Heheh Peppa pig
January 5th, 2026
- 182 reviews on WaniKani
- 11 lessons on WaniKani
- 5 reviews on Bunpro
- Podcast: 60m of JELLY JELLY RADIO
- Podcast: 20m of そこあに
- Reading: a few leaflets and a few blurbs on the shelves
And as of today, I’ve finished my WaniKani lesson journey!
Will i restart for the third time??? probably not yet, but the retention of items above level 40 is really bad xddd
Here’s the total stats for today:
I can’t wait for the review pool to just DROP
and lighten up and not be as bad
xddd
In today’s Jelly Jelly Radio, さきこ and せんな were deliberating whether to go to Essen for Spiel and were talking about a video game called Dispatch, a choose-your-own-adventure kind of a game about sitting in front of the computer and prioritizing summoning specific superheroes to do specific dispatches over the others ^^
It’s a really cool concept and apparently even better realization ^^
Life
“Winter surprised the travelers”, huh? But that’s spoilers, let’s see what I was up to today ^^
Minus three, so the weather was amazing today ^^
I did set off for the way to the JDZB, which is really, really far away from the city, and some of the bike lanes weren’t properly sanded yet, so I used the road over many parts of the road
Got lost a few times along the way, but finally made it C:
yes, it was UNBELIEVABLY cold, but not the worst cold today yet xddd
JDZB is probably the only place in Berlin at all that has books in Japanese, and I didn’t want to miss out on that 
I set up a library card and started snooping around to see what do they have ^^
Aaand, there it is, I ended up getting three books with three differing levels of difficulty, by Natively standards I could say that they’re probably level 20-ish, level 23-ish and level 26-ish,
Managed to chat to a guy who was borrowing books, of course in German, tried talking in Japanese and German to the library keepers and was pretty wholesome ^^
On my way out, I found out that the center has a lot of local-ish magazines about German and Japanese cooperation, and ofc i took some of them ^^
Look, one of them is talking about board games in Germany!
And then, cycled 20km back to make it to Sentimental Value, a new movie from Joachim Trier that managed to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, and oof, let me tell you, that movie was a heavy hitter ^^
It’s in Norwegian and I had subs in German, so it does classify as pretty intense German study today, but the plot of the film was about a director who would have a very strict scene of a movie in his mind, and the actress that didn’t want to play it, and the actress that was almost perfect to play it, and the interpersonal drama of each character having issues in their lives ^^
REALLY GOOD WOULD RECOMMEND ^^
Either way though, on the way out of cinema, at 11pm, i realized that it was -6 degrees outside… and my bike lock… froze solid.
And I could not do anything about it.
After half an hour of struggling, I bought a lighter and tried to use the key as a hot knife, and while it did manage to go in, it still wouldn’t turn. Another half an hour later, I went for a trek for another 15 minutes to go to the gas station to get a WD-40, but they wouldn’t have it, so I got a mug of hot water and I went back to attempt to treat the lock with hot water
And what seemed to be working for a while, just got stuck 70% through and I could neither take the key out or keep moving it further.
Sooo after another half an hour of struggling… I went to the police station to get someone to help me.
They were looking for the right people for the mission for a while, let me ride their police truck and there we drove to the bike!
Eeexcept that the police officer that helped me out couldn’t break the lock even with the strongest pliers that they had, and they tried force, kicking things, and calling fire brigade, but as it turns out, they just simply couldn’t do anything
The woman police officer was giving me a bag of hot water to keep myself warm at minus 8 and then at 2:00 she was just like “there’s literally nothing you can go right now, go to sleep and figure things out tomorrow”
so i’m on a special mission.
figure out what to do tomorrow.
i’m so unlucky recently it isn’t funny, i have no idea what to do
should i take a sick leave off of work tomorrow? xddddd
there’s two things im considering, going to a bike shop and renting either a person or just an angle grinder, and if that doesn’t work, calling a mobile locksmith for an angle grinder as well, both will most likely be very costly… but i’m so tired and i just want to go to sleep xddd
i have a saying that “the greatest adventures are only fun retroactively, when you sit at home and drink tea and think back to them”
GEE I HOPE THAT I’LL BE ABLE TO DO THAT TOMORROW THEN
current status:
- no bike
- really cold
- have work in 5.5 hours
- at a loss for options xddddddddd
see you tomorrow ^^
Congrats on finishing your wanikani journey (again) !!! 
The weather sounds so intense. Bike situation sucks, hope you can get some good sleep and able to figure it out tomorrow
Nice adventure, it sounds like so much fun to browse Japanese books locally 
I’m hoping to borrow those through my library someday, maybe someday is here?
I hope you get your bike back 
but dang, what’s the brand of that lock, sounds epic.
I have long term study plans, but I am saving them for later, every time I tried them so far I ended up dropping them because I didn’t like that it took away reading time. My stomach for reading is far from full yet!!
The future plan include spending time doing output, reviewing grammar points, vocab and handwriting. First writing alone and getting corrections on langcorrect. Then next step will be to write with Natives.
Then another plan is to tackle talking. Again, here I might start with more focus on listening first. Then I don’t think I will do in-person group lessons again but rather 1 to 1 on iTalki, going through the Marugoto - Rikai books that I got for my in-person class.
So still have some studying goals, just not right now 
Oh no, more snow adventures 
Eep! (I’m not sure what utterance would best describe the mix of shock and concern about the fact that the bike lock would be built in a manner that it would freeze up thusly, but hopefully you’re able to retrieve the bike okay (or have already maybe) and then obtain a lock that is not so weather-finicky.
Yeah, maybee,
so what, am I like a little attraction now,
ooooooo she’s from the land dunn undaa
omg ocha friend ꉂ (≧ヮ≦)ʱªʱªʱª
am I in the zoo now
miss p-please pronounce like anything please
oouuuuu she’s from oceania, they have, like, kangaroos there
she fights kangaroos for the, mait feesh and cheeps with a portiun o’ fush and chups m8
don’t let her count till 6 though !!! inappropriate !!!
HEY BE careful NOUU!!!
morning vb!!! aboriginal people, aww long sahara like train!!! Spinnin’ 'stra’ya bayblad, gambling
omg Italy-m8 do you like make brakecore
uh no that’s going into politics I don’t want me house, yk
yk
spider.
I think it might be, but really rarely
international market probably or oooooo amazon vegimte a true innitself delight!!
No but like do be prepared
you’re like eating the equivalent in taste of chard pieces of meat and spice in bread-spread form
but don’t worry, what you’d be actually eating is leftover beer yummythooo<3
Please like, spread just a little, just a little little, at least at first, thank me later
絶望的だ
穏やかだ.. SKKKRTBRRTT KRKRTKRTKRT BDUM BDUM BDUM BDUM [1]
I remember this person I loved (who was also from nordic so cold) used to like joke with me a lot about that, being like “ohhh it’s so warm outside dear it’s -20 degrees here ah the spring” and I’d be “jwjoijdsofjg Jesus christ you animal”, melting in a 30 degrees
but Australia can get that cold I were just dramatic
thank you for remembering me her,
you meanie you remembered me of something sappy now I am sappy
Oh my god poor thing you got soft locked!
You get it hrudey
also I love how you have ( open, ah I code
Anyways thanks Bidoof I have to go now, be good son
gee that’s actually really interesting and smart, I don’t know if I agree but it is an interesting point and be safe bidoofey [2]
don’t be too not? excited
This is a nightmare…
I really hope you’d find a way to solve it tomorrow… Sorry, I wish I could offer a good advice, but I’m just a small clumsy cat… 
But, as I’ve said, I really hope you’d solve it and that for many years afterwards you’d be able to remember this with a laughter…
I’m sorry to hear that… May the rest of this year be so nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaice that it would compensate for this all! 
Best of luck with your studies and other cativities! 
It’s like 95% the same thing as marmite which must be easier to get in Europe
Love me some marmite
We have Marmite at most groceries here (Canada). Not Vegemite though, sorry
O.M.G.!!!
I have a product called “lock de-icer” which is some WD 40-like liquid in a squirt bottle, but I never used it…
I think really needed an extension cord and a hairdryer blowing on the entire lock for 20 minutes… I’m sad that the police didn’t have one to try, instead of trying to cut/destroy the lock… a hairdryer (or “heat gun”)
SOBBING
Poor Bidoof! I’m sorry that your transportation ruined your night!
At first, I was cheering that you made it 20km on snowy roads
I’m so sorry this happened to you!
uhuhu, keep us updated with the methodology, im waiting for someone to bully me into getting italki again xddd
-10 degree winters are not a thing that happens in berlin often, it’s just that the gulf stream is slowing down and now we’re up for a lot of extreme weather variance happening xddd
damn, germany doesnt xddd
but maybe more towards the central part of the country, maybe the african sands or something are making it too warm ^^
<taking notes for the things I need to be on a lookout for ^^>
Unfortunately, at the point where the police found the bike, I’ve already bent the key a bit too much, I even proposed it to the police but they could see that the shape of the key was the issue, less than the warmth of it
January 6th, 2026
- …82 reviews on WaniKani
- 8 reviews on Bunpro
- Podcast: 20m of Bite Sized Japanese
- Manga: ねこと私とドイッチュラント第８〜１１話（第１巻終わりまで）
are my reviews going to look this way from now on? maybe? hopefully? xdddd
My weird sleeping schedules have made the SRS timings really weird, so today I only had 82 reviews by the time I wanted to finish my study, I’ll have a bit more tomorrow
Today Layla talked about her 2026 wish to move to Australia and how’s she’s actively grinding English to make it happen, which is a really cool wish, but I always wonder if her prompts for people to write their thoughts in the comments are giving her much to think about considering it’s people that are B1 in Japanese that are listening to her podcasts xddd
Maybe I have a wrong idea of what B1 is, but my B1 in German was full of “I like listening to music. Today I feel happy. It will rain tomorrow. Where can I find pasta?”, what kind of responses Layla is getting in the comments ^^
But yeah, ねこと私とドイッチュラント fills me in with a lot of really warm energy because I can tell that Ryoko is from the same planet as I am xddd
I love how she takes illustrations of casual things and puts a lot of detail into representing that thing so that it accurately represents a quiet prettiness of the reality of living in such a place ^^
of course you would go left, there’s mauerpark to the left and absolutely nothing on danziger straße to the right xdddd
i did cycle through that exact station earlier today ^^
Also, the final panel of the volume was, ahhhh C:
it still hasn’t grown on me how blessed we are to get so much amazing street food in Berlin ^^
So, weird to say that, but it took me 6 days to finish my first manga of 2026, that was longer than I expected xdd
It should be a little faster from now on, but it was a lITTLE STRESSFUL AROUND so thats what i blame it on ^^
Definitely a ハルタ-like manga though C:
Life
I woke up early today not because of work, but because of the immense feeling of “FRIIIIICK WHAT DO I DO NOW” xdd
I was able to get myself up straight pretty quickly and took an U-Bahn to Zoologischer Garten where my permafrost lock was slotted in, and unfortunately, it would move even less than yesterday xdd
But my plan A was clear: it was to find a bike shop and ask if they would have an angle grinder, and surprise surprise… they did. Proof of bike’s purchase, ID card, €30, which is still an embarrassing amount of money, but on the other hand, way lower than I expected, and VRRRRRRRR
The sparks were pretty sick truth to be said xddd
So just for vocab;
verbogener Schlüssel = bent key
der Winkelschleifer = angle grinder
festgefroren = frozen solid
wir haben mit einer Zange schon probiert = we already tried with the pliers
I’ve been getting so much specialist German study out of this one weird story alone xddd
Definitely a really good ad, isn’t it? xddd
I wish it would just freeze a bit less often ^^
I ended up getting a new lock that’s a chain, it’s a bit heavier, but a bit easier to connect to things and should be a little bit more water/snowproof ^^
Anyway, I needed to wait a bit for the bike repair person to come and help me out, so I did walk a bit around the J-Store on Kantstraße, and, hey, it ever so slowly feels like more Japanese things are coming to Berlin each day
Also, Saturn Return! I also got the fourth volume in a physical haul order that should be coming pretty soon, but above all, I was really surprised it even got localized to German, I thought it was a really unpopular title
Winter in Berlin~
Anyway, got to work without needing to take a sick day today, though I was feeling pretty scruffy through all the meetings regardless, I had a banger story from yesterday and today to tell to everyone, so yep, it already is a funny story in my head xddd
And after work made it for Therapy for Vikings, and yep, Danish answer to “Bocchi the Rock”, patients of a psychiatry ward form The Beatles band with their DID split personalities to play Abba music, amazing xddd
Also, a Danish movie with German subs, so my German study is absolutely supercharged in 2026 somehow and I want to keep the momentum
Since Filmtheater am Friedrichshain had a 100th anniversary recently, they were polling people on what cinema means to you and what would be missing in your life without cinema
My favorite answer was this one: “cinema” xddd
9:34pm.
Today was the first time in a while where the mindfulness mantra of “I’m safe. I’m not feeling threatened.” actually resonated with me in a way, but yeah, what an adventure xddd
That was a wild one to go through ^^
current status:
- yes bike
- i put on the heater at “3”
- have work in 7 hours
- don’t need to look for any options ^^
See you tomorrow ^^
Good Solution!
I prefer when you make sparks fly in other, more productive and interesting ways.
Magic.
clink
Survival, we species made to overcome through resilience and endurance
You BIG GOLLY beautiful bidoof
That’s
Genuinely a really beautiful artwork, really beautiful, a gorgeous thing, thank you for sharing
Bidoof when and how do decide the time and about of "xd"s? Also, what do they represent? I guess giddiness and or excitemen, maybe a mix of
? I might be wrong sooo gotta ask, never know
Is it ironic? Is it half ironic?
I really find it fascinating quirks in people’s communication, makes things very special
美味しい おいしい！！
Wonder how it would taste with some vegimite though
[quote="GolyBidoof, post:1172, topic:68929"] and VRRRRRRRR
[/quote]
You have a really pretty bike, poor thing, all alone, great that it is now safe
Tell me less my dad works in construction
Omg word counterparts I am learning german!!! Omg Bidoof
Vocab grab
That s so cool and festgefrorender
Der Winkelschleifer, what a funny word, i reallt also love the little german word attachment to words like der I won’t search thejr name but they are pretty to my ear and amusing for some reason
Ja, arigato
Oh my, dechatlon, my childhood cradle i did not mnoe they had those in germany
that is such a fun and reliable place I love just windowshopping stuff in there ah if I could go to my local drchatlon right now
I could but I didn’t go in so long
I miss dechatlon
Hey meanie you reminded me of something sappy yet again
Beaver*
Bidoof, das ist festgefroren! Cx
Man bro my synopses I feel like a sleeper agent awaken mealting harrr what in the spiritual awakening experience harrr
I love this log
The POLLfolk run deep
Post meridian
Alright goodnight
Oh i didn’t know they got british vegimite there that’s interesting? Hmm
Really curious what the 5 is all about
Sorry if it a bit teto chunk i got excited すみません
Yay for getting the bike back! Good job!!
Haha I haven’t seen it (yet?) but sounds funny, I have almost seen every movie this duo of actors have been in, they are great! Danish humor is very special
Yes, when I’m excited I write between 1 and 5 "d"s and when I’m upset I write between 1 and 5 "d"s, for most of the other emotions I write between 1 and 5 "d"s depending on how I feel ^^
January 7th, 2026
- 192 reviews on WaniKani
- 20 reviews on Bunpro
- Game: 2h of Hades 2
- (Children’s) Book: 友だちは1/2ゆうれい第１話
Suspiciously a ton of reviews today, but tomorrow should be much lighter.
So, updates!
First up, @mitrac, I got the physical copy of the December ハルタ! It’s gigantic, you can’t hold it in hands because it’s so heavy and you read it like a tome at a scientific library, or a phone book ^^
The actual print quality is unexpectedly great for, yyyy, 1100 pages and only €4 for it, I was a little surprised in terms of editing that the back of the cover immediately is a table of contents already, so they’re not adding any padded pages
It is really cool though!
My whole order came through today too, but I need to sort through the tomes and the volumes and today I didn’t feel like doing it, so there’s a mess on my desk xddd
One of the highlights though is that I’m trying to read everything that ながらりょうこ has put up and I got this autobiographical one as well, it doesn’t mention Warsaw in the food travels, but I’m a little used to Poland not being treated as a part of 'Europe, so it do be like that sometimes ^^
And yeah, Hades 2, I’m doing the weird combo of playing it in Japanese with English dubbing again, and since I read characters (not readings/meanings) about as fast as the voice actress is speaking, in the sentences where the order of the narration roughly matches between both languages, I read the word in Japanese and then hear it in English at about the same time ^^
There’s a lot of game-technical-terms in Hades 2 that take me a while to process, like I wasn’t sure if what I read about activation criteria for arcana XIII was what I thought it was, and I looked it up in English, and I was right… but that was the very first time I saw the words used together, so I was like “uuuu” xdd
Either way though, I ADORE the dynamic between メリノエ and アルテミス, they made them sisters in this game, so what is a less-than-half-an-hour-into-the-game spoiler, when you die, アルテミス starts singing in your base and you have an option of joining her into a song and singing with her, and it definitely did make me feel vulnerable in a variety of ways. In a way, this is a level of connection with somebody I’d very much adore, so I can only look at their dynamic and keep being sappy about it ^^
tl;dr, アルテミス is a great character and I love playing as メリノエ for a change ^^
Also, finally reading the first book from the library, 友だちは1/2ゆうれい, it definitely feels like a level 20 on Natively story at most, look at the text size!
But it did make me stop in a bunch of places because I saw something like 「しょうがないな。はんぶん持ってあげる。」 and without kanji I was wondering what the “はんぶん” word even was in the first place ^^
Life
It’s such a weird winter this year. I’m definitely fond of snow and ice, so even though I’ve already had to suffer some material losses, I’m still on board with winter this year, it’s just weird to think that within the span of 4 months in Berlin, the absolute temperature differed by FIFTY DEGREES CELSIUS
Weather allows for great pictures to be taken!
But it makes you want to return back home as quickly as possible too xddd
My favorite drink (in my favorite combo) increased its price after the New Year’s, so I might treat it a little more festive. It felt great today though ^^
And in terms of German authors vs American authors in new book section, something I brought up two weeks ago in Poland, seems like German authors are doing fine in the new book section ^^
Anyway, I’ve decided to finally start doing something about my skincare, because since my all-in-one face cream ran out, I’ve started getting a ton of milia and my skin turned much more grey, so here’s my attempt at doing something about it, I went with the cheapest drugstore products:
I plan on applying micellar water after physical activity, hyaluronic acid and ceramide before sleep and Vitamin C and SPF in the morning, i got bullied into those products by an affordable German YouTube tutorial, I’ve never spent a longer time researching this topic, so as a New Year’s theme/resolution kind of a thing, I’ll see if I can get my skin not to have weird spots all around. Is it enough? Too much? I don’t know?
But yeah, no book club today yet, we’re back next week. See you tomorrow! ^^
Once again this week, I’m crying hard for your horrible situation 
Maybe I’m ちょっとうらやましいね
I wish I could help on the skin care…
Personally, I think you’re faaar too young to deal with Vitamin C and the resulting sun sensitivity. My issue with such wrinkles didn’t begin until age 35+ (and melanin sun spots)
My general ignoring of skin and saying things like “my natural oils are far more appropriate for my skin than external chemicals” led to milia issues, as well.
So now I think the key is Japan-style cleaning the skin of all body parts well before bedtime followed by a moisturizing layer. (Just doing this is a big goal, if you can manage it, you are 80% of “ideal”)
… Because of the sun sensitivity of the Vitamin C, I think it’s better to apply at night. Did your YouTuber say “daytime”?
… It never hurts to apply sunscreen, if it doesn’t cause pore clogging…
…I think after exercise a water rinse off of salts might be better than a micellar rinse (which encapsulates things on the skin), when possible (micellar or a “wipe”) is better than nothing when you’re out and about and have worked up a sweat.
… I now like a micellar “rose water” splash in the morning to retain my natural oils which came out during the night’s rest (but I’m old now and need all those oils; in high school and college, I was Neutrogena scrubbing that off every chance)
…I don’t think expensive products are necessary, but when you find an inexpensive one that you like the feel of… That’s the one!ね
Edit: THE SKIN CARE PRODUCTS YOU SELECTED LOOK LIKE QUITE GOOD CHOICES, TO ME
That is one healthy ammount you Bidoof
I guess I do the same with
Rambling? on a good day, I ramble, on a bad day, hooou boy, I ramble