Migaku makes it easy to mine sentences from news articles, YouTube, and epubs, and it's gotten me reading and watching a lot more Japanese content.

The problem is volume. Even with easy material, I average about one new word per minute in ebooks, so 30 minutes of reading gives me 30 new words. I cap new cards at 10 a day. That pace is sustainable, and I don't want to raise it yet.

How do you handle this? Do you stop mining once you hit your daily limit, or keep adding cards you won't see until weeks later with a growing backlog?

I'm using Migaku, but this applies to Anki or any SRS.

Migaku makes it easy to mine sentences from news articles, YouTube, and epubs, and it's gotten me reading and watching a lot more Japanese.

The problem is volume. Even with easy material, I average about one new word per minute in ebooks, so 30 minutes of reading gives me 30 new words. I cap new cards at 10 a day. That pace is sustainable, and I don't want to raise it yet.

How do you handle this? Do you stop mining once you hit your daily limit, or keep adding cards you won't see for two weeks?

edit: Everything I've asked for or complained about here or in the comments already exists, or has a solution. Leaving the thread up for historical purposes. Thank you to those who responded.

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I want to learn the word "簿記," which means "bookkeeping."

When I enter the word in Migaku and click the magic AI button, all of the sentences it generates tell me nothing about the word nor provide it in useful context.

From here on I'll provide translations of the sentences rather than the originals, but here are some examples:

• She studied bookkeeping.
• He obtained a bookkeeping qualification.
• She is taking a bookkeeping class.
• He has a bookkeeping qualification.
• He started learning bookkeeping skills.

So I went to Claude and asked,

> Come up with example sentences for 簿記 that through context reveal what the meaning is. An example of a bad example sentence would be 簿記を勉強した <-- that tells me nothing about what 簿記 means

It came up with sentences like

• In bookkeeping, every inflow and outflow of money is recorded in a ledger.
• In double-entry bookkeeping, each transaction is recorded as both a debit and a credit.

Which are, granted, a bit long, but are better than "I studied bookkeeping."

Also, in natural Japanese, you rarely ever say the subject unless it is necessary for understanding the sentence. However, Migaku's AI constantly adds unnecessary subjects, making for unnatural Japanese that sounds like it was translated from English.

I wish I could update the prompt used for generating the sentences. Or at the very least, be able to paste in a sentence and word and generate the rest of the card from that.

You can do that by deleting the rest of the card, then one by one clicking on the magic wand above each field, but that is tedious. I wish there were just a button for "generate the rest of this card from the given word and sentence," rather than the existing "generate the rest of the card from this given word only, and replace the sentence" button that exists.

Every digital book I've read in Japanese has read right to left, but for some reason when I load epubs into Migaku the page turns are left to right like an English book. I'd much prefer to follow the Japanese direction, but there doesn't seem to be a setting to change it.

For the phones, I've provided an estimate of the monthly pricing on a four-year payment plan, since that is commonly offered by carriers in Japan. The iPhone Duo has no model from last year to compare against, so I've used the Galaxy Z Fold8 since it is a directly comparable flagship passport-style foldable.

iPhone

• iPhone 18 Pro: ¥219,800, about ¥4,579/month for 48 months
  • iPhone 17 Pro: ¥179,800, about ¥3,746/month
  • Increase: ¥40,000, or about ¥833/month
• iPhone 18 Pro Max: ¥239,800, about ¥4,996/month for 48 months
  • iPhone 17 Pro Max: ¥194,800, about ¥4,058/month
  • Increase: ¥45,000, or about ¥938/month
• iPhone Duo 256GB: ¥364,800, ¥7,600/month for 48 months
  • Galaxy Z Fold8 256GB: ¥269,880, about ¥5,623/month
  • Duo costs ¥94,920 more, or about ¥1,978/month.

Apple Watch

• Apple Watch Series 12: ¥71,800
  • Apple Watch Series 11: ¥64,800
  • Increase: ¥7,000
• Apple Watch Ultra 4: ¥142,800
  • Apple Watch Ultra 3: ¥129,800
  • Increase: ¥13,000

AirPods

Both AirPods 5 models now include Active Noise Cancellation.

• AirPods 5: ¥23,800
  • AirPods 4 (no ANC): ¥21,800
  • Increase: ¥2,000
• AirPods 5 with wireless charging case: ¥27,800
  • AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation: ¥29,800
  • Decrease: ¥2,000

Apple did not announce a standard iPhone 18 or a new iPhone Air.

I've been thinking that I want to increase my amount of output, and just practice speaking Japanese more often.

I speak Japanese at work, but it is always about the same topics, so I don't get a lot of variety of practice. Then when I find myself hanging out with Japanese people, I can barely participate in conversations.

I thought I'd just go on iTalki and find the cheapest conversation partners possible and just book one person for one hour every weekday.

Thing is, the vast majority of teachers, even the cheapest teachers, on iTalki are charging about 2,000 yen for 60 minutes. That's 1万円 a week. 4万円 a month. A little more than I was hoping to pay.

Thing is I'm not even necessarily looking for teachers here. I'm just looking for conversation partners.

Does anyone have any recommendations for alternative platforms or alternative ideas for how to get speaking practice in?

I've got a full-time job and two kids under five so I can't really just go to a bar every night and chat up the locals or anything like that.

Kimi Onoda posted about the public comment period for draft guidelines implementing the new grounds for revoking PR (enacted in the 2024 Immigration Act amendment, effective April 2027).

The grounds are:

　1. Willful non-payment of taxes and public dues

Covers income tax, residence tax, corporate tax, and public health insurance/pension premiums. Requires that you know you have an obligation and deliberately don't pay. The draft says revocation applies when it's clear the person has no intention of paying and the amount/duration/frequency of arrears is "socially unacceptable." Explicit exceptions for illness, disaster, unemployment, and people on payment plans or deferrals.

　2. Violations of Immigration Act obligations

Includes failing to renew your residence card, not carrying it, refusing to present it, and card forgery/lending/using someone else's. Even negligent violations (e.g., forgetting your card) technically qualify, though the draft says a single lapse alone won't trigger revocation. Actual revocation is reserved for clear ongoing refusal to comply that's "socially unacceptable," and "legitimate reasons" like illness or disaster are exempt.

　3. Certain intentional crimes resulting in imprisonment

Theft, fraud, extortion, homicide, dangerous driving causing death or injury, etc. Intentional crimes only, but includes suspended sentences, regardless of sentence length. Applied when "criminal tendencies are progressing." Although even a first offense with a suspended sentence is expected to cost you PR status via downgrade to 定住者.

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The request for public comment can be found here: https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/detail?CLASSNAME=PCMMSTDETAIL&id=315000141&Mode=0

Comments are due September 3. If you leave comments, please do so in Japanese.

This isn't exactly secret information. It is posted as the first thing you see when you sign into the JEES website. However, it isn't exactly a website you tend to frequent, so I thought I'd share here.

I could've sworn the proctor at our test said results would come out late August, but I (or he) must have been mistaken.

In general, I've never been able to get a good close shave. After shaving it looks like I have a 5 o'clock shadow.

But in particular in Japan, a lot of the products I try get dull too quickly.