01/09/2025
Had a good chat with the mother in law about potentially living in Japan few months a year and it basically ended with her asking us “what are you still waiting for?”. Didn’t expect such excitement and support, it felt really nice and helped us believe it’s not just a dream but a very likely reality 
Today’s report:
- WK reviews, 10 lessons
- JPDB 48 old cards, 20 new cards
- Bunpro reviews and 3 lessons
- 40min watching random stuff on YT: Yuyu’s walk and talk atound Osaka, some random guy’s karate gym video, an interview with Naoya Inoue, which I barely understood anything from
- 5 pages of Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru. Getting to the moment when they’re all told they have to start running and I can’t wait for their training to start!
Speaking of running, today I realised Cracovia Marathon and Manchester marathon are both happening on my birthday next year. It’s been a while since I’ve done a marathon but I’ve always wanted to do either of them, and doing it on my 30th birthday sounds to good to pass (and also a little bit cliche but oh well, millennial crisis). Signups aren’t open yet though which is probably a good thing
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Your only other option is to get really into craft beer or bird watching
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And if you get into craft beer you have to have the uniform.
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Damn you guys almost convinced me I also feel woodworking would make the list, though that might be the software developers’ post-pandemic hobby of choice 
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02/09/2025
The management completely restructured teams last week but forgot to decide on the assignments so it seems the hectic times may be over It’s a good chance to reset and reflect, I will be extremely mindful not to overcommit in any way going forward. It seems my manager is not bothered about delivering much so why would I? Better spend this energy on studying! 
In renovation news, our usual contractor seemed to be upset with us and gave us a ridiculous quote all of a sudden. Trying to find someone else but anyone decent is fully booked so we might have to keep living without a kitchen for another couple of months 
Few more guys left to try. Another option is to pray to the DIY gods and do it myself 
In all of this I’m surprised to find that I’m still managing to keep my routine going. Honestly so happy with myself! I can tell that being consistent is really paying off. I might not read much per day, but doing it every day means progress is clearly visible. And seeing progress makes me more motivated to keep going 
Today’s report:
- WK Reviews, 10 lessons
- JPDB 79 reviews
- Bunpro reviews, 3 lessons
- Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru 5 pages
- YT: Kent’s review of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. I’ve never been into farming sim games, but watching those Switch videos lately I feel drawn to them more and more. Or maybe it’s the slow life aspect when everything in the real life is stressing me out
- 15 min chatting to chatgpt I feel like we missed each other’s meaning a few times but all in all I’d say it was good enough for some output practice
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It was originally an Apple Store Genius Bar employee hobby of choice. Go into any Apple Store and you will find 2-3 people dressed like this and 10/10 times they will be an IPA or Craft Beer enjoyer.
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Ngl as an Android user I had to google what genius bar was but interesting to know that Apple fans have their own little subcultures haha
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03/09/2025
- 95 WK Reviews, 10 lessons
- JPDB 87 old cards, 20 new cards
- Bunpro reviews. Can’t seem to get grammar to stick this way. I guess I’d have to do some output with these new grammar points because its not doing much for me atm
- 1h italki lesson chatting about renovation and travels. My teacher said that after pointing out some bad habits I’ve made significant progress in reducing them, which is nice
Having a tough time with stuff atm so calling it a day despite no reading and listening so I can chill with Baldurs Gate for a bit 
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Combined quick update for both days because we decided to do a random errand run turned shopping trip turned film night and I completely forgot to log
Both days did the usual SRS (WK, JPDB, Bunpro), 5 pages of the book and some listening. Yesterday it was some random Youtube stuff, today one episode of Terrace House. I usually watch on my laptop using the subtitle.plugin and end up translating a lot “just to be sure”. Today I watched on the TV and understood just as much, but also felt more focused on what they were actually saying. I guess it’s time to remove the crutches 
Somewhat Japanese related - I booked a hotel for our December JLPT trip to Leicester today. Lots of great food places and gaming shops there so I can’t wait to go
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06/09/25
Visited Japan Week in Manchester today! Sadly all the shows and bookable events were sold out so we could only see the free exhibitions but it was still fun to wander around and chat to people. Met a man promoting Fukuoka and we got talking about our upcoming trip there. Turned out he’s selling sumo tournament tickets to English travel agents and might be able to sell them to us as well which would be a blessing as it’s really hard to get them Also got a bunch of freebies and tried talking to some people. It was really stressful at first but I managed to relax quickly and just tried my best
Also learned about isekatagami from the artist Kaou Osugi who was showing her work and methods. Really interesting stuff, I need to do more research 
10 Likes
08/09/2025
Today’s report
- WK reviews, 12 lessons
- JPDB 119 reviews, 20 new cards
- Bunpro 14 reviews, 2 lessons
- One episode of Terrace House
- Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru 5 pages. People are agreeing to run hakone. I’m getting hyped and planning a marathon next year
After a bit of a break trying to find contractors we decided we’d rather do everything ourselves and got back into proper DIY mode today. Knocked down some walls and made good progress overall. A friend offered to help as well, feeling more optimistic about it
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I was doing JPDB in bed last night and just fell asleep so didn’t get to log Might think about reducing the study load a bit whilst pushing to get the kitchen into a decent shape before we go away. Definitely need everything heated and isolated before leaving it for 3 weeks in November
Anyways, yesterday’s (09/09/2025) report:
- WK about 100 reviews, 15 lessons
- JPDB 55 old cards
- YT: Kent’s review of Hollow Knight Silksong
- Reading: 2nd chapter of Kasane. The mismatch of high school setup and the heavy/scary themes makes me uneasy in a similar way to Higurashi. But I’m definitely curious to see where this goes, glad I picked it up
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10/09/2025
The grind continues
Today’s report:
- WK around 90 reviews, 11 lessons
- JPDB 59 reviews, 20 lessons
- YT: Haruka’s news video about lost memories
- Reading: 5 pages of Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru
- 1h italki lesson talking about recently read books
Work done, studies done, time for some renovation
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Hahaha yeah I’m not even mad anymore, he must have been bored out of his mind watching a bunch of nerds take a test for 3h And hi, welcome 
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It seems like both this and What I talk about when I talk about running have had a pretty huge impact in terms of getting people into it! Japanese cultural impact on show for good
I want to read this novel as well but it’s just so long and I have literally 8 billion other books to read. Hopefully before the end of the year! Maybe Hakone Ekiden will inspire me…
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The car is fine, pace was decent and I got a big slice of lemon cake from my wife so it was a good race all things considered 
