📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 🍁🍂

:books: :maple_leaf: softlyraining’s spooky book stack :jack_o_lantern: :open_book:

October 11th:
:red_square: 魔女の宅急便 (still not even a percent → .5%, which isn’t nothing)

Naturally, I once again read right before bed. :upside_down_face: If I were to only look at positives, I’d say that hey, I finished Chapter 1. And I mean, I certainly remember when I struggled with it last time. Now, do I just happen to remember the contents of this chapter and can therefore surmise what some of these words mean, or do I actually remember the vocabulary? It’s probably both.

On a different note, the idea mentioned at the end of the chapter that your black cat finds its own mate once you marry: frankly, this sounds like a deal breaker to me. How could I part ways with my furry little companion that I’ve been with since the day I was born? Dating would be nonexistent. “We have chemistry, but what about this little guy who I get to pet and snuggle, and also FREAKING TALK TO?!” Now, if my familiar was the one who proposed the idea because they found someone, well, I would want what’s best for them, even if the end result broke my fragile heart. :pleading_face: Other than that, no contest. :black_cat:

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:house:
Oct 12

かがみの孤城 53% (page 192)

Streak broken yesterday… oh well. Today I only read two pages. I’m including the page number in my post because I keep losing track, lol (sometimes Bookwalker doesn’t save where I’m up to and sets me back a few pages).

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:tiger2: :books: The Tanuki Autumn Onsen :hotsprings: :raccoon:

20221012 - 吾輩は狸である progress: 49.55% :ocean:

Wagahai-cat eventually gets bored of the constant chatter and leaves for the garden to hunt for mantis. Chapter six complete! It didn’t really feel like much happened in that chapter, and poor Wagahai-cat got barely a mention.

Chapter seven begins with this extremely bold statement from Mr. Wagahai: 吾輩は近頃運動を始めた
(he then spends the rest of the opening paragraph exercising his brain philosophising rather than actually exercising. He’s just over one year old and already has vast, masterful intellect, Master’s three year old still wets the bed, silly humans.)

:fallen_leaf: Japanese found under the leaves :fallen_leaf:

Meowords

大和魂「やまとだましい」ー The Japanese spirit; the Japanese cultural values
懇意「こんい」ー Kindness; intimacy
誤謬「ごびゅう」ー Mistake; error
転地療養「てんちりょうよう」ー Seeking to improve your health by a change of climate
野呂間「のろま」ー Dimwit; blockhead; slowpoke (also: 鈍間)
(Wagahai-cat uses this word to describe humans in general)

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Continued reading “Shika no Ou”. Added words, which I didn’t know, into Anki. They were so many. So yeah reading and looking up words was like 20 min. Putting words into Anki was like 30 min. I hope with time it will get faster since maybe I encounter the same words.
Really want to read everyday to get fluent in reading.

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You’re steadily catching me up – I haven’t quite finished chapter 7 yet…

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:fallen_leaf: Day 12, 12th of October :maple_leaf:

:open_book: Back to my Home Post

Tried to read another DrDru story, but once again was foiled but the background. My poor eyes… The headache that ensued didn’t even let me finish half of the story, so I moved on.

Instead I’m also going to count reading the subtitles of the Minecraft videos I watched today (with additional English captions on Captionfy).

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On October the 12th I’ve read:

Discovered another cool reading resource:

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I find this sort of data interesting, so thanks for sharing! It’s useful to have other media frameworks to compare to. Volume one of Orange is about 13,800 characters, so よつばと! has quite a bit less, which is interesting.

I’m currently in the middle of doing my longest wrestling show translation yet, which is about 9950 characters :scream:. So, more than a volume of Yotsuba, but less than a volume of Orange, haha!

The show was on October 9 (and I get the transcript the next day), and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s next show will be on the 14th. Typically I aim for getting my translations done before the next show, but there’s just no way that’s possible this week, so I’m hoping to maybe get 2/3rds of the way there at least :sweat_smile:. I’ve been diligently chipping away at it every day, trying to get at least 1,000 characters done, but it has been a bit of a challenge fitting that around my work schedule and other obligations.

I’m not quite sure what to expect from the October 14 show, in terms of how many backstage interviews there will be afterward, and all that, but I’m anticipating a fair amount of work for me, because there are three exhibition matches for three new wrestlers in training, and I suspect they’ll all be getting their first chance to do backstage comments :smiling_face_with_tear:.

I think the show the week after that is a VOD-only show, though, so I should have a little more than a week to catch up after the 14th (VODs take three days to go up, and even though I have access to show transcripts earlier than that, I don’t like to translate anything until I’ve actually watched the show haha because it spoils all the match outcomes).

Traditionally TJPW sort of winds down in the last few months of the year, so I’m hoping that once I get Wrestle Princess finished and get caught up on the normal shows, the workload will be a little easier (until イッテンヨン, January 4, at least :sweat_smile:).

I’ve been trying to talk my brother into learning Japanese, haha, and he spends a lot of time playing Runescape, so I’ll have to try telling him that Japanese is a great way to keep yourself occupied while grinding…

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October 12th!

Today I read chapter 40 of Mitsuboshi Colors. It was a really fun chapter :grin:

I need to have a bit of a think about how to squeeze in some reading this weekend, usually I read the stuff from the bookclubs that takes the longest me the longest on Saturday and Sunday but I’m travelling for a family wedding so I’m not going to have a lot of time so I’ll need to mix things up a bit this week!

(Home Post)

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Home post :bookmark: Oct 12 :maple_leaf:

・本好きの下剋上 11 (42% → 43%)

Did not prioritize reading at all today. I feel like this day both flew by and felt like forever at the same time. It is currently one hour past sleep sleep time :zzz:

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Summary post

I’ve only finished one Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling show translation so far during this challenge. It was for their September 24 show, which was a little more work for me because it started with a contract signing, which meant more for me to translate (in pro wrestling, contract signings are opportunities for the wrestlers to talk about each other and sort of set the emotional stakes for the match to come).

Due to its length, I split my posts about it in the pro wrestling thread into two: here’s my post about the contract signing, and here’s my post about what was said in-ring at the end of the show, plus all of the backstage comments.

Here’s a photo from the show. This is Maki Itoh using her submission finisher, the 伊藤パニッシュ (Itoh Punish), on Arisu Endo. This move is a variation on a Boston Crab, which is referred to as a 逆エビ固め in Japanese.

A while back ago, we spent some time in the pro wrestling thread trying to figure out what a エビ(がた)め even is, haha :sweat_smile:. “Shrimp hardening” isn’t the most intuitive name for a wrestling move (then again, a “Boston Crab” probably isn’t, either), but 固め is the word used for wrestling holds in Japanese, and an エビ固め is a specific way of holding the opponent. In a Boston Crab/逆エビ固め, the opponent’s back is facing up instead of down, hence 逆.

After I finished the above show translation, I promoted my twitter account slightly more widely, because I wanted as many non-Japanese speaking fans as possible to be able to read the contract signing before Wrestle Princess on October 9, and my account was way more popular than I imagined it would be, and I gained 40 followers practically overnight :sweat_smile:. So when I finish this next translation, it could have potentially over 140 people reading it, which is scary!

Hilariously, despite being so busy now and saying that I was unlikely to have time to read anything else, I did actually get another chapter of 大海原と大海原 read, after several months of not touching the manga. I finished chapter 5 in I believe four days, reading at a pretty leisurely pace! I had several days to fill because there was a full two weeks between the September 24 show and the October 9 show without any shows.

I’m going to try to complete that manga within this calendar year, I think. Most of my reading will likely be in December. Every time I read more of it, it has been so long since the last time I touched it, my Japanese reading skill is noticeably better haha and I have way less grammar and vocab lookups to do.

My Spanish reading has also been coming along, albeit at a very slow pace. I’m lucky to get two pages of Antes de Ser Libre read on any given day. But, I have managed to read at least something every day, so I’m counting that as a win :blush:.

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And when starting from ABC is quite advanced. It’s better to stutter a little – ABBC.

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Oct 12, Wed of Week 3 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

  • Spice and Wolf 13% => 15% (half an hour, I think. 2/3 of the first chapter.)

Switching app between Bookwalker and a dictionary app isn’t so convenient, but another way is making use of highlighting, and looking up later when I use PC.

I also have been using highlighting to mark last page and switch between smartphone and tablet, but now I read mostly on smartphone anyway.

I read on a smartphone when I feel relaxed. The key is actually feeling relaxed, but then… to a point of feeling a little sleepy.

The atmosphere is different from when I read manga or watch anime with sub.

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Home post

Day 11:

Priority: :rocket: ミニスカ宇宙海賊 1.
Free choice: :mag: 硝子の塔の殺人. Behold, here’s poison.
Read-aloud: :shinto_shrine: ノラガミ 2. Meeting the god of studying and also reuniting with the former vessel.

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:house_with_garden: Home post

10月12日

  • ルーパーズ

Finished chapter 12, about 3000 characters today.

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12 October 2022

:house: Home Post


  • Chainsaw Man (Chapter 27-28)

Good lord.

CHAINSAWMAN SPOILERS!!!

I forget how terrifying Makima is, even this early. Can you imagine having your plan going off without a hitch, disposing of devil hunters and then your assistant just goes from 5’5" to 0’0" in an instant?
And then it just keeps happening?

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Playing Final Fantasy VII at home and Shin Megami Tensei 2 on the way home. Getting ready for Persona 5 Royale!

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:jack_o_lantern: October 12th :jack_o_lantern: (Home Post Link)

Just one chapter today, I think I’ve picked up a cold from somewhere. Read chapter 41 of よつばと!

Definitely! I’ve found it’s a good way to keep my hands occupied while doing podcasts (both japanese and english) as well, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t fishing on the side during most of my college lectures on zoom. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Isaac Meyer’s History of Japan Podcast recently, and that has been great for some cultural/historical context. But it’s definitely a game where you can learn on the side while playing, whatever you want that learning to be.

At some point, I’ll actually go through and count a full volume and do a real character count/average, but I started to do it today for volume 1 and was just too exhausted.

Good Words

離れる「はなれる」ー to be separated
添付「てんぷ」ー attaching (documents)

「よつばちゃんも話せばこっちに聞こえるよー」
also finally starting to get the hang of ば form verbs as conditionals

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October 12 :maple_leaf: Home Post

I keep saying I’m through the worst of the semester but I’ve still got a teensy bit of extra busyness hanging on, so just counting my reading for class today! I’m almost in the clear for real this time though :joy:

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oh hey! If you’ve finished Chapter 1, you’re 5% into the book already :smiley: :partying_face: (In my bookwalker version, ch. 2 starts on page 11 out of 213 pages, so 11/213*100% = 5%)

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