My dear fellow durtles…
Welcome to the inaugural edition of “Wanikani Interhigh”.
This is second in a series of posts. You can read the first post here.
This post deals with my experience from Level 21 to 40. The Theme is Haikyuu!! Get ready to scream “Rolling Kanjiiiiiiiiiiiii” 
Here’s some wonderful Yuki Hayashi music to listen to while you read the post…
“Me no mae ni tachihadakaru takai takai kabe.
Sono mukou wa donna nagame darou ka?
Donna fuuni mieru no darouka?
Itadaki no keshiki, ore hitori de wa kesshite miru koto mo dekinai keshiki.
Demo, hitori dewanai no nara, miero kamo shirenai keshiki ”
A tall, tall wall looms over me.
what is the view on the other side?
what does it look like?
the view from the top.
It’s a view that I could never see by myself.
but if I’m not doing it alone
I just might be able to see it.
(Credit - https://twitter.com/correcthq/status/1332088958973521920)
After the novelty and pace of the first 20 levels plateaued, things began to progressively get difficult.
Receive
I feel like Hinata Shoyo from Season 1 when I do my Kanji reviews. At the beginning of the story, all Hinata wanted to do was Spike. He wasn’t too invested in receive or serve. The SRS reviews, like Kageyama’s sets, arrive precisely on time and at the right moment. It feels good to enter the answer and hit the forward button.
But you cannot play the game without keeping the ball in play and to keep the ball in play you need to receive it properly. Grammar is like “Receive” in Haikyuu. It is bland and you have to keep going over the basics until you recognize the patterns on instinct. It is easy to take the receive for granted. You only realize the pickle you are in when you face the monster players (books). Similar to how Hinata makes an awesome/godly receive out of the blue, I might be right about a grammar point every once in a while. It is more miss than hit.
Right now, I feel like Hinata from the beginning of Season 4 as he tries to master the basics of receive by mimicking other players. I am yet to find my groove in grammar but I am moving in the right direction. Once I am a little more comfortable with my grammar, I am confident I can enjoy the books even more.
Tip
While it is good to focus on one thing at the start, after a while you need to balance/improve other aspects too.
Read Block/Guess Block
During the training arc in season 2, Kuroo talks to Tsukishima and Lev about Read Block and Guess Block. Guess Block is guessing here the ball will go and be there to stuff it. It’s a 100% or 0% success rate. Read Block is paying attention to the game and acting on the information accumulated through out the game. It’s more of a 70% success rate through out the game.
In terms of Kanji, Guess Block is Speed Runners and Read Block is Slow Runners. Guess Block/Speed Running is cool, if one can pull it off. Otherwise we will just end up burning out, resetting or dropping out. There are definitely users who can Speed Run (JPRSPereira, MegaZeroX, EKG etc.) and when they pull it off it looks insanely cool (like Guess Monster Tendo Satori). But not everyone can pull it off. it requires an enormous amount of drive, dedication, time and favorable circumstances. Slow running like Read Block takes time and patience in a different way. As you take more time to complete levels, you may forget a lot of kanji. But, you can definitely solidify your foundation and persistently move towards the end goal. It may not look as as cool, but it has a higher probability of success.
I would be lying if I hadn’t thought of just pushing through it when things got extremely hard and my 10 day levels went to 30 and 90 days. In the end, I resisted the temptation and stuck with my Read Block 
There is no right or wrong way to do things, just the way that fits you. If we can assess our strengths rationally and act accordingly, we can pick the way that suits us the best.
Tip
Resist the temptation of wanting to look cool.
That moment you get hooked
Bokuto has his moment
Tsukishima has his moment
Tanaka has his moment
Hinata has his moment
Any Haikyuu fan can recognize the moment that I am talking about. There are plenty of things going against you at any given moment. But every time I saw a durtle stick with with WK despite the overwhelming odds against them, it gives me encouragement (like a Centre court full of fans cheering for you). It reinvigorates me and motivates me to move forward.
Thanks to everyone who persevered through the difficulties and stuck with Wanikani 
Eat and Grow Stronger
Haikyuu is filled with a lot of favorite moments. But nothing will probably beat the tender and touching narration of Coach Ukai after a bitter defeat.
There are plenty of moments in HELL (Level 31-40) when it truly felt like hell. A distinct lack of motivation, extenuating circumstances at work and in personal life, there were plenty of weeks where I was running on fumes. There were moments where I felt it might be easier to give up, but I stuck with it, even if that meant doing only one review per day.
I followed Coach Ukai’s advice:
Eat, rest and grow stronger.
Slowly but surely, I got out of HELL.
I had plenty of support through my journey:
Team Karasuno - POLLfam
Team Nekoma - SkyTree Thread
Folks who corrected my mistakes gently, shared various tips generously and have been there to push me forward. I whole heartedly thank all of you 
I love to think of Shimizu’s words from Season 4:
You don’t need gods to help you, you have your hard work to thank.
I want to be the last one standing on the court…
What do we say?
Mo Ikkai
All that is left is to Fly
