Home post - September 27th - I did some light reading today by re-reading a graded reader I read a while ago, one of my early favourites, as a way to see how far I had come - it was an absolute breeze. Tomorrow I might try an audio book version of it or another story.
A very very simple story both in terms of narrative and grammar, but I think the first graded reader where I really felt “wow, graded readers can actually have narrative” - so I wanted to revisit it.
Surgery went well, from tomorrow things will get much worse once the anesthetic fully wears off. See you all on the flip side and thank you all so much for the support =D
Took a day extra to finish reading through volume 3 of Polar Bear Café Today’s Special. With that I’m caught up to the current releases. I’m kinda proud seeing the volume of work I read through, there’s about 150 chapters shared between the two titles. Adding up Yotsuba and that’s about 250 chapters. Trying to get to the next milestone, which is 25 volumes (I’m at 22 now).
My physical backlog has slinked back a lot over these past months. I have been thinking about what to read next, either reading the Dai spinoff or returning to one of the books I put on hold. I should also assess what I have on kindle. Aside from manga I have made some way into Tobira (chapter 3) and Skyward Sword (about 30 hours in). So things are progressing nicely still.
Today’s 百物語 is about a disembodied demon arm getting revenge.
“この腕は、女房みたいなものだ。”
I erm… I’m not gonna ask.
ある冬 - think I’ve seen this ある[year/season/day etc.] before but must have looked over it. Meaning “one winter”, ある日 - “one day” (but not in the counting sense).
Thought I hadn’t seen this kanji before: 離 - it’s on level 31.
土葬 (どそう) - the story gives an explanation of this one: burying a body in the ground instead of cremation.
Sept 27 - I read a short paragraph about the “Japanese economic miracle” because I have a text to read on this topic for my next Japanese class
Vocab
諸 (しょ) : various
遂げる(とげる) : to accomplish
所得 (しょとく) : income
唱える (となえる) : to advance
合成繊維 (ごうせいせんい) : synthetic fibre
流通 (りゅうつう) : circulation
齎す (もたらす) : to bring
農村 (のうそん) : agricultural community (didn’t know about this reading of 村)
過疎 (かそ) : depopulation
終止符 (しゅうしふ) : full stop
維新 (いしん) : Meiji Restoration
Japanese ability
Passing N2 gave me the opportunity to switch master’s and find a job where I can use Japanese. While it’s very exciting, I feel very under qualified for both my master’s and my job - Japanese ability-wise I’m going to do my best this year.
Day 27: September 27
What did I read?: 雨と君と Vol. 2
How much did I read?: 15 pages
How long did it take me?: 14 min
I think working on the weekend is catching up to me, oh no
I’m so exhausted I want to cry. But also fall asleep. I want to cry and fall sleep simultaneously, this is a very weird feeling
I only read one chapter today, but it was pretty cute - we met some of the girl’s friends. But one of them said the tanuki wasn’t cute, like how even dare D:< She did make him some special gyoza later, though, so I guess she’s ok
Good words:
懐く (なつく) - to become attached (to); to take (to); to become affectionate (with); to be tamed
ドンビキ - being put off (by someone’s words, behaviour, etc.); being taken aback; recoiling (in shock, disgust, etc.); being left speechless
仲間はずれ (なかまはずれ) - being left out; being ostracized
がっつく - to be greedy; to devour greedily
Thanks to everyone for sharing their encountered words, its always fun to pick up vocab like this by accident - although I don’t try get them all, occasionally one will jump out at me and its free learning.
I love this word 仲間 + 外れ makes sense, added it to Anki =D
Seriously considering giving 雨と君と a go at some point.
Ohh this is helpful, I’d seen ある日 but I wasn’t sure how far that pattern could go, super useful to encounter this =D
and it was pretty easy, your typical warning announcement kind,
And the other was about UK having a shortage in working hands (after Brexit basically) and offering 5000 working visas to employ truck drivers and poultry workers. This one had some unknown words tbh.
緩和 relief; migration; alleviation
養成 training
促す which is WK early 30s I believe and I COULD NOT REMEMBER SOBS
方針 policy; pla; objective
陸運業協会 Land Transport Association
物流業界 logistics industry
人手不足 labour shortage
就労 ビザ working visa, work visa
家禽 poultry, fowls
離脱後 after withdrawal (from EU, in this context)
欧州連合 EU🇪🇺
I started reading every day in late August, might as well try to keep the streak going for another month. This is a big improvement over my previous best of 14 days
Apple Books might not be the best reader, but I like being able to set yearly and daily goals.
I was wondering if anybody checked those! I’m glad it serves you or anyone else good . I actually blur the readings for anyone that would like to practice and give it a guess. I too tend to check what everyone else is reading and what words they’re encountering, not everyday, but quite often. And also the tanuki pictures and other cute stuff that you peeps upload.
You’ll see that I add some words that I added already days ago or weeks ago, because I bump into stuff I don’t remember adding . But hopefully that helps reinforce.
I probably will try to read some more manga tonight but after procrastinating my actual work by browsing the threads here, I found the very helpful link to some free very simple Japanese books that someone posted and so I read a couple of the level 0 graded reader books. I’d love to say I flew through them with ease but there were still one or two things I had to look up. Still felt good
Home post - September 28th - reread ハチの話 graded reader and just flew through it, it can’t have taken me more than 10 minutes and I didn’t have to second guess anything. Rereading graded readers is great. I had wanted to tackle a more advanced story today, but I ran out of time, so had to settle for squeezing this in instead.
hey all, still just about hanging in here - I work at a university and term just started and that’s usually quite full on anyway, but we’ve also just gone back to being on campus for the first time since March 2020… For the last few years I’ve completely stopped doing WK lessons during the first semester and just kept up with my review. I think I’m going to do the same this year but I am absolutely definitely keeping up with this reading challenge regardless!
New vocabulary continues to be about trees and mud, to a quite unfathomable degree. For example today I learnt 木立ち, こだち which means a grove or thicket, so reasonably self-explanatory for once, but I’m still starting to ask myself how many words for groups of trees does one language really need?
日27
昨日の日本の本: 日本人の知らない日本語
I wasn’t able to update my progress yesterday becuase I tired The usual. I was doing my hair yesterday and didn’t feel like reading afterwards. SOoOo I watch the show this time … and well you know how that goes one ep leads to the other … I watched 4 eps… they were petty dope. If your looking for a manga or show that talks about 日本人 grammer then I would recommend.
日28
今日の日本の本: げんき(page 57)(かいもの)
This time the mc is going into a restaurant, she ask what とんかつ is and ask if it’s fish but all this dude (waiter) says is and I quote “いいえ、魚じゃないです。肉です。おいしいです。” like =-= waaaa. I wouldn’t have gotten it, like that’s vague at lease say it’s pig. like give me something… ごめね. All this to say it was a funny read!
Clicked on the story advertised on the home page of hukumusume. Maybe it’s just on this story, or that I didn’t notice it before (most likely option), but it tells you where the story originates from, in this case it’s Mie Prefecture. Which leads to another really handy section of this site, information about all the prefectures such as: symbols (flowers, trees, animals), local folktales, size, population, cuisine specialties, attractions, schools… seriously so much information and so many links! This site is insane!
Anywayyyy
There’s a YouTube vid with this one, which is just the audio played with the pictures, still, fun to watch and listen.
To say that this is for kids, this story is pretty dark.
~Word Section~
海女 (あま）- a female diver who collects seaweed, seashells etc.
困ったわ (こまったわ) - Jisho gives a lot of meanings, but it’s to be in an unmanageable/hopeless situation in this instance.
サザエ - Horned Turban (shell)
I was sure Sazae was a name, I looked it up and it is, kanji version for the name is: 沙座絵
海草 (かいそう) - Seagrass
成仏 (じょうぶつ) - entering Nirvana, becoming a Buddha
::: TANUKIDATE 20210927 ::: 
I’m going to do my best this year. 
Day 19 (9月 27日) 
. I actually blur the readings for anyone that would like to practice and give it a guess. I too tend to check what everyone else is reading and what words they’re encountering, not everyday, but quite often. And also the tanuki pictures and other cute stuff that you peeps upload.
. But hopefully that helps reinforce.
… and well you know how that goes one ep leads to the other … I watched 4 eps… they were petty dope. If your looking for a manga or show that talks about 日本人 grammer then I would recommend.
::: TANUKIDATE 20210928 ::: 
)