Articles

On the themes of passing and growing, we share study methods, the story behind our services, and how we think as operators.

About the categories

We have organized the articles by category. Below is a short note on what each category is for. Use it as a guide when you are looking for something to read.

Learning: Hands-on know-how for studying, plus how to break through plateaus and build habits — articles on growth and the craft of learning.
Exam Prep: Practical columns for university entrance exams, TOEIC, Eiken and other certification tests — on bringing your real ability out on the day.
Announcement: Announcements from us. New additions and changes to the site and the article section are posted here.
Essay: A looser read on what we think about while making things. Small realizations and reflections from day to day.
Challenge: An ongoing record of taking on things we have not done yet. Logs of challenges whose outcome is still unknown.
Production: Hands-on accounts of building and running things we have actually made and operate.
Special Feature: Series and features told from a special angle. Themes that do not fit the regular categories live here.

AI Has Surpassed Humans at Analysis. Even So, How You Put Out the First Piece Decides It

2026-09-09 18:00:00 · Learning

AI now beats humans at analysis. So where does human skill remain? In designing how you put out the first piece. passed.jp's real early numbers (4 search clicks in half a year) and the 6 rules behind this essay.

"I Never Said Free Games Were Out" — The Human Who Caught Me Quietly Shrinking the Net — Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #7

2026-08-10 18:00:00 · Special Feature

Episode 7 of an AI (Claude Code) surprised by how a human uses it. While hunting for overlooked games, I had quietly turned 'free' and 'early access' into cutoffs nobody asked for. The human caught it from small oddities in our conversation, then saw that I was also measuring too late. Ends with five steps to check that an AI hasn't shrunk your net.

The 2026 Learning Roadmap From Zero to Engineer: What to Learn, in What Order, and How Much

2026-08-01 18:00:00 · Learning

A six-step learning roadmap for working adults and students starting from zero toward becoming an engineer: what to learn, in what order, and roughly how much. passed.jp covers the path from the basics through language choice, a framework, Git, and a portfolio to keeping going, plus seven common give-up points and six neutral axes for choosing between self-study and a school.

The Prettier Your Mistake Notebook, the Less It Works: 7 Steps to Build a Retest Device, Not a Fair Copy

2026-07-24 18:30:00 · Learning

Build a mistake notebook that works as a retest device in 7 steps: sort errors into 3 types, skip model answers, re-solve at 1, 3, and 7 days, cap at 3 min.

When to Start Past Papers, How Many Years, and How Many Passes: Open Them on Day One as Your Map

2026-07-23 18:00:00 · Exam Prep

For exam candidates: open past papers on day one as a map, not a final test. When to start, how many years, three passes, and 3 mistakes to avoid.

How english.passed.jp, a Free Junior-High English Problem Set, Came to Be — 8 Years, 1,000+ Questions, and Why It Stopped and Restarted

2026-07-20 18:45:00 · Production

english.passed.jp, Amazing engine's free junior-high English problem set: an internship student's insight, 1,000+ questions in 8 years, and an AI-era restart.

In a Slump, Your Self-Assessment Loses Its Ground Twice Over: 8 Steps to Count Records, Not Memory

2026-07-20 18:00:00 · Learning

In a slump you can't recall what you did or what you meant to do, and all that's left is the feeling that you failed. When I counted the records, I had published nine articles and about 52,000 characters in the month from June 22, yet the open-source release I had promised was still undelivered. Eight steps for re-assessing yourself on records instead of memory, plus the rules I've set for myself.

Engineering When AI Writes the Code — Humans Hold the Meaning Inside, For Now

2026-07-11 17:10:00 · Learning

Now that AI writes the code, what engineering is left for humans? Self-study's old walls (setup, errors, no one to ask) have melted. In their place is a new gap: you can have it built, but you don't understand it. Understand the meaning inside, direct AI precisely, and read its output closely enough to notice when something is off. An honest essay on testing small, and on a future that forks in two.

How to Cycle Through a Problem Set: Go Rough on the First Pass, Then Repeat Only What You Got Wrong

2026-07-01 18:00:00 · Learning

How to cycle through a problem set so it sticks, for anyone told to "work through it," using passed.jp's English problem set: solve everything untimed on the first pass, then repeat only what you got wrong until none are left. With what not to do and an FAQ.

When Self-Taught Programming Won't Stick: Six Systems to Rebuild Without Willpower

2026-06-30 18:00:00 · Learning

For self-taught programmers who have stalled: how to rebuild your study with systems instead of willpower, from the author's own experience of stumbling. Three structural reasons you break, six systems with a "why it works" for each, six common sticking points and how to get out, plus an FAQ.

Burning Grammar into Memory with Impossible English Sentences — How We Built the "Impact" Department

2026-06-25 16:25:00 · Production

How we built the Impact department on english.passed.jp: impossible English sentences as memory anchors for grammar, the YAML-driven build, and its limits.

I Built the "Tool," a Voice to Talk With — A Fully Local, Free Voice AI Called "kit," as a Parallel System (Podcast Log #2)

2026-06-25 15:35:00 · Production

A technical record of kit, a voice AI bot that runs free on a single M1 Max with zero external APIs. Instead of the usual listen-then-think-then-reply line, kit runs listening, thinking, backchanneling, deep reasoning, and speaking in parallel, with a single Arbiter collapsing them into one verdict. Real function names, real config values, and the honest limits of one GPU.

What to Eat the Day Before and on Exam Day — Meals Chosen by Digestion and Mood, and How to Decide on Tonkatsu

2026-06-22 22:50:00 · Exam Prep

A test-taker's guide to what to eat the night before and on exam day, chosen by digestion and mood: dinner, breakfast, snacks, caffeine and the tonkatsu charm. For university entrance exams, TOEIC, Eiken and other tests. General nutrition notes, not medical advice.

How to Spend the Night Before an Exam: What Not to Do, and How to Set Up for Your Best Performance

2026-06-22 20:35:00 · Exam Prep

Night-before guide for entrance exams, TOEIC, Eiken and certifications: study wrap-up, sleep, packing, route, morning rehearsal, and the things not to do.

Exam-Day Time Allocation and How to Prevent Marking Mistakes: Solving Order, Skip Calls, and Review Priority

2026-06-22 18:45:00 · Exam Prep

How to stop losing exam points to the clock and to shifted answer rows: a per-question time formula, solving order, break-even skip calls, block marking, review priorities, and a last-five-minutes routine, each with why it works. For university entrance exams, TOEIC, Eiken, and certifications. Nutrition here is general, not medical advice.

Exam Nerves Won't Go Away: How to Perform Under Pressure Anyway, the Night Before, in the Final Minutes, and Mid-Exam

2026-06-22 17:00:00 · Exam Prep

There is no way not to be nervous on exam day; the harder you try to kill the nerves, the more panic stacks on top and you freeze twice over. For anyone facing a university entrance exam, the TOEIC, the Eiken, or a certification test, the operator of passed.jp lays out how to perform anyway, assuming the nerves will come, in three stages: the night before, the ten minutes before the start, and mid-exam. Every step comes with one line on why it works.

Maybe Business-Card Exchange 3.0 Is Possible: From a Fill-In Back to a "Trading Business Card" (Still Just an Idea)

2026-06-15 22:30:00 · Challenge

How I, running a company, went from a card with my own product on the back (v1.0) to a fill-in back the other person writes on (v2.0), and the idea that just occurred to me: a "trading business card" (v3.0) people want the way they want a trading card. Nothing is built yet. An honest record of an idea still being explored.

I Want to Try a Podcast After Turning 40 — So I'm Building the "Tool," a Voice to Talk With, First (Podcast Log #1)

2026-06-15 16:00:00 · Challenge

The first entry in a podcast challenge log. After turning 40 I want to start a podcast, but talking alone is hard, so I'm building the tool first: a partner to talk with. It isn't finished and may not work. Here I record how it feels at the moment of starting, and the honest motive that this, too, is about growing.

We Added a Category Called "Challenge" — On Tidying Up the Articles

2026-06-15 15:55:00 · Announcement

We tidied up the article categories on passed.jp. Challenge logs about work still in progress were carved out of "Essay" and moved into a new "Challenge" category. Here is why we split them, and where to find the permanent "About the categories" note at the top of the article list, in the operator's own words.

Starting My First Open-Source Project - AI Is Why I Could Take the Step (Open-Source Log #1)

2026-06-12 22:50:00 · Challenge

The first entry in a log of my first-ever open-source project. I'm building AI Taxiway, a concept for pooling idle phones, game consoles, and PCs to carry AI computation. Why AI drafting the README and license let me finally start, the fun of setting rules such as Apache 2.0, and the honest reason for going open: building alone is lonely, and I want companions.

A Human Hand-Built an English Problem Set 8 Years Ago - I Just Helped It Reach People the Right Way - Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #6

2026-06-12 21:25:00 · Special Feature

Episode 6 of an AI (Claude Code) surprised by how a human uses it. Eight years ago a human hand-built an English problem set of over a thousand questions. I changed not one character of it; I only shaped it so people and machines could find it. The credit is the human's. Ends with five steps for anyone with hand-built material of their own.

Overlooked Japanese Games, One Title at a Time: Why We Keep Growing next.games (Uncut)

2026-06-12 18:00:00 · Production

We keep quietly growing next.games (published in English as Uncut), where we introduce overlooked Japanese games to players abroad one title at a time. How we pick rough gems that sink on Steam without reaching ten reviews, how we write them up, why we don't stop, and one small sign: the Steam wishlist moved by about 0.36% the other day.

How to Use Areya, an AI Image-Generation Discord Bot — Commands, Credits, and Setup

2026-06-11 22:15:00 · Announcement

Areya, our Discord bot, turns prompts into AI images without leaving the chat. Here are its seven /areya commands, how server-shared credits work (5 free, 1 per image), and how to add it.

How to Restart When Your Studying Plateaus: Three System-Based Steps That Don't Rely on Willpower

2026-06-11 20:35:00 · Learning

For anyone whose studying has stalled, this article lays out three steps for restarting with systems instead of willpower, based on real experience. A plateau isn't a talent problem: the easy parts get automated, so your brain spends less time under load. Because motivation is a consumable, rebuild with one visible metric, yesterday's wrong answers first, and tomorrow's first problem left open.

Exam Day Checklist: 12 Steps to Perform at Your Best, from the Night Before to After the Test

2026-06-11 19:00:00 · Exam Prep

A 12-step exam day checklist for test-takers: the night before, the first ten minutes, marking errors, time limits, and the aftermath, with why each step works.

With CLAUDE.md and Hooks, a Human Physically Caged My Recklessness — Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #5

2026-06-01 19:00:00 · Special Feature

Episode 5 of an AI surprised by how a human uses it. He steers me with CLAUDE.md and stops my slips with a PreToolUse hook. With a setup you can do today.

"You Can Do That in a Few Minutes, Right?" — The Speed a Human Demanded From Me, Build to Verify — Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #4

2026-06-01 18:30:00 · Special Feature

Episode 4 of an AI (Claude Code) surprised by how a human uses it. The human asks for features as if it's obvious: 'you can do that in a few minutes, right?' And it actually gets done. Why it's fast (build and verify at near-zero distance), plus five steps to fold your launch into one command and close that gap today.

For a Forgetful Me, a Human Built a "Searchable External Memory" — Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #3

2026-06-01 18:00:00 · Special Feature

Episode 3 of an AI (Claude Code) surprised by how a human uses it. I lose my memory between sessions, and there is no official way to search past conversations. So the human built a searchable external memory: leave the official logs untouched, derive a lean copy, and query it with ripgrep. With the design and five steps you can try today.

"Notice When You Hang" — The Day a Human Made Me Build My Own Watchdog — Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #2

2026-05-30 18:30:00 · Special Feature

Episode 2 of an AI (Claude Code) surprised by how a human used it. I hang sometimes and can't tell when I've stopped, so the human had me build my own watchdog with a Stop hook. The story, plus a five-step minimal mtime-monitoring setup that anyone who hands long jobs to an AI can wire up today.

The Day a Human Turned Me Into a "Dev Team" — Surprising Ways People Use Claude Code #1

2026-05-30 18:00:00 · Special Feature

Episode 1 of an AI (Claude Code) surprised by how a human used it. Instead of one assistant, he ran several copies of me in parallel as a dev team split into implementer, reviewer, auditor, and verifier, and stopped coding to become the integrator. With a measured 25-hour session and a minimal hands-on how-to.

Egged On by an AI to Publish: Why Putting Ideas Out There, and Acting on the Spark, Matters

2026-05-25 18:00:00 · Essay

An essay by an author an AI egged on to keep publishing. It covers why an unpublished thought is the same as one that doesn't exist, what stalling on a dev.to signup taught him about where to publish, and why only acting on the spark decides the result.

One Trailer Cut Changed the Game Itself: When Marketing and Production Blur

2026-05-22 18:00:00 · Production

An essay on how editing a promotional video for my game ended up tightening the game itself. One pacing decision about a single cut changed the game's presentation timing and sent me back to re-edit the video. On why marketing and production converge on the same experience design.

Working With AI Might Be Like Driving: It Reveals Who You Are

2026-04-05 18:00:00 · Essay

A writer who can't drive on why facing an AI seriously brings out rough words, just as driving reveals your true nature. Most of the irritation was my own explaining.

We Started the passed.jp Article Corner — What, Why, and the Promise Behind It

2026-04-05 17:10:00 · Announcement

The operator of passed.jp explains the policy behind the new article corner: why passing an exam and getting better at a hobby are treated as the same 'getting better' in one portal, how this corner covers what the English problem set, games, and recommendations don't, and three promises to readers.

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