Welcome to 9to5 Japanese

🔗 Learn with me on YouTube

I struggled with Japanese for years.

I took classes. I watched anime. I even tried chatting with native speakers. But I kept hitting the same wall. I did not know enough words.

Grammar drills did not fix it. Speaking practice did not fix it. What I was missing was vocabulary.

Research shows you need around 10,000 words for about 95 percent comprehension of everyday Japanese. That is the point where you can watch shows raw, follow conversations, and read without constant lookups.

So the real question became simple. How do you realistically learn 10,000 words while working a full time job?

That is the purpose of 9to5 Japanese.

🗓 The Weekly Routine

The method is built on a predictable loop you repeat every week. It is simple, sustainable, and designed around a full time schedule.

Saturday: Mine one episode line by line with MPVacious.
Sunday: Rewatch last week’s episode raw and watch one additional episode for variety.
Monday through Friday:

  • Morning: Anki reviews plus new cards. Start around 10 per day and adjust if needed.
  • Daytime: Passive listening. Episode audio on loop.
  • Evening: Raw immersion for about one hour. No pausing and no checking.

About three hours per weekday plus three to four hours on the weekend adds up to roughly 20 hours per week. Manageable. Repeatable. Effective.

🎯 Why 10,000 Words?

At around 10,000 words, you cross the comprehension threshold where Japanese stops being a struggle and becomes natural.

  • You can watch anime and dramas raw.
  • You can follow everyday conversations.
  • You can read manga and light novels with minimal interruption.

10,000 is not magic. It is simply the vocabulary density required for comfort. Everything beyond that is refinement.

⏳ The 2 to 5 Year Roadmap

Before you begin the weekly loop, you build a small but important foundation.

  • Kana Bootcamp: about one month to master hiragana and katakana.
  • JP1K Starter Deck: about ten weeks to reach 1,000 words, with roughly 800 retained.

From there, the remaining words come from immersion.

  • About 2 years: exceptional retention and heavy immersion, around 100 retained words per week.
  • About 4 years: realistic and sustainable, around 50 retained words per week.
  • About 5 years: relaxed pace with missed weeks, around 35 to 40 retained words per week.

The pace changes the timeline, not the outcome.

🚀 Getting Started

Start based on your current level.

🗂 Blog Roadmap

  1. How to Set Up Anki
  2. Kana Bootcamp
  3. The Starter Deck
  4. The Weekly Loop
  5. Saturday Mining
  6. Monday through Friday
  7. Sunday Reinforcement
  8. 10,000 Words Equals Fluency
  9. The 2 to 5 Year Roadmap
  10. How to Mine Anime
  11. FAQ

🎥 Learn With Me Live

Every Saturday I livestream my mining sessions. I go line by line, clean cards, and import them into Anki.

I also stream weekday review blocks and evening immersion. All sessions are available as recordings.

🔗 Watch on YouTube

🌟 Final Word

9to5 Japanese is not about tricks or hacks. It is a routine you can follow alongside a full time life.

Let the math work for you.

  • About 20 hours per week
  • About 1,000 hours per year
  • About 10,000 words in 2 to 5 years

That is fluency built on routine, not intensity.

Mine on Saturday. Review daily. Immerse nightly. Rewatch on Sunday. Repeat.

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