I really like this method! I’m trying to refrain from reading Aria until the start date… 
It’s sitting by my desk and looks so pretty though… But instead thinking I’ll catch up with the よつばと！group while I wait 
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My book came this weekend - It’s “used” but it’s more pristine than 95% of all the other books I’ve ordered from Amazon, so whatevs. I’m excited to start!
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I wish we were starting this weekend! 
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I’ve found that it’s really hard to read some of the extra tiny furigana on the first page. Any tricks for coping with this?
Magnifying glass? 
Which furigana, though? I’m not seeing any furigana on the first page that’s particularly different to the furigana anywhere else in the book.
When I first tried reading CCS (way before I was ready for it), I found the furigana almost impossible to read. After a volume of Shirokuma and Yotsuba, neither of which felt nearly as overwhelming, I went back and had no problem making them out. (Kero’s dialogue on the other hand…)
It might be the same for you, more shock-effect and lack of practice recognising kana by rough shape. If so, it will pass; it’ll just be a bit of a mental drain at first.
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Oh, aye. When I started playing 二ノ国 on the DS, the furigana was so small and pixellated I couldn’t even work out what each symbol was even meant to be. Like, さ just looked like ±… which may only be a slight exaggeration. After a while, I got the hang of it, though.
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I have two suggestions. First, make sure you’re in a well lit environment. That will make a difference. Second, I have found in general (not with Aria in particular) that sometimes I need to zoom in. If you don’t want to use an actual magnifying glass, a phone camera works well too.
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Also, if it’s a compound word and you can make out at least some of the furigana and can use that to find at least one kanji using jisho.org, then there’s an option to find words that use that kanji so you can find the rest. Not really helpful for general reading flow, but I’ve done that once or twice now for some words that were just really stumping me.
Plus there’s always a chance that someone has already added the word to the vocab sheet. 
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This is where I noticed that it was difficult to read. It’s mostly where a single kanji has 3 characters. Of course, it doesn’t help that the text is near the binding. I’m sure I’ll become accustomed to it the more I read. I should read a bit more よつばと！ this week. It probably would help.
I can’t even imagine how pixelated furigana on a DS must look.
Thanks for the tips and commiseration! Better lighting will likely help.
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That’d be 東京, the name of Japan’s capital city, which (to be fair) you don’t learn until level 6.
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If it’s the kanji you underlined, then it’s kyou as in Tokyo.
The sentence is ほんじつはたいようけいこうちゅうしゃとうきょう up to that point, which means something like “Today, Sun system navigation space company Tokyo…”
I cheated and read the first chapter early. If I’d consulted the existing vocab guide I probably would’ve saved myself from looking up a lot of words but it was good practice I guess.
I agree; it’s too small/crowded.
Oh, Hachiken. Surely by your level you’ve learnt how the main clause in Japanese gravitates towards the end of a sentence. You can’t stop translating it in the middle and expect it to make sense.
Also, 太陽 also means Sol. 太陽系 = the Solar System. 
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hangs head in shame
本日は太陽系航宙社東京ネオ・ヴェネツィア便をご利用いただきまことにありがとうございます。
ahem
“Thank you very much for using Solar System Navigator Space company Tokyo-Neo Venezia flight today.”
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Very good. Gold star. 
Though, I’d personally go with “Solar System Spaceways” or something, on the pattern of 日本航空株式会社 (i.e. Japan Airlines, JAL).
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I’ve had a stab at the vocab sheet with the mindset of adding words that I’m not sure others would know. For some of those earlier pages, though, that pretty much amounts to every single word…
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Yeah I kind of figure many beginners will be looking up every other word in the first few pages. About half the words I had to look up were from the first 5 pages or so. I’m only adding words I have to look up though, because I want the reading experience to be at least somewhat smooth.
Ooooh, it’s an announcement! I’m guessing いただきありがとうございます is some sort of set phrase? And the ＝ is indication that it’s a flight between the two locations? That first sentence gave me the most trouble so far, but I was trying to wait until the official start date before bothering people. 
In the spreadsheet someone seemed confused about the kanji used for 造る, but according to jisho it’s an alternate used for 作る that’s often used for large-scale building.
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