Awww 
That makes me happy, too. I’ll definitely continue to add my thoughts to the Marimite thread.
By the way, is the Sailor Moon edition also a novel or is it about the manga?
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Sailor Moon is the manga. I don’t know of any novels for it. On book 2/10, but have also read book 5 already - but they’re 2 volumes in one (originally it’s 18, but I got these ones bc they’re larger, remastered, and have all the original color photos from the magazine run)
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こんばんは 
Just casually talking about my Japanese journey.
Sometimes I find it so hard to keep Japanese part of my daily life when all the other tasks like job, household, family, community, sports are taking up more time than usually. Like when I am working too much, I’m sometimes too exhausted to do anything besides watching anime or reading web mangas. Same when I’m involved too much socially with my family or community and my social battery just overwhelmed. And don’t get me started with household stuff. Even if we ignore all the chorse like cleaning, cooking, laundry, I would love to be a countess or so from my web mangas and have all the management of those as my actual job (and getting paid for that 
). It sometimes feel like a second job. Just yesterday morning I was managing a lot of stuff for 2 hours. I was really productive and it was actually quite fun. But yeah, that were 2 hours passing by and then I had to start working on my paying job 
You may see that next to questions on what or how I shall learn Japanese I am also putting more time into how to schedule my day, what and how to prioritize so that I get actual time available that I can dedicate to my Japanese studies or immersions.
I’m currently reading “A subtle art of not giving a f*ck”. A red covered book that got my attention at the airport when heading out for a business trip lately. It is easy to read - that was my intention. But surprisingly it has a lot of interesting mind sets or ideas that get me start to think about certain beliefs in my way of living. One thing is “we choose our problems” and “satisfaction arise when solving problems. So choose the good problems”.
→ Some short allegory: I love Japanese and choose to study more → so problems might arise like “I am missing time I can allocate to studying Japanese” or “I am not seeing any progress and it is frustrating”. These are all problems I indirectly chose. And when I solve them, some satisfaction will come (and this might result in other problems being created as well). … and so on.
Quite the interesting thought. Since I am reading this book I am recognizing more situations that I could pattern that way, which might lead me to figuring out that I do not want to choose certain problems … which in return will give me more time for Japanese 
You see, a lot is going on in my mind and I’m trying to figure out a way to more Japanese 
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こんにちは
I’m taking part in April 2025 Listening Challenge - #11 by Makochou101 and was able to listen to some JapanesePod101.com episodes on Thursday while waiting at the doctors and yesterday I wanted to rewatch Skip Beat! and decided to turn off the subtitles and let it count for my listening challenge. The first episode was a bit difficult. My eyes always wandered to the bottom and my ears did not really catch what was being said, but after the next episode it got better and I could understand most of what was said. Somehow they spoke a bit fast and the main male character really mumbles 
I was not aware of this before.
Yesterday and today I also sat down and practiced a bit writing kanjis. I remembered that simply writing kanjis is kind of healing/relaxing to me and I needed this. And it still works that way for me. So glad I’m practicing with the Kanken Training Step book for level 4 and I have a Lenovo Smart Paper where I can write on without worrying about wasting too much paper. I also have light grid background. That helps a lot.
On reading side, I have four books on “in reading”, but I currently focus on かくしごと from 住野よる Sensei. I like her writing style though I struggle sometimes with the too casual conversations (am sooo used to マリア様がみてる it seems)
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おはよう！
Next month, next listening challenge. Here is my post for May: May 2025 Listening Challenge - #16 by Makochou
The last days I am really able to find time I can dedicate to studying or experiencing Japanese. I have also read a lot on Kakushigoto and am now on page 212. I was so absorbed into the story that I read from Saturday to Tuesday morning almost 80 pages. That is really a lot for me! But I also really wanted to know how the story unfolds.
I also was able to spend a bit time on JPDB. I had a long break and was kind of frustrated because the number of review kept piling up, when I saw a post from someone here that they are deleting the decks of the story they not focusing on in that case (was it you, ルナちゃん?). Nevertheless, this really helped me in reducing the number of reviews and becoming motivated again to to JPDB. So I am also finding here and there some time to do a little bit of vocabulary learning
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That was probably me. I actually had to delete a few decks last night, cuz I let things pile up too much (I recently started doing anime eps, and keeping around older decks). You can also change the review intervals or abandon due & failed cards (in the jpdb labs area of the settings), if that helps. Anyway glad you were able to find some motivation again
Btw I ended up stumbling on 聖女の魔力は万能です | L28 cuz I was glancing at your books, and now I’ve started another novel 
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I need to check the current settings for review intervals. Maybe they are too short for me as well. Thank you for pointing this out!
Hihi. Sorry, not sorry I am not sure if this story matches your usual genres but I really enjoy it. In case you like it, I recommend to read the novels first and then watch the anime. The anime is really well made!
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Mine are on normal - which works for me, except for when I add a bunch of new decks and then forget to do reviews for 5 days on a row
I’d say it fits. I ended up pausing it tho bc I’m simply reading way too many things rn. So no idea when I’ll get to it (especially as I’ve been in manga mode)
Good to know the anime is done well. On my list, but forgot cuz I never got around to it
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おはよう！
I finished two novels this week. Hehe. This sounds amazing in one sentence. Grin.
Actually I finished か「」く「」し「」ご「」と「 | L28 that I was continously reading in the last two weeks yesterday, and then grabbed マリア様がみてる 30 キラキラまわる | L30 and somehow finished the last remaining 50 pages in two days.
I am so happy I could incorporate more reading time in my daily life. Because of the nice weather, for example, I like to sit outside in my garden in the morning and read a bit. Or I read while eating breakfast or dinner. Or in the evenings when I relax on the couch after work.
This may also be a result of my current stress and mental load management. I mentioned before that I am absorbing information about this. And with more physical movement like going for a walk alone and listening to podcasts or together with a friend, I also actively relax my body. This is fun!
Hhhhm. I also just wrote reviews for both of the novels I finished. And I think next is to focus on かがみの孤城 | L27 that I have already started but don’t feel warmed up yet with the author’s writing style or story. I’m like 50 pages into the story still. I love the cover of the book and heard a lot of good things about the story and the natively level matches what I probably feel comfortable with, but yeah, I’ll need some time to concentrate on this to get used to it.
Anyone following here that has read this book and can share some thoughts?
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Hey
Mako here. Seeing this last post, no wonder I am still thinking we have May and not June. Don’t know where all this time went, but the last few weeks were really busy. Hope, it get’s a little better next week.
I have been reading a little bit. And also bought four new books - will add a photo later. Some non-fiction books regarding well-being and communication and stuff like that. I enjoy reading about this topic in my native language or in English, but haven’t tried so far in Japanese.
I did not really learn with jpdb and now have a bit piled up, though it’s less as I changed the review settings lately 
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What I am currently most focused on while reading is
In the last couple of busy weeks I managed to read 35 pages of it (at page 246) 
JPDB also is getting better. There is still a bunch of vocabulary left, that I know, but have not yet come across to check them “will never forget”. Sometimes I explicitly go to the deck to mark those an on other days I just wait until those pop up in my review sessions.
Right now I have a coverage of 89,74% and looking at vocabulary it is 39,21%
The story get’s more interesting. I really struggled in the beginning, but now there is more background on the setting like we get to know more about the characters, or there are dynamics in their behavior when they meet.
It was kind of funny when Kokoro met Aki in the gaming room, herself being unaware of wearing her school uniform
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こんにちは
I’m pausing JPDB and instead studying more kanji with Kanji Study App. I already had this app installed and used in the last years, however was idling. Now I kind of have fun using this app and have used it 16 times in the last 4 weeks which is awesome 
I also managed to work through the review backlog with about 150 kanji.
In the last two weeks I haven’t read かがみの孤城 | L29 but rather focused on the more adult-faced novel
which is higher than my usual reading level. However at this point I would personally rate this at around 31 ~ 33. Yes the sentences are long, yes there are less kanji, but the variety of vocabulary is not that challenging for me. To be honest getting started was difficult as Kawakami-Sensei’s narrative style is totally different from what I am used to and I get the feeling that it matched the drunk protagonist (what is really awesome), but from level 36 I would expect me having to look up a whole bunch of vocabulary or not being able to follow the story easily.
Apart from that I really like this story. Lately I also finished my German translation of 夏物語 | L39 and 乳と卵 | L37 and must say I am deeply impressed by the translator as I get the same story telling feeling from the German translation as I now get from reading すべて真夜中の恋人たち | L36 in Japanese
There was the JLPT N2 test beginning of this month. I almost forgot that I had sent an application and I was so down because of my period that day that I was thinking to simply not go. I was also tired as hell. … however I did convince myself to go. It costs money and I wanted to challenge myself and see where I stand from JLPT point of view.
Sooo, I went there. Without any specific JLPT mock testings before I remembered the structure of questions from some of my study books and the former N3 test day, but N2 was a bit different. Also because of possible AI cheats we were not allowed to drink or eat during the test. And going to toilet would have required one person to accompany us (best sudden surprise when being on my period 
plus on the women’s toilet there was no garbage can) and they were discussing on how this might become even stricter in the future with eye glasses 
Was quite a day I can tell! I’m not sure about the overall passing score, though I should have passed the individual sections. I also got lucky with checking some kanji afterwards and seeing that I guessed them right. Hehe~
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I took the N1 in America last year and it was no where near this strict! We were allowed to leave during the break unsupervised (I assume you couldn’t leave the building, though) and food and drink during that break was also fine.
As a glasses wearer I think I’d probably just opt for my wire frame glasses if I ever go to a test that start cracking down on eyewear! What a hassle, though. I already can’t wear my watch to exams.
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Ah, in the break we were allowed to eat or drink or freely go to the toilet (not allowed to leave the building though). What I wanted to say was: during the actual test sections we were not allowed to do so. And concentrating for - what was it? About two hours? - without even drinking one sip of water is not easy for me 
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In my practice test in Canada they warned us that anything with kanji on it (or even writing in in Chinese!) wouldn’t be allowed on the test day. So to make sure to take your erasers out of the paper if it was Japanese, for example. I think they also said you’d have to turn your cell phones off and put them away. Although my tutor told in in Australia they collected everyone’s phones once they were turned off and put them in ziplock bags at the front of the room.
It’s crazy how the rules seem to be different everywhere and yet people still manage to cheat 
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