2 Oct 2023: Hello everyone stegatxins0 here. I still can't believe it has been nearly three years since I wrote this guide. Words can't express how glad I am that my guide is still useful and relevant to this day. Thank you very much to everyone who use my guide. Thank you very much especially to those that use my guide as an inspiration or foundation for their own updated guide. And thank you very much to those in TheMoeWay, which is surprisingly still standing strong today, for creating a memorable and fun experience for me in my early days of Japanese immersion. I am sorry that I have to unlist/private the Youtube videos as I was too tired dealing with the hate comments. And I am sorry for not accepting any DMs or questions too. Unfortunately, I was and am unable to keep this guide updated as I have other priorities in life (*cough* high school). I myself have quit sentence mining and intensive immersion long ago after passing N1, although I still read novels, watch anime and play visual novel when I feel like it. I noticed that a lot of links especially the anon files one are down. I will try to find and upload the files when I have the time.
My Mining Setup
Follow the guide if you want to get identical mining setup to mine.
Changelog
18 July 2021: Update hotkey for audio guide to use preconfigured region so that recording status is visible in full screen. Add script to replay only the first 5 seconds of recorded audio.
11 June 2021: Add option to play audio after capture for ShareX audio powershell script.
11 June 2021: Add alternative script for ShareX to add clipboard text to sentence field.
6 June 2021: Change float
to Long
in ShareX powershell script to fix the problem where script sometimes fail to add screenshot/audio to Anki.
Requirement:
- Language that you are learning: Japanese
- Platform: Windows 10
Anki
Installing Anki Addons
- Download the latest version of Anki from here.
-
Install Anki addons. To install addons go to
Tools > Add-ons > Install Add-on
and paste the code.List below are the addons that I use:
- (MUST HAVE) Straight Reward - avoid "ease hell"
957961234
- (MUST HAVE) PassFail JP - get rid of visual clutter
Continue reading if you're wondering how to install
- (MUST HAVE) AnkiConnect - add cards with Yomichan
2055492159
- (RECOMMENDED) Edit Field During Review - edit definition or hint during review
1020366288
- (RECOMMENDED) Yomichan Forvo Server - for almost full word audio coverage for your Anki cards
580654285
- (OPTIONAL) anki-forvo-dl - batch generate word audio
858591644
See Kindle section
- (AESTHETICS) Full Screen Toggle -
F11
to toggle fullscreen1612375712
- (AESTHETICS) Review Heatmap - heatmap and streak (fork of original addon with inverted color for night mode removed)
Download and double click on it
- (AESTHETICS) Puppy Reinforcement - make Anki less boring
1722658993
- (AESTHETICS) True Retention - true retention (you have to hold
SHIFT
before you press onstats
)613684242
- (MUST HAVE) Straight Reward - avoid "ease hell"
PassFail JP
- After downloading, extract it to anywhere.
- Install the
yumin.ttf
Yu Mincho font. - Copy the
PassFail (JP)
folder to%APPDATA%\Anki2\addons21
(paste this in your file explorer address bar).
Puppy Reinforcement (Completely optional)
- This is the image that I use. Download and copy or move it to
%APPDATA%\Anki2\addons21\1722658993\user_files
- In Anki, go to
Tools > Add-ons
. SelectPuppy Reinforcement
. ClickConfig
. - Change
disable_default_images": false,
todisable_default_images": true,
Anki Settings
- Follow this site to setup Anki. (follow the
Anki Settings
andStraight Reward
inThe 'ease' problem
) -
Download your preferred card template. After downloading, double click on the file and import the card template.
This is my card template, which is a modified version of animecards (also read this). I don't use this but If you need sentence card template that auto color word based on their pitch accent check out this.
How my card is different than the original animecards:
- different font
- field for pitch accent position
- field for meta/source (see
Kindle
section) - pitch accent graph moved to above definition
- you can edit definition and hint when reviewing (if you have
Edit Field During Review
installed) - add option to change this to this by changing
{kana:Reading}
to{furigana:Reading}
Yomichan
- Download and install yomichan: chrome, firefox
- Download your preferred dictionary pack. I use shoui Yomichan Dictionaries. The above pack include monolingual, bilingual, frequency, pitch accent and kanji dictionary. Alternatively, you may also download dictionary from Epistularum's dictionary pack.
- Click on the Yomichan extension and click on the settings icon. Enable
Advanced
option on the bottom left.
- Click
Configure installed and enabled dictionaries
underDictionaries
Import your preferred dictionary. Then, sort the order inpriority
. The higher the number, the higher the position of dictionary. For more information on recommended dictionary see this. -
Enable
Enable Anki integration
and click onConfigure Anki card format
underAnki
section. Make sure you have Anki opened andAnkiConnect
addon installed in Anki or read the Anki section.Field Value Extra Note Word {expression}
Reading {furigana-plain}
{reading}
work too but if you're one of those (not me) who use autistic font you can easily set your Anki template to look like this (the default one) by changing{kana:Reading}
to{furigana:Reading}
in your Anki templateGlossary {test}
{clipboard-text}
if you want to manually copy definition byctrl + c
Sentence {cloze-prefix}<b>{cloze-body}</b>{cloze-suffix}
{sentence}
if you don't want to make the main vocab boldPicture see ShareX
sectionAudio {audio}
leave it empty if use anki-forvo-dl
to batch generate word audio for those with unstable/poor InternetSentenceAudio see ShareX
sectionGraph {pitch-accent-graphs}
Position {pitch-accent-positions}
Hint manual input Meta see Kindle
section - Click
Configure Anki card templates…
underAnki
section. Replace all the text with this. - Click
Configure custom CSS
underPopup Appearance
. Use my CSS (modified version of full-nord-theme) or create your own Yomichan CSS here. Paste your CSS inPopup CSS
. - To use Yomichan on word such as 懇々, Click
Configure custom text replacement patterns
underTranslation
. ClickAdd
and fill in with these values:
Pattern:(.)々
Replacement:$1$1
- Make sure you have
Yomichan Forvo Server
addon installed in Anki. If not seeAnki
section. ClickConfigure audio playback sources
underAudio
. Next toCustom audio source
, selectJSON
for type and inserthttp://localhost:8770/?expression={expression}&reading={reading}
in URL. ClickAdd
to add a new row. Order it to look like this: (you can also putCustom
at first if you prefer)
- Using Yomichan in Yomichan is helpful when reading monolingual definition. Change the following settings:
- check
Allow scanning popup content
underPopup
. - change
Maximum number of child popups
underAllow scanning popup content
underPopup
to9999
. - check
Allow scanning popup source terms
underAllow scanning popup content
underPopup
.
- check
- Change some settings
- uncheck
Show the welcome guide on browser startup
underGeneral
- set
Scan delay
underScanning
to0
- disable
Search text with non-Japanese characters
underScanning
- set
Scale
underAppearance
to150%
- set
Size
underAppearance
to712
forWidth
and512
forHeight
- check all three styles for
Pitch accent display styles
underAppearance
- uncheck
Show space between parsed words
underText Parsing
- set
Reading mode
underText Parsing
toNone
- check
Enable search page clipboard text monitoring
underClipboard
- uncheck
ShareX
- Download and install ShareX from here.
- Right click on ShareX icon and click
Hotkey Settings
Hotkey for Screenshot
- Click
add
. Close the windows and select None on the right hand side and define key combination for screenshots. Mine isF6
- Click on the settings icon on the left hand side.
- Select
Capture region
forTask
. You can also selectCapture region (Transparent)
. The difference isCapture region
freeze screen whileCapture region (Transparent)
does not.
- Check
Override after capture settings
. Uncheck all and check the followings:Save image to file
,Perform actions
. - Check
Override screenshot folder
. ClickBrowse
and select Anki collection media location (usually something following this formatC:\Users\______\AppData\Roaming\Anki2\______\collection.media
). - Insert
anki-screenshot
or anything you want in description . - Click on
Image
tab. CheckOverride image settings
. UnderImage format
selectJPEG
to save space.
-
Click on
Actions
tab. CheckOverride actions
. ClickAdd
. A new window will pop up. Fill in the following values:
Name:anki-screenshot
(or anything you want)
File path:
Argument: (if you're not using my card type, replace
Picture
with your screenshot field name. Use this tool)
- Check
Hidden window
and clickOK
. CloseTask settings
windows.
Alternative: add clipboard text to sentence field
If you want your card to be as high quality as possible, you might find yourself opening Anki to edit sentence field and meaning field. The script below will automate the process so that you don't have to open Anki at all.
Setup
- Follow the steps above for Hotkey for Screenshot but use this code instead.
- If you're not using my card type, replace
Picture
with your screenshot field name andSentence
with your sentence field name. Use this tool). - In Yomichan settings, click on
Configure Anki card format
underAnki
. Change value forGlossary
(or your definition/meaning field) to{clipboard-text}
. - If you find yourself switching between two different script frequentl , instead of copypasting the code every time you switch, you can create a new action by clicking
Add
andcheck/uncheck
the one that youwant/don't want
to use.
Workflow
- Manually copy definition from Yomichan with
ctrl + c
orright click and click copy
. - Add card to Anki using Yomichan.
- Copy the sentence with
ctrl + c
orright click and click copy
. You can also copy multiple lines. - Add screenshot by clicking the hotkey for
Hotkey for Picture
script that you setup earlier. The script will add screenshot topicture
field and clipboard text tosentence
field. - You can also add sentence audio by clicking the hotkey for
Hotkey for Audio
(continue reading for more details).
Troubleshooting
Sentence field is empty: make sure you have copy file to clipboard
disabled in Override after capture settings
. If you want to copy image to clipboard create a separate hotkey for that.
AnkiConnect: UnboundLocalError: don't copy sentence that contains weird symbol such as "
or \
. (I might fix this in the future)
Hotkey for Audio
- Click
add
. Close the windows and select None on the right hand side and define key combination for screenshots. Mine isF7
- Click on the settings icon on the left hand side.
- Select
Start/Stop screen recording using pre configured region
orStart/Stop screen recording using active window region
forTask
. I recommend usingpre configured region
so that you can see the recording status in full screen. ShareX have a few seconds of delay before it start recording, when it start recording the dotted line will change from red to green. You cannot see this in full screen, that's why I recommend preconfigured region. The region you select later won't matter if you record audio only without video, because ShareX record audio from all application in your desktop instead of audio from a specific application.
- Check
Override after capture settings
. Uncheck all and check the followings:Save image to file
,Perform actions
. - Check
Override screenshot folder
. ClickBrowse
and select Anki collection media location (usually something following this formatC:\Users\______\AppData\Roaming\Anki2\______\collection.media
). - Insert
anki-audio
or anything you want in description . - Click on
Capture
tab. CheckOverride capture settings
. - Click
Select region
underCapture
tab. Select anywhere in the screen, it doesn't really matter (see explanation above). If you selectactive region
inTask
, you can skip this step. - Click on
Screen Recorder
tab. Click onScreen recording options
and click on Download to download FFMPEG.
- After finish downloading, Click
Install recorder devices
- Under
Sources
selectnone
for video source andvirtual-audio-capturer
for audio source.
- Change
Audio codec
toMP3
- At
Command line preview
, checkUse custom commands
and replace everything in text with the command below to trim silence and reduce the volume a bit. (Source)
-
Close the window. Click on
Actions
tab. CheckOverride actions
. ClickAdd
. A new window will pop up. Fill in the following values:
Name:anki-audio
(or anything you want)
File path:
Argument: (if you're not using my card type, replace
SentenceAudio
with your sentence audio field name. Use this tool)
- Check
Hidden window
and clickOK
. -
Click
Add
. A new window will pop up. Fill in the following values:
Name:play-audio
(or anything you want)
File path:
Argument:
- Check
Hidden window
and clickOK
. - Uncheck
play-audio
if you don't want to play audio after capture. Check (default) if you want to play audio after capture to confirm the audio is correct -
If you find yourself recording long audio regularly, here's a script to play only the first five seconds of the audio. Replace the script above with this
File path:
Argument:
NOTE:
- Script won't work if you have Anki browser opened and your newest card focused in your Anki browser.
- If script is not working, update the code with the latest one.
Capture2Text
- Download Capture2Text from here and extract it to somewhere permanent such as
C:\Capture2Text
. - Download better tessdata (OCR data) for horizontal and vertical Japanese. I use and recommend tessdata_best (jpn jpn_vert) which have the best accuracy but slower (I can't notice the difference though). You can also try tessdata or tessdata_fast or just use the default tessdata.
- After you download, go to
Capture2Text
directory (location where you extract yourCapture2Text
). Paste thejpn.traineddata
andjpn_vert.traineddata
you downloaded intessdata
folder. When prompted do you want to replace, select yes. - Download this option file) to
Capture2Text
directory. (Source: AJATT Discord Server) - Copy
Capture2Text.exe
fromCapture2Text
directory. Open the Run dialog box by pressingWin + r
. Typeshell:startup
and pressEnter
. An explorer window will pop up. Right click and clickPaste shortcut
. A message will pop-up if this is your first time running it. ClickOK
. - Double click on the shortcut of
Capture2Text.exe
. Right click on the Capture2Text icon in taskbar tray. DeselectShow Popup Window
. Right click again and clickSettings
.
- Define your preferred hotkey for
Start OCR Capture
inHotkeys
. Mine isF5
. I also setBubble Capture
toF4
for reading Manga. You can change all other options to<Unmapped>
because we are not going to use them.
- Click
OCR 1
tab. ChangeCurrent OCR Language
toJapanese
. - Under
Miscellaneous
, setText Orientation
toauto
(default). If auto is selected, horizontal will be used when the capture width is more than twice the height, otherwise vertical will be used. - Select the option file you downloaded in step 4 in
Tesseract Config File
underMiscellaneous
- The
Quick-Access Languages
doesn't matter if you do not use other language. If you are using OCR for language such as Japanese, you would want to replace space with nothing for easier Yomichan lookup. Go toReplace
tab, insert "" (space) at first column at any empty row, and do not edit the second column.
- Click
OK
after you're done.
MPV
Installing MPV
- Download
mpv
from here. Don't download thebootstrapper.zip
. Download the latest7z
version. - Create a folder at
C:\Program Files (x86)\mpv
and extract the contents of the file you just downloaded toC:\Program Files (x86)\mpv
- Go to
C:\Program Files (x86)\mpv\installer
and right click onmpv-install.bat
. ClickRun as administrator
- Right click on any
mkv
file, clickProperties
, a window will pop up. ClickChange
next toOpens with
, and select mpv. Repeat the step above but formp4
Alternatively use package manager such as chocolatey to install mpv. That's what I use but it is overkill for those who are not technical person.
Configure MPV
- Download ヒラギノ丸ゴ ProN W4 font from here (Source). Font like this are known as
maru gothic
and are largely used in Japanse blu-ray subtitle. Double click onHiraMaruProN-W4
and install it. - Open notepad. Copy and paste the following code in notepad. You can also learn how to write your own configuration file here. There are also some easier guide on how to write configuration file. Just search it on the Internet.
- Save it to
%APPDATA%\mpv
with theFile name
asmpv.conf
andAll files (*.*)
asSave as type
. Close the window. - Open notepad. Copy and paste the following code in notepad. You can also learn how to write your own configuration file here. There are also some easier guide on how to write configuration file. Just search it on the Internet.
- Save it to
%APPDATA%\mpv
with theFile name
asinput.conf
andAll files (*.*)
asSave as type
. Close the window.
MPV Scripts
- The scripts I used are
animecards
for mining card andtempvis
to reveal current subtitle line only. Not strictly for language learning but I useautoload
which load all video file in the same directory to playlist which is incredibly useful for binging anime. I also usefastforward
for seeking which speed up the playback for a few seconds instead of skipping forward in media files. - Download animecards (guide), tempvis (Backup Link), fastforward (modified by me) (Source) and autoload (Source). You can also find more scripts here.
- Go to
%APPDATA%\mpv
. If doesn't exist create a folder namedscripts
. Copy or move the scripts you downloaded to thescripts
folder. - Open
animecards_vXX.lua
with your preferred text editor. Edit the config. More details here. If you are using my note type and didn't edit the fields you can copy this to get the correct field information:
- Don't forget to adjust the path information
[[Anki2\User 1\collection.media]])
so it matches your Anki user name and links to a valid media folder. The script will not work if this folder is not correctly set. - You need to have separate fields for word audio and sentence audio in the script settings and on your card format. - Set your preferred options for the other settings as well. There's an option to autoplay audio after capture to confirm the audio is correct:
AUTOPLAY_AUDIO = true
.
Browser
- Install extensions. The extensions I use are
- If you are using chrome, you have to allow extensions to access local file. For all extensions that listed above, go to
chrome://extensions/
, select extension , then checkallow access to file urls
. - Download preferred texthooker page. I use Anacreon's Clipboard Inserter Page.
- Copy and move the texthooker page to somewhere permanent like
C:\
. - Double click on the texthooker page and bookmark it.
- Add
"Yu Mincho",
afterfont-family:
in CSS in Settings in top right corner. - Enable
Insert copies made on this page
for Anacreon MPV script, disableAlways select entire line
and enableDon't count special chars
- I disable
Show line delete Xs
too because I found it distracting. - I also bookmark itazuraneko grammar reference and ッツ Ebook Reader which should work offline after you first load it.
ActivityWatch
- Download
ActivityWatch
windows installer from here. - Launch
ActivityWatch
if not launched. - Right click on activitywatch icon in taskbar and click
Open Dashboard
.
- Click on
Settings
at the top right corner. - Change the Categorization to however you like. You have to update this everytime you play a new visual novel or read a new book. Here's mine.
- Note that sometimes when you can't click on
save
you have to refresh the page. - You might also want to install browser extensions (chrome, firefox) to track website domain.
Virtual Desktop
- You can use
ctrl + win + left/right
to switch between virtual desktop, but I found it annoying becausectrl
skip text in visual novel. It's also too much finger movement compared to mine which isalt + x
(I actually usealt + q
but I useDVORAK
keyboard layout so the equivalent would bealt + x
). - Install AutoHotkey v1.1 or later
- Download my modified version of windows-desktop-switcher for
QWERTY
(the keyboard that everyone use). (original). - Extract and copy or move the folder to somewhere permanent such as
C:\
- Run the following commands in an Administrator powershell prompt. Be sure to specify the correct path to your
desktop_switcher.ahk
file.
- You can disable the switching animation by pressing the
Win + R
keys to open Run, typeSystemPropertiesPerformance.exe
into Run, and click on OK to directly open to the Visual Effects tab in Performance Options - Uncheck
Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
, and click/tap onOK
. - Restart your computer.
- If you use my modified version of windows-desktop-switcher, here's a cheatlist:
alt + x
switch back to last desktop usedalt + a
switch to the desktop on the leftalt + s
switch to the desktop on the rightalt + 1-9
switch to specific desktopalt + shift + 1-9
move focused windows to specific desktopalt + c
create desktopalt + d
delete desktopwin + tab
gui interface for adding/deleting desktop, move desktop, and move windows across dekstop
Visual Novel
- Follow this guide to setup textractor.
- Follow this guide to learn how to install visual novel.
Kindle
Kindle Dictionary
- Download preferred dictionaries from Epistularum's dictionary pack. I use
明鏡
,大辞林
andjmdict-kindle
.jmdict-kindle
is not from epis pack. You have to download it from here. - Plug your kindle device into your computer and copy the dictionaries to the
documents\Downloads\Items01
folder of your kindle device. The dictionaries should appear automatically in the dictionary settings of your kindle. Deconjugation should work too.
Install Anki Addons
- Install the following addons. To install addons go to
Tools > Add-ons > Install Add-on
and paste the code. After installing, restart Anki.- 😄 KanjiEater's Smart Japanese Kindle Highlights - import vocabulary from Kindle
1353504091
- Japanese Support - bulk generate reading
3918629684
- anki-forvo-dl - batch generate word audio
858591644
- Japanese Pitch Accent - batch generate pitch accent graph
148002038
- 😄 KanjiEater's Smart Japanese Kindle Highlights - import vocabulary from Kindle
- Choose one.
- Japanese Definition Scraper from weblio Dictionary - bulk generate monolingual definition
2055037404
- Migaku Dictionary - bulk generate definition. See here for more information
1655992655
- Japanese Definition Scraper from weblio Dictionary - bulk generate monolingual definition
KanjiEater's Smart Japanese Kindle Highlights
- Turn on Vocabulary Builder on your Kindle device. In Kindle, go to
Settings > Reading Options > Language Learning
and turn onVocabulary Builder
. - Make sure you Kindle is in Japanese or else the addon won't work. In Kindle, go to
Settings > Language & Dictionaries > Language
and change language to日本語
. ClickOK
. - Delete
documents\My Clippings.txt
of your kindle device -
Plug in your Kindle device. In Anki, go to
Tools > Add-ons
. SelectKanjiEater's Smart Japanese Kindle Highlights
. ClickConfig
. Edit the settings: Please change yourpath
deck_name
is the "root" deck where sub decks will be created. Every highlight imported will be placed in a subdeck named after the book it was read from. Mine is日本語::kindle
last_added
is when the last Kindle Highlight was added. Don't change this unless you want it to rescan & readd cards from that time. If you set it tonull
it will start at the beginning of all of your highlights.model_name
is the model to use for the cards. This model must have fields in it named whatever the word_field, sentence_field, and source_field are. Mine isMining
.path
the root path of your Kindle device. It expectsF:\documents\clippings
and a hidden folder & fileF:\system\vocabulary\vocab.db
to exist. Everyone's path is different. Plug in your kindle and with file explorer check what is your Kindle device location.sentence_field
is where the sentence where the word was used will be put in the card. Mine isSentence
.
-source_field
is where the meta data of what page and what time you highlighted the word. It looks something like this:ページ78 2021年2月3日水曜日 8:50:57 食べて
. Unfortunately there's currently no option to disable this. Mine isMeta
.word_field
is where the deconjugated word will be put in the card. Mine isWord
.
Japanese Support
- In Anki, go to
Tools > Add-ons
. SelectJapanese Support
. ClickConfig
. Edit the settings:
dstFields
is where the reading should be generated to. Mine isReading
.furiganaSuffix
you don't need to edit this. leave it as default.noteTypes
is your note type you want to generate readings. For some reasonMining
does not work butmining
work.srcFields
is where your word field is. Mine isWord
.
anki-forvo-dl
- In Anki, Click
Add
- Select
Mining
fortype
. Choose any deck you want because it won't matter. We won't add a new card and we are only using anki-forvo-dl setup feature. - Click forvo logo on top right or press
ctrl + f
- Select
Word
forSelect the field whose text should be used to search on Forvo
. ClickContinue
- Select
Audio
forSelect the field where the audio should be put in
. ClickContinue
- Select
Japanese
forLanguage Select
. ClickContinue
- Close the window. Doesn't matter if you get
No results found :(
orPlease select the audio you want to add
. - Discard new card.
Japanese Definition Scraper from weblio Dictionary
- In Anki, go to
Tools > Add-ons
. SelectJapanese Definition Scraper from weblio Dictionary
. ClickConfig
. Edit the settings:
definitionField
is where you want to generate your definition to. Mine isGlossary
.expressionField
is where your word field is. Mine isWord
- I leave everything else at default.
Other tools I used
- calibre for converting book from different format such as
awz3
tohtmlz
orepub
for ッツ Ebook Reader. . - condenser to condense audio for passive listening and foobar2000 for listening to condensed audio