January 19th!
Today I watched another origami video. This time to make a cat shaped bookmark. Its the most complex one I’ve made so far, and it didn’t go too badly.
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I am still in the middle of doing N4 grammar but I have started Nihongo con Teppei meant for intermediates. When I listen without subtitles I sometimes understand 50% and sometimes less but when I listen with subs I get about 70 or 80 % of some episodes and I am like whaaaatt? But this means I can sometimes understand the gist of some conversations but most of the time I can only catch a few words. I keep trying to tell myself to just keep going because living in Japan is frustrating when people treat you like you’re dumb (this comes from a place of wanting to help most of the time I believe).
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Yuyu will be what I challenge myself with when I make it to N3 grammar cause he speaks so damn fast.
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My grammar is about N3, but not my listening. 
So yeah, I can totally see that. So the first episode (on apple podcasts) was a conversation with a friend (I don’t think they continue like that?), and I could follow the flow of the conversation and I got the gist of it. But I definitely was lost from time to time when they were talking more details. So yeah, definitely not for me yet. Although I might try a couple of more episodes later to see if it is the same for all of them for me.
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This is very similar to the method my mum (a retired language teacher) told me to use.
Find audio with text.
Listen once without looking at the text.
Next listen, follow with the text.
Final listen, without looking at the text again.
If I know about this why don’t I do it 
Oh it’s because it’s much more intensive way of doing it. Great when I’ve got time to sit down at my desk and do it.
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Yeah it’s quite a commitment. Luckily I was used to doing two episodes before, so when now I just do one episode two times it’s easier to manage.
But I’m happy to see that my method has merit. I was really just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Monkeys and typewriters etcetera.
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Transcribed the new episodes of Noriko about morning routine and Shun about friends.
Took the dog out for a walk in the cold at lunchtime so I could get my listening minutes in, sorry dog.
Managed to get back to my target of around an hour a day after 30minutes the day before.
It’s still difficult, I still zone out, even after listening to the same episode time and again there’s bit’s I don’t get. Oh well keeping going in the hope it’s getting better.
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January 19
Listened to Teppei for beginners #22 and #23, played BU$TAFELLOWS for 45 min.
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Jan 20, Fri of Week 4 of Winter Q1 2023 
君の膵臓をたべたい Ch.8 [1-2/4]. Memoir with erased names. (Crossed out with a ballpoint pen, but read with new SFX.)
I listened to Youtube Kanken Level 2, 2.5, 3. I might just pass from 2.5 downwards. Readings are guessable and relatively straightforward; but meanings are sometimes more problematic. Longer phrases and Yojijukugo help. I can imagine listening alone being troublesome, especially when bare and isolated, but going up from lower levels probably would help?
かがみの孤城 March [10/10] + closing [1/3]. Although I understood the years from reading along with audio, I don’t think I would pick up most years when listening afterwards the third time. How to read dates isn’t exact to my mind, but that would be much easier to train.
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January 20 
Home Post
Comprehensible Japanese, 多読 (intermediate) 
I listen/watched this with subtitles on. I could probably have done without, but for most of the video I only glanced at the subtitles when I was confused. (Except for a couple of minutes at the end where I let myself get stuck, before remembering to look away.)
Comments on the content of the episode
Would I be able to read a lot more volume if I read easier books where I could read without look ups? Absolutely. Could I look up a bit less in what I was reading? Probably, but not significantly.
But having fun should really be the number one rule. Which is why I read things where I have to look up a lot, because it happens to be what I want to read.
I do however agree that reading helps a lot with getting good at a language and it does indeed teach my brain to skip translating and just begin understanding. Bit by bit. ^^
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I don’t know how it compares with Teppei, but I really like the Miku Real Japanese podcast. They’re usually (based off the 7 I have listened to) a conversation with another Japanese teacher (so a good way to find more resources), and most of the time I’m able to follow things alright. She also does shorter solo episodes, where she takes a little more time to explain difficult words.
By the way, I’ve been doing the challenge for … almost a week? and going strong! Thanks for linking interesting content everyone! I think I’ll keep watching あたしンち 
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Day 20, 20th of January
Episode #17 of Nihongo con Teppei. Always really appreciate his casual chatter in the beginning.
Today was about words used to describe family, so relatively easy. At least I think so. He seemed to be using his family as an example (he had mentioned them before when talking about where they lived). I think right now I’m less concerned with finding out what he’s saying exactly and more with getting the overall contents, it makes it less frustrating.
So I want to keep using this intensive method with Teppei, but use something else to listen to extensively. I guess I’ll use PiroPito for that.
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January 19
January 20 
Yesterday I passive-listened to the whole Naoki/Akutagawa live stream while doing other things. That was a lot of passive listening. It was an interesting experience because even if I wasn’t giving it my full attention (or sometimes not any), my brain still latched on a recognizable phrase or two every now and then without me meaning to. So I guess a stream of Japanese is not just noise to my brain anymore, but something to be processed and understood. Progress! On the other hand, what I understood while passive listening wasn’t that much less than what I understand when I listen actively, so yes, still a long way to go…
Today I was shorter on time so I just watched two random videos by two different booktubers. Funny how I always tend to recognize a couple of books per video. I guess I spend more time in online book shops that I should. 
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Whoa, that was a long time! I only managed to listen to the first two hours and then the last hour because I had a meeting in between. (So I basically missed the presentation of the Naoki books, and the interview with the first Akutagawa winner.) Of course I did not catch everything (maybe 60 percent or so?) But I liked it a lot! Especially the interviews with the authors. The second Akutagawa winner seemed so moved (or nervous?) I thought he’d start to cry any minute. And the other one, when he ranted about the toast his mother gave him 
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Oh I’m sure I caught a 10%, if that. But it still was interesting. I was mostly working at the same time, and just letting it run in the background. I didn’t catch the bit with the toast, but the second Akutagawa winner’s voice did break constantly, I guess from nervousness and emotion.
So I gather the second book the Akutagawa winners were holding was the literary magazine their story/novel first appeared? It’s a prerequisite apparently, to be published in such a magazine first.
The other thing I didn’t catch was in the beginning, when the panel talking about the books each held up a card where they had marked two or three books per award. The marks were a circle, two concentric circles, and an occasional triangle. No idea what they were supposed to mean.
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I don’t know how he came up with the story, I think it was during the questions section, and he said the toast was so disgusting, and his sister would always go out on the balcony and throw it down?
I didn’t catch the meanings of the symbols either. I suspect it was their ranking or something? 
(Note: Just found What are the meanings of circle, cross, and triangle in Japan? which might support my theory? Two circles = bulls-eye, one circle = correct, triangle = so-so?)
Oh, that’s a good call, I was totally wondering about that as well. (First I thought it might be a different book written by that author, but I couldn’t find any with that cover.) I also noticed that one of the five hosts would often read from a magazine when she talked about the books, and it looked as if the magazine consisted of 5 sections. Maybe they published a magazine about the shortlisted books or something.
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Hiding for off-topic talk about the Akutagawa award
Ah cool, so I guess two circles would be their first choice for the award, one circle their second, and the triangle the runner-up?
So we’ve been having this chat about pure literature across threads, and now with the Akutagawa award I decided to read up on it a little more. Happily I ran across a thesis in English on this very subject: 純文学 and the Akutagawa prize, or more precisely “How Junbungaku affects the Akutagawa prize and Japan’s commercial literary world”. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it explains the difference between 純文学 and 大衆文学, or rather the difference in criteria between the two awards, and examines the relation of magazines/publishing houses and these awards.
According to this thesis, the Akutagawa prize is awarded to new authors, on the basis of a singe work (I didn’t know that), while the Naoki prize takes into account the writer’s entire career including future prospects.
These new literary works by new authors are usually initially published in a literary magazine, I’m guessing a little like how manga first appear in magazines along with other works, and then are published on their own?
For example, this is the magazine the second Akutagawa winner was holding. It features three stories/novellas/novels(?) by different authors, one of which is the winning one. This would also answer my question about a video on Akutagawa nominees further up in this thread. The booktuber presenting them was reading from the magazine where each work first appeared, and not the book published independently.
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January 20th
Today I was inspired by @MaraVos and listened to the first Miku Real Japanese podcast.
Fun fact, one of the teachers in the Miku Real Japanese Podcast is one of my teachers! I’ve been having lessons with him via Italki for 2 years. 
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January 21
Home Post
Origami videos 
Listened to two more origami videos, which honestly is as much looking at what they do as listening to what they say. I could probably have made more of an effort to just listen at times, but I haven’t done much origami in my life.
Origami stuff
The videos I watched today and a few days ago where pouches or envelops. I have this idea of making a bit of a real life achievement system or something. So I’ll write some stuff I want to have/do, shuffle them and put them in the envelops and when I achieve one of my bigger things for the year, I’ll get to pick one and do/buy whatever is in there. xD Especially since I’m going to reduce my spending a lot, this will hopefully feel like a fun reward.
Or they’ll end up gathering dust… xD
Anyway, here is the labor from today and a few days ago:
Today was the two envelopes/pouches with golden paper.
The hardest one? Probably the leaf one because it needed to be quite exact, aka a bit finicky. Although the cranes that was folded along with the envelop were hard too. Btw, all of these are one paper, no gluing.
The other problematic thing was probably my origami paper. The metallic ones held folds very good which is both good and bad. xD Definitely not normal paper, but them maybe no origami paper is like normal paper? I don’t know because somehow I’d managed to picked up two slightly weird ones. 
Also I had no idea the heart one would be so small when I started it. For the pattern, it was required to cut off a fourth of the paper… I don’t think I’ll end up using that one for my achievement system if I get it up and running.
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Jan 21, Sat of Week 4 of Winter Q1 2023
So-matome N3 Listening Ch.3 [5/6]. In a shop, also hospital instructions.
君の膵臓をたべたい Ch.8 [3-4/4]. I am listening to reading of the written, with a lot of 括弧 being pronounced.
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