This guide is born from my own journey and the experience of many others learning Japanese through immersion. The contents are the organization of years of community advice, evolving methodology and countless conversations with learners of all kinds. Therefore, what follows is not derived from empirical study but from trial and error, and lived experience of what seems to work and what does not.

My foremost thanks go to 天・Ten (Heaven) for providing me with the opportunity to write this guide and for hosting it on their website dedicated to Japanese immersion learning. Without them nothing of this would have been possible. I would likely have never returned back to the Japanese immersion community and met so many incredible people within it.

Special thanks also to David, who approached me for guidance. By helping him with immersion, I found myself articulating the very ideas that form this guide. In a way, David helped me write this guide unconsciously.

More generally, I would like to thank every single person who has given others great advice on immersion over the years. They are the true inspiration for this guide. I would like to specifically thank for their input:

Our community is full of hard working and talented people who have dedicated a large portion of their time for free to make language learning easier and more accessible. Alone for that I'm grateful to have met them.

One of them is Kuri, whose Japanese immersion guide heavily inspired this homepage's design, as well as much of the visual direction and advice found throughout this guide.