This seems petty compared to some of the other posts in here, but every now and then it drives me CRAZY!
I seem to be the only person I know who understands what “organized” means. It is not a matter of the area looking all nice and fancy like an interior designer has been here. Only interior designers care about “making it pop” and “having a wow factor.” I certainly don’t.
It’s not about having everything neatly lined up in evenly spaced rows like new recruits standing at attention. That doesn’t do any good if you still can’t find the can of mushroom soup amid the cans of green beans and tomato sauce and sweet potatoes and carrots and everything else. Those new recruits are also lined up in alphabetical order by last name, or inspection would still be a fustercluck.
It’s not about impressing anyone with my housekeeping skills, and it’s only us living here, and nobody else ever sees inside of there, so who cares what it looks like? I agree. Who cares about somebody else’s opinion of my pantry or my bathroom cabinet?
It’s about me being able to find what I need right away without having to spend an hour looking for it, and then having to move twenty other unrelated objects to get to it. It’s about not having sixteen jugs of cooking oil because we didn’t see it in the cluttered pantry, thought we were out, and bought more.
My husband thinks as long as something isn’t left out in plain sight, if it’s in a drawer or behind a closet or cabinet door, it’s put away. Doesn’t matter on what shelf or even which drawer or cabinet. I can spend an entire day organizing a cabinet or closet, and he thinks I am doing it ONLY to get rid of expired things and make space. So he comes in with new purchases and just puts it all anywhere there’s room, regardless of what it is, and I’m right back where I started. He has a limited concept of food goes in the kitchen, hygiene supplies go in the bathroom, and clothes go in the bedroom, but he is absolutely incapable of categorizing any deeper than that.
If we were to go to the grocery store, and the merchandise is all picked up off the floor, but the chicken and the hamburger and the hotdogs and the cheese are all lumped in with each other, we’d never get out of there because we’d spend all day looking for what we came for. Why can’t he understand that? Can anyone else?
There. I feel better.

Every year for our anniversary we go to a restaurant that starts with the next letter of the alphabet.
Looking for suggestions for letter J this year! It doesn't have to be fancy, but we prefer non-chains (local chains are OK) and great food. We're on the east side but will drive for somewhere worth it.
You've helped with our previous anniversaries in Pittsburgh: Gaucho, Hidden Harbor, and Independent Brewing Co.
Thanks yinz!

Edit: Saw this later from web and it was awful to look at. Cleaned it up. Please read strike through as cheeky side comments.

Premise:

Share my experience getting started on Bookfusion as a mobile first reader on iOS. I am also a dev so I like to give feedback when I see a project with promise and I figured my use case is not so unique.

Background:

I stumbled upon this app after months of being super annoyed searching for a way to away allowed tablet +pen users to write in line on epub files. I know now that this is possible on some of the very new color eink readers and (maybe?) Marginote but nothing accessible on iOS that gives you the full "I wrote in this book" feeling. I don't actually write in my paper books because it crowds the pages. However I use text based annotations all the time and love that I can just hide them away as I continue reading. It seems like a waste to have all this hardware capable of writing on books, but not supporting the most popular book format for published media. My full ebook library is close to 350gbs, and I have read them on many generations and sizes of devices over the years. That's why I don't like to use pdfs, so I will not be converting them.
Alright, off my rant.

History with other ereader applications:

I've been reading from epub files since the original Barnes and Nobles Nook launched in 2009. Things have changed a lot since then (for better and worse). My biggest pet peeve with all these platforms is that they lock you into their version of a book store and never allow you to include your currently library- or if they do allow sideload, it is at a disadvantage. Each of their reading apps are somewhat lacking in functionality too, one way or another.

• Kindle app is organized like social media with feeds and other nonsense I find that extremely annoying clutter to get to my book. The navigation in looking for books has infinite breadcrumbs you can't reset without hitting back a bunch of times. It's ability to do the one thing, is made unpleasant by the other forced features of integrating with Amazon.
• Apple Books lets you side load, but won't organize books by the same author or series together with ones sideloaded. You can't custom categorize books in your library without them being tied in some way to the Apple Books store view of the book.
• I've always found Google Books reader (on the iOS app) to be very ugly, and they are often the recent missing titles that I'm looking for. Man, I miss buying a ebook and getting a file. I can only do that directly supporting authors on their websites these days.

I haven't mentioned my qualm with actually buying books on these platforms either. Needless to say, I have books scattered across all the major platforms, which is why I will never get a kobo, amazon or otherwise platform affiliated e-reader and why I'm super interested in software based app solutions. I stick with iPad/iOS because it's familiar (I've had iPhones since the 3GS, and iPods even before then) and I have access to a lot of other stuff there too, jack of all trades style. Not an apple fanboy, I just hate having to change up something that's working for me already.
I have yet to find an eReader app that does everything I want, though. Besides digitally hand-writing in ebooks (which I understand is a particular challenge due to the format), I always end up trading one important feature for another. If I want an intuitive and simple interface, I have to give up customization options. If I want good organization, I have to give up proper cross device sync. If I want cloud sync I have to pray to the rain gods and light some candles. I rarely read from web since my iPad is a full laptop replacement to me, so this will all be iOS and iPadOS app perspectives.

Baseline for Comparison to BookFusion:

I have and still have to use the usual Apple Books, Kindle, Google Books and Kobo apps since my purchases are locked there for now. My latest and current app of choice was Eboox. It's made by a quiet little dev team. It's a 2 page app basically. Library view or shelf view. Some customization settings, but it has page-level Google drive based sync. Same deal, you can upload epubs super easily. I like that it shows me my most recent book at the top, and I can even download converted-to-epub fic and other comic files to this app sometimes. The big cons are that it's not very well polished: updates are slow, the shelving system is infuriating because there is no user created order enforced and since you can't re-arrange books on a shelf, tag, or otherwise subshelve books to group them you're stuck with alphabetical and recency order. On my "Worth Reading Again" shelf I'd like to have all the books from the same series sequentially. Or better yet, let me rearrange them. Annotating on this app is buggy, sometimes the note you typed won't be saved and will be open in the next note you make. The reading view navigation is glitchy and crowded. I have stuck with it because it does the thing(tm) with no forced frills and it is simple and nice to look at.
When Bookfusion came up on reddit in my search for supporting hand-written annotation it was like candy on Christmas. Plus, page level audio integration (something I never dreamed of having on mobile outside of platform lock) coming soon? Amazing. Now, I'm excited.

Initial Reaction/Onboarding:

I downloaded the app and made a quick account (not too many forced profile details too, great!), It was super easy to get started. Importing books is also quick and painless although that 10 books free limit is really nothing for someone like me *more on that later in criticisms.

What I Loved:

1. I was immediately in love with the amount of customization available for the reading view. Full color spectrum background support is awesome! I'll take an all black dark mode theme but for me, cream text and midnight blue background reign supreme for me. I don't normally mess around with the font options much but there were a lot to choose from! Big points.
2. Ability to tweak the epub files summary and meta data right in app is nuts, and incredible. Absolutely my favorite surprise perk so far, I've never had that available in a mobile app.
3. The sidebar is easy to use. I didn't love there being a store in my reading app (see my complaints about platform tying) but it is unobtrusive and I appreciate that.
4. Navigating my collection is straightforward and awesome. I prefer the info view over the gallery view since have a lot of files with no cover. Currently reading book at the top in the main screen is a feature I grew to love so I'm grateful to see it here!
5. I just about cried when I saw the color coded (And searchable!!!) tag integration. I've never had an iOS app do that. Especially on files with a large number of tags, like epubs exported from AO3. It's usually something I categorize on my own via shelves. Pretty damn awesome!
6. The text search is actually useful, God is real. I cannot explain how heinous text search has been on pretty much every where else. Being able to search/ see highlights across books is also legendary. A common note-taking feature but a very uncommon reading app feature (especially working well!)
7. Annotating the typed way (from my iPhone) is awesome. the context menu isn't too crowded, the highlighting is easy (another fully custom color palette, I'm screaming).
8. Speaking of the note view! I love that you can edit right from there without the book navigating to that page, AND you can jump there by tapping the note. Link navigation in general works well.

Nice-to-Haves that came up during use:

1. It would be nice to have the option to toggle off the book preview screen that shows after selecting a book you aren't currently reading. Most of the time, I already know what I'm reading when I open it. I'd prefer to be able view summaries or get this view via a long press on the book or from a context menu
2. I noticed that the order of tags isn't preserved, and instead tags appear alphabetically. Not a big deal, but it would be a nice to be able to preserve the order that they were imported with, and that you could priority order them. It would also help in the info view, since those top tags would be priority order too rather than whatever was closest to A.
3. I noticed that if I tap on a highlighted area I've already annotated it doesn't do anything? I would love to get an inline view of my note or at least a preview of it when I tap on the highlighted portion without going back to the edit menu to do so. Since, you can view all your notes across the book from the right sidebar menu, I can live without it but it would be a very nice to have.
4. Additionally, I don't always want to highlight AND note. It would be cool if you could have notes indicated with a accent colored underline when the passage is not highlighted. Typically, I highlight when I find the text meaningful and note when I have something to say about the content. For instance, I might highlight a stanza of poetry but not have anything to add. Or I might add a not to a passage that does not make sense to me- in that case, I'm not appreciating the writing but I do have something to say about it. Maybe this could be done by being able to preset a with a separate highlight color as default for when specifically selecting to add a note. In my view, notes that I wouldn't want literal highlighting on could be defaulted to a very gray/muted color, and then highlights remain as they are now.

Conclusion: So far I'm pretty impressed, and I know there's even more to explore with Callibre integration stuff too. Right now my central ebook library is hosted on a NAS that needs to be upgraded so it won't take me 20 minutes to download an audio book lol. I'd be interested in hosting my library on a cloud too. I also haven't tested it on ipadOS fully yet beyond the sync capabilities, but I'm already pleased with what I have seen so far in iOS
That does bring me back to the pricing though.

Criticisms

Some minor nitpicks: When I get a reading app, I'm looking for it to be completely usable offline. I think most people would agree? Why would I need to make an account before I even import a book? It feels like a lot of investment before I have even seen the app enough to decide if I will use it? It is understandable for early access but it did somewhat rub me the wrong way.
The Store. I don't love it. I wish it was out of view or something I had to open specifically rather than be in my main navigation bar. I get it, but it harkens back to platform lock.
The future social media-like features: Please, PLEASE make these optional or hideable. I hate this social-media-fication of everything these days. I don't want to be on yet another social media platform, I try to be on as little as possible of the already existing ones that you can barely escape these days. Goodreads and Storygraph already exist and I hardly want to use those. Storygraph is sticking to Goodread's original purpose which was to track your reading easily, and is the whole reason I use it. When Goodreads turned into Amazon's rendition of Bookface, I left the platform. Now it's cluttered with social media features I never wanted in the first palce. Goodreads became hard to use for it's original purpose. You have to constantly navigate away from a feed made up of people and authors I don't care about (because even if you didn't have people to put posts in your feed, they'd make you one based on recommendations and your reading lists....yay). Then the reviews were being censored, Amazon was making it difficult to remove books that were added to the platform without permission and get indie authors that actually wanted to be on there up. Sorry, I'm off track. As you can see I have a bitter attitude toward forced social media features. If the app becomes more complex to use for it's main purpose (re: Do The Thing TM) due to the social features it would ruin the whole thing for me.
The free tier: 10 books + 2 adds/deletes per day is way too low to get integrated into a new platform. I'm sure I would not have had time to consider whether I want to continue with my whole collection in Bookfusion before I reached frustration with the cap. I have at least 50 books in every eReader app I have right now, bar kindle since you can only download 10(?) at a time... but I can download and trade them as often and whenever I want- and I don't even properly OWN those titles half the time. And all of those are free and direct competition to Bookfusion.
In the free tier (without specifically enabling it), I should not be using up any cloud storage. It feels arbitrary to have this limit on the number books I can view in the app when I'm not using any services to do so. My device, that I own, with it's internal storage already holding my books that I also already own. Why am basically forced to be on a subscription to use the app realistically when the app is supposedly free? I would have rather (and happily) paid 4.99 out right to have no local storage limits, and the basic offline do the thing(tm) features. This app is better than any other e-reader I've found on the market so far so it should have a strategic advantage but it feels like I won't even get to experience that before I have to pay- under the guise that the app is free.
It's giving free trial instead of freemium and that doesn't line up with what is shown on the app store page. As it stands, I would not consider this a free app, as you can't use the basic feature set realistically without the subscription. If I only owned 10 books or would be okay to only view 10 books on rotation, I probably wouldn't be looking for something with such a robust feature set so I also feels this contradicts the goals of the market you're trying to capture. I understand pushing conversion, but this actually just scares away people who might have gotten themselves fully integrated into the platform and eventually more willingly paid for extra things one might expect, like expanded cloud storage, real time cross device sync, access to new features etc etc.
this is a bit of a soap box speech but I'm explaining what I would like to see for a subscription model Discord is a great example of freemium. The basic features that make it competitive are completely free. These features are limited to user in a reasonable manner, so that if they don't care too much about streaming in 4k or being a power user with 100+ servers, they can comfortably use the app in the free tier. When I first got on discord, it was to use servers as big archivable and searchable group chat. Much smaller than what it was capable of at the time, but had the easiest onboarding and the lowest overhead to get started. All you need is an email address, a username and an invite. Today, I've been a nitro subscriber since 2018, which is 2 years after I got started on the platform. No one I knew besides my gaming friends were on discord. Slowly, as I convinced more people to join me on the platform (I'd respond faster since I could use the web app at work), more and more of my total communication was happening on discord. Now, I happily pay monthly to have 50 more emojis to take between servers, customize my profile and push my server cap up. I also get to support the devs making a tool I use all the time and get early access to new features. I was already invested in the platform and that guaranteed I would want to continue with Discord enough to want and enjoy these extra features instead of hopping to a competitor like Telegram to start all over.
Because of the 10 book cap, there's no real incentive for me to invest time into importing all my books, making the shelves and tags I want to use, customizing the reading ui and making sure it synced over to my ipad. A casual user could have this experience: Upload 10 books immediately, be blocked from uploading more without deleting and be stuck. "What? Well that sucks, I really liked it so far." and immediately leave for other, worse apps that at least let me import my whole library. I hope this is coming off as constructive because I'm not trying to gripe about price. As I mentioned earlier, I have no problem paying for something I know I'm going to use. It just doesn't make sense for me (and when I say me, I mean the general consumer) to get on a subscription for the basic offline features of an app that I likely just got and am not sure I'll keep by that time. Only, if I don't subscribe the app at base is not very useful.
The Other Tiers: The two highest tiers are the only ones that would be useful to me, so I'm sharing my perspective on those. $10 a month isn't a lot but in the monthly sub competition space it's on the steep side. KU is $15? and I get Amazon's backlog included. This app is fundamentally and demonstrably better than any of the platform based apps, but it's not promising much recurring value in comparison to other subscription style plans. Maybe something like getting the first month for free would help? But mainly, changing between these apps requires decent front load effort on the user (to export their files from somewhere else, onto your platform) and then on top of that, you have to subscribe to read more than 10 of your own books? For me, I see it as dev support so I'm willing but others might not even try it with a limit that low.
To me, I would want to see features like the following to make $10 a month worth the value add:

• Integration with book tracking platforms like Storygraph (I hate goodreads but right now SoryGraph doesn't have the apis for it yet) and GoodReads
• Fancy Export tools for my annotations (to Excel, Google, OneNote Etc)
• Ability to view/export my reading stats by time (last month, last week etc)
• Hide social media/store/ad from sidebar and context menus. and be able to customize it with shortcuts to my most used shelves or something.
• Receive notifications about my favorite author's new books (rss feed or something)
• Strict interest/genre profiles for recommendations (for example: I'm only reading women authors writing historical fantasy this month, only show me those recs. Only recommended me Java17 manuals. Do not recommend horror novels).
• Complete data transparency. Where is my Bookfusion account data going?

But overall, I think this level of restriction will hinder the app more than it helps conversion. Please consider removing the book # (not the feature limits, only the local library size stuff) restrictions and either making the app cost money for those basic offline features or having those certain features be fully free so that the app is functional @ the free tier (and therefore, properly freemium).
I want to clarify in a quick closing note that I'm sharing this to give my perspective. This is not an official feature request or complaint or anything. I thought my onboarding experience and background with ebooks might make for an interesting take by new user but veteran e-reader.
I'd love to hear how other users feel (especially new ones) about Bookfusion and for you veterans, what keeps you using it?
Thanks!

=UPDATE: 05/04/24=
Hello gamers and anthro connoisseurs, welcome to the Beastars Modded Games Mega Thread (self-proclaimed).
Here you will find a list of video games with Beastars mods available (that I can find), so you can enjoy the wonderful world of gaming as your favorite Beastars character (mostly a virgin gray wolf), if the mentioned games fancy you.
How to Navigate:
The games cover a variety of genres and are sorted by categories (in alphabetical order), so take some time to peruse at your leisure.
As these are mods, they are only available to PC games.
Each mod will be hyperlinked to their respective source (all credits to the corresponding modders). Follow the instructions in each mod page.
Use each mod responsibly. Show respect and support to the mods and their modders.
By default, the modded character for each mod will be Legoshi, unless otherwise specified.
If you know of any mods that are missing, or if a new mod is published, feel free to contribute!
And finally, have fun!
//
Action / Horror

• Resident Evil 2 Remake (by Marcos RC)
• Resident Evil 4 Original (by GanbrielGantz)
• Left 4 Dead 2
  • Legoshi / Louis (by CaptainPawn)
  • Juno (by Shine_435)
  • Only Juno (by l4dkk)

Fighter

• Dead or Alive 5: Last Round (by TWolfS3041)
• Dragonball: Xenoverse 2 (by IvoNewmaN)
• Guilty Gear Strive (Louis) (by NotAustin)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  • Legoshi (by yukkuri_ender)
  • Louis / Pina (by Ficher)

Music / Sport

• Guitar Hero World Tour
  • Legoshi (by AngelLeyend)
  • Louis (by Cueliton)
  • Haru / Juno (by Fabrizio88)
• Thug Pro (by UEObambam)

RPG / Shooter

• Payday 2 (by THOT_PATROLL)
• Persona 5 Royal (Legoshi+Louis) (by DniweTamp)

Sandbox

• Garry's Mod
  • Legoshi, Louis (by Vesper and D.A.T.D)
  • Louis (by Pacagma)
• GTA San Andreas (Legoshi+Louis) (by Nekoremix)
  • San Andreas Mobile (Legoshi, Louis, Juno, Haru) (by Dany j)
• GTA Vice City (Bill) (by Sebas647)
• Minecraft (by unknown)
  • Legoshi, Haru, Louis, Juno, Jack

Strategy / Survival

• Don't Starve Together (by Snartles and HazelMocha)

Which handy tricks did you pick up that you dont wanna make do without?

Seen a bunch of talk recently about creating a seperate outpost within your village to manage cooking and some such, so that s fancy

I set up a chest next to the fast travel sign at my village with settings to not store anything. You can simply dump all your stuff in it and your workers take care of it.

You might have noticed that only the first of the three slots for consumed foods has a timer.
So you can munch on e.g. a smoked shroom and eat your premium meals after that. As soon as the shroom timer is below half you get to snack on another shroom to refill the timer and keep the premium buffs indefinitely as long as you dont forget to refill or sleep too long.

Being able to put up orders for research, craft, etc. from the map or building list is QoL supreme but the map gets messy and the list easily cluttered.
I rename all my builds with alphabetical priorities. For example, i dubbed my village Cloudy Central. So my builds are called „Cloudy A Research“, „Cloudy C Workbench“ and so on. I want my research at the top hence the „A“, after that it s „C“ for crafting, „G“ for gathering on farms, logging camps and whatnot.
edit: formatting on mobile is chaos

Our latest update for Fallout 76 launches today, and it's bringing some bug fixes and quality of life changes.
Read on for a full list of patch notes.

Update Version 1.7.11.12 & Sizes

Check the download sizes below for today’s update on your platform of choice:

• PC (Steam): 12.1 GB
• PC (Microsoft Store): 19.8 GB
• Xbox: 23.1 GB
• PlayStation: 19.2 GB

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Power Armor to be listed in English instead of the correct localized language
• Fixed an issue where the Garrahan Mining Poster was not present at the Rusty Pick or Camden Park
• Opportunity Knocking: Fixed an issue which could cause the quest to disappear after relogging.
• Deep Space Alien Jetpack is now properly craftable for T51 Power Armor
• Sins of the Father: Fixed an issue which would block the quest if a dialogue scene between Abbie and Antonio was exited during a specific part of the conversation.
• Fixed an issue where the Cremator was not listed at Legendary Exchange Machines
• Fixed an issue where the player could ask Abbie Russo a question about Vin that did not properly reflect the final outcomes of Sins of the Father.
• Players who previously unlocked them should now be able to craft the Poker & BlackJack Tables
• Sins of the Father: Fixed an issue which could prevent Antonio from speaking to the player.
• Rustic Helvetian Camp Kit has had the expected walls and windows added to it.
• The Favorites menu hotkeys are now usable while the wheel is visible.
• Fixed an issue where gold bullion vendors Regs and Smiley were not enabled for some players who completed Secrets Revealed.
• Tesla Rifles will now drop correctly from the Battle Bot Event
• Father Winter Helmet should now have T-45 standard Stats, Description, Weight, and Levels should be standardized now.
• Fancy Revolver should now properly display its unique fancy skin
• Fixed an issue where Small Presents were not dropping contextual ammo
• Fixed weather stations not being able to be placed in a camp workshop located very close to a public workshop.
• Fixed modern home kitchen sink not being able to snap to other modern home items on a foundation
• Secrets Revealed: Fixed an issue where Meg, Gail, Ra-Ra, Johnny, and Lou could be missing from the Crater Core after the completion of the quest.
• Lights now function properly on the Devils Wings Jetpack
• Fixed several paints that were no longer updating the dynamic name of modified Power Armor pieces.
• Speculative fix for items in the Cryo-freezer randomly selling for 0 caps in the vendor.
• Big Boss Advertisement Poster no longer turns into a Mothman poster when broken.
• Fire Rate now shows increase/decrease arrows when comparing potential mods to what players have currently equipped.
• Story Time now properly removes itself from the PipBoy if you kill Miss Nanny.
• Fixed an issue with Buried Treasure not properly completing.
• Players are no longer blocked from completing Honor Bound if they exit the conversation with Vin and Gene.
• Scrolling the mouse-wheel down now properly shrinks selected body parts in the character generator.

Quality of Life Updates

• Added a Max option when buying from and selling to NPCs
• World Activity list now sorts alphabetically
• Improved behavior of the inventory scrollbar
• Added a new “Ammo Per Shot” stat entry to weapons

Weapons

• Made several adjustments to the Cremator and its mods

Dev Note: The Cremator released with a bug that made it stronger than we intended it to be due to the way damage was calculated with its explosion. Players who had certain perks and mods on it did much higher damage than intended. We’ve fixed that bug, which has decreased the damage for that specific setup, but we made multiple tweaks and changes to buff it in different ways. Now, the Damage Over Time (DoT) should be a force to be reckoned with.

Seasonal Events

• Recipes and some items dropped by these events will continue to drop after you have learned them. These items are now also tradeable to help you get all the plans you want!

“The first student who steps forward for the ceremony will receive 20 points credited to their peer group, 30 points to their house, and 50 extra credits to whichever class they see fit” The dean cried out
The dean waits for a minute but seeing as no one comes forward starts to say,” Very well, I shall rescind the offer and start calling out names in alphabetical-”
“Dean!, If I may be so brazen, I wish to accept the offer, i shall be the first of my peer group to accept the scholarly rights” a bigger lizard person speaks up
After a lot of yapping that I mentally tuned out, the student grabbed the quill that sat upon the fancy book, or at least he tried to grab the quill, it must be much heavier than it seemed though judging by the waves of chi I can barley see surrounding the quill something else must be at play
With much struggle he manages to lift the quill and start writing, no writing isn't the right word, it is more akin to dragging, despite the apparent difficulty he is having the ink looks to be going smoothly upon the page
As he continues to write his name with great struggle a metallic black ink climbs up his arm, apparently trying to overtake him
After a minute of the student’s struggle to write he finishes his name, his name is faintly glowing for some indiscernible reason, the dean lets the student catch his breath for a moment before saying, “Lord Qiv Ratom of the Baralon-realm, henceforth you shall be known as a peer of the Transgracian Academy. Welcome to our ranks, and may the divine guide your light.” before leaning into Qiv’s shoulder to whisper something
“As the first to become a pear of the Transgracian academy for the art of magic, I deem it fit to grant you the right to choose who you're next peers shall be,”
Qiv doesn't even stop to think before saying, “The NewRealmer and the Ursina”
For Tengri’s sake, why did he have to choose me, I stand up with a grown-as Thacea whispers, “Ling I'm so sorry, I wish I had enough time to prepare you for this”
I shoot Thacea a questioning look as I walk to the podium with the book
I approach the podium and the dean says,” Ling Xulor of Elementrealm the Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts acknowledges your presence. What say you?”
I give an awkward cough not knowing what to say,” I Avatar Ling Xulor, welcome the chance to become a peer of this fine school” In the fabricated diplomatic tone I have practiced since I joined the court at Ba Sing Se
An assistant off to the side shrugs a fellow assistant, and the assistant in response rocks her hand back and forth, I suppose that means my response was good enough
“The Nexus and his Holy Majesty the King to which the Gods have bestowed the authority of sovereign, compels me as his divine agent, to grant you the rights to scholarship, under the ties that bind. Do you consent, Ling Xulor?” The dean says in a polite and neutral, somehow sounding exactly like the earth king’s servants and some egotistical earth noble at the same time
“Yes”
“Pick up the quill, and sign your name, Ling Xulor. After which, the rights to scholarship shall be yours, and the ties that bind shall be whole”
I go and pick up the quill, which is surprisingly heavy for what is just a feather
As I start writing my name, with some difficulty but less than what Qiv experienced, the metallic ink slowly creeps up my arm, as I write my name I can feel the waves of chi radiating from my cores, pushing back the ink, eventually completely removing the ink from my body
I can feel the stares, both at the waves of chi surrounding me, but also because I resisted whatever they tried to do with the quill, thank god my name is not particularly long or I'm not sure what would have happened
The hall is filled with silent confusion, even the professors seem to be confounded leaning over each other to get a look at my name which is completely dull no faint glow or anything, unlike Qiv’s which has a dull glow
“Avatar Ling Xulor, Henceforth you shall be known as a peer of the Transgracian Academy. Welcome to our ranks, and may the divine guide your light.” the dean said without much fanfare as I returned to my table, with looks of bafflement and confusion staring after me
--
First last next

I've noticed that a lot of autistic people can feel really paralyzed about entering the workforce or even finding a hobby to do because we need something that accommodates how our brains work. So, I wanted to start a conversation about what jobs and hobbies we, as autistic people, find to be the best fit for us! Just to give other autistic people hope that they can find an enjoyable, accommodating career, you know? I'll go first.
I currently work as a Library Page, or basically someone who shelves items and processes holds at our library. It is easily the best job I've ever had, and I find that the structure of the job itself is perfect for my autism. The hardest part is by far the training, but even then once you get the alphabetical order memorized and know how to shelve according to the Dewey Decimal System, it's the most zen, relaxing job ever. Every day I work I can just plug in my headphones and do these mindless, easy tasks like they're second nature. But most importantly, there's a clear structure and way things are done! In my experience, Library Pages don't have to improvise solutions very often - front desk workers, maybe, but not us. If you have a problem, there's always a specific set of steps to fix it and that's amazing for an autistic person who needs clear, concise rules to follow. Once you understand all the rules and how to troubleshoot problems, it's super easy. It's also basically "repetitive tasks the job" which is even better. So if any autistic people are curious about what jobs might be more accommodating to them, might I suggest a library job! You can even just start out by volunteering to get a feel for it.
As for hobbies, this one is something I've only gotten into very recently, but I find weaving to be quite similar! Again, once you get past the "How do I do this" training phase, it's basically just continuous repetitive tasks, except this time you get to make art out of it! The process of weaving is so zen and a perfect excuse to zone out and relax, once you've got the rhythm down. And you don't need a super huge, fancy loom to do it - I do "band weaving" or basically weaving little woven belts and such, and the loom I use is really small and simple, so you don't need anything too fancy.
Please comment with your ideal careers and hobbies for autistic people, I'm so excited to see the responses! Let's spread a little hope for others today :)

If anyone fancies a go, I’ve put together this football quiz.
Virtually all of the clubs currently in the Championship feature, even if the quiz isn’t specifically on the second tier, and the teams included come from across the footballing spectrum, with big names that have dropped down there to relative minnows punching above their weight.
I used 1992 as it is a common cut-off point given the formation of the PL and because there would have been even more answers to type in if I’d done every team to play in the third division over the past 100+ years — there are already 92 to try and get as it is...
The club names are listed alphabetically which should be a bit of help in finding some of the answers, and there is a 20-minute time limit, although this may be more than enough for some. You can pause the quiz if you need to for any reason — to do this on mobile, tap the “+” and then hit the blue “Pause” button. The website lets you do this up to three times.
Every English Third-Tier Football Club Since 1992 (JetPunk.com)
Thanks for taking the time to have a look. ⚽️
The second-tier version of this quiz that I would have shared on here a while ago can be found in the description of the quiz at the above link.

Turns out, bulletproof doesn't necessarily mean axe proof, and something special about the Earthlings is revealed.
As always, thanks for reading!
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The battle, if it could even be called that, hadn’t lasted much longer, within ten minutes, those that could had fled back into the forest. Of the 150 or so original riders, they counted 41 dead as well as 15 surviving mounts that hadn’t run off. Additionally, they were able to recover four surviving horsemen who were now being held in the jail below the town hall. Even now, members of the militia and a squad of marines were combing through the surrounding forests for any stragglers.
For the time being, however, that was the last thing on Xander’s mind.
He groaned involuntarily as he gingerly slipped his plate carrier over his head. The remains of the shattered striking plate rattled around like gravel somewhere inside the vest. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the pain in his chest was flaring up every time he took a breath.
He was seated on a stool inside Lyrian’s clinic. It felt strange think about it as “Lyrian’s clinic” considering he was so young, but as the healer’s apprentice, he had effectively inherited it when the Styllani abducted the town’s healer, and it would be his until either his replacement from the capital arrived, or the original healer, a man named Osyrn, was found or returned.
Dawson and Lyrian both walked in as Xander set the armored vest down. The young healer had been busy making sure that the prisoners they’d taken survived until forces from the capital arrived.
He looked troubled.
“Hey,” Xander said, a look of concern crossing his face, “you alright?”
Lyrian looked down, he worked his jaw a few times, searching for words, before Dawson placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“The kid’s a little shaken up, never seen bullet wounds before, but power to you, you got them fixed up good.”
Lyrian nodded gently, though he didn’t look back up.
“Is it always so… gruesome?” He asked no one in particular.
Xander sighed, wincing as his chest compressed, “It- yeah. Yeah I guess so.”
“And you’ve done that before? To other people?”
Dawson let out a humorless huff as Xander replied.
“Yeah… a couple times. We actively try not to, that’s kinda the point. The hope is that everyone chooses the non violent option, but that’s not always the case, especially when people aren’t thinking straight.”
“Still it’s- it’s-” Lyrian was at a loss.
“It’s brutal, yeah.” Dawson finished the thought. “Here’s hoping you never have to see that again. If it keeps troubling you, you can talk to us, but you might also want to talk to Doc Hansen, she’s been putting the likes of Xander and I back together for a while now. She probably understands how you’re feelin’ better than most.”
“Isn’t she on her way over?” Xander asked.
“Yeah, she was gonna take a look at you and then see to treating the prisoners but, like I said, Lyrian here got them patched up good as new. Never seen anything like it, some fancy words and healing juice and the holes just closed up like nothing happened, their bodies even spit out the bullet fragments. That guy’s leg was still pretty messed up though.
Lyrian chimed in. “Knitting wounds closed is not too difficult, especially with the proper potions to bolster my healing magic, but regrowing what was lost, things like severed limbs, is much more… intensive. It’s not something we’re equipped to handle here, at least I’m not equipped to handle it yet.”
“Well,” Xander replied, “we may not be the best judges of magic all things considered, but with how you stepped up here there’s no doubt in my mind you’ll be one hell of a doctor in no time.”
“… Thank you,” The young healer flashed a small grin, “but I won’t make a very good healer if I don’t actually heal, so let us take a look at your injuries.”
“And here I was thinking we’d forgotten all about that…”
Xander’s grin morphed into a grimace as he started to lift up his uniform top while Lyrian made his way over to a cupboard to retrieve some more supplies.
“Yo, lemme help with that. Lift your arms.” Dawson said as he grabbed Xander’s uniform by the sleeves and pulled it up and off, trying not to jostle his friend too much.
“Ooh, that’s gotta hurt…”
“Ugh, you have no idea, dude.”
A massive splotchy red mark could be seen stretching across Xander’s sternum, following the general path where the axe head had impacted his chest. The edges of the mark were already starting to turn bluish black.
Lyrian returned with a small vial of viscous, faintly lime green, liquid, which he set down on the table nearby. He winced upon seeing the injury.
“That looks like it could have been a lot worse, not to worry, it’s a simple fix.” He said with a smile.
Lyrian extended both hands, palms facing Xander’s chest and started softly chanting something under his breath that they couldn’t understand despite the magical amulets in their possession. A soft amber glow started to emit from Lyrian’s palms, washing over the rapidly forming bruise. This continued for several seconds as a look of confusion came over the young healer’s face.
As he lifted his hands, nothing seemed different.
“That’s not supposed to happen…” He stated as he tried again, to the same effect.
“I’m guessing all the pain and the redness was supposed to magically disappear?” Xander asked.
“Yes, exactly… The only time master Osyrn said healing wouldn’t… work…”
Lyrian’s eyes widened as he ran over to a cupboard. The Xander could hear him muttering under his breath.
“… but how could? … that’s not… there weren’t any…”
He rooted through the cupboard for a several seconds before producing a set of amber tinted, wire framed, glasses. He took a deep breath as he looked back at the two marines, evidently concerned.
“I hope I’m wrong about this.” Lyrian said as he donned the glasses.
His eyes widened as he stood dumbfounded, struggling to process what he saw.
---
Mira paced back and forth angrily in front of the assembled marines while the mayor interlaced his fingers, contemplating the soldiers intensely.
After his discovery, Lyrian had approached Okoda and asked if he could assemble his soldiers at the town hall, telling him that is was essential if they were to avoid potential catastrophe with the town and its inhabitants. He then went to the mayor and the watch captain in turn and asked them to meet as well for the urgent issue.
He broke the news once he was sure that no one was listening, though to be honest, without any silencing spells or wards, there was no guarantee.
“Why didn’t we catch this!?” Mira demanded at one of the guards. They couldn’t answer, simply looking down in shame.
“B- because, it’s not a curse or anything like that.” Lyrian explained, trying not to be intimidated by the much larger warrior. “Being aware of the Veil Touch curse is one of the first things master Osyrn taught me, and they don’t have it.”
“And how can you be sure of that!?”
Lyrian sighed.
“Because of this. Mister Mason, would you hold out your hand please.” He said as he willed a small mote of light into existence in his left hand.
Mason looked at the sergeant and, after receiving a nod, held out his right hand, palm up.
“Lyrian, what are you doing!? Don’t-” Mira exclaimed as Lyrian gripped Mason’s hand.
“Look, Miss Mira.” Lyrian said as he waved his left hand around, the mote of light staying fixed a few centimeters above the middle of his palm. “If it was the curse, I wouldn’t be able to do this. It would have spread and choked out any magic I had, but it’s not. Besides, with how much they’ve been moving around the town, if it was a Veil Touch curse, it would have spread throughout the town by now, but it hasn’t, it’s like it’s stuck only to them somehow. That most likely goes for anyone on their ship, too.”
“It’s all well and good that whatever this is isn’t contagious,” Okoda said as he was met with a smoldering glare from the watch captain, “but we don’t even know what this is. Is it some kind of disease or something?”
At that the marines looked at each other uncomfortably.
Lyrian let go of Mason’s hand and extinguished the point of light before answering.
“No, it’s not a disease. The scholars at the capital would be able to tell you more, but the Veil is like a- a barrier to magic. Think of a piece of dry wood, if you leave it out, it naturally soaks up water from the air. The Veil acts like oil on the wood, stopping water from going in or out, at least that’s how it was explained to me, but it goes further than that. Depending on how concentrated the Veil is, it can block the effects of magic to varying degrees.”
“Which is why you couldn’t fix my chest.” Xander interjected, before they had left, Lyrian had applied a numbing salve to Xander’s injury and wrapped his chest in bandages.
“Right. With how strongly the Veil is present in you, it blocked the healing energy from doing what it was meant to do. The energy just dissipated into the surrounding space. The same goes for, well, all of you.” Lyrian said, gesturing to the other marines.
“Alright,” August chimed in, “but you keep mentioning it has something to do with a curse?”
“Yes, because of what the Veil is, it’s extremely rare, almost impossible, to find pockets of it naturally. It also takes a very powerful caster to perform the Veil Touch curse. I don’t know exactly how it works, but from what Master Osyrn has told me, it basically infuses someone with the Veil to varying degrees depending on the strength of the curse. The curse then spreads in a weaker form to anyone that comes into contact with the first person, growing weaker and weaker as it spreads from person to person, though it also eventually dissipates on its own over time.”
“And because of what it does, it would hamper any attempts to heal anyone that was injured in the event of an attack.” Mason concluded.
“Among other things, yes, but like I’ve been saying, whatever is affecting you all isn’t a curse. It’s like the Veil is just… present, but there’s something else. Here, take a look at your hand.” Lyrian said as he handed Mason the glasses.
Mason gave a confused look as he put them on.
“Whoa, what the?” He stated as he lifted the glasses on and off while looking first at his hand, then down at his body, before looking at the group. He passed the glasses to the sergeant before speaking again.
“This is freaky, we look like we’re covered in black smoke or something.”
“Notice how the Veil around your hands is less present than the core of your bodies?” Lyrian asked.
“Uh… yeah. Yeah I can see that.” The sergeant said, slightly shaken by the sight through the glasses of his marines looking like a mass of roiling shadow people.
“If this was a curse, it would be covering you evenly. I can’t say for sure, but that it’s thinner around your hands and feet makes me think it’s dissipating, the group from the capital should have some casters that can confirm that when they arrive.”
“Regardless,” the sergeant continued, “if this is going to be a problem, we can head ba-”
“That won’t be necessary.” The mayor spoke suddenly, surprising everyone with the speed of his response. “From what young Lyrian has demonstrated, whatever this affliction, if it can even be called that, is, it doesn’t seem to be harmful to anyone.”
“But sir-” Mira attempted to interject before being cut off.
“Moreover, with how you defended us earlier today, it’s plain to see that you don’t mean us harm. After all, it now strikes me that it would have been exceedingly trivial for even your small group to pacify this town if you so wished. Do keep in mind, however, this it is only because you came to our aid that I place this trust in you now. Do not take it for granted. Also, please understand that the guards will be more weary of you for a time, but they shouldn’t give you any trouble.”
Mira sighed through gritted teeth, clearly very annoyed. “Yes, sir.”
“I- thank you, Mayor Arbert. We appreciate the trust you put us, we won’t let you down. Isn’t that right marines?” Sergeant Okoda asked as he handed the glasses back to the young healer.
“Sir, yes sir!” The marines responded in unison, causing everyone but the mayor to immediately tense up. The mayor only chucked with an amused grin, the crows feet showing at the corners of his eyes.
“Hah, very good, very good. Now, Lyrian, would you mind performing that demonstration with the light again?”
Lyrian nodded.
“Good, we will have to explain this to the rest of the townsfolk to avoid any potential misunderstandings. Having them see your demonstration will go a long way to quelling any fears they may have.”
---
It was a solemn end to a grim day. The people of Felhaven were weary of the newcomers once the announcement had been made about their connection to the Veil, but a combination of their actions that morning as well as words of support from both the mayor and the demonstration by both Lyrian and a few braver magically inclined volunteers confirmed to them that there wasn’t any threat of the Veil spreading.
The revelation that the Veil was most likely dissipating also served to calm them down, though there were still some dissenting voices in the crowd that wouldn’t fully trust them until its threat had disappeared completely. Mira was among them, though she didn’t voice her opinion out loud.
It was a better result than Lyrian dared to hope for. Moreover, there was cause to be happy. In their sweeps of the surrounding countryside, the militia and Mason’s team had stumbled across the Styllani encampment and found that they had left most of their possessions behind in their hasty retreat. This included the man-sized cages they would have used to transport any captives back to their capital. All were empty save one, which was occupied by the town’s missing healer.
Osyrn was a limnal, a were-crow to be more precise, which had explained why he had been initially taken. He had been starved in the intervening weeks, his naturally thin features exaggerated by his emaciated form which barely filled the robes he was wearing. More than a few feathers were missing from his wings, a couple would later be found tucked into the armor of a few of the dead riders.
Despite the testimony from the militia members as to the marines’ defense of the town, he was still deeply mistrustful of the new arrivals. After breaking the lock to the cage, it was decided that a few members of the town militia would be the ones to help carry him back while the others escorted them. The town had cheered when they returned through the treeline, none more so than Lyrian, who, with tears in his eyes, had almost tackled his mentor before one of the soldiers had stopped him.
Now, Osyrn was back at the town clinic, with Lyrian and a few volunteers tending to him.
Back at the battlefield, Xander was examining the series of small craters blasted into the hillside. Two of the craters were only a few feet across, a product of the Bornholm’s five inch shells burying themselves into the soft dirt before detonating. The last was notably larger and had a different appearance. Rather than looking like the dirt had been picked up and tossed everywhere, it was wide and shallow, many times wider than the first two. The surrounding grass had also been charred, though only in one direction, towards the town.
What little remained of the riders and their animals that had been near the blast had long since been collected, no identifiable remnant of the caster had been found.
“What the hell happened here?” Xander wondered as he nudged a stone with his boot.
---
Thankfully, the next couple days passed without incident.
Xander sighed contentedly as he took a seat at a table just outside the front of the local inn, tray in hand. By any standard, the meal was simple, two dark bread rolls with a decorative leaf pattern cut into the top, a bowl of something called the “Wayfarer’s Delight”, which looked and smelled like a creamy, hearty, meat and vegetable stew, topped with a fried egg, and a large cup of fresh water, he was still on duty after all.
Yet, this meal was also a milestone.
Yesterday, Captain Sinclair had personally stopped by, firstly to give the people of Felhaven a chance to meet the leader of their mysterious group, and secondly to hammer out some kind of trade agreement. Xander wasn’t privy to the exact details but the gist of it was that the captain, claiming the horses, armor and weapons of those killed as spoils, had effectively traded them back to the town as raw materials for a fraction of their full cost. The coin earned would then be used to trade for supplies later in the year, once the harvesting was back in full swing. In the meantime, so long as they kept returning to the town, Xander and the rest of their platoon were given a two silver allowance per day to spend as they saw fit, which was doggedly enforced by the Bornholm’s purser.
Xander knew exactly what his first purchase would be.
While he and most of the Bornholm’s crew had an easy time learning the Cadonian numbering system, they still had almost no idea how to actually read the alphabet, and so, with a little embarrassment, Xander had asked the innkeeper if they could read their menu out to him as he made his decision, deciding to defer to the innkeeper’s recommendation for his first Cadonian meal.
Bought for one silver, the thought never left his mind that this meal would mark his first time ever trying truly otherworldly cuisine, despite how familiar it looked. That it was bought with what he had considered fantasy money up until this point, money that he had earned in this new world, made the moment that much more satisfying. As he settled on the almost awkwardly tall wooden chair, he closed his eyes and leaned over the tray, inhaling deeply. The warm, sweet, aroma of freshly baked rolls mingled pleasantly with the savory richness of the creamy stew, all offset by the crisp spring air.
All that mattered was him and his meal as he ripped a roll in half and dipped it in the piping hot stew before biting into it with gusto.
Hot damn, lady knew what she was talking about! He thought as the lightly sweet and surprisingly smoky flavor of the dark bread contrasted with the heavy, yet well-seasoned stew. There was a hint of some faintly lemony, minty, herb behind all the savoriness that gave the stew a flavor profile unlike anything he’d tasted before, regardless, Xander found it rather pleasant as it helped cut through the richness.
Now that he’d had a taste, it was time to move on to the only part of the meal that worried him slightly, the fried egg. It looked mostly normal, with a proportionately larger yolk than he had seen before, but he had been taken aback at its dark crimson color.
The innkeeper had assured him that it was perfectly normal.
What the hell kinda chickens do they have here? He asked as he steeled himself and dug in. He had fully expected the familiar iron taste of blood and was instead met with a rich, almost sweet, grassy flavor. As he exhaled, he caught a brief hint of a berry-like aroma at the back of his throat. His eyebrows perked up as he nodded to himself.
He ate in silence for several minutes, only pausing occasionally to look up, enjoy the scenery, and keep a lookout for any trouble. He noticed some of the townspeople nod respectfully in his direction as they met his gaze, which was returned in kind. He was constantly in awe at the mix of what should have been fantasy races, elves, dwarfs, orcs, a small number of werewolves, regular humans, and many others in such a small town.
Ever since the skirmish, people had warmed up to the marines despite their situation regarding the Veil, seeing them act more naturally would only further ease any lingering tensions.
As he finished his meal, Xander inhaled a deep lungful of cool air, closing his eyes as he leaned back. He let his breath out as he enjoyed the warmth spreading from his stomach, suffusing the inside of his ribs, and soothing the dull ache in his sternum.
A deep, gravely chuckle brought him back to reality.
Xander looked back down to see Johan standing across the table. A look of worry must have flashed across his face as the large werewolf unfolded his arms and held up both hands in a placating gesture.
“Peace, Mister Douglas. I mean you no harm. In fact, I would like to… apologize… for my actions the other day.” Though Johan flattened his ears and bowed his head slightly, the confidence never left his stance.
“Uh huh… alright…” Xander said, eyeballing the larger being wearily, “well… no harm done I guess, not by you at least… just as long as it doesn’t happen again.”
Xander relaxed slightly before adding. “You can just call me Xander by the way, it’s not like you’re a part of my military so no need for the formal stuff.”
“As you wish, Xander. If it does happen again, rest assured it will only be because it is truly warranted.” Johan said with a slight smirk.
There was a brief pause as Xander scrutinized the werewolf before he relented.
“Hah, fair enough. So, what can I do for you?” Xander asked while gesturing to the seat on the other side of the table. Johan considered the offer for a moment before silently padding over and taking a seat. He rested his large hands on the table, lacing his fingers together. While the seat had felt much too tall to Xander, it was now apparent that it had been scaled for someone of Johan’s size in mind.
“I wish to offer some advice and information, hopefully it prevents what happened between us the other day from happening again with another Kindred that may not have as much self control. Consider it a token of my apology and gratitude.”
“That would certainly be helpful. I appreciate it.”
“You have, no doubt, wondered why I acted the way I did.”
“Yeah, a little. The suspicion was understandable, getting hoisted like a sack of trash, not so much. I gathered it was something to do with my little good luck charm.” Xander said as he reached back into his pocket to retrieve it.
“Stop.” Johan commanded suddenly, causing Xander to look back up. “Do not show it around. For your own sake, please keep it hidden for the time being.” He said before taking a quick glance around.
Xander glanced between Johan and his pocket before letting the charm go and zipping the pocket back up.
Johan sighed before continuing. “Yes, you are correct, my outburst had everything to do with your ‘good luck charm.’ It closely resembles artifacts that are held in high regard by the Kindred, myself included. More than that, it acts like them too.” He stated as he reached into his shirt collar and retrieved the end of a necklace that was hidden by his fur. The end of the necklace held a small dark pearl, different to the cloudy white of Xander’s charm.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How do I put this? These artifacts, aurites we call them, they are magical in nature.” He stated as he tucked his necklace back into his shirt.
Xander's eyebrows knit together in confusion. “And you think my charm is too?”
“I am… not sure. All the more reason for it to be looked at by one more qualified than I. I know that I cannot force you to do so, but, you are headed to Aestrahd, correct?” Johan asked with a tilt of his head.
“If that’s the capital, then yeah. We’ll need to head there sooner or later.”
“Good. Once you arrive, you would do well to seek out the Silverlight Grove. It is a place of worship to our goddess, Lythris. The high priestess there should be able to ascertain your charm’s true nature. For the time being, however, I would be vigilant to keep it out of sight.”
“Easy enough,” Xander said after a small pause, “so, the Silverlight Grove, is that a temple or a monastery or something?”
“Mmh, an accurate enough description.”
“Right… so find the high priestess and she’ll what, give me her blessing or something?”
“I don’t know for sure, but something like that.” Johan chuckled.
They both sat in silence for a few moments while Xander processed the information.
“Hey, I have a question if you don’t mind.” Xander stated.
“Not at all.”
“You called yourself Kindred and Moon-blessed and everyone else calls you a Limnal, which one’s the most accurate?”
At that Johan let out a chuckle.
“We go by many names depending on the type. To the world at large, we are collectively known now as Limnals, beings between man and beast. Amongst ourselves, we are known as Kindred, for that is what we are to each other, regardless of the specific clan, and we are all Moon-blessed, given our gift through the blessing of Lythris.” Johan stated.
“As someone who is decidedly not one of us, please do not refer to any limnal you encounter as Kindred, at best you will receive a strange look, at worst you will have picked an unnecessary fight.”
Xander smirked.
“Good to know, so what kind of limnal are you, like your clan, if that’s not too blunt.”
“Blunt is good, most of us appreciate straightforward honesty over diplomatic tiptoeing. As to your question, I am a Feris, a child of the Great Wolf.”
“Feris… neat.” Xander said, raising his eyebrows, “we have legends of creatures like you on our world, though we usually just call you werewolves.”
“Yes, one of your compatriots explained the term to a few of us, I shouldn’t be surprised that your people gave such an imaginative name to us as ‘man-wolf.’” Johan stated sarcastically.
Xander laughed.
“Yeah, can’t argue with that. Seriously though, thanks for the heads up, I really do appreciate it, and I’ll take what you said to heart.”
“I am glad of it.” Johan said with a respectful nod.
“Right, I’ve got a ton more questions, but I need to get back on shift otherwise the sarge will be on my ass about it all week. You’ve given me a lot to think about, though, and a few answers to questions I didn’t realize I had.”
“That is understandable, you will have to tell me about that when next we have a chance to talk.”
“Definitely. I’ll see you around, Johan.”
“Likewise, Xander.”
With that, they both stood as Xander extended his hand to shake. Johan looked at it a moment before carefully grasping Xander’s forearm in a Roman handshake, which Xander returned. He watched as Johan nodded, turned, and made his way back into the hustle and bustle of the town before returning his tray and making his way back to the town hall to link back up with the rest of the squad.
The forces from the capital would be arriving in just three days and they needed to be prepared.
A/N: I originally used 'breed' as the descriptor for the different types of limnal races, but I think 'clan' sounds better. Also, my goodness, the pacing for this chapter is all over the place. I hope it flows well.
I also learned the hard way that the fancy pants editor does not like it when I paste a 4000+ word chapter into it, but markdown mode takes it just fine.
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Well hi! So nice to see you again. I am back once more on my endless quest to unpack and explore the descriptions of DND 5e monsters, slugging my way through them all in alphabetical order. This week we’re taking a look at the Alhoon, a mindflayer that has achieved a form of undeath similar to lichdom (though with some very clear differences)…
​

Official Canon Monster Description/Lore

Alhoons actually have a pretty long history in DND, going all the way back to 2E. The story goes that a Netherese lich-king established a base in the underdark and began recruiting disciples from local illithid (mindflayer) colonies. The nine illithids who took to following the lich-king’s ways called themselves the Alhoon. Eventually, the lich-king attempted to merge his sentience with an undead elder brain so he could take over the world (we’ve all been there) leading to a cascade of events that ended with his mindflayer students scattering across the underdark, taking the teachings of undeath with them. Ever after, the illithid that followed the deviant path of arcane and necromantic practice called themselves the Alhoon and have been a scourge on the Underdark and occasionally the lands above ever since.
Physically an alhoon is just an undead looking mindflayer. Canon descriptions say that the alhoon loses all that gross slime and mucus that keeps a mindflayer looking moist and instead gets all desiccated and dry, the skin appearing cracked and grey. As time goes on, the eyes of an alhoon will shrivel away and dry up leaving only pinpricks of light glowing in hollow eye sockets… Pretty freakin cool if you ask me.
​

The Alhoon Lich Distinction

First things first, we’re going to clarify some lore stuff since the lore around the Alhoon is vital to using it properly. While the info we went over previously might have you believe that the alhoon is simply a lich reskinned to be a mindflayer, that simply isn’t true. For one, an alhoon has a challenge rating of 10, making them significantly weaker than your average lich (though I personally would make a case that alhoons should almost always be encountered together or at the very least close by one another, but we’ll get to that). More importantly, the alhoon, according to Volo’s Guide to Monsters, is actually incapable of ever ascending fully to lichdom (something about how that level of arcane power is beyond the grasp of aberrations). Instead, the alhoon exists as a sort of lich adjacent and can only survive by working together with other alhoons in a dark arcane ritual.
The alhoon comes into undeath via a necromantic ritual that harvests the energy of humanoid sacrifices and gives the alhoon a lifespan of undeath of exactly however long the victim has lived (You’d think that the alhoon’s lifespan extension should be connected to however much life the victim had left instead of how much life it had already lived. But hey what do I know, I flunked out of necromancer college). This ritual strongly incentives sacrificing the longer lived species for efficiency sake. Alahan the elf who has lived 800 years is a much better choice of sacrifice than human Jeff who just entered his 30s. This ritual requires a minimum of three alhoons to function, all of them bringing their own sacrifices.
Once the lifespan of the victim has run out, the alhoon must find fresh new sacrifices to pump into the ritual or risk fading away. So far, this doesn't seem all that different from a lich who has to shove unsuspecting souls into a phylactery every 777 days or whatever, but this is where it gets weird.
While the bodies of its victims are harvested to grant the alhoon undeath, the minds of the victims are sucked into a periapt of mind trapping where they are sealed indefinitely. This periapt is directly connected to each alhoon who participated in the ritual. While holding the periapt it is possible for anyone to speak with the minds trapped within and also seems to grant insight into the alhoons that created it (you get advantage on pretty much everything against the creator alhoons while holding it and they have disadvantage against you). In addition, if an alhoon dies, its mind is sucked up into the periapt to join the minds of the sacrificed victims in an eternal dark purgatory, with the caveat that if the periapt is destroyed then all the minds within (alhoon included) are condemned to the void. Classic.
All in all, this sort of comes across as just lichdom with extra steps, but I think there actually is a lore consistent logic to it... Jump with me even deeper into the alhoon rabbit hole.

Understanding the Logic of the Alhoon Ritual

The classic mind flayers spend their lives connected to each other and more importantly connected to the elderbrain, all of them in tune with each other and living in “harmony”. Upon death, a mind flayer’s brain is cast into the pool with the elder brain where it is absorbed and its memories, personality and essence contribute to the entirety of knowledge that the elder brain contains. This ritual is incredibly sacred and observed with a near religious fervor, most mind flayers view having their essence absorbed into the elder brain as an equivalent of heaven or eternal life. Likewise, to be denied this final amalgamation into the elder brain is considered horrifying, isolating and pretty much the worst punishment that can be doled out to a mind flayer.
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Enter now the mindflayer arcanist, our soon to be alhoon. They have turned away from mind flayer culture by pursuing the arcane arts (something expressly forbidden by most mind flayer communities). In the process of their search for power, they have either fled or been cast out of their community and thus are denied the eternal reward of melding with the elder brain. For a mind flayer deviant death is truly the end, its intellect, personality and essence are all consigned to oblivion. There will be no joining with the collective knowledge and personality of all mindflayerdom, only the void.
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To avoid this, the mind flayer deviant pursues immortality. Yet unlike a traditional lich which usually works independently and alone, mind flayers are hard wired to collaborate and even in their deviancy they do so. Rather than pursuing a more traditional form of lichdom, the alhoons have used their arcane magics to reach immortality by creating a twisted, warped version of the traditional mind flayer afterlife. The periapt of mind trapping holds all the intellects of the alhoon's victims imprisoned endlessly in darkness. Not only does this ritual provide a limited form of immortality to the alhoon (dependent on continued sacrifices into the periapt) BUT should the alhoon be physically destroyed the pariapt saves its mind from oblivion by absorbing it. Inside the periapt it can commune not only with the other trapped souls but beings who hold it: a twisted imitation of the host of minds contained within the elder brain. Thus, what we have in the alhoon ritual is a dark mirror of one of the most important parts of mind flayer culture constructed by the outcasts of illithid society.
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Whew. Now we've got that out of the way, lets continue on.

When are your PCs going to encounter an alhoon?

An alhoon has BBEG energy or at the very least a strong sidekick to the BBEG that has to be dealt with to get to the BBEG. As we just went over (in painful detail), to even construct the ritual to create and alhoon you need at least three of them working together. This means that functionally if your PCs have to deal with one Alhoon, they in theory should have to deal with several. This is especially true because if one alhoon is slain, its mind gets sucked into the shared periapt and can then snitch about your PCs to its other alhoon buddies who can then start plotting revenge. Unless your story explains explicitly why there is only one alhoon (e.g. the other alhoons all died long ago or your alhoon npc is just extra brilliant and edgy and cool and hot and doesn’t need help to become undead) your PCs should encounter an alhoon and then shortly thereafter learn that this undead mindflayer isn’t working alone…
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Of course you don’t have to limit yourself to the underdark since supposedly, some alhoon have a tendency to sneak up on wizards in isolated towers, eat the occupant’s brains and then take over their whole operation. If you don’t want to center a whole campaign around it an interesting sidequest could be your PCs needing to seek advice from an isolated wizard, living in a tower on the edges of civilization. Upon arriving they discover (through all sorts of hints and foreshadowing) that the wizard who once lived here has been replaced by an alhoon thus leaving your PCs to decide between attempting to secure the assistance of the alhoon for the original problem, or provoking a dangerous fight and hoping to scavenge an answer from the ruins.
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General Theme of the Description

Mindflayers are of course aberrations, aka creatures of utterly alien and unknowable origins. Hailing from an unknown space referred to as the Far Realm,, mindflayers exist as horrifying and deeply bizarre creatures. Add a layer of undeath onto all that eldritch horror and we have the alhoon. A horrifying creature with an alien anatomy now also rotting and drying up like a mummified corpse? Sounds like a pretty fun and unique bad guy.
Themes: Alien, unknown, undead, horror

Main Features of the Monster

Body

An alhoon would conform to the mindflayer physiology nearly to a T. Thus we base the rough dimensions of our alhoon on the mindflayer base. Alhoons will all be gaunt and lanky because mindflayers are all gaunt and lanky.
Fun fact! Mindflayers are all between 5 feet and ​4 inches​ to ​6 feet and ​2 inches in height. This is because the mindflayer parasite apparently only works when victims are within that height range! Super interesting! Stay tuned for when I ended up doing Mindflayers in 1 million years from now when I finally reach the M monsters.
Mindflayers are traditionally depicted as standing tall and radiating a sort of arrogance, confidence and superiority. Potentially an alhoon could differ from this. Mindflayers have a sense of superiority because they believe themselves to be the ultimate life form, destined to rule over everything and this would reflect in their posture aka ramrod straight, head and chin up and a sense that its looking down at you even if you stand at the same height. An alhoon was also brought up in that world but then either rejected it or was rejected by it which gives us two different options for body posture. Either the alhoon left voluntarily and thus still views itself as the superior creature (even more superior than those silly normal mindflayers) OR the alhoon was banished when the other flayers caught wind of its magic tinkering and thus our alhoon either doesn’t care about such nonsense as posture or is actively working through an inferiority complex. This means we can play with an alhoon that has a more hunched posture.
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Standing tall the aberration takes you in silently. Its posture is ramrod straight.
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Hunched and bent this monster is nearly lost in its robes, clutching hands grasp at the book it holds. Its poor posture causes it to lose nearly a 3rd of its height.

Tentacles

Arguably the most iconic part of any illithid are the tentacles. Humans love looking at faces (its one of the first things we pay attention to when meeting someone new) and gosh by golly if a dude has tentacles where his mouth should be I’d say that might very well be the first thing you notice about him. Mindflayers have 4 tentacles and alhoons are going to be no different (unless its lost part or all of a tentacle due to neglecting making sacrifices to the periapt, an interesting concept). Standard tentacles range from 2-4ft in length and don’t have the suction cups/teeth that an octopi or squid would have (though why not add them and make your alhoon even more nightmarish?), making them more tools for pushing and pulling rather than grasping and strangling unless the mind flayer can fully wrap them around something to grip it enough to lift.
We are told that the tentacles are remarkably dexterous and an illithid has almost complete control over them and thus would regularly use them for any day to day mischief. An alhoon is an arcane caster which means it is regularly going to be involved in all sorts of arcane research. A PC spying on an alhoon would witness the alhoon using its tentacles for a variety of tasks, sometimes even favoring them over its arms.
While roughly humanoid in shape, it is at the face that all further resemblance ends. Four tentacles sprout from where the mouth should be, each 3 feet long. They writhe and twitch as the creature floats along, one almost absent mindedly brushing a speck of dust of the elaborate robe it wears.
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You watch as the alhoon begins to set up the ritual, its tentacles rapidly moving to lay out components, stencil in runes and light candles, all the while its hands flip through the ancient tome.
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Skin

The primary way of telling apart an alhoon from a mindflayer at a glance is the skin. Where a mindflayer’s skin is rubbery, purple and covered in a layer of moisture and mucus, the alhoon’s is dry, dehydrated, gray and cracked. I’d suggest a mention of the skin feature pretty high up in the order of description, just under or above “hey the guy got tentacles”. I read some older info that alhoons will often soak themselves in liquids of various sorts to keep their skin all moist and hydrated, though 5e doesn’t say anything about this in particular. Personally, I think the idea has potential if only because then your PCs can interrupt your alhoon in the bath and as a PC I’d think that was hilarious. Of course you can go an even darker route and suggest that the alhoon has discovered the best thing to soak in to maintain almost alive looking skin is… blood. Honestly though, it comes down to whether or not you want it to be obvious that the alhoon is undead. If you want it to be a big grand reveal that the alhoon is different from a regular mindflayer than you can absolutely lean into this bit of lore and foreshadow his nasty crackly skin over a grand span of time. Or if that doesn’t interest you, you can just describe the alhoon’s parched-ass old face right off the hop and be done with it.
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Regardless of if its moisturizing routine, the alhoon’s skin is actively in a state of undeath. While it seems to hold active decay at bay by the sacrificial ritual, it isn’t immune the entropy that mindflayer mucus would protect its skin from. Thus describing flaky, gray skin, cracking and fracturing to reveal muscle or bone underneath is perfect.
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Eventually, the alhoon would reach less of a dry flaky state and more of a mummified one, what remains of the skin stretched taunt over its muscle and bones
As the creature rises from the vat of strange gelatinous liquid it was submerged you finally put your finger on what is troubling you: Something is strange about this mindflayer’s skin. A decidedly paler hue and evidence of cracking and tearing is visible even under the clinging liquid of the basin.
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Dry desiccated skin is visible beneath the cowl. It cracks and flakes off underneath the eyes leaving a powder on the rich dark robe the creature wears. The knuckles and joints of the hands seem particularly effected, the gray skin torn and cracked enough that you catch glimpses of blackened tendons and muscles beneath…
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Eyes

We are helpfully informed that an alhoons eyes appear shrunken and shriveled eventually fully decaying away into the “cold pinpricks of light” so reminiscent of liches. If you want to get gross about it (and you’re a DM of course you do), you can describe the round bulbous eyes of the mind flayer as dried out and desiccated as the rest of the skin. Perhaps one of its two eyes has collapsed in on itself or shriveled away before the other. Regardless of what direction you go, the cold shining lich light is such an important detail to describe. I always imagine it as a cold white blue light, but a green or burning red could also have sweet imagery.
Matching the desiccated skin are the large eye sockets of this strange mindflayer. Beneath the brow ridge is an mostly empty hole, the dried and crumpled remains of the eye still visible.
Hollow holes where the eyes should be instead form darkened voids of space, in the center of each is a single cold blue pinprick of light that gleams as it looks in your direction.
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Clothing

Regular old illithids already have a penchant for dramatic clothing, we see them depicted wearing flowing robes with high collared capes. The MM art of the mindflayer has him festooned with an edgy little skull belt buckle which I think is hilarious (we love a goth squid man). Meanwhile we already know that wizards love over the top outfits, flowing robes, pointy hats, the whole shebang. An alhoon, then, as a meeting of the two, we can expect to be an incredibly dramatic dresser. I love the official 5e art of the alhoon which depicts him with a stary blue robe under an edgy black cloak with tassels that seem to be made of bone. I equally love the 3e artwork which gives them a fun looking corset covered in all sorts of buckles, kinda like something you would see at a punk concert or kink expo.
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Clothing honestly has so much potential for giving your alhoon personality, especially important if you have a couple of them on the scene and need to distinguish one from the other. Is your Alhoon super focused on their arcane studies and doesn’t care about clothes? Or are they incredibly vain, wearing fancy purple robes and jewels and gems set into necklaces and rings of all sorts? Maybe you go for the punk/bondage dom love child vibe and you’ve got them festooned in buckles, straps, spikes and chains. Maybe your alhoon is a hands on researcher and you dress them in a mad scientist sort of vibe with a hanging belt of instruments and tools and strange contraption of magnifying eyeglasses. The options are literally endless.
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A soft clinking of chains precedes the alhoon as it levitates around the corner. Buckles, straps and chains are integrated into a tight bodice of leather and black cloth that wraps around the midsection of the aberration and ends in flowing fabric that obscures its feet.
The aberration is covered in valuable gemstones of all sorts. Several layered necklaces of silver, electrum and platinum lay around its neck while massive rings set with rubies and emeralds line the long spindly fingers.
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The undead mindflayer moves quietly along dressed in royal purple robes that obscure most of its form. Shifting lines of golden glyphs and runes fade and appear along the sleeves and neckline as the creature takes in its surroundings.
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Making an Interesting Alhoon

Magical Items As an arcane practitioner, it would make sense that an alhoon would have either acquired or created a collection of magical items to use. A cloak of protection seems an obvious choice that any self respecting alhoon would have (unless it gets in the way of whatever fashion forward outfit the alhoon wants to dress itself in of course), though a cloak of displacement seems an equally useful albeit more tricksy option. Wands would be an equally likely and useful choice, a Wand of Paralysis would be extremely useful for capturing victims for the alhoon ritual (or a Wand of Viscid Globs would accomplish the same thing but more gross) and everybody loves a Wand of Fireballs. Ioun stones would also seem to be right up an alhoon’s ally. Stones of Regeneration, Reserve, Protection and Mastery all would be highly prized for an alhoon (and your PCs after looting it off their corpse) The Periapt of Mind Trapping The center of the Alhoon ritual is the Periapt of Mind Trapping. The periapt is created after a three day long ritual with at least three alhoons, each bringing at least one victim to be sacrificed. While destroying it won’t directly harm or destroy the alhoons who made it, it will temporarily prevent them from sacrificing any other victims AND will mean killing them actually gets rid of them for good. The periapt is described as made of silver, emerald and amethyst and being roughly fist sized, other than that the specifics are up to you! Given that it contains multiple displaced souls all of whom’s last moments alive involved being horribly sacrificed by mind flayers in a necromantic ritual, I’d hope it has some gravitas. Alhoons seem to have some edgelord vibes so maybe its shaped in the form of screaming skull with emeralds for eyes and amethysts for teeth? Or maybe it looks remarkably ordinary at a glance and only when you pick it up can you hear the collective wailing of the imprisoned minds inside…
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Conclusion

Whew, that was a lot to get through. If you've read this far, I appreciate you!
I'd love to know all your thoughts and if/how you've used alhoons in the past! If you want to check out previous monsters I’ve done you can either see them on my reddit profile, or on the website I’m putting together at https://monstersdescribed.com/the-monsters
Tune in next time as we take a look at the Alkilith, a slime demon that creates portals to the abyss for other demons to climb through!
May the dice roll in your favor, friends!

Start: Narita Airport, April 3rd, 2024
3 people, including me.
Only had a rough itinerary, we didn't have much time to plan. Sakura timing was a shot into the blue but we got lucky.
Renting and driving a car in Japan - easier than expected!
We were a little nervous about renting a car in Japan and driving in a country we've never visited before. But it turned out to be super easy and straightforward. We were welcomed with kindness and got picked up by the car rental agency at the terminal.
There was no surcharge for registering additional drivers. International driver's license issued by Austria was accepted without a translation in Japanese thanks to a bilateral agreement. International driver's license issued by Germany was only accepted with an additional translation on paper in Japanese (expensive). Definitely make sure you have these documents ready before renting the car.
We used Google Maps and mobile data through an eSIM for navigation. The car's built-in navigation system was in Japanese, so we couldn't use it. Tip: in Japan, you can use landline phone numbers to navigate, instead of an address. Google Maps was very reliable, the most important direction signs are also in latin alphabet.
Regarding tolls: you can rent a toll card ("ETC card") from the rental agency for just 300 JPY for the entire trip. Highly recommended, you can just drive through the "ETC" gates at any expressway and it registers the toll to be collected. 1400 km, of which ~1100 km on toll roads (expressways) ended up in a total of 28,900 JPY (~ 180 € / USD) Gas is currently really cheap, we got regular gas for as low as 165 JPY per liter at some places. Fueling the car at self service stations is also the same as in every other countries, have your phone ready to translate the screen. Fuel types are color-coded, so almost impossible to mistake.
Being 3 people, even including tolls and gas, the rental car was still cheaper than 3 rail passes together, and since we had accomodations quite far off the grid, it allowed us more flexibility.
Left-driving traffic did take a few hours to get used to, but Japanese drivers are VERY patient and other drivers would always let us merge when we had troubles switching lanes at intersections etc.
Even parking is pretty straightforward. Almost all accomodations, restaurants and stores offer (limited) parking space. In the cities, you can't just park anywhere, you have dedicated pay parking lots that turned out to be super easy to use: you drive onto your prefered numbered parking space, then an automatic barrier will come up in front or under the car after ~ 3 min., and you can just walk away. When you come back, you type in your parking space number at the machine and pay the amount. Usually they have rates for 30 min., 1h and 24h maximum charge for parking. In Tokyo, we paid 900 JPY for 24h of parking, which we considered a great deal compared to European cities.
The only challenging city for driving and parking was Kyoto. Narrow roads, slow traffic, hardly any space and many tourists and cars at the main attractions. But whenever we were stuck backing out of a full parking lot, someone came rushing to our car to help us back out safely into traffic. I've never encountered such attentiveness for others in any other country.
The expressways are great and save you a lot of time. The speed limits are not always obvious, especially because to our surprise, hardly anyone sticks to them, so we decided to just flow with the left lane traffic to be safe.
There are plenty of tidy rest areas on the expressways offering food, coffee and WiFi.
April 3/4/5: Narita to Fujoyoshida - Restaurant experience instead of Mt. Fuji
Having picked up our little Nissan, we drove straight from Narita to Fujiyoshida. Our accomodation was not directly in the city but on the very outskirts, which turned out to be perfect, because after a long noisy flight we found ourselves in a peaceful Tatami room facing the rainy forest and a sakura tree in bloom. They use heavy blankets and rice pillows for the beds and I slept like a baby on these.
The weather was rainy and not a sign of Mt. Fuji, so we tried some local restaurants and had fantastic Hōtō noodles, a speciality from Yamanashi area. We were extremely hungry and ordered 4 pots for 3 people, and they came back twice to confirm our order. When the food arrived, we realized why they double checked, because one pot is already big enough to be shared by two non-competetitive eaters.
We also learned our first lesson: In busy areas, especially during Sakura time, you should definitely make a reservation, expect lines and also expect restaurants to take the last ordeguests 30-60 minutes before the actual closing time. They also might be randomly closed on Sundays during Sakura. Opening hours/days on Google Maps are hardly reliable. We also realized that reviews in Japan are rather strict. Anything that had "just" 4-star reviews was perfectly fine to eat- 5-star reviewed places were often packed.
My 2 companions are vegans, and there are hardly any Japanese restaurants that offer specifially vegan dishes. But no matter where we went, they were super helpful and always tried their hardest to find a vegan solution for them. We also realized though, that fish isn't always considered as non-vegan, so there's that.
Despite the rain, it was very nice to wander around the city, Fujikawaguchiko lake, and we visited Fujiomurosengen Shrine. The cherry blossoms were still closed at this time.
We also explored some of the nearby towns and found beautiful little shrines everywhere and even stumbled upon a spring celebration ceremony at one of them.
April 5/6: Halfway stop at the shore to Nara and a waterfall
We booked an Airbnb halfway to Nara at a small town at the shore. On the way to the south, we stopped at Shiraito waterfall a wonderful waterfall located at the bottom of Mt. Fuji. 500 JPY for parking, otherwise no admission fee and definitely worth to spend 1-2 hours visiting. On clear days, you have Mt. Fuji as a backdrop. Again we had a wonderful Ryokan located off the beaten path in a small village near the sea. Cherry blossom was in full bloom there and people were incredibly friendly. I highly recommend you to check out some of the little towns in Gamagori, Hamamatsu or south Aichi area.
April 6/7/8: Nara Park
Full cherry blossom in Nara! We had an accomodation close to Nara Park. Around 8-8:30 am the park started filling with visitors and remained full until sunset. For me personally, it was too busy, nevertheless it's a unique experiece to be allowed this close to wild deer and the Park is home to absolutely magnificient ancient temples. My favorite one to visit was Nigatsu-do temple, which is located at the very top of the western park side and is not as full as the large Todai-ji temple. And obviously the famous Sakura pavillon in the park.
Nara offers a great variety of restaurants. My friends found a specifically vegan restaurant for their dinner, I had the best sushi of my life here, at a place called Sushi Ichi.
Regarding our narrow total time frame, 2 days in Nara were perfectly fine to spend without being too rushed.
April 8/9/10: Kyoto
Arriving at our hostel, located at the very northwest end of Kyoto, we realized how much we underestimated the size of Kyoto. We were at least a 45-50 min. drive away from the main attractions. A car is not really helpful in Kyoto. I caught a cold and spent the first day in Kyoto in bed. My friends went to bamboo forest and even in late afternoon, they said it was too crowded. I wish someone would've told us that there was a lesser known little bamboo forest just 10 minutes drive away from our hostel.
The second day was rest and recovery day due to pouring rain. Did some grocery shopping and meal prepping.
On our last day in Kyoto, we woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine - the first time since our arrival in Japan. With the time being still early, we headed to Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine and even hiked up all the way to Mt. Inari. Surprisingly, it was not as crowded as expected, but on the way down around 9:30 am, the place started to get incredibly full.
Around noon, we sat down for ramen at Fukakusa Ramen Toriton.
As much as we would've loved to stay in Kyoto, getting a new chance to see Mt. Fuji had a higher priority, so with a tear in our eyes, we made our way to Fujiyoshida.
We were not disappointed when we got our first clear view of Mt. Fuji from the highway. It's absolutely impressive, majestic and looks beautiful with the snow covered top.
Maybe it's personal preference, but I don't regret sacrificing a Kyoto day for Mt. Fuji. To get the Kyoto experience, 2 days are not enough either way, so I think 3-4 days would've been the actual minimum.
We managed to see Mt. Fuji in evening light from Shiraito waterfall.
April 10/11/12: Lake Saiko, Mt. Fuji, Aokigahara Forest
This time we had an accomodation in Saikonishi at lake Saiko. Beautiful peaceful area from where you can still see Mt. Fuji a little. In the morning, we managed to get some wonderful shots with Sakura near Oishi Park and then went to the famous Chureito Pagoda.
Similar to Kyoto, getting up early pays off. At Chureito Pagoda, we paid 1,000 JPY for parking but it was almost directly at the entrance. They have a 5-min slot system, so only a certain amount can visit the platform for 5 min and then the next group can go up etc. Everything is very well organized and it wasn't too busy in the morning.
Sakura at the pagoda was still not in full bloom, so we noticed how even within one area, there can be trees that already have leaves next to trees that haven't even reached early bloom.
We noticed how lucky we were to be able to see Sakura having such a small time window that we had chosen many months prior!
As the place got crowded, we decided to spend a chill day exploring the other lakes. Motosu and Shoji Lake didn't turn out that spectacular, we figured they are rather special in autumn, when the skies get clear and the lake water is calm.
We also noticed that even on sunny days, the sky was always a little veiled and the air rather hazy. Finally, we closed the day by strolling through peaceful Aokigahara Forest and wandered to the lava cave and bat cave. This forest is absolutely beautiful, with moss covered lava rocks and wonderful old trees surrounding the walking path. Distances are longer than they appear on the map, so consider bringing a lamp if you plan for longer exploration.
April 12/13/14: Tokyo
After a chill morning having snacks at the Fujikawaguchiko lake, we made our way to Tokyo. And it was not easy. The transition from a peaceful lake and forest area to driving 1h on the expressway through grey veiled industrial landscapes was so harsh that we seriously considered turning around for a while. From the expressway, Tokyo looks everything but exciting. Once we arrived at our accomodation in Katsushika district though, we were welcomed by a lovely Japanese family and felt at home immediately! The little neighborhoods off central Tokyo are absolutely quiet and not busy.
We had hardly any plan for Tokyo and no clue about transportation, so we took a train to Tokyo central station, the most busy train station I have ever encountered in my entire life. Getting out of the train station, another contrast: Central Tokyo is actually pretty quiet. If you compare it to NYC, it's maybe 5-10% of the perceived noise.
I went to a fancy Izakaya sushi restaurant and had a fantastic prime dining experience, for just 4,000 JPY - no chance to get such a wonderful dinner including drinks at a Western restaurant for this price.
We switched from train to metro and bought a 24h metro ticket for just 600 JPY. It's valid for the entire Tokyo Metro network, excluding Toei subway lines, and will get you across most of Tokyo. We figured it to be very intuitive and easy to navigate. It takes a little longer than the train but it's cheaper and more fun to use.
Google Maps is actually very precise and great to navigate through public transport connections, especially the metro. No additional app was needed.
We were surprised though, that public transport itself has no onboard WiFi. The stations have free WiFi but it's not really great and you have to re-login all the time.
We spent the evening strolling around Shinjuku district. Great place for some street photography. The bars were not what we were looking for, but it was fun to see as a visitor.
The next day we split up and I performed the busiest sightseeing trip of my life with just walking big distances and metro hopping: Starting at Tokyo Tower with lunchtime at Prince Shiba park and the Zojo-ji-temple.
Then I headed to Akihabara to do some shopping and get my Japanese Casio watch fixed at a Japanese Casio repair shop (a strange life goal of mine that I didn't know of).
Next stop was the Asakusa district where I visited the famous Asakusa shrine. It was very crowded but somehow still an enjoyable experience.
For sunset, I visited Bunkyo Civic Center to catch a wonderful view over Tokyo. You can get up to the 26th floor directly from the metro station underground and you have a 360° view around the city. It's not too popular, so there are not many visitors, even during sunset.
As a closing experience, I went to Shibuya Crossing. Some people say "it's just a big crossing, I don't get the fuzz about it", but I personally found it to be a totally cool and surreal experience just to see such an enormous amount of people crossing a huge street from all directions, framed by neon signs. You feel like this is the place you see in photos and it doesn't look like that in reality, but it actually does and the feeling to stand there is super cool. Also, it was a Saturday evening, so probably the busiest time of the week too.
Hungry and a little bit overwhelmed and burnt out, I wanted to tick off the last part on my Japan bucket list of trying Kobe beef, but obviously, all the good places were full, so in my hungry blindness I ended up in some Western themed "Steak House" where I was served undercooked normal beef tenderloin that was everything but tender. But hey, falling for just one tourist trap in my entire stay was not that bad, I paid the bill and at least I was full. 3.5; not great, not terrible.
I came home with a monstrous amount of experiences to process but I felt happy that I've been able to see so much of Tokyo within just one day, even if this is definitely a way too stressful itinerary for 1 day.
The next morning, I was so close to re-booking my flight to gain another 2 days in Tokyo, but looking at a shitload of work at home, I decided to stick to my plan and after a last morning walk in peaceful Katsushika, I left Japan, getting a last view onto hazy Mt. Fuji from the airplane window, with a tear in my eye and a bigger wish to come back than I've ever experienced before during travelling.
My two companions are now on their way to Okinawa for a chill week of snorkelling and chilling at the beaches.
For a first time experience, I am quite content with how things went, even though I would've loved to have more time at certain places. I want to re-visit Japan for sure, maybe in fall or winter, and next time I want to make sure to have more than 11 days at hand.
People in Japan are very friendly, and despite the language barrier we had no issues at all communicating what we needed. People pay attention and respect to each other and we were surprised how well maintained a city as large as Tokyo can be. Eating out can sometimes be a little bit of a challenge, but you always have your neighborhood 7-Eleven saving you with a sandwich and Onigiri as a last resort.
TL;DR:

• Renting and driving a car is straightforward and easy in Japan. Gas is cheap, expressway tolls are expensive.
  
• In Kyoto, I recommend public transport, bicycle or walking instead of driving.
  
• Parking even in cities is not a big deal either.
  
• Mt. Fuji is definitely worth visiting and it's worth waiting for good weather.
  
• Weather in April can be a gamble with lots of rain and cold temperatures. Even on sunny days, skies are rather hazy.
  
• Kyoto and Tokyo are, not surprisingly, more time-consuming than you expect. 3-4 days minimum for Kyoto, 4 days minimum for Tokyo.
  
• Restaurant opening hours are not always reliable, make sure to be there 1 hour before closing at latest.
  
• Staying at a traditional Ryokan is an absolute must.
  
• Japanese people are kind, respectful, friendly and helpful. It's good to know the most basic things in Japanese and to always carry cash.
  
• Small towns off the beaten path can hold the most beautiful and unique experiences.
  
• Public WiFi is a lot less common in Japan than expected. Nara has free city WiFi, in Tokyo it varies greatly.
  

Shameless shitpost about investment bankers feeling sorry for themselves.
Pasted from a news article:
It used to be that the big investment banking was the generic way to become rich. If you were a young person with fancy credentials, a strong desire for money, and no strong preferences or interests, it was kind of natural to go to a bank. “Oddly enough,” Michael Lewis wrote of his first day as a Salomon Brothers bond salesman with a Princeton art history degree, “I didn’t really imagine I was going to work, more as if I were going to collect lottery winnings.”
That was in 1985, and the next two decades or so were good, dynamic, lucrative times for the big investment banks. They dominated finance, and they innovated, building new products that increased their dominance and brought in lots of money.
But now it is 2024 and things have changed. Corporate dealmaking is dominated by private equity firms, buyout financing is increasingly done by private credit, trading is increasingly done by hedge funds and proprietary trading firms. Those are the places to make a lot of money in finance these days. More broadly, the generic way to get rich these days is in computer technology; the aimlessly well-educated now go to Meta or Alphabet, not Goldman Sachs.
Still, “Wall Street” (meaning big investment banks) has retained its image as a generic wealth creator, which can lead to disappointment. At the New York Post, Lydia Moynihan reports that “hundreds of thousands of junior bankers are cutting back after their bonuses were a bust this year,” with anecdotes like this:
One vice president at a large firm who has a one bedroom in the West Village, albeit a walkup, said after receiving even less this year than he did last year, he has tried to scale back the number of times he eats out to two nights a week instead of three or four.
At his favorite spots — Carbone where branzino costs $95, Dante’s where veal Milanese is $60 and Saint Theo’s where lamb chops are $68 — a dinner tab can quickly balloon to $300 or more and a drinks tab can easily hit $100 for a date. …
“First year employees are only making a $100,000 salary in New York City. They rely on a decent bonus to pay their rent,” a source in his 60s, who has been working as a banker for four decades, said.
The source, who noted the median Manhattan rent is $4,257 according to a StreetEasy study from February said he “felt for the kids.”
What is the world coming to when the investment banking kids can’t even afford the branzino at Carbone.

My friends, we’re at war. We didn’t start the war, but nevertheless, we’re in the trenches now. It’s us against Big Grocery, and they are determined to win. Here are some tips and tricks I used when I was in crisis mode and had almost nothing to spend on food. I got out of it alive, you can too.
Always keep this mantra in your head: Big Grocery is not your friend. They are not there to provide your family with healthy food. They are not ‘part of the community’. They are there to make money off you, and to do so they engage in some of the most underhanded practices you’ll ever encounter. So lock and load, soldiers, here’s how to do battle.
1. Avoid high end grocery stores like the plague. If it has little awnings with French words like ‘boulangerie’ lettered coquettishly above the bread section, get the hell out of there. If it runs free seminars on cooking with Madagascar capers, leave immediately. Your new foraging grounds should be places like No Frills, Price Chopper, Bulk Barn, Dollarama, Giant Tiger, or any other discount grocer you can find. Otherwise you are paying for that charming “Wine Tasting the Cheeky Pinot Grigios of Tuscany” event, and all those fancy attempts to convince you that you are actually strolling through a medieval village in France.
2. When you first enter the store, you’ll likely be greeted by the fruits and veg, which are brightly lit and colourful to make you feel happy! Retailers think happy people spend more, so they want to start you off in a good mood. Also, if you start there and buy a few healthy things, you’re more likely to feel virtuous that you’ve bought something healthy, so you’re super primed to hit the Twinkies aisle for a treat you deserve.
By all means, buy the fruit and veg. But don’t fall into their trap and then hit the Krispy Kreme display.
3. The bakery is probably there too, tempting you with delicious aromas and the allure of baked goods. Some stores even pump in fake bread smells like realtors spraying baking cookies scent to flog a house. Here you’ll also find cakes and muffins, etc related to holidays, just to further encourage you to buy. It’s Father’s Day! It’s Graduation Month! It’s Arbor Day in Uruguay! You’re more likely to pick up something for ole Dad simply out of guilt or filial obligation.
Leave the bakery section til last. You might accidentally on purpose forget to go back.
4. The size of the average shopping cart has doubled since the 70’s, and is 300% bigger than when they were invented in the 30’s. Just like dieters know to serve themselves on smaller plates to eat less, there’s a psychological reason not to go for the jumbo cart. You will subconsciously feel like filling it up. And it generally works - sales increased by nearly 30% when the bigger carts were introduced in the 70’s. Also, carts now often have drink holders. These people mean business. They seriously want you to settle in for a long ass ramble around their store, complete with the beverage of your choice.
Go for the smallest cart you can, or use a basket. Better yet, use your hands. If you can’t carry it, don’t buy it. Try taking your bike or scooter to the store - again, if you can’t lug it home, it will prevent you from overbuying.
5. Stores these days are the size of airplane hangars for a reason. They know people will shop longer and spend more if they don’t feel crowded, and, perhaps more importantly, you will get tired hiking all over hell’s half acre looking for the fricking eggs. Tired people have less self control and tend to buy what they want, instead of only what they need. People also tend to reach what’s known as Decision Fatigue by about the forty minute point into their shop, where they’re completely blown out by all the thousands of decisions they’ve had to make and will just say screw it and reach for anything. Ever wonder why there are no clocks in big stores? They run these joints like casinos, man.
Plan to get in and get out as quickly as possible. Set a twenty minute timer on your phone, or have a support person back in the car you can turn to for help if you find yourself zombie walking towards the Cheetos.
6. The layout of stores is carefully considered. Yes, everyone knows the milk is at the back so that you have to walk through the aisles to get to it. The eggs are often at the other end of the store, and the bread is somewhere else altogether, since retailers know that these three staples are bought by pretty much everyone. The more time you spend wandering around the store like you’re lost in a foreign airport the more chances you have to spot some new marmalade you just have to try. Remember, the store wants you in there for a long time. Changing things around routinely is not because someone in Corporate saw something cute on HGTV - it’s to shake up your routine so you can’t just make a beeline for the things you need.
Know the layout of your store. Make a list of the things you need, and plan your route through the store with the precision and skill of a Navy SEAL. Draw a map if you have to. The more you wander, the more you will buy. If you’re going in for just a carton of milk, pretend you’re a horse running the Preakness and have those blinders on. Get in, get out. You are allowed to buy just one thing and leave.
7. Cheaper items are never at eye level. The most *profitable* items are at eye-level, or ‘buy level’ as the stores call it. Always look on the bottom of shelves for better prices or value for money. Try brands that you haven’t heard of, if they’re cheaper. The ones you’ve heard of have spent millions in advertising, and they plan to recoup that money by charging you more. Sugary cereals and sweet treats are placed at your kids’ eye level, for obvious reasons.
If you can smell the coffee, or the chocolate, in those aisles, it might just be aroma pumped in just like in the bakery section. Retailers have been known to do this too, so plug up your nostrils with Kleenex when you go and ignore the stares, it’s so worth it. Ever notice that soup is never in alphabetical order? Hmmm, I wonder why that is…wouldn’t it be faster if you could just zero right in on the Minestrone you want and not have to search through all the other flavours…oh right. Now I get it.
Items on the end of each aisle, called the end cap, give the impression of being sale items, but quite often are not. These are the most valuable real estate in the store, and brands will pay up to a million dollars to feature their products there, because anything put there sells like crazy.
Not everything at the end of the aisle or in special wire bins in the aisles is on sale. The store likes to make you think it is, by sectioning it off in a special way. Check the price, always. Same goes for “limit of X” signs. Aside from the Great Covid Run on Toilet Paper, there’s never any reason a store wants to limit how many things you buy, even on sale. They do this to encourage you to buy up to the limit. It’s psychology - if you see a sign saying you can only buy three of something, you start to think this must be a great price, or it must be a really good product in high demand. Occasionally this is true - but make sure you check if it’s genuinely a good price (a loss leader the store is okay with losing money on, because they’re hoping you’ll overspend on other things). If it’s an exceptional deal, which happens sometimes, have your spouse grab the limit and go through a separate lane from you.
If you’re not stretching up to get something, or bending right down to get something, you’re almost definitely paying too much. Don’t assume things you find in wire bins on the end caps are on sale, they most likely aren’t. Don’t get fooled by the impression of scarcity (ie limits)
8. Convenience will cost you. Anything that is done for you - shredded cheese, skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut up fruit, etc - will always cost you more. Stores know that we’re all busy and can’t be bothered hand shredding a block of cheese if we don’t have to. They know it’s easier to pick up a plastic tray of a couple of sliced up kiwis and eleven blueberries for $19.99 than it is to buy the raw fruit and cut them up ourselves. You might choose this option on occasion, but always realize you’re paying a premium.
Before you buy anything that has been chopped up or shredded or prepared for you in some way, check to see how much the unhandled stuff costs. A block of cheese, a whole chicken, whole fruits and veg, etc. They will almost always be much, much cheaper.
9. Similar to number 8, bigger is always cheaper. A 355 ml can of pop is often nearly the same, or sometimes even more, than a 2L bottle, and this is true across the board. A giant bag of rice costs less per kg than a box of Uncle Ben’s boil in the bag sachets of parboiled rice. The important thing to keep in mind here is the cost per unit, not the price you see on the shelf, and this is where bulk buying or communal buying can really save you money.
Make a shopping list with your friends or family. If you both need some of the same things, buy a larger item together and split it up at home. It doesn’t take much to split up a bag of potatoes, rice, pasta, etc and store them in your own containers or ziploc. Household supplies like multipacks of toilet paper, paper towels, and even things like household products and cleaners can also be split in half. This works best on 2 for 1 deals, or BOGO half off.
10. At the same time, however, be wary of overspending on sale items. Shop the clearance section first, and then make sure you look for the unit price of a sale item, (which will be in tiny type), not the big flashy number ending in .99. You probably know this by now, but remind yourself of this often. Your mission is a long game, you’re trying to save money week over week, not just today. If you consistently buy things based on the best unit price you can get, you’ll save money. Buy multiples only if you are absolutely sure you or your family/friends will use all of it within a month or two. Many a lonely can of tuna has languished, forgotten and alone, in the back of a dark cupboard just because someone slapped a sale sticker on it.
11. Use comparison sites to find the best deals, or sites like flashfood.com etc that show you how to buy food that is recently or about to expire (most expiration dates are pretty meaningless, just be careful with meat and dairy). Use coupons if it doesn’t take over your life and turn you into one of those insano preppers who hoard a hundred boxes of Tide. Use air miles points or reward points/programs if it’s easy for you to do, and if you don’t fall into the trap of buying 3 boxes of steel wool you’re never going to use just because it’ll get you one extra air mile. Use a credit card to accumulate points only if you never carry a balance (meaning you pay it off in full every month), and won’t be tempted to buy useless stuff just to get more points. Never count on points, these things can vanish faster than David Copperfield and no one on the help lines will give a rat’s ass.
12. Buy no-name or store brand products whenever you can - often they are made by the same companies that make the brand name stuff, the way Old Navy is a lower priced version of The Gap, to make sure they get the bargain shoppers as well as the richer ones. Just be careful not to fall for the ‘Premium’ or ‘Select’ line some grocery stores offer. It’s just their no-name line with fancier packaging and a higher price. Beware of terms like “Artisanal”, it’s all just advertising baloney. Anything produced in a factory is not ‘artisanal’.
13. Try to spend most of your grocery money on items that can be made into meals. (Potatoes, rice, pasta, eggs, meat, etc). Spend only about 10% of your budget on ready-made things like chips, snacks, frozen meals, etc. Prioritize protein and healthy fats over carbs (you’ll feel full longer). You may have to spend a bit more time making home made Mac and cheese or fries, but you’ll save a ton of money in the end. Unless you have zero self control, and unless you’re sure you won’t just eat three of them to make up for it, don’t buy those ‘smaller portions’ packs of chips, cookies etc. They are way more expensive than just buying a large bag or box, and portioning out smaller servings into small snack bags.
14. If your grocery store has a bulk section, buy whatever you can there instead of paying for packaging. A scoop of raisins from the bulk section costs less than one in a Sun Maid tin. Bulk Barn is best for things like this, of course, but consider if it’s worth it to drive there instead of just using the bulk section at your grocery store. This is a way to counteract shrinkflation as well. With no packaging to deceive you into thinking you’re getting the same amount as you used to, you can buy exactly how much you want, and for much less, too.
15. Unless your vet has specifically told you that your pet needs a special diet, don’t waste money buying the expensive pet food with the pictures of animals eating out of crystal dishes and utter nonsense like that. All pet food comes from the leftover processing of human food, and none of it varies too much from brand to brand. There’s no harm in giving your pet the cheapest pet food, it’s likely no different than the expensive stuff. Sometimes a can of tuna works out cheaper than cat food, your cat will be more than happy with that. Don’t buy pet treats or things that will remove tartar, etc - in most cases, it’s utterly pointless. Dogs and cats do just fine without dental care, why would they need it in their food? Pet food is marketed to humans, always keep that in mind.
16. Never even venture into the kitchenware section of a grocery store (I’m looking at you, Loblaws). It may be more convenient to buy spatulas or mugs or plastic food containers while you’re shopping, but you will pay through the nose for it. You can get any of those things at the dollar store or a thrift store for much much less.
17. Don’t buy anything at the checkout. You don’t need anything they sell there. The store wants you to buy that stuff because it makes the most profit on these items, sometimes with a markup of around 40%, while most of their other products have a markup of only 2 or 3%. They also figure you’re so tired from making so many decisions while shopping that you’re just not capable of resisting the urge for a sugar fix, or remembering that you can get batteries cheaper at the dollar store, or realising that if you really must know what Megan Markle is wearing this Spring, you can check out a digital version of the same magazine from your library.
If you want to grab a snack or a drink on the way out, don’t buy a single bottle or a single bag of chips/candy bar etc. Buy a four pack of pop, or a four pack of chocolate bars, or a large bag of chips, and take one/some out when you leave. It works out much, much cheaper.
Checkout aisles are intentionally designed to be narrow so that you’re stuck there like a sheep being funnelled into the shearing yard. The stores figure if you change your mind about buying something, they’d rather you feel the social pressure of all those behind you and say ‘oh to hell with it’ and just buy it anyway, rather than put it back. Ever try leaving a store without buying something once you’ve entered? It’s locked down tighter than Fort Knox, sometimes you actually have to slip past someone trying to buy something just to escape.
18. Never buy plastic bags, this ‘pay 25 cents to help the environment’ is just another way to make money. Absolutely everything - including fruit, for heaven’s sake - is wrapped in plastic in these places, sometimes more than one layer thick, and yet a shopping bag is the problem? Bring bags with you, every time.
19. Don’t round up to donate at the till, or feel guilty when they ask if you’d like to donate a dollar to support X charity. You are your own charity right now. You can be generous again in the future. This is mission critical time, soldier, you need every penny right now.
20. If something has gone bad when you get it home, like the milk is already sour, take it back. Yes, you can take back food that has gone off, provided you don’t wait a week, for obvious reasons. You can also negotiate a discount if the thing you want to buy is expiring today, just ask someone.
21. Get your loonie back from the cart. Hell, check to see how many people have forgotten to retrieve theirs while you’re at it, sometimes you luck out.
22. Your final challenge will be to escape the store’s final gauntlet of coffee shops, vending machines, lottery ticket kiosks, shoe shine places and key making joints. Blinders on, people. Put your head down and get the hell out of there, and out of the parking lot without being lured over to the drive thru that’s conveniently plunked down right near the entrance/exit (and for which the fast food giant has paid the grocery store some serious cash). Your mission is completed, now get your stash home and thank God you made it through another week.
Bonus tip - online shopping avoids pretty much all of these temptations and tricks. But if you must go to the store, sign up for instacart and do someone else’s shopping while you’re at it. Might as well earn while you’re spending.

Hey everyone, I’ve just finished my 50th book in Japanese. Seeing as how I’ve been a member of the community for years now and have never really posted any progress updates, I figured this could be a good time to share a bit. Also I've always found these progress posts to be extremely motivating. This is one of many of my favorite posts that I used to read often for inspiration. A big part of me also regrets not writing more progress posts/updates from early on in my journey.
Warning: This is a little long. I haven’t written anything about my progress in the last ~3 years so this is making up for some of it. Also apologies if there's any bad formatting/mistakes. I've been a little sick for the last year so my thoughts might not be perfectly communicated.

TLDR

• I read lots of books.
• Learning a language takes a lot of time.
• I think it's more important to have fun than to be efficient.

Background

I'm an American in my 20s and I started learning Japanese a little over 3 years ago on January 2021. I remember it well because it was literally my new-years resolution and I started on the very first day of 2021. I was living in Japan for a couple of months when I finally decided I could picture myself living here much longer and that investing time into learning the language properly was a no-brainer. I had basically zero experience. I knew common words like hello or thank you but nothing beyond that (not even the alphabet). The only Anime I have ever watched at that point was Death Note and some Studio Ghibli movies. My native language is English and I took some Spanish classes in high school. I don’t speak any other languages.

Timeline

• This post is centered around reading but a brief summary of my studies leading up to my first book basically was:
  • Learned hiragana + katakana using apps
  • Learn a couple thousand of Kanji + English word pairs with SRS/Anki
  • Do Tango Anki decks to learn first couple thousand words
  • Watch some Cure Dolly videos on grammar (up to the part where she read Alice in Wonderland)
  • Read some stories on Satori Reader
• I finished my first book around 10-11 months into my studies. It was コンビニ人間. In retrospect I think while it is a relatively easy book, I think I probably understood ~70% of it and a lot of it went over my head. A lot of the difficulty of reading Japanese books is not just the vocabulary (which is a huge part) but also a lot of the cultural nuances. This is a very Japanese book so as a Westerner a lot of the cultural meaning was lost on me.
• Shortly after that I read また、同じ夢を見ていた. This was the perfect book for me at the time. It used extremely simple words but not only that, the story itself was very captivating for me. One of the big challenges of learning Japanese is finding content that is the right balance of being easy enough to understand, but also being interesting. Usually most content is either too difficult, or it’s just not interesting (this is a bigger issue earlier on, but as my Japanese got better of course a lot more options open up)
• Reading at this time was extremely difficult. I basically looked up words every couple of seconds. I had to abandon lots of books because it was either too frustrating to continue reading (flow was constantly interrupted) or because I was not understanding enough of the book to make it worth it, even with lots of dictionary use.
• After that I basically just read lots of more books. The more time that went on, the less of other immersion I did. Most of my time spent on Japanese these days is split between reading + passively listening to audiobooks. I haven’t really done any Anki for probably a year at this point but I might pick it up again.
• I think there was only one “magical” noticeable moment that happened around the second year, where I started being able to skim sentences more, just because I’ve seen the same words so many times. After you’ve seen 仕方がない so many times, your eyes sort of just skip right over it. Also interestingly enough that was around the same time that I was able to just pick up random TV shows and listen in and understand most of what was happening and was able to follow along.
• I did a ton of Anki in my first year of study but I basically abandoned it ever since. I’m still on the fence whether it’s an efficient tool for intermediate learners but I’m confident that by not using it, my understanding of Japanese will come across as much more natural and organic. Pretty much all of my “study” ever since the first year of Japanese has been spent on reading + listening.
• I just recently finished the entire Harry Potter series in Japanese which was one of my very first goals when I first started studying. It was a really satisfying experience but now I'm back to reading native Japanese books.

My Reading Process

• I use Ttu-reader + Yomichan. That's basically it, nothing fancy.
• I look up every single word I don't know with few exceptions. The only exception is typically if I'm feeling overwhelmed with too many lookups and it's making the experience unenjoyable for me. I also look up lots of words that I know but am not 100% sure about. The way I see it, it takes half a second to look up something and there is never a downside to it, so I am very liberal about looking up lots of things. I always make the effort of trying to guess what the pronunciation/meaning is before I actually look it up.
• I usually softly whisper a lot of things as I'm reading. Sometimes I will just read silently. Reading silently tends to be a lot quicker. I don't need to vocalize to understand the content but I've found that just getting my mouth to make the right movements to speak Japanese is a skill in of itself. I think there is more carryover from vocalizing during reading to actual speaking as compared to just reading silently.
• I don't really often stop to try to understand something. Most of the things I'm reading at are around my current level. If I don't fully understand something, 9/10 times I will just continue on. Every now and then I might actually stop to try to Google something, or plug it into DeepL, or ChatGPT for some extra help but it's pretty rare.
• I only use bilingual dictionaries. I think it's probably more efficient to use monolingual dictionaries but to be honest, I think the best way to understand a word is just context/immersion. Trying to read Japanese dictionary entries is not enjoyable for me and I'm confident that by just reading a lot of native content, I'll understand the true meaning of words in a Japanese way.
• I use jpdb.io in a way that might be unconventional? I basically just take all the books I've finished and mark them as "Never forget" and then I look through the decks sorted by Word Count Known % or Unique Vocab Known %. Then I find 5-10 books that look interesting and have lots of words that I already know. Then I skim/read the first couple of pages for all of them, and then pick one to finish. If I find a book I really like, I'll try to read other books from the same author as well.
• I listen to some ambient sounds in the background as I read.
• I get books off of Japan Amazon. I use Kindle Unlimited when I can and otherwise just purchase the book. Also Japan's Audible is really good because there are lots of books on there and it's one flat price for unlimited listening (not credits). I typically listen to audiobooks right after I've finished reading the book, and I will start at 1x playback rate, and then slowly bump it up with every re-listen.
• I don't read any physical books. The massive drop in efficiency from not being able to use Yomichan to instantly look up words effortlessly makes it extremely undesirable for me at this stage.

What I've Read

• I mostly read regular Japanese novels. These typically are several hundred pages. They used to take me several weeks to finish, but I'll usually finish them in under a week now. I think light novels are the ones with pictures throughout (?), and I've probably read only one or two of these.
• I've read some books that were originally English and translated to Japanese. Off the top of my head, these include The Little Prince + Hunger Games + the entire Harry Potter series, and that's it.
• Some of my favorite authors are:
  • 住野 よる - Their books are relatively simple and I liked the story a lot. I read ~5 of their books near the beginning and it was just the right level for me.
  • 辻村 深月 - I binged like 10 of her books because they were the perfect level of difficulty for me at the time. I love her books.
  • 村上 春樹 - He's a pretty famous author and his books are surprisingly approachable for a beginner level. They are definitely really bizarre at times though.
  • 吉本 ばなな - She has some great books as well. Hard to describe but the vibes are fantastic.
  • 汐見夏衛 - I'm lowkey addicted to her novels right now. They are sort of like typical romance stories aimed at girls. I really like Shoujo content for some reason (Nana is one of my favorite animes)
• It's so hard to say but if I had to, then my top 5 books I've read up to now are:
  • ペンギン・ハイウェイ - This book is so bizarre that I love it. It's about penguins randomly showing up, but there's also talks about death/afterlife and general relativity. It sounds complicated but this book is actually super simple. There's also an audiobook where I swear the narrator is flawless. They nailed every single character perfectly.
  • かがみの孤城 - This book is amazing. I loved all of the characters. The story is perfect. The audiobook for it is also perfect. It's about these high schoolers who all stop going to school because of varying issues, and they find a castle through their mirror. No spoilers but OMG the story is perfect.
  • また、同じ夢を見ていた - Another book where the story is just so perfectly written. All the characters are awesome as well. It's about a little girl and her cat and a bunch of other women. I don't want to spoil it but the ending is just perfect.
  • 小説 秒速5センチメートル - Amazing vibe on this one. I haven't seen the movie yet. It just follows the life of this guy from high school all the way through adulthood and all the different feelings/experiences he has as well as his relationships with different women.
  • 君の膵臓をたべたい - It's about a girl who has a terminal illness and a boy who is sort of a loner. She is super cheerful and optimistic and he sort of is the opposite. I really liked it.
• Funny enough, all 5 of those books were books I read extremely early on and are very simple reads. I think they were all just very emotionally moving and I have a lot of nostalgia looking back on them.

Where I'm At Now

• I haven’t “mastered” Japanese and I would not consider myself even close to “native”. I understand most conversations and survive for the most part living in Japan for the last 3 years. I can handle tasks on my own that I need to get done at the ward office or the post office, etc, I can also skim mail that I receive to get the gist of the meaning.
• I understand most things I watch. Especially if there are subtitles. One of the cool thing about Kanji is that you can skim a LOT of meaning just from recognizing them. Then your brain sort of intuitively pieces together all the meaning with the remaining context clues. I'd say pretty much all slice of life content is extremely easy to understand. Content is usually only hard if it's super domain specific and uses lots of domain-specific terminology (army, lawyers, engineering, etc). I can typically still follow along the plot but lots of the details will be missed.
• It'd really silly to talk about my skill level since it's really hard to accurately judge your own skills. Maybe sometime in the future I can record a video of myself reading books + talking in Japanese so I can get a more objective perspective on my current level. I'd say that pretty much any interaction I've had in Japan I can more or less handle, at least on a basic level. I've talked to police, ordered food at noisy restaurants, handled reservations, talked to and met people in social settings, use Japanese websites to order things, etc.
• I don’t do anything remotely AJATT. Outside of my reading time + passive immersion listening to audiobooks in the background, all of my life is spent engaging with English content. I’m comfortable with my pace of learning and view it as taking probably 10+ years to reach a level that I would consider native (we’ll have to see). I am extremely skeptical of any claims from an English speaker who learned Japanese and considers themselves native. “Fluent” has a huge range as well so it’s a pretty meaningless term to me.
• I’ve had experiences that I would never have had if I didn’t read in Japanese. Lots of these books would never be even remotely the same if I had read them in English. I’m incredibly grateful because there’s no amount of money in the world I could pay to have these same experiences. Lots of “filler” books that weren’t exceptional but the few that were, have really stuck with me, and I’m sure have changed me in profound ways.
• This post is focused on reading, but I’ve also watched lots of native content that I love, and, it sounds repetitive, but I really mean it when I say there’s no other way I would be able to experience this at the same level if I had not taken the time out and invested it into learning this language. I’ve also had great experiences in Japan as well that would have been impossible if I had not spoken the language at a decent level. This has been an incredibly rewarding experience overall and even despite the fact that it has taken tens of thousands of hours to get here and will probably take tens of thousands of hours more, I can confidently say it’s been worth it.

Plans for the Future

• I intend on reading a lot more. I think it will be my primary focus for a while, maybe until 100-200 books. I really enjoy it and a part of me also strongly believes it's the most efficient use of my time so it's win/win.
• Eventually I think I will transition from a mainly reading-focused approach and start consuming lots more of raw audio + watching many more TV shows/movies without any subtitles. This is mainly to improve my raw listening skills + get a more balanced cultural immersion beyond just books.
• I don't have any strong plans for output. I'm very satisfied with the progress my output has been so far and don't really want to rush it.

Things I Would Tell my Past Self

• There’s nothing magical impossible about reading. I know it seems wildly confusing and impossible but at the end of the day it’s just knowing what individual words mean. Which basically just means increasing your vocabulary size.
• Spend more time on finding the right books (perfect balance of difficulty and interesting) than trying to sludge your way through hard/boring books.
• Early on, avoid “children’s” books with reduced kanji usage. You can tell which books fall into this category because lots of words that typically use kanji are instead spelt with kana. These books are ironically more difficult because it’s harder to look up words. Books like Kiki’s Delivery Service for example.
• Spend even less time on Anki. I think reading is natural Anki and I spent lots of time in my first year doing Anki on words that I would probably have seen 1000s of times while reading and that I would have picked up naturally anyways. Conversely, I occasionally run into a word that I remember doing Anki for at the beginning and realizing I basically never see this word, despite it being in some sort of top X frequency deck. I think I should have quit Anki right after reading my first novel in retrospect.
• Focus more on enjoying the process and making it as easy as possible than trying to do everything perfectly. These days I am extremely hesitant about breaking my reading flow if I don’t 100% understand something. My attitude is “I’ll probably see this 1000 more times and by then I’ll understand it, and if I don’t see it again, it’s probably not that important”. Early on I would spent much more time trying to pause and look up things trying to understand exactly what was happening.
• Don’t bother comparing yourself to anyone. No one has any real idea how good they are at a language. They probably have some rough idea, but there are very few objective ways to actually measure it. I’ve listened to lots of “language experts” on YouTube and honestly now in retrospect I can see that their Japanese is very mediocre. Early on this did not occur to me because all Japanese sounded the same to me.
• Don’t rush things… I was so stupid I thought I could learn the language in 1 year if I spent lots of time on it. It wasn’t until around the 2nd year mark that I gave up on trying to reach some sort of destination and just focused on enjoying myself. I say this all the time now and I strongly believe in it: Learning a language is not hard. Billions of people have done it (including you for your first language). But it does take A LOT of time. So have realistic expectations and enjoy yourself because otherwise you will spent a lot of time being miserable
• My advice to my past self is to not even think about output for a couple of years. Try to get to native content as fast as possible (using SRS at the start) and then just focus on consuming content you find interesting. The rest will take care of itself and your Japanese abilities will seem much more natural/organic compared to someone who is using different tools/techniques.
• This is something I do now that I wish I did more of back then, which is after reading a book, I will listen to its audiobook on repeat 3-5 times in the background as I do other things in my life. I think it’s a wildly invaluable exercise that is so easy to fit into my life while taking almost no effort.
• Do whatever works for you. There is no one size fits all approach. I think most “advanced” japanese learners would disagree with my stance on Anki. Also they would cringe at me still using bilingual dictionaries. That doesn’t matter to me. I am a far bigger believer in enjoying your “studying” time over being efficient. I never did Duolingo or many apps but I would still heartily recommend them if that’s interesting to you. In the same way if you enjoy going through textbooks, creating Anki decks, etc, you should do it. Anything that engages you with the language will make you better. If you want to go through line by line of every single book or watch a movie 100 times until you 100% understand it, go for it. There is an Andrej Karpathy quote I’m paraphrasing but it basically goes something like “wasting time is a part of learning and getting better”.
• As sort of a tangent, I read something interesting recently from one of the executives at Duolingo that said that “Duolingo is not competing with other language learning apps. They are competing with Instagram/TwitteTikTok/etc.” Most users who “quit” Duolingo are probably not going to go straight into SRS/immersion. They are probably going to go back onto Instagram and just waste time scrolling. Stop trying to be “perfect” and just aim to “be better”.
• Your Japanese will always be “bad”. The further you get along in your journey, the more things you realize you don’t know. Your options are to either 1. always be dissatisfied with your Japanese level or 2. accept that you will never be perfect, but you are constantly getting better, and to focus on having a good time instead.
• Take everything you read/see/hear online with a grain of salt. There’s so much bad information out there and so much of the “blind leading the blind”. I have a friend that arrived in Japan before I did and they recommended me books like “How to Learn Japanese in 1 month” and told me “the fastest way to learn is to just go out and talk to people”. He didn’t do any study and basically just tried to talk and meet lots of Japanese people. Today my friend can’t read any Japanese and in conversations speaks with a terrible accent and doesn’t understand most things being said as soon as natives switch out of “easy-mode” Japanese. This isn’t to attack him, but just to point out lots of people give bad advice and it’s hard to judge it when you’re starting out and don’t know any better.
• In the same vein, I used to get motivated by reading stories about someone reaching JLPT N1 in one year or something and now I realize that JLPT means very little. It’s very hard to filter out what is good or bad advice when you’re a beginner and unfortunately you’ll probably inevitably waste a good chunk of time going down the wrong path. Wasting time is a part of the learning process. Don’t stress it.

Closing Thoughts

• Learning Japanese has been a super satisfying journey that has wildly exceeded my expectations. Part of me is sad because it takes up so much time that can be spent on other things, but another part of me is grateful for all the unique experiences I've gotten from learning it.
• I'm very grateful for others who have paved the path. We live in amazing times and I can't imagine trying to learn Japanese like 10-15 years ago. So much progress has been made on how you actually learn a language. I can't name everyone because there are so many but I'd like to particularly single out TheMoeWay + Refold (Disclaimer: I've noticed their site has changed a ton since I last used it so I can't comment on how good they are right now).
• Also many thanks to all those who posted progress updates in this sub. If you've posted one in the last couple of years, I've probably read it.
• If you're going to live in Japan, I would recommend learning Japanese 100%. In fact, if I could do it all over, I would learn Japanese for at least 5 years before ever moving here. If you're just going to travel here for a bit, I think it's too big of a time commitment to be worth it personally, but if you enjoy it, go for it! Life is so short. Do the things that make you happy.
• Life in Japan is a whole nother topic for another day. In brief I will say that the better your Japanese is, the more you will enjoy Japan. Japan has lots of issues and is far from perfect but I've found it to be an incredible fit for my personality/personal values and can totally envision spending the rest of my life here. The food is delicious, the nature is breathtaking, and the people are incredibly kind.

Thanks for reading! I hope this inspires you on your Japanese journey the same way others' posts have inspired me. I know the Japanese learning community can be a little confusing/negative at times so I hope this post counteracts that a bit.

Hello all,
I've been lurking this sub for sometime, trying to learn about LLMs. The space is developing so fast its hard to keep up, or even to know where to look to keep up.
I am pretty tech-savvy but no expert in Machine Learning. I'm keen to learn, and would like to develop a text translator from English to multiple other languages (one at a time) - some of which don't use the alphabet.
Which model(s) should I look at to start? I dont need anything fancy - I'd just like to be able to translate from English documents to other languages locally.
Also, what hardware should I be looking at? Should I be running dual 4090's on a Threadripper system? How's that new Apple Silicon with the AI chip for language translation? How can I even gauge hardware performance for language translation using LLMs?
I'm a babe in the woods but I am motivated to learn.
Thank you in advance.

Hello all,
I've been lurking this sub for sometime, trying to learn about LLMs. The space is developing so fast its hard to keep up, or even to know where to look to keep up.
I am pretty tech-savvy but no expert in Machine Learning. I'm keen to learn, and would like to develop a text translator from English to multiple other languages (one at a time) - some of which don't use the alphabet.
Which model(s) should I look at to start? I dont need anything fancy - I'd just like to be able to translate from English documents to other languages locally.
Also, what hardware should I be looking at? Should I be running dual 4090's on a Threadripper system? How's that new Apple Silicon with the AI chip for language translation? How can I even gauge hardware performance for language translation using LLMs?
I'm a babe in the woods but I am motivated to learn.
Thank you in advance.

Seeing the great GIF post yesterday from ill independence gave me an idea.
I’d love to have a battle royale for our favourite sinners or sinner behaviour. I think in the early rounds we should split into sub sections or themes like journalists and authors or most markled. So we could have Alison P Davies v’s Dan Wooton. We could all nominate our favourite comments and the winner goes through to the next round.
Here are just a few ideas:
Move along Ashleigh variety event
South African performer who called out the dancing in the streets lie.
USO guy
Reece Witherspoon wedding invite
Katy Perry dress comment
Taylor Swifts assistant declining the invite to be on archetypes
Various recent burns from the suits cast
Fucking grifter comment.
No talent comment.
Some of the judges that shaded her as much as was permissible.
She’s repugnant - Morocco
Best NFI - Obama birthday party, Westminster wedding
Mods, I’d be happy to run and organise this once we have everything in place if you guys are too busy.

I've been wanting to switch over Filing Cabinets for things like dusts and ingots because I'm having a hard time visually distinguishing things like that, but with the limited capacity of the base Filing Cabinet and not yet knowing how to get the upgraded one, I was wondering if there was an alternative. Either:
A. Using some sort of fancy wacky item transfer tomfoolery to put only one item of each type into the filing cabinet (and replenishing it when it's taken out)
or B. Using some other container (or method) that alphabetically sorts the items. To the best of my understanding, InventoryTweaks doesn't allow for that without manually typing in every item name/ID (I'm not sure, documentation was kinda scarce?) into the sorting rules file. I know there's Better Barrels and Storage Drawers, but those really only work with just one type of item. Same with Super Chests? I just made my first one, and that seems to be the case.
Or maybe there's some other method I'm just not thinking of, I'm not sure. Either way, I appreciate any suggestions.