Day XXXIV: 
NHK school video. A folktale story, it said it was aimed at kindergarten level but I did not find it easy one bit.
Also love the woman’s Yama-uba voice, she sounds like a proper hardcore yakuza 
8 Likes
Today I listened to some news about the most recent Sakurajima eruption:
and also
but only the first three minutes 
as it then switches to other news.
(and there are lots of other news videos available if you google search for 桜島)
I also watched some more 博多豚骨ラメンズ (I started watching each episode twice, on two different days, and that improves my understanding quite a bit.)
10 Likes
My recap of last week! 
Turns out watering the garden is really conducive to lots of listening, haha.
This week I finished listening to the audiobook for 魔女の宅急便 vol. 1. 
I think that’s my first, completed Japanese audio book?!
Also a lot of podcast episodes, and quite a bit of youtube. I also took up Terrace House, once again. I always have fun watching, yet I never manage to finish. We’ll see.
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Listening Logs
18: Listened to chapter 7 and about half of chapter 8 of Kiki, about 50 minutes.
19: listened to Kiki while watering the garden. ~ 50 minutes again, I think I’m halfway through chapter 10 now
20: I clicked on this let’s play shared by natarin and before I knew it 20 minutes had passed. So much fun, haha. 『 速すぎるRPG 』が本当に速すぎて笑う - YouTube … I’d actually been following this gamer already but it’s been ages since I watched any let’s plays.
21: Watched 2 videos shared here: A book review shared by omk3 and a book summary about how to lose weight shared by pocketcat.
And then in the evening, watering in the garden green house, I listened to some more kiki. Halfway through chapter 11 now. So close to the end!
22: Watched 2 eps of Terrace House Boys and Girls in the City. Fun. :3
23: Watched a youtube video about a ‘recommended top 10 older 東野圭吾 works’. I own one, so I’ll be reading that one next I guess. Or after ガリレオの苦悩, after which there’s a book missing in my Detective Galileo collection anyway. So, soon-ish. 
… This channel has a lot of videos on 東野圭吾 books~ … let’s watch another, haha. This one’s a book shelf introduction. Half of it is taken up by 東野圭吾. Also Unread Books. I like this guy.
24: Today, while watering the garden, I listened to the last bit of Kiki, as well as another 2 episodes of The Real Japanese Podcast.
I’ve noticed a bit of a reluctance to listen to something else so I don’t need another icon. That is not an intended result. It also doesn’t look pretty when they take up a different amount of space so some of the columns are wider… Maybe I’ll stick to an icon for ‘most minutes listened to’ on a given day or something. I’ll think on it.
9 Likes
July 25th!
I listened to Episode 30 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, and also watched an episode of Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens.
Also spent a little bit of time listening to KANA-BOON, if music counts as proper listening practise?
9 Likes
July 25th
What did I listen to?: Super Bunny Man Let’s Play Part 7
How much time did I spend listening?: 27 min
Finished this series off today. Guess I’ll have to find something else to listen to next These videos felt low effort, even though I definitely did not understand a good portion of what was said. I wasn’t really trying that hard to understand, I guess lmao - or I didn’t really feel a need to understand everything, so it didn’t bother me when I didn’t.
9 Likes
Jul 26, Tue of Week 5 of Summer 
2022
Today’s story is 娘の寿命 ().
Story impression
「あんたは、何才まで生きたいんじゃ？」 – Just choose your age to be written in a notebook! Then, there is no proof that age was lengthen either. (Other than she died at exactly 88 years old.)
「白酒と杯を三つ、 – Yeah, 杯 is just written without a reading guide. It is read さか-ずき〔「さか（酒）つき（坏）」の意〕
Yesterday, I watched YouTube on Being Japanese documentary with the second Japanese subtitle. [1] I picked out Japanese spoken lines, here (with git diff). [2]
Then, I took a look at NHK for School, which is sorted by school grades too. (Thanks, Jona-さん) It appears to have Furigana and full transcript, but sometimes it drops Kanji, and not using Furigana. [3]
Also, it has only two modes – small (about 1/3 of screen width) and fullscreen. Fixed with VMware. (My actual screen is a large Ultra-Wide HD screen, so I should use make use of the space wisely.)
On Language Reactor, there is already vocabulary lookup (dictionary), but I altered settings a little - no audio, and add external link to https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/all/WORD/m1u/ (Goo exact match).
Extra:
I have seen the phrase before; but this is the first time I have heard it being pronounced, also a little longer than I think. This is the first time I searched and found the origin as well. The anime in the search result is distracting.
-
“Zulu”, for spoken Japanese with Japanese written sub, lol. (and “Japanese” for English and omit Japanese speech.)
Mostly spoken in English, and Japanese speech is minimal.
↩︎ -
So, I learnt that 帰国子女 isn’t necessary female. ↩︎
-
ひょうたんからコトバ appears to be interesting (and meaningful) for me.
- I think this ひょうたん is exactly 瓢箪.
9 Likes
July 25 
Home Post
I accidentally did mostly listening again today? I don’t know what’s happening to me I watched some more let’s play stuff, and then a couple more episodes of Tiger & Bunny for funsies. I’m having a lot of fun with it; it’s exactly the kind of chaotic nonsense I’m all about 
There’s cool language stuff too, lots of distinct ways of speaking, there’s a samurai speech guy, go figure. So yeah, going pretty well!
11 Likes
July 26 
Today I watched the NHK news video on the Sakurajima volcano eruption that @NicoleIsEnough linked to yesterday, and I understood next to nothing.
Then I followed with the first video from the Japan Foundation’s playlist on manga, and I understood a few things at least, or, more likely, had the illusion that I did. 
9 Likes
This weeks update:
20th - Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone chapter 8 & 9, 80 minutes Gackt music.
21st - Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone chapter 10 & 11, 80 minutes Gackt, Rainych and over the moon music.
22nd - Howl’s moving castle
23rd - 1 episode of a Japanese cooking podcast
24th - Over the moon, Hiromi Kawakami’s 神様
25th - Hiromi Kawakami’s 神様, episodes 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 of Old Enough.
I seem to have taken a step back atm and found that I’m struggling to hear stuff I’ve listened to previously. Like I can’t focus on it correctly or such but I’m still leaving it playing so I can try to listen.
I’ve not done any today yet, think I’ll save that for the last few episodes of Old Enough which is a series on Netflix about Japanese children going on their first errand alone, found this quite interesting as in the UK mist kids are not let out on their own at such a young age never mind allowed to head to the local convenience store equivalent to pick up a few random things or allowed to travel on buses alone or cross busy streets alone. I know the series has people following the child (you see the cameras hidden in carryalls or such) so the kids are still being closely watched even though they think they’re doing it all themselves, but it’s just unheard of here now to see anything like that (kids can barely be trusted not to eat the washing liquid tabs here 
) and it’s interesting to see the difference in the culture and the trust that’s given at such a young age.
10 Likes
Off topic on Old Enough
Thank you for this comment, so far I’ve only seen people comment on how cute and pleasant the show is., when in fact I always feel somewhat uncomfortable when I watch Old Enough. Not because those little kids are made to do all these things, but because I hate how we’re not trusting them to do all that here, even when they’re way older. But it’s not the trust in young children (toddlers even) that surprises me so much - it’s rather the trust in adult strangers to not (intentionally or not) harm the children. I wouldn’t trust people to stop for a child to cross the road (I’ve been nearly run over by a motorbike on the pavement, where it had no business to be, and that was as an adult), or not steal the child’s money, or not see an opportunity to grab the child even (well, only very few specific adults, but do you know who you’ll happen to meet?). And I don’t think any adult in a supermarket would interact normally with a child shopper instead of either ignoring them or calling the police on them. I guess I’m just jealous of a society where children can be free and independent that early. 
5 Likes
Day XXXV: 
&
whoa I did not know that you can copypaste the youtube creator logo as a link to their homepage
Watched two news videos about the Sakurajima eruptions recently, thanks @NicoleIsEnough for letting me know!
Seems the volcano is still pretty active (these vids are only about an hour or two old) and the alert level has been raised to its highest.
The ０テレ one had subtitles (in JP) to follow along, but it was very hard to keep up with.
9 Likes
Off topic reply
Yeah, I agree with that. I know when my grandparents were younger (so I’m talking about 80 odd years ago) this sort of thing did happen but without cameras or the safety net of people looking out for the child. Both sets of my grandparents have stories of experiences where they used to go on buses or walk long distances on their own from about age 3 onwards, not for shopping usually but to go to a family member’s house or to go wait on their parent/s coming out of work or pick something up or such.
I’m a little jealous of the fact that in our current society compared to what I’ve seen of Japanese society, we seem to live in a society which is a lot less honourable, less considerate and less has far less respect for our fellow human beings than we used to. A generalisation to be sure, because there are considerate, respectful and honest people in modern UK society, but overall there’s a down trend in those characteristics throughout the general population.
3 Likes
I did 1 hour and 20 minutes of Bite Sized Japanese. I was getting bored (and as I am getting closer and closer to moving to Japan) I figured I should look up things less and less and try for something more fun and harder and so restarted yuyu podcast. Wow he speaks really fast doesn’t he?! I understood the GIST of the first 2 podcasts but then less than 5% of the third.
10 Likes
July 26th
I listened to Episode 31 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners today, and also listened to a JapanesePod101 Core Words vocab building video while I was writing my diary.
I might watch a bit of anime before I head to bed too, but I’m not sure yet.
10 Likes
July 26th
What did I listen to?: Part of a Stray Let’s Play
How much time did I spend listening?: 12 min
This was recommended to me by Youtube after I finished Super Bunny Man, so I thought, cats, why not? (Was someone in this thread talking about this game earlier? I literally can’t remember but I feel like someone somewhere was talking about this game on here) There’s a lot less screaming in this one, and the kitties are cute 
I only watched part of the video because tbh my concentration is not here rn for reasons I will not burden the listening thread with. I might burden the complaining thread with them though
9 Likes
| LEDC | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
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| Week 5 |
July 26
Yuusuke & Kaito, episode 1
I started YUYU’s podcast today. I’ve listened to bits here and there over time since I learnt about him but never gave the podcast a try since the beginning. I started it today but apparently he was also doing it with another guy called Kaito back then? I don’t even know how to call it so I’ll just call it Yuusuke & Kaito. Apparently it’s only 15 episodes and then it starts being YUYUの日本語ポッドキャスト. It seems nice, very similar to Teppei’s, they talk about random stuff. It’s very similar in difficulty, perhaps I’d say just a tiny tiny bit above but nothing too noticeable.
10 Likes
Jul 27, Wed of Week 5 of Summer 2022
Today’s story is 狼の恩返し (), from ひさこばあばのむかしむかし.
Story impression
Going through a dangerous path to get a doctor? – The doctor probably won’t come back with you.
Anyway, he can already do a 度胸な手術.
I read 真夜中 wrong.
Then, I took a look more at NHK for School on ひょうたんからコトバ part (1 session = 15 minutes); and anime with Language Reactor. Also took a look at news posted above, and in YouTube. I felt like cheating, because I can read with visual cues by picking out vocabularies (and by other pictures). Half Kana’d vocabularies aren’t really problematic either, as long as those vocabularies are known.
Indeed, probably text matching with audio is necessary, but audio alone and audio unrelated to text should give another lesson.
I also played Yakuza 0 and DMC 5, but didn’t really have time, so just watched cinematics to the playable part. Cinematics can’t be paused or rewind, but it didn’t matter much this time, really.
I will probably try particle picking, when focusing more on listening, even if the listening doesn’t make much sense in total. (I might also be able to put Kodansha’s reference into use.)
8 Likes
July 26 Home Post
I watched part of a let’s play and an episode of Tiger & Bunny again today, guess that’s my new pattern 
It’s nice doing some things that are more pure listening when I can deal with not grasping all the details, but also doing some more complex things with Japanese subtitles. I think it’s a good balance for me 
8 Likes
Having a day where everything seems blah. Listened to a bit of various YouTube videos, dabbled in a few TV shows, didn’t really vibe with any of it. Ended up listening to maybe half an hour total. So it goes - some days are just like this, even in English content. 
9 Likes