Cutting Down Study Logs To Make A Study Home

Japanese Language Study Logs (Public)
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I don’t really know the best way to start a Study Log, I guess a greeting is good enough since this is public! Hi there, I’m PlayTheSaturn, a Sega Saturn fanatic. The entire reason I started my journey is to be able to read text in my ever-growing collection of Japanese Saturn Games.

Wow, took an hour for me to realize the title said “Cuttiing”. Oops!

Goals (Updated 10/5/25)

My main focus is on reading and listening, followed closely by speaking. In an ideal world, I’d love to write in Japanese, but it isn’t a heavy focus.

Edit 10/5/25

An additional focus is to put a lot of effort into my notes. Notes shouldn’t be directly copied from WaniKani, because what’s the point in rewriting something I already have access to?

I’m currently exploring the ecosystem of Obsidian. I expect it will fulfill my simple goals: having kanji link to vocab and each other easily. I also want each reading of each word to have associated vocab (like 火星 as かせい and 星 as ほし, for example). Once I have a full setup for Level 9, I’ll share what the note taking process looks like each day and what I think is beneficial about it.

Study Tactics

My current method for just WaniKani is every 1-2 hours, starting at 10 am and ending at 8 pm, finishing 15 lessons or 15/20 reviews per “session”. This makes it easy for me to study throughout the day. I don’t take any notes, and I’m going to change that but I need to find a proper note-taking application (I originally took notes from levels 1-3, but it was through Google Docs and it was terribly organized).

In the near future, I will begin my descent into the depths of grammar, using Bunpro since it’s seemingly similar to WaniKani. I also purchased a grammar book, but can’t recall the name of it currently.

After diving into Bunpro, I plan on tackling Genki. Once I’ve slain Genki, I’ll continue the journey with Bunpro and will continually be playing Saturn games, trying to put my knowledge to use.

The Actual Log

Daily posts that will focus on my mistakes, as I tend to make them, as well as vocab/kanji/eventually grammar I find difficult or tricky.

Updated 10/5/25

It would probably be healthy to mention the amount of lessons done so the reflection process feels rewarding. It’s rewarding to learn something and spend time on it diligently, even when time is fleeting these days, but it might be more rewarding (especially in the future) to reflect on the day’s wins.

The new dashboard comes out 10/6 and I’m really excited for it. I love WaniKani as it is right now, but the tidbits that @koichi has shown in previews makes it really promising for someone like me.

I will highlight any relevant gaming, but I’m also going to include song recommendations! I’ve been listening to Japanese music for a few months now, so I figured I’d include a “Jam of the Day”.

Below this post will be the first Study Log of many! Thanks for stopping by!

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October 2nd, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

Today I was slammed at work, so I was unable to follow my training regiment and had to postpone studying until I returned home. My quality of studying was a bit worse than usual, as I was a bit stressed for time.

Today’s Mistakes

中央 - I’m really not proud of this one, just completely brain farted on the reading.
出かける - Knew the reading, made the mistake of using “to exit” instead of this vocab’s secondary meaning of “to leave”. Also made the mistake of writing 出きける before fixing this in the edit, thanks @shitsurei !
耳 - Couldn’t remember if the reading was み or みみ. Judging by its existence in this list, you can guess which one I chose.
二世 - Another I’m not proud of. I wrote にせん and not にせい ._.
名 - Guessed the まい reading, but not な.
村 - Mistook this kanji for 対
貝 - Mistook this kanji for 買
形 - Forgot the かたち reading
話す - Forgot about flowers
東口 - Typo’d the ぐ as ぎ
先月 - This vocab is my weakness. I ALWAYS type せんがつ and I don’t know why!!!
大きく - This is also a weakness. I see 大 and my fingers reach for だい every time.
電子 - Typed じ instead of し
表 - Forgot this one entirely. Express, dang it!
場所 - Weird reading is weird.
苦 - Entirely forgot. Suffering. ;-;
所 - Remembered the on’yomi, ところ should be memorable since it’s fun to say!

Jam of the Day

“5150” by The Oral Cigarettes! You can listen on Spotify and YouTube, other methods I’m unsure of!

Tomorrow I’ll look into some note-taking applications! Thanks for stopping by! :-]

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Do you by chance mean 出かける?

Oh I really like that one and A-E-U-I by them. I’ll have to keep an eye on your log for some good new music :grin:

Anyway, welcome to the forums, and enjoy your Japanese journey!

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Thank you, yes! This one may start to haunt me as well as some of the others mentioned. Editing that log now to be accurate.

I hadn’t heard A-E-U-I until now, fantastic recommendation. It’s going in my daily playlist for sure!

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October 3rd, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

I stuck to the training schedule much better today, so I was able to actually retain my 15 lessons today! :]

I found a proper piece of note-taking software: Obsidian! Seems like a super powerful tool with great organization, very excited!

Today’s Mistakes

己 - MIstook this one (Oneself) for Snake
名人 - Ugh. Tried “famous person” :[
近く - I have it ingrained in my brain that this means “Soon” and not “Near”. I’ll get it soon!
楽しい - Forgot the reading, typed とのしい instead of たのしい
相 - Just completely wrong reading, tried the reading じ for “Hold” instead.

Tricky Readings

化ける - ばける had me questioning my life at first. Here’s hoping it doesn’t ruin me tomorrow!

Jam of the Day

“FightSong” by Eve. My favorite song by Eve, hard not to put this one on max volume on my way to work.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow! :]

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Welcome to the study log lumberjacking crew. (I mean, your title is awesome, I feel like I should pay that respect) :slight_smile:

Logging the mistakes is an interesting idea - hopefully it works out really well for you. I know it wouldn’t for me because I’d have to spend hours each day on that, too. Maybe once I finally get into the slower pace I’m shooting for now, it would be a little less daunting, but this is all just to say that hopefully it works for you, we all have our own routines and things that work and don’t. As long as you’re aware of that and keep doing what works and try to find replacements for things that don’t, you’ll get there! :slight_smile:

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I appreciate the sentiment. I hope it’s a way to help me remember and it acts as an additional period of review on top of the regular review. I’ve been struggling with retention of what I’ve been calling my “demons” (looking at 先月 especially), so I really hope this method lets me dig deep and get it set straight in my brain.

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If the leeches / demons are bothering you too much, it can be helpful to enter them in another SRS with more context (like a full example sentence). It may look like more work but in truth it is not.

Have fun with your studies :slight_smile:

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October 4th, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

Really busy day at work, followed by a few hours at a local amusement park, but I was able to stick to the schedule.

Once I have my Obsidian vault set up I’ll share my results. I love how linking works, it should make it really easy to organize things the way I want to.

Today’s Mistakes

必 - I forgot this kanji even existed honestly, thought it was 心.

皮 - Made this mistake as I’m currently learning 反. Really similar mistake to the above.

妹 - Mistook for 姉 ._.

音楽 - Just brainfarted on the meaning, saw 楽 and immediately jumped to “comfort” before understanding the kanji combination.

北海道 - Found the reading for this one a bit weird since ほくbecomes ほっか (which isn’t all that weird, but for whatever reason I’m getting stuck on it).

向ける - Typed the meaning as “to turn toward something” instead of “to turn something towards”.

数える - Forgot かぞ reading entirely.

点ける - Forgot the つ reading entirely.

Jam of the Day

“Kan Saete Kuyashiiwa” by ZUTOMAYO. Something I’ve noticed in Japanese music is how raw the performance is. I picked this song to showcase that rawness. I hope you enjoy it.

Sorry this came out so much later than they have been. After the amusement park I was extremely tired, I tried to write this up on my way home but fell asleep instead.

Thanks for stopping by, see you…today? Yeah. Today. :]

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Ooh, good idea! I like that a lot honestly, going to have to try that out. Thank you for the suggestion!

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I’d be really interested to see how you use it. Mine is mostly a graveyard of half thought through ideas and snippets of story ideas, organized less than one would like given the program’s abilities :sweat_smile:

Your 妹 is not yet (未) old enough to go to the market (市) with your 姉. (And yes, sometimes I still use this mnemonic).

Strictly speaking ほく becomes ほっ (the か still comes from the 海) because ほくかい is difficult to say. It’s nitpicky, but this is very common in Japanese words so getting used to this type of contraction will be important. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thank you for this. I have struggled so much with these two for a while now, I’ll get this written in my notes to reference.

Good point. An issue I’ve noticed when it comes to certain vocabulary is I struggle with breaking down each kanji in the word to fully understand the reading, instead trying to brute force it into memory. This will eventually strain my memory (and already has at level 9), so it would be better for me to understand the vocab breakdown before moving on during lessons and reviews.

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October 5th, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

Today, I’m introducing a few changes in my study logs. I updated the main post with said changes, but in case you don’t wanna scroll up I’ll have them listed below this section.

Updates to the top post

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

I wanted to start with the number of reviews and lessons completed today, but I’ve never looked for the number of reviews in a day before and learned that you can currently only view that at the start of the day. Instead of paying attention to that number this morning, I simply didn’t do that, so I don’t have a number for reviews. I ended the day 0/0, so all lessons and reviews have been accounted for. Hooray!

For Burned Items, I was able to take care of 糸 and 四つ today. Yesterday, I finished out 先, 四十, and 皿. Farewell to all burned items, you will be remembered fondly.

Defining “wins” for some might be a bit difficult. Generally, this will be looking back at the mistakes made in recent history (seeing as the only history this post has is recent, anything is fair game right now).

I was trying to do this with 北海道. Today I was able to tackle 北海道 without any issue. I came to the realization this morning of the above quote, and I believe it will change my studying ideology.

Did some extra study on 点ける today to really hammer home that reading.

I haven’t had any issues with anything でん related, but I do want to mention the reading for 電車 will likely forever be ingrained in my brain due to a Japan-only PlayStation 1 and Sega Saturn game called 電車でＧＯ！ I haven’t played that one, but it’s on my list to procure. It even has a special peripheral just for controlling the train!

Today’s Mistakes

Although I’ve made some strides in recognizing my daily accomplishments, I still must carry on the tradition of noticing my mistakes.

道 - The vocab reading, みち, has become one of my demons. As recommended by @YandrosTheSane , I will be making note of my demons and taking strides in additional study with another spaced repetition system. I’ve installed Mochi on mobile, but I might go for Anki instead since it’s web based and would be easier to use while at work and at home (I much prefer using a computer when I’m home).
負 - Very foolish of me.
助ける - I had been getting this one so consistently, but I saw the 助 as 組.
右 - UGH. I was so annoyed when I got this wrong, and I’m still annoyed several hours later. Those dang geese.
相 - Messed this one up again, hopefully not a trend. Same mistake as last time, じ instead of そう. Is being mutual good for the soul? Maybe not, but that might be how I remember this reading.
以外 - Also annoyed with mistaking this one, because I know the reading but I keep messing up the meaning. From + foreign = other. The math kinda makes sense. If you’re from a foreign place, you’re from the other place that isn’t this place.
左手 - Thought this used the on’yomi for 左 instead of kun’yomi :[

Jam of the Day

“PLASTIC LOVE” performed by Tatsuro Yamashita, although he originally wrote the song for his wife to perform instead, Mariya Takeuchi. If you’re looking for it by album, you can listen to it on the JAM album. Finding Tatsu’s stuff can be hard, he has a single album up on Spotify and it doesn’t have much of what he’s known for. On YouTube, most reuploads of his songs get copyright struck.

Thanks for stopping by! I think I’m going to start with Bunpro soon, as I feel pretty ready to tackle grammar. I was originally using the metric that Tofugu placed of “around level 10” to start with, and I understand it’s to prevent getting overwhelmed with information. I feel like no matter what level I start learning grammar at, it’s going to take some time to get used to.

See you tomorrow! :]

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The Renshuu and Bunpro Inauguration

Making a separate reply about adding Renshuu and Bunpro to the daily regiment. The idea is to add Renshuu once a day and Bunpro twice a day. You’re probably thinking: what’s the point of adding both? The point is to try them both out and see which one I like. Maybe I’ll like them both!

I will take it slow at first for the two, as I’m not trying to increase the workload too quickly. I think that these may help reinforce meanings and readings for kanji and vocab words. I find the additional example sentences to be helpful so far, and will be very beneficial for my notes.

I’ll be sure to add my wins and mistakes for each day across Renshuu and Bunpro on top of WaniKani.

Thanks for stopping by! See you later tonight for the main log. :]

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October 6th, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

With the addition of Bunpro, Renshuu, and a considerable amount of time figuring out my note-taking methods, I’ve dedicated a lot of time to learning today! Felt pretty good, honestly. Nice for a day off to feel productive!

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

15 lessons and 97 reviews on WaniKani

3 lessons and 3 reviews on Bunpro

20 vocab lessons and 1 grammar lesson on Renshuu
A lot of the vocab from Renshuu was vocab I’m already familiar with, just serving as a nice refresher. Both the grammar lesson on Renshuu and on Bunpro were almost identical, covering です and は in both while Bunpro additionally covered だ. I appreciate the multiple methods of review Renshuu offers, it keeps things fresh since Bunpro and WaniKani have, seemingly, similar methods of practice.

Got to burn 5 things today. Farewell to 気, 一気, 休止, 見 (kanji), and 外. You will be remembered fondly.

As mentioned at the top of this reply, the biggest wins today were starting Bunpro and Renshuu! Here’s hoping the additional learning from them proves to be beneficial! I’ve also made some pretty significant strides in the realm of note-taking. It’s going to take a lot of administrative work; getting the whole Obsidian vault set up in a way that will be sustainable is the biggest hurdle to cross right now, but it will be done. Every chance I get to work on it at home, I take. Using Obsidian in combination with the Git integration plugin makes it really easy to use across devices (makes using on my laptop and my desktop a breeze).

Today’s Mistakes

場所 - Somehow I reversed this reading. Instead of ばしょ, I wrote じょうば. My mind was in the right city, but went to the wrong street.
比 - I thought it would be funny if I convinced myself か was the reading for this kanji instead of ひ. Jokes aside, pretty annoyed, I was on the track to guru this one today.
体 - I get the readings for 宝 (たから) and 体 (からだ) mixed up a lot. One person’s body is another person’s treasure, I guess.

Jam of the Day

To make sure I didn’t forget the Jam of the Day, I listened to it on repeat while typing up this reply lol. “ワンミーツハー“ by Hitorie. There’s something addictive about that chorus.

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow. :]

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October 7th, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

Continuing down the path today. Renshuu and Bunpro are coming along nicely, as is the Obsidian Vault. I do feel the stress to meet a certain standard beginning to build, so I will likely slow things down on the Renshuu side of things in order to feel a bit more in control. 20 additional vocab each day without mnemonics like WaniKani makes the Renshuu vocab infinitely less tangible to learn, so I may use it exclusively for grammar.

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

15 lessons and 82 reviews on WaniKani

3 lessons and 8 reviews on Bunpro

20 vocab lessons and 26 reviews on Renshuu, 1 grammar lesson

Notable wins today are my recovery on 場所 and remembering 立場 with a Yakuza 0 reference (Tachibana is a pretty significant character in that game, and he has a very important position in the story).

Mistakes Made

教える - Mistook this one for 考える.

あの - Completely forgot this one. Salt in the wound for this too, as this was in my Renshuu lessons today.

これ - Confused with それ

それ - Confused with これ

Going to take a second to talk about これ and それ since it’s not the first time I’ve made this mistake and it won’t be the last. For whatever reason I almost always get their meanings reversed, unless ここ is on the table, so I’ll use that one to help reason with myself.

These were both learned with Bunpro, which defines them as such:

これ = this (physically or emotionally close to the speaker)

それ = that (physically or emotionally close to the listener); that (something previously mentioned in the conversation)

ここ, as defined by WaniKani, means “here” - making it very physically close to the speaker. Using ここ any time I see これ should be pretty easy, and as long as I remember それ is about the listener, I should be good.

Jam of the Day

ト―キ―ダンス by Hitorie again! Listened to this tons of times today. Very fun, high energy song.

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow! :]

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October 8th, 2025 Study Log

Level 9

Writing up a tiny log today as I am very sleepy lol. I will update with numbers in the morning, this is just an update so we all know I completed my WaniKani and Bunpro lessons for the day, with 1 Renshuu grammar lesson.

Oh, Jam of the Day will be coming tomorrow as well.

See you tomorrow, thanks for checking in. :]

Edit: The Following Morning

Howdy, it’s the morning and I slept. I just got started with a CPAP machine, hopefully I get used to it soon. Currently any sleep I get feels even worse than it did before, but that’s besides the point - let’s talk yesterday’s studies!

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

15 Lessons and 106 Reviews in WaniKani

3 Lessons and 6 Reviews in Bunpro

1 grammar review on Renshuu

For burned items, only うん was defeated by my mighty brain.

I worked a bit on notes, mostly from Bunpro. I think at the start of each WaniKani level, I’ll go through each kanji and take my notes down en masse so they can be referenced when the kanji shows up in lessons. This does mean I have a bit of catch up to do. This weekend I’ll be visiting my girlfriend’s family, which should give me plenty of time to work on the Obsidian Vault.

Mistakes Made

Made quite a few today, which is both positive and negative. It’s only natural to forget things, but making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn. 16 mistakes today, out of 106 reviews putting me right around the 10% range.

易 - Radical. Just called this one “thing”.

思い出 - Wrote もういで, which was almost there in spirit. おもいで… could be like talking with your mouth full? “oh mo!” = “oh no!”?

医学 - Wrote “medical university” since I have 学 so heavily linked to schools in my brain.

あれ - Another “salt in the wound” moment, learned this from Bunpro MINUTES after getting this in my review stack. That’s the beautiful irony of studying, I guess.

交代 - Couldn’t remember if it gets rendaku’d, it doesn’t. To anyone potentially reading this, is there any good resource on when to expect a vocab to rendaku? Is it a specific sound pattern, maybe awkward speaking transitions? I notice that’s something I really struggle with..

そこ - More salt in my wounds, thanks. This was also on Bunpro and in the same review stack as あれ…

者 - This was a dumb mistake since I’ve been seeing this one all the time. Somehow Mistook it for 教.

通り - I don’t know what it is with this reading that always confuses me. とおり、とおり、とおり！

事 - Got the reading incorrect, tried との instead of the correct こと. Coats are things too, me!

末 - Sad about this one, but not surprised. I’ve been getting 未 and 末 confused with one another for quite some time, just in meaning. Not yet and end. Grr.

助ける - ささける is the reading I thought this was, I can’t recall what ささける is either currently! たすける.

六日 - Embarrassing! For whatever reason I only mix up 六日 and 六月, none of the other day counters and their months.

和食 - I wrote “Japanese Meal” for meaning which, while technically incorrect, I’ll give myself a nod for being pretty much correct.

物 - I don’t remember learning this one honestly, must’ve gone too fast in my lessons. There’s at least one (もの) color of everything (referring to monocolor).

ハート形 - Typed “は−とがと” instead of がた.

名物 - Tried “めいば”, forgot about the ぶつ reading.

Does anyone have any recommendations for typing Japanese on mobile? I do not like the method Gboard uses that much, it feels very clunky.

Jam of the Day

JET by POLKADOT STINGRAY

The vibes in this song are immaculate. I love the part towards the end where the singer is talking like a flight attendant over the intercom - very good touch.

Thanks for stopping by! See you tonight! :]

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Updated the log from yesterday!

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末 - Sad about this one, but not surprised. I’ve been getting 未 and 末 confused with one another for quite some time, just in meaning. Not yet and end. Grr.

im not sure if it would help but the way i remember them is that:

1, 未 since it have the shorter line above, looks like an upward arrow :up_arrow: . And since it’s an arrow moving upward so it’s still on going / not yet finished

2, 末 have a longer line above, so it’s stopping the others line from moving upward, and thus that is the end

as for typing on phone, im using ios keyboard so not sure what method gboard use. i have been using the flick input method and i enjoy it

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I should’ve started posting logs on here sooner, it’s help like this that comes a long way. Thank you, I’ll add that to my notes. I truly appreciate it.

I believe Gboard uses that flick method as well, but I have issues when typing words like ハート形 due to the ー in between. Luckily, I was able to find a Gboard setting that is monumentally helpful for me to use. Under Settings > Languages > Flick > you can change the keyboard type to QWERTY, which is my far and away preferred way to type Japanese. I liked flick when typing with one hand, so it’ll still be around, but my main driver will be QWERTY from now on.

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