I want to ask and discuss how others are keeping themselves immersed in Japanese.
I try to listen to Japanese music, watch anime without English subs sometimes, and do my Bunpro reviews. But I feel like I could be doing more.
What do you do? Do you change your phone language? Read manga? Listen to podcasts? How do you stay consistent?
Not sure if I understand your post correctly. āDoing moreā and āstay consistentā are different things.
Its only my personal opinion but I feel discipline and consistency comes with keeping your systems simple and few. Ie. becoming consistent at 2 items is better than 6 immersion items. Eg. just immersion + mining with anime, and reviews in anki / bunpro.
If youre a student you probably have more energy to commit to more āto-dosā but for day job workers I only have enough mental capacity to stay commited to these 2 items at the end of the workday and thats more than enough and enjoyable for me to learnā¦
When I first started, I started small, reading graded readers or NHK news web easy every so often. You have to start sustainably and at lower levels, itās impossible for most people to immerse much without losing interest imoā¦
Now that Iām N2 studying for N1, and comprehension has become a lot more automatic, I try to do the following:
I stay consistent because I have personal constraints that prevent me from being anything else hahaā¦ I am not the best at studying, but the way I see it, I donāt have any other option if I want to stay in Japan long term (and I currently live here). That motivation is probably not going to work for the average person, but it is what it is 
Now I just end up procrastinating in Japanese when I have to do other stuff.
It has to do a lot with the fact that now I find more and more content that I like in Japanese, and that I donāt have to actually put much effort to understand it. But it took a lot of hours to create my recomendations, and find a few manga/anime that I really can watch just cos they are so good without a big back though about Japanese (sometimes even a small though about it is disapearing)
No practical advice for now.
Ok maybe one, creating a separate Youtube for Japanese, as well as deleting and turning of history and recomendations on my English channel made me end up on Japanese channel more often. I still use that one with no recomendations to watch English content from subscription page, or looking up something by searching.
My most consistent immersion lately is podcasts. I already listened to podcasts a fair bit on my commutes or while doing housework, so it was simple enough for me to just start mixing in Japanese immersion podcasts among my queue. Now itās as easy as putting on my headset and pressing play.
I also got involved in some Japanese communities online, which means I am attending virtual events with them just about every weekend and getting to practice conversing a bit.
I try to consume more media in Japanese such as manga, anime and games, but I donāt always have the time or energy so I wouldnāt say Iām consistent on those.
I definitely second the recommendations above to start with low levels if you want to do media immersion. Graded readers, systems with user-rated difficulty levels for media, etc. have saved me so many headaches.
After I went to Japan and saw people using Japanese for literally everything throughout their daily life. I realized that they donāt switch to Spanish or French because theyāve finished their Japanese practice or are tired of Japanese; they stick to Japanese because thatās the language they know.
I guess instead of using English use Japanese. And use English when you want to interact with other English speakers. This would probably keep you immersed. 
Usually, I still stick to watching comprehensible input videos on YouTube.
There are some really good channels, meaning fully subtitled, lots of free content and long-ish videos (20-60 minutes). Iāve noticed that the content significantly decreases at N3 level, though (I am currently around N4).
This isnāt a daily practice however, I think I watch like 2 videos a week and try to do my anki + bunpro reviews.
Reading comprehensible input booklets (20ish pages) while living in Japan worked fantastic for me, I got addicted to it even to the point that Iāve read everything up to my level back then. Now it is a different story as I would have to actually buy them and not just get them from the universityās library. I kinda hate reading digitally, so I dont really see that working too well for me. There is just something about not starring on a screen for even longer and the haptics of paper and a nice book.
Find a radio program you like who has everything on youtube, download a copy of everything with yt-dlp and put it on your phone. I listened to these every time I went shopping for food. I do this less now since I prefer being in the moment when I go outside, but this bought be a lot of extra immersion time when I āneededā to progress the most (beginner/intermediate hurdle). I still do this sometimes if Iāve been slacking.
This also works if you commute by car.
If you do public transport, manga or LN is great. If the eyes of the public weigh down heavily on you, LN on phone is most discreet.
Other than these times where you would generally waste time, just find things that you find fun? I dropped another hobby for Japanese. It is what it is. I do a little bit of everything every day. As long as itās in Japanese.
Been reading the Claymore manga recently. I loved it in English back in the day, so getting to read the source material is great. Plus even when Iām going through bits I really donāt comprehend that well, I still get to enjoy Yagiās beautiful black and white illustration work.
I already own all of Claymore in English so Iāve been buying the electronic JP version volume by volume off Book Walker, as I finish them.
Another manga I managed to get the physical version of that I believe has no English release is ćć®ę„ćććć·ćć§ (That Day in Hiroshima). It is a historical recount of two different people who got caught up in the Hiroshima bomb (one a girl who was training to be a train conductor at the time, and another a doctor who heard the blast and rushed in to help the injured). Itās a great manga, but itās also quite graphic with respect to the atomic bomb injuries and not for the faint of heart.
On that note, having been to Hiroshima, the atomic bomb is often alluded to as ćć®ę„ (that day). Thereās a few historical reasons for this but thatās a whole ānother conversation.
I just watch a bunch of different youtube channels. Whether it be the major news channels food info for a prefecture or really whatever I feel like searching up usually food-related stuff. You can pretty much just type any of your interests in Japanese into the search bar and youāll get content.
Beyond that Iām basically in bunpro review hell, so I just chip away at that slowly, and listen to stuff while I go on walks
I listen to the ęę„ę°č Podcast. Itās suited for my needs discussing a wide range of topics from sport, politics, culture and worries. Itās mostly polite Japanese but still has naturally flowing conversations so itās not stiff. Itās quite high level (Iām impressed if myself I can follow a lot of the discussion) but itās good.
Otherwise reading mode in Bunpro. Maybe not immersion in the strictest sense, but it gives sentences that always stretch my knowledge and cover a wide range of contexts. Itās also not long form so I donāt really practice long form comprehension.
Itās difficult to get true immersion if you arenāt in Japan, so my best advice is to move to Japan! (Iām serious about that, but know thatās easier said than done).
Iām a big fan of reading as a way to improve language skills. Depending on level manga is a good place to start, but you can switch to short stories or novels probably sooner than you would think. Itāll just take a long time to get through it.
The most important thing is to practice with something you enjoy. As someone said above, if you like the content, youāll want to do it and you will. If you arenāt enjoying it, you wonāt do it, especially because itās harder to do in Japanese than English. If youāre a podcast person, listen to a podcast, or pick one on a topic that you really enjoy. Find a TV show you like. Read a book in a genre you love. When youāre at the āI canāt wait to read more of that/watch more of thatā stage, itāll be easier.
I donāt have a whole lot to add beyond what everyone else has already said, but Iāve actually been thinking about this exact question a lot recently.
In my opinion, this is one of the biggest challenges for learners outside of Japan, especially if you donāt live somewhere with a large Japanese-speaking community. Kanji, grammar, and cultural differences are obviously difficult, but finding ways to regularly interact with real Japanese can be just as hard.
What has helped me is trying to create a kind of āartificial Japanā around myself. Not in an extreme way, but just by intentionally replacing little pieces of my normal day with Japanese wherever I can.
For input, I think it helps to mix different types of native content throughout the week:
I donāt think you necessarily need to do all of these every day, but having a few different sources keeps things from getting stale. Iād especially recommend starting with your actual interests. If you like cooking, fishing, fashion, games, history, travel, etc., look for Japanese content about those things. It makes immersion feel less like studying and more like just living part of your life in Japanese.
For output, I think this is where a lot of learners get stuck. Reviews and input are great, but eventually you need chances to actually use the language. A tutor once or twice a week can help a lot, especially if you go in with a topic or goal. Language exchange apps can also be useful, though they can be hit or miss.
One thing I think is helpful is preparing short speaking prompts for yourself, such as:
Even if you donāt have someone to talk to every day, practicing these out loud can make a big difference.
Changing your phone or computer language to Japanese can help too. The main thing is looking for places where you can realistically reduce English and replace it with Japanese in a sustainable way.
Sorry if I didnāt make myself clear enough. What I really meant is I want to stay consistent and also feel like Iām doing enough to actually improve. But I like your point about keeping systems simple. Iām a student and I also work, but I really wanna speed up my learning progress. What you said about 2 items, immersion + mining and then reviews, sounds easy to stick with.
@Licherous any channel recommendations? 
@Hairymini Is this the podcast youāre talking about?
I think you living in Japan is a very good advantage because (in my opinion) you have constant input and I assume you do a good amount of output as well. But back to media consumption, which is the way of immersion for most of us Japanese learners. Right now Iām N5 and Iām nowhere near comfortable with media thatās beyond my level, so itās a bit tricky to find media that I actually enjoy at my level. I am using Todaii for reading and itās very dry and boring after an hour. And Iām playing Ni No Kuni, which uses mostly N5 to N3 vocab, but itās still hard to enjoy because I need to study the text since itās not THAT much of a baby level. Overall, what Iām trying to accomplish is to ascend to N3 fast and be able to do more immersion with media I ACTUALLY ENJOY!
@homa The separate YouTube channel trick sounds useful. How long did it take you to train the algorithm to show you good stuff?
Podcasts seem like a good idea since you can listen while doing other things. Which Japanese podcasts do you recommend for someone at N5/N4? Most I find are way too fast for me. Also, virtual events every weekend sounds really cool. How did you find Japanese communities like that? And also curious about which podcast you listen to.
@h4nn4 Which comprehensible input channels do you recommend? Iām around N5/N4 and most stuff I find is either too easy or way too hard. The fully subtitled ones sound perfect. Also, I feel you on hating digital reading. My eyes are already tired from work and phone. Thereās something about paper that just feels better. Do you have any favorite physical booklets or series you recommend?
Thanks! That yt-dlp idea is smart. Which radio program did you use? I take public transport, so manga and downloaded audio on my phone sounds good.
@SudoNymm Claymore is so COOL. As a sucker for things like Berserk, I love it. I just started the anime, havenāt finished it yet, but itās SUGOI. Anyways, reading something I already know in English, I might try that. Itās very similar to replaying a game or watching an anime you already watched in sub or dub.
Thanks for writing this, especially the part about output. I feel like most people only talk about input, watching anime, reading manga, listening to podcasts, but nobody really talks about how to practice output when you donāt live in Japan and donāt have Japanese friends. I go to a Japanese class where I live, but unfortunately we donāt do a lot of output and the class is only once a week, so itās very little output. Outside of class, me and my classmates donāt share the same amount of passion for Japanese, so theyāre not that cooperative for a meeting or an online meeting to do some Japanese speaking practice. So yes, I believe the biggest challenge is output immersion. I have seen people on Instagram using AI (virtual avatars?) to help with that. Does anybody here have experience with that?
