That’s basically how it went for me. I did practice with subs2srs flashcards as well, but the flashcard route isn’t for everyone. I also extensively listened to audiobooks alongside the text, did SuperNative tests, and listened to easier youtubers and impossibly hard youtubers haha. It felt much like a slow fog lifting. Slowly but surely the fog will lift. I still get foggy when there’s too much unknown vocab or there’s heavy dialectical speech (or if I’m just tired and can’t concentrate - but that’s true in English too!), but eventually the repetition and consistent effort does pay off.
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I am not planning to strictly participate in the challenge, but I’ve decided that I want to listen to はてしない物語 (also known as The Neverending Story). I cannot promise I will listen every day, but let’s see how this goes.
Today I listened to the first 2 minutes and found it amazingly understandable. I guess this will change as soon as the fantasy stuff starts, though 
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Ooh, the nostalgia. I only remember like 0.5% of the plot but I think I really liked that book as a kid 
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Day 9, 9th of October 
Textbook work only, Genki I chapter 2 is now about halfway done. Getting fond memories of the class activities we did. Maybe I’ll see about getting someone to do them with me.
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I tried to resume listening to the audiobook for 終電の神様 and yet again hit the same stumbling block - I just don’t find this chapter interesting at all. When I force myself to focus I can tell what’s going on, but I find my mind keeps wandering and then I suddenly snap back to it and am like “oh wait, what did they say for the past 2 minutes…?”. Seeing as this audiobook is basically distinct short stories for each chapter I might just skip the rest of this chapter and try the next one. 
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October 9th!
Today I listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for beginners. It was about nature-related vocabulary.
I also listened to an 800 Core Words video from JapanesePod101. Coincidentally this also had a few nature related words in it.
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October 9th
What did I listen to?: A Series of Unfortunate Events Ep 3
How much time did I spend listening?: 48 min (? however long the episode was)
This episode veered into incomprehensible pretty often tbh, but I learned some random words like 爬虫類学 (herpetology) and おだぶつ (dying; kicking the bucket) lmao
There’s this one part of the episode (that I sort of forgot about until now) where the characters go to the movies and the subtitles of the movie are used to convey a secret message (the message is seen with a special scope that blots out some of the letters in the subtitles). I wish I had more energy/skill to analyze how this was adapted into the Japanese lol. They kept the spoken words of the movie in English, and had the English subtitles (with the secret messages) showing, but then also had Japanese subtitles on the sides of the screen, one on the right for the spoken word meaning and one on the left for the secret message being conveyed. It would have been cool if they’d tried to create a similar sort of effect with the Japanese subtitles (like using parts of the Japanese subtitles for the spoken words to make up the Japanese subtitles for the secret message). I tried to see if they did or not, but after rewinding a few times, I still couldn’t tell and I gave up lmao. It seemed like maybe not, which would be a bummer but understandable xD There was already a lot going on, and you have the English subtitles visible to demonstrate how it’s supposed to be working.
…This part of the episode added nothing to my listening skills, but I found it interesting to think about 
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Yea, same here! 
I‘m all nostalgic about it as well. I don’t think I‘d want to read the book in Japanese (as reading still is rather slow) but listening to 20 hours of audiobook? What can possibly go wrong 
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softlyraining’s leaf pile listens 
October 9th:
Today I listened to an episode of the Thinking in Japanese podcast. It was about whether men cook in Japan. The short answer is yes, though you’ll find more young men cooking than older men. The host also confirmed that he cooks for himself, and honestly listed several dishes that he cooks that I’d love to eat. One of those is mapo tofu, which I miss eating so much since moving back from Japan. Chinese restaurants in the US don’t sell it generally, though I can’t say I’ve been to every single one.
The more you talk about your experience watching the Japanese dub, the more curious I become. I really should try to make time to check this out. I, too, really want to know if they adapted the message into the Japanese subs.
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This is so strange to me! I saw it at Chinese restaurants all the time back when I lived in Chicago, although I haven’t looked for it since moving to a totally different geographic area 
I wonder if it’s because there is a high Chinese population there so there was less “American Chinese food” and more Chinese food made for Chinese people.
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I now know where I must go. Just need the time and money. 
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Hand full of Nihongo con Teppei again today. Some more than once as I tried to get Spotify to play the list in the opposite direction.
Re-watched the first episode of Made in Abyss. This time with jp subs. Understood enough to be interested in watching further.
Living a few miles down the street from Chinatown here in Chicago has afforded me many opportunities to eat Mapo tofu. Out in the suburbs where family live, where I spent many childhood years, not so much. I mostly make it at home now though. Realizing now that’s also due to my proximity to Chinatown. Making it very easy for me to get really nice szechuan peppercorns and spicy bean paste
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October 10 
Three episodes of あたしンち today. They’re short, and slice of life, so I thought they might be good listening practice. I don’t understand enough to get why the mother is supposed to be so embarrassing, but okay. You have a choice between English subtitles, no subtitles, or auto-generated Japanese subtitles. It was a perverse relief to see that, while I didn’t understand all that much, I still understood more than the robot generating the subtitles - many of them really were way off.
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Day 10, 10 of October
Did some exercises on SuperNative. Still not feeling well so I’m glad I had something that doesn’t take up too much time.
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On October the 10th I’ve, unfortunately, listened to nothing as I’ve been busy wiht other things – and now I’m just too sleepy… 
Wait, that’s not true! I have actually listened to this
earlier today! So, I did have some listening! Phew!
Thanks to @omk3 さん for sharing that video!
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I have mostly been listening to things which are a notch or so too difficult for me to listen to comfortably, not because I’m trying to challenge myself and more because I haven’t quite found anything at the difficulty level I’d prefer. Podcast-wise I’ve been trying “文化系トークラジオ Life”, which is a late night radio talk show cut into episode-size pieces. I’ve been working through the 自己管理のいま～“わたし”が数値化する中で episodes: interesting topic but I find I lose concentration and then I’ve blanked on what they’re saying…
Similarly tricky but at shorter length was a 10 minute piece on youtube by somebody who collects the paper wrappers from ekiben (which JR East have put up as part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the first railway in Japan, which is on the 14th October). A little slice of social history, from the first 19th century ekiben through wartime ones with propaganda slogans to the post-war rationed ones and then the modern day.
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October 10th!
Just a little bit of listening today - Episode 66 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners.
It was about the Japanese school system and was quite easy to understand.
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October 10th
What did I listen to?: A Series of Unfortunate Events Ep 4
How much time did I spend listening?: 48 min (? however long the episode was)
Short update today, as I am tired. I felt like I understood more of the conversation this episode though. There are times when I can actually understand the sentences (usually when they’re shorter or sometimes I understand most of it and a quick glance at the kanji in the subtitles gets me enough to piece it together the rest of the way). But more often there are times when I can catch words in the middle of a stream of sounds, times when I can catch the sounds but not put them into words/meanings in real time, and times when I don’t think I even register all the sounds properly
If you do, please let us know your findings! You’re probably better equipped to decipher it than me
It’s the little victories
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I think I may give up on 終電の神様 - I tried listening to the next chapter and immediately got bored again and lost my focus. It’s a different narrator for this chapter even so I’m left thinking that the writing style just isn’t for me. Maybe I’ll revisit it in the future, but as a read-along so I’m forced to look at the words and less likely to zone out.
In the meantime I’ve continued watching episodes of 古畑任三郎 and started relistening to 仮面病棟 while on my walks.
I also make it at home from time to time - one relatively small package of Szechuan peppers lasts awhile! And I’m lucky to live near Asian grocers, even if Szechuan food sadly seems unpopular in my current area, so the rest is easy enough to find. But @softlyraining maybe if you don’t live near any Asian grocers you could buy the ingredients online? Shouldn’t be too expensive, and certainly cheaper than taking a special trip!
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