In the quest to get my listening to at least a lower intermediate level, I frustrated myself today by first listening to a short episode of Miku Real Japanese with subs, then listening to the episode again without subs then listening to it again with subs. I believe that I have understood some parts of the episodes correctly by listening alone before but also realized that I didn’t understand parts or misunderstood parts. Hopefully, this method can work for a month or two and actually improve my listening. We will see. Only two hours thus far today and going back in for another hour or so.
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Today on Youtube…
A walking tour of Shinjuku’s Kabukicho with someone who can see ghosts. 
(21 min) This morning it seemed like a great idea to search Youtube for videos about 幽霊スポット and this one looked interesting and had actual people speaking instead of AI or filtered voices. But I didn’t watch it until night. 
It was creepy but also fun, especially since Kabukicho is such a well-known place where everyone goes. I paused this one a few times to look up some of the words in the on-screen subs.
Zookeepers give 4 flavors of Churu to a little tiger (4 min) to see which flavor it likes best. This was cute.
A hairstylist gives a bob haircut to a half-Egyptian woman with naturally curly hair. (24 min) I don’t have curly hair nor do I want a short bob, but anyway it was interesting listening to them discuss the cut and the considerations, and how they talked during the course of the cut. The middle includes her getting shampooed for ASMR time, which I skipped over.
I watched this a few days ago but it got lost in my history: Tips to spot high-quality clothing. (12 min) She talks a little about the technical aspects of clothing construction and some of the vocabulary here might be slightly specialized.
(BTW, I don’t understand all these videos 100%, but it doesn’t matter because this isn’t a test, it’s just what I’m watching. Even if I miss a line here or there, as long as I’m generally following what’s happening it’s good enough.)
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I watched the Kaguya-sama movie in theaters today, I enjoyed it 
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February 16 
I’m so glad Netflix has been consistently adding more Japanese content lately! I’m currently watching Dearest (最愛) and it looks like exactly my kind of show. It starts with the apparently carefree, happy life of young people in a quiet village, but with glimpses of tension and secrets just underneath the surface. Then fast forward 15 years later in Tokyo, and the investigation of an old crime in connection with a new one. I’ve watched the first episode and continuing straight to the second. Just what I needed today.
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February 15
Listened to Teppei for beginners #54. I also tried to listen to a video on book recommendations inspired by some people in this thread but I didn’t understand much and I quickly gave up so I’m not counting it. Maybe in the future. At least it was fun to think about what I might be able to do eventually.
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Feb 16, Thu of Week 8 of Winter Q1 2023 
So-matome N2 Listening Ch.3 [4/5].
聞くだけで一気にわかる日本史 : 明治. Also revisited 江戸.
Pokemon EP.11.
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Day 47, 16th of February
Watched episode #42 of PiroPito Minecraft. I really struggle with this challenge, because not even watching someone play video games can make this something I’d do gladly.
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January 16th!
Today I watched Episode 3 of Season 2 of Way of the House Husband.
I had English Subs on because I was eating dinner while I watched so I couldn’t keep going back to re-listen to bits, or pausing to read the subs in Japanese.
I managed to understand a fair amount by listening, but not enough that it would have made sense to me without the subs!
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February 16th
What did I listen to?: Oneus things 
How much time did I spend listening?: ~21 min
Today I went searching for content related to my favorite k-pop group in the entire world, Oneus 
And I had way more success than I did with Key content yesterday 
First I watched a reaction video titled 【ONEUS】初めてONEUSを見たらかっこよすぎた件www - basically it was these two guys looking into Oneus as a group for the very first time. They read through all the member profiles first (which deeply tested my knowledge of numbers because they were reading like heights and ages and stuff lmao). Then they watched the MV for A Song Written Easily (which is an excellent choice for a first Oneus song imo 
not like you can really go wrong but I’m probably a little biased) Their obsession with Hwanwoong was so funny literally though he’s so noticeable, he was the first one I could pick out too He’s small and charismatic and he has very distinct facial features/expressions, like he is literally always doing something with his face. Hwanwoong is great, we love Hwanwoong 
This channel has more Oneus reaction videos that I’m 100% going to watch.
Then I watched an unboxing of the In Its Time album (which is the album A Song Written Easily is on! Fun fact no one asked for, but that was why I picked it lmao). Unfortunately the video was super hard to understand because the person chipmunked her voice for no apparent reason, it sounded like she was being fast-forwarded the entire time 
But I did get that she’s a Seoho bias and she pulled a Seoho card so that was nice for her 
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February 16
Listened to Teppei for beginners #55, also played BU$TAFELLOWS 1h and Tales of Arise 1,5h.
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Feb 17, Fri of Week 8 of Winter Q1 2023
So-matome N2 Listening Ch.3 [5/5]. Hardest part is still number and calculations. There are scripts in answer key, though.
A little of 東京裁判, but this one has audio different from JP sub, as well as western-produced and feels one-sided. Didn’t finish the episode.
The Journalist EP.1. Should be OK if I read subtitle, which is synchronized with the audio, I think. New vocabularies too.
おいしいごはんが食べられますように [5/12].
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February 17th!
Usually I try to do a bit of dedicated listening practise even on days when I have a class with my tutor, despite the fact that obviously requires lots of listening - but today we dedicated a good portion of the class to doing listening comprehension exercises so I felt like I’d already done a lot of listening practise today and decided to let myself off from doing extra listening this evening.
As well as the listening exercise, we also spent time talking about Valentines Day, our plans for the weekend, my wedding anniversary and NHS Dentistry fees.
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the AI voices drive me mad. There are these awful anime heads with robo voices that make TONS of videos that would be interesting topics for me, and they have multiple channels for their topic sets too so I can’t just block one and be done. Always a disappointment to open a video and get AI voices 
I started that and didn’t finish it back when it was released 
I got 3 or 4 episodes in and it was great though! I just had…a bazillion other shows I was watching in tandem 
Also HI! I totally fell off this challenge due to ~2 weeks of traveling, although I did listen to some Japanese probably half of those days due to audiobooks. I guess now is the time for me to finally finish watching 最愛
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You won’t regret it, it was great throughout. I binge-watched it in two days (because I really needed the distraction, but never mind that), and it had the perfect blend of mystery, secrets, tension, likeable characters and complex antagonists.
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Feb 18, Sat of Week 8 of Winter Q1 2023
So-matome N3 Listening Ch.5 [3-4/5]. Remaining from the last month.
The Journalist EP.2, first half.
おいしいごはんが食べられますように [6/12].
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Day 49, 18th of February
Today I once again tried to look for Japanese gaming youtube channels. These are the videos I watched:
- A One-Block Minecraft episode by キヨ。; the channels is mostly multi-player videos, and the people are quite loud and chaotic. Not very good for listening.
- A oneshot of a game called “Fresh Start” by あまり驚かないガッチマンはホラーゲームばかりやっている; very relaxing, though there are other, more spooky or action-oriented games on this channel. Some multiplayer stuff, but the single-player videos at least are nice to listen to. Might watch the Dead Space Remake one.
- A Roblox video by mkのゲーム実況ch; has losts of Pokémon and Mario games as well. Speaks in a very hurried manner, and there is barely any pause (does he even breathe???).
- An episode of “Submerged Hidden Depths” by jiruchi 元まめろっく; I think this will be a channel I’ll come back to a lot. She has a variety of games that appeal to me and her voice is very pleasant.
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February 18th!
Just a tiny listen today because we have guests staying with us this weekend - but I listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for beginners. It was about nutrition.
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I went to a Japanese speech contest today that had 8 speakers for about 5 minutes each. I understood about 70 of one speech as she spoke quite clearly with easy vocabulary. For the other 7, 2 I completely blanked out as my brain got tired (they were the 2 top performers 
) and then I understood the gist of the other 5 speeches so good listening practice I would say.
Also did some Miku Real Japanese earlier.
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Feb 19, Sun of Week 8 of Winter Q1 2023
So-matome N3 Listening Ch.5 [5/5].
聞くだけで一気にわかる日本史 : 大正・昭和. The time of World War I and II, respectively. Also revisited 明治.
おいしいごはんが食べられますように [7/12].
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February 19th!
Today I listened to the final episode of JapanesePod101’s Upper Beginner Season 1, and then moved on to the first episode of Lower Intermediate Season 1.
I wasn’t sure if it might be too much of a step up, but I actually understood the dialogue pretty well. It was about akaname - demons who like to lick dirty bathtubs.
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