Re: monolingual dictionaries
My main thoughts on J-J definitions is that I’m definitely not quite ready for them yet haha. I have exactly one card in Anki that is a monolingual definition, and that’s because my Japanese dictionary on Yomichan was the only one that had a definition for it, and I just so happened to be able to read all of the other words in the definition (two of them I’d SRS’d earlier, and one I’d learned through MNN, because I haven’t learned the kanji yet through WK). So I went ahead and added that one, and it hasn’t been too bad! I will add other cards under those same conditions if I find more like that.
I do have Japanese definitions on most of my Anki cards simply because I have one monolingual dictionary installed on Yomichan, and Anki automatically imports in all of the definitions. For the most part, I don’t really read the monolingual definitions when doing SRS.
But something that’s kind of funny to me is that I will often try to read them when doing recall cards (I’ve made the somewhat unpopular choice of having both recognition and recall cards for everything I add to Anki). If I can’t quite remember the word from the English definitions, or I’m not sure which synonym it is, I’ll look at the Japanese definition for clues, haha. Often it lets me “cheat” by giving me kanji hints, which is sometimes enough for me to remember the word. It also usually has more nuance than the English glosses, which is helpful for distinguishing synonyms.
I don’t really try that hard to read these definitions during my reviews, so if I do look at them, I mostly just skim them and get what I can from them. Often I get pretty much nothing! But my vocab and overall understanding are definitely growing, and I’m noticing that the monolingual definitions are becoming easier for me to read and are becoming more useful. So in that sense, they’re a nice test of my overall progress.
My main philosophy at this point is not to worry about moving entirely to a J-J dictionary until reading these entries becomes easy and painless to me. I’m in a similar boat to Daisoujou where I have quite a few Anki cards to do daily, as well as my WK workload (though I’m doing 12-14 day levels, not 8 
). I’m often adding 20 cards a day to Anki now, plus 9 vocab + 3 kanji on WK (so, a total of 22 new items across both platforms). Reviewing 200 cards on Anki is a pretty regular occurrence for me, plus my WK reviews (and KaniWani). It’s a lot of SRS!
But I prefer to get my reading practice either from the scaled comprehensible input that Minna no Nihongo gives me, or from reading tweets, wrestling recaps/interviews, manga, etc., rather than reading dictionary entries. If I’m reading something, I either want it to be easy and painless, or difficult but very interesting to me, haha. And so far, dictionary entries aren’t easy and painless, and nor are they interesting. It’s also hard for me to get a sense from how a word is actually used just from a dictionary definition, anyway. Seeing it in context is the only way I learn that, regardless of if I use a monolingual dictionary or not.
I think that it’s definitely possible to move to J-J definitions earlier than this, and I’m sure that for the people who do, you’ll see tons of gains in understanding, but I feel like for me at least, this method pairs a bit better with immersion without SRS than it does with immersion alongside SRS. It certainly gives you plenty of reading practice, but if you try moving to it when it’s still too hard for you, it can drastically slow down your SRS reviews and sort of take away from the efficiency of that method, and add additional strain to a study method that is already inherently a bit fatiguing.
I definitely don’t want to discourage you, though! I think it’s a great step to take if it feels right for you, and it probably will help take your Japanese to that next level! But if you try it out and start to feel fatigue from it, don’t be afraid to step back and wait a little longer to make the full transition. It certainly is more work for your brain to do, and that coupled with the strain that already exists with SRS can sometimes be too much.
I’ve tried moving to monolingual dictionaries with Spanish (which I am studying without SRS), and I’m definitely closer to being able to use fully monolingual dictionaries with Spanish than I am with Japanese, but even then, my Spanish is still not quite there yet where monolingual dictionaries are truly painless for me, so I’ve gotten more out of looking words up in a S-E dictionary that has lots of context sentences, which do more to teach me the tone and use of the words than any definition really does. Once my vocabulary is better, I’ll try making the transition again, and see how it goes, haha.
I also definitely started Zero Escape on a whim haha, I look forward to seeing how if goes 
That being said though, I’m often forced to look at monolingual explanations of things just because it doesn’t exist in jisho, or it’s a more niche construction that someone explained, etc. etc. and it’s really rewarding to be able to access knowledge like that! So I can defeinitely see the appeal 
. Thanks for the encouragement!
I finished 13 sentinels a few days back (very fun game, would reccomend), and am now playing fire emblem 3 houses (I’m doing a blue lions route, and just finished chapter 4 I think 
). I played some of this game when it first came out a few years back in English (got a little bit further than I am now in the black eagles route) so that’s probably helping a bit with remembering the overall gameplay mechanics etc.
Anyway, approaching the climax of this route – having a good time so if I find the chance, I’ll read later tonight. But I’ve been redirecting to more listening practice when I can recently.
