# Returning from Japan with 79 books of Japanese Manga!

**URL:** <https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489>\
**Category:** Reading\
**Created:** [November 27, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489 "2019-11-27T18:21:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/1 "2019-11-27T18:21:55Z")

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Hi all,

I found this website a few days after returning from a 16 day trip in japan. 5 months prior to the trip I was using every app under the sun to become conversational. This ended up backfiring as I had no one to practice with. During my trip, I decided I would learn to read kanji and keep it fresh by reading Manga every day. So how would I keep myself motivated? I’ll just buy 100 yen Japanese Manga to bring home with me.

So 20+ shops later, 5 cities, 50 pounds added to my bags and one portable luggage scale, I was ready…ready to wait till I could actually read the language.

So that’s where I’m at. Any idea what level I can start reading my collection?

I also bought an all Japanese Switch game.

Looking forward to hearing from you all soon.

-Loafus

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**Author:** ![emucat](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/emucat/32/202831_2.png) [@emucat](https://community.wanikani.com/u/emucat)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/2 "2019-11-27T18:27:48Z")

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We want a picture!

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**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/3 "2019-11-27T18:40:21Z")

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![loot](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/4/6/e/46e85fd57295c334ff66bf4d6af44656bdcaea02.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![anon9242278](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon9242278](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon9242278)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/4 "2019-11-27T18:42:20Z")

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That is a nice haul.

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**Author:** ![Slowopoke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/slowopoke/32/441533_2.png) [@Slowopoke](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Slowopoke)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/5 "2019-11-27T18:44:28Z")

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is that a gudetama tamagotchi i see?!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/6 "2019-11-27T18:44:35Z")

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Might have also got a bunch of other things.

The manga includes:

Akira (read in English years ago)  
Trigun and the Trigun maximum (only say the show)  
Monster  
Rurouni Kenshin (saw the first part of the anime years ago)  
INUYASHIKI

all are complete and finished.

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**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/7 "2019-11-27T18:45:52Z")

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It is. I found it in Akiabara in a gatchapon collectors store. My girlfriend loves the Character and i wanted to bring something back from japan for her that had the character.

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**Author:** ![Slowopoke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/slowopoke/32/441533_2.png) [@Slowopoke](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Slowopoke)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/8 "2019-11-27T18:52:16Z")

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thats awesome! im sure she’ll like it 🙂

to answer your question about what level to read, honestly its hard to say. Akira is supposedly sorta advanced or harder to read. I feel like all the manga you got is a big more “advanced” in reading material but im not 100% sure. I’d say at least a full year of study. You said you were using apps for conversation so I’m not sure if you know much vocab or grammar aside from the apps and WK levels.

Hopefully some advanced readers can come in and give you a real answer lol

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**Author:** ![Haiena](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/haiena/32/286286_2.png) [@Haiena](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Haiena)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/9 "2019-11-27T18:52:30Z")

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すごいよ！７９冊のマンガが欲しいんだね…

I think it really depends on two things: A, what the manga is, and B, how much you are willing to stop and look something up while reading. I _could_ read a full-length novel in Japanese, but I would end up looking literally every single word up in Jisho. I don’t feel like doing that, so no native reading for me yet 😢

じゃあ、頑張ってね！

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**Author:** ![anon63460](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon63460](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon63460)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/10 "2019-11-27T18:54:02Z")

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You should have bought 10 volumes less.

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**Author:** ![PosturelessHobo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/posturelesshobo/32/269014_2.png) [@PosturelessHobo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/PosturelessHobo)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/11 "2019-11-27T18:56:37Z")

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Oh man I love Inuyashiki! Good stuff.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/12 "2019-11-27T19:02:15Z")

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I thank you for your answer. I do waniKani every day. Before the trip, I used Duolingo for 3+months, and Memrise for 1+months. Moved to Mango Languages to focus on sentence structure and grammar as it avoids Kanji completely and focuses on conversation without reading Kanji. this tripped me up as It only teaches you full sentences and no systems for taking individual vocabulary and combining it. So far I have retained the most through Wani Kani. I opened up the first page of One Punch Man in Japanese and I recognized two symbols but could not read the sentence as a whole. I’m also going to start using the site [The Japanese Grammar Index](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/) for grammar.

Thank you for the reply and the kind words.

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**Author:** ![insu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/insu/32/501806_2.png) [@insu](https://community.wanikani.com/u/insu)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/13 "2019-11-27T19:02:59Z")

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😮

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/14 "2019-11-27T19:03:49Z")

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You make very good points. I should probably pick up furigana manga and try that to start. Thank you for the insight.

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**Author:** ![Omun](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/omun/32/457654_2.png) [@Omun](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Omun)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/15 "2019-11-27T19:04:04Z")

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I see Trigun. Big approve. 👍

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/16 "2019-11-27T19:05:01Z")

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WHAT A MISSED OPPORTUNITY. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ON MY TSA FORMS AND EVERYTHING!!! 😢

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/17 "2019-11-27T19:06:01Z")

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Thank you for the thumbs up. What level do you believe I should attempt Trigun?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/18 "2019-11-27T19:07:06Z")

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Glad I picked it up then. What level do you think I should attempt it?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Omun](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/omun/32/457654_2.png) [@Omun](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Omun)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/19 "2019-11-27T19:11:51Z")

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I haven’t read it in Japanese, sadly. For me, in the level 20s is when it felt I was encountering stuff that I recently learned all the time.

The youtube channel of CureDolly really helped me with the important grammar basics, and then I switched to BunPro. Getting up to N3 grammar made reading much, much easier. Before that it was a struggle.

It will take you months of work, but your goal will be right there for you to look at!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loafuswalker](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Loafuswalker](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Loafuswalker)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489/20 "2019-11-27T19:14:24Z")

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Thank you so much. I appreciate your kind words and your suggestions.

[Next page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/returning-from-japan-with-79-books-of-japanese-manga/40489.md?page=2)
