A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Travel & Friends & Languages Usage Arc 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱

[GolyBidoof]

October 31st, 2025

• 185 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 9 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Manga: ふつつかな悪女ではございますが第１巻終わりまで
• Listening/VN: 1h of 大英帝国でも多彩な声でアテレコ実況【大逆転裁判2】#1

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• 3.5h of seminar in German today (plus some talking with people around)
• 0.5h of talking to people afterwards

FOUR DAYS UNTIL LEVEL 60

I’ll go a bit faster today because im really tired already

First, ふつつかな悪女ではございますが, what a title: on one hand, it’s really sweet and uses a ton of very flowery vocab, on the other, it’s so, SO hard to understand it

I love how the manga is like “oh yeah, you got nothing on the right? Don’t worry, we have something for you on the left” xddd

Also, casual title drop in the middle of the volume, TVTropes are satisfied after all xdd

Because I don’t tend to read stuff as difficult per rule, Natively only gave me two gradings after finishing it, and I graded both as “this is harder than the other thing”

I kind of want to become good at this kind of Japanese as well so that I read 薬屋のひとりごと and follow all the drama with all of the people in the palace and know who is who and why are they why they are xdd

But for today: horribly, horribly hard, and after finishing the first volume, I switched to something much easier, 大逆転裁判2, and oh lord, this relief when you can finally understand something, but after a while I also realized that 大逆転裁判2 is supposed to be really hard, it’s just much easier than the manga to read xddd

2030 goals

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Life

Seminar over! At the end of the seminar, they gave us free jellies and told us to go scare some kids, so I’m scaring you, this is the Halloween Special xdd

Funny thing though, our instructor couldn’t make it in person today and we needed to use Microsoft Teams to connect with her, and it kept chopping allll the time, so our seminar today was a bit shorter than it would’ve been

But yeah, made it to the Frankfurt airport afterwards, one thing I love about their airport is if you get through the security check-in, they give you free physical newspapers and digital magazines to download, and anyone can just get as many as they’d like! So Frankfurt airport, very cool of you C:

I made it to Florence Airport and look, they have Hudson in Italy! It’s so Asia-convenience-store coded, that for a while in my head the wires were crossed and I thought it was Lawson from Japan ^^

Anyway, made it to Lucca…

…and for a three-and-a-half-hour-long, multiple-courses-proper-italian-dinner xdddd

There were a lot of people going out of the convention today, but this one stole my heart when it came to the costumes xddd

We spoke a lot and walked around the city center, one of our friends currently has a temporary mobility impairment and it was a little interesting to see how much attention Italians pay to accessibility in the cities (spoiler: almost none) aaand we’ve had some tea together and we’re going for the convention tomorrow xddd

So I’m jumping off and hear from you TOMORROWWWWW

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

At the end of the seminar, they gave us free jellies

Me looking carefully at the picture to figure out what it is

I can’t understand the word jellies anymore because the differences in uk/us English broke my brain

@GolyBidoof

Anyway, made it to Lucca…

Enjoy!

[GolyBidoof]

November 1st, 2025

• 145 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 14 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Manga: Fate/stay night [Heaven’s Feel]第２巻

THREE DAYS UNTIL LEVEL 60

You know what? One weird thing is that I only allow myself to go on this forum properly if I’ve finished studying for that day, and I was like “you’ve gotta read the whole volume of a manga before coming here!” and the manga was like eeehhhhhh, and then I come and it turns out there’s a new and exciting speedrun book club nobody told me about and has been around for a few days xddd

Mea culpa though
But yeah, reading actual physical manga is also important, especially if Kotomine Kirei launches on a rant and you go like “eee what is he saying”, I definitely mirror @shitsurei’s sentiment of words getting in with one ear and immediately going out the other ear, the rest of the manga was class in terms of difficulty level though ^^

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Life

Welcome from Lucca Games & Comics!

As compared to the other conventions I’ve been this year to, this one is the, hm, weirdest? It takes place over the whole city, you go to different areas and they check your wristbands and allow for you to go in to any of the halls ^^

The wait lines to a decent few halls are really, really long, the comics one for example was 40 minutes long, but here’s comics!

I did manage to get a copy of Misdirection and got my copy signed by the author of it, really cool C:

Then there was Games, and look, there’s Matt Mercer in there, in person!

I really don’t know how I feel about Matt Mercer, because on one hand I really admire his commitment to inclusivity for everyone, on the other, he really feels to me as if he’s trying to monetize everything, and even today when he was talking about Legend of Vox Machina, he was talking about the benefits of different language dubs to introduce new audiences to the universe xdd

I saw him before at MCM Comic Con in London a year and a half ago, so yeah, we are crossing one another every once in a while ^^

So in addition to Games and Comics, they also had a Japan Town! We went there with friends too ^^

Though, I’d say the Japan Town’s artist alley was probably smaller than the one at MEX Berlin last week, even though there is a magnitude of a difference in size of the conventions ^^

That being said, there was a bit of dropshipped manga from Japan (Heaven’s Feel from above!) and a few Japanese people incentivizing you to travel through Japan or do a college in there. I’m not planning any further trips to Japan in 2025, but who knows xdd
I did manage to speak bits and pieces of Japanese with them though!

We had some undercooked soba, Italian cuisine in shambles xdd

The award for the best cosplay today goes to… those two groups ^^

And yeah, Lucca is pretty sweet, from what I’ve heard, the city only lives from one big event in the streets to another, but also there’s a big event in the streets every few weeks
Check the Mount Fuji out!

Also, glowing in dark~

And one cool thing, there are stray cats in the streets in Lucca!

We went back home and my Italian friends cooked me a true 100% authentic lasagne

It definitely did fall onto the “happy accidents Bob Ross” category, but I was really happy to have eaten it C:

Tomorrow, I’ll do the first part of the day in Lucca, and then I’ll set off on a very long journey to Dublin, let’s see how much I manage to read of Japanese tomorrow ^^

(I’m so exhausted of the trip already xddd)
See you tomorrow!

[akatsukinoluna]

@GolyBidoof

aand let’s hit the ふつつかな悪女ではございますが | L34 topic xddddddddddd

WHAT IS THIS MANGA

I was slowly getting convinced I understand Japanese and then THIS hit me like a truck xddd

Poetic sections are always ??? for me. I think I mostly got that… But I’d have to read it another time or two

@GolyBidoof

First, ふつつかな悪女ではございますが, what a title: on one hand, it’s really sweet and uses a ton of very flowery vocab, on the other, it’s so, SO hard to understand it

You’re really making me wanna read it now (plus look at that art!! )

@GolyBidoof

I kind of want to become good at this kind of Japanese as well so that I read 薬屋のひとりごと and follow all the drama with all of the people in the palace and know who is who and why are they why they are xdd

Tbh the one nice thing with these sort of stories is that once you get good at them (which I’m not), they all become a lot easier. And that is a good reminder, I have till the end of the year to finish 薬屋のひとりごと 1 novel

@GolyBidoof

but after a while I also realized that 大逆転裁判2 is supposed to be really hard, it’s just much easier than the manga to read xddd

It’s always a nice feeling after read HARD stuff to go read something easier

@GolyBidoof

But yeah, reading actual physical manga is also important, especially if Kotomine Kirei launches on a rant and you go like “eee what is he saying”,

Ugh, that エセ神父!!

@GolyBidoof

definitely mirror @shitsurei’s sentiment of words getting in with one ear and immediately going out the other ear

Probably for the better, since it’s Kirei … As an aside, Nakata Jouji has such a distinct voice, and Fate was the first thing I ever heard him in. It’s so disorienting when I’m watching something else, and he suddenly appears playing a totally different type of character (にゃん太 from Log Horizon for example)

Anyway - hope you’re enjoying HF manga better than I enjoyed the anime

[SpiderWeb]

@GolyBidoof

Kotomine Kirei launches on a rant and you go like “eee what is he saying”

This is like a third of his dialog or something is rants. I know one of his lines got recorded for the mobile game so I always associate him with 喜べ少年.

@GolyBidoof

I really don’t know how I feel about Matt Mercer

I can’t say what he’s really like because of parasocial relationships and all that but I sort of get the feeling he’s doing his best. For the monetization he does have a day job voice acting but he’s also trying to sell and monetize a product that’s mostly distributed for free on podcasts and YouTube. They get ad support but the critical role people aren’t swimming in money Scrooge McDuck style or anything.

That’s a super cool 33 poster, I need to carve out time to actually play and finish it sooner or later before I forget all the plot. I was loving the storyline but its difficulty wore me out some.

@GolyBidoof

And one cool thing, there are stray cats in the streets in Lucca!

Pspspsps

[GolyBidoof]

@akatsukinoluna

You’re really making me wanna read it now (plus look at that art!! )

THE ART IS SO PRETTY I SWEAR

@akatsukinoluna

Nakata Jouji has such a distinct voice,

Absolutely, it’s so deep and throaty and so, hmm, dominating? I love his voice too ^^

November 2nd, 2025

• 202 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 6 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Book Club: 花野井くんと恋の病第１〜６話 (３００ページ）

I updated the title of this log to be a little more accurate xddd

But yeah, we’re at TWO DAYS LEFT UNTIL LEVEL 60 AAAAAA (i’m a little excited xddd)

i had a lot of thoughts for the level 60 post today and there’s a pretty significant amount of thoughts tied to the imposter syndrome and going too slow and seeing other people go faster, the good news is that they keep me motivated and going, the bad news is that every time i click on somebody’s profile on Natively or something, I realize how far behind I am from them, even when it comes to N2 study

why does my stupid brain compare myself to the others grrrr

But yeah, comparison is the thief of joy, so I just have to write an extension for my eyes to stop looking at other people’s achievements as if they are my path as well and in the meantime, page after page, bit by bit, and don’t give in to 漢字・イズ・ライフ, I think one of my favorite things coming out of my study log that I am happy about even when the study is suffering, is the fact that I realized I can juggle travels and friends and adventures in addition to Japanese, and sometimes have Japanese-themed adventures too!

But now I’m genuinely curious how much can I improve in a year while doing that ^^

I do think that the amount of study necessary from N3 to N2 is an exponential ramp-up, and from N2 to N1 is another exponential scale, so if I ever actually start thinking about N1, I need to think of how to implement even more Japanese into my life.

Unfortunately, a lot of this year has been spent with a penalty round of having forgotten how to study Japanese and needing to reestablish a Japanese routine, and I can just as well say that the penalty round keeps going, because I don’t engage with Japanese Twitter or even internet in the first place, so it is what it is - but my big level 60 advice is definitely going to be to keep ramping up and research opportunities where Japanese can be injected, don’t just settle on WaniKani or MaruMori or Bunpro or anything ^^

Anyway, very sweet manga, fun and all, would recommend ^^

---

Life

Lucca!

So funny story, as I mentioned, one of our friends had a mobility impairment, and Lucca isn’t the most accessible city to traverse with a wheelchair… the city aims to improve this though ^^

For the duration of Lucca Comics & Games, they rented those tiny special caterpillar vehicles whose goal is to help traverse the steps for people on wheelchairs and LOOK, the technology is there already xddd

It was wild to see that

Also, Vatican has their own anime girl mascot now.

I wish I were kidding, but those are official Vatican anime merchandise items. Yes, it’s true.

(is this a labubu???)

We ended up finally going to the Nintendo booth today! There was a huuuuge, multiple hours line in front of it, but we managed to skip it almost entirely, and inside there haven’t been that many people, so I managed to play all of the Nintendo games I care about until the end of 2025 ^^

Funnily enough, the demo of Metroid Prime 4 is something I’ve seen so many times online by now that as soon as I sat around to play it, it almost felt like a speedrun xddd

But it’s nice to finally witness things by yourself and use the scan visor on everything because newbies don’t know how integral it is to lore and they don’t scan everything in their demo playthroughs ^^

Also, Crunchyroll and Bandai Namco! Both of them had pretty long lines, and both we skipped ^^

That was a really fun 40 hours together, I very much enjoyed it C:

Aaand then we went to a Stranger Things Konbini and bought some food for lunch ^^

And then, jumped on a train and all hells let loose, getting from Lucca to Bologna was supposed to take 2 hours, and took well over four, one train got cancelled along the way, we got offered a bus, that came late and arrived late, so we missed the train that was supposed to connect us, ahhhh, western Europe trains, pure magic xddd

I mean, trains in Italy are REALLY beautiful if they work, I just wish they did work xdd

They do remind me of the Austrian ones in the way how they look, and the stations, and the hills in the background ^^

And yep, I made it to Dublin! After something like 11 hours of commute, I’m so tired, but so happy to have finally made it C:

Tomorrow is a travel day at my work, so we still don’t have the work events yet, I have a vaaaague idea what I’d like to do in Ireland tomorrow, but we’ll see if I have enough energy to follow through ^^

See you tomorrow!

[Stulti]

@GolyBidoof

nd going too slow and seeing other people go faster, the good news is that they keep me motivated and going

you think you are going slow???

i think i have been on some of the 50s levels for 4 months or more. but you motivated me to start doing it more regular, and what do you know my accuracy went right up when i would do reviews even during the weekend (the last few months i didn’t to reviews on weekends or in the evening… too lazy ). i guess the SRS has a reason for doing it like it does.

[GolyBidoof]

@Stulti

you think you are going slow???

I think this is a very important distinction, and I’m glad you’ve done that, because that’s something to self-reflect on too ^^

But my stance towards “me going slower” is less informed by the SRS speed, and more by the fact that there are people on this forum who juggle multiple teachers teaching them Kansai-ben, there are those who read double digits amount of novels, who casually speak Japanese every single day, those for whom they’ve already read a few hundred manga in Japanese, and so on. I am not them.

Because for the longest time I was basing my Japanese progress on how well I did on SRS, I’m feeling like the I self-gratified myself by seeing the level number go up on WaniKani and being at 119 level of WaniKani I feel significantly weaker than some of my peers who are even double digit levels behind me, even if I claim I signed myself up for N2

But it does give me things to think about and it does inspire me as well ^^

@Stulti

but you motivated me to start doing it more regular, and what do you know my accuracy went right up when i would do reviews even during the weekend

I’m really happy you’re able to do better in Japanese right now! Let’s climb the level 60 tree together, you’re soooo close away now C:

Good luck on your SRS journey!

@Stulti

i guess the SRS has a reason for doing it like it does.

One thing about SRS is that my brain is so wired to the timings I’ve invented for myself right now that if something is like, Apprentice 3, and I did a review at 11pm the previous day, I won’t be able to recall it at 9am the next day, won’t be able to recall it at 2pm the next day, won’t be able to recall it at 5pm the next day, but it magically shows up in my head at 11pm the next day xddd

I wonder if the others experience it too, or is it even a good thing in the first place

Thank you for your post, I needed something like this too ^^

[Stulti]

@GolyBidoof

But my stance towards “me going slower” is less informed by the SRS speed, and more by the fact that there are people on this forum who juggle multiple teachers teaching them Kansai-ben, there are those who read double digits amount of novels, who casually speak Japanese every single day, those for whom they’ve already read a few hundred manga in Japanese, and so on. I am not them.

but you are learning german at the same time, working, traveling and all your other social engagements. I’m still shocked how you even have enough hours (and energy) to do all those things and do wanikani

[mitrac]

@GolyBidoof

It was wild to see that

Terrifying is she still in one piece?

@GolyBidoof

I wish I were kidding, but those are official Vatican anime merchandise items. Yes, it’s true.

I love how it’s so wild it’s in need of fact checking

@Stulti

but you are learning german at the same time, working, traveling and all your other social engagements. I’m still shocked how you even have enough hours (and energy) to do all those things and do wanikani

Me too wondering what part is going slow can be applied to the Bidoof?!

[GolyBidoof]

November 3rd, 2025

• 134 reviews on WaniKani
• 15 lessons on WaniKani
• 6 reviews on Bunpro
• 3 stories on Satori Reader
• Podcast: 50m of the new episode of JELLY JELLY RADIO
• Book Club: 花野井くんと恋の病第７〜１２話 (３００ページ）
• Manga: ハニーレモンソーダ第１巻 (１８４ページ）

I’m starting to see new study logs pop around WaniKani, and I almost don’t use this community outside of the threads I already follow, so I’m always surprised when a study log goes through the cracks and it has 100 comments and Mitrac, Malinkal and Shitsurei are all over it already xddd

Can someone like make a briefer of what study logs are hip with the kids these days

Anyway, LEVEL 60 TOMORROW
(i need to get a cake)

though, isn’t a cake something like the tooth fairy or santa claus, that the cake just materializes in your hotel room the moment you press enter and get promoted to level 60? i didn’t have that happen last time, but maybe tofugukyle added it since or something

ANYWAY

花野井くんと恋の病 was a fun speedrun book club, the manga went in quickly, though it did have a few interesting words I did not expect, but yeah, quickly binged it ^^

A colleague told me about ハニーレモンソーダ and the fact that it’s the only manga in Japanese she owns, but because she’s currently on track to do N5, she still finds it really difficult: luckily enough, I found it really manageable to the point where I didn’t need to look up a single thing to get through the whole volume without Mokuro!

Actually, when it comes to ebookjapan.yahoo.co.jp, I have a feeling they have the best and the most free manga out of all big sites, and the most fun DRM i’ve seen and i haven’t properly gotten over yet, so I would recommend to just do graded reading from the manga on that website ^^

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Life

I had a really fun day trip today! I took a train from Dublin to Dundalk and then to Newry in the UK

But first, Dublin is still grand, it’s as cool as when I moved away from it ^^

To be perfectly vulnerable, I have a feeling I might have left Dublin at the worst possible time for the city and there are still thoughts haunting me being like, what kind of a person would I have become if I were to stay in Dublin? But I’m much happier living in Berlin now, so this thought is just a thought experiment, unfortunately ^^

Two updates though! In Smithfield, they put on the BLENDER TEAPOT! The actual one, to commemorate the Utah teapot becoming public ^^

And two, there is a big portal in the city, same as in Philadelphia and does connect there too, although as I was talking there, I saw Lublin in Poland on the other side of the portal!

G-good for you, I suppose dxdd

So I took a train to Dundalk and it was pretty C:
You’re basically taking a train right next to the sea the whole time, and then you arrive, and the train makes you guilty for not having found soulmates on the train xddd

Dundalk has a lot of really cool murals around the town!

From what I’ve seen and talked to a few people, they’re slowly preparing for Christmas already, though there’s still bits and traces of Halloween around ^^

I stopped by a coffee, visited a few shops, bought some candy, and decided to set off further north!

Aaand, crossed the border with the UK! Nice that the trains can just do that without any border controls and all ^^

So, Newry! My first reaction: the train station is half an hour walking from the city… in the rain… but yeah, can walk as well xdd

Second reaction… this definitely is an Irish republican city.
Irish republican is a bit different than American republican: they’re a bit more pro-unity, anti-UK and pro-freedom movements, so I deeply sympathize with their causes and speculate sometimes if my rebellious spirit in fact wasn’t fueled by living alongside the republican Irish spirit ^^

So, the usual out of the way: Newry has Palestinian flags everywhere, as does Dublin to a point, Free Palestine by the way!

And they have stickers and fact sheets about Irish unity as well, as they might be one of the cities mostly left behind by both the UK and Ireland and one of the poorest areas on the whole Irish Isle?

And if we’re getting into politics already…

...heavy politics contamination zone

There is a monument on the way from the station to the city of a person who got killed fighting for Irish independence by the Brits, and the people living there, despite being a part of the UK, want to hang the Irish flag and recognize his contributions to the cause

I stood by this monument for like 10 minutes and thought if I’d be able to die for my ideals as well, as much as him, and the answer is… almost certainly no, but I can’t wait for the mental wall to fall and all 32 counties of Ireland to be unified! Apparently, the support rate grows with every passing year ^^

Newry is class though! Leaning into a lot of tiny people stories and commemorating their achievements…

Or this statue for example!

Went to a diner, went some shopping…

And took a train back to Dublin!

Look how punctual the trains are, btw, crazy good figures in comparison to Germany xddd

I feel like I learned a lot about culture of the places today, and I got soaking wet, but it definitely felt like exploring a brand new frontier, so thank you Irish Rail for the proper history lesson today ^^

LEVEL 60 TOMORROW

(also, work tomorrow xddd)

[akatsukinoluna]

@Stulti

@GolyBidoof

But my stance towards “me going slower” is less informed by the SRS speed, and more by the fact that there are people on this forum who juggle multiple teachers teaching them Kansai-ben, there are those who read double digits amount of novels, who casually speak Japanese every single day, those for whom they’ve already read a few hundred manga in Japanese, and so on. I am not them.

but you are learning german at the same time, working, traveling and all your other social engagements. I’m still shocked how you even have enough hours (and energy) to do all those things and do wanikani

I can relate on the imposter syndrome thing (even if I’m being indirectly called out ), in various areas of my life fwiw

But anyway… What Stulti said!! I couldn’t do 1/3rd of the stuff you do, while still making good progress on JP

Also you seem to be having an easier experience of Fate/Stay Night VN than I ever did fwiw

[Stulti]

@GolyBidoof

A colleague told me about ハニーレモンソーダ and the fact that it’s the only manga in Japanese she owns, but because she’s currently on track to do N5, she still finds it really difficult: luckily enough, I found it really manageable to the point where I didn’t need to look up a single thing to get through the whole volume without Mokuro!

There is also a movie. It’s not really great cinema, but it is fun for what it is.

[Zakarius]

@GolyBidoof

LEVEL 60 TOMORROW

Sooooooooon

[nerdqueen666]

@GolyBidoof

But first, Dublin is still grand, it’s as cool as when I moved away from it ^^

Ahh lore unlocked! I didn’t know you had lived in Ireland! Ireland is currently my top destination I want to travel to. I am so inspired by all of the political activism there. Your pics make it look just as cool as it does in my imagination.

@GolyBidoof

This image made me confront how much anime has warped my brain that I was like “wait what Attack on Titan character is that?” Hahahahaa…

@GolyBidoof

LEVEL 60 TOMORROW

SOOOOOOON!

[queenofthegods]

@GolyBidoof

LEVEL 60 TOMORROW

It’s already the 5th here so I am excited to see what pictures, comments, and celebrations you have

[GolyBidoof]

IM TRYING QUEENOFTHEGODS IM TRYINGGG xddd

in the meantime i heavily recommend to check Windgreen’s level 60 post, I’ve already read it once, still brooding on it, i’ll leave a comment there before going to sleep ^^

Windgreen's Winding Road to WaniKani Level 60 (Over 6 Years!) & Whimsical Wisdom for Japanese (and Beyond!)

[image] [Screenshot_level 60] I don’t have cake (yet), but I did bake blondies and brownies! [image] In addition to celebrating reaching WaniKani level 60, this post has two main purposes: telling an overview of my Japanese learning journey, and sharing some lessons I’ve been learning along the way. You’re invited to sit down, relax, listen to some chill music , and enjoy a cozy beverage (mine’s hot chocolate …

[queenofthegods]

IT’S OKAY TAKE YOUR TIME LET’S STRUGGLE TOGETHER

[Windgreen]

@GolyBidoof

[GolyBidoof]

gonn take a shower see you in a bit xddd

A certain Bidoof's level 120

Sorry for being sentimental ^^ I don’t know this person anymore. They used to be me a few years ago, but checking this email, I had zero memories of the actual contents of the email. I knew she did it, I remember the date, I remember the chain of events it has started, but I’m glad for her, I’d love to go back to her and give her a hug. Thank you for setting me for a world full of incredible adventures ^^ Sometimes it’s not about making a good decision, sometimes it’s about making any decisi…