Get well soon!

Nice job! I struggle with novels sometimes.

Do you have a bookmeter account? I use it to get new book recommendations

Interesting article! You can use PayPay (a smartphone e-payment service) to make donations at some shrines and temples in Japan now.

View of a snowy mountain from a gondola

A snowy slope, as seen from the chairlift

First time snowboarding 🏂

(I took lessons in Japanese and the instructor was great!)

The zoomies! Yes, exactly 😆

When I’m really tired, I:

- become way less talkative in my TL, Japanese

- can’t stop talking about random things in my native English 😅

#langsky

That attitude of curiosity and excitement helps a lot when we’re just starting out 😌 And celebrating early progress is important too!

Yeah, I feel that! I felt very motivated at the intermediate level, partly due to the reasons you mentioned.

Ah, I’ve done the same thing before 😂

Good idea using singing to learn. There are so many good songs 🥹

#langsky the best part of being a beginner (to me) - getting comfortable making lots of mistakes, and not knowing much!

#langsky being a beginner in my target language was the hardest stage for me. I couldn’t really engage with native materials/activities that interested me, or express myself and my personality.

I had way more fun at the intermediate level 😌

I’ve been bad at Japanese AND coding this week. But at least I know it 🥸

next week will be better

Nice job! 🎅🎅🎅

Some embroidery works :)

I got super into Manhwa(Korean manga) during pandemic. Most of the stories are about reincarnation and living as a high rank lady. Somethings main character were doing embroidery and it made me try embroidering ;D

That’s surprising! Now I know 😆

Hmm… “White Christmas” is fairly slow. If you want a challenge, maybe “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”!

A Tengu statue in a threatening pose

A small wooden Shinto shrine

Red fall leaves on trees

Giant geta sandals

I touched grass today! Yay

訂正してくれてありがとうございます！

そうですね！不思議だから嬉しかった😆

Bonus points if you can find the incorrect particle usage in my recent Japanese posts! 👀

ていうか料理を作るクエストっていう設定なら、この材料でどんな料理が作れそうか全然想像できないな…

レアアイテムを集めるRPGのクエストみたいだ。次はどんなものに遭遇するでしょうか。

件のバナナとdried fish

件のバナナと、この前もらったdried fishの写真です。

はちみつの隣で置いとこう。(自分で買ったやつ)

行きつけのタイ料理屋さんで食べたあと、無料でバナナ一本をいただきました。nice

Instead, we should look to history, path dependency, institutional structures, politics, and economics. For Tokyo, I think urban planning—walkability, mixed use neighborhoods, affordable real estate—all contribute to the richer media and commercial systems that feed into culture.

IMO, when asking why something is the way it is, we shouldn't just fall back on easy answers like "culture" or the "character of the people." Such answers are often just the first go-to when someone doesn't know very much about a subject. Culture variables also don't explain change.

I had to scan my university diploma for some paperwork, and remembered it’s entirely written in Latin… which is cool but also a little inconvenient lol

#langsky

Yep! Like sentences where every reading of 日 is different 😅

「3月1日は日曜日で祝日、晴れの日でした」

Reminds me of “ou” words in English

#langsky

★ learning Japanese

☆ between B2 and C1? I passed JLPT N1 a few years ago and stopped studying often

★ I chose Japanese to experiment with self-study methods. I continued for the people and experiences

☆ 11 years

★ talking with people, immersion (daily life/work, books, news, TV)

I haven’t lived in Japan for very long! Only about three years in total.

I’m glad you’re enjoying your life in the US 😌