📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall/Autumn 2021 🍁🍂🦝

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.

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Summary Post

September 29th
Final Fantasy XIV

Random words
  • 適用 = てきよう applying (e.g. a technology), adoption. → context: applying changes to settings.
  • 物見 = ものみ sightseeing, watchtower, lookout.
  • てっぺん = top, summit, the highest spot (of an object, etc).
  • 灯台 = とうだい lighthouse.
  • 復興 = ふっこう reconstruction, restoration, rebuilding.
  • 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 :wink:.

Interesting! Thanks for sharing :slightly_smiling_face: . And yes, caca is poop in Spanish too :joy:

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Summary post

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 :blush: 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 :cry: 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) (:frowning_face:)
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

Thank you for enlightening me :bowing_woman:

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Summary post

Day 29: Read another two よつば&!pages!

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I didn’t play it personally (did watch the anime), but I remember a friend telling me it’s on the harder side, unfortunately :sweat_smile: Mainly because of all the “science” babbling.

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Home post

September 29th
re-reading graded reader 七夕 織姫と彦星の話

September 30th re-reading graded readers

ジョンさん日本へ (9 mins), 浦島太郎 [うらしまたろう] (10 mins), 笑い話 (11 mins)

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There’s also an anime

I feel like kids books are a really good test of your japanese - do I actually know these words or can I sort of guess at them from the kanji.

and they are cuter.

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:house_with_garden: home post

:heavy_check_mark: Day 21(9月 29日) :sparkles:
What did I read:

  • 暁のヨナ, bookclub read-aloud, chapter 37, it took us around 25min
  • this article about 雨女:umbrella: 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. :flushed:

:tanabata_tree:Very known fact is that it hosts one of the 4 Great 祭りs of Touhoku area, the 仙台七夕まつり:tanabata_tree:
グルメスポット

鳴子温泉:hotsprings:(なるこおんせん) Naruko hot springs;
Honestly, the place looks so idyllic. It is said that Minamotono Yoshitsune and even Matsuo Basho have stayed there

松島湾 (まつしまわん) Matsushima Bay, one of the Japan’s three most scenic views

Local specialties

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 :drooling_face:
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 :eyes:

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.

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omg :o and the episodes are short too
Nooo those tiny little legs :sob:
Those tiny little sounds :sob:
So cute :confounded:

Oh I’ve been to there! It was super pretty <3 Even though the weather was not very nice when I was there haha

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Summary

September 29
:maple_leaf: 29
total: 96/108

  • カラフル (52 → 57% audio once more)
  • カラフル (61 → 65% text)

カラフル spoilers (I think I’m writing that mainly for @Axazel so I hope you’re still interested :sweat_smile:)

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 :thinking:

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. :confused:

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I am so watching this.

I’m interested! I probably won’t read this one myself as I’m sensitive to stories with this theme, so I like reading vicariously through you. :stuck_out_tongue:

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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!

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No need to apologize! This Miyagi lover is here for all the facts. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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. :laughing:

福浦橋 (the bridge in question)

仙台七夕

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):

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure ones (to promote the exhibit that was going on at the time):

Doraemon and Anpanman courtesy of a daycare center:

And, naturally, a few courtesy of McDonald’s:

The only picture of ずんだ餅 I have is from the Pokémon cafe...

I’ll stop before I go overboard with the pictures (if I haven’t already).

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:fallen_leaf: :raccoon: :waning_gibbous_moon: ::: TANUKIDATE 20210930 ::: :waning_gibbous_moon: :raccoon: :fallen_leaf:


Day XXX: 北海道 :snowflake:

Today’s prefecture is all the way over on the other side of Japan, Hokkaido!

Seeing big numbers like this: 8万3453km2 / 563万2133人 - still takes a bit of getting used to.

さっぽろの雪祭り (Sapporo Snow Festival) = sounds amazing! :cloud_with_snow:

~ 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.

~ New Place ~
釧路湿原 (くしろしつげん) - Kushiro Wetlands

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I was putting all this in my daily post but it got a bit crowded, so…

@iterimpius, I was quoting your post in bits but I found that I just ended up quoting everything, because it all sounds so amazing!! I absolutely love that picture of the bridge in the woodlands (I have no words, it is so beautiful) and the bay… and… the food!! :drooling_face:

Me three! (also, I hope Rowlet was tasty).

That bridge!! so pretty

Thank you both for all the pictures and info you shared about Miyagi, it sounds amazing! ahhh
Not really heard much of Miyagi before and now I want to go so bad.

You’re doing great! You’ve hit 30 days now (I think, or will tomorrow, or is your tomorrow my today or that backwards [??] timezones what are you) which is great progress! I get you though, it’s frustrating when you know what to do to improve and want to press on but you start hesitating or putting it off. But you’ve set your PC and everything to Japanese?? Whoa, I’m too scared to do that :rofl:

おめでとう!! And 138 pages?? That’s amazing!

Also, congrats to everyone else reaching 30 days today!! And 頑張って!! to everyone who joined a little later!

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It’s been so long! :scream:

I kept putting off posting here until I had ‘more time’ which never happened. And it just keeps getting more the longer I wait! So I’ll just do a quick write up now! If there’s a day I already logged before, sorry!

21st to 30th of September

21.9.
About 30 pages of リゼロ.

22.9.
I had the day off work! I read 10 pages of リゼロ, finishing volume 17! :partying_face: i also read about 7 pages of 人間失格, 14 of 乳と卵 and 3 of 赤毛のアン.

23.9.
About 6 pages of 人間失格 and the rest of that week’s assignment of 乳と卵.

24.9.
About 18 pages of 人間失格.

25.9.
There was a birthday party and I had to get a lot of stuff done for it before it started. I managed to read all of 3 pages of 赤毛のアン in between all that!

26.9.
About 6pages of 赤毛のアン (the rest of that chapter), and that week’s 小川未明童話集 short story.

27.9.
6 pages of 使ってはいけない日本語 and that week’s assignment for 授乳.

28.9.
About 20? pages of 人間失格, and 6 of 乳と卵

29.9.
The rest of this week’s 乳と卵.

30.9.
18? pages of 人間失格 - I actually managed to finish it up his month! :blush: I’m so happy I’ll have more time to dedicate to other things now.

Sorry this post is so rushed!

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Oh, good to know :flushed:
Now I’m worried I’m not providing enough context, so if you need some gaps-filling, please say so! :blush:

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Reading Update: 9月21日〜30日

Materials:

:red_square: 授乳
:orange_square: 月刊少女野崎くん3
:yellow_square: ヒトゴトですから!1

What a mood! It’s the exact mood that’s getting me to actually post an update for once, so thank you, Belerith!

As you can see, 野崎くん has been promoted to orange. This is, in part, because I finally got around to doing things I’ve been putting off, and thus needed something quick to keep that all-important streak going. (There are obviously also books I’ve been putting off…perhaps this is a personality trait…) I’m not gonna lie: I was probably also lazy for some of the days in this range, but I at least read something! Even one step moves us forward and all that jazz.

月刊少女野崎くん3: Read through one of my favorite chapters so far in the volume. Our titular character has trouble keeping his character’s placements consistent, which puts a lot of hardship on background artist 堀先輩. While it’s funny watching the characters trying to help 野崎, it was both adorable and hysterical how attached 御子柴 became to one of the solutions, in particular.

Was this just on his person?

I'd like to see this kitchen, please.

Tragedy in 3 parts

(Honestly can’t believe I didn’t include this in the initial post.)

ヒトゴトですから!1: 久しぶりだよ〜 I managed to crack this manga back open after who knows how long. I forgot what happened since the last time I read it; pausing in the middle of the chapter really didn’t help that situation. This manga is about two lesbian women (not a couple, but there’s always the possibility of that changing) who work in human resources. I’ve been trying to read this volume straight through, meaning “not constantly looking up every word I don’t understand.” Needless to say, a lot of the HR lingo goes over my head. Still, it’s pretty interesting! I didn’t learn about this when I read it in this range of days, but it’s still probably the most interesting thing I learned about thus far.

What is ピグマリオン効果?

ピグマリオン効果, or the Pygmalion effect (or even the Rosenthal effect), is a phenomenon where the higher the expectations for someone (in the case of the manga, employees), the better they perform. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, meaning the other way around could work, too. In my experience, big expectations = big pressure, which hasn’t always equaled better performance, but alas, perhaps I’m not blessed enough.

Here’s the Japanese definition given in the manga, if anyone’s curious:

ピグマリオン効果とは
アメリカの教育心理学者ロバート・ローゼンタールによって発表された心理学用語。人は期待された通りに成果を出す傾向があり、他者からの期待値がそのあとの成長を決定づける要因になると考えられている。「ピグマリオン」はギリシャ神話に登場するキプロスの王に由来する。

授乳: Finally, still trying to catch up with the current 村田 pick. I’ve been having an easier time with Week 2’s section. I’m currently reading through a decently gross scene (wouldn’t be 村田 if there wasn’t at least one): MC’s recalling a time her father came home drunk with a bunch of younger co-workers; her mother welcomes them in and makes them food, only some of the ingredients may have been sourced from the garbage can… :nauseated_face: Part of me knows this isn’t the nicest thing to do, but her husband was also kind of an a-hole to her in this memory, so…I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little on board with this.

Some interesting vocab words (too many to list them all, so I'm limiting myself)

鼻の頭 (はなのあたま): tip of the nose (cute way of looking at it, imo)
古女房 (ふるにょうぼう): good old wife, one’s wife of many years
満面笑顔 (まんめんえがお): (with) one’s face beaming with joy; smiling from ear to ear​ (written in the book as 満面の笑顔)

Thrilled that I somehow made it to the end of the month without missing a day! Weekends are always a toss-up, so I’m glad I set myself with 野崎くん (even if I should maybe focus a little more on the other books on my list during the week).

Congrats to everyone who’s still chugging along with us on this challenge! Whether you haven’t missed a day or there’s several gaps in your tracker, you’re still making great progress. Here’s to 10月! :clinking_glasses:

:house_with_garden: (click for home post)

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Home post

Day 29:

日本語: I read a lot of はめふら 11.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of 7SEEDS (but spent most of the call talking about 伯爵と妖精).

中国語

中国語: I read 为什么学汉语.

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Okay I will make a post for the last two days. First I started the second volume of まがつき around 40 pages read. Then I read a little bit of the まいてつ visual novel.

I had a sore throat and headache today, because of this I wasn’t in the mood to read more.

vocabulary
天誅 てんちゅう divine punishment
]調節 JLPT N2 ちょうせつ regulation; adjustment; control

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