My first manga arrived! Technically speaking this is not my first manga as I borrowed a lot of manga (in German) when I was a late teenager from my best friend. Nevertheless this is the first I actually spent money on and it’s completely in Japanese.
Short details on the order process. I bought Yotsubato! from amazon.de by searching the Japanese title. It showed me Yotsuba%! Vol 1 (Yotsubato!) (In Japanese) sold by Japan book JP. The seller’s location is Japan and I paid 13.57€ including shipping. I’ve ordered on 9th January 2019 and it arrived on 1st February. Three and a half weeks were sooner than expected and I’m happy.
By the way… does anyone know, why all Japanese books, including textbooks and manga have the paper wrapping at the bottom? See you next time!
Dear reader, I have leveled up to level 3 on WaniKani today! Even the revered Crabigator is pleased with my progress.
In celebration let’s make some Onigiri!
How to make Onigiri
Ingredients 200g sushi rice 500ml lightly salted water 100g smoked salmon wasabi paste soy sauce 1 sheet of nori seaweed
Directions Boil water in a pot and salt lightly. Meanwhile wash the rice. Put washed rice in boiling water. Set heat to low and put on the lid to let it simmer until water is mostly absorbed and rice is wet and mushy. Cut salmon into small chunks, mix with some wasabi paste and a few drops of soy sauce. Fold nori sheet two times and seperate into four long strips. Let the rice cool down until it’s warm. I divided the rice in the pot into four portions to make four onigiri. Use a sheet of plastic wrap, lay it out flat and put in half of the portioned rice in the center. Fill in some flavored smoked salmon in the center of the rice. Put on the remaining rice of the first portion into a ball. Wrap the rice ball with the plastic wrap and try to shape it into a onigiri. Dewrap the rice ball and wrap it with a strip of nori. Repeat three times until you have four onigiri.
Taste I really liked the flavor. The rice was a little boring, as I haven’t used rice vinegar or much salt.
Storage I stored two onigiri wrapped in new plastic wrap in the fridge for the next day. They were pretty cold and should be taken out of the fridge a few hours before consumption. I have read it’s better not wrap them in nori, if you want to refrigerate them, but the nori was wet and hold form and not soaked and ripped away.
Afterthougths I’ve used too much salmon. I ate the rest of prepared salmon raw. About 75g would have been enough, as filling space is limited. This lead to some chunks of filling sticking out of the rice shell. The portion sizes with 200g of raw rice for four onigiri was okay. Getting the strip of nori evenly on both sides is hard. As soon as the mushy rice touches the nori it will stick together.
Hi all, you know how I excited I was to finally receive Genki? I should have read the first pages, but I rummaged in boxes in the attic. No, not for books, but for a SATA cable. No, the cable is not used for the textbook, but the CDROM which is attached. I’ve copied the mp3s from the textbook and workbook disks and that was it!
Remaining time was spent on some WaniKani for my daily routine. Let’s dig in on Genki next time!
Hi reader, I have a confession. I don’t know how to count correctly.
Yes, I know my plain numbers いち、に、さん、し/よん、ご、ろく、しち/なな、はち、きゅう、じゅう…
But I still can’t remember the exceptions for counting days (日) and things (つ).
I’m doing okay with 一つ, 二つ, 三つ and 七つ. But 四つ, 五つ, 六つ, 九つ and 十つ still boggle my mind.
There are so many irregularities! And I should have looked up counting styles earlier… Wago and Kango are not exceptions but two different couting styles.
Argh! Coming up with a good name for a blog is hard. The name should be short, linked to japanese language, doesn’t infringe trademarks and be available as .com top-level-domain. Yesterday, I’ve made some changes at my webhoster, which saves me a few bucks. I’ve upgraded the hosting package, which now includes more domains. This actually lowered costs for my already used domains and allows me to move some other domains into the new hosting package which will even further reduce the total price for hosting. This will also make technical stuff like http redirects and e-mail aliases easier.
If you’re not interested in technical blogging stuff let’s talk about my progress on WankiKani. I’m still on level 2, because I only do 5-10 lessons each day. I’ll probably be level 3 in a few days, because I messed up too some vocabulary, some kanji and even a radical
I still mess up the radical 子, which means child/kid, while I always type youth. My leech kanji is 右, where I can remember the mnemonic for youth, but I misspell ゆう all the time >.<“
こんばんはみなさん, today I have only done WaniKani lessons and reviews. The Genki textbook hasn’t arrived yet, despite being announced for Saturday (it’s Monday now). Maybe tomorrow?
I’m also thinking about redesigning my blog. It’s currently hosted on Strato, which is a large and expensive webhoster. I may switch to a separate blog and domain, just because getting a new domain is easier, than moving all of my webhosting and domains. Getting a second webhosting also allows me to test the performance of a different webhoster, which is interesting, but also time-consuming.
I did it. I’ve finished Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle today. The random fights got tedious at the end. Only the last level was a nice improvement and tested vocabulary, obtained throughout the game.
WaniKani reviews and lessons are still going. I have some open lessons, but don’t want to start them today, as I have about 65 items on Apprentice and 65 items on Guru. I’m a little scared of reaching a point with over 200+ reviews waiting for me.
Hello internet, I have used the weekend to binge watch このすば. It’s a great take on the isekai genre. I couldn’t pick a real new vocabulary. Subbed anime is currently not suited to improve grammar or vocabulary. Maybe in a year I’ll be able to understand more without subtitles.
WaniKani lessons are still going strong. I’ve reached level 2 and got some fancy new radicals.
I’ve rediscovered a Japanese language gem, which I have always watched over 10 years ago. It’s Let’s Learn Japanese by The Japan Foundation. It’s from the late 80s and follow’s Yan’s visit of a Japanese family. The videos are so old. Watching it may not be the most effective lessons, but it’s so entertaining.
I have also implemented WaniKani three times in my daily routine. Let’s keep it up to learn Kanji and vocabulary.
Hi folks, I have done my WaniKani reviews and lessons. I finally remembered the differences between 上がる, 上げる, 下がる, 下げる. Those are easier to remember as が is always active (raise, lower) and げ is passive (rise, fall).
I have also checked up on some class lessons starting in March. They are all Level A1 and use Marugoto starting between lesson 7 and 12.
Hi! Today I have only done my WaniKani lessons, but no further learning. Instead I checked different blogs, which textbook is preferable. The contenders were Genki, Marugoto, Japanese From Zero, Minna no Nihongo.
There are a lot of different opinions. Most people recommend the book, which was their textbook when they started to learn Japanese.
Genki is most people’s favorite. It may not be the best book for self-learners, but is less focused on classrom lessons like Marugoto. Japanese From Zero is popular as well, but the lessons are slower and intruduce Hiragana in the first book and Katakana in the second book.
I picked Genki, because it’s popular and there are even online sections for self learners. If I get Marugoto later this year I may compare both books.
Hello reader, today the first kanji lessons came in on WaniKani. They were not too hard, despite me messing up the readings for カ (りき、りょく) and 上 (じょう). I even messed it up while writing this post >.<‘
I should also get a textbook soon but can’t decide between Genki and Marugoto. It would be pretty nice to flick through both, to see which looks nicer. I may favor Marugoto, because it will most likely be used in language courses in the area.
I have completed radical reviews on the go, during lunch break and waited all evening for some kanji lessons. At 22 pmI have received a promising email from Koichi & the WaniKani Team. I will unlock kanji soon.
Midnight arrived and I was eager to click through the lessons, but nope… I’m repeating reviewing radicals readily. Have I failed the Crabigator? Why doesn’t he trust me some more lessons?
The community forum of WaniKani is full of crazy people (in a good way). I guess I will like it here.
Edit: Was I brainwashed? Is there a secret cult behind our Crabigator? I have shelled out for a lifetime subscription. What?! There’s no turning back now.
I have finished reading “How to Learn Any Language – Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably, and On Your Own” by Barry Farber. Actually, I have started the book yesterday, but finished it today. The author stresses motivation, dedication and a multi-level approach to learning new languages.
Later that day I have watched YJ Daily #80 Japanese Fluency in 10 Minutes by George from the Learn Japanese From Zero! YouTube channel. The simple trick is べんきょうしろ! There are no shortcuts to learning a new language. Reading a single book or watching a two week language course will not magically imprint a foreign language in your mind and tongue. Study!
I also like the videos from Youtube: Japanese Ammo with Misa. The topics are too advanced for me (yet), but entertaining to watch nonetheless.
WaniKani
I have registered and tested WaniKani. It’s a web application to help remembering kanji and vocabulary with mnemonics and SRS (spaced repitition system). Both methods are not new, but I want to try out a web application instead of a book currently. I was givin some Radicals (building blocks for kanji) to learn and am currently repeating them.
