I had the same sentiment… was actually wondering whether we should set up a thread where we can discuss book review videos, and the contained books, and the awards, and everything around that? 
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Sounds like a good idea! 
(Campfire or Reading?)
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I’d lean towards Reading, as it is very much connected with Japanese and stuff.
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January 28 
Today I watched the Masaki video posted by @pocketcat about the Honya Taishou nominees, and three episodes of Don’t Call it a Mystery (currently on the final one, which means I’ll need to find something else to watch from tomorrow).
@NicoleIsEnough , @pocketcat , @pm215 and everyone else who may be interested, I started a new thread specifically for book videos and discussions here:
It’s still pretty bare, but I hope we can fill it with content soon.
(Anyone knows if it might be possible to move posts to a different thread?)
And again, sorry for being off-topic for so long, everyone.
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New episode of マタタビムービーラボ dropped today, so I watched that!
I had a harder time understanding this one than last time, the fast back and forth between the two characters got me very lost. I understood the fortune telling thing at the end, and I clicked on every single fortune so I could get maximum listening practice.
I’ll update tomorrow about the movie (that I should hopefully watch tonight)
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Day 28, 28th of January
Looking for some other gaming material, I’ve watched this episode of Dark and Darker by 兄者弟者. The people talk in a really clear way and there is a nice flow of conversation. Unfortunately not gaming material I would want to watch, so until I actually understand what is being said, this one’s out.
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January 28th!
Today I listened to JapanesePod101’s Upper Beginner Season 1, Lesson 19.
It was another lesson focusing on announcements you might hear on trains, and taught how to use ~~お控えください to say “Please refrain from ~~”
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Started “My Neighbor Totoro” and its quite easy to understand as it is meant for kids. Not really enjoying it per say but its at my level I would say (of course they speak quite fast so I miss a lot and have to go back and listen again).
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I am a quarter of the way through ハウルの動く城 Howl’s Moving Castle. I gotta say the English voices are way better than the Japanese (I dont normally say this). Howl sounds so young and young Sophie sounds so old in the Japanese voices. But it is my favorite Ghibli film so watching in Japanese with Language Reactor is a good input method.
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January 28 
Home Post
Didn’t really listen to anything yesterday, because I don’t quite count playing Bustafellows for myself, because I don’t try to listen without following along with the text.
That said, I find myself actually being able to follow along with some of the longer textboxes and catching more or less everything said, when they only say words I know (or close enough). I kinda feel like that is a listening achievement. Because it doesn’t happen that often. I always read the text again after, but now I’ve found myself multiple times going “huh, I didn’t miss anything”. So while I feel like the listening isn’t pure enough to count, when they talk fast I can’t really read quick enough to truly read-along, and even then I’ve found myself getting everything.
So yeah, pretty cool to me. ^^
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That’s tangible progress, well done! I’d definitely count it, because it’s definitely still listening. You may not actively try to focus on listening, but you’re not actively ignoring it either, and your brain is starting to process it without you even noticing it. Learning without even noticing I’m studying is my favourite method! 
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For the purpose of this challenge and what I’m trying to do with it, I’m not counting it. Because I’m trying to work on pure listening for eventual speaking practice, and real people don’t come with subtitles. 
(They really should, shame on them. 
)
But yeah, I’m super stoked. And if this was more than like 1-2% of my experience with Bustafellows, I might count it, but mostly my head is stuck in my dictionary app, looking up the 0-3 words per sentence that I don’t know. I don’t know what the average is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I looked up 1 word on average per sentence.
So true! I’ll take this as sign of improvement at least.
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Jan 29, Sun of Week 5 of Winter Q1 2023
So-matome N3 Listening Ch.5 [2/5]. Listening once feels more natural and is possible, but may need a little more practice.
ガラスのうさぎ [8/18].
吾輩は猫である Ch.2 (Track 3). I repeated for 1 more round, and glimpsed at the text.
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January 29
Home Post
Sayuri Saying Everyday 
Listened to 3 episodes and part of one, until I realized she meant to spend the whole episode playing shiritori by herself. And it was 8 minutes long. 
So skipped the third one too that was about another word game. I don’t care that it was called magic banana, I’ll look up somewhere else how to play that if I feel compelled.
Instead I had three short episodes about シュークリーム, plastic bags, and Canada day. I hope slightly more interesting stuff will be in later episodes, because as it looks now, I might drop it for being a bit boring.
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Wanted to just relax today, so I picked up 「君の膵臓をたべたい」, the live-action adaptation.
Also I wanted to finally see what the story is about, since I haven’t read the original novel that the movie is based on.
Trailer link, if anybody is interested 
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Last night’s movie was: 山椒大夫「さんしょうだゆう」- the English title being: Sansho the Bailiff.
This movie is from 1954, and was directed by the same guy who directed Ugetsu - Kenji Mizoguchi. It’s the same high quality as Ugetsu too - great camerawork, sound, acting and such, but I didn’t think the story was quite as good in this one - still a really great film though. I just preferred the ghost-story elements and psychological play of Ugetsu better, that one felt a bit more light-hearted even if it was a tragedy, this one was a pretty heavy tragedy all the way through.
It takes place in later 11thC Japan and is about a governor who’s family is banished into exile, the children are kidnapped on the way and sold into slavery. The story is about them growing up as slaves and their plan to eventually escape to be reunited with their mother and bring the slavers to justice.
This was pretty brutal to say how old it is, there’s no blood or explicit violence on screen like before, but there’s several scenes that felt like they pushed the barrier pretty hard for the time it was released.
Japanese-wise, it follows the pattern that seems to have formed - I can understand women and children for the most part, but guys are difficult, and the older the guy is, the harder it is to understand. There was also some scenes with people speaking up to nobility - very emotional, very fast, very polite = impossible for me to understand.
There’s only one more film available (though I’m not sure if it’s actually a film or a long documentary), then I’ll have to venture into other pastures for something to watch. Feeling that watching media is the most effective way for listening practice for me at the moment, I’m seeing a lot more success with this than previous efforts.
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January 29
I watched the first episode of Quartet on Netflix today. It’s…strange. A string quartet forms when four string musicians meet each other by apparent chance in a karaoke corridor. However, we know from the very beginning that at least one of them has been paid to befriend one of the others. They all have their quirks, and there’s some Tarantino-like conversations about lemon on karaage and the proper way to ask others whether they’d like some lemon or not… There’s some mystery, so I will continue with the next episode and see how it goes. Speech is relatively clear, which is good.
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January 29th!
I watched the Teasing Master Takagi-san Movie today.
I was watching with my husband so we had english subs, but I was able to understand a fair amount without looking at the subs, which was pretty cool!
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January 27
Teppei for beginners #32
January 28
Teppei for beginners #33 and #34, plus over 1.5h of BU$TAFELLOWS
January 29
Teppei for beginners #35, and over 1h of BU$TAFELLOWS
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Jan 30, Mon of Week 6 of Winter Q1 2023
ガラスのうさぎ [9/18].
Death Note EP.17-18. Now, I intend to finish the series. At least, watching should precede reading. Not really fully listening, and I probably won’t rewind, using JP subtitle along, focusing on the flow. (Today, I paused a little though.)
So-matome N2 Listening Ch.1 [1/5]. Pronunciation understanding exercise. In my mind, it’s pretty easy if vocabularies are known.
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