Day 32:
Priority: 
Free choice: 
硝子の塔の殺人.
Read-aloud: 
ミステリと言う勿れ 1.
Mandarin?!: 
伯爵与妖精 1.
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November 2 
Home Post
More ブルーロック today! I would’ve liked to read more than I did but I’m still most of the way through volume 9 and there’s big plot stuff going on, I’m very curious to see how that resolves as well as what happens around it 
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I went ahead and read the last two chapters (about 27 pages of text) of 夜カフェ② to finish the volume, though since that’s only one chapter ahead and I dunno when we’re starting vol 3, I dunno how much time that buys me lol
nguuuuuuu I think when I get the next vol of 君には届かない。I’m just gonna go ahead and get through the most recent too (that’s currently vol 6, I believe). Vol 1 ended in a place where it’s like “noooo why would you end it there???” and vol 2 does too. And then there are a few 番外編, and then that “if” story??? “What if Yamato got into an accident and lost his memories”??? And then it ends with him telling Kakeru that he doesn’t mind if he never remembers anything else, but the one thing he doesn’t want to forget is him because he likes him??? Like, the last page is just one big panel with Yamato telling Kakeru, “好きだよ,” when in the main story he doesn’t have the courage to confess. Why would you do this to me. I am not okay.
I read SPY×FAMILY mission 13-14. I’m now caught up with the club! The next chapter is the dodgeball chapter, which I’m excited about.
I also started 僕らの食卓, reading ch 0-2. I like the naming theme in this manga. We’ve got 穂積 豊 (ほづみ ゆたか), which kinda conjures up imagery of like a big field of corn or something, and the 上田 brothers 穣 (みのる) and 種 (たね). Plus, 豊穣 means “abundant (grain) crop; good harvest.” Also, look how cute they are:
The art, naming scheme, and story all have this like soft, warm feeling to them, I love it. Like freshly cooked rice. Ahh, I want rice now…
Some vocab of note:
のびる [自一] to become soggy (e.g. of noodles). This is 伸びる/延びる, though idk which this sense usually uses, or if it’s usually written in kana, but it was in kana in the manga.
ケンタ [colloquialism, noun] Kentucky Fried Chicken; KFC
レトルト [noun] sealed plastic pouch typically containing ready-made sauce or stew; boil-in-bag
呼び捨て (よびすて) [noun] addressing without an honorific
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It seemed more negative than I’d expect in the manga too, especially since it was in a conversation between the couple. The boy suggests they escape this town, and the girl is incredulous: “You mean 駆け落ち?” His reaction seemed a little harsh to me, but I thought it was because he was spooked by the town and wasn’t thinking about romance at that moment.
I suppose it could be a cultural thing? It seems to me that in Japan, going against societal norms is much more frowned upon than elsewhere in the world.
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02 November 2022
- NHK Easy Articles
Late day, without much reading. I learned about the existence of お茶漬け, which is a snack where you have tea poured over rice served with various other things.
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I got curious and checked Daijirin and it says that it means (among others) that a couple runs away to marry because they couldn’t get their parents’ permission. So I could imagine that this last bit might have been the shocking part for your Japanese friends?
45 pages… wow… 
checks the dropdown
Oh! A manga 
While we are talking… I will finish 人間椅子 as well as Kafka this week, and my Flesh&Blood mateys are taking their time atm, so I was thinking about reading Autumn Prison as a non-spooky spooky book in-between (it’s only 180 pages, which sounds like 2 weeks-ish even with other stuff going on). From the Bookwalker hype it seems to be a good idea to start it on Nov 7th, I guess? (didn’t read the abstract though…) What do you think, would you be interested? (Or anybody else, for that matter, of course!) 
We could even reuse the old discussion thread if we like…
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Haha, no, 45 novel pages as an afternoon extra would be a tiny bit extreme for my current level of fluency.
A goal to look forward to.
Another book club? On top of the IBC, ABC, Mystery Club, 糞尿譚 Club (who am I kidding) and the no-idea-how-many books I’m reading independently? 
Of course I’m in! 
I kept looking at it and wasn’t sure if I should get it, but it’s so cheap right now, and the premise does look interesting, so, sure! I’ll regret it later, but I’m in!
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… Ahem.
I knew I could count on you!
So Nov 7th it is, then?
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Nov 7th! 
I tried looking at that old thread and it’s a bit chaotic. Do you think it might be better to make a reread thread instead of using that one?
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Hmmm, do you think that we actually discuss so much that a new thread is warranted? Also, I wasn’t really planning on having a proper schedule either 
and rather saying “let’s read maybe 10-15 pages a day (or whatever each of us thinks is good) and see where we end up going”?
Admittedly I just thought of making a new post in the thread and announcing the reread, and then continue in the same chaotic fashion
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Nov 3
人間椅子 20% → 24%
Not much to say, more snail progress 
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Sure, sounds good. I wasn’t thinking about having a proper schedule either (other than a suggested starting date). I just thought a new thread might attract more people. But we can just announce there and here, and whoever wants to is welcome to join in.
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Hmm, that’s not how I think of it (Southern UK English). To me I guess the main meaning still includes the “running away” part, which in turn means that it isn’t a word I’d expect to hear in everyday conversation much. If friends of mine had had a quiet private marriage I wouldn’t think of that as eloping, and if friends really had had to break with their families and move away in order to marry I would probably describe it in a different way.
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I think my read of that is not so much about a negative connotation to 駆け落ち so much as that he doesn’t feel like she’s taking it seriously. The reaction would probably be similar in a scenario where they were planning it and he’d said “we should go into town together to buy stuff we need” and she’d kind of jokingly said “is that a date?”.
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I don’t think she said it jokingly though. But yes, I’m sure part of his reaction was that he had been talking about a very bad feeling the town was giving him and suggested they escape, and she talked about eloping, which showed she didn’t understand what he was talking about at all. Eloping was the furthest thing from his mind, whether it’s unacceptable socially or not.
Back to the meaning of eloping (in English), in my mind it mostly means going against your family’s wishes/behind their backs in order to marry. I’ve come across instances where it means “not having a grand wedding ceremony”, and that’s the super light version, but it’s still usually against the family’s wishes or expectations, even if in a mostly harmless way.
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Eloping
The most times I see elope nowadays is when people are talking about having a very small/quiet wedding. I guess often they also go away, like on a short vacation or such. (Easier to explain to the family why they weren’t invited that way would be my guess. ^^ )
I’ve never felt the word in itself denoted something negative. So it is more about the individual using it. Maybe it doesn’t have the positive energy of getting married with a wedding and such. But in recent years, I definitely feel like it seems to be more about a couple deciding to do it for whatever reasons, and not due to the historic reason of needing a quick wedding to avoid having children out of wedlock (and also hiding the fact that they had sex before marriage, the horror!).
Who knows, maybe I’m influenced by the fact that I fairly often read romance novels. Where the couple’s family might hate the eloping, but the couple did it for their own happiness. xD
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Glad you caught up! You’re ahead of me. I have no idea what the dodgeball chapter is, roll on the weekend (I say, being behind with mission 14).
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Ahh, good old times. The first non Manga thing I read ever…
Really liked the first story then, but fell off the book club reading schedule after it. So maybe it would be time to revisit it?
I mean, it was the first book club ever on WaniKani, I’m not surprised it is a bit chaotic ^^.
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Minimal reading today, but better than nothing.
3/11 1 page Spy Family, 1 page 夜カフェ
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I’d be happy to have you! 
I’ve added a Re-Reading post which marks the start of the new discussions:
So everybody, please come and join in to the fun from Monday!
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