A prenominal is just a word or phrase that goes in front of a noun and describes it, so it acts like an adjective. So this one is a verb phrase meaning literally “found anywhere.” The way it would be used is どこにでもある[noun], meaning “[noun] that is found anywhere]” or “commonplace [noun]” etc.
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I finished my second book in Mandarin yesterday and my tenth book in Japanese today!
My review of the Japanese book (かくりよの宿飯二) is on Natively. It was fantastic!
Cover
The Mandarin book (我想和你做好朋友) was fine, but it got boring since it was for kids and took me around two months to finish. 
Cover
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November 14
Played ルーパーズ for about half an hour and finished a chapter, then finished the 1st chapter of ユージニア. Since I bought the book I can finally see where I’m at so it seems I’m at 11% (although it doesn’t seem to agree with the physical edition counts so who knows). Also read a little わたしの幸せな結婚 (24% → 25%).
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November 15 
秋の牢獄, 34-45%
I started the second story of the book. A nice, spooky start, but progressively less spooky as it goes. I think I’m starting to see a pattern with 恒川. He begins with a fantastically spooky idea, then explores it enough that it becomes normal, even slice-of-life. His stories always (the ones I’ve read so far at least) develop in unexpected ways, however. They may not be especially scary, but they’re certainly imaginative and surprising.
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That’s pretty interesting, isn’t it? I think I like this author 
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November 15
Home Post
神さまがまちガえる 
耳をすませば・幸せな時間 
Trying to make up for the many missed days last week I guess. Finished the last 10 pages of kamisama, and read the 20 pages for 幸せな時間. Love this middle part of the story. Reminding me of my totally absorbed love of reading in my teens. Where I would take any moment outside class and friend time to read (except when I had computer time).
I always read books on the walk home, always looking up before crossing the road, but otherwise my nose in a book all the way home in good weather. Regularly visiting the school library to loan books. Reading late into the night because it was a time that became entirely my own. A needed solitary time.
I can sometimes recreate that feeling of safety by bundling up in bed in the dark reading at night. When it feels like everything is right with the world, even if just for those precious moments, and I get to go away into the story of a book, living adventures far far away. 
I really need to get back to reading before bed. It is the best.
Actually more reading all the time.
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It is a very interesting approach, I agree. I still would prefer a little more spookiness, but that’s just me.
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I played a little bit of Wild Arms Alter Code F in japanese. The japanese in the game is pretty easy to understand it’s just that the font is sometimes a little hard to read. I started the prologue with Cecilia that means I’m not that far in the game yet but I definitely want to finish it in japanese. It’s really fun.
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Finally finished Chainsaw Man 7 last night. Read almost all of volume 8 on the bus because its mostly pictures, but still wild and fun. Played Danganronpa V3 again last night because I died in Persona 5 and literally was failing at every game I booted up and just wanted to not die in a game for a little bit xD
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Home Post
11月15日火曜日
ぼっち怪物と盲目少女
pp.３-４ 新しい単語
| 単語 | 英語 |
|---|---|
| 変わり | change, difference |
| 映え | glory 1 |
| 気に入っていた | I liked it |
| このくらいにしておくか | I’ll leave it at that, This should be enough |
| キャアキャア | crow call |
| 誰か | somebody |
| 誰から | somebody plural, anybody |
| 干渉 | interference |
| されない | to not be done |
| 空間 | space |
| あっ… | ah!, hey! |
| ちょっ… | stop! |
| まっ…待て | w-wait! -te form |
| ストップ | stop! |
1 I think this may be part of a set phrase… but not sure. The direct translations don’t make sense to me. The full phrase is 変わり映えはせずとも the English edition has it as “This monotonous life…” but it’s one though split across three boxes like so:
Oh by the way, those last few words… she dropped an apple and it’s rolling away.
今日のノート
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November 15th!
Just a little bit of reading today - A chapter of Teasing Master Takagi-san. It was the first chapter in a 2 chapter arc so I’m looking forward to finishing it next week 
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Home
November 15
人間椅子 -
ジョジョの奇妙な冒険49
60 - 165
I was really having a blast reading yesterday.
JoJo Part 5 Spoilers
This volume is the gang’s introduction and they knock it out of the ballpark to show how undisciplined they are on the surface.
As for my reaction… I love this opening scene where we see all of them together. I can already tell I’ll really dislike reading Naranchia’s speech. It’s so much easier to listen to when they speak that rough kind of dialect. It was fun seeing how Fugo’s speech changes based on his mood too. I do appreciate that they made a change in the anime of Bruno being called away and that’s why he doesn’t notice what Abbacchio does rather than in the manga where he just doesn’t see and comes off as oblivious.
This was cute though
Also, send Abbacchio straight to jail lmao. Worst personality in the whole Part possibly (affectionate).
Then we have the gang renting the yacht and taking it to Capri. One of the reasons I love Part 5 is because of the Italian scenery. I’ve been to Capri and a fair amount of Italy, so it’s really lovely to see it rendered beautifully in anime form.
This scene is also great because we really get a good look at how the gang interact with each other. I feel like just based off this first bit that Mista comes across more deviously than in the anime, but that’s probably just me. I also liked that the anime made it possible to figure out what was going on while in the manga, we really couldn’t tell until the conclusion.
Also jfc Abbacchio
I’ll add pics from my phone later but jeez, he’s such a petty ass 
I’m a bit surprised because his moments capture my attention better than Giorno, although I would still say Giorno is my favorite of Part 5. He’s not Dio levels of captivating my attention, but it’s not so different. I may need to rearrange my favorites list- 1. Dio, 2. Giorno, 3. Abbacchio, 4. Kakyoin
Also the bit where Abbacchio questions Giorno’s loyalty/dedication and Giorno replies with “I have a dream… to unravel the mystery of this enemy stand!” and then flings himself into danger had me cackling. My poor neighbors.
Group bonding
Damn you discourse rotating my pics unnecessarily
I forgot to say but I think this is pretty funny, I only went to sleep last night because of the time. I really wanted to finish the volume but it was 12:30 already. I went to sleep and then this morning I woke up at 6. I think my brain and body were both excited to possibly finish in the morning. Since that’s only 5.5 hours though, I went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30. I should’ve stayed up and finished the volume though it’s not like I could have fit another sleep cycle in anyway and naturally waking up out of one is best. Just the idea of my brain and body coordinating to speed up my sleep in order for more JoJo time tickles me
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Been a bit of a rough month for me, though Japanese (and Spanish) have been going fine, actually? I’m also not having any trouble keeping up with National Novel Writing Month.
So far so good on the reading challenge! I actually just finished the book I was reading in Spanish, Antes de Ser Libres by Julia Alvarez, and I started reading a Spanish translation of a graphic novel called Redbone by Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni, which I picked up at the library. So far, it’s much easier than the novels I’ve been reading, haha.
As far as Japanese goes, I finished the November 6 Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling show just in time for the next show (which I’m currently in the process of translating)!
Here’s a photo from the show. Hyper Misao was about to go to the UK to wrestle in a couple shows, so she came to this match prepared for her trip! She was dressed as Harry Potter and had her luggage with her. But her teammates, Maki Itoh and Miyu Yamashita, were worried about how well she’d packed, so they opened her luggage and found it completely empty except for her passport, haha. Misao said that she would fill it using a magic spell.
Unfortunately for Misao, her opponents (Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki) took advantage of her empty luggage, too.
She did manage to get the win, though, and was able to travel to the UK with peace of mind! I didn’t watch either of the shows in England (they were with the company Pro Wrestling: EVE), but Misao was practicing doing her pre-match spiel on the microphone in English so that she could be ready to do it in English at EVE. She made a couple tweets in English, too.
(Boy am I going to miss twitter if it dies… I don’t know what pro wrestling would do without it! I did manage to convince my predecessor (who is an actual professional translator, haha, and is the best Japanese-English translator I’ve ever encountered) to archive his old translation tweets for TJPW and DDT from like 2018-2021 when the account was active, so I’m very, very relieved that at least a backup of those will exist if all else fails. Otherwise, years of history for those companies would be lost…)
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I think this may be part of a set phrase… but not sure. The direct translations don’t make sense to me. The full phrase is 変わり映えはせずとも the English edition has it as “This monotonous life…” but it’s one though split across three boxes like so:
変わり映え is a word that means ‘changing for the better’ or ‘improvement’. It’s usually used in a negative context to indicate that something is remaining the same. せず is the ず form of する which means ‘without doing’ so it’s basically expressing that time is passing with nothing changing.
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2022-11-16T01:30:00Z
This kanji just came up on my review queue today. I hope seeing it in the wild and noting it here will help me reinforce the reading. 
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So my cold continues to be very unpleasant and I ended up calling off work because sniffling/sneezing/croaky voicing my way through meetings (even virtual) felt like a lost cause. I tried to read a bit of the short story at the end of 死仮面 but failed because…well, partly cold, but also partly it’s pretty boring so far. I then tried to read 秋の牢獄 but stopped after a bit because my focus is not great and I didn’t want to miss out because of my distracted state.
So…I started a new book. That I care very little about. It’s called 教場, it’s about a police academy, the writing style is just ok, and I bought it off Honto so word lookup is a pain. But it has an audiobook. So far I’m about 1/4 of the way through with it due to listening at 1.15x speed and I’m considering going higher. I have so little care for this story but it’s just interesting enough (and stimulating enough, with audiobook+text) to keep me distracted from my cold.
Gotta do what you gotta do
ポケットに手を入れる癖がある人の心理や性格とは might be worth a read
Interestingly I used to get scolded as a child for having my hands in my pockets during the winter, but the reason was “if you trip on the icy ground you will not be able to get your arms out to break your fall in time”.
Ah hope it’s not the one I have! It’s miserable. Hope you feel better soon!
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Day 6 Progress - お隣の天使様 二冊 - 40.36% - 47.27%
I got stuck for about five minutes at the very end of my session on a line that was most likely a spelling mistake…
…それはおくびにも出さすにもう一度頭を撫でると…
It should be 出さず not 出さす (I believe) but unfortunately I’m not nearly at the level yet where I can readily blame a printing error instead of my own lack of understanding 
Word of the Day: 範疇 - category. This one is just funny to me. Such an elaborate kanji for such a pedestrian word.
LOL, I did a quick skim of the page and the amount of psychoanalysis there is impressive. I especially like the part where the article asserts ‘people who put their hands in their pockets aren’t actually listening… if they were, their hands would be by their knees and clenched’…like jeez, I wish every single conversation I was in was that interesting for me to be looking that intense…
Funnily enough I actually did fall and break my ankle on some ice this February and my hands were probably in my pockets then so maybe I should heed that advice myself…
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November 15 Home Post
I’m sleepy so not a big update, but I finished up volume 13 of ブルーロック and it continues to be wild. I’m very curious to see how things go from here 
there’s still some major unanswered stuff so we shall see!
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November 15th (Home Post Link)
Read:
- Tae Kim 274 → 282 – mm didn’t recognize any of these ones, I think we’re actually getting into stuff in formal writing which I don’t have a lot of experience with (yet)
- からかい上手の高木さん chapter 28, 29 – Sometimes in these lil cute slice of life romance stories, characters can be a little obtuse in their methods and it’s not entirely clear whether they are: a) aware that they like a person (長瀞 cough cough), or b) actually attempting to really directly tell the person they like them. (かぐや and 御行) This is not one of those cases. 高木 is about as direct in her feelings and intentions as possible. 西片 is just unbelievably dense; forget not being able to read the air or mood, this guy might not know if it was raining even if he was standing in a typhoon. But still, picking a game that was impossible for her to lose when kisses were on the line was a nice touch.
Good Words
ほめる ー to compliment, to praise
せこい ー crafty, sly
公平「こうへい」ー fairness, justice
いきなり ー all of a sudden
全敗「ぜんぱい」ー complete defeat
期限「きげん」ー time limit
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I was out of town for several days and didn’t want to make posts on my phone. But not having my computer also meant I read a lot! I don’t remember what day was what so a big jumble it is.
Days 41-45:
Priority: 
青桐, every day. 
Free choice: 
硝子の塔の殺人 the first day, and I finished it. 
(no real spoilers–>) It was bonkers and maybe 100 pages too long and really fun! The other days I guess I’ll say… 
ミニスカ宇宙海賊 1, since I read at least 10 minutes of that each day.
Extra:
-
遊☆戯☆王 1 and finished it
- a fair amount of
のだめカンタービレ 6 - a bit of
死神の浮力 - lots of
魔王城でおやすみ 11 - all of
鋼の錬金術師 6
- all of
仁 1
- a fair amount of
模倣犯 上, which I hadn’t started but which is one of the ones on my priority list for 2022 (but I still shouldn’t have started it because I am reading too many things, including at least two other mysteries… and also it’s so so long) - poked at
とらドラ 6 (also on my priority list but I probably won’t continue it now with so much else in progress)
Snatches of: 
ハリー・ポッターと不死鳥の騎士団 (day 41).
Read-aloud: 
伯爵と妖精 1 (day 41).
Reassessing manga options
Of the in-progress manga volumes I listed at the start of this challenge, the only one remaining is のだめカンタービレ 6 (and I’m close to finishing it as well). Now I can start fresh. I’m thinking only two volumes at a time, given that I generally focus more on novels than manga. Once I finish a volume, I can pick another.
Anything without emoji is something I haven’t been making reading progress on since prior to this challenge.
To start,
-
のだめカンタービレ 6
-
魔王城でおやすみ 11
Other sooner-type series,
-
鋼の錬金術師
-
ヤマトナデシコ七変化
And soon-ish-type series,
-
ダンジョン飯 -
仁
- 暁のヨナ
- 月刊少女野崎くん
- 天は赤い河のほとり
- 桜蘭高校ホスト部
And ones that could be any time but I’d want to focus on them pretty heavily,
- ふしぎの国のバード
- スキップ・ビート
- ミステリと言う勿れ
And the ones I’m putting on pause for the foreseeable future,
-
デスノート -
遊☆戯☆王
- それでも歩は寄せてくる
- 極主夫道
- 地縛少年 花子くん
- 蟲師
- とんがり帽子のアトリエ
- … etc
… Let’s make a queue and then not look at this list or the many things I left off of it… for a long time. Focus and finish things, focus and finish things.
Queue (仮):
For one of the two volumes at a time, let’s say 魔王城でおやすみ until I want a break from it. To slot into that can-read-in-any-mood spot during that break, how about ヤマトナデシコ七変化 2.
For the other slot, after のだめカンタービレ 6, how about…
-
鋼の錬金術師 7
-
仁 2
-
鋼の錬金術師 8
-
ダンジョン飯 5
-
鋼の錬金術師 9
-
のだめカンタービレ 6
-
鋼の錬金術師 10
-
仁 3
- etc
But I’ll see where my mood takes me. 
Wait, reading is fun! 
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