📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 🍁🍂

Yeah, there’s really nothing you can do except read enough, and eventually you start to get a sense for what are common phrases and probable continuations. And spoken Japanese absolutely loves half-finished sentences…

Incidentally, the tofugu article on -ba mentions -ba in questions, right at the end, but not in much more detail than “yes, this is a thing”: Japanese Verb Conditional Form ば

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17 November 2022

:house: Home Post


  • Late night podcast listening.

18 November 2022


  • Chainsaw Man (Chapters 55-56)

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Home Post
:maple_leaf: :teddy_bear: :carousel_horse: 11.18.2022 :carousel_horse: :teddy_bear: :maple_leaf:

:purple_heart: Pokemon Violet
0:00 → 6:42 Just introduced myself to the class at school
Not done playing because I’m being a total addict but I’ll probably fall asleep playing in bed :stuck_out_tongue:
I’m having a lot of fun so far but I’m looking up a tooon of words and even then sometimes I don’t understand what is being said. Luckily it’s really easy to find let’s plays if I get stuck translating something. The flip side of that is that it’s easy to be lazy with reading when I just want to play instead of translating everything.
I like that some of the words are repeated a lot, so it really gets them into my head through repetition. I also kind of like that sometimes the words go by fast since it’s pushing me to read more quickly in some areas. A bit too fast though most of the time. I need to remember screenshots are an option.

Words of note

探検(たんけん) - exploration
希望(きぼう) - hope
階段(かいだん) - stairs
目指す - to aim for
(かぎ) - key
姿(すがた) - form
順調(じゅんちょう) - favorable
図鑑(ずかん) - field guide (Pokedex in this scenario)
(みの)り - fruitful (Part of Nemo’s catchphrase)
(きずな) - bonds
冒険(ぼうけん) - adventure
施設(しせつ) - institution
案内(あんない) - guidance/leading the way
無農政(なのうせい) - potentiality
生徒(せいと) - pupil
地方(ちほう) - region

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November 18 :maple_leaf: Home Post

Had a bit going on today so not the most reading time, but I got in a couple chapters of ブルーロック. Good overdramatic times as always! :grin:

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:maple_leaf: :turkey: November 18th :turkey: :maple_leaf: (Home Post Link)

Played pokemon until the reading fatigue started to really set in, which was about 2 hours (we’ve come a long way from the beginning of this challenge in terms of reading endurance lmao) I can say this is probably one of the worst looking/performing games I’ve played. Visual glitches are pretty much constant, really flat models and really really bad dithering. It’s bearable, but man it’s pretty bad sometimes… anyway. The game itself is still fundamentally pokemon so it’s hard to go too wrong, but I don’t have very high hopes for the game or its longevity. I’ll probably play through for the reading experience but not stick around to complete the dex/shiny hunt or anything. The reading level is manageable, lots of new vocabulary at first (especially pokemon names and move names), but you get a lot of exposure to them. Almost everything has furigana, and most things don’t auto scroll, so you can take your time reading.

Also read からかい上手の高木さんchapter 33.

Good Pokemon Words

絆「きずな」ー bonds, emotional ties
入学祝い「にゅうがくいわい」ー congratulations on entering a school
引っかく「ひっかく」ー to scratch (move)
尻尾を振る「しっぱをふる」ー to wag one’s tail (move)
木の葉「このは」ー leaf (move)
戦法「せんぱう」ー tactics, strategy
興奮「こうふん」ー excitement
図鑑「ずかん」ー pocket guide, illustrated reference book (here, pokedex)
博士「はかせ」ー expert
噛み付く「かみつく」ー to bite at (move)
灯台「とうだい」ー lighthouse
途中「とちゅう」ー en route

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Home post

Day 48:

Priority: :x:

Free choice: :skull: 死神の浮力.

Extra: :notes: のだめカンタービレ 6.

Snatches of: :magic_wand: ハリー・ポッターと不死鳥の騎士団.

Read-aloud: :thinking: いやはや熱海くん with @rodan.

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My cold is abating but I didn’t sleep much last night so not at 100. I tried to read ユージニア and kept losing focus. Ending up just doing another 10% of 教場. The things these students are doing to each other is horrifying. I don’t even know what content warning I should put on my Natively review for someone gluing ear protectors onto someone’s head after filling it with ants so that they will eat their eardrums?! (食い破る!) :scream: So many levels of wtf after that section.

Hopefully I sleep well tonight as I have a lot of book clubs to catch up on

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Home post :bookmark: Nov 18 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf:

・本好きの下剋上 13 (30% → 35%)

Fell asleep before I managed to post last night. Really need to fix my evening habits (dinner-read-early sleep), especially now during exam times. It’s tough. But I’m filled with determination :fire: I can do this.


Replies

Reading about that phrase got me horrified :scream_cat: :joy:. On the flip side we have (あだ)(おん)(むく)いる or (あだ)(おん)(ほう)ずる = “to repay meanness with kindness”.

Typo? If it is “potentiality”, that’s probably supposed to be 可能性(かのうせい) :slight_smile: What you got there would be something along the lines of “non-agricultural administration”.

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Read 2 chapters of Shield Hero today (one chapter was 6 pages long, so it felt like a waste to just read that). Read all of volume 10 of Chainsaw Man. Played some of Pokemon X. That was my day.

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Wait, what? Wtf indeed. I had some vague idea that the book might have been nonfiction since it’s about a police academy, but I sincerely hope not? Was it done as a prank, as a test of skills, or as the extreme form of torture that it is?

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Home Post

Day 9 Progress: お隣の天使様 二冊 - 60.21% → 65.91%

It’s 5 AM, I feel like crap, and I have to be up in less than three hours for work. I’ll try to keep this one short.

Word of the Day: 八つ当たり - venting one’s anger (on someone or something). The 八つ means that your anger is hitting in eight directions aka you’re pretty much indiscriminately venting. Fun little phrase.

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November 19th
:maple_leaf:Home post:maple_leaf:

Aria: the masterpiece volume 1 – progress report
Yesterday: read up to page 257
Today: finished chapter 8. Read up to page 284

Came back with a vengeance and made it through the explanation on the wind bell’s luminous stone on page 257 which I understood roughly 70% of (I’m fine with that, I don’t have the intention to unravel it 100%). Continued onwards and made my way through chapter 8. :slightly_smiling_face:

Some words of note

酸素 (さんそ) oxygen
お揃い (おそろい) same, matching, going together
遠ざける (とおざける) to keep away, to keep at a distance
密か (ひそか) secret, private
沈む (しずむ) to sink, to go under

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Said “fuck it” and finished volume 11 of Chainsaw man because it’s a quick read. I fucking can’t wait to see the last volumes adapted to the anime. Might reread 12 tomorrow just to confirm some suspicions I have based on the latest chapter’s ending.

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Had to start work early today, and didn’t have the long flight with no patient I was anticipating.

Still read a reasonable amount for a work day.

19/11 3 pages おばちゃんたちのいるところ

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:lady_beetle: Home :lady_beetle:

November 19

人間椅子 -

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険50
131 - 187 (end)

Not so bad

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Thankfully it’s fiction! They have this whole thing about how the police academy is a sieve and the bad or hopeless students get filtered out, but IMO so far it’s really ‘the students who do horrific things to their classmates get kicked out’. That story was revenge.

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

20221119 - 吾輩は狸である progress: 77.87% :rice_ball:

10 chapters in and it feels like this is the first time that Wagahai-cat has taken the time to talk about the rest of Master’s family.
(they’ve appeared a lot before but it feels like this is the first time where there are actual sentences dedicated to describing them and not just mentioning them in passing)

:fallen_leaf: Japanese found under the leaves :fallen_leaf:

Meowords

Forms
罎 = 瓶「びん」(Bottle; jar)

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Nov 19, Sat of Week 8 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

  • うたわれるもの (Steam)

Another 1+1 hour. Viewing backlog and audio replaying is a big pro. Even without audio, backlog is quite handy. Not everything are felt to be look up upfront, but might want to look up in retrospect.

To-be-remembered vocabularies
  • 力作 no audio nor Furigana in context, but probably りきさく (rather than りょうさく )
  • 催促 pressing on to participate
  • 軋る squeak like a mice (?) going on a horse (騎士). Probably Kanji 軋 (アツ) is of importance too (rub to heat (熱さ), e.g. 軋轢.
  • 拠点 the Kanji is also used in 根拠 and 証拠
  • 豪勢 extravagant, but sound almost like synthetic (合成) or solid (剛性) – different pitches?
  • 肯く is 頷く with Kanji for 肯定
  • 僭越 how war (戦争) winner (越える) feels
  • 特盛り “special” portion size (盛り)
  • 飴色 colored like brown sugar syrup 水飴
  • 発泡 second Kanji is 泡 (あわ); the sound is from phonetic component
  • 柑橘類 Kanji 1 from from 蜜柑 (みかん), Kanji 2 from 橘 (たちばな). Second Kanji On’yomi mnemonic though, perhaps “harshly” (キツい) citrus.
  • 水平線 has on-land counterpart 地平線
  • 物見遊山 third Kanji has shortened sound (ゆ). Can be split to 物見 and 遊山
  • 桃源郷 First Kanji is 桃 (もも), but I have heard Chinese-derived in my native tongue, and perhaps also Mandarin Chinese itself. Throw もも into Paradise (a restaurant chain name).
  • 億劫 hundred mil pains, hundred mil cries. Kanji 劫 is usually read differently (劫略, 永劫)
  • 釈然とする : 解釈に当然
  • 連なる stretch out… through 貫き通す. 連なり means stretch / range.
  • 竈 [かまど] Opening (戸) of boiling water pot (釜); otherwise, fire (火) window (窓). Another reading of importance is へっつい, but has Furigana (for the first reading) in context.
  • 脳裏(に浮かぶ) to the distance (里 measurement) of one’s brain (脳). り is a useful On’yomi as well, e.g. 表裏, 秘密裏.
  • 柄杓 not (非) a ladle, but actually a ladle (杓).
  • 揉みほぐす rub (massage) and hug
  • 大らか like an 大人
  • 帳場 (ちょうば) The first Kanji is from 手帳 or 帳面.
  • 虚ろ use (う) two (ツー) voids
  • 戦慄 shiver because of psychoactive (moody) chestnut (栗) in war (戦争). Melodic (旋律) shiver.
  • 無性に (むしょうに) 根性ありません, uses different reading from 無性 (むせい) regarding 性別
  • 熾る [おころ] to catch fire (physically), comparing with of anger (怒る)
  • 蕩ける [とろける] think of 溶ける, but with お湯 in 風呂
  • 鉛 fresh lea–d
  • 塩梅 lots of salty plums on rice bowl, made by sempai, tasting like sweet candy (餡). No Furigana in context too.
  • 磨る = 擦る, but with the Kanji for 磨く
  • 無粋 buu… (sound made with mouth) unpure (純粋), so unromantic

Forgotten ones

  • 誤魔化す can also mean, to evade; more than to deceive
  • 大所帯 Second time I see this. Just brute force to remember, for now.
  • 委ねる You (ゆ) don’t (だ) need (ね) to do it, just leave it to me.
  • 手際 depending (~際) on the edge (際) of the hand (手), but not really – you have done well
  • 怪訝 weird mood (機嫌), weird feeling (気 [け]), with elegance (優雅)
  • 滅入る feeling of everything destroyed (滅) coming in (入る)
  • 咀嚼 [そしゃく] has Furigana in context. Chewing since long ago, since grandpa (祖父) of the baron (伯爵).

Phrases

  • 四則演算 four rules (原則, ~則) for toying with calculation (演算)
  • 物見遊山 see above
  • 腹の虫が鳴く JMdict says 腹の虫が鳴る is OK too. 腹の虫 also has other phrases, e.g. 腹の虫が治まらない.
  • 大目玉を食らう eat/take big eyeballs staring at you, from… your guardian
  • 野垂れ死に uses 死ぬ in context

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Home post :bookmark: Nov 19 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf:

・本好きの下剋上 13 (35% → 36%)

Just a tiny read due to busy busy. Was a good day :3

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November 19th!

Today I read a chapter of Teasing Master Takagi-san, and also the first half of Chapter 2 of God Bless the Mistaken.
Takagi was a fun read as always, and God Bless the Mistaken was interesting, I think I’m going to enjoy it a lot once the story starts to develop further/

(Home Post)

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