July 11 
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Today I just watched a couple more of those Cities Skylines videos which were just as fun and wild as the first one 
It’s somehow easier to convince my brain to watch a couple short silly videos than listen to a podcast or watch an actual show or something, so whatever works! It’s all practice 
July 12 
I half-watched, half-listened to a 50 minute episode of Our Planet on Netflix, audio set to Japanese. I was doing other things so I barely looked at the TV, and realized I still got quite a lot for the attention I was paying it. Am I getting better? It’s probably more that the narration was clear and on the slow side (think Attenborough in Japanese), and the sentences rather short. And that I didn’t worry about possibly missing something important. That’s one good thing about nature documentaries: there’s no way I won’t be able to understand what’s going on just because I missed what was said earlier.
Weekly update:
5th - 1 and a half hours of Gackt, Over the moon (ultraluminary), Rainych - blinding lights (Japanese), then listened to Otsuichi’s むかし夕日の公園で several times and Shinji Ishii’s 肉屋おうむ several times.
6th - 1 and a half hours of Gackt, Over the moon (ultraluminary), Rainych - blinding lights (Japanese), then listened to Otsuichi’s むかし夕日の公園で several times
7th - 1 and a half hours of Gackt and Stereopony music
8th - 1 hour of Gackt music
9th - listened to Hiromi Kawakami’s 神様, Otsuichi’s むかし夕日の公園で, Shinji Ishii’s 肉屋おうむ and Yoshimoto Banana’s ミイラ.
10th - 1 hour of Gackt and Stereopony, First chapter of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone.
11th - Kung Fu Panda, the following short stories: 電車、登山家、秘密 and Hiromi Kawakami’s 神様
12th - 2 hour of Gackt and Stereopony, second chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone.
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I’m finding it challenging to fit time in for focused listening on work days that doesn’t include just short stories but when I’m off work I find it a lot easier to sit and listen to something in Japanese, either a film, a chapter of a book or reading and listening at the same time. Most of the music sessions are either while driving or doing menial tasks.
Will update again next Tuesday. 
Day XXI: 
& 
Watched the 4th & 5th yokai videos of the series: 日本の妖怪
This first video is all about かっぱ, so it’s cucumber time! 
I love how there’s an ancient text with diagrams seemingly detailing full kappa anatomy.
And a mummified kappa！！ 
The second (well, 5th) is about the Edo yokai explosion.
I love the book with all the prints of yokai in it!
Picture book storytelling in the library, my dance class and then a couple of hours listening (and trying to contribute…) to discussions in Banshu ben (Kansai dialect from the sticks, they are lovely bunch 
)). A language exchange meetup event. Then Yoga。Tuesdays are busy…
Home post 
July 12th
・Hiiki Biiki podcast episode 148 (continued). Topic: お便り紹介. Length: 20 min.
The hosts read mail from fans. This time about mountain bike and theatre student. A few grammar structures that stood out to me: にあたって and 相まって. The first one is a leech of mine on Bunpro, the second one I learned recently.
They usually do one topic per episode, but seems like the next two episodes will be about Star Wars. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
July 12th!
Just a little bit of listening today
I watched another vocab building video from JapanesePod101 while writing my daily diary, and watched another episode of Fruits Basket during my lunch hour。 
July 12 Home Post
I watched another Cities Skylines chaos video today; this man loves to flood cities with sewage Still a good balance of being silly and low-pressure while still having a lot that I actually am able to parse. I really need to get to a point where baseline listening doesn’t feel like a whole ordeal but realistically that might be a ways off it’s all progress though!
So yesterday was a rough day at work and I just needed to turn off my brain for a bit. So I binge watched the rest of Old Fashioned Cupcake (it was fun, but nothing noteworthy) also then followed it with several episodes of a truly trash romcom that I’ve already forgotten the name of. It was perfect because I found neither character attractive, the plot was asinine, and I had zero investment in whether or not they got together. 10/10 good for a bad mood.
Today was better at work, but I might binge watch some more just because that ball is rolling and I haven’t done this much listening in awhile.
Jul 13, Wed of Week 3 of Summer 
2022
Today’s story is オオカミとウサギ (
).
Yeah, this version of YouTube is a little different from Hukumusume’s (but roughly the same).
Honestly, today is a relatively easy reading and listening.
Also, today I started dialogue sound recording; but by speaking alone, I replied to the previous audio segments, or recorded an audio segment to be replied to.
Additionally, I booked an italki tutor for the first time – trial 30 minutes. (I chose someone with some Mandarin Chinese experience, just in case. [1]) Well, my major intent is to be able to write, both in chat and in essay. Speaking in a conversation in a plus, but composing should be in sync with speaking, anyway.
Yesterday, I watched となりの怪物くん EP01 on Netflix. It’s generally good, but speaking is hard to catch sometimes. There is also JP subtitle. The truth is I was looking for shows with JP subtitle that is also the same with JP speaking. (Which is probably not the case for international shows with JP audio and JP sub, that can be somehow different.)
I thought on studying subtitle in advance or afterwards, however. Studying ahead is hard, as well as I don’t want to be spoiled. Studying afterwards is a toil with fun and sometimes audio, removed.
My current understanding is, practically anything written in manga speech clouds, or thinking outside speech clouds, can be spoken (going by Furigana that don’t necessarily match bottom text).
To prevent the case of 日本人の知らない日本語, but not as far as learning some Chinese yet. ↩︎
July 12th
What did I listen to?: はじめてのおつかい
How much time did I spend listening?: 4 episodes (37 min)
Ended up watching way more of this than I thought I would, it was a very nice relaxing watch after an extremely meh work day. My brain was like…not cooperating with me all day today, it was a bad brain day. I felt like I understood a decent portion of this, but my understanding was probably greatly helped by the fact that I’d watched it before with English subtitles lol. (I watched without subtitles this time)
July 13
I watched the remaining 3 videos of the 水木しげる 妖怪えほん series. These are fun, short, and simple, I wish there were more available. I didn’t have perfect listening conditions today so I didn’t understand as much as I could have done, but it still went well enough.
July 13th. Same cafe event as the 12th, slightly different crowd, hard to follow, lots of conversations about Ukraine, Russia, Shinzo Abe and general politics, but I tried.
Day XXII: 
Listened to the 6th video of 日本の妖怪, this time about Hokusai and Kuniyoshi!
Yokai and ukiyo-e in one video!
yesyesyes
I will always be sad that Hokusai never got to finish his One Hundred Ghost Stories ukiyo-e series
(though can you really be sad when he has thousands of artwork to his name, it amazes me how much he managed to produce in his lifetime, it takes me forever to make something not even a tenth as good)
I tried an episode of this podcast after you mentioned it! Had never heard of it. The one titled Overwatch caught my eye (used to play that a lot, arm permitting I’d like to get back into it when 2 comes out…) so I gave that a listen. Turns out it was recorded when the game was very new (and only out in beta I think) and was, primarily, one of the hosts just describing how it works and the characters to the other. Well, it was kinda fun to get a look back like that and recapture some of the feelings around release, interesting to hear bits that have changed now and the like. Difficulty-wise it seemed like a pretty good fit for my listening ability right now.
My new dog "disappeared a computer cable, so I haven’t been able to get online. But I have been listening to tv Japan for 2-3 hours a day. I’ve learned several new words. Fun stuff!
Home post July 13th
・Hiiki Biiki podcast episode 149. Topic: Star Wars. Length: 45 min.
This episode is almost two hour long, so I’ll continue later. That was fun to listen to, even if it has been who knows how long since I’ve watched Star Wars and can’t really remember anything. Makes me wanna revisit the lego games 
Tiny Redglare’s favorite game on the PS2.
oh! :3 I never expected anyone here to give Hiiki Biiki a try. Host site decided to shut down a few years ago, so I downloaded all the episodes. I’m listening mostly because Kumirei mentioned it. And yeah, the podcast might not be the latest thing on the market, but I hope you enjoy! 
July 13th!
Today I listened to Episode 18 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, and also watched 3 Episodes of Fruits Basket (with subs).
I’m pleased by how understandable I’m finding Nihongo con Teppei now. The last time I tried it, a few months ago, I couldn’t follow much of it at all, but now I can basically understand it all as long as I’m fully concentrating on it
| LEDC | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 3 |
July 13
ゆる言語学ラジオ, episode 6 → 24 min.
Nihongo con Teppei Z, episode 29 → 12 min.
