I finished the N1 practice listening exam I started last night and remember how I said it felt more like a test of endurance than anything? Of the last 10 questions I did yesterday, I got 7 of them wrong. I got 11 out of 35 wrong overall. It’s pretty obvious when my patience/interest is flagging 
But still, 68% for my first attempt at N1 listening is better than I expected. Some questions felt super easy, some, especially those involving people talking about office stuff, I was barely keeping up. I think if I work on this I can fix the endurance issue and bring the overall score up in time.
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Today it was just one episode of Nihongo con Teppei for beginners as well.
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softlyraining’s listening corner 
January 10th
I had so many goals today: relisten to the first 3 episodes of The Jam Maker, start watching Kimi ni Todoke…ultimately, I just did the 4th episode of Jam Maker. Maybe tomorrow.
As an aside, the 4th episode has the narrator vividly describing her eating toast, and I kind of wish I treated the simplicities of life like they were luxuries more. Makes everything seem more 
magical
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January 10
Listened to Teppei for beginners #12 and played BU$TAFELLOWS for half an hour.
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Jan 11, Wed of Week 3 of Winter Q1 2023 
So-matome N3 Listening Ch.2 [3/6]. As often with this series, I listened twice. However, longer listening then answering can be a little challenging. Answer keys = transcripts, help a lot.
君の膵臓をたべたい Ch.4 [4/5]. I realize that I want to learn whatever way in advance to improve my listening. (I might confess that I still don’t understand much.) jpdb.io should help with vocabularies, especially for having an accompanying LN (and exact line-by-line). And structures and grammar can be learned elsewhere, as I have tried to start.
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Day 11, 11th of January
Another try at the Teppei episode I had trouble with (#9). Understood it a bit better, but it’s difficult to get used to how foreign words are pronounced in Japanese. ハンバーガー is one of the easier ones and I still get confused.
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January 11 
Today I retried the video linked by @pocketcat a few days ago, and I did better with it. I’m not saying I understood much, but it didn’t sound like a completely unknown language this time. 
In fact I understood most of the words, it’s just that the speed was such I just didn’t have any time to connect them. The walk in the book shop was fun. I wish I could easily visit a Japanese book shop. Oh well.
I also watched a video review of ぼぎわんが、来る by ペキョ. He speaks much slower and I find him much easier to undertand.
And an episode of Alice in Borderland. A lot of talking this time, so subtitles to the rescue.
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Yay improvement! 
Out of curiosity, do you ever try watching the videos at a slower playback speed, ex .75? I wonder if that would help or just feel unnatural
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January 11th!
Just a tiny bit of listening today, Episode 103 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners.
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今日は…
- Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners Ep. 102 + 103. The beginning of 103 was a throwback, wasn’t it, @lucylavelle?
- Sakura Tips Ep. 4. This podcast is kinda weird for me - I feel like she is talking slower than Teppei, but she keeps using more vocab that I don’t know yet, so it’s actually more stressful for me. I’m looking forward to when the transcripts start (I think it was episode 14 or so), because I really dislike not being able to figure out words.
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I watched an incredibly boring interview where they asked a guy (actor) how it feels to be an イケメン. Riveting content 
I browsed through a youtube search with インタビュー but nothing really caught my eye. I also reviewed 3 of the N1 exam listening questions from the test I did earlier.
edit: oh also ‘Blinded Kiss’ is now on Viki and I recall it being pretty easy to follow. It’s PG-13 or R for sexual content though I imagine. It was also very, very dumb. Low-ish effort and fun. I just watched the first few minutes again to check and if you exclude the intro scene which is all fancy talk, the bulk of the show is pretty standard dialogue.
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With videos, I’ve only done that with one very complicated origami video where I just couldn’t tell what they were doing. I had tried a slower playback for audiobooks, but unlike the subtitles, this was a crutch that felt like cheating to me, I’m not sure why. I felt that I had to train my ear to catch normal speaking speeds. With a video it would be extra annoying I’m sure.
I trust that it will get better slowly, it already is. It’s funny how different my approach to reading and listening is. With reading I want to understand everything, and often even look up things I know in order to exactly pinpoint the nuance. With listening, I just let it wash over me in the hopes that it will start making sense at some point. 
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If you really cannot figure out something, feel free to ask for help 
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January 12
Two more book list videos today.
The first one in particular I found easier to understand than most (I didn’t understand everything, mind you, I mean comparatively). These are both focused on more general fiction. おいしいごはん is mentioned again, as is 汝、星のごとく. It sees to be focused on romance, or love anyway, which usually bores me, but so many reviewers seem to have loved it. I suppose you sometimes can’t tell from the summary. It’s not like おいしいごはん sounded especially enticing, yet I loved it from the first page to the last.
正欲 also seems to appear a lot. Apparently it focuses on diversity and minorities, so it might be interesting. I wonder what the duck on the cover is about.
Also watched some more Alice in Borderland, and this time they spoke more slowly and deliberately, and I only glanced at the subtitles for confirmation. Definitely progress. Not spectacular, but still progress.
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First post in a while as there’s been nothing interesting to report.
I’ve just been grinding my Japanese podcast playlist everyday. Transcribing a bit here and there. I should listen and read my transcription notes a bit more often as I don’t feel like my comprehension is increasing on episodes I must have listened to a dozen times.
Also weather in the UK is 
at the moment and it’s making me depressed.
@lucylavelle I wonder if there is a Japanese conversation exchange near - how did you find out about it?
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January 11
Listened to Teppei for beginners #13 and #14. For something a bit different I watched the first episode of 受験のシンデレラ. It had English subs but I tried to listen before reading them. It kinda worked for a while but when things got complicated I got tired of it. I always feel like watching a bunch of Japanese series would really help me (watching stuff in English played a big role in getting me to fluency) but I have trouble finding ones that can keep my interest so from time to time I’ll randomly try one. We’ll see if I continue this one.
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Jan 12, Thu of Week 3 of Winter Q1 2023
Continue with jpdb.io from yesterday, for the lessons there, it appears that if I don’t mark a vocabulary as unknown, it just goes on forever. (And there are eventually not-really-known vocabularies.)
Current jpdb.io status
So-matome N3 Listening Ch.2 [4/6].
君の膵臓をたべたい Ch.4 [4/5] + Ch.5 [1/4]. かがみの孤城 now has only 1 track not yet listened.
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Day 12, 12th of January
Some more Teppei. This time I’m trying it out without slowing down the audio. Immediately was confused when he started talking about the weather (#10). I think he was talking about how it was raining since last night? Something like that. Rest was okay.
In the next one (#11) he said something like よろしくお願いしまもすand I have zero clue what that is supposed to mean. Using the youtube autotranscript isn’t really helping and listening to it over and over again hasn’t provided a clue. Would be interested to know what I’m missing here. He says something about it being a joke, but what is the joke exactly? Only because he didn’t say お願いします? That’s not really a joke, Teppei…
The rest was okay again, but there was one part about something like coffee in the traditional Japanese style or something? I wasn’t interested enough to try and understand it more, though.
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Thanks! It’s just single words though most of the time, not really worth the time it takes to make a post even. It’s just me being annoyed by it. I hope to adopt @omk3’s attitude sooner or later, that sounds much healthier:
I know I’m no the one you asked, but maybe it still helps: I found my local Japanese conversation exchanges via meetup.com.
It’s been a while since that episode for me, but I’m like 90% sure there’s no deeper joke there than him just mispronouncing a common phrase on purpose. He’s just being playful and silly.
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Do you have a link maybe? I found this one Japanese podcast for beginners (Nihongo con Teppei) – ページ 38 – The best way to learn how to speak Japanese naturally! but in #10 he talks about alcohol so this can’t be it I guess?
Can relate 
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