Spontaneous study reflections for nobody in particular:
I have made some realisations. I’ve been levelling up slower than I can handle on Tsurukame, average 12 days, but I think I can handle ~8 days. I discovered “lesson picker” and now I learn the new radicals and kanji on first day of each level to level up optimally. I am aware this will lead to a much larger review burden soon. However I seem to have no trouble with vocabulary once I know the kanji; turns out I know a lot of vocab from the first couple of years I studied Japanese, and the rest feels so intuitive. Daikon is dai + kon = big + root… yep I’d have called it the same thing myself radicals are mostly a breeze at this stage; they’re mostly kanji I already know, and the rest… they just make sense to me. So essentially, to my brain, not all items are equally hard to memorise. I can handle about 10 new concepts a day. So if I do 10 new lessons and each one makes me work hard to stop and think and visualise - like a yoga king under a canopy serving up tei-ter tots - that’s new and it’ll be harder to stick. That counts as one. But when I already know the radical 缶 means can and is pronounced かん… that’s a freebie! When I’ve already guru’d 億, learning 一億 and 一億円 counts as zero new information and likewise reviewing those cards takes about 0.1 seconds and no mental burden.
Of course, with all that said, there are many leeches. So when I keep getting a card wrong e.g. mixing up 短い and 低い repetitively I make note and up the ante for those ones e.g. by reviewing them daily or intensifying the mnemonic story, making it extra graphic and memorable.
As for reviews… seems I can do hundreds of reviews a day, for reasons mentioned above. Of course, I will slow down if it ever seems like too much or too burdensome or unenjoyable. My kanji studies are balanced with reading, speaking, listening, and grammar study. But overall I’m excited to realise I can go a bit faster; I was finding 12 days on one level too slow. So, I thought I’d unload my many thoughts into this post.
So good to see everyone’s reading progress and now I understand the “home post” way of updating. Very cool
また同じ夢を見ていた: 6 pages
I’m really liking this book because the dialogue flows really easily, while the narration sometimes hits you with weird run on sentences that are not difficult in terms of weird grammar or vocabulary since the point of view is an elementary school kid, but they still provide a good exercise.
Also it’s one of those books I had always heard about when I first started to read light novels (in English), so it feels kind of strange to finally be reading it.
Also played the Week 1 content for the Final Fantasy 2 book club that just started.
Cool everyday vocabulary like, you know, 帝国 and 反乱軍.
Day 3:
Read pages 59-85 (87 in bookwalker) in A Sign of Affection, essentially weeks 6-7 of the ABBC pace. Did a little more validation against the dictionary spreadsheet for a couple of terms I didn’t recognize and thought might be important but it was mostly still just accepting the uncertainty.
The latter is a non-fiction book about a girl in Hiroshima during the WW2. Reading the physical copy. I bought it at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in 2018. So it’s been in my tsundoku this entire time – probably my first owned JP book? Full furigana, but more lookups than usual due to war related vocab.
I haven’t really had problems with stamina while reading books anymore, but I feel it now. Either because it’s a physical book or because of the many lookups. Could also be both. Could also because I drove for the entire day yesterday, tired from that.
Finished こう言うのがいい10 and now up to date. Maybe something is finally happening… maybe not. Lol. It’s a chill, raunchy read every time either way. Maybe not the most PC of first reads of the year but whatever. (The character who was using really complicated vocabulary got drunk and was still using the complicated vocabulary except now she was slurring half her words!!!)
Picking up a new (well, old, but I haven’t read it) volume in a series I last read in 2024. Pretty comfy though, I coincidentally started at the chapters about お正月 so feels quite relevent.
I couldn’t resist starting 怪人二十面相 with the IBC even though I’m in the middle of so many other reads! I also decided to go back to スリ because I think I can finish it soonish since it’s not very long. Plus one chapter of a Harta manga.
No longer behind the Nana club! I’ll still need to read one more chapter tomorrow to do this week’s reading though.
I read another part of Good Morning Call. It’s a really simple manga, but it’s so shojo it gives me cavities if I read too much of it. I’ve been working on the series for years though, so I really want to finally finish it up.
January 3 - Read one more page of The Hobbit. I didn’t have to look up as much this time, so it only took me 10 minutes! That said, I think it’s partly because I’m starting to remember the English wording more, so I can make inferences…
Read the first week of ABBC’s selection for the season: Gal and Dino. I’m already living for the silliness of the story—excited to catch up on week two tomorrow!
I need to journal tomorrow to make up for today…(also might need to join a write everyday challenge at this rate!).
4/1/2026 
泣く女 
4 
4
radicals are mostly a breeze at this stage; they’re mostly kanji I already know, and the rest… they just make sense to me. So essentially, to my brain, not all items are equally hard to memorise. I can handle about 10 new concepts a day. So if I do 10 new lessons and each one makes me work hard to stop and think and visualise - like a yoga king under a canopy serving up tei-ter tots - that’s new and it’ll be harder to stick. That counts as one. But when I already know the radical 缶 means can and is pronounced かん… that’s a freebie! When I’ve already guru’d 億, learning 一億 and 一億円 counts as zero new information and likewise reviewing those cards takes about 0.1 seconds and no mental burden.
Home post
Welcome!
0% → 10%
Jan 3
I’ll still need to read one more chapter tomorrow to do this week’s reading though.
January 3rd 