Phil's Japanese Journal Ep 4 April

[00:00:13] Hello and welcome to Phillip's Japanese Journal.

[00:00:17] Each month I pursue my goal of playing video games while learning Japanese.

[00:00:22] This month was a strange one.

[00:00:23] Month 3 was real hard, so I thought this month would be hard too.

[00:00:28] I was taking two online college classes.

[00:00:30] I had my annual PT test to prepare and stress over.

[00:00:33] There was a lot going on that I assumed would make it hard to get all my times in.

[00:00:38] Instead, I finished most of my categories at least a week early, with the exception

[00:00:42] of studying and reading, which were completed still like three days early.

[00:00:48] Before we get into it's some quick housekeeping.

[00:00:50] Everything I mention in this pod will be linked in the description.

[00:00:53] After reviewing my last Japanese Journal, I felt I didn't provide enough for you

[00:00:57] dear listeners besides my time accounting.

[00:01:00] So to remedy that, I've come up with some tips for each category that can hopefully

[00:01:04] help you on your learning journey.

[00:01:06] So let's get started with listening.

[00:01:09] Once again, it's quite easy to get all my listening done.

[00:01:11] My target was one full hour a day, and I easily beat that.

[00:01:15] It's not hard to put on a podcast while you're driving and just listen.

[00:01:19] This month our dishwasher broke, so I had a bit more time to spend hand washing dishes.

[00:01:25] I use this as an opportunity to pop in my earbuds and listen to some Japanese.

[00:01:29] I managed to finish at least a week early.

[00:01:32] Since I finished so fast, one hour is obviously too easy to do.

[00:01:36] Looking back, 30 hours in a whole month doesn't feel like an insane amount.

[00:01:40] To try and hit my limits, I'm going to add another 10 minutes to my goal.

[00:01:44] So my new goal is going to be an hour and 10 minutes.

[00:01:47] My tip, dear listener for this month, is for people who feel like they are struggling

[00:01:50] with listening, is just restart whatever you're actually listening to.

[00:01:54] I've gone all the way through three different podcasts, and I could have easily just

[00:01:58] switched to any of the hundreds of other learning podcasts, but instead I restarted

[00:02:03] them from episode one.

[00:02:04] It's really motivating to retrace your steps and notice how much more you actually

[00:02:08] understand the second way through that you might not have understood the first time

[00:02:11] through.

[00:02:13] Next category, watching.

[00:02:16] For anime, this month, much like listening, I finished way ahead of schedule, and I think

[00:02:21] that's mostly due to finding some shows that really hooked me.

[00:02:25] For example, Haikyuu.

[00:02:27] This is the big one that I spend most of my time with.

[00:02:30] An anime about volleyball.

[00:02:32] Now I'm not particularly interested in volleyball, but I had to live in myself and ration

[00:02:36] out all the episodes so I didn't burn through them all.

[00:02:39] At the time of this recording, Netflix has seasons one and three of the movies, with

[00:02:44] more seasons expected to be added.

[00:02:46] The show is pretty old, from like 2014, has multiple seasons, movies, manga, light

[00:02:51] novels, apparently did quite well for itself.

[00:02:53] I'm not really a sports guy, but I love this show.

[00:02:57] It's fun, the animation and character designs are great, I think this show could appeal

[00:03:01] to a lot of people.

[00:03:03] From a language standpoint, the series mostly takes place in a Japanese high

[00:03:08] school.

[00:03:09] It mostly centers around volleyball, no surprise.

[00:03:11] They spend a lot of time talking about their motivations and why they must not lose,

[00:03:16] so it's a little cheesy, but the language is not too difficult most of the time.

[00:03:22] One tiny side note is that they use a lot of volleyball terms that are kind of like

[00:03:26] the same as English volleyball, terms like set, serve, spike, and receiver, so

[00:03:33] that's some easy bonus vocab that you won't need to study for.

[00:03:37] The next anime I watch the most of is Cardcaptor Sakura.

[00:03:41] This is a series that I use to buffer out haiku, I would alternate between the

[00:03:45] two series so I wouldn't run out of haiku too fast, but Cardcaptor Sakura may be

[00:03:49] one of the best shows for learning Japanese.

[00:03:52] I think I'm in something like 15 episodes now, or I think I'm in about 50 episodes

[00:03:58] deep at this point and the show is very comprehensible.

[00:04:02] The most recent episode was centered around a school play of Sleeping Beauty and it felt

[00:04:05] easy to watch and understand the dialogue.

[00:04:08] Now I say it felt easy, but it wasn't as natural as English, so I still need to focus

[00:04:13] on the show and read the subtitles as I talk to have a chance of comprehending what's

[00:04:18] going on.

[00:04:20] Cardcaptor Sakura is definitely a big recommend for me.

[00:04:24] I watched a few other shows, but nothing really stuck.

[00:04:27] For example, I watched the Nino Kuni movie on Netflix, but it was a little disappointed

[00:04:31] that there weren't any connections to the games.

[00:04:34] The movie dialogue I would describe as pretty difficult for me, some scenes were super

[00:04:39] simple while others went completely over my head.

[00:04:42] One scene in particular explained the connections between the real world and the Nino Kuni

[00:04:46] world and I was lost in the sauce.

[00:04:50] Quick speed around to wrap up my shows, I also watched more TZ Master Tateagisan,

[00:04:55] Rila Kuma and Carol, and My Happy Marriage, all good shows I'd recommend.

[00:05:03] For watching, my goal was 35 minutes a day and I finished about a week early.

[00:05:06] I think I'll bump this up to 40 minutes a day and see how that goes.

[00:05:10] That's still not more than two 22 minute episodes, but it might be a stretch for

[00:05:15] me.

[00:05:17] Tips for watching shows.

[00:05:19] My tip for people who are struggling with watching is to try to find a show

[00:05:22] that really hooks you, like Haiku did for me.

[00:05:25] I know it's popular in Japanese learning like subreddits and stuff to push for

[00:05:30] comprehensible input.

[00:05:32] And yes, they are correct, you will get the most benefit from shows that you

[00:05:35] actually know the vocab, but I think I talked about in previous journals, if

[00:05:40] you don't have any interest in the show, knowing the vocab probably won't

[00:05:43] help.

[00:05:44] There are a bunch of shows in English that I don't watch because I'm

[00:05:47] just not interested, for example.

[00:05:49] So TLDR, find what actually interests you and watch it even if it's

[00:05:54] incomprehensible at first.

[00:05:58] Next up, reading.

[00:06:00] This month, I feel like I'm reaping the benefits of the struggle I went

[00:06:03] through with reading last month.

[00:06:05] I finished all my reading like three days early and I'm super excited to

[00:06:08] read more.

[00:06:10] The most time I spent reading was with Yotsuba.

[00:06:13] It's still good.

[00:06:14] I love it so much.

[00:06:16] It makes me sad because I can see my to be read list and I know only

[00:06:19] have a few volumes of Yotsuba left before I finish the series.

[00:06:23] I know there are so many more manga series out there for me to learn

[00:06:27] but I've grown very comfortable and attached to the Yotsuba characters

[00:06:30] and I'll miss them.

[00:06:32] I'm going to try to finish Yotsuba this coming month and after that, I

[00:06:35] might restart the series or maybe just read a random issue now and

[00:06:38] again.

[00:06:39] I read my first Yotsuba back in like January four months ago and

[00:06:42] it feels like I have been with these characters for much longer.

[00:06:45] Once again, dear listener, Yotsuba is probably the best beginner

[00:06:49] manga ever so go check it out.

[00:06:52] Teasing Master Takagasan is still a good read.

[00:06:55] It's an interesting read alongside the anime.

[00:06:58] I'm kind of doing like a tandem like reading watching thing.

[00:07:01] I'll discuss it more in the study section but this series has become

[00:07:04] a really interesting subject for me.

[00:07:06] The manga just like the show is real good for beginners.

[00:07:09] A few of the other series I picked up haven't read more than

[00:07:12] like maybe 30 minutes with.

[00:07:14] It can be like Sen'yu.

[00:07:16] It's a comedy Japanese webcomic about like a hero's quest to

[00:07:19] defeat a demon king.

[00:07:21] Surprise.

[00:07:22] The demon king is a hero who has been defeated by a previous

[00:07:25] ancient hero.

[00:07:26] That's pretty traditional but the joke is the demon king can

[00:07:29] only be defeated by someone with the ancient hero's

[00:07:32] bloodline.

[00:07:33] But due to the hero and his children being quite prolific,

[00:07:36] there's now hundreds of his descendants preparing to

[00:07:39] defeat the demon lord.

[00:07:41] The king of the land offers like a reward to whoever can

[00:07:44] defeat the demon lord and then kind of silliness ensues.

[00:07:47] Since it's like a webcomic, the dialogue is pretty short and

[00:07:50] quick but still a little advanced for me.

[00:07:52] I'll probably just check in with this from time to time to

[00:07:55] see how my skills progress.

[00:07:57] Next up, Shoujo Shumatsu Ryoku which is localized as like

[00:08:02] girls last tour.

[00:08:04] It follows two girls as they try to like survive in a

[00:08:07] post-apocalyptic world.

[00:08:08] The art's really interesting as like the main characters are

[00:08:11] simplified and chibiish characters in an environment

[00:08:14] which is very like darkly sketched and full of very

[00:08:17] detailed weapons and war machines.

[00:08:20] I read about two issues at this point and the language is

[00:08:23] tough in a few parts but most of it's just simple

[00:08:26] conversations between the two survivors or just quiet

[00:08:29] moody artwork as they explore the ruins.

[00:08:32] I'll have to read some more before I can give this

[00:08:34] a recommendation outside of just the artwork.

[00:08:37] Next up, Maho Tsukai no Yomu which is localized as the

[00:08:43] ancient magnus bride.

[00:08:45] Seems to be a Beauty and the Beast story with like

[00:08:48] fairies and fae horrors.

[00:08:50] The ancient magnus from the title is like this

[00:08:54] horrifying creature with his head being a skull that's

[00:08:57] like a massive deer.

[00:08:58] I can't describe how spooky I find this guy.

[00:09:01] I love his design.

[00:09:02] I've read one chapter so far and I can definitely

[00:09:05] say that this is too high difficulty for me.

[00:09:08] I assume this is like a spooky romance situation but

[00:09:11] I'll have to wait until my skills develop more

[00:09:13] before I proceed.

[00:09:14] I know there's an anime that goes alongside this

[00:09:16] manga.

[00:09:17] My goal for reading was 20 minutes a day and it's

[00:09:20] surprisingly easier than last month.

[00:09:22] For my next month I'm just going to try to give it

[00:09:25] a tiny bump to like 22 minutes a day.

[00:09:28] With all the increases in my other categories I

[00:09:30] don't want to overwhelm myself.

[00:09:32] My tip for those that are struggling with reading

[00:09:35] is to take the path of least resistance.

[00:09:38] I just listed out like five different manga.

[00:09:40] Oftentimes I would read like a little bit into each

[00:09:42] one every day.

[00:09:44] I would hit the end of Yotsuba and I'd feel

[00:09:46] motivated to try something harder.

[00:09:48] So then I'd read a few pages of Takagi-san and

[00:09:51] then I'd want to read something kind of fantasy.

[00:09:54] So I'd try reading some Sen'yu or Ancient

[00:09:56] Magnus just like a page at a time.

[00:09:58] And if that felt too hard I'd go back to

[00:10:00] Yotsuba.

[00:10:01] So quick advice, you don't need to force

[00:10:03] yourself to read through everything.

[00:10:05] Just feel what you can do and then do that.

[00:10:10] For studying, nothing really new to report in

[00:10:12] the study section.

[00:10:13] Mostly this month I'm still primarily using

[00:10:15] Renshu with a backbone of like JPDB when I

[00:10:20] need a change of scenery.

[00:10:22] I have been using a lot of Anki again.

[00:10:24] Specifically I just started using Joe

[00:10:27] Mako's Morph Man Teasing Master Takagi-san

[00:10:30] deck.

[00:10:32] Since it's been a while I kind of want to

[00:10:34] brief all my tools again, kind of explain

[00:10:36] what each of these really are.

[00:10:39] Renshu is an all in one SRS based flash

[00:10:42] card database for Japanese, very friendly

[00:10:44] user UI.

[00:10:46] You can select like pre-made decks made up

[00:10:48] of terms from the Renshu's dictionary and

[00:10:51] Renshu will schedule them out for you based

[00:10:53] on your knowledge of the terms.

[00:10:55] So you only study when you really need to.

[00:10:57] What's really good about Renshu is that it

[00:11:00] tests the individual facets of a term.

[00:11:02] For example I may know the meaning of a

[00:11:04] word without knowing the reading.

[00:11:06] And Renshu can identify this and will

[00:11:08] specifically test me for knowledge of the

[00:11:10] reading while not asking the meaning until

[00:11:12] eight months later since I do know the

[00:11:14] meaning.

[00:11:16] JPDB which is the Japanese database is an

[00:11:18] SRS flash card website with decks based on

[00:11:20] specific media such as anime or light

[00:11:22] novels.

[00:11:24] It teaches you the most common terms in

[00:11:26] an anime and the kanji through radicals.

[00:11:28] It has a centralized database that you

[00:11:30] can check your known terms and it will

[00:11:32] recommend other terms like the

[00:11:34] kanji for example.

[00:11:36] It's a very simple database.

[00:11:38] And it will like recommend other series.

[00:11:40] For example I have like 68%

[00:11:42] coverage for TZ Master Takagi-san

[00:11:44] based on the terms it's taught me.

[00:11:46] I'm able to see what other

[00:11:48] series I also probably know

[00:11:50] the words to.

[00:11:52] Anki is an SRS flash card

[00:11:54] program that's completely user driven.

[00:11:56] Users must create their own

[00:11:58] decks or share them amongst themselves.

[00:12:00] There's no central database of terms

[00:12:02] so if I have multiple texts going at

[00:12:04] the same time with the top

[00:12:07] 3000 most common words

[00:12:09] I'll have to learn the

[00:12:11] word nihongo in every deck.

[00:12:13] Now the big change recently

[00:12:15] is I've sort of been using

[00:12:17] Joe Mako's Morphman decks

[00:12:19] which go line by line with an anime.

[00:12:21] You can edit what's displayed

[00:12:23] on the card.

[00:12:25] So for his TZ Master Takagi-san deck

[00:12:27] I have the front card which is

[00:12:29] on the front of it.

[00:12:31] I have a screenshot and like a play

[00:12:33] audio button. The back has

[00:12:35] the text of the audio and the English translation.

[00:12:37] I'm using these cards to hopefully

[00:12:39] get my listening level up

[00:12:41] with my reading so I don't have to be

[00:12:43] super reliant on subtitles anymore.

[00:12:45] I plan to grind through this deck

[00:12:47] as much as possible this next month

[00:12:49] and I'm looking forward to tell y'all about the experience

[00:12:51] and see how it shakes out.

[00:12:53] My goal was an average of

[00:12:55] 1 hour and 8 minutes a day for studying

[00:12:57] and it really wasn't too hard to hit.

[00:12:59] This month I spent a lot of time

[00:13:01] driving to my friend's house and

[00:13:03] I was driving 10 times.

[00:13:05] So during those 30 minutes of driving

[00:13:07] I would grind out my flashcards

[00:13:09] there and back and this really helped me

[00:13:11] meet my daily average.

[00:13:13] Since I don't really think studying more than

[00:13:15] an hour a day is worth it,

[00:13:17] I'm still going to add another minute to my time

[00:13:19] just to see how far I can push it.

[00:13:21] So my new goal will be an hour and 9 minutes each day for study.

[00:13:23] My tips for study.

[00:13:25] This might be a little

[00:13:27] counterintuitive but I'm starting to believe

[00:13:29] that there's not that much value

[00:13:32] in studying more than an hour a day.

[00:13:34] I do it some days just to help my average out

[00:13:36] when I have extra time or when I know

[00:13:38] my reviews are piling up

[00:13:40] and then I think I'm going to fall behind

[00:13:42] I can study more.

[00:13:44] But if you aren't studying to meet a deadline

[00:13:46] such as like a test or something like I'm doing

[00:13:48] then I think you might need to take it easy.

[00:13:50] There are days when I would spend like

[00:13:52] 3 hours studying on WrenchU

[00:13:54] and while it probably did help me reach the point I am now

[00:13:56] I think time and experience

[00:13:58] can just be beneficial too.

[00:14:00] If you already finished like an hour of study

[00:14:02] then go watch an anime or play a video game instead.

[00:14:04] Alright now the meat.

[00:14:06] Gaming in Japanese.

[00:14:08] To start off

[00:14:10] I did not complete any games this month

[00:14:12] but I still got all my game time in.

[00:14:14] I attribute not finishing any game this month

[00:14:16] to some of the newer developments

[00:14:18] in mobile gaming.

[00:14:20] Specifically Apple has recently begun allowing

[00:14:22] emulators on the App Store.

[00:14:24] For those of you that are unaware

[00:14:26] on emulators the TLDR is

[00:14:28] a program that emulates old hardware

[00:14:30] to run retro games and software.

[00:14:32] Some modern uses of emulation

[00:14:34] is the Nintendo Switch membership games

[00:14:36] that let you play old titles on

[00:14:38] your Nintendo Switch.

[00:14:40] Now back to Apple.

[00:14:42] I have been in the Apple camp for a pretty long time

[00:14:44] so I'm pretty entrenched.

[00:14:46] My biggest complaint with iPhones is how

[00:14:48] the App Store is so controlled.

[00:14:50] It pushes and pedals every ad

[00:14:52] stricken gacha game

[00:14:54] but discourages things like emulators.

[00:14:57] But now the App Store has changed so that

[00:14:59] the Delta emulators arrived on the store.

[00:15:01] The app is capable of running

[00:15:03] Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance

[00:15:05] NES, SNES

[00:15:07] Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS.

[00:15:09] The app is also

[00:15:11] completely free with no ads, trackers

[00:15:13] or malware. It's incredible.

[00:15:15] I do need to know that there is a lot of

[00:15:17] gray area around emulators and just

[00:15:19] a month or two ago Nintendo took down

[00:15:21] the biggest Switch emulator Yuzu

[00:15:23] and 3DS emulator Citra

[00:15:25] through some copyright lawsuit

[00:15:27] so use these at your own risk.

[00:15:29] Legal warning aside, Delta

[00:15:31] has launched to the top of the App Store

[00:15:33] charts. Everyone is playing the

[00:15:35] Pokemons and Marios of their childhood.

[00:15:37] This is huge for me because

[00:15:39] there were a significant number of DS titles

[00:15:41] that were never released stateside

[00:15:43] or just a lot of them that were made by

[00:15:45] Japanese developers. I have long

[00:15:47] felt that my phone is probably one of my most

[00:15:49] underutilized pieces of gaming tech

[00:15:51] but there was nothing that I really wanted to play on it.

[00:15:53] I tried playing Ahonkai Star Rail on it

[00:15:55] but the thing is if I'm going to bother to play

[00:15:57] something on my phone, I'm probably just going to play

[00:15:59] for like 5-10 minutes then move along

[00:16:01] to something else. Online mobile

[00:16:03] games like Ahonkai Star Rail takes

[00:16:05] like 2 minutes just to load

[00:16:07] into the gameplay and

[00:16:09] if I need to switch tabs or lock my phone for a minute

[00:16:11] then I spend like another full minute

[00:16:13] just reconnecting. It's not worth it.

[00:16:15] Delta on the

[00:16:17] other hand has like quick load

[00:16:19] and quick save features that allow me to be in the game

[00:16:21] that I want to play in less than like 30 seconds

[00:16:23] at the exact spot

[00:16:25] I saw playing before. It's much more

[00:16:27] convenient. This also

[00:16:29] provides an opportunity for me to play games

[00:16:31] that are just not sold anywhere anymore.

[00:16:33] For example, one game that I've been playing

[00:16:35] the most so far is Blue Dragon

[00:16:37] Akai no Kaiju

[00:16:39] which is a sequel to the

[00:16:41] Xbox 360 Blue Dragon.

[00:16:43] About 6 hours this month has

[00:16:45] just been from using the Delta app

[00:16:47] which has only been out for like 13 days at this

[00:16:49] point. I'm getting around 30 minutes a day

[00:16:51] out of this guy and I think that's going to make a big difference

[00:16:53] in all my times.

[00:16:55] So this is a great development but I am

[00:16:57] even more interested in the emulation

[00:16:59] of devices such as like the PS2 or PSP

[00:17:01] There's so many more Japanese

[00:17:03] games for those consoles while

[00:17:05] also being like modern enough that they're not

[00:17:07] unbearable to play like some retro

[00:17:09] games might be.

[00:17:11] Now for non-phone games

[00:17:13] Octopath Traveler 2

[00:17:15] I've now reached 26 hours of game time

[00:17:17] in Octopath 2 and it's my most played

[00:17:19] Japanese game ever

[00:17:21] beating out trials of mana at 24 hours.

[00:17:23] The how long to beat for

[00:17:25] Octopath Traveler is listed at 60 hours

[00:17:27] which feels insanely long.

[00:17:29] For context, I spent

[00:17:31] 42 and a half hours this month playing

[00:17:33] Japanese video games so even if I only

[00:17:35] played Octopath I would still not

[00:17:37] be done with it. I think

[00:17:39] I may have discussed it before but Octopath

[00:17:41] is not a bad game for beginners to

[00:17:43] Japanese. I will warn you that there's

[00:17:45] no furugana so lookups on

[00:17:47] the fly might be hard to

[00:17:49] manage. But instead you can

[00:17:51] pause the dialogue line by line and

[00:17:53] listen to the excellent voice acting

[00:17:55] as you need to. The most difficult

[00:17:57] part language wise is

[00:17:59] reading ability descriptions

[00:18:01] and trying to understand passive effects.

[00:18:03] I'm sure they're actually quite

[00:18:05] simple but parsing the statements

[00:18:07] is hard for me. Next up we have a

[00:18:09] new title to introduce, Ni no Kuni 2

[00:18:11] Revenant Kingdom

[00:18:13] I'm 16 hours in and I'm loving this game.

[00:18:15] The how long to beat has this listed at

[00:18:17] 39 hours which isn't too long

[00:18:19] but is still a meaty boy.

[00:18:21] The cutscenes, much like Trials of Mana,

[00:18:23] cannot be paused but those

[00:18:25] are rare compared to the

[00:18:27] discussion segments. There are

[00:18:29] segments of the game which are like standard

[00:18:31] text boxes but you control the rate

[00:18:33] with the voice acting.

[00:18:35] This is much like how Octopath Traveler 2 does it.

[00:18:37] There's no furugana

[00:18:39] and not everything is voice acted

[00:18:41] Instead they do the grunting

[00:18:43] that is often associated with

[00:18:45] Japanese games. Language

[00:18:47] wise this is not a difficult game

[00:18:49] there are some words related to

[00:18:51] roles in running a country that I don't really

[00:18:53] understand. At one point you have a

[00:18:55] document that you're getting signed by

[00:18:57] neighboring countries. I'm guessing

[00:18:59] this is like some form of

[00:19:01] declaration of allied kingdoms maybe

[00:19:03] either way you can

[00:19:05] context your way through this. Anything

[00:19:07] you don't really understand just watch

[00:19:09] the cutscenes and you probably figured it out. I might

[00:19:11] not recommend this for beginner

[00:19:13] beginners but if you haven't played any

[00:19:15] games before this then you still could

[00:19:17] be fine.

[00:19:19] Next up Bloodstained

[00:19:21] Ritual of the Night. After playing

[00:19:23] like 30 hours of these slower RPGs

[00:19:25] I was really hungry for some faster gameplay

[00:19:27] so I have

[00:19:29] had Bloodstained Ritual of the Night on my

[00:19:31] to play list for a while

[00:19:33] and when I booted it up in like January or

[00:19:35] something to check the difficulty of the language

[00:19:37] I felt that it was way too hard.

[00:19:39] I returned this month to see if it was still hard

[00:19:41] and surprisingly after

[00:19:43] surprisingly after a few months of study

[00:19:45] it's not as hard as I remember.

[00:19:47] It has full voice acting with big text

[00:19:49] boxes that are in like a visual

[00:19:51] novel style. There's no real cutscenes

[00:19:53] so far. No furigana

[00:19:55] but you can take as long as you need

[00:19:57] to translate the boxes.

[00:19:59] This game is great. I'm having a lot of

[00:20:01] fun with it. I'm currently 6 hours into the game

[00:20:03] with a how long to beat of 14 hours I'm

[00:20:05] expecting to finish this game this coming month

[00:20:07] and make it my 6th game this year.

[00:20:09] Assuming it isn't too hard or I

[00:20:11] don't you know quit out of rage

[00:20:13] I don't think I can recommend this

[00:20:15] as a beginner game

[00:20:17] for beginners so far.

[00:20:19] I'll play some more and think about it

[00:20:21] but they're much easier games

[00:20:23] this might be the hardest one I've had

[00:20:25] kind of language wise that I can understand

[00:20:27] but I do intend to complete it.

[00:20:29] My goal this month in gaming was an average

[00:20:31] of an hour and 25 minutes

[00:20:33] and I easily made it way ahead of schedule by a few days.

[00:20:35] I'm eating good now

[00:20:37] when it comes to like game choice

[00:20:39] and availability. Since gaming

[00:20:41] is the whole point of this endeavor

[00:20:43] I think I'm going to go hard on this one

[00:20:45] and add 10 minutes to each day.

[00:20:47] That puts me at a goal of an hour and 35 minutes

[00:20:49] each day. It's a lot

[00:20:51] but I'll be interested in seeing what my

[00:20:53] limits actually are.

[00:20:55] My tip this month for people who are struggling

[00:20:57] with gaming in Japanese is to not

[00:20:59] sweat over menus.

[00:21:01] A lot of Japanese games have big menus

[00:21:03] with inventories, quest logs

[00:21:05] statuses, level up screens that are all

[00:21:07] full of like scary kanji

[00:21:09] that you might not know. From my experience

[00:21:11] you don't need to understand everything to play

[00:21:13] the game. The game might be a bit

[00:21:15] harder since you can't really min

[00:21:17] max your build but the odds

[00:21:19] are you can still make it. An example

[00:21:21] of this was like the kanji associated with the

[00:21:23] luck stat in Trials of Mana.

[00:21:25] I did not encounter that kanji and wrench you

[00:21:27] until like a month after I finished the game

[00:21:29] but I was able to recognize it in my flashcards

[00:21:31] because I learned it in Trials of Mana.

[00:21:33] So TLDR,

[00:21:35] read what you can in the menus

[00:21:37] but keep the game moving

[00:21:39] let go of the things that you don't fully know

[00:21:41] and understand. There's a chance you

[00:21:43] may actually learn more than you actually are

[00:21:45] aware of. So

[00:21:49] to reflect on the last month

[00:21:51] I mentioned at the start of this episode

[00:21:53] how easy this month felt.

[00:21:55] I really don't know why it was easy

[00:21:57] I think the biggest thing

[00:21:59] is I'm starting to get really settled in with my

[00:22:01] resources. In the early days

[00:22:03] I felt like I could spend a lot of time

[00:22:05] looking for easy media

[00:22:07] and get it all collected together so that

[00:22:09] I could eventually one day consume it

[00:22:11] and I guess that strategy kind of worked

[00:22:13] because now I have so many things

[00:22:15] that I want to read, so many things I want to play

[00:22:17] and watch now. I

[00:22:19] am actually starting to watch the stuff

[00:22:21] that I collected. It's kind of strange

[00:22:23] how I finished so many things ahead of schedule.

[00:22:25] I feel like I really lost motivation

[00:22:27] for the last three days.

[00:22:29] It seems kind of silly but without the motivation

[00:22:31] of the clock and the chance of

[00:22:33] failing, I found it impossible

[00:22:35] to bring myself to really do flashcards

[00:22:37] or basically anything in Japanese.

[00:22:39] It feels like I have become kind of

[00:22:41] institutionalized

[00:22:43] to my goals where without

[00:22:45] a goal over my head or a clock

[00:22:47] requiring me to get to work

[00:22:49] I find it hard to stay motivated.

[00:22:53] So instead I kind of treated these last three days

[00:22:55] as a vacation from Japanese.

[00:22:57] I know when the first of the month hits, I'll update

[00:22:59] the ground running to meet all my goals but right now I'm taking

[00:23:01] a break. A confidence

[00:23:03] check for the coming month. My needed

[00:23:05] average hit on my goals is now four hours

[00:23:07] in 56 minutes a day. This is

[00:23:09] the highest increase I've done so far

[00:23:11] and it's a little scary. I feel like this could be

[00:23:13] the month where I don't hit my goals

[00:23:15] but I have seen my skill like skyrocket

[00:23:17] since the beginning of my quest.

[00:23:19] So I know I'm doing what I need

[00:23:21] to be doing. I couldn't do

[00:23:23] any of this like less than a year ago.

[00:23:25] So I'm going to do my best this month to try

[00:23:27] and beat all my goals. So I

[00:23:29] think I've been gone on long enough this episode.

[00:23:31] I have another full month of Japanese

[00:23:33] learning to get to. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:23:35] Thanks for joining me this week. I'll see

[00:23:37] you guys later. See ya!