turns you into marble, dangerous spell!)
So yeah, a lot of unnecessary spells collected today and that made me really happy C:
As it turns out, it’s not always sunny in Philadelphia, I feel ripped off xddd
Even then, saw a lot of color in the town today, I wish my camera was better at picking it up though!
…it won’t have to for long, because I bought myself a BAD camera, with a pre-exposed film on the edges, and took a few pictures using this baby ^^
The 35mm film has 24 pre-exposed pictures in it and I’m really curious how they come out in the end, no batteries needed, no electric screens, just a few springs and a few gears to turn ^^
Also, It’s Cinco de Mayo, which means…
It definitely didn’t aim for providing great taste or strong flavors, they went with you feeling full like a barrel, and that’s what I still feel like today. My experiences of eating in America except for the Japanese products have not been the greatest, mostly because the meals tend to prioritize quantity over quality and even when eating I’m feeling as if food is just pushing through my stomach to grow and become bigger ;_;
Also, Philadelphia is a city of Rocky Balboa, and flags, and, eee, Lucy Dacus concerts, I’m going to see her in Berlin in June xddd
The city really clicked for me when I saw this map.
In the Parkway there are flags of 109 different countries (including Poland, Italy and Vatican relocated, 2137; and Israeli flag at the very beginning, right next to a holocaust memorial), Rocky stairs, Free Library (was epic! I got a guitar pick for free!), museum of art, etc.
In Rittenhouse Square there are skyscrapers. I don’t like skyscrapers xddd
In Convention Center there was a really neat Chinatown where I dumped something like $25 for Asian snacks, would recommend!
While the Square District looked the most like a ward for people, shops, just, people hanging out.
And Historic District is just what’s on the tin, parks, pretty buildings, museums, that one was neat too C:
And look, the portal to Dublin! One guy in Philly started doing pushups as soon as he saw Dubliners and a few people, me included, joined him in making pushups, but the Dubliners looked as if they were just making fun of us and didn’t join in, so there either is a time delay or the Dublin crew is uncooperative xddd
I’ll show them next time! >:[[[[[
Also, my anthropology senses are tingling every time I see something like this, like how much money went into this banner, wtf xddd
I found an art workshop inside of the town called Cherry Street Pier and found this mural and just looked at it and looked and looked and man. I have so many answers to this question, but that goes back to that question nerdqueen asked in her last study log, should we allow ourselves to dream big? They won’t take it away from us, will they? Can I have each of those threads please?
It would be so cool.
Well, there is a huge inflation in the size of posts that I’m posting to study logs and this one doesn’t have that many Japanese things even, so I’ll probably start shortening them a bit after PAX East (or the final secret destination on Saturday), they take forever to write too. But they’re so meditative! And I still haven’t uploaded like another 100 pictures I’m currently sitting on from Philly xddd
I did more steps on a rest day than a workout day and I feel so, so happy after having seen what Philly had to offer, it caught me by surprise and now I like it about as much as I do Köln. It also had more things I’m personally looking for in a city than New York, “walkable” doesn’t imply “fun to walk”, and Philadelphia is much more fun to walk than Manhattan xddddd
Looking forward to be surprised tomorrow again! C:
Either way, I’m in Baltimore already, today’s accommodation was significantly less problematic ^^
I’m headed to Washington tomorrow, so expect a cool log from Baltimore if I see anything, I’ll fill in analogue photos and I’ll try to take an Amtrak train to make it to DC. Washington will be the southern-most destination of my travel, I’m going back to Boston on Wednesday very late in the evening for PAX East, and maybe it’s good that I’ll be stuck at the airport because what the frick is this xdd
So, Baltimore update tomorrow, see you tomorrow! C:
