Advent Calendar, Day 1
Winter Song
Kanji vocab + writing
Calendar Translation
I’m doing a separate non-Japanese advent calendar for myself this month as well; it is composed of tea, chocolate, Pokemon cards, and video games. 
I’ll post about the details of that under a cut.
Winter Song
I really enjoyed the song for today! (orion, by 米津玄師) The lyrics site tells me it was the ending theme to the second season of 3月のライオン. I’ve only listened to it in the background for now, but I plan on interweaving it throughout the day as I listen to stuff as I work. Hoping to low-key work on my listening comprehension as well, haha; I definitely heard 神様 in there somewhere. ^_^;
Kanji
I too am doing 乙 as my kanji for the day; one stroke kanji is slim pickings, and this one looks interesting! No pictures of my writing practice yet; I need to go find paper first. 
My writing practice:
First line is pencil, second is pen. I tried to write the kanji in a variety of sizes, too, hence the slight weirdness.
Words I picked out!
- 甲乙つけがたい (こうおつ) - difficult to say which of the two is better
- 乙女座 (おとめざ) - Virgo (the constellation)
- 乙 (おつ) - second (party to an agreement); (な) stylish, chic; (な) weird, strange
I’ve always had a soft spot for names of constellations; don’t know why. 
Calendar Translation
Alrighty, here’s the original, followed by my translation. I wasn’t worried by trying to match space constraints of the calendar or anything. If you see anywhere where the translation could be improved, I’d really appreciate any feedback! I’m still learning, so this may all be a bit iffy.
0 Cover - 友人曰く『不治の病の少年の大河ドラマみたい』微妙に合ってはいるが…という事はじゃあブラッドはそれを支える元不良少年？入院費の為に夜はホストで荒稼ぎ！？昼は看病で病院に通い！？そして季節は移り変わり窓の向こうの最後の一葉が…！！(何のドラマだ）でもそんな感じ…。
According to a friend, this work gives off similar feelings to “a Taiga drama with an incurably sick boy”. So working off of that, Blood is a former bad boy supporting the boy? And he rakes in money working as a host at night to pay for hospital bills?! While doing a daily commute to the hospital to nurse the boy?! And finally, through a window looking out over the changing season, the final leaf…!! (What kind of drama is this?) …Or something like that.
I’m not totally sold on that “through a window looking out over the changing season” line, so if anyone has a better idea of how to write that, I’m all ears! Maybe @Hiroya could weigh in if you feel confident with your English?
Personal Advent Calendar
As for my personal advent calendar, each day will have one of each:
- A tea bag (random between a fruit tea, peppermint tea, and green tea)
- A chocolate (flavor is random between normal, white, dark, or caramel)
- A game written down to enjoy as I munch on my snack (comfy replays only). I’m not intending on doing a full playthrough or anything; this is purely just to sit in nostalgia.
Here’s a pic of my homemade advent box; the box itself is one used for storing thread. I only had enough room for twelve days, so I’ll have to refill it partway through. 
Every three days I’ll also open a pack of Pokemon cards (since I only bought 8 of them).
So today’s stats:
- Tea: Raspberry
- Chocolate: Dark chocolate
- Game: My choice for Pokemon gens 1-4. Will ultimately decide after work, but I’ve narrowed down my options to the GB Pokemon TCG game, Pokemon Yellow, Fire Red/Leaf Green, or Heart Gold/Soul Silver.
- Pokemon Card pack: Evolving Skies. This expansion is notorious for its awesome alt arts and terrible, terrible pull rates, so unless I get really lucky I’m not expecting much. I’ll post a picture or something of what I get when I open it!
Edit: pulls pic! Not bad, not bad. I like the Salamence.
I’m already enjoying all the mini activities! ^o^