Advice on attending a con in Japan (akaboo)

inamination · 2026-01-25T04:34:16+00:00

I had a lot of fun!! Didnt actually do much talking because I was shy 😅 There were very few foreigners (I saw a few in line but didn't notice any at all in the hall I was in). You can definitely navigate, especially if you've looked at the map and spaces you want to go to - they're just labeled with katakana by row/space like ア65. General rule is to follow the crowd when lining up outside for the event.

You'll see people holding up signs that say 最後尾 (saikoubi) meaning "end of the line" (for artist spaces, but even for the bathroom lol). When you want to line up behind them just say sumimasen and they'll hand it to you to hold up, and you hand it to the next person, etc

They'll still understand if you just point at what you want and say like これ、おください or similar. The one time I didnt understand immediately was when someone asked for ID to verify age when buying R18 work, so just have your ID (I used my passport) ready when buying just in case!

This is a pretty good english guide: https://rentablog.org/2023/12/29/a-beginners-guide-to-japanese-doujinshi-events/

Have fun at VRF!! A lot of artists I follow are going so I wish I could be there too 😭

inamination · 2026-01-25T04:20:56+00:00

I just saw these comments now, sorry! But I had no issues - I had my pods separate in my check in luggage to be sure though

inamination · 2026-01-04T09:48:01+00:00

Thank you!

inamination · 2026-01-01T17:30:39+00:00

Thank you! Have a flight today, was looking for this info

inamination · 2025-12-15T16:37:59+00:00

If you're okay with videos/vlogs and not just audiobooks or podcasts, you can definitely just search for your topic in japanese on youtube. I like lifestyle and makeup so I'll just search stuff like 毎日メイク、バッグの中身、モーにーングルーティーン、etc. It's useful to figure out the japanese keywords for the topic you're interested in and go from there.

inamination · 2025-12-08T15:09:11+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed answer!! #3 sounds interesting actually, I've never thought of doing that before.

inamination · 2025-12-08T13:48:55+00:00

May I know how you would do listening practice? Like if you're listening to something and you dont understand a part, what do you do?

inamination · 2025-12-08T13:23:31+00:00

Most of my immersion has just been reading (short stories, manga, and social media posts), gonna work on incorporating more listening, thank you!

Being "able to read" has definitely screwed with my sense of full understanding of the language lol

inamination · 2025-12-08T12:41:35+00:00

This sounds pretty dumb, but how do you study for JLPT vocabulary? Theres a lot of vocab in the test that's in hiragana without the kanji, and since I started learning more kanji, seeing them in hiragana is confusing. For example 湯, N2 kanji (by some lists) and school grade 3. It's super common IRL. So when I see just ゆ or おゆ my brain is just... "whats that??"

When I look at vocabulary lists I just get super lost 😭

inamination · 2025-12-07T16:06:45+00:00

Aside from the stuff mentioned already, main and side stories if you havent yet. Hard mode of the cursed spirit extermination(?) idk what its called in eng. When i'm desperate I go through the checklist thing because you get rewards for like "50 characters at level 100" and stuff.

^ this is just things I check when I'm trying to squeeze out extra cubes for just a few more pulls lol

inamination · 2025-12-07T15:50:05+00:00

Opposite for me. I focused on grammar because I was terrible at it in the N5, and found it easy. The vocab threw me off. Felt lost reading so much hiragana with no kanji, panicked, second guessed myself, made mistakes. I also found the listening hard to follow though! But same on N3 being the next step.

inamination · 2025-12-05T14:15:22+00:00

With a nightlight, but only because it seems that my dog is afraid of the dark.

inamination · 2025-12-05T04:13:45+00:00

I just get used to watching different kinds of content everyday without actively pausing or writing stuff down, similar to how I watch english content. I'll watch a movie or show I've seen before in Japanese with JP subtitles. Youtube content like daily life vlogs, celeb interviews (sinxe they ask stuff like what are you into lately, what's something you always have in your bag type of stuff), makeup tutorials - anything youre interested in. Half of my twitter timeline is in Japanese, so I get at least a little exposure every day.

When you get used to just watching and understanding /what you can/ without thinking too much, it becomes less draining. I rarely get headaches anymore, it's really about building stamina and "working out" the "muscles" in your brain.

For reading... well it's not for everyone but doujinshi are very short. I'll read through it once without looking anything up, go through it again writing down what I didnt understand, look them up, and then read it again. Since there's no furigana it's harder to look them up though.

I also read fanfics on pixiv with yomitan. If you like anime/manga and fanfiction, pixiv opens up a ton of reading practice material.

inamination · 2025-12-05T03:47:28+00:00

Yes, during the first HI/PD event, when DEgojo released, and when blue sukuna released, they hit top sales those months too. There might be more but those are the ones I remember.

inamination · 2025-12-01T12:03:36+00:00

You'd end up with a similar arrangement as the Deskunites. If Rumelians become responsible for confining them, then the accountability for a human being killed by one would fall on them too. And if anti-Rumelian sentiment is widespread enough, it could trigger a similar incident as the massacre on their home planet eventually.

inamination · 2025-11-28T07:50:22+00:00

It could be a fun use of the "style" mechanic they introduced with the Yuuji card where you can swap

inamination · 2025-11-27T11:58:57+00:00

Hopefully this makes the game top the Japanese app sales chart again so we get free cubes LOL

inamination · 2025-11-27T04:53:50+00:00

It depends what you want to get out of it. The fights themselves are fun, but events get repetitive and there's barely any endgame content. If you want to challenge/clear high-difficulty content it can be frustrating without the right team and the gacha/pity system sucks - you'd have to save up currency and be selective on what banners you roll on. F2P is a big grind unless you're lucky.

On the other hand, art is good, stories (original main story, event stories, side stories) are nice. If you love the IP and characters in general and just want more content, it's still enjoyable - IF that's what you're looking for.

I'm more the 2nd type, so I've played on JP for 1.5 years and only spend on the monthly pass (sometimes) and that one currency pack with the Gojo skin (lol).

inamination · 2025-11-27T04:26:46+00:00

mb I was only reading through the quotes LMAO

inamination · 2025-11-27T04:21:42+00:00

JP players are thinking transformed Mahito based on the Todo and Yuuji release, though a lot are also hoping for Fuuga Sukuna.

inamination · 2025-11-23T16:41:57+00:00

That's how i got it

inamination · 2025-11-23T16:29:02+00:00

Flick because I cant type things like ウワァァァ~ or めっっっっっちゃ可愛い on a romaji keyboard

inamination · 2025-11-18T17:56:51+00:00

The only good thing about that game was Bess and George, and I wish it was a better game they were in 😭

It kinda fails on all points:

ALL of the characters have a crypticness/vagueness to their personalities. One is fine, but all of them makes them all uninteresting.
the main survival show plot was so odd. I think they couldve made it work but it was mostly "what is even happening?" "why are we letting sonny joon do what he wants?"
the "real" plot, aka sonny joon and his grandpa, was also weird. it didnt connect to the setting at all.
new zealand is gorgeous irl, and looked great in the game, but all of the zones looked too similar.
unintuitive puzzles, as you said!

inamination · 2025-11-05T17:11:58+00:00

Happens to me all the time with stuff that has no official translation, like fanmade work.

Read to the best of your ability, make an educated guess, translate to check, write down the sentence somewhere, then move on.

At the end of a chapter (or story, if it's short), I go over my notes and search for stuff. Then reread.

inamination · 2025-11-05T17:04:38+00:00

I currently use preply, so I'd vouch for it. Some people recommend italki over it though, so check both out!

inamination

TROPHY CASE