October 12
・Honzuki 6. (51% → 53%)
@Aislin Well done! 
I hope you’ll join us next round too 
14 Likes
Soooooo…today I finished reading それいけズッコケ三人組! I’m so happy that this group and the challenge has given me the motivation to make reading part of my every day study practices. I definitely noticed my reading speed increase as I went through the volume, down to about 20 minutes for 4 pages now. That’s also making it easier for me to follow Japanese subtitles on Netflix/YouTube too, which I’ve struggled with in the post.
I bought this book on eBay on a bit of a whim last year but it’s proved to be exactly right for where I am now. It came as a job lot with two other volumes from the series so I’m going to move onto them next. One of the volumes is ghost-themed so I think I shall start that in time for Halloween! 
14 Likes
Day 42: Only read 2 pages of よつば＆！today because I am kind of sleep deprived and exhausted
15 Likes
October 12th
Final Fantasy XIV
Random words
- 壺 = つぼ pot, jar.
- 中断 = ちゅうだん interruption, suspension, break.
13 Likes
Day 42: October 12
What did I read?: 夜は猫といっしょ Vol 2
How much did I read?: 28 pages
How long did it take me?: 23 min
So tired for some reason today 
Probably because the days have been short and overcast tbh, I hate darkness. I’m like a plant, I need the sun to function. BUT that means it’s kitty times :3 (this emoji is going to remind me of キュルガ forever now)
Today's accidental theme is "no-ears キュルガ"
キュルガ looks like a seal to me for some reason in this panel 
Good words
目線に立つ (めせんにたつ) - to consider another’s point of view; to put oneself in someone’s shoes
ちょっかいを出す (ちょっかいをだす) - to meddle; to poke one’s nose into; to interfere
While looking this up, I accidentally learned that ちょっかい can also mean extending a paw to drag something closer, which I thought was cute xD
図太い (ずぶとい) - bold; shameless; cheeky; brash; impudent
頭突き (ずつき) - head-butting; head-butt
Congrats on finishing your challenge! 
Totally understand this 
Enjoy a well-earned rest 
16 Likes
It’s tanuki time! Actually my first read without furigana, but that just means checking up some more to confirm if I read it right afterwards. The chapters are pretty short and even funnier now that I know the context where these signs are used. I’m gonna take my time with reading this series. It is a nice read with a blanket and a cup of tea. I knew tanuki was cute and a beautiful dog already, but the characters also look so good in this art.
For tanuki owners, also take a look at the book cover (carefully remove the slipcover) for more cute tanuki.
15 Likes
:: TANUKIDATE 20211013 :: Day XLIII: この音とまれ！ pg. 45-51 & 空き寺の大入道 
6 pages today!
And read today’s 百物語, about a monk and an Onyudo.
Today is also サツマイモの日 ! Sweet potato day!
I sure hope I have some sweet potatoes in for dinner.
There’s also a story here about sweet potatoes but I don’t have enough reading energy left for today.
~ New Words! ~
ほこり (埃) - Dust
鉄鍋 (てつなべ) - Iron pan / Iron pot
大入道 (おおにゅうどう) - Onyudo, giant yokai. Large bald monster (this specific one has three eyes and two teeth). Heard of this yokai before (thanks Nioh, you’ve taught me so much about Japanese monsters, folklore and history) but didn’t know the kanji behind it.
お経 (おきょう) - Sutra, Buddhist chant
14 Likes
Started ズッコケ山賊修業中 today. It’s volume 10 in the series (I have volumes 1, 10 and 14 from eBay) but research suggested that once you’d read the first one where the characters were introduced, you could read the rest out of order.
Flushed with the success of finishing the first volume, I sat down to read a chapter, and this discovered that the first chapter was 13 pages long, where they’d previously been 4, or 6 with illustrations. So I stopped after 4 pages.
13 Likes
Hi everyone, I’m back! I went to Texas, which involved 32 hours of travel (16 hours on the way out and 16 on the way back). Texas is mind-blowingly weird and beautiful, I learned!
So all I’ve done for studying Japanese is keeping up with my Wanikani reviews. This is probably the longest I’ve gone without serious Japanese study in at least a year! Maybe I’ll find that my Japanese knowledge has inexplicably improved, even though I did nothing. 
Sometimes brains just need a little time to integrate information, right? haha
14 Likes
I was super busy the last few days, so I just read まがつき volume 3 a little bit every day. I finally finished it today. By the way all vocabulary is from that manga.
抜け駆け ぬけがけ getting a head start; secretly acting before others
お詫び おわび apology
敬う おやまう to show respect for, to honor; to worship N2
狡い ずるい sly; cunning; sneaky N2
水族館 すいぞくかん aquarium
とっぽい cocky; affected; pretentious
目一杯 めいっぱい as much as possible; with all one’s might
13 Likes
October 13th
Final Fantasy XIV
Random words
- 短縮 = たんしゅく shortening, contraction, reduction.
- 修得 = しゅうとく learning, acquisition (of a skill, knowledge, etc).
13 Likes
Day 43: October 13
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 4 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 11 min
Haru's off wandering in his thoughts again - he's a contemplative one, our boy
He’s running alone for the first time in a while and thinking about how he never meant to get mixed up in all this relay team business. The relay seems important to so many people around him, but he doesn’t really get why. He doesn’t see what’s so special about the relay specifically. His take is basically, swimming is an individual sport anyway - once you dive in, you’re alone. (Why does this statement feel so…significant? Bittersweet? I don’t know) You just swim to the best of your ability, and that’s that. (Weirdly, that’s what I always liked about swimming vs. team sports, too…why deal with people when you can just do things under your own power xD I was chronically terrible at all team sports tbh - didn’t like them, didn’t want them, didn’t get them not that I was very good at any sport, but…y’know lol. Anyway.).
When he gets to practice, he finds himself alone with Nagisa for the day, which makes him feel awkward - he still doesn’t really know how to “be” toward Nagisa, because although he’s not this open, friendly person, he also doesn’t have the heart to push Nagisa away like he does pretty much everyone else But when they move into practice, he starts thinking about what Nagisa’s goals in swimming are (namely, swim fast, win relay). And he wonders whether everyone on the team has to have the same goal. Probably, right? That’s what teamwork is, working toward a common goal. But if that’s the case, then the meaning of swimming just becomes lost for him. Which seems…sad. Being a part of something or being with people always seems to mean giving up a part of himself. 
You know what’s interesting, I just realized that there’s like…literally no coach for this swim team I mean, the structure of the practices is mentioned juuust enough to give the impression that someone must be organizing things somehow, but not once has a coach shown up or been mentioned at all. This is interesting to me because they definitely have a former elementary school swim coach in the anime 
Where is he? Where are any adults tbh, I don’t think one’s shown up once These elementary school kids are mature enough to run themselves, apparently. It does have sort of a nice effect, though, having it all be about the kids and the way they deal with things within their own self-contained “society.”
Good words
絡み付く (からみつく) - to pester; to hassle
いまだに - still; even now; to this day
だからと言って - while it may be true that; just because; nevertheless; not necessarily
協調性 (きょうちょうせい) - cooperativeness; spirit of cooperation
不協和音 (ふきょうわおん) - discord; dissonance; cacophony; disharmony
言い表す (いいあらわす) - to express (in words)
ゼンマイ - spring (not, as I first thought, royal fern thanks for that extremely confusing moment, Jisho)
錆びつく (さびつく) - become rusted together; to become rusted shut; to rust; to become (completely) rusty; to be covered with rust
理解し難い (りかいしがたい) - hard to understand
蒔く (まく) - to sow; to plant; to seed
ありのまま - the truth; fact; as it is; as you are; frank; bare plain
へたり込む (へたりこむ) - to sit down hard; to sink down to the floor
13 Likes
Reading Update: 10月5日〜13日
Materials:
授乳
月刊少女野崎くん３
SPYxFAMILY１
I gotta write these updates a little more often. It’s getting to be a pain scrolling back to figure out the date range of the last one. (Of course, this is a wonderful problem to have, because it means there’s plenty of updates from everyone else that I get to read. )
SPYxFAMILY１: So, what’s with SPYxFAMILY and that white square? Well, one day this period I was sitting in bed on my phone, and I decided to open up the ジャンプ＋ app on my phone and browse for something to read. Thus, my reading for that day was a smidge of the first chapter of SPYxFAMILY. The white square is because I don’t know if I’ll continue reading it during this challenge (since I’m still very much behind on all of my other books), and I don’t want to add it in with the list of others. I don’t know, it’s probably not a big deal. I’m just being particular.
I was pretty into what I read of it, though! The first double page spread got me interested, and I even chuckled at an unexpected joke. Still, to the back burner it goes.
The two-page spread (i.e., crudely joining two screenshots)
Ignore the weird translucent line in the middle; it’s from my phone.
月刊少女野崎くん３: Only read a few pages this time around. 鹿島くん is taking voice lessons from 瀬尾, which sounds about as successful as you’d think it’d be.
授乳: Still chugging along with the first story in the collection, though I’m on the last set of pages for it. Today the narrator described a shrine that’s a little out of the way from her route home from school. Man, did the kanji really get me good. On the plus side, I now know the kanji for Tori gates.
Interesting Vocab
鳥居 (とりい) the iconic red Tori arches
砂利 (じゃり) pebbles, gravel
入道雲 (にゅうどうぐも) cumulonimbus, gigantic columns of clouds (in summer), thunderhead [have never heard this last term before, so that’s a bonus]
錆びる (さびる) to rust, become rusty
糞 (くそ) feces [literally have never seen the kanji for this before]
ざまあみろ it serves you right [love this one]
いじきたない gluttonous, greedy [to add to the word for glutton I commented on a while back]
(click for home post)
12 Likes
Day XLIV: この音とまれ！ pg.51-61 & １０月１５日: きのこの日 
10 pages today, kinda realised that I won’t be able to finish this by the 18th (perhaps I was a little overly-optimistic), starting to think this is a bit beyond my reading ability. At least, in terms of non-kanji words and sentence structures, since I’ve not seen many new words here but there’s so much non-kanji stuff that I just don’t get.
Today is mushroom day! きのこの日!
Was curious what きのこ is in kanji and it’s: 茸 … which isn’t very mushroomy (though really, I don’t know what I was expecting).
~ New Words! ~
ヒバリ (雲雀) - Skylark
椎茸 (しいたけ) - Shiitake mushroom
EDIT: Just realised that today’s mushroom day is actually for tomorrow… because Japan is in the future.
(somehow I missed the big 15 in the title)
Today (the 14th) is Railroad day 鉄道の日, so erm, put those mushrooms down until tomorrow.
13 Likes
Day 43:
日本語: I read a fair amount of 伯爵と妖精 20.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter and a half of 7SEEDS.
中国語
中国語: I read 聪明的狗. I added 夸.
11 Likes
October 14
・Honzuki 6. (54% → 55%)
不躾 - impolite, rude, blunt
That last kanji is a Japanese-made kanji! :3 A kokuji 
14 Likes