Day 60:
日本語: I read a fair amount of 伯爵と妖精 21.
中国語: I read 我渴了 on MB, plus one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学 and one page of 妙手仙丹. The most important word so far in this translation of からかい上手の高木さん is 赢, to win, because they talk about winning all the time and also because when I zoom in on the page it’s too grainy to read and thus hard to handwrite into Pleco… So here it is, self, 赢. 
No この音とまれ！today as it’s no longer available, my fault really as I should have checked earlier but just didn’t get the time. So I read two stories on hukumusume.
First was a Japanese folktale from Akita prefecture, about a mischievous fox, and the other was today’s 百物語 from Shimane prefecture, about tricking a tengu.
The tengu one had a lot of old words and words I’d never seen before.
~ New Words ~
コツコツ - Steadily
社務所 (しゃむしょ) - Shrine Office, the place that handles shrine office work
遣られる (やられる) - To be deceived
天守閣 (てんしゅかく) - Castle tower / Castle keep
天狗 (てんぐ) - Tengu, heard of these little goblins before but never seen the kanji.
十二単衣 (じゅうにひとえ) - A ceremonial 12-layered kimono
袴 (はかま) - Traditional skirt/trousers
わらわ (妾) - An old way of saying I / me
コノシロ (鮗) - Dotted gizzard shad (fish)
小姓 (こしょう) - A noble’s page (helper)
三方 (さんぼう) - A stand for offerings to the gods
本丸 (ほんまる) - The centre of a castle, the inner citadel
Place:
稲荷神社 (いなりじんじゃ) - Inari Shrine
松江城 (まつえじょう) - Matsue Castle
一生懸命 (いっしょうけんめい) - as hard as one can, with utmost effort - this is on WK, but I’m putting it here because I keep forgetting it and I’m hoping that seeing it in the wild will help me remember or so I hope.
A lot of good words to end the challenge on, it’s sad to see it come to an end but this was a lot of fun! I’m gonna try and keep the reading up until next time, but I might skip weekends while the challenge isn’t going because it’s hard to fit the time in.
I’m gonna miss reading everyone’s posts each day. But congrats to everyone who’s participated, it’s been great to see how much progress everyone’s made, hopefully see you all in the next challenge! 
Day 61: Today I read 10 pages of よつば＆！ and 6 pages of ツバサ Reservoir Chronicle. This challenge was really fun, I’m really glad I participated! 
Happy end of challenge day! Well done to everyone who read every day, or even just more than they would have otherwise! I am not in the first group but am definitely in the second which I’ll still take as a victory. I feel like throughout both of these challenges, reading in Japanese everyday has become so much less of something that feels like a study task and much more like something that I make time for daily because I enjoy it, which is really cool 
Also my ‘want to read’ list has got so much longer through everyone else talking about the fun things they are reading!
Look forward to seeing you all again in the next challenge (which I’m hoping I’ll be less in work hell for and so be able to keep up with daily posts. Fingers crossed!)
I started to read 四月は君の嘘 manga volume 1 some days ago. Every day I read a little bit of it. It is full of unknown vocabulary.
Tomorrow I will edit this post and add a vocabulary list. DONE
盲従 もうじゅう blind obedience
課題曲 かだいきょく set piece (of music)
訴え うったえ complaint N1
粒ぞろい つぶぞろい uniform excellence
注目 ちゅうもく notice; attention; observation N3
聴衆 ちょうしゅう audience; attendance; hearers
奨励賞 しょうれいしょう encouragement award; honorable mention
雨季 うき rainy season
狂暴 きょうぼう rage; frenzy
見とれる みとれる to be fascinated (by); to be captivated by; to be enchanted by; to gaze admiringly at; to watch in fascination
余韻 よいんlingering memory; aftertaste
不細工 ぶさいく clumsy (work); awkward; poorly made; botched
October 31
・Honzuki 7. (0% → 3%)
Doesn’t feel like I’m done with the challenge already 
Well done, everyone! :3 
Fwiw the first two volumes of this are free on bookwalker right now so I’ve grabbed them
Lucky as a week ago I was holding a physical copy in my hand and considering picking it up, I only put it back on the shelf after I started trying to trim down my massive pile of manga into something more readonable (I talked myself down to only 4 volumes for now).
<3 absolutely no rush
Also you don’t need to clean it up for me at all, even just a messy list of words without definitions still saves me time, but I understand that sharing that might be less comfortable =p
Heh I’ve been thinking about this a lot and trying to find ways to minimise my urge to clean up my mess before sharing.
My plug-in right now has a few barely related parts that relate to my Anki workflow, and currently some hard coded safe guards (they will refuse to run if someone uses them on a deck name or card type not within an allow list, just so they don’t mess up something).
gulp I’ve tried to add a teeny bit of docs and uploaded it as
It needs a bunch of tidy up to be useful if you wanted to use it directly, if you do find the core if it useful then contributions are welcome, I had planned to try make it a little more general and configurable, but with wrists playing up it hasn’t been a priority.
I finally finished. There were a couple of days that I wanted to skip but the thought of having an empty box spurred me on to read. I’ve noticed that the people in this challenge were reading to understand but I was actually doing something different. I was merely sounding out the words. I figured if I kept practising, I will eventually figure out the meaning. I mean, that’s kind of how I learnt to read in my native language. That’s why I am focussing on manga that I’ve already read in English. That way, I at least have an idea of the general storyline even if I can’t actually understand the dialogue.
I’m looking forward to the next challenge. This is really helpful for me. Back when I was learning to read in English, my teachers made sure that I read everyday so if I want to read in Japanese, I need to do the same thing.
Day 57: October 31
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 6 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 24 min
We do get to see what’s on Haru’s mind - he knows he’s not swimming well, but he feels like there’s nothing he can do about it. He can’t feel that connection with the water anymore, ever since he started thinking about times. It’s just…plain old water, now, and I find that very sad 
Then he has an interesting conversation with Aki, who seems to feel guilty that she suggested Haru join the relay team. Something I liked from this exchange was her…basically saying that when she suggested that he join the team, she had her own idea of what Haru needed, and her own vision of what friends and teammates should be - but there are different definitions of what friends are, and what it means to be a team. I appreciated that a lot, especially as it came after this little snippet of Haru’s thoughts where he’s basically like…I know I’m weird, when it comes to the way I think about other people. My weirdness was made abundantly clear to me at the graduation when everyone else got super emotional. …There’s also this moment that feels just too feckin’ relatable. As they’re talking about the graduation ceremony, he borrows Rin’s words, about their class being a good class - like he knows he’s “supposed” to have some kind of sentiment or emotion or thought about it and he just doesn’t have any of his own, so he borrows Rin’s for the sake of not wanting to push Aki away. I can’t really describe why that feels so relatable, but it just does.
She also mentions that seeing Haru and the others swimming together as a team inspires her to want to do her best, too. Haru’s reaction to this is quite cute, like I can just imagine him being like…well it’s not like I was trying to do that xD And then - I also find this interesting - Aki says she’s been having a lot of fun swimming. And Haru thinks to himself that he’s never really thought of swimming as “fun” before. I just find that interesting.
言い聞かせる (いいきかせる) - to tell; to (try to) persuade; to advise; to warn; to admonish; to reason
どうしようもない - it cannot be helped; there’s nothing for it; it’s no use fighting back; it’s hopeless; there is no way out of it
自己嫌悪 (じこけんお) - self-hatred; self-abhorrence; self-loathing
苛む (さいなむ) - to torment; to torture; to harass
押しつぶす (おしつぶす) - to squash; to crush; to flatten
順調 (じゅんちょう) - favourable; favorable; doing well; OK; all right
照れくさい (てれくさい) - embarrassing; awkward
見せつける (みせつける) - to make a display of; to show off; to flaunt
伏目 (ふしめ) - downcast look
明り取り (あかりとり) - skylight
Wow, it does not feel like it’s been 2 months at all 
(Then again, my perception of time is chronically messed up, so - probably doesn’t mean much, coming from me xD) Congratulations to everyone finishing their challenge today! 
Even if you didn’t keep a perfect streak, if you read more than you would have otherwise, then you still came out ahead
I will save my final (whatever you want to call it - reflection?) for when I actually finish my makeup reading days xD But for now, I’ll say it’s been fun reading with you all, and I’m happy we had so many people participating in the challenge! :3 I feel like the Tanuki Cuteness Brigade needs to start a cute manga “book club” sometime in the future, where we all just share the cute manga we find xD
October 31st
Stardew Valley
And with this, my challenge is over! I was holding off on writing posts like “just one week left!” and so on because I thought it would add pressure to us all. I wanted to, but I feel like it would’ve made the expectation much rougher . Anyways, celebration post coming soon!
You have! Thanks a lot for the thorough response 
. You have convinced me, especially about that one guy that gets really into it. I must check it out now! But wow I didn’t know they would have +3000 stories, that’s crazy. And the info about the prefectures will be amazing to read, as I know very little about Japan’s geography. I was quickly checking some entries on different countries the other day and those seem like an interesting read as well. I’ve really liked the site so far, I will definitely be using it from now on!
What did I read:
Day 51 (10月 30日) 
暁のヨナ , ch44, rest of chapter, vocab look-up and then bookclub readaloud…!
Day 52 (10月 31日)
10分でよめるこわい話 第７－１０話, 1 hour, finished the book!
ooooh congrats on finishing the book!!
honestly, cant thank you enough for this, it’s been such a pleasure reading from there!
I think you can officially be christened as the hukumusume evangelist,
whenever that happens, please do hmu, I’m so up for this already!! 
Y’all!!! I can’t believe the end of the challenge is upon us already… it went by so fast…
thank you all so so so much, it has been so much fun reading with everyone and sharing the experiences here 
… Personally, I’m calling this a huge win for myself, I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to keep up for two months straight like that… well, I joined 9/9 so it’s not officially two months, so I’m definitely continuing this until the 60day mark, just for a personal track… 
Well eventually I want it to be cleaned up anyways 
But currently I need (!) to focus (!!) on JLPT and therefore I try hard to not give me opportunities to procrastinate…
Wow, thank you so much! (Didn’t know one could write them in Python )
Sure thing! I’ve put it on my to-do list with a timestamp of Dec 6th 
Yesss, a new convert
I humbly accept this new title
I’m just glad I stumbled upon a site that can help people with their Japanese!
yesyesyes !!
I finished reading volume 2 of tanuki, right on time. Last few stories were so cute and wholesome. I read the halloween chapter during halloween, which was a funny coincidence. At the end of the volume there was a sidestory about the protag being in high school, which was kinda neat. It’s probably also the most text heavy chapter in it and definitely gave me some good practice. Reached another milestone by reading 25 volumes this year, thank you .
I can’t believe it’s been another 2 months of reading. Personally I’m not done with it just yet and will extend the challenge for another month. The next piece I’ll read is Spy x Family volume 1. Already read it through mangaplus in English and they just showed the first teaser of the upcoming anime adaptation. This makes it a good time to start reading it in Japanese. It is a mix of light hearted wholesome moments and spy action, so I’m kinda excited to read it. 
Fall/Autumn 2021 Reading Challenge Completion Post
Completion: 58 / 61 days (95.08%)
Work done:
As the summer challenge, I’ve enjoyed a lot having a daily commitment and a nice place to come back to. This challenge has been very popular again, and it’s very nice to see familiar faces and new ones alike. I’m very fond of the laid back nature of these threads, where everyone is doing their own thing but coming back to report cool stories and thoughts to the rest. It reminds me of the Shared Study Log thread I was participating in earlier this year, and now that I don’t participate there right now, it’s nice that I can get the same sentiment with a lot more participation. But on top of that, it has worked its magic and made me read virtually everyday for two months. I really like the short nature of it.
Having participated in the summer challenge I was already aware of some pitfalls that I needed to take care of. I learned to drop resources that I don’t feel like using, to not feel the pressure of having to finish them when I can just drop it right there and find something else. This has happened twice for me in this challenge: once with the Satori Reader story I was reading, and the other with Recettear: An Item Shop’s tale, which is not a bad game but it didn’t hook me much in the end.
I’ve learned to work with failure a bit more. I’ve always been very perfectionist and little failures could always potentially make me derail a lot or quit altogether. It’s not a healthy mindset to have at all and something I’ve been working on with varying degrees of success over time. It’s also not realistic, and you can’t learn anything without failing over and over again. When I missed my first day in this challenge I made it a chance to not let it demotivate me, and to keep going just as normal, even though it bothered me a bit. In the end I’ve missed 3 days, which is honestly awesome and something I’m very happy about. The fact that I kept going makes me genuinely proud. And not only that, I’m much more willing to miss days or take rest days altogether, because I would rather miss 10 days than month and a half. I’m happy that I can interiorise this more and more. Sometimes life happens and breaks are needed. And I like to keep track of the percentage, I feel like it takes away the thought of “if you fail once that’s not everyday and therefore you’ve failed the challenge”. You can very well complete a certain % of it and call it a success. My challenge consists more of “how many days can I do out of 61”.
I’ve learned that it would be much more beneficial for me to prioritise easier resources. As much as I would love to be fluent and play hard games, I’m just not at that point. I’ve had days when I’ve fought FFXIV so much that it was barely productive, and I could have used that time to go through a larger amount of vocabulary and grammar. Finding resources that are just for my level or close will be the next challenge. Both 君の名は and 星の王子さま will fall close, I think. I want to try a full novel next.
I was right in that 61 days seems to be my sweet spot. I made it to 75 last challenge and it burnt me out a bit. I will end my challenge here, and now that it’s over, I will most likely keep posting in a very relaxed manner what I’m doing until the Winter one. There are still 2 months left, and I would certainly miss this thread. It probably won’t be a daily thing, though ^^ .
Thank you to everyone that participated, and good luck to the ones that are still fighting their own challenges. 頑張ってください。 
Thanks! Turned out to be my 10th book this year. Which means I’ve reached the goal I set for myself this year :DD 10/10
I like that I completed it in October, the tenth month of the year. So an average of one book per month. Certainly not bad 
This whole thing you wrote… I love it <3
Day :
日本語: I read a lot of 伯爵と妖精 21 (and finished it), some of パノラマ島綺譚, an exploratory couple of pages of かがみの孤城, this week’s reading of ヨコハマ買い出し紀行, a bit of それでも歩は寄せてくる, and some of 魔王城でおやすみ.
中国語: I read 不是我的狗 on MB, plus one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学 and one page of 妙手仙丹.
And challenge success! 
I enjoyed reading everyone’s posts, and having this challenge definitely spurred me to read more than I otherwise would have. 
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Day 58: November 1
What did I read?: じじ猫くらし
How much did I read?: 18 pages
How long did it take me?: 29 min
Working lateeee
So I found me another cute cat manga to read xD It seems like the story has a very similar vibe to 夜は猫といっしょ, basically “cat doing cat things.” I love the art style a lot though, it’s very cute and has a very soft and comfy vibe to it.
Sparkly cat 
So precious 
Just when you thought the cat couldn’t get any cuter - smol kitten version
飛び乗る (とびのる) - to jump upon (a moving object)
飛び移る (とびうつる) - to jump from one thing to another
満喫 (まんきつ) - fully enjoying
塞く (せく) - to dam (up) (stream)
さらう - to carry off; to run away with; to sweep away; to snatch; to kidnap; to abduct
一番乗り (いちばんのり) - first to arrive
Started reading Spy x Family volume 1 (the x is for aesthetic purposes like in hunter x hunter and is not pronounced). First chapter is very long and dense. It’s been a while since I read it as well, so I had quite a bit of trouble reading through. Was distracted during the day and when I got to it at night it was too much to read in one go, so I broke it up and read the rest after waking up. It is a spy action manga where the political relations between the two countries are explained, so it is more difficult than most the stuff I have been reading despite the abundance of furigana because it is more specialised. That said it did get better during the second half as it was more action focused, than explaining the background. I also know the manga and it should be more dialogue based around Anya later on.
授乳
月刊少女野崎くん３
どうぶつの森 (Switch)
Despite the lack of updates, I managed to finish the challenge. That being said, I’m not fully satisfied with how I did. I’m happy that I only ended missing one day out of the two months, but one of my goals was to build a good reading habit. To me, reading a page of manga right before bed a lot of the time wasn’t quite what I envisioned. Maybe if that page took more effort on my part, then I’d feel differently. In the moment, it also felt like, “whoops, gotta read something quick to keep the streak alive.” There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. I just wish I hadn’t used it as a crutch as often as I did.
With that said, I’m going to continue the challenge into November. My goal is to have fewer “keep streak” days (i.e. read for longer than two minutes before bed). I hope to build a stronger reading habit, as well as make some more meaningful progress with my book list (I’ve really only done that with 野崎くん). Another goal for the month is to update more frequently. I think of things to add to my update posts as I read, but by the time I get around to actually writing one, I forget what those things were… 
Just a brief update for today. I finally finished the first story in 授乳. It’s not my favorite of 村田’s short stories, but I still think there was enough there to keep me interested. The discussion in the Murata Book Club helped me shape my opinion. I’m honestly so grateful for the book community on WK, both here and elsewhere on the forums. I think trying to up my reading skill would be a lot more arduous without all of the sharing and support people contribute. 
(click for home post)
:: TANUKIDATE 20211031 :: 
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