u/Player_One_1

I finally got my hands on Chainsaw Man 24. Having read it made me feel nostalgic (or maybe it is a part of feeling down because of finishing a series?).

I remember buying Chainsaw Man 1 pretty soon after starting to learn Japanese. I was thinking "I will have something to treat myself, once I will be able to read it". Several times have I tried to start, only to realize "It is not the time yet, get back later, scrub!" But eventually the time came, and I was able to decipher first volume with a painstaking effort. And then another. And another. I was reading on and off (this was not the main learning activity for me) for over 2 years. By the time I got to volume 24, it was an actual reading, I am even a little disappointed with how fast it went (but also there is not that much text in it).

Getting the books was another journey. Stared with local Amazon, swearing on ultra-high mark-up on books in Japanese. And I ended up mixing everything: some volumes from local European bookstore, some from Amazon.jp, some from other Japanese online bookstore, some I asked friends on a trip to Japan to pick for me. I was even able to take one volume as a souvenir from my own trip to Japan.

It is funny how some shonen manga made huge part of my recent life. But thanks to power of language learning, even shonen manga can be intellectually stimulating (I wouldn't enjoy it half as much if just reading translated probably). Now the journey is over. Already got some more stuff to read but I doubt anything will grow this important any time soon.

I've been learning for almost 3 years. Practiced daily, finished Wanikani, learned grammar, reached level where I can read manga with only some dictionary help.

Turns out, that contrary to some weird stereotypes, Japan is super friendly towards foreign tourists. I mean - I can read most simple commands, even in Kanji only. Stop. Exit. Don't Enter. But ALL simple commands are also spelled in English (then Korean, then Chinese). Bothered to learn Kanji for 御手洗? Useless, the letters "TOILET" are also everywhere. Most shop clerks seeing white tourist didn't even bother and started conversations in English. And for the purpose of servicing customers it was very good English. Public transportation super readable without knowing a single word in Japanese.

What was not translated in English was usually big walls of text like planks on some monuments or something. Written in Kanji stylised to handwritten, probably lots of Proper Names, I am probably still years away from deciphering those. Also plain advertisement posters were surprisingly hard, probably too out of context, relying on some wordplay.

For all my trouble I got one small talk with some older ladies.

End of Chapter

Zbieżność prawdziwych osób i zdarzeń przypadkowa

(I dunno what I expected)

I just went on family vacation in Japan, and my level of Japanese was utterly useless.