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[rdennison7]

Entry the ninth - July 27th, 2025

It’s a Sunday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was a confusing array of emotions for my Japanese reviews. So, I did four, but here’s the kicker: there’s a secret technique to learning Japanese that Bunpro offers. I didn’t know this, but there’s a secret button that staff enabled that allowed me to learn all of N1 Japanese and I immediately shot to level 52.

I don’t feel like a Japanese expert, nor do I feel like I have completed my transformation into a Japanese person --at least not yet. But I remain optimistic!

Maybe I just need to immerse myself in Japanese media more. I don’t like saying content, because I think content is the McDonald’s pink slime-equivalent of commodifying our media.

But boy, speaking of pink slime, I had the wild hair up the ol’ rectal cavity to play some Final Fantasy 13. I know I mentioned Final Fantasy 15 a few days prior, but there’s a point to it-- or I hope there would be one.

So, I am not the biggest Final Fantasy fan in the world, in fact I think Cloud is merely overcompensating with his buster sword! But one thing that deeply fascinates me is that many main entries of the series try to do something interesting, and boy do I love intrigue.

But what about FF13 is interesting? Didn’t people rip on the game for having a 20-hour tutorial, poorly-written characters, and linear map design?

Okay, what if I told that we have no idea what Final Fantasy 13 is and there is a deep rabbit hole?

You would probably think I would be crazy, eh? Well, if you read my previous entries and still stuck around, then we’re of the same cloth, so buckle up buttercup as we’re going down a burning ring of fire.

I recently purchased the Final Fantasy 13 collector’s edition strategy guide. Curiously enough, it’s uniquely numbered. My copy is 73,961 out of 200,000! I feel so unique. But when looking at supplementary material pertaining to the game, I noticed something odd.

You see, Square Enix loves doing these strategy guides called Ultimania in Japan. What in the world are these you may ask? They are super deep dives into Final Fantasy, and are usually 500 or so pages per book. Final Fantasy 16 has one that’s 750 pages long! Wowzers, that’s crazy.

Final Fantasy 13 has three books each about 500 pages long…Wait, what? That’s…that’s 1500 pages about a game that so many of us in the west took for granted. That…can’t…be…right?

Did we misunderstand Final Fantasy 13? Well, my hypothesis is yes! But I need to do more research before I can give a more definitive answer.

There’s, well, context that was missing for the western release of the game. Did you know there were short stories detailing the motivations and events leading up to the game? Well, don’t be too shocked by that, as that totally existed and we totally got shafted by the lack of an official translation.

I mean, I am sure you can probably find a fan translation, but we’re on Bunpro, why would you need that? YOU are the fan translation. I believe in you.

But let’s get back to this 1500 pages of Final Fantasy 13. You can’t just drop that without any other context. Sadly, I wish I could give you more, as I don’t have access to the books yet! It does make me think was all of this intentional by Square and so much about Final Fantasy 13 is just a metaphor draped in Japanese context that is merely lost in translation?

I think about this all the time. When you play a game in English or whatever your native language is and you experience say a Japanese game, are you getting the true experience? Probably not. Things are hard to translate!

I remember playing Death Stranding, and like many others playing that game, I was completely confused by what was going on. Perhaps that’s just a testament to Kojima’s writing stylings…but what actually was in the Japanese script? I don’t know, but boy aren’t you glad you’re with me doing your reviews on Bunpro each day to figure out this mystery?

Actually, tangent within a tangent time. Death Stranding has many western actors in it, and I assume that the characters were crafted and their lines adjusted to fit those actors…so was the script in that game written in Japanese or English? What’s actually the true script for that game? Does Kojima even know English?

Ahem, but this got me thinking about the original Metal Gear Solid script. A lot about what westerners liked about the original MGS stemmed from the amazing David Hayer performance and the military jargon-centric nature of the script…but, wait that wasn’t actually in the original script?! You’re telling me that was a localization and that Kojima didn’t like the handling of the English version of MGS1?

Deriving truth is weird when you cross languages and cultures. In MGS’s case, the English dub eventually got ported over to the Japanese side, and later David Hayter was physically in MGS4!

David Hayter: Metal Gear Solid 4 - Opening Interview

Where is the truth when things get mixed and matched with everything? You see, it’s messy.

Let’s go back to Final Fantasy 13 for a bit. The release of that game left a lot of fans pretty polarized, and it’s understandable. But the more I dig deeper into the development and production of the game, it leads me to believe that most of it was intentional!

Think about it for a moment, the theme of the game is fighting against destiny (interestingly, FF15’s was accepting it. This is interesting as that was originally called Final Fantasy Versus 13, so thematically it makes sense being the opposition.). When you start the game, you are on a linear path, you cannot level up, you cannot do anything until you are marked a L’cie. Things gradually open up as the characters come to terms with their circumstances and push back against the cards dealt against them.

Maybe, just maybe that was intentional? There’s a lot to go through in this game, and I am sure I can bore you to tears about the details about it.

The truth…is weird. Frankly, not many people are interested in finding it, as that takes effort, and putting effort into things is for nerds and losers.

I pushed that button to get all the N1 grammar done because I like solutions without thinking the ramifications of my actions. As long as there is a patch that makes me feel satisfied by taking the easy way out, then I will do it.

But before we part, I must ask you all a very important question:

Why the heck do I get double points for this book? That’s freakin’ whack, yo.

Stay hungry, true believers.

[rdennison7]

Entry the tenth - July 28th, 2025

It’s a Monday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was an unbelievable accomplishment for my Japanese reviews. I added ANOTHER N5 grammar point. This means I am merely 14/126 grammar points finished! That’s almost halfway of being halfway of halfway there!

But you may be thinking to yourself, “That’s pretty impressive, but grinding out Japanese all day everyday for a billion and four days is hard work. Don’t you get lonely?” The answer to that is no! I have a strong and loving support structure that I care about dearly.

However, I am a man who helps out our fellow Japanese learners. I get it that not everyone is as blessed with circumstances like mine. So after watching an episode of King of the Hill, an idea manifested into my noodle.

Remember the episode where Bill finds love at a prison and the episode leaves off with seemingly him going off into the sunset with a newly-released prisoner? Do you think there’s dating sites with that?

Turns out yes! Wait…yes?

Okay, so before I continue, I won’t be posting names, or pictures of people. I get it, if I ran Bunpro it would be uncensored all day everyday, but sadly I don’t make the rules and I won’t link to anything personal. I know, sad, but let’s continue!

Welcome to…

Yes, this is a real website where you can meet a lovely guy or gal serving time in the US prison system! Now, why would you use this as opposed to Tinder or meeting a lovely individual who isn’t incarcerated? Uh…that’s a good question. Maybe you just like helping people out? Maybe you can “fix” them?

Anyway, let’s see what profiles are on here…again, no pictures or names. Gotta keep the Bunpro gods happy and lawsuit free.

Right below the intro banner, we have a fun-looking button…or I think it’s one?:

I like wheels and buttons. But this looks like a button, not a wheel! What gives? Anyway, let’s click on it and see what we get.

Okay, it looks like it only fluctuates between two profiles. BORING. I suppose the devs behind this project may not be the most advanced web developers on the planet. Let me do some digging and we can play a little game.

The game is: Guess the Crime! I will post three bios, and you folks at home will make a prediction. Once you do scroll on down and see if you were right.

Here we have contestant number one:

Wow, that’s a great profile. Introspective, perhaps a little self aware? Do you think they learned their lesson?

Well, place bets now!

Are you ready?

Here’s their crime:

Okay, not bad, not bad. I have done that numerous times in video games. But let’s move on to contestant number two!

Wow, English and Spanish, eh? This does fit, at least tangentially to a language learning site. But this is fascinating, isn’t it? This reads exactly like a dating profile but…for prisoners! I really wonder who the person is who actively uses this service.

But my curiosity aside, guess the crime!

Any guesses?

Anything?

Place bets now!

Well, good news is that she will be free soon. Maybe she didn’t do anything too crazy. We’re all about forgiving our fellow man, right?

But last in our game, we have contestant number three! Let’s see what our final contestant has to say.

Wow, this one seems pretty tame and normal. If you looked up this on a regular dating site, you would think this would be average, but alas she’s a prisoner. She did something, and I wanna know what you think it is.

Guess!

The!

Crime!

Place bets now:

Well, if you liked contestant number three, I hope you don’t mind waiting a while. Because, yikes!

That’s all the progress I made for my Japanese journey for today. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my journey. This is a long, fascinating journey with unpredictable twists and turns. Maybe I will focus on keigo next? Who knows?!

Anyways, big brother is always watching, everyone!

[Edo9]

It’s impressive how you were able to master N1 with one button press. I thought the speed runners who added all the N1 grammar points in one week then never reviewed them again but were “finished” had already figured out the “isekai auto-invincibility bankai equation” But you solved that in one button press, amazing.

[rdennison7]

Entry the eleventh - July 29th, 2025

It’s a Tuesday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was an extremely productive day for my Japanese! I added one grammar point and did 8 reviews! That has to be the most I have done since starting this journey of journeys.

It only took one billion and five days to reach my stride, but better late than never!

Now, once a week I will do what I call Mailbag Mayhem! That’s right, I will read private messages sent by readers like you. Alright, let’s take a look inside the mailbag.

Well, that’s all for Mailbag Mayhem! Let’s see what wacky letters I get next week.

Now this post will be my most controversial post probably in the history of controversial posts. Remember how I did a deep dive on Bunpro’s Terms of Service written by the ever affable and potentially fictional Bunpro lawyer, Ben Goshi?

Well, today I will do a deep dive on: The Bunpro Referral page! Now, you may ask, why is this controversial? Well, I haven’t gotten that far yet, but let’s spin the wheel/click the button to see what happens!

Immediately, we are greeted with this beautiful image of:

…wait, Mt. Bunji? Interesting pun, but before I read the text…just…what the heck is this thing?

You see that, right? What is that? A marshmallow hugging Mt. Bunji? Interesting lore that we’re developing off the bat, eh?

Reading the text, I immediately get flashbacks of when I was in my twenties and I would have foolish friends try to convince me to join their MLM scheme. Ben Goshi is telling me rather incessantly that this doesn’t fit the legal definition of an MLM or a Ponzi scheme. But it doesn’t change the vibes that it feels like one.

I can climb stations, unlock BunBux (formerly B-Points), bonus subscription time, and unique goodies? Wowzers? You know what? I take back that MLM thing, this feels like a Battle Pass! I want little trinkets!

Actually, it mentions we can earn subscription time. For us, the person we’re referring to, both? Hmm, hard to tell. Maybe there’s a nifty FAQ at the bottom of the page with a laundry list of legal mumbo jumbo nobody reads!

But before we move on, is anyone excited about the “unique goodies”? What can it mean? I mean, a boat’s a boat, but the mystery box can be anything! Even a boat!

Scrolling right along, we see this! Boy, that’s a lot to unpack here and I do mean a lot, so let me discuss the more interesting quirk of this page. Clicking Full List at the bottom causes the page to slightly scroll down. I find it mildly amusing that this is even here. Didn’t I have to already scroll slightly to see this part? Is it a fair assumption I would scroll more to see the rest of this?

Maybe I am just going crazy but I would love to know the reason why this ever-enigmatic “Full List” button is here and why it does this. At least it isn’t a wheel!

But let’s look at the steps! This is how we get points or something.

First step, use the referral link. Oh wait? I have to scroll up? I just slightly scrolled down. Okay, let’s scroll back up and get my link. Look, here’s my referral link! rdennison7 has invited you to join Bunpro! | Bunpro

Wow, look at that. The BunBux are already rolling in!

But something fascinating about the wording on this step. Just by getting people to sign up with a free trial, I can earn BunBux?

Well…let’s make dummy accounts and break things to see if that’s true.

Now, why is my sock puppet learning Japanese? Sadly, to exploit the Bunpro referral system isn’t on this list, so I chose fun!

Actually, let’s take a look at the onboarding for new learners when I make the next sockpuppet account. There’s a whole process and considering we’re already deep in a deep dive, we can have an even deeper dive!

But for now, let’s see if sockpuppet number one gets any BunBux.

Scrolling through my sockpuppet and doing a basic review doesn’t immediately give notification that this account earned BunBux, but scrolling to the profile store and we have:

That’s right! 4,110 BunBux after creating an account and doing the first grammar point. Now, did I get anything from this? Let’s check!

In hindsight, I probably should’ve recorded how many BunBux I had before starting this. But that’s okay! This is how the scientific method starts. Very messy, and only slightly more competent.

Okay, let’s make another sockpuppet and this time, do a deep dive on the onboarding process!

I admit, I should’ve read this before going headlong into obtaining points by exploiting the system. Lookie there, a 6 week trial and 2,000 BunBux (formerly B-Points). I dunno about you, but I am ready to transform my learning.

Noooow, I don’t mean to be completely pedantic, but I feel like if I am making an account and being referred by my good friend to learn Japanese and I saw this, I would be a lil confused:

Cool that I don’t need a credit card, but I thought it was 6 weeks! Not a month. What’s the rub?

Anyway, my account name is going to be the OfficiallyUnofficialBunproSockpuppetAccountToGetBunBux oh, wait…the character limit is only 20 characters long. Eh, how about BunproSockpuppet? That’s better!

A quick five minute process? Oh no! Is this gonna be one of those boring tutorials that you see in games where you have to read a lot and not learn by doing? (Spoilers: yes) But let’s press on!

Alright, this is kinda cool. I won’t try to spam you with images, but the Absolute Zero (my nickname) has a picture of a sprout, right? Well, if you click on down, the images change and if you click the bottom tier, it will have an entire tree showing.

This is pretty cool, right? Remember when you played Halo and selected the difficulty and the image would change? Well, don’t select Master (N1), as I don’t think video game difficulty and language learning website difficulty have a one to one comparison. But as I did famously click on the magic button @Jake made in a previous thread, I will select it for this sockpuppet.

Moving right along we are told we can link a textbook?

Usually I would just skip this as reading is for nerds, but I will click the Link Textbook button and see what happens.

Holy moly, I am so overwhelmed by the wall of textbooks! Which should I pick? I need to go with my heart on this one. I chose “Yookoso! Continuing With Contemporary Japanese” as my spirit animal. What did you guys choose?

After that another difficulty selection screen:

I guess if we’re keeping up with the Halo metaphor, I guess this is like selecting the skulls you want to play with as modifiers?

Personally, I am a huge fan of the warning screen. It’s almost like a thinly-veiled threat letting me know that Yokoso! Continuing With Contemporary Japanese will be the man in this relationship.

This looks inviting, eh? We have all the title cards and the book I chose. We’re going into the Bunpro-verse! Buckle up, buttercups.

Oh…uh. Nevermind. Unbuckle your seatbelts, everyone, I am being asked why I am learning Japanese.

Uh, I chose fun last time. Why is a Japanese master learning Japanese? I would say he’s doing this for Japanese Media. I am feeling that in the context of our character, BunproSockpuppet, he is the type that has learned Japanese in an abstract manner --mainly from talking to natives from a young age.

So, let’s just build up the fictional demographic for our sockpuppet a bit. So we have BunproSockpuppet, a HVAC worker in his early 40s, who went to Kobe, Japan during his teenage years because his father worked for the US Navy. He’s currently single after being widowed from his wife tragically slipping on a banana peel and leaving him to rear three kids on a single salary.

Fortunately, because he runs his own HVAC company, he has lately had more time to dust off his Japanese skills. He hasn’t used them since leaving Japan in his early twenties, but just like riding a bike, some things don’t go away. Maybe BunproSockpuppet wants to translate his “street knowledge” of Japanese into something more formal?

Oh, boy! Do you think Bunpro will work for him? Let’s press on.

Uh…yeah, let’s answer this question. Uh…he’s learning for…travel? Maybe he wants to go back to Kobe later this year. Maybe rekindle old flames from his youthful days?

After establishing BunproSockpuppet’s lore and clicking next, a modal box with a wall of text manifests upon my screen:

Look at that wall of text! If I just made this account and had to take a survey and then had to read not just one but TEN boxes of this, I would close off the webpage immediately or just not read it.

This is dumb, like really dumb. I am not reading this. Too many words, too many things I would have to click next on. I am here to learn Japanese after my wife slipped on a banana peel! Can’t you see that I am grieving loss? Why do this to me?

But alas, I am not the fictional BunproSockpuppet, and will thus read all of this painfully.

Oh, am I going to be mean today? I don’t wanna be mean, but I will definitely be the critic.

You can get rid of this box, it’s already obvious to me what the top of the screen is. Too much friction! I hate it in games, and apparently in Japanese learning sites!

Did you know that Structure means Structure? I didn’t know that? But I am glad a handy modal box was there to point that out to me! Thank you, modal box, I wouldn’t know what to think without you!

Oh, jeez, this is gonna be a reoccurring thing, eh? Did you know Details mean Details? Okay, realistically, how many people got hung up on the Details box of the site enough where they had to reach out to Bunpro staff to understand this?

Is this worth the amount of friction for new users? A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I worked at a startup that was trying their darnedest to work on new customer acquisition. After spending millions on countless hours on research, they stumbled across the obvious: make it as easy as possible to get the ball rolling.

This, at least so far is PAINFUL!!! Yes, four exclamation points! I was okay with the little survey thing? It was a bit wordy for my tastes, but it wasn’t inherently insulting, but jeez, we’re still not done! I was told this would take five minutes!

Sometimes, I just get the impression that companies think I eat paste. Maybe I did that in the past, and every now and then, but this is just spelling out the obvious. Like, if I had working eyes and saw the about section, I can infer using my intuition that it does what it says it does. Maybe the best tutorial is something that explains itself without explanation. This is too much.

One modal box, fine, just cut out half the words and make it two sentences long, but this?!

Several paragraphs and we have to click click click through it.

Actually, I want to pause for a bit. Don’t you find it ironic that I am complaining about this and you are reading one of the longest posts in this forum’s history? That’s pretty ironic in a way, eh?

Moving on!

Did you know example sentences are example sentences? Like I get it, you have to scroll down to see it, but this is a UX issue here. Everything the user should need should be easily noticeable! It needs to pass the glance test. If you give me a ten-modal crash course on how your site works, I don’t think it passes the glance test.

Gosh, it feels like I am ranting, eh? Maybe I should tell more jokes. Okay, the next one, I will be more quirky with Millennial-style humor no matter how ridiculous or insightful it will be.

Okay, I am trying to force the post-post modern/post irony humor and just nothing is coming out. I guess you can’t really force things, can you?

Actually, this segment has always bothered me about Bunpro, there’s too much the box can be tiny with a link to the forum post! Also, I love that a user named “EbonyMidget” is prominently featured on an official Bunpro modal box crash course. Might wanna edit that one to impress shareholders!

For those who regularly use the note function, what juicy secrets have you put on there? Is it related to the grammar point? Or maybe you just have long-winded tangents like these hidden from view? I wonder if Bunpro staff can view them? Maybe it’s a secret pact between you and them.

Wait…is that it? Did we survive? Do I get a badge for going through each of these horrifically verbose modal boxes?

Okay, the boxes are gone. I am on the grammar point page. What if I didn’t want to answer this? What if I just wanted to go back to the home page? How…do I do…that?

That’s the best part! You can’t! At least not on anything that you can easily click. See that lil arrow on the upper left hand corner? Can’t click that sucker. Not even a home icon. You gotta answer it or just manually type in the URL to get back!

This is the most important stage! This is a failure! When you get a new user, you gotta wine and dine them a bit. Treat the experience with care and love. If I cannot easily find the homepage and I have used this site since 2018, then this is a bomb.

I don’t want to be forced to do a quiz. That’s ridiculous!

But for the sake of the exploited referral BunBux, I must.

Oh…no…oh…oh no. I thought we were done with the modal boxes! Why is there more?! In fact more than double what I had to endure the first time!

If you are a new user, did you ever read all of this? Did you skip it? Most people just skip this. But we won’t! I feel like this post is turning into an unintentional parable for bloated tutorials. Art is weird.

“This is a Question”. Pardon my French, but duh? Why is this here!?

We must soldier on. Just you and me, intrepid truth seeker.

Actually, no no no. We’re stopping this. This tangent is getting too complicated. Too many moving parts and we’re doing something different. We’re doing a different tangent.

So, I was playing Ninja Gaiden 2 Black…or is it Ninja Gaiden Black 2? Either way, I was playing the game and found this rather curious sign.

The text is it a code? A cipher? Surely it’s more than just mere gibberish that the developer typed up. I mean, look at the frame, the image --really everything. It’s a pretty nice picture frame, don’t you think? But the text is at odds with what I am seeing.

Maybe it’s nothing? Maybe it’s everything? But why would a developer put so much effort into one aspect but be completely lazy and stop with another aspect.

Unlike lazy Ninja Gaiden Black 2 or…Ninja Gaiden 2 Black developers, I finish what I started.

Stay crunchy in milk, everyone!

[zerohbeat]

I feel lightly guilty spending more time reading through all of this, instead of doing my reviews lol

Final Fantasy 13 was such a great game… At least I really enjoyed it.

For Metal Gear Solid, supposedly (from watching an YouTube video about it) the translator added quite a bit of his own flair which made the translation god-like. A lot of the iconic naming conventions come from it. Probably the Japanese side (rightfully) may have not appreciated it as it was not 1 to 1 as the Japanese text.

[rdennison7]

Qzfdk ftq fiqxrft - Vgxk 30ft, 2025

Ex’v n Awgncohdl sffe ycela! Gsq ymq fhymwye gp?

Today was a huge day for my reviews. I took out five, yes FIVE reviews in one session. Probably took fifteen seconds. I think I am ready to be the premiere Bunpro speed runner. Not the most progress in my grammar reviews, but…you know it’s bound to get closer to fluency!

K+zVrCTzV8nZdQ2R9h/iz+wBCaGcthbZinbejz1w5LGg/sQwq0ygJ14nlNpkdtnZvcpvw4n7kG4+TVJNDdzXf0/fUrHi4NglN2E8PSHa/kcISa4RhRIqOcuGw2H7yriYxZUrXo1DL8krFlsCLl+4h/1fNt95r5T5I3s/xTwItrwNPmllBrcqp1sCP9d8Fp+orzRzQ0LL26WXOBC1+kUusH0W79ymrD/HyhgKZb++oEO65xQXuN9DMcO+854E5ea2WzXMgvJoOdPzQFx8W4/kwYpRdf68bnegNMpE736GkZA=

[rdennison7]

Entry the twelfth - July 30th, 2025

It’s a Wednesday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was a huge day for my reviews. I took out five, yes FIVE reviews in one session. Probably took fifteen seconds. I think I am ready to be the premiere Bunpro speed runner. Not the most progress in my grammar reviews, but…you know it’s bound to get closer to fluency!

But navigating the Bunpro forums, I noticed a rather nasty turf war between @bunnypro and @Superpnut. Yes, it was a violent and rather cinematic war with special effects, and high production values.

I have a proposition for peace, or rather peace through an alternate option for our frequent forum users.

Long have the Bunpro forums been indoctrinated by the notion of just two sides. The possum. The rabbit. Both on their own are fine, creatures worthy of praise and memes.

Things have changed, so much in the past few months, where the notion of what a possum or what a rabbit is no longer has meaning.

I bring to you all: the platypus

Yes, the humble platypus --duckbill and all. Bask in the glory that is…an alternative:

Now, I realize that a third option historically never works and that time immemorial has shown that a rabbit and possum have always taken center stage --but just for a moment consider: what if?

How many mammals lay eggs? Are venomous? Have a duckbill and webbed feet?

I am just a humble man, probably the most humble of men in the history of humble men. But look into your hearts. Embrace the platypus.

Embrace change, everyone.

[Edo9]

Five reviews? Now you’re just bragging. But anyone who one shotted all the N1 grammar points in one button press deserves all the bragging rights. I’ll just have to learn them like a peasant like everyone else.

If you figure out how to one shot all the pitch accent please let me know. I stress myself out so hard worrying about the day I have to use bridge and chopsticks in the same sentence.

[BadgerN00b]

For what it’s worth, I pronounce bridge like ha-SHEE, to really extend the sound, hopefully into the distance… like a bridge does.

Likewise, chopsticks is HA-shi, almost just HA-sh. There is kind of an i at the end, but barely. As if I started eating just before finishing the word. Maybe not the most polite way to use chopsticks, but yakiniku is hard to resist.

As for the turf war, I vote badgers as an alternate alternative.

[homa]

@Edo9

Five reviews? Now you’re just bragging. But anyone who one shotted all the N1 grammar points in one button press deserves all the bragging rights.

For some reason this phrase forming reminded me of this moment from dougdoug’s stream where his chat plays geoguesser vs Neuro AI: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxRpoYkVhfevdScqp5dQoSLViF3qM5lKQe?si=iIzwQ9gor5DJmTlY
Oh well, I don’t know if there any people knowing about anything about those two, but I find them amusing

[homa]

This log gives me some ideas

[Edo9]

No Ai here, just buffoonery.

In this day and age it’s easy to forget that humans have that capacity as well.

[rdennison7]

Entry the thirteenth - July 31st, 2025

It’s a Thursday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was a relaxing, but SHOCKING day for my reviews and overall Japanese progress. Although, I wiped out six reviews lickity split, I noticed something…rather odd?

Do you see it? I am no longer a master of N1 Japanese! What happened? Well, intrepid truth seekers, Bunpro added more Japanese grammar! Oh my goodness, am I so grateful. Even though it was only four new N1 grammar points, it’s four more N1 stories to tell.

Too often we forget that we live in the age of abundance. It’s so hard to appreciate what we have when we get more and more in our lives! Bunpro staff, I want to expressly tell you that this update makes me genuinely happy. THANK YOU. Truly.

This is making me rather introspective. Let’s go on a journey. Think vibe coding but with feeling (sorry, comp sci student here, still trying to process the feelings thing).

On X, formerly Twitter (Bunpro, you gotta update the icon!), I follow exclusively Japanese accounts --usually it’s smaller accounts of Japanese gamers, usually those who are Xbox gamers (buuut that’s a topic for another tangent!).

Let me tell you of a man who makes me incredibly happy each time I see his posts:

Every. Single. Day. Each day this man posts an image of him enjoying a beverage --usually a Pepsi BIG ZERO, or on rare occasions a Coke Zero with an empty Coca-Cola glass. Once or twice a week, he adds in a small snack along with the picture.

What does this mean, you ask? Stop asking the wrong questions, I say! Think about the beauty of this: I don’t know of this man just that he is a gamer and a connoisseur of sugar-free soda products. What’s his work life like? Stressful? Who knows? But once a day, I connect with this man who lives on the opposite side of the world in a culture completely foreign to my own… and just briefly I am on the same wavelength as him.

This is a man enjoying the moment and sharing it with his followers. I will share his joy with you all. I wish you all a small, but joyful moment like his.

There’s beauty in routine, there’s beauty in the mundane, and I eat that up. Granted, I am more of a Coke guy than a Pepsi guy, but I can let my prejudices slide just for a moment to appreciate true art in a world where mundanity is dying a slow breath against the ever-prevailing culture of grinding and productivity.

Your slowest moments in life are usually the most beautiful!

Thank you, Bunpro staff for adding more grammar when you had zero obligation to! I will cherish each one.

Thank you, intrepid truth seekers for spending each moment of your day reading the ramblings of a man who should be more productive.

Until tomorrow, I bid thee adieu.

[rdennison7]

Entry the fourteenth - August 1st, 2025

It’s a Friday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was a monumental day for my reviews with 4 reviews being destroyed by the might of my Japanese linguistic abilities.

In my rampant acts of foolishness, I regret to inform you all that I forgot to mention that I added A NEW GRAMMAR POINT. Yes, yesterday, I was the proud studier of the ru-verb grammar point. I suppose if I had to place the blame away from me, it was the Bunpro staff for adding more grammar and getting me too stimulated.

So, I had to simmer down. Usually I do this with games, but today I chose a classic. I chose Shenmue.

Just look at that beauty. Fun fact: You can press the B button instead of A and that’s perfectly fine. Oh, boy, I hope someone got fired for that blunder!

This game is unironically the cure for the ailing games industry. You may suggest that Yakuza would be a more modern version of this, but you are most definitely wrong! Shenmue embraces the void in a way that most games are afraid to do so.

You are only fearless when you explore into the unknown! Shenmue is the rare example of such a game.

I will demonstrate such fearlessness right now. Imagine you are in a Japanese kitchen in 1986. You have that image in your brain, right? You peruse through the room and decide to open a curious drawer .

Look closely at this image. Yes, it’s exactly what you would expect from an ordinary drawer from any kitchen. But just look at it for about 30 seconds. What did you notice? Did you see the slight curvature of cloth on the edge? Or perhaps you noticed the artifacts on the edges of the utensils?

But what utensil spoke out to you the most? For me it was the curiously elongated fork on the far left.

Someone made this, maybe they used their own kitchen cutlery as a reference picture? Why did they add a slight curve to the cloth for something that most would just give a passing glance at? Wouldn’t it take more time to add a curve wouldn’t that slightly increase the polygon budget for this Dreamcast game?

In Shenmue, there’s a mechanic in which you can stare at framed images. In fact, here’s one of my favorite framed pictures in the starting home of the game:

Look at that mountain. Is it a low res Mt Bunji? I don’t see any marshmallows hugging it, so I have my suspicions.

But there’s a hidden mechanic behind merely looking at this rather nondescript picture frame.

You can…wait for it…remove it from the wall. Yes. Do you think there’s a secret message behind this picture frame? Maybe a goodie? Something worthy of your time?

Lo and behold, this is what is behind this picture frame and every single picture frame in your home. It’s a fine wall, I suppose. I am not an expert on walls, sadly. Does this speak to you? Even I am grasping straws here!

I often think about how interesting it would be to have a modern day Shenmue (not three!) where there really isn’t a goal or objective. Where you can just immerse yourself in a period of time in an area of Japan and interact with as many pointless objects as possible.

Would be a killer immersion simulator for language learners who can’t afford a trip to the country they are learning the language from.

Maybe games can just be, not just do!

Be on the lookout for sailors, everyone!

[Edo9]

Four reviews? Man, chill out bro. You might sprain your wrist from all that typing the way AI Art Masters toil from typing four words and pretending they just created God’s work.

Be sure to take breaks, drink plenty of water, and try not to go into deep rabbit holes about comedy actors that disappeared in the mid 2000s. Especially in the middle of study sessions.

[Bezmolwie]

Based on the streak, the OP is at least 2,737,908.5 years old.

Meaning, they got to see:

• The invention of stone tools by Homo habilis in East Africa. The OP was at least 50000 years old at that point.
• The emergence of Homo erectus, who used fire and migrated widely. At that point the OP was at least 700000 years old.
• The evolution of Homo sapiens, when the OP was at least 2.4 mln years old.

If I were you, I would listen very closely to any words of wisdom from such a species.

[rdennison7]

Entry the fifteenth - August 2nd, 2025

It’s a Saturday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was another memorable Japanese learning experience with only 3 reviews destroyed by my sheer willpower alone. I can now just look at reviews and complete them. No typing needed!

Remember when I mentioned I X, formerly Twitter, about two posts ago? Yes, yes controversial platform…but this bothered me a lot.

For better or for worse, the little bird is dead and buried. But…what does Bunpro post on Twitter? Is it good? Do they go for spicy political takes? Casual posting of mundanity? Let’s find out!

Immediately, I noticed that Bunpro isn’t verified. I don’t see the checkmark of officialness. How am I supposed to know they pay around $8 a month to be official? Yes, I know it’s linked from the official Bunpro website, but I don’t trust easy! Especially when it’s painfully obvious!!

But look at that, 1,410 followers. That’s a pretty decently-sized neighborhood worth of people following Bunpro. Really puts things into perspective, eh?

With that many followers, surely there’s a ton of engagement, right? (Spoilers, I looked ahead before typing this.)

Instead of emotionally reactive “hot takes” we have…something unique?

Aww, cute! They still use hashtags. But pay no attention to the engagement at the bottom! I will get to that momentarily.

So many posts are just these little content drops teaching Japanese. Which is cool, I suppose. Who…who makes these? I never seen these on the forums or the website proper. There’s little cartoons that look to be taken from some repository.

Clearly there’s effort put into these but look:

The engagement on these posts are ridiculously bad! Despite the effort put into them, which is respectable, there’s something to say where a man posting an image of a soda each day is getting more engagement than this.

There is something so sad about a call to action that is fallen upon deaf ears. You know what? I won’t reply to the Twitter thread, but I will give an example sentence just for you, unknown Bunpro social media poster:

トイレしてる間にドアを開けておいたら、義母に見られて心臓止まりかけたらしい…まじで死にたい。

I encourage you all to come up with your own sentence and make tribute to the social media engagement gods.

Screaming into the void again? I know that feeling all too well. Notice its use of emojis telling us to think. Alas nobody dropped anything in the comments. But I shall drop one more sentence just to pay tribute:

ズボンのチャックが開いていたようだ…会社のかわいい受付さんと話してた時に。見られたかも…？

Who are you, Bunpro social media poster? What’s your day to day like? Hobbies? Favorite food? I would like to know this person and write a minimum 100-page biography on them. Unironically. If I ever get the chance to do so, I will make it a special thread just to give them the kudos they deserve.

Remember to tip your waitresses, everyone!

[distantflower]

@rdennison7

What’s your day to day like? Hobbies? Favorite food? I would like to know this person and write a minimum 100-page biography on them.

You made me think of this song with those words

- YouTube

[adorable]

Impressive strategy skipping n5 and finishing n1, you’re going places.

[rdennison7]

Entry the sixteenth - August 3rd, 2025

It’s a Sunday once again! Can you believe it?

Today was exactly the same, mind-melting, philosophically-driven Japanese learning experience you’ve all come to know and love by now. Three reviews were obliterated with my mind’s eye and another grammar point bit the dust.

This leaves my body craving for a reward, and I dunno about you, but one of my favorite snacks is Saku Saku Panda.

If you never had these pandas before, then you are missing out. Every single time I go to Japan, I crave just two things: Saku Saku Panda and Mister Donut. Historical or linguistic nonsense? Nah. Authentic sushi or ramen? Throw that in the trash! To me, Mister Donut and those pandas are my world.

Curiously, it’s stylized as “Sakusakupanda” on the bag, which while an accurate translation…is weird to see in English. Let’s check their official webpage just to see if we can find anything interesting.

Going to the company’s official webpage is…Wowzers! That’s one TOUGH GUMMY…but what’s that on the upper-right hand corner?

English you say? But, Cure Dolly sensei told me I would never amount to anything in my Japanese learning life if I stepped outside of my immersion bubble, but Cure Dolly sensei never met a man with an unreasonable sense of curiosity, wit, and dashing good looks. Let’s click to see the English site.

Well, the English site doesn’t look too different, eh?

Maybe all this nonstop immersion 25/8 is causing a bleeding effect where everything seems one of the same.So let’s scroll down just to test out my new superpowers.

When feel ease at home. When chat with your friends. When take a break…

With your heart, 70 pandas.

I think that’s absolutely beautiful. Personally, I love really bad Engrish. Sometimes, it’s unintentionally philosophical.

There are 70 expressive face. you can find the one, matching your feeling.

Which panda is your soul animal? I will choose the rare koala creature that is on one of the faces. Fun fact! Bet you didn’t know that about Sakusakupanda.

Maybe one day I will rant about the majesties of Mister Donut, maybe I will rant about something in a ridiculous amount of precision tomorrow. Truly you never know, and that’s the best part. It’s a mystery for you as it is for me!

Until next time, stay sakusaku, everyone!