Today I learned the word 暴力団, and in the process of looking up Kanto Rengo (never heard of), suddenly learned a lot more about Japanese law:
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I must say, the thing I like about Japanese Yakuza is that they are semi-legal.
Kind of reminds me of Terry Prattchett’s Ankh-Morporkh which officially had Assassins Guild and Thieves Guild 
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ha – that’s awesome! xD Terry Pratchett rocks!!! 
Yes – that they are semi-legal is very interesting to me!!! When I saw that news article, it made me get a tiny glimpse, just for a moment, of a completely different way of law…a completely different way of thinking than I’ve ever considered. I’d like to learn more about this, but I have no idea where to start. (Japanese philosophy of law enforcement/governance??)
To be honest, until I saw that article I believed that any toleration of organized crime in Japan was due to a sort of …threat relationship, maybe? That the syndicates were tolerated because they were such a threat to politicians, politics, and order in general…but this article made me think it was more like a fundamental difference in approaching the problem of how to keep violent crime rates low. It’s definitely not non-interventionist.
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Oh, and I did my reviews and also took 15 lessons too!! 
Here’s the soundtrack I settled on:
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Reading brag: having paused at 1’12" into this video, I took a moment to try and read as much of the billboard/sign as I could and… I know what this shop is!!! Remarkably, with the context in that first line, I also was able to understand “Binbows” too!!!
I wasn’t able to recognize the kanji at the upper left though, not yet at least. 
Thanks, WK. Y’all’re making my life here!!
Also, having watched that vid, here’s a great place to read some Japanese! It’s sweet and funny and charming and so far what sentences I’ve read have been either instantly comprehensible or very obviously simply-enough constructed to be within reach as I learn the kanji that are used~! ♪ 
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It’s level 26 kanji 激 - げき - fierce / violent.
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I hope you’ll give a go again! I’m glad to help inspire! 
So far I’ve managed to do one lesson a day and I felt really proud of my kanji I wrote down. 
I didn’t have much time yesterday and didn’t felt like it but I pushed myself to it and seeing all my kanji I wrote down afterwards made me feel glad to have done it - I’m feeling more excited to do it now…you gave me that push I needed. 
Being able to read things really helps motivation! You can only get better and look forward to reading more as you level up.
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Yayyyy!!! (Have you played Death Stranding? If so, you’ll hear this the way I’m saying it to you: “Like!”)
This is great – giving each other pushes from inside that feel so good rather than pressure…honestly, this kind of thing is relatively new to me, at least to this degree, maybe even as of this year!! Inspiring one another!!! Yayyy!!! 
I’ve just done a small batch of reviews and a 15-lesson chunk and am feeling really happy with myself too!! Good for you with your kanji lesson and writing today! And yesterday too!!! That’s immense! 
The reading is really interesting – definitely i am understanding more of the kanji this time around, and also am more aware of what I’m not actually understanding too, if that makes sense! It’s like the presence of the ability to read any kanji at all kinda blinded me to the fact that some of them weren’t actually familiar? Also blinding me to that fact was my using jisho.org to look up stuff I didn’t know – that’s really only an instantaneous understanding. Super ultra temporary, though I didn’t really know that when I was doing it. I think i’m going to have write down kanji and definitions as I go, like, page by page. Possibly panel by panel? :-o
Great day!!! Great day to you and great tomorrow to you too!!!
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Whoa!!! Thank you very much, @trunklayerさん!!
So… fierce savings!!! I love it!!! I also love that it’s in the Death levels – where I’m currently at!! Inspiring to continue!!! (I don’t want to experience a WK “Death Stranding”… xD lolololol please ignore my terrible jokes)
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It’s great for me as I have a hard time motivating myself. I try to give myself a mini goal like at the moment it’s aiming to get to level 20. 
If there’s some tricky kanji it might be worth quickly writing them down - I actually write a kanji once after checking the stroke order, write down the reading, then write down the English meaning and then write the kanji six more times repeating the reading in my head if it’s one I don’t know so well, usually that works out well for me! I have to listen to music while writing as it takes a time but it really makes it more enjoyable for me.
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Ahhhh me toooo!!! I have a 100% identical mini-goal actually!!! Mine was declared at level 19 or 20: get to 25 so maybe I will be able to read NHK News Web Easy a bit more…well…a bit more possibly. 
Thank you for the continuing encouragement to write, and thank you for sharing your process. Music helps make everything better!! 
~♫
Do you sit at a desk/table?? Do you do this in your lap? I’m needing to figure that out…maybe…or maybe I’m just delaying myself with doubts and sowing confusion out of intimidation… 
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Did my lessons!!! At 0/0 for a little bit – yayy!!!
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I’ll cheer you on for 25! 
I just sit at my desk in front of my laptop playing music. I’ve been enjoying instrumental Final Fantasy music - I was listening to this one today!
~But any instrumental songs are ok (I guess I tend to listen to old game music ^^;), vocal can be a bit too distracting to me.
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for the music: thank you!!! Ooooo! IX?? That’s the cute chibi-characters one, right? Was it also online?? I look forward to listening during my upcoming review session!!
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Thank you!!! I’m distracted by vocals like you are – this ost instrumental is peaceful and helpful! Thank you!! 
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oh my gosh – you’re one of the people who told me to hold on for lvl 25!!! and marshmallows.
Thank you! I think trunklayer told me this originally.
In related news, I bought myself a bag of full-size colored “study” marshmallows.
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Finished 35 reviews – right before bed. I get one marshmallow for that!! 
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Yes it was! I actually replayed it in Japanese a while ago and enjoyed it more than when I was a lot younger. Well I always liked it but I liked it more after I replayed it.
Have some more marshmallows!
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Awesome!!! That’s a real accomplishment!!! I’m looking forward to being able to play and read untranslated stuff…
Yummyyyy thank you for the marshmallows!!!
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Feeling fancy – I did my reviews and kept up with them, and today I did 15 lessons again! I’m not doing 20 lessons just yet… 
sooon soooooon
But it’s pretty nice to be doing my reviews as they come in – just these small batches. It’s much more relaxing and I don’t have to be figuring out my soundtrack… just doing them is satisfying enough and I don’t have to keep focus for such long periods!!
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