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July 8th
I watched some of the youkai videos you guys posted [x] [x]. That was quite interesting, I didn’t know youkai was such a big part of Japan’s culture. More ingrained and beloved than I thought.
Kappa being a mischievous one… made me think of this kappa-inspired creature:
I have been keeping up with listening every day but not posting, woops. I finished up my second book today where I’ve just been listening to the audiobook, not reading. It was ペンギン・ハイワェイ. My natively review is here but in summary I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a pretty accessible listen.
Another book though I’m not sure if I would have had the patience for if reading, but listening to it in little half hour sessions over a few weeks was a real nice time! I’d say difficulty wise, it is a bit more challenging than 時をかける少女 - there is definitely more varied vocab and the plot is just more involved (though still nothing very plotty or twisty). I think it’s just generally a better story as well though so it’s got that going for it. Would recommend!
Ok restarted the podcast from beginning and admittedly, I understand a lot more than a month plus ago (still only 60 % by episode 4 but 80% for episodes 1 and 2).
July 8th!
Just a little bit of listening today since I ended up working late. Just one episode of Fruits Basket with subs.
I did have a call with my tutor today during my lunch hour though which I think kind of counts as listening practise too?
Jul 9, Sat of Week 2 of Summer 
2022
Today’s story is 彦一とサクラの花 
. Actually, I also listened (and read-aloud) to 清水の観音さまのお告げ, but I still feel like I didn’t understand much; so I chose another one.
This one has somewhat word-breaking problems, so I have to read multiple times.
It’s also about 花 and 鼻, and it reminds me that I haven’t learnt to differentiate them yet.
I am also getting started with a textbook (聞いた覚える話し方：日本語生中継!!), which has sections of “listening and understanding” (i.e. short dialogues), “couple of sentences to be replied to” (with silence waiting for reply), and “how to say yes and no” (also dialogues). I’ll see how well I can do it.
The book was attached with an audio CD, so I had to buy a DVD player for PC, and rip the CD.
Yesterday, I watched a little more of 盾の勇者の成り上がり (2 episodes, I think). Still, without subtitle, I feel it is hard to adequately get better with listening. So, getting subtitles somehow (Kitsunekko)? Or, another series (e.g. SPY x FAMILY)?
Then, in the evening, there was that Abe incident, so I simply watched the news (on YouTube).
Generally, I am not sure if I should turn on subtitle or not, but I feel a tendency towards studying with a transcript (which is a different part of YouTube).
Also, with the news, rather than subtitle, other texts on the screen can help too.
The Sake one that Sailnir posted earlier, I feel I can understand somewhat well. It can’t be only because of hand signs.
Such ones should worth listening much more, if I don’t have too many competing priorities.
July 8th
What did I listen to?: Not more Obey Me! café videos 
How much time did I spend listening?: 23 min
I think these might be the last ones though 
I will never get tired of Obey Me! VAs Go To The Café. Today Ayme is joined by the two Satoshis, who seem to be bursting with energy in this video for some reason 
Usually I get the drink flavors but today I was confused for like half the first video because one of the “drinks” is…actually curry I think? But it’s like in a drink glass I’m still mildly confused, but it’s ok. It looked like they were having a lot of fun :3 Baby Satoshi is so cute >< (I keep forgetting his last name and there are two VAs named Satoshi in Obey Me! so I always think of him as “baby Satoshi” because he’s just so baby ) Also he has the prettiest signature, look at how loopy~
July 8 
Home Post
I’m still deep in バディミッションBOND-only mode so I just watched the first video in that youkai series you guys were talking about! I did it without subtitles for the 
spirit of it and I definitely didn’t get everything, but I got the gist I think. Youkai are fun 
I’m now 65% done with 殺人ライセンス and it’s plodding along. I’m amazed at how slowly it’s developing. Spoilers, for anyone reading them:
Cops actually investigating the murder of the 公務員/stalker guy take the report of the net game seriously and end up seeing it online themselves. The next victim is a 29yr old house wife who had a fling with a dude and then dumped him. The police are trying to find out who this could be. Also, the 探偵 dad, while talking to Kyuu, realizes that he has always been supplied the link to the game by his friend. Kururin? I forget if that’s exactly his username, but it’s a dude he only knows online. We are led to believe he is the killer.
ahhh that makes me so happy to hear! 
I’ve been watching a famous drama called 半分、青い on Japanese Netflix for the challenge, but I was feeling a bit demotivated because while I like the show and catch a decent amount of what’s said, I have to turn on the Japanese subs more often that I want to in order to catch/learn words. But I also watched an episode of 君に届け, a sweet high school romance anime, that I’d never seen without the English subtitles (since they’re literally encoded into the show on Crunchyroll) and IT WAS SO EASY. I didn’t need the subtitles once, and I didn’t even rewind anything! Yay!
Day XVIII: 
Listened to the first of the 日本の妖怪 playlist about yokai.
This was so good! I loved all the imagery and the artwork and basically everything about it
And those happy little kappa statues with their little cucumbers
Looking forward to watching number two tomorrow! What I could understand was really interesting, great find @pocketcat !
Addtionals
Yakuza 6
Episode of Pokemon
Frustrating thing with listening: I think brain is just too lazy to be bothered to work out what people are saying. If I play it back then I understand what they’re saying, but for some reason I just don’t get it the first time… but I do - I hear the words, I know the words, but no comprehend, but do comprehend, why is it this way?
Have to rest my hand recently so I’ll keep this very brief, but since we’re sharing resources, I’ve been amused recently by watching this guy torture his Cities Skylines inhabitants with bizarre city designs:
Home post July 9th
・SKM N2: Did the exercises on page 56-61.
All this talk about pitch accent in another thread… When listening to someone speak in Japanese, I find it hard to catch both the pitch accent of any given word and the meaning of the sentence on the first try. It’s like I have to play the sound of the word back in my mind to actually hear which pitch the word has, so obviously, that playback in my mind and the audio rolling at the same time… traffic jam 
That was very entertaining to watch
July 9 
I watched a 48 minute documentary episode on big cats on Netflix today. This is my trick in order to be able to share the TV and still practice my Japanese: I choose something everyone is interested in watching, select Japanese audio and turn on English subtitles. I need to watch while blocking the lower part of the screen from my vision, but it’s a good enough compromise for everyone involved. 
I couldn’t maintain fully active attention for 48 minutes, but the times I double checked my understanding with those reading the subtitles, I seemed to have understood roughly correctly most of the time. Some parts I didn’t get at all of course. Still, cats are always interesting, big or small. 
July 9 Home Post
I’ve noticed I’m mostly doing listening under the guise of it being kind of a brain break from more intensive reading which probably isn’t the best for improving my listening skills themselves, but honestly? I think I’m okay with that for now; reading is definitely where I’m doing the vast majority of my actual learning so listening just being a little bonus thrown in to test my abilities isn’t so bad. It’s more than I was doing with listening before this challenge anyway (plus most of the stuff I’ve read has had voice acting so it’s not like I’m lacking in hearing Japanese 
)
That all said, my listening clearly hasn’t been very intensive 
Today I just watched that Cities Skylines video (thank you @Daisoujou!) and that was a great time, what a nightmare of a city lmao. Like always I definitely didn’t get everything, but I got more than I really expected! Sometimes my brain vocabulary related to city planning, who knew I certainly got enough for it to be entertaining so that was cool!
July 9th!
I did quite a bit of listening this evening.
First I listened to Episode 14 of Nihongo con Teppei (Beginners). I had to listen to it a few times to fully understand it, but I got there in the end.
Then I watched 4 episodes of Fruits Basket (with subs).
I also listened to a JapanesePod101 vocab building video as a bit of semi-passive listening while I was writing my daily diary.
Not settled on a new audiobook yet, so today I listened to an episode of the そうだ！ガイにカミングアウト podcast. What I did get was fun (it’s an advice podcast hosted by two gay guys) but I definitely didn’t get all of it - there were some parts where the hosts talked very fast (for me at least), and some other sections where they were doing some bits and putting on voices which I also found hard. I remember feeling similarly in the past about a lot of things I can listen to more comfortably now so might be a good one to test myself out with more regularly!
By looking at the twitter feed for this podcast I also found Not Straight! 〜クィアな2人の井戸端会議〜 which also seems worth a shot! Will be trying that one out too - must listen to all the queer podcast content! 
Jul 10, Sun of Week 2 of Summer 2022
Today’s story is タヌキと彦一 ().
Yeah, the same old 彦一 (Hikoichi) from another day.
It’s indeed always the best to end the 仕返し relationship, and establish peace and order.
Also later on, I have a plan to go to Kinokuniya bookstore, and get that shadowing book (which interestingly has Vietnamese on the cover) and probably the sentence structure disambiguation book that I have seen last week. (Along the travel, I will get a chance to listen to YouTube on mobile, without looking at the screen.)
I probably will post the weekly summary later.
Yesterday, I listened to The Bite size Japanese Podcast, that お酒 one; but I guess understanding depends on having enough focus too. And I listened twice (repeat).
Also tested Onomappu (on PC) – this one, actually I called my male friend KAWAII all of a sudden in Japanese | 突然日本の男友達にかわいいって言ってみた - YouTube. This guy is interesting, so I took note of more videos (tested listening without looking too [e.g. minimize], then looking with subtitle off). [1]
There is also this funny one – - YouTube (and I think トリビア is 雑学).
I read up a little on pitch accent. I feel that, the first and foremost goal for me is to understand Japanese, regardless of the dialect; so at least I should be able to hear pitch as far as it helps.
Regarding the read-aloud and dialogue, it’s probably the best if I copy and adapt someone else’s speech, so I will need to be able to recognize people speech’s details. (Consciously is quite surefire, unconsciously if it must, but with varying results.)
I feel that a goal of background listening, is to decrease the effort required to understand the passage; but if I can’t understand the passage even with some effort, then why?..
Today was quite busy so I only listened to one chapter of 殺人ライセンス. I only have 2.5 hours left but tomorrow I’m going on a hike so it remains to be seen if I’ll have energy for anything after or just flump into bed after showering
Spoilers:
Not much development on the crime front, but there was drama about who-likes-who among the high school students and Kyuu is feeling overwhelmed by his involvement in the whole thing.
I’m so glad!
