awawawaea

sideblog

[hiveswap]

Everyone go look up the song nasa banned from space

[hiveswap]

Don't forget to play it loud as fuck

[kowai-kabuki-tanuki]

please….listen to the whole thing. And imagine that you are IN SPACE in 1973 and you JUST woke up. Every time you adjust…it escalates somehow.

This song had to be designed in a lab for the sole purpose of fucking with astronauts. whoever added it to the NASA playlist was a genius.

[hiveswap]

It took them two tries to ban it?

[kvotheunkvothe]

[selfship-quotes]

I love soulmates but also this-

[qilingxiong]

[uwublr]

Pine's Ridiculously Long List of (Mostly) Free Japanese Study Materials

2026 Restart Edition

All my current study materials, because sharing found resources is caring. You may have seen the first version of this in the past, and I had a study lull due to circumstances since I last posted that. Taking everything into consideration, I made a few changes and updates to my list of resources.

Again, these are not JLPT-specific and are for beginners like me. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. I still hate my handwriting, and I still block every YouTube Channel I find that says learn X language in X short time period. I am not its target audience. I am still a slow learner, and that's okay.

As I said in the previous post, find a community because it truly does make a difference. Shoutout to Seitokai's Nihongo Discord!

This list contains the following: my textbook (paid), anki decks, dictionaries (paid and free), a game (paid), grammar and kanji guides, writing practice, watching (not YouTube) and reading resources.

Textbook: Tobira: Beginning Japanese I. This is one of the three resources that are paid. I really like this text book because it's colorful (which, it did matter for me) and physical (which, I did Marugoto, but I prefer turning the pages myself, if that makes sense). You could probably borrow this from z the library.

Genki and Minna no Nihongo are definitely more popular and would have more third-party supplementary material (like on YouTube), but I found they're catered more to university students or classroom learning which does not fit me.

Tobira has a self-study guide containing how they'd suggest you use their textbook to study on your own, and links to videos and audio materials which help you review vocabulary and explain grammar points found in the book. Disregard how their vocabulary videos has beginning spelled as begging. IDK how that got past quality control, but I mean everything else was sound.

Anki decks: And while I understand that Anki is not for everyone (and I suspect I am not too, but I am still in my trying-to-embrace-Anki-phase). Making a deck is a productive form of procrastination, but I digress.

Tatsumoto's Kana (Writing Sub-deck)

Tatsumoto's AnkiDrone Sentence Pack V7

Custom Tobira: Beginning Japanese I Vocab Deck

Dictionaries and similar:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The second paid resource in this list, sorry! The e-book sold on Amazon does not have good reviews as it's a scanned copy of the book, rather than a properly formatted e-book. I have the physical book copy.

Rikaitan browser extension I use on Firefox with installed JMDict English V4, JMExtra, 日本語文法辞典(全集), and Kanjium

Takoboto site (online) and app (with offline access) dictionary

Youglish site for pronunciation examples.

Stardew Valley Japanese Wiki because no one can stop me from playing this in Japanese even if my pronunciation will likely suffer but I don't care I will complete a playthrough in Japanese! The wiki is free, but the game isn't. I had been playing Stardew Valley years prior to my Japanese learning journey and I love it. Update 1.7 can't come fast enough, but in ConcernedApe and his team I trust.

Ultra Handy Japanese Verb Conjugator because help!

Immersion Kit provides audio and picture examples for Japanese words and phrases. It helps you look up things when you're immersing.

Game:

Wagotabi. This is the third and last paid resource in this list. It's a role-playing game which starts off in English, then gradually changes to Japanese as you play through and learn kana, kanji, vocabulary, and grammar points. It's fun and I have yet to beat my in-game rival because I don't know left from right yet. I am stuck LMAO. I barely know my directions in my native language of Filipino, you can't expect me to know this immediately in Japanese PLEASE.

Grammar: Because if you can't get your hands on a textbook or prefer to just read through the grammar points, there are available free alternatives online which I do refer to from time to time as well.

Cure Dolly Script. This is a transcript based on the YouTube series by Cure Dolly. Whether you're put off by the robotic voice the original creator used or you just want something to read along or refer to, this one is for you.

Sakubi: Yesterday's Grammar Guide

Kanji:

The Kanji Map is where you can search for kanji, their radical, and what other kanji can be related to them.

Handwritten Kanji Search as it says on the tin.

Writing:

Kakikata Generator for Japanese writing sheets. I like how customizable it is, which is very useful for me since there are certain kana characters I would really like to be legible.

Watching:

Famelack. I like the shop channel especially because all I can understand from it so far are the numbers. LOL

Slow Japanese with Yuki. If you're familiar with Comprehensive Input in Japanese on YouTube or in their website, you've likely seen her before. She's the same creator, but this is her post-CIJ venture.

Japanese Media Recommendations that I have yet to go through, but I have it in my bookmarks.

Reading:

Reader Ttsu for reading Japanese materials on a browser, used in conjunction with Rikaitan, since I couldn’t find an e-book reader that I can install a Japanese dictionary in.

Todaii Japanese site and app for easy news reading. Has a one-time lifetime paid option to unlock all the features. It has audio that plays along as you read.

Mangaz for manga if you're into that. Features independent and/or older, more niche work. Also has adult content if you're into that. This site disappeared for a bit because of that whole payment processor issue which like, plagued half the internet last year, but they came back! Not completely beginner friendly, but it's fun to look at!

Tadoku for easy reading materials which really is for beginners.

Open Access Readers is a list of reading resources gathered by the University of British Columbia.

Watanoc is a free web magazine written in simple Japanese.

Nihongo Tokuhon

[kineticpenguin]

At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I think that college should be free and also not a requirement for employment outside of highly specialized career fields

[kineticpenguin]

At the risk of sounding like an effete intellectual, I do actually think you should be allowed to just take college courses indefinitely

[yourunderwaterskies]

technically you can, if you don't care about degrees.

Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

When searching, the phrases you're looking for are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), or you can do a general search of say, "free online college courses." Oh, and so you don't get surprised like I did, have an avoid: Hillsdale College is a conservative Christian site and not a valid MOOC place. Sign up with them and you will get things like THIS IS WHY THE LEFT IS TURNING YOUR KIDS TRANS AND GAY in your inbox.

[aloeverawrites]

@yourunderwaterskies I wanted to say thank you so much for adding these links, seriously, they've been life-changingly helpful to me-

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

Humanity in War

Learn more about the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Program to train policy professionals, government officials, academics,

Kaya

Kaya is a free humanitarian learning platform which offers hundreds of training opportunities across a range of key topics, including the hu

[princesspeach5]

I love this tiktok so much

[Video description: A TikTok by lilfangz. The background music is a song with chimes. The screen is split with lilfangz on the left side, and footage from below of a deep-sea animal resembling a fish or eel with a large head that has a long tail coming out of it on the right. They hold their palm to the camera as they look away and exclaim, in a French accent, “Oh, what a scary and disgusting creature! Why are you showing me this beast from the underworld? I'm sick!” All at the same time, the right side switches angles, showing the animal’s face—which has two eyes, and a wide mouth that looks like it’s smiling—there’s a positive-sounding chime from the music, and lilfangz gasps, clasping their hand over their mouth suddenly. They say, “What a whimsical and inviting nature! So cute!” They hit their chest, saying, “My heart is fluttering!” End video description.]

[libraford]

Googled something about quick hydration and it suggested big jug of water, couple tbsp pickle juice, dash of lime juice.

Its surprisingly tasty????

[libraford]

Pleased to report that after a day of this i am not longer craving caper brine and my mouth is not dry as usual. There's some good suggestions in the notes too that I want to try.

-ancient roman posca: water, red or white wine vinegar, honey, salt, herbs (coriander, mint, thyme)

-switchel: water, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, lemon, salt

-ayran: yogurt, water, salt, mint

-Agua pepino: water, cucumbers, lime, sugar, optional mint.

[libraford]

I have been reminded of:

-shrub: vinegar, sida water, elderberry (or other berry), sugar.

[libraford]

I have now been informed of

-sekanjabin: honey, vinegar, mint, water.

[libraford]

"Wow, I wonder why this post was popular this week."

-sees the reports of the heatwave in Europe-

"... ah."

[heavensenthousepet]

you learn something new everyday. unless you're a historian. then you learn something old

[in-a-continuous-daydream]

IWTV freak outs with Succession score, music to my ears 😌

[sacred-portal]

[tokidokitokyo]

Seitokai’s June 2026 JP Manga Book Club

This month we’re reading 本なら売るほど 1. Join us for this read in Seitokai’s Discord!

This is a place where books and people meet once again. The secondhand bookstore "Jugatsudo" is run by a dour young man with close-cropped hair. Attracted by the owner's personality and his wonderful selection of goods, various customers visit the store today. There are book-loving regulars, high school girls who want to grow up, A man comes to throw away unwanted books, and a widow comes to sell her husband's collection. A book in one's hand leads to an unexpected connection. This is a gem of a human drama for all those who love books and whose lives have been changed by them!

[daftpatience]

this messed up vintage cat sewing pattern has tormented me since i saw it & like some other folks have done in that post - i tried my hand at tweaking the pattern to resemble the illustration (and my personal tastes) a little more. i've ended up with this, which i have only tested at a small scale and not this final version exactly (where i have done such things as further widening the cheeks and finalizing the leg shapes.) i bestow it upon you nice folks now 👐

go forth and make weird little beanbag kittens! pls show me if you do!

[daftpatience]

woah this got big!! and after another try i have another untested tweak for yall. this should help the weird pinchy side seams out. yey

[calltainn]

My first attempt! I made the pattern a bit smaller as I wanted it to be able to fit in a pocket, but then (accidentally but perhaps unavoidably) sewed it with a wider seam allowance than the resized pattern indicated, so the face is proportionally a bit too big and I lost some detail in the ear shape. I'm pleased with it though! It was fun to make something and to do some handsewing.

[daftpatience]

SOO CUTE AND TINIE 😭

[chthonink]

I tried this pattern a while back to try out some minky and I get no points for making the pattern well but looook at my boyyy

His name is Tofu. Thank you for sharing the pattern I will love him forever

[alphauke]

an angel on letterboxd just dropped a whole playlist of films free on youtube I was filled with so much love and light I had to share with you guys

[alphauke]

it also includes short films, animated movies, documentaries of every genre, full recordings of live performances. all spanning different decades from different countries. YOU DONT EVEN FUCKING KNOW

[anphivenas]

there are also websites like worldscinema, solidaritycinema, and rarefilmm hosting incredible obscure world cinema for free! and if you're more inclined towards the esoteric, there's also evilbjork's avant-garde canon playlist on youtube! also important to mention Maya S. Cade's incredible black film archive and the otherness archive, an obscure queer cinema archive! You could always be watching more films !

[himynameisemail]

[men-iss-vess-ull-deactivated202]

so called "free thinkers" when there's a bug on the ceiling

[tj-crochets]

Links to my free sewing patterns! - big manta ray - smaller manta ray - monster friend (those monsters with horns I’ve been making lately, but without horns) - pie slice - Fred, the Fish of Minimal Effort - tiny cat (aka Jiji) - mini mothman - whale shark/donut whale shark - juggling frog/toad (aka my smallest, simplest frog pattern of the three I’ve made) - large frog - tiny hedgehog - minecraft bee - minecraft zombie - blorbo - Strawberry Hearts quilt pattern - starfish - little octopus - canvas tote (wider than it is tall) - canvas tote (taller than it is wide, more of a grocery bag)  - basic bat and ghost - mini mushroom friends - whale - hammerhead shark - simple seal Tutorials: - flannel baby blanket tutorial - onigiri bag tutorial - tomato pattern design walkthrough (how I design the pattern, not a link to the pattern itself)

[tj-crochets]

Free pattern post, now updated with a link to the seal pattern! If it’s been a while since this reblog when you read this, it’s worth clicking through to the original post, I will update it whenever I share a new sewing pattern

[moonshinemagpie]

i can't believe i didn't watch comprehensible input/listening videos on YouTube for 95% of my Japanese studies. Not sure if they didn't exist back then or if my algorithm just didn't recommend them until recently. But they're such a rich resource.

If you're learning Japanese and want stuff to listen to and shadow with, here are some recs:

This guy ^ has 80 videos of N4 listening practice on Patreon. They're $80 until April 9, and if you're around N4 and can afford it, it looks worth it imo. I just got it for my student to practice.

So many of the videos are travel vlogs or discussions about Japanese culture and language. They help you learn while also preparing you to enjoy a trip or move to Japan.

Hugely helpful!

[knightofleo]

[herpsandbirds]

Common eider

[phynoma]

This needs to be immortalized because it's what made me turn on the sound. And they were right

[ephxmera-a]

You feel like shit: An interactive self-care guide

“This is meant to be an interactive flow chart for people who struggle with self care, executive dysfunction, and/or who have trouble reading internal signals. It’s designed to take as much of the weight off of you as possible, so each decision is very easy and doesn’t require much judgment.”

I hope this might help some of you struggling lovelies out there!

[howilearnedtocope]

This is kind of a choose your own adventure style prompt. It will ask you a simple question and then give you advice based on what option you select. I like the fact it asks only one question at a time, so it’s not cluttered, and they use a large, readable font with simple language. This is perfect for days when I have a really bad flare of symptoms from my TBI. 

[miss-nj-writes]

Just remembered this exists and it helped me into a better place tonight. Reblogging for anyone else who might need it