80 Hours In: The Gameplay Loop and Verdict

I have played almost 80 hours, and I think I am about to take on the final boss. I have done dozens of quests, explored the game, and had so much fun with the mechanics, characters, and story. There is something about Stories 3 that gives off a classic JRPG vibe; it’s not grindy. I am not “forcing myself to tick a box” like many modern games; it’s just fun to take part in the gameplay loop with EVERY single monster usable and not an elite handful like in so many other similar games. The story is serviceable, but this is no Expedition 33. The pacing is impeccable, but as the story progresses, it becomes more intense, challenging you to apply the mechanics you’ve learned over the previous 50 hours. My only concern was whether it would be worth the full price, and I now believe it is. Pick it up if you like Monster Hunter, creature collection, or JRPGs. If you like all three, then Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a must-buy.

Leveling Up My Japanese

I am also using it to study elementary-level Japanese! The Japanese level spoken by the characters is just above my level, so it stretches my brain just enough to expand it. I have already broken down a couple scenes from the game for YouTube videos, and it’s great that I can rewatch ANY CUTSCENE IN THE GAME at any time so this is something I really want to continue to do in the coming weeks (subscribe to my youtube channel) and months as I count down to JLPT N3 test in July 2023 (more on that later).

Recently I have been trying to start studying Japanese with video games again. Some would say I lack discipline, but I find studying with textbooks extremely boring. 6 or 7 years ago I started a YouTube series where I used cutscenes in video games to practice Japanese. I did one for the Witcher in Monster Hunter World, another I forgot about for Doraemon: Story of Seasons and another for Sekiro, then I got distracted and never continued, until today! I spent the last few days searching for video games with Japanese at or just above my level, and after trying Dynasty Warriors Origins and a couple others that were either too advanced or did not provide relevant vocabulary, I tried Monster Hunter Stories 3, at least the demo, and it was perfect! So here is the result of me hyperfocusing on a part of the intro for 12 hours and then spending another 12 hours writing this script and editing this video. You can access the vocabulary list here.

Working on a new logo—sneak peak

I am grateful for the experiences I have had thanks to this blog and the connections I have made. The timeline of this blog is an interesting one. I have been delaying this post trying to put together a timeline, but sifting through 20 years of content, or close to 1500 posts, is proving quite, um… “time-consuming. ” Look out for that post in the future. For now, cheers to 20 years of blogging at Jamaipanese.com!

Highlights

• Completing Grad School
• Launching the Bon Bon Show Podcast
• Collecting Temple/Shrine Stamps
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Good food and good friends

Lowlights

• Transitioning from Grad School back to work
• Job hunting (it sucks!)
• Financial instability

Most Valuable Lessons

• Show up for friends who show up for you.
• Try out new hobbies and interests.
• Play those games languishing in your Steam library

State of the Blog

In 2025, I wrote 31 blog posts—almost twice as many as in 2024. There were quite a few technical issues on the blog that, at one point, made me feel like I should just archive it and call it a day. In the end, however, Jamaipanese.com has been a part of me for 20 years. I couldn’t kill it off, so it lives! I will officially mark 20 years of blogging here in February 2026.

Grad School at Hiroshima University

I completed my Master’s degree at Hiroshima University. That achievement stretched me mentally in ways I cannot properly describe and was the biggest highlight of 2025 for me. Between writing a thesis, conducting research about Japan, attending academic conferences, and giving so many presentations—it was a lot. Cheers to the friends I met along the way and the growth I experienced throughout the journey.

Gaming Highlights

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 blasted its way into my top five video games of all time, sitting somewhere right below Super Metroid and Sekiro. What a wonderful game—a breath of fresh air filled with great characters, an interesting story, and don’t even get me started on the music. I am replaying it on my Twitch channel and have been uploading the videos to my YouTube gaming channel.

Quickfire 2025 Recap

From Rural Islands to the Tokyo Metropolis I moved to Tokyo from Hiroshima; I have now lived in three different prefectures in Japan, ranging from rural island life all the way to the metropolis of Tokyo.

The Goshuin Collection Grows My Goshuin (Temple/Shrine stamp) collection is growing! I got a new book (Goshuincho) from Hokkaido Shrine and I’m already filling it quite well. I spent a lot of time making a video about the collection in my first book; it ended up getting only a handful of views on YouTube, ROFL.

Kyoto was the place I visited the most this year. Once for a trip with grad school colleagues, again for a summer internship, and once more when my best friend’s wife came to Japan and I was able to be her chaperone. It was such a wonderful time, but the most recent visit with Sue was the most memorable because she took me to places I would have never visited on my own. It opened me up to new experiences. Thank you, Sue-chan!

Life in the Big City I did a three-month internship at an international NGO in Tokyo. It gave me a taste of what it could be like working in the big city: commuting, office culture, and more. I didn’t have a full-time job at the end of 2025 or here in early 2026, but I have high hopes for landing a gig soon!

2025 Year in Review – Onward to 2026!

2026 will be a year of transitioning: post-grad school life, being new to Tokyo, job hunting success, making new friends, and navigating new environments. I am pumped up and ready to goooooo!

Kanji Starter

With Kanji Starter 1, students can learn a quarter of the two thousand characters designated for “daily use” by the Japanese government. Volume 1 concentrates on pictographs and contains some two hundred kanji with memory aids, explanatory drawings, examples of kanji formation by combining elements, and common-use word compounds.

For such a powerful and well-known guy, he was quite nice. Taking the time to pose with me for a photo. No one tell him I (was?) am a fan of the Ginyu Force and that I found a Dragon Ball during my first trip to Japan in 2011.

Reading interesting books in Japanese, like Unko Kanji Drill, The Boring Book, I Have a Complaint and others were useful exercises in my language journey and with that success in mind I have picked up this new book.

Just as the title alludes, it is a book of short stories. The interesting part though is that the stories are written in Japanese and English, split into short digestible parts with a lot of explanations and added clarification when it comes to vocabulary. I have been reading it mostly in my train commute in Tokyo and enjoying the stories and the explanations. Check out Japanese Folktales for Language Learners if you are also on your Japanese language learning journey.

Below is a listing of all the tools I Frankensteined together to make it work in the Python programming language, plus a screenshot of how it looks at the time of this post at Jamaipanese.com/lifelogger. I hope to eventually share the source code to supporters on my Ko-Fi page.

Life Logger APIs

Geoapify
Twitch
Google Fit
Google Analytics
Google Drive
Youtube
Spotify
Dropbox
pCloud
Steam
Bluesky

Main Python Libraries

Rich
Beautiful Soup

Phone apps

GPSLogger
App Usage
FolderSync

Carp theme at Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine

In Japanese folklore, the carp (koi) symbolizes courage, strength, success, perseverance, and good fortune due to a legend where a carp that swims up a waterfall transforms into a dragon. Working on my degree at Hiroshima University certainly felt like swimming up a waterfall at times, so the Carp theme of this shrine was fitting for my personal achievement and graduation day. Check out the Shrine’s (website) and visit the grounds of Hiroshima Castle if you are ever in the area.

Pixel 6 Glitch

In the end it was a glitch with Pixel 6 phones that caused the issue with the Osaifu-Keitai FeliCa Networks apps on my phone that manages IC cards. I am never removing my backup PHYSICAL IC card from my wallet again and also grabbed a digital Suica card in case of future glitches. Even as a tech savvy person its still insane to me how “simple” tech glitches can really mess up modern systems and by extension their users.