I continue to watch terrible romcoms. The dumber the plot the better. Preference given to anything not involving high school students. I’m getting a bit bored of it though so might return to my regularly scheduled programming of audiobooks, crime shows, and random things on youtube.
July 14th
What did I listen to?: はじめてのおつかい
How much time did I spend listening?: 1 episode (15 min)
I ended being at work late and I knew I wasn’t going to want to do anything when I got home, so I smartly decided to watch an episode of this on my phone while I was riding the train home xD Not a lot of listening, but better than nothing.
Jul 15, Fri of Week 3 of Summer 2022
Today’s story is かや泥棒の長八郎 (). Seems to be a famous 裁き from 大岡・越前
Story impression
One way to look at it, is how to judge so as to retain real relationships, not making grudges and hardships for everyone? Yet, appropriately warn and make a lesson.
Yesterday I watched やがて君になる to the end (EP13), but I don’t feel like it has ended. Watched an EP on smartphone (Netflix app), and didn’t require Language Reactor and PC/laptop. (Actually, right now, I use Language Reactor mostly just to download subtitles.)
Also tried Doctor X, which appears difficult to me, even with subtitle (albeit interesting), so I watched only the beginning of it. I might need to learn more medical vocabularies first, perhaps from ブラックジャックによろしく manga series?
Not many JP series on Netflix has JP sub for me, but of course the above two series have one. Another one that has sub in my region (タイ) is Berserk.
となりの怪物くん looks funny and cute so far.
July 14 Home Post
Today I just watched another let’s play and another episode of べるぜバブ, so nothing too crazy! It’s all still generally going pretty well, though it’s definitely more of an effort to get myself to do even a fraction of the amount I do with reading but hey it all add up either way
The only non-Cities Skylines ones I’ve watched are these:
It’s this platformer where you have to die and use your previous corpses to proceed which really just feels like someone made a game targeted for him specifically It’s been fun though! I definitely feel like they’re easier than a lot of the Cities Skylines videos, more like ongoing reactions and less city planning terminology haha.
July 15
Today I didn’t have time to waste looking for the best video to watch, so I just semi-randomly picked the “I Love Sushi” playlist from the Japan Foundation YouTube channel. It was much more interesting than I expected! The first episode especially focuses on the history of sushi, which apparently looked very different in its original form. [1]. The next episode was on 握り寿司, and the final one on local sushi varieties. This was also very interesting. I didn’t have my full attention on the videos, and there was a lot of vocabulary I didn’t recognize, but I understood adequately, I believe. (that wouldn’t be the case if it weren’t for the visual element, I’m sure).
Thank you, I needed that reminder.
I do tend to forget that brains need down-time too…
a whole fish with stuffing ↩︎
I wasn’t sure on what to watch next, so I just watched からめる’s latest vid, but I think I actually understood quite a lot of the Japanese, so yay!
Additionals
Episode of Pokemon
Just tried the first and yeah, that was a fun one, thanks!
I’m almost done with 殺人ライセンス having listened to more of it yesterday in addition to a couple more episodes of terrible TV. I expect I’ll finish it tomorrow as I have <2 hours left in the audiobook and I’m taking the bus this afternoon and tomorrow as well. I’m so far a bit disappointed with it, but suspect that for someone just getting into listening or wanting an easier novel it might still be exciting. The writing feels pretty low effort, though, and the plot just barely moves along.
Also I listened to the preview of ペッパーズ・ゴースト and while it seemed pretty easy to listen to, I guess I hadn’t paid attention when I added it to my wishlist?! Seems like a major part of the plot involves people tracking down people who kill (and possibly torture?) cats. Like I sympathize with the motive, but there’s no way I’m reading/listening to that plot line
Shouting it out to @Daisoujou though as a possible next audio ‘read’. Sample on Audible here
Thank you! Yeah that’s been on my mind a little, what I’m going to do next. With the addition of Dragon Quest and the VN club starting I was wondering how much I’d be able to manage a book too, but I think I probably want to try. And this method has definitely seemed very helpful so it’s probably best I look for another audio option. Animal cruelty’s one of the most upsetting things for me but I have an almost limitless tolerance for unpleasant content in fiction so it wouldn’t stop me. I’ve glanced a little at おやすみ、夢なき子 which I remember you recommending, but now can’t recall if that was in the context of it having an audiobook or not.
There’s also just stuff I want to read, like Goth, 告白, honestly still want to check out コンビニ人間 at some point… and a whole bunch of other things, but I haven’t looked into if the various books bouncing around in my head have audiobooks or not.
It does not which is a shame because I absolutely loved that book.
硝子の塔の殺人 which I’m reading right now has an audiobook, but it’s a pretty significant jump from スマホを落としただけなのに in terms of speaking style/vocab breadth/etc. Obviously 殺人ライセンス is an easy listen, but I hesitate to recommend it because frankly it’s boring me. 宮部みゆき has a couple books made into audiobooks and their work is generally quite good, 屍人荘の殺人 | L32 has an audiobook if you don’t mind something more light-novely (I started listening to it but the style wasn’t doing anything for me. Might revisit it).
I really wish the Japanese audiobook market was more expansive! It’s getting there, but not fast enough for me
Hmm, they both sound pretty fun. I don’t think I’ve ever actually read a light novel but I like to think my tastes are broad (and I tolerate the indulgences that visual novels go into haha) so I don’t think I’d mind. Should definitely try sometime anyway. Don’t think I’m necessarily opposed to pushing slightly harder. Will definitely consider those, thanks!
This has an audiobook! It’s on the more straightforward side of things I’ve listened to as well.
Excellent, thank you! That’s a strong contender for next then because I think it’s pretty short, and I do actually already have the ebook. Probably going to do that next then when it’s over, if I haven’t changed my mind, start looking at those earlier recommendations for a next step.
Your post inspired me to find this hikibiki podcast internet archive, where I started to listen to number 149, even though I couldn’t see the title. I didn’t know much of the Vocabulary, I think.
Huh… upon reading further, I see that rikai posted the archive link above, as well.
I have the book and audiobook for コンビニ人間, and I pre-read the book in English book last year… then I sort of dropped the whole project… It did use everyday language, IMHO… I did a lot of extensive listening to the audiobook, but didn’t read and intensively suck out Vocabulary… I don’t think that I tried to make an anki deck out of the WaniKani vocabulary soreadsheet, yet, either. (did anybody? is there one floating around the interwebs?)
July 15th.
I listened to Episode 19 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners and understood everything pretty comfortably.
Also watched another episode of Fruits Basket with subs. I’m probably going to watch more tonight, but its a few minutes to midnight here and I wanted to write up update while its still “today”
Jul 16, Sat of Week 3 of Summer 2022
Today’s story is 鐘突き堂を守ったカニ ().
Story impression
Battle of the crabs
Just today, I realize I should download the audio file (right-click from Hukumusume HTML5 audio player, otherwise use youtube-dl
to download from YouTube) and import into Audacity for easy rewind and pinpointing the starting location.
Yesterday, I went shopping, so listening to Podbean for about half an hour; then in the evening, I went jogging (mostly walking actually) for about a hour and a half; so in total, listened for about 2 hours. However, I didn’t catch much – there were a lot of names of すごい人 and the praise.
I tried watching Sushi history from Japan Foundation – I felt I still don’t understand enough (unless I were to study it). Another one I watched is かまへんライダー. Also, if you look at the Kanji for ひょうきん, it uses an exceptional reading.
Hiiki Biiki might be listenable from mobile from archive.org
website. (I never knew archive.org
has that capability.) Also of course it can be downloaded (total of a few GB). I might try later.
LEDC | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Week 3 |
July 15
Nihongo con Teppei Z, episode 30 → 14 min.
Note to self: don’t “try for a couple mins” Howl’s Moving Castle at 2 am. Took me 40 mins to stop it very hesitantly, I wanted to watch the whole thing. Which I definitely would, but I didn’t plan to sleep super late today which I’ll do at this rate anyway, just not THAT late. So technically that one podcast episode and 40 mins of the movie but I won’t count that.
Just had a thought of “why not watch every Ghibli movie available on Netflix”? There are so so many I haven’t watched yet and it could be a good opportunity to test waters after so long. In this case I’ve already watched Howl’s Moving Castle but still, never in Japanese, and it was surprisingly very comfortable. Sounds like a super fun little project and quite a lot of exposure, so might do that soon!
July 15 Home Post
Nothing too crazy today, just another Cities Skylines video! Idk if it was just that video but somehow it felt easier than they have? So hey maybe some progress
Oooh that sounds fun so many classics and there are still way too many I’ve never seen whoops
July 15th
What did I listen to?: はじめてのおつかい
How much time did I spend listening?: 3 episodes (50 min)
I was supposed to read today but I’m mentally and emotionally over it, this week has been so long and I am so tired
My brain said “no. only はじめてのおつかい”
So I am here in this thread today xD
At least I did something, that alone feels like a victory
Sorry for double posting! But I finished 殺人ライセンス Despite saying it would take another day. My first bus was late and I ended up walking home (~1 hour) so I finished it out. My overall impression was: meh. If you’re looking for listening practice with a slightly easier book, it’ll do. I don’t think the book is really worth seeking out though. You can see my full review here if you like.
But! I’m actually posting because I found a translated podcast?! That’s a thing? 死の医師 on Audible but it said it was on Apple Podcasts and some other stuff so it’s probably elsewhere as well. Listening to the ‘intro’ made my head spin because they spoke Japanese over English voices and my brain wanted to follow both and I had to consciously choose not to. It seems to do that a bit in the actual show, but not as much? I’m not very far into it though.
Seems to be somewhat up my alley so I’m taking it for a whirl.
Edit:
It 100% is. I didn’t read for like a week straight recently. It happens. Back on the horse, did some sort of JP practice every day anyways. In the grand scheme it’s fine