カラフル (52 → 57% audio but was falling asleep again)
→ listening to audiobook has it’s benefits even if I’m sleepy - I had to figure out where I am in the story each time I woke up
(yes, it was only a 18-minutes fragment and yet I managed to get several mininaps during that time )
but I’m going to relisten to it once more.
→ officially changing my goal to 108, because I’m going to read every day anyway until I finish カラフル and catch up to the 授乳 book club
(…I hope 108 will be enough because I’m no longer sure. But I should have more free time at least for the next 2 weeks)
Why 108
The number the Buddhist temples’ bells ring in Japan at midnight on December 31st. I have a soft spot for that number since I learned as a teenager that’s why Death Note has 108 chapters.
I’m not very into its spiritual connotations, but it has a meaning of completion/end-of-old-start-of-new for me.
(but i’m aware it does have connotations in things aside Buddhism too)
Thought I’d explore the prefecture page a bit more today, so much reading… and I didn’t manage to read it all even, pretty tired now.
This site just keeps on giving! And same, I love how the prefectures all have their symbols.
(That Zelkova tree looks straight out of Studio Ghibli, so pretty)
A lot of new words
~ Words! ~
ヒノキ(檜) - Hinoki Cypress / Japanese Cypress
ツバキ(椿) - Common Camellia
ツツジ(躑躅) - Azalea (Rhododendron) - those are some real complex kanji
オシドリ(鴛鴦) - Mandarin Duck – no way! I clicked on Nagasaki at random, but Mandarin ducks are my favourite ducks! (also scary kanji)
哺乳類 (ほにゅうるい) - Mammals / Mammalian
偶蹄類 (ぐうているい) - even-toed ungulates
角化 (かくか) - Keratinization / cornification
皮膜 (ひまく) - Membrane (Skin membrane)
(not sure that I’ll ever need these scientific words - but you never know! )
~ Places! ~
五島列島 (ごとれっとう) - Goto Islands (archipelago)
対馬 (つしま) - I know this one! (thanks Ghost of Tsushima) but I didn’t know the kanji
壱岐 (いき) - Iki
雲仙 (うんぜん) - Unzen
屋久島 (やくしま) - Yakushima Island
Miyagi! I lived there for two years (in Sendai, to be specific). Absolutely loved it there. Despite that, I didn’t know all those facts about the prefecture! Interesting that its animal is the deer, even though Nara is the one famous for its deer.
Aaah so lucky!!! It’s my dream to next visit the Touhoku area and I really want to go to Sendai!! I’ve heard only the best impressions tbh! And, ikr?? I was surprised about the deer, for the same reason!
Awww, you’re so sweet;; and thank you for taking the time to read it I actually wrote it up this morning, it was my entries from yesterday… I will write today’s either later or tomorrow
Rrrright?? And at first glance, the site’s layout and design doesn’t give away a think, but honestly, it’s been so comprehensive so far…!
Thank tou for sharing all these words today!! Really useful!
After a long day at work, attempting any manga felt like way too much thinking! I read through 4 or 5 level 0 graded reading books instead. It feels strange to be proud of reading at such a low level but they do feel really helpful, Even if I’m still looking up some of the kanji and vocab, I’m recognising a good amount of the grammar, and my reading of the kana is getting much more fluid.
庭園 = ていえん garden, park (seems to me that this one is a more properly decorated park than 公園 , and the latter just your average park for walking and whatnot).
物資 = ぶっし goods, materials, resources (J-J dictionary mentions roughly something like "the things that support the daily lives of humans, like clothing or food).
支援 = しえん support, backing (e.g. supporting and helping someone).
Today has been one of those days when you become somewhat irritated by your (most likely irrational sense of) lack of progress and decide to transform that bitterness into drive to improve. I spent the longest time hesitating and being afraid of setting FFXIV in Japanese until I finally jumped anyway, and to my surprise it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was bad, indeed, the game is honestly pretty hard, but I thought I was going to be much worse. That was a few weeks back, perhaps close to a month? I think I mentioned it before in one of the posts, I can’t quite remember.
Well, today, after internally acknowledging the fact that many people jump all the time into stuff they don’t feel prepared for, I thought: if many others can do it (and it’s not like they don’t doubt themselves some or many times, I know most of us do), why do I hesitate so much? The worst that can actually happen is that I’m clueless about something and that’s it. Sure it will feel extremely overwhelming at times, but if many people can push through it, how come do I think myself unable? I got so irritated by it, that it prompted me to broaden my approach and try to make it much more immersive than it currently is. Sure reading one Satori Reader article a day has been amazing, but it probably won’t take me where I want to be any soon. It will take me there eventually, and I’m grateful that despite reading so little everyday, I feel improvements over time. But I feel motivated to improve just a bit faster.
So, the end of the story is, I’ve basically set my PC, mobile, web browser, some apps like Discord, and anything I can to Japanese, in addition to the immersion I was already doing with Satori Reader and video games. I’m at a point where I don’t know a lot of words, but I also do know a lot of words. So that leaves me in the weird spot of half-understanding things often, and with the help of frequent lookups I hope to push that other half to understanding fully or almost fully. And I feel like with this approach I’m not missing out whenever I’m not adding something to the SRS, because it can come up again anytime anywhere, and it also makes me want to add the actual important words, so it acts as a filter of not adding literally every unknown word I come accros.
So yeah, it’s been a day.
Tl;dr: I’m going the full immersion route for a bit.
I’m currently debating whether or not to purchase Stein’s;Gate’s VN that just went on sale on Steam, so if anyone has read the VN let me know how you found the difficulty .
Interesting! Thanks for sharing . And yes, caca is poop in Spanish too
Day 29: September 29
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 5 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 5 min
Aaaand we’re back ただいま, Iwatobi <3
I wondered when we were going to get around to Rin asking Makoto to ask Haru about the relay, seemed like only a matter of time. But there’s a tiny little moment where I think we see a part of why Haru and Makoto are friends - Makoto respects that Haru is his own person and should be free to make his own decisions. He basically has no intention of trying to force or convince Haru to do something he doesn’t want to do - he’ll ask, because Rin asked him to, but whatever the answer is, that’s the answer. He doesn’t want to burden Haru or make him feel guilty for being himself.
Poor Makoto is having a rough time. His poor goldfish died And he clearly feels guilty over it, even though he was taking such good care of it. And then the empty, “dead” water left in the tank reminds him of Haru not-quite-dying in the river, and he’s clearly still traumatized over that, too, and I just - someone give this poor sweet boy a hug. And he says nothing about any of this to anyone at the swim club, doesn’t even hardly let on that anything’s happened - he just seems so very alone in this little moment, burying his goldfish by himself in the yard.
Good words (it's a bit of a list haha)
追い討ち (おいうち) - additional attack on a weakened enemy; additional blow to an already unfortunate situation
言っとくけど - for your information; I’m telling you
陰り (かげり) - shadow or cloud (e.g. on someone’s happiness) ()
割って入る (わってはいる) - to wedge one’s way in; to push in (between); to step in (between); to interrupt (a conversation, quarrel, etc.); to intervene
ゼーゼー - gasping for breath; puffing and panting; wheezing
見捨てる (みすてる) - to abandon; to fail; to desert; to forsake
蹌踉ける (よろける) - to stagger; to stumble
励まし (はげまし) - encouragement (as an abstract concept); stimulation
手当て (てあて) - medical care; treatment
excuse me but there are books of this???
The first time I went to Japan, I saw a カピバラさん plushie and impulse-bought it because it was so cute, and you’re telling me that there are books?? :o
I didn’t play it personally (did watch the anime), but I remember a friend telling me it’s on the harder side, unfortunately Mainly because of all the “science” babbling.
暁のヨナ, bookclub read-aloud, chapter 37, it took us around 25min
this article about 雨女 since a friend yesterday asked me what a 晴れ男 is, and I had to explain
the rest of the 宮城県 article, around 10min.
which got me in the mood of reading the respective page from るるぶ地図でよくわかる都道府県…only one page for Miyagi Prefecture, took me around 20min.
This book showcases maps and what each prefecture produces or is famous for. The hukumusume website had a lot more info tbh.
But here is some interesting points, in case you were curious
Apparently Miyagi prefecture is 1st in fishing shark types, 2nd for salmon and pacific saury, 2nd in aquaculture of oysters and wakame seaweed.
牛タン、Sendai’s specialty; grilled beef tongue ずんだ餅, a sweet paste mochi made of crushed edamame, flavoured with sugar and salt– I’ve heard this is delicious 笹かまぼこ, this got me kinda lost, the books just says it’s a bamboo sprout that has the Date clan family crest on it? I wonder how it tastes…
Sorry about the long post, lol
I told you, I’m really interested in this place
Words
家紋 かもん =family crest
漁獲量 ぎょかくりょう = haul (catch) (of fish)
養殖 ようしょく = aquaculture, culture, cultivation, raising
おひざもと = place where a high ranking person resides, one’s own city (of a shogun, lord, etc.)、place under one’s direct control, one’s own turf,
秋刀魚さんま = Pacific saury (Cololabis saira), mackerel pike
生産量せいさんりょう = production output, number of goods manufactured.
カラフル spoilers (I think I’m writing that mainly for @Axazel so I hope you’re still interested )
spoilers
So I was right! Original Makoto made some wrong assumptions and our protag got the subjective summary of the events.
I wonder why the Guardian Angel was okay with this. Wasn’t he supposed to guide our protag? I even got the impression he was the one who planted this bleary version of the family in the protag’s mind, back when he was all “I don’t understand why Makoto committed suicide, this family is so nice” and the angel did “nope, they are all bad people >listing all the problems<”
Of course it’s not like it was all lies, but I just wonder why our Angel did seem to want protag to dislike everybody. Or maybe it was all set up so Our Protag Will Make His Discoveries Himself?
When father was reminiscing how he was forced to do nothing at work for 2 years, I was wondering if it would be possible to sneak learning/reading something during that time
The talk about “bad things aren’t eternal, good things will come eventually” was too cheesy for my tastes, but anyway, protag already commented on that. Although if my theory about protag = original!Makoto is right, it isn’t too late in his case. But anyway, all these people born in wrong country, at the wrong time, to the wrong people. With serious illnesses. And such. Statistically/on average that pep talk was right, of course, but it won’t always apply, and eh, it made me sad somehow.
Just checked the September 30th box and I’ve made it through a whole month! There have definitely been days when it’s been just a page but I’m massively proud of myself for making it this far and hugely grateful to @windupbird for setting such a kind, welcoming and inclusive challenge. I’m 138 pages into my book and I genuinely wouldn’t have got here without the prompt to read something, anything, just a bit, each day.
Today’s new word was 観音開き かんのんびらき (but written as かんのん開き in this book) which means double doors that open from the centre. I know of Kannon in Buddhism, but don’t know enough about buddhism to know why she has lent her name to a particular type of door!
No need to apologize! This Miyagi lover is here for all the facts.
I regret not going to 鳴子温泉 (who knows when that’ll be now), but I have been to 松島 and 仙台七夕 multiple times.
There’s this bridge in 松島 that my friends went on because it reminded them of the bridge in Spirited Away. It’s pretty long, admittedly. I can’t remember if I pulled a nerdy move and tried holding my breath like Chihiro has to or not.
The different stores in the arcade in downtown 仙台 will hang up their own 七夕, some with their business on them, and others more generic ones/characters.
Date Masamune-themed ones from a real estate company (if I recall correctly):
~ New Words ~
雄々しい (おおしい) - Manly, brave, heroic
エゾマツ (蝦夷松) - Yezo Spruce
針葉樹 (しんようじゅ) - Coniferous / Conifer
ハマナス (浜茄子) - Rugosa Rose / Japanese Rose
タンチョウ (丹頂) - Red-Crowned Crane / Japanese Crane
特別天然記念物 - (とくべつてんねんきねんぶつ) - Special Natural Monument - an area protected due to its natural importance.