A lot has happened since the last update (August 11th, 2025), and I kind of want to write this update to get a few things off my chest.

JLPT results out

After a lot of trepidation, the JLPT results were announced on the 25th of August, 2025. I scored higher than expected, which makes me glad. I don’t plan on taking the N2 anytime soon though, because I kind of speedran my N3 studies from N4 (December 2024 I took N4, July 2025 I took N3). I want to have a good foundation, because I feel like my main problem is not having a wide vocabulary.

I did say I want to work in Japan as a software engineer, but some companies don’t require me to have N2/N1 level Japanese in order to get accepted. It is still a nice to have though, for my personal sense of accomplishment.

I tried applying to PayPay, but I got rejected, so the earliest I could reapply is on August next year. I could also try applying to other Japanese companies, but I want to settle in my new company first. I have my own reasons why I don’t post my current company on Linkedin, one of them being a personal policy of mine to not post anything until I passed my probation.

For now I just go through my Anki decks, occasionally write a diary in Japanese, and slowly learn N2 grammar through a mobile app. Once I feel ready to go for N2, I will probably buy Soumatome books for studying.

Japan anti-immigration sentiment rising

There are a lot of things that have happened in the past month (Indonesia demonstrations, Nepal demonstrations, high profile shootings), but the one I want to talk about is the anti-immigration sentiment growing in Japan. The timeline looked like this:

Not to mention Indonesian workers caused problems over there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Japanese companies no longer look for workers overseas. It sucks to watch my dream crumble, but such is life. Whatever happens in the future, I will just leave it to my future self.

Side note, I think social media is trying to actively harm my mental health, because I got this news from Instagram’s algorithm. I will try to reduce my screen time.

Garmin Run 2025

I genuinely thought that I couldn’t achieve my target of running 5K under 30 minutes, because during my practice and time trial runs I barely ran 4K under 24 minutes. Surprisingly, I managed to finish with a time of 29:25 (based on their data here). There might be a few reasons for this in my opinion

  • My runs use the watch’s GPS, which is not good compared to my phone’s GPS. The fact that my running route is surrounded by trees seems to amplify this fact. In the end I think I should develop a sense of pace, instead of overly depending on my smartwatch
    • Or I could get a better smartwatch, who knows. I can’t get Strava to detect my smartwatch as a heartrate monitor, so I have to initiate the run from my Amazfit watch, and have the results get synced to Strava
  • The energy gel that I drank helped me fend off my exhaustion. Usually I will struggle after 3km, but during the event I somehow didn’t get side stiches at all (If you saw that my left pocket is wet, it’s because I didn’t threw the energy gel container away before the race, and I didn’t drink it completely, so it spilled inside of my pockets)
  • My pacing strategy worked (6:10 for the first 4 km, push the last km). During practice runs my pace were like 5:45, but during the 3rd km it would drop massively
  • Adrenaline due to running in an actual event instead of just practicing
  • Running with a friend/rival, which made me competitive

One of the contents of my bucket list is to someday complete a full marathon (42.195km), but I want to progress slowly. My main motivation to finish a full marathon is not that noble, but I will share it anyway 😅

  • If a pro gamer suffering from diabetes, heart problems and obesity could finish a marathon, there is no reason for me to not be able to do the same
  • I want to prove myself to be “better” than the “general public” that chose not to exercise (made up rhetoric in my head)
  • I want to improve my cardio for Pump It Up (an arcade rhythm game that is like DDR, but it has 5 arrows instead of 4)
    • Funnily enough I now rarely play Pump It Up, and improving my cardio won’t really help because a good technique is more important than stamina

For now I am training for a 10K. Not sure what PB I want to aim for, 60 minutes seems too ambitious. Maybe 65 minutes?