Cutting Down Study Logs To Make A Study Home

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 5th, 6th 2025 Study Log

Level 11

Back with another DOUBLE FEATURE!! I was unable to post the 5th’s yesterday due to an incredibly busy workday followed by an incredibly busy evening. Rest assured, this is what double features are for. Today is the debut of handwritten sentences. There are mistakes! Please, please don’t be afraid to point them out, it will only improve my learning!

TWICE THE NUMBERS, SECOND DEGREE BURNS, AND WWIINNSS

I’ve made the executive decision today to stop considering Renshuu as a primary learning tool. My primary systems are WaniKani and Bunpro. Thank you for your time Renshuu, but I unfortunately don’t have time for you every day!

This doesn’t mean Renshuu is going away, it just means I will no longer include “No Renshuu today” as it will be considered supplemental, but I’ll mention it when I use it!

５日１１月

20 Lessons and 121 Reviews in WaniKani

3 Lessons and 38 Reviews in Bunpro

1 Sentence dedicated to Sentencecraft

６日１１月

15 Lessons and 126 Reviews in WaniKani

0 Lessons and 38 Reviews in Bunpro

1 Sentence dedicated to Sentencecraft

Sentencecraft

So, as you can see, sentences are not my strong suit. However, I am taking strides to improve myself! I’m trying to read more everyday, and I’m keeping my grammar notes in a physical notebook (the same notebook that sentencecraft will be in). Assuming all goes well, this will be several notebooks that contain my grammar journey (and writing journey)!

Before I would write my target sentence and how I worked it into a real sentence. No target sentences for now, I want to see if I can create Japanese sentences without the need for an English target. As you can see, I had some issues!

Mistakes Made

As usual, mistakes won’t be accurate…wait, no, they’re accurate today! I’ve started screen recording in the morning before I do any studying, so I can get an accurate representation of my mistakes from the previous day. This will prove to be great for double features! However, it is likely I won’t remember exactly what mistakes I made, so if there are any kanji or vocab listed without reason, I likely forgot.

５日１１月

本物 - Hedged my bets incorrectly here and went with ほんぶつ instead of ほんもの.

表す- Close with おらわす, but not quite あらわす.

私大 - したい is what I wrote. Should’ve known better!

正月 - しょうげつ is my favorite misspelling of this, which must be why I always type it.

強力 - Wrote きょうりょう and hit enter before I realized I missed the く.

今朝 - Completely forgot this reading. けさ, けさ, けさ. Maybe I should aim to use words I make mistakes on in my sentences? Maybe? Hmm? Maybe!

部首 - Added an extra う to しゅ.

体重 - Went with だいじゅう instead of the correct たいじゅう.

送る - Entirely forgot the おくる reading.

６日１１月

正解 - Wrote “correct” for my answer, which was not correct. “Correct answer” is the correct answer, which is kind of funny.

引き分け - Entirely forgot this word means “tie”, especially after learning 引き算 means subtraction.

回す - Forgot the まわす reading and submitted かいす.

鉄人 - Input てつにん instead of てつじん.

仕組み - Forgot this means system and not program.

開発 - Entirely forgot this means development, I might’ve been able to piece it together if I stared at “open departure” long enough.

歌 - Misread this as 談 initially, so I submitted だん.

勝 - I entered “winner”, which I was not.

家具 - I was too hasty when typing this one in, wrote かじ (家事) instead of かぐ.

TWO JAMS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!!

“Kuchizuke Diamond” by WEAVER is one I’ve listened to a ton over the past couple of weeks and never noticed it wasn’t on my Liked Songs list. I changed that today.

The second is “IN_MY_HEAD” by natori. I’m telling you, this guy is good. His library is small, but he packs a punch in a majority of his songs.

That’s it! I look forward to the Notebook Era of my Study Logs. Daily practice with WaniKani and Bunpro, daily reading, daily writing, and daily listening are my goals right now. Does anyone have suggestions for daily listening that aren’t songs? I hear plenty of Japanese throughout my day, but I can’t say I understand much of it.

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow (or tonight) for ７日１１月！:]

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 7th, 8th, 9th 2025 Study Log

Edit: Transcript added below Sentencecraft along with a few thoughts.

Level 11

The past few days have been a little busy, so I wrapped all of them up into one big log. Unfortunately, I forgot to track mistakes made on the 7th and 8th, so I’ll only have those days numbers. I did, however, commit to sentences!

Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

７日１１月

135 Reviews and 10 Lessons in WaniKani

15 Reviews and 3 Lessons in Bunpro

1 sentence written

８日１１月

108 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

15 Reviews in Bunpro

1 sentence written

９日１１月

104 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

1 sentence written

Burned a few things! 男の人、声、見る、草、作 on ７日; 中古、お金、金、雨 on ９日.

I’m proud of myself for being able to stay on schedule while being insanely busy with work and life. That’s my win.

Mistakes Made

This is just for ９日１１月, as I forgot to take a screen recording in the mornings.

争う - Reading mistake, I keep writing あらわそう like it’s 表す.

苦手 - Meaning mistake, completely forgot what it meant.

拾 - Forgot the reading.

気付く - Missed the rendaku

命 - Brainfart on the reading.

運ぶ - Tried with うん reading instead.

手作り - Used さく reading for 作 instead of つく.

心配 - Forgot meaning.

貝 - Really annoyed. Wrote か instead of かい.

活用 - Wrote “task” instead of utilizing.

間 - I hadn’t realized just how similar this was to 聞 until now, which was precisely my mistake.

心強い - Missed the rendaku.

道路 - Wrote “alley” instead of paved road.

新しい - Wrote あたりしい instead of あたらしい.

Sentencecraft

Transcript

Starting from the third sentence.

「私は要求お前が私の車出ます。」

Just below that sentence, I rewrote it into 「私の車はお前が出ます。」to try to shorten it and feel more natural. Not sure if that was successful or not!

「七匹の猫は頼むに食事」- Fun fact about this sentence, the only words I used that I knew are 七、猫、食事 and the particles の and に. I find that’s the hard part about writing sentences currently, I know a decent amount of vocab but not a ton that I can use to craft a sentence that makes a lot of sense. The first sentence I wrote is an example of one I was able to write entirely with vocab I’ve learned, so I may try to focus on that from now on!

「サヤーさんはラメンが好きですか。」I wrote with a period, but probably should be a question mark even though か already serves that purpose. This is another I wrote entirely with vocab I knew. It’s a really simple sentence and probably reflects a lot of the example sentences that Bunpro shows you.

Jams of the Days & Wrap Up

ラブソング by Tatsuya Kitani and Eve is a great collab. Feels mostly like an Eve song, but Kitani’s vocals are a great contrast to Eve’s.

“Hyakki Yakou” by Hello Sleepwalkers is the first song I’ve heard from this group, and it’s really great! The energy from this song is fantastic, and the guitar towards the 2 and a half minute mark is wonderful. Their style is reminescent of ORAL CIGARETTES.

“BUG” by ORAL CIGARETTES is how I found the band. It’s one of my favorites of theirs for sure, and easily my favorite music video I’ve ever watched. It’s on YouTube, it’s a fever dream lol. This song has a really deep place in my heart. I love just how different it is from the rest of their songs.

And that’s it! I’ll be back tomorrow for the 10th! Thanks for being patient and stopping by, see you! :]

[Akashelia]

Your handwriting looks really good! Are you using some kind of ink?

[PlayTheSaturn]

Thank you very much, that makes me quite happy to hear. I purchased a pack of two Tombow Fudenosuke pens at a local stationary store, one is hard-tipped and one is soft-tipped. I typically stick with the hard tipped, but the soft-tipped looks really nice (almost like a brush).

[Akashelia]

Definitely makes a difference, such nice strokes!

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 10th, 11th, 12th Study Log

Need to add a photo of Sentencecraft, hopefully stapling this to the top will remind me

Level 11

This might just be the busiest week I’ve had in years. Nonstop work at my job and at home, working on a ton of projects right now. I’ve still found my time for daily study though.

On the 11th I tried a new tool: Delvin. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a tool that should help my listening skills improve (which is a big goal of mine).

I’ve also made a pretty big decision that should really help me kick myself into high gear. I have set a landmark goal for 2026: I want to be ready to take / pass the JLPT N5 exam. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to pursue JLPT and only wanted to learn some Japanese for my Saturn games, but I’d really love to visit someday and feel confident while I’m there.

Given that changes are being made, I’ll be updating my schedule. I’ll be adding Genki to my regimen, as well as Delvin if I continue to like it. I might purchase the physical copy of Genki, just because I like physical things, but I may use the online resources available to use Genki for free.

To keep myself accountable, here’s the schedule I’d like to hold myself to:

• Study WaniKani ~5 times a day (the times vary, but currently 10:15, 11:15, 1:15, 3:15, and 7:30)
• Study Bunpro ~3 times a day (12:15, 2:15, 8:30)
• Use Delvin once (this one is going to be the hardest for me to use honestly, due solely to it having sound. the others I can really easily pick up if I missed them earlier in the day, but Delvin needs to be a pretty strict part of the schedule if I want to use it effectively. 6:30)
• Use Genki once (I would give a more specific time, but I haven’t started yet)

TRIPLE THE NUMBERS, THIRD DEGREE BURNS, AND WINS × 三

１０日１１月

129 Reviews and 0 Lessons in WaniKani

No Bunpro

1 Sentence written

１１日１１月

122 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

30 Reviews in Bunpro

1 Sentence Written

１２日１１月

136 Reviews and 10 Lessons in WaniKani

No Bunpro

No sentences written (I’ll make up for that on the 13th)

I burned a whopping 24 items on the 10th and 23 items on the 12th. I guess that’s what the burn drought at the beginning of this month was leading up to!

Again, this week’s been really busy, so I’m still proud of myself for sticking with my preestablished routine of WaniKani. My goal over the rest of the year is getting Bunpro, Genki, and Delvin into the routine so I do it out of habit instead of out of necessity.

Sentencecraft

Mistakes Made

I have all of the data for these three days! As usual, there may not be footnotes for each item missed.

１０日１１月

This was a big day in terms of old vocab/kanji, so I made many mistakes on some I haven’t seen in a hot minute.

拾 - Just took the lesson for this one today, so by the time review came I had forgotten it again.

仲間 - I saw the two kanji for this one and guessed なかかん.

成

洋

神

級

伝える - This one has tripped me up a few times, つた isn’t registering in my brain.

友好 - Mixed this one for “close friend” and not “friendship”

集める - Mixed this one up with 進める.

語る - Entirely forgot the reading.

平日 - It felt like it had been months since I’ve seen this one. Completely forgot.

絵 - Also entirely forgot this one. Oops.

々 - I knew the reading deep down inside of me, but when it came time to enter it, I typed のも instead. Womp womp.

切れる - For whatever reason, the “be” part of this meaning gets me frequently.

林 - Mixed up the reading for 休.

何人 - Meaning mistake, I wrote “amount of people” instead of “how many people”

住む - Reading mistake, wrote うむ instead of すむ.

全米 - Reading mistake, wrote ぜんへい instead of ぜんべい.

近い

斤 - Pretty sure I wrote “bread” and forgot the "counter” part…

本来 - Meaning mistake, wrote “original” instead of “originally”

東アジア - Reading mistake, just got into my own head even though the answer was right in front of me. Wrote アシア instead of アジア.

投 - Forgot the kanji reading.

代金 - Entirely forgot the meaning.

谷 - Forgot the meaning.

角 - I don’t ever remember learning this reading as かど, but I must have.

当たる

図

１１日１１月

発売中 - Wrote はつぱいちゅう instead of はつばいちゅう.

特 - Just learned today, forgot reading almost instantly.

便 - Same as above.

ハート形 - My demon’s back!

休日 - Forgot this meant “holiday”.

試みる - I had just been introduced to 試す this day and, well, goofed this one because of it.

保持 - Entirely forgot how this read.

対する - Faked myself out on this one. I knew 対 is たい, but was convinced 対する wasn’t たい.

１２日１１月

昔 - Forgot this meant “long ago”.

明後日 - Messed up the reading. I knew it was weird, but I forgot how weird.

共 - Forgot this meant together. In fact, I didn’t recognize it at all.

心配 - Back on this one again. Forgot the meaning.

女子 - Reading mistake. I remembered 少女, and used that.

どれ - I keep forgetting this one. Probably one of my least accurate.

放 - Forgot the う on the ほう.

西日 - Wrote as にしにち instead of にしび.

持つ - Wrote “to keep”, which isn’t correct.

向こう - I forgot the む.

代える - Wrote “to replace”, while “to replace something” is correct.

院 - Didn’t recognize this kanji at all.

転 - Didn’t recognize this one either!

ちょっと - Mixed this up with ちょうどいい

作文 - I knew the kanji composition, but forgot the composition…composition.

羽 - Wrote はな instead of はね.

Jams of the Days & Wrap-Ups

にわかには信じがたいものです by natori, it’s his latest single and it’s been stuck in my head for days at this point. I think what really sells this song to me is how fast it is. It is the perfect song for speeding (safely) down the highway on my way to work. Really good song on loop.

SLEEPWALK by Hitorie. It’s a very different vibe for them, but it really fits them. The traditional instrumentation of Japanese folk music mixed with electronic is a really unique sound, and it lends itself quite well.

V.I.P by SID. Gotta throw a new artist (for me) in there. This song feels really anime, and maybe it is (Wikipedia has told me that it is), but I think anime openings are popular for a really simple reason: they’re just happy listening. Sure, a lot of them feel really similar, but I can really groove with most of them, and VIP is one of them.

And that’s it! I’ll be adding an extra sentence tomorrow to make up for the one missed on the 12th! Thanks for stopping by, see you next time! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th Study Log

Level 11

This is going to look insane. 5 days worth of logs. Last week was Not nice to me lol, but my goal for this week is to pick back up on writing these daily instead of doing chunks. Doing the big chunks is far more stressful, while the dailies are just nice ways to look at what I’ve accomplished. Due to the massive scope of a 5 day log, I’m going to be simplifying things. I will notate what I made mistakes on like usual, but not what mistakes I made. I have some sentences written up for two of the five days, so I’ll be sharing those. Tomorrow, I’ll write up my log as usual and get back into the swing of things.

The Numbers, The Burns, The Wins

１３日１１月

102 Reviews and 10 Lessons in WaniKani

30 Reviews in Bunpro

2 sentences written

１４日１１月

144 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

29 Reviews in Bunpro

1 sentence written

１５日１１月

131 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

29 Reviews in Bunpro

１６日１１月

101 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

I had to put Bunpro on hold today unfortunately, as my free trial ran out and needed to pay some bills, so I decided to keep the five bones for now. I’ll get Bunpro back soon, though!

１７日１１月

91 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

Burned 15 items on the 14th and 6 items on the 15th.

In terms of wins, my big win this time around is getting Bunpro into routine. The next step is making sure I’m writing sentences daily, preferably by hand. Then adding Delvin.

In lieu of Bunpro, I started reading some lessons from Imabi. It’s a ton of information to take in, but it is extremely well presented. I’ll definitely continue reading those.

Sentencecraft

私はこの気持ちいいをありますよ！

アスペンは好きを可愛がるです。

日本語の曲は私の好きです。

Mistakes Made

As I mentioned at the beginning, I won’t be saying how I messed up. Instead, each day will have a list of all the kanji and vocab mistakes.

１３日１１月

14 mistakes today.

注文、通う、失う、放、化ける、人数、返す、酒、顔付き、進化、読み方、とても、ビル、高度

I think my biggest issue when learning vocab is definitely wrapping my head around the different readings (obviously), but I feel like I should definitely be able to see 化ける by now and understand that’s ば and not か (like in 進化). I don’t know if it would be more helpful to learn the ON and KUN readings first hand, but then there’s the special readings for certain kanji as well.

１４日１１月

16 mistakes today.

指、予め、争う、習、昔、使う、行う、かえる、三十代、算数、弟、決める、学ぶ、番、自分、Yakuza radical.

As you’ll see on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, I’ve noticed as I approach the end of a level I tend to make less mistakes, which to me dictates that I’m not reviewing enough (hovering around 100 Reviews + Lessons seems a little low to me). I’m sure as I rise in level I will generally get a larger workload, but I need to increase that now. Once I hit level 12 (which will be quite soon), I’ll work on filling in any review gaps with Lessons.

１５日１１月

9 mistakes. As I said, the less reviews the less mistakes made.

指、低い、返す、回答、空間、中央、速い、間、and the Turkey radical.

Something I’ve noticed is that generally I struggle with the same vocab…for a long time. 中央 should be well and gone by now. Maybe I should make a custom Anki deck with the ones I consistently struggle with for extra practice?

１６日１１月

First day in a while I completely forgot to record the day before’s mistakes. Oops!

１７日１１月

7 mistakes.

上級、中級、戦い、表、注ぐ、働、Fault radical.

There’s Always Time To Jam

Even on my busiest days, I always find a way to listen to some tunes. Here’s what I’ve got for ya this time:

I discovered Genie High, don’t know how I didn’t know about them sooner. Their songs are interesting, much more different than my usual catalogue, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard. モンスター featuring yama is my current favorite from them.

JUSTadICE by Seiko Oomori is another I’ve recently discovered. Highly recommended. I live for fast paced songs, and this hits at a great speed. The lead singers voice is great (another example of the singer just letting loose on the mic).

ねてもさめても by POLKADOT STINGRAY is their newest single and it’s wonderful. Instrumentals and vocals are great as usual. Very poppy, not as much rock as I normally like from them, but still great.

BURN by FLOW. I can’t remember if I ever threw this on to one of these. I should probably keep track of that since I’ll be at 60 jams later this month. It’s my favorite FLOW song for a reason, it hits all the nails for me. Their choruses are normally amazing and this is no different, having two vocalists really makes this song great. There’s nothing quite like a FLOW song, this is another example of that.

Another one I’m unsure I’ve shared before is UNDEAD by YOASOBI. I love the pace of this one, it’s a great driving song, although I feel like it ends a little early.

That’s it! Finally caught up, phew! While writing this throughout the day I did hit level 12, unsure why the forums show I’m still level 10 but oh well. Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow! :]

[Nemuitanuki]

This might be my favourite title of a post I’ve seen

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 18th Study Log

Level 12

First day of Level 12! Pretty standard day.

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

124 Lessons and 15 Reviews in WaniKani

Still no Bunpro, but that will change for the 19th’s log!

1 sentence written

No items burned :[

I made a study log for a single day! Woo!!

Sentencecraft

名前はモルガナ、お前が今日が死ぬです。As it turns out when I wrote this, I used the kana of 死ぬ (しぬ). Oops! This sentence is a little edgy, but I figured it would be interesting to write.

Mistakes Made

見物 - Mixed the ぶつ reading for the もの reading instead.

映る - Grr. Forgot the reading entirely, うつる!

心強い - Forgot the rendaku.

話 - I remembered the はな, forgot the し.

楽しみ - Mixed this one up for 楽しむ.

文字通り - Added an unneccessary ん to 文字.

毛 - Forgot the ON reading. Gotta mow that fur!

楽しむ - Mixed this one up for 楽しみ.

Jam of the Day & Wrap-Up

I’ve got another one by Hello Sleepwalkers! This time it’s Shin Sekai. The guitar at the beginning? Chef’s kiss. Choruses seem to be where this band excels, and that’s no different here (although there’s a really interesting breakdown around 2 minutes in that’s just vocals and snare, sounds really neat). Definitely going to check out more of their tracks, they hit just the right spot for me.

That’s it! A bit of a shorter one today, but back in form! Bunpro will be back tomorrow (I did some today, 11/19, it was nice to be able to get back to it so soon). I’m slowly reading Imabi pages, they’ve really got a ton of useful information, although they’re really making me question how I’m pronouncing my えs and えいs. I’ve always said it like “ey”. Is that wrong? I feel like whenever I’ve heard え it’s said like that too, but that could just be a bad habit I’ve had for a while.

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow (or I guess later today, almost posted it before the 20th lol)! :]

[polv]

@PlayTheSaturn

they’re really making me question how I’m pronouncing my えs and えいs. I’ve always said it like “ey”. Is that wrong? I feel like whenever I’ve heard え it’s said like that too,

afaik, both ええ and えい usually work the same, but not like え. Vocal length matters. Or maybe sometimes, the thing can also be about pitch (high/low/drop after?).

Though, sometimes, singers and voice actors may overdo/overact えい when it’s more commonly ええ.

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 19th Study Log

Level 12

Howdy! Another busy day, but here we are. No written sentences today, so I’m just going to come up with one on the spot today featuring a new vocab learned!

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

139 Reviews and 10 Lessons in WaniKani

I tried to learn the last 5 right before midnight last night, but didn’t finish the quiz until after so the number was adjusted for the 20th and not the 19th.

18 Reviews in Bunpro

Welcome back Bunpro, it’s nice to see you so soon!

No burns today.

The obvious win is picking up Bunpro again. A big project of mine at work is wrapping up pretty soon, so that’ll be a huge relief once I’m in the maintaining stage of that (much easier to manage).

Mistakes Made

用意 - Meaning mistake, confused it with 注意.

見物 - Same mistake as yesterday.

転がる - Read it too fast and submitted the reading for 転がす.

成功 - Forgot the reading for 成.

教わる - Wrote おし instead of おそ.

内ポケット - Used ない instead of うち.

風船 - Wrote ふね instead of ふうせん.

台所 - Wrote だいところ instead of だいどころ.

Jam of the Day & Wrap Up

‘Losstime Memory’ by Jin and Matsuyama Kouta is a feast for the ears. Nice vocals over a gentle guitar, leading into an explosive riff that sounds like a battle. That first 60 seconds is enough to fall in love.

That’s it! Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow for the 20th! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

@PlayTheSaturn

see you tomorrow for the 20th

Well that’s a funny joke.

November 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th Study Log

Level 12

I’ve been having a pretty weird week, lots of sleep issues (enough to entirely mess up the schedule on one of my days).

Here’s Some Numbers and Burns

No wins to mention this time, pretty disappointed in my last four days.

２０日１１月

132 Lessons and 20 Reviews in WaniKani

18 Reviews in Bunpro

As reviews in Bunpro steadily go down, I’ll be adding lessons back into my routine (and likely more frequent Bunpro visits).

２１日１１月

131 Lessons and 15 Reviews in WaniKani

15 Reviews in Bunpro

２２日１１月

57 Reviews and 0 Lessons in WaniKani

This was the first day of big schedule issues. I got home from work and just crashed. I was so tired due to virtually no sleep the night before and went down for the count.

２３日１１月

158 Reviews and 10 Lessons in WaniKani

13 Reviews in Bunpro

Second day of schedule issues, although much better than the 22nd. I fell asleep much earlier than I wanted to (around 10:30 PM) but was still able to get most of my reviews done today.

２４日１１月

101 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

13 Reviews in Bunpro

Sleep schedule was much more normal today, although woke up earlier than I wanted (appointments will do that…). Unfortunately, I completely forgot to record the mistakes for this day!

Sentencecraft

Normally, I write sentences each time I write a Study Log just because they kind of go hand-in-hand for me. However, as I’ve been flubbing the Study Logs the past two weeks, my sentences have kind of escaped me. I’ll continue working towards consistent study logs so I write my sentence each day. Something I’ve been neglecting is a book I purchased months and months ago for when I eventually practiced grammar that I completely forgot about: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. It will continue to be incredibly insightful when I write my sentences or have questions, and I will consult it frequently.

全部は不良です。

このピザは発売中だ

あそこのコンビニは私の好きよ。

入院試験は二時半で始める。

Mistakes Made

…And as it turns out, I forgot to get the mistakes made on the 20th, 23rd, and 24th. (╥ _ ╥)

So this’ll be a short Mistakes Made section. Sorry gang, I goofed it!

２１日

童, 転がる, 命, 気付く, 先ず , 大声, 開ける, 友好, 西日, 院, 育つ, 出会う, 大学院

２２日

努力, 見事, 線, 思わず, 近所, 負

JAMMING AND LEAVING

Well, I missed 5 days, but there’s always time for jams.

I discovered a new song today that I really love the sound of, which is 「ダンス デカダンス」by Chevon. As I listen more to this song I’m sure I’ll discover more I enjoy, but at face value it’s a great formula for a song. Nice vocals, nice instrumentals. I find the vocalist in this song is sort of testing their vocal range out a bit, and you should know how I feel about “realness” when it comes to singers (an unquantifiable value where it sounds like they’re letting their passion for song come out).

Another new band I found recently is the wonderful Aooo! Great rock sounds. My favorite currently is Casablanca, which sounds a lot like a Sonic Adventure song. Cool band, they have a lot of stylistic range across the handful of songs I’ve heard so far.

yama and Tatsuya Kitani came together to create 「憧れのままに」which has a really unique sound. If there’s anything I’ve learned from Tatsuya Kitani, the guy really knows how to change up his styles. His voice fits really well into every song he’s apart of, let it be a predominantly Eve song to his collaborations with natori, Tatsuya is working some magic. Also, wow, he really stretches his range here - I had no clue he could go that high. That’s not to say yama doesn’t put in work here, she collaborates to most of the non-chorus verses and really plays her part. With both vocalists having really unique voices, I think they mesh really well here.

Speaking of natori, I have another song of his to add to my pile of natori recommendations. His style just really suits me, he has a lot of fun rhythms in his vocal performance (something I adore in Japanese music that can’t equally be accomplished in English performances), and his instrumentation is top notch. Anyway, the song itself is 「メーベル」. I was a little wary of this song at first, I thought it sounded a bit too one-dimensional, but listening to a song enough times can really help appreciate each little instrument’s job in the song, and this piece is chock-full of instruments!

Lastly is 「新宝島」by sakanaction. I can’t tell if it’s an acoustic guitar or a traditional Japanese guitar perhaps (shamisen? It doesn’t quite sound like one to me but I honestly can’t tell most of the time), but I love the backing instrumentals for this. Whatever guitar it is, it is one of my favorite instrumental parts in a song. The rhythm is simple, the notes are the same, but there’s something about it that I am fawning over every time I hear this song.

And that’s it! As Thanksgiving approaches I hope to get these back on track so I no longer have extended periods of writing these. It’s a real drag to go through five days of data just to realize I didn’t capture three days worth of mistakes, and I think really pushing myself to upload these daily will help with that.

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll see you tomorrow for the 25th! (Maybe I should refrain from promises…) :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

@PlayTheSaturn

I’ll see you tomorrow for the 25th! (Maybe I should refrain from promises…) :]

It happened again…

November 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th Study Log

Level 12

Well this month has come to an end, and as it does I’ll be reflecting tomorrow on the amount of work I put in throughout November (like I did with October), as well as figuring out future plans. If you celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope you got to enjoy it!

Here’s Some Numbers, Some Burns, and Some Wins

２５日１１月

114 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

２６日１１月

78 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

Missed quite a few reviews at the end of the day due to being quite tired at the end of my workday.

17 Reviews in Bunpro

２７日１１月

187 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

I immediately got revenge on myself for missing some of the previous day’s work.

15 Reviews and 3 Lessons in Bunpro

２８日１１月

122 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

２９日１１月

105 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

Burned 3 items on the 26th, 4 items on the 28th, and 7 items on the 29th.

I don’t really think I deserve much praise, as I feel I have been neglecting my study guide. However, I am working on a way to make the process somewhat easier! Since I abandoned my Obsidian vault for physical notes, I can use it for it’s handy dandy templating feature! Since most of my study logs follow a pretty consistent format, I can write them up in Obsidian and slap them here. I plan on getting that up and running by the end of the current week (around December 6th probably).

Mistakes Made

As is the standard procedure for logging mistakes across many days, I’ll just list the what and not the why.

２５日１１月

流す、根気、庭 (kanji)、根 (vocab)、勉 (kanji)、悪 (kanji)、注文、息 (vocab)、息子、開始、院、東口、足し算、点数、心持ち、服 (kanji)

２６日１１月

悪 (kanji)、流行、階、寒、高級

I’ve noticed on days where I have less time, I typically make similar mistakes to the day I made before.

２７日１１月

落とす、湯、動物、寒、戦争、数える、近く、取れる、便利、発 (kanji)、毎朝

２８日１１月

動く、戦争、求める、教わる、院、競う、生地、思い出す、放す、最近、便

２９日１１月

旅、階、暑、動物、伝記、終わり、強力、州 (kanji)、病む

Jams & Wrapping Up

Haven’t discovered any new artists, but I have slowly been diving deeper into artists I’ve just barely scratched the surface with.

I’ve really come to love BRADIO’s sound. It’s so unique and their vocalist has a surprising amount of range. Also, man his hair is just awesome. OTONA HIT PARADE has a really great feel, I love their usage of trumpets in the song - they fit really well.

「キュートアグレッション」by Tatsuya Kitani is one of my recent favorites. It’s a different feel from the songs I usually like from him, but the rhythm is punchy and the guitar is funky.

CRAZZZY by Aooo is super fast paced initially, with a tempo change after a bit, then we pick back up. The tempo change really makes the initial speed feel even faster than it is, and I really enjoy that. Like with other Aooo songs, the instrumentals are great. I really enjoy what I’ve heard from this band so far, I look forward to seeing what else they make.

Underdog by Eve is a new release of his. The style is quite a bit different from his usual, I really enjoy seeing his style shift between songs, and this one works really well for him. He doesn’t have many songs where he works mostly in a low range, but he pulls it off excellently here.

I’m not sure if I’ve shared this one before, but SLEEPWALK by Hitorie is a very different vibe. Most of the songs I love from them are on their DEEP album from 2016, which are almost dance-rock with a bit of alternative heaviness thrown in for good measure. SLEEPWALK ditches that whole idea, and that’s ok. This is a grand slam, it’s stuck in my head all the time.

And that’s it…for now! I haven’t been the greatest at keeping my promises lately, so to make up for that here’s another promise: tomorrow will be a triple feature of November 30th, December 1st, and December 2nd, which should catch me back up to the present. Also in tomorrow’s study log, I’ll be comparing October and November to see how much learning has been accomplished, along with some goals for December.

Thanks for stopping by, see you later! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

November 30th, December 1st, 2nd Study Log

Level 12

It’s here, the end of the month! Or, it was here 3 days ago. Oops!

TRIPLE THE DAYS, THIRD DEGREE BURNS

３０日１１月

168 Reviews and 5 Lessons in WaniKani

１日１２月

99 Reviews and 0 Lessons in WaniKani

Yeah this was bad. I don’t even remember falling asleep early this day, I just didn’t have the time throughout the day to study.

２日１２月

127 Reviews and 15 Lessons in WaniKani

16 Reviews in Bunpro

Ended up burning a handful of items. 光、歩、石 (kanji)、何月、早い、十分、仕 on the 30th, and 州、止まる、年下 on the 2nd. They will be remembered fondly.

MISTAKES MISTAKES MISTAKES MADE MADE MADE

Since these are a bit more recent, I’ll provide context for the ones I remember.

３０日１１月

植、悪、合、求める、開ける、短、見える、彼、好、本物、商人、あれ、深い、王子、開発、物語、老、曲がる、辛.

求める - Decided to switch the order of もと to とも. Bad call!

開ける - Entirely forgot how 開 was read other than かい.

見える - I hate this word. It shows up every once in a while, I get it wrong, then it shows up again, and I get it wrong. I ALWAYS think it’s “to show” AND IT NEVER WILL BE!

あれ - Just wanted to note how there’s no way on Earth I should’ve gotten this wrong since this is early on in Bunpro.

１日１２月

I either only missed 3 items the day before (which I HEAVILY doubt) or I recorded my mistakes too late.

消す - Entirely forgot the け reading for 消.

登 - Forgot this meant climb.

Excuse radical - Typed exertion instead. Oops.

２日１２月

育つ、努力、気付く、命、短、見事、助ける、大気、教え、表す、思わず、比べる、映、強力、開発、部、正解、別、仕返し、家庭、全米、使い方、病院、中止、映す、辺、安売り、西口、手首

Most of these mistakes are from rushing to do the reviews as I didn’t have a ton of time that day to properly review. As such, many mistakes were careless errors that likely wouldn’t have been made with a little time to process my answer before submitting it.

Jams x 3

CQCQ by Kami-sama, I have noticed has a really fun opening. That guitar run is full of a ton of energy, and a great introduction to the rest of the song. The vocalist is doing what I love the most about Japanese music - singing with nothing but passion.

クラシックハイ by Genie High absolutely rips. Their sound is so interesting, different from any other band I’ve ever heard. The different backgrounds of each member probably helps set them apart from the other bands I’ve heard. This song is an absolute classic, give it a listen.

Spotlight Junkie by PompadollS is really, really fun. Fast paced, chaotic rhythms, it’s similar to really fast jazz. It’s real good.

THE MONTH IN REVIEW

In October, I completed 3378 reviews and 414 lessons. In November, I raised the reviews up to 3541 (~5% increase) while lessons went down to 375 (~9% decrease).

This month was a pretty difficult month for time management, I had a ton of things I needed to do and not a lot of time to do it, but I’m happy I’ve been able to keep my WaniKani streak. My biggest goal for December is to get Bunpro on the same level as WaniKani, where I’m doing it out of habit every day with little need for my motivation alarms.

Another big goal of mine is to consistently write daily, and to write more than one sentence a day.

The last goal of mine is to read an imabi.jp lesson daily. I’ve been good at reading in my free time, but I’d like to get that additional information a bit more consistently.

As a bonus, study logs should be going back to once a day or once every other day. I’m sick of those giant 5 day logs!

That’s all! Thanks for visiting for another month! I’m looking forward to the holiday season, and another year of studying Japanese with all of you! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

December 3rd Study Log

Level 12

I may still be a day behind, but working one day at a time should help me out in the longrun.

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

125 Lessons and 15 Reviews in WaniKani

36 Reviews in Bunpro

Today I burned 全力、兄弟、天国. They will be remembered fondly.

My biggest win today was definitely getting most of the last study log written up, and also putting up my Christmas tree! Now I just gotta decorate it.

Mistakes Made

My first mistake today was not writing any sentences. Those will start again on the 5th.

直前 - Forgot the meaning.

落ち - Typed one too many i’s to get おちい

運ぶ - Wrote かれぶ followed by ほこぶ instead of はこぶ.

見事 - The meaning of this one will always get me.

思わず - Wrote “unexpectedly” instead of “unintentionally”

受 - Completely forgot the reading

顔付き - Missed the rendaku There’s no rendaku, silly! I miswrote 顔 as なお.

意外 - Brain fart city. Every time I see this one I think opposite.

勝手 - I keep flubbing the meaning on this one as '“as one wishes” and not “as one pleases”

利く- Forgot the き reading for this, brain defaulted to り

Jam of the Day & Wrapping Up

Today’s jam is “Quest” by Kiro Akiyama. From what else I’ve heard of his, this is a pretty different style for him, but it really suits my tastes. The guitar is great here, the rhythm is punchy, and his vocals are splendid (gotta remember 見事 someway!).

That’s it for today! This was supposed to be posted yesterday but got a little busier than I expected, so I’ll be hitting you with another study log for December 4th a bit later tonight!

Thanks for stopping by, see you later! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

December 4th Study Log

Level 12

Hello again! I told ya I’d post again, and I followed through this time!

Today’s Numbers, Burned Items, and Wins

138 Reviews and 7 Lessons in WaniKani

I was right at the end of level 12 with very few lessons available, so I did what I could.

36 Reviews in Bunpro

Nothing burned today.

No wins that are any different today than what’s been going on. I’m very close to finishing a huge work project that should ultimately make my work a lot easier in the future, a lot less frustration, but it’s not done yet so can’t really call it a win.

Mistakes Made

港 - Forgot the みなと reading but I sure did remember こう. Not useful in this instance, though.

旅 - The reading for this one is weird to me. I get it right, until my brain deletes it and sees it again and says “that’s gotta be こう right?” NOOO ITS NOT こう!!!

章 - Psyched myself out and thought this was 音 after doubting my gut.

正解 - “Solution” is a wrong answer for this. Huh.

消化 - Wrote digest instead of digestion, I can understand why it doesn’t like that answer.

使い方 - Forgot that 使 is read as つか.

教え - I might burst into flames the next time I get this one wrong.

試みる - This is a “gotcha!” vocab for me, I never remember that 試 is read as こころ here.

発見 - Instead of making つ っ, I made it つ.

対比 - Forgot that 対 is たい and not つ.

Jam of the Day & Wrapping Up

KANJOU LITERACY by BRADIO has been trapped within the bounds of my skull for the past few days, so it deserves to be mentioned. This has probably come to be my favorite BRADIO song, it took me a while to fully come around to it. This is BRADIO in one song.

That’s it! Another short one today. Thanks for stopping by, I’ll see you tomorrow for the 5th and maybe the 6th! :]