I thought it might be fun to start a thread where people can share their favorite videos on the site and what they liked about them. Maybe teachers can see what sorts of videos resonate with users and why.
私わ：
I like the walk in the park video with the stairs. The weather looks so nice and I can kinda imagine being there. I also noticed a leap in my comprehension from when I first watched the video to when I watched it later. So I have fond associations with that particular video.
As for me, I find the Shashingo series of videos to be some of the most favorite and enjoyable videos on CIJ. One of the reasons is that Yuki-sensei uses the game Shashingo to introduce and use a lot of Japanese vocabulary to describe every detail in the game no matter how big or small. Also, watching the videos feels like I am walking in Tokyo area like Akihabara because it looked and felt a lot like that area. Also, it is a relaxing series of videos that I sometimes put in a playlist and play in the background. I found that even though I consider myself at the Intermediate level, I found that the Shashingo series was still extremely useful for me even though they are Beginner level videos. They introduced new words along with solidifying my already known words. I personally recommend that everyone watch that entire series because it is good if you want to break into the Beginner videos for the first time or to solidify your current vocabulary knowledge.
In addition to the Shashingo series, my other favorite videos involve topics about Japanese culture, Japanese history and language learning. Currently, I really enjoyed watching “Enka - Traditional Japanese Ballads”, “Kyabakura - Japanese Hostess Clubs Explained”, “The History of Railways in Japan” series, “Japanese Inventors” series, “My Language Learning Routine for Korean” and “Language Learning“.
I also really enjoyed the videos where Yuki-sensei is having conversations with the other CIJ teachers. Those videos have also helped me learn more on how normal Japanese conversations are done. Also, I find seeing human interactions between either myself and others or watching other people have conversations with themselves helps me learn and remember words and phrases because there is some feeling of connection or emotion between the Japanese language and my personal life and experiences. Also, Yuki-sensei and the other teachers seemed to really enjoy their conversations and that makes me want to watch them many times because they seem to be very interested in the topics that they discuss.
In all honesty, I enjoyed all of the videos that I have watched on CIJ. So many that I could not name all of them in this post. But I will say that many of my favorite videos were made by Yuki-sensei from January 2021 up to the middle of 2023. The main reason is that those videos were the first ones that I watched when I first became a CIJ paying member. Because of those earlier videos, my Japanese listening abilities improved a lot within 3-6 months, and restored my confidence that I could understand spoken Japanese. I have a lot of なつかしい feelings towards those videos.