In honour of today’s Hobonichi Techo 2025 preview, I watched the first episode of Spy x Family. I love it. I’m not a big anime fan, so I’m always stoked when I discover one that I really want to watch.
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Home Post 8/6 - My friend found a twitter account of One Piece Clips out of context. He played them aloud and I would try and guess what they were talking about based on context and the words I could recognize. It was SO SO fun and helpful to hear words in phrases and casual speaking. It was a bit difficult because the characters all have their own unique way of speaking.
8/7 - Today I ought to catch up on my “30 days of Vocab” challenge because I have been slacking 
I am considering rewatching Sign of Affection already because it was so cute 
. I speak with my hands a lot to make my brain remember/communicate stuff, so I thought maybe picking up a little JSL could help me remember some words or sylables?
(lol I thought today was the 8th? getting a bit ahead of myself)
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August 7
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Quartet | Chapter 10 listenings 1 2 | |
| JJK | Episode 16 | 16/24 episodes |
| Youtube | 31 minutes | 597/1200 minutes |
God the Kyoto students are so insufferable. Except Miwa.
The speech in the Youtube video I watched felt really slow so I set it to 1.25 speed.
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#210 & #211 Sayuri Saying Podcast
In these two episodes, she talks about a trip she took to Kinoseki Onsen in Hyogo-ken. The first episode is mainly about the Onsen - a famous one with a long history which allows people with tattoos to enter. And the second is about her non-Onsen activities while there: bicycling, hiking etc, and she also talks about a famous writer who wrote a novella while recovering at the onsen.
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♢８月７日♢
Watched:
・「２．４３」の福井紹介動画
I don’t like traveling for various reasons, but if I ever go to Japan, I definitely want to go to Fukui, particularly レインボーライン山頂公園 (so long as it ain’t allergy season…). It’s so beautiful.
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Yesterday I watched some biographical videos about Hiroshige and Hokusai. It’s tough so not super comprehensible but I’m finding it really interesting.
Today I discovered a fun way to find a video plus enough text to make it comprehensible. Here’s a video from NHK about diving in rivers and the associated dangers with some demonstrations in a pool. There’s also an accompanying article where I could get some key words and I understood a lot more the second time I watched the video
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Today: watched another episode of Spy x Family over lunch. Love this show.
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Listened to #200 Sayuri Saying which is part 1 of a 2 part conversation with the podcaster Teppei-san from Nihongo con Teppei. Will listen to the second part later today or tomorrow.
He touched on a topic which came up earlier on this thread, saying that people listened to his podcast not so much because they were particularly interested in what he was saying, but because they were interested in listening to Japanese. That is to say, if they were listening in their own language they might be a bit more picky about the subject matter. I guess the same can be said for advanced students - as their comprehension improves, listening to random thoughts on everyday life might gradually lose its appeal.
Happily, not being at that level, I can enjoy listening to most things.
Me too. Watched it when it first came out, laughed out loud at many of the situations but then somehow my watching got interrupted so I haven’t seen the whole series. Your posts remind I should start rewatching again.
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August 8
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| JJK | Episode 17 | 17/24 episodes |
| Sasaki and Miyano | Episode 2 | |
| Youtube | 15 minutes | 612 minutes/1200 minutes |
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♢８月８日♢
Watched:
・クールドジ男子 第１〜２話（字幕なし）
ロールキャベツ男子 asdfghjkl I don’t think I ever noticed what the magazine said in the manga or anime.
I’m watching the drama this time since I found the BDs for relatively cheap off Surugaya (happy early bday to me). They’ve got EN subs but no JP subs, which I found surprising. I like the anime better, but the drama’s good too.
I also bought the first volume of the anime plus the special event BD, but they unfortunately didn’t have vol 2, so I’ll either have to keep checking back or hope I can find it relatively cheaply on eBay or somewhere. The only ones I saw on eBay when I checked recently were pretty dang expensive.
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I finished episode 8 of 4989 American Life, and in my quest to try new things listened to a lecture Akashelia found about a Japanese researcher we read about in Quartet. At first I opened it as a gag just to see the point about his lecture style, but then I realised I could get the gist of his talk! Especially in his first 10 minutes he talks about some of his own experiences in a more conversational way. I’m so tantalisingly close to being able to understand this enough to enjoy it, I’m more encouraged to keep up my daily listening practice
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8月7日 (水)
狼と香辛料 Vol.5 end (8:44-10:03/10:03)
Daily brief x1
Fish 
and chips 
, and a little of England
8月8日 (木)
本好きの下剋上 Vol.4 (0-0:35/11:43). With reading too. No way can I comprehend every bit of the oath, or at least I am not fast enough.
8月9日 (金)
North Korean high school story
本好きの下剋上 Vol.4 (0:35-1:33/11:43)
Also tried kotu.io – I might not take this one seriously yet, but probably something like 200 rights every day might be good.
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Yesterday I watched 山登り and struggled to pay attention. Today I spent another stupid amount of time working through five more minutes of 佐々木と宮野.
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Today: watched another episode of Spy x Family over lunch.
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08月09日
| Resource | Time | |
|---|---|---|
 |
ふしぎ駄菓子屋 vol.2 | 55min |
Listened to chapters 1 and 2 of the second zenitendou audiobook to test my listening comprehension without having read the book. First chapter went okay, second chapter started strong but then I got super lost. I would really like to unlock audiobooks. When I’m understanding enough, they’re super enjoyable! But when they go too far outside my comprehension, there’s no point listening.
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August 9
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| JJK | Episode 18 | 18/24 episodes |
| Pokemon Concierge | Episode 1 | |
| Youtube | 15 minutes | 627 minutes/1200 minutes |
Pokemon Concierge is so cute! At this rate I am not on track to meet my 20 hours of Youtube goal, but I figure 15 minutes is better than zero. And as long as I meet my overall goal, the fine details don’t really matter, right?
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Listened to Sayuri Saying episode #201 which is a continuation of her conversation with Teppei-san. Enjoyed the part where they both discuss their love of walking and he says he finds it relaxing and she says that’s because when you go for walk, there’s no ceiling above you and he remarks that he spends all his time looking down when he walks, a habit he probably picked up in Barcelona while trying not to step in dog poo! (so happy to have understood this exchange!)
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that’s pretty good going! I’m in a similar position where it really depends on the chapter. This morning I listened to bk 4 ch 4 and so much of it was comprehensible and that would normally be great, but just missing a couple of key words around the desire and Beniko’s warning means I know I’ll be missing a key part of the story if i don’t go back to the book and figure that out.
On the other hand neither of us were so tantalisingly close to audiobooks even a few months ago, so I guess we just keep going!
I think for listening I’ll keep up with a mix of story / conversation / news and educational content.
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Busy day ahead; squeezed in half an episode of Spy x Family before heading out to watch some tennis.
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