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.
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
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
October 13th
Final Fantasy XIV
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
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.”
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
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.
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.
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)
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.
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: I read 聪明的狗. I added 夸.
October 14
・Honzuki 6. (54% → 55%)
不躾 - impolite, rude, blunt
That last kanji is a Japanese-made kanji! :3 A kokuji 
October 14th
Stardew Valley
Too many words today, but here are some:
Second day of Stardew Valley. It’s actually pretty chill in Japanese too, the level is not too high, it’s been nice so far. A lot of vocabulary to mine, but the grammar is not anything out of the ordinary, very straightforward. It’s definitely a nice pick for the days my brain is too tired for FFXIV, that one can get insane at times.
Hey all, sorry for the lack of updates and replies to your lovely messages, my right wrist has decided to pack it in so I’m in quite a bit of pain, so I’'ll be minimising excess computer usage for the next few days to get some recovery in, so I wanted to get in one last reply at least. I’m still keeping up with reading, I might just be quiet for a few days.
October 13th - reread /read first 3 pages of demon slayer, got all the grammar points I was unsure about down
October 14th - read 5 more pages of demon slayer =O, and helped a friend breakdown some sentences in やがて君になる (1).
Thanks everyone (@sycamore, @Aislin, @NicoleIsEnough, others oh god I hope I haven’t missed a reply) for the support and cheering-on <3 <3 <3
Thank you for joining us! We’ve obviously loved having you with us and I personally really look forward to seeing more of you again in the future =D
I completely understand this, after the last reading challenge I took probably a few weeks or so off just not reading at all to kind of recover - the rest breaks between these sprints are very much needed.
=D I’m super glad to hear that my tone came across over text correctly =D
Huh, so this is probably obvious and exactly what you expected… but despite the sentences being obviously harder, it was still much easier to do?
~3 times I’ve sat down with the next graded reader in the pack to try read it, opened it, and just noped out - usually going back to read a manga I’m interested in instead.
The graded readers despite being way easier in vocab & grammar sometimes feel like I’m swimming through mud / custard / some-non-newtonian-fluid.
Last night I sat down to read ‘just one page for the days goal’ and ended up with 5, by which point it was past midnight and I stopped so I could wind down for bed.
Whenever I think about the fact that you and many other users on these forums are speaking English as a second language, I’m just so impressed. You’re learning another language in a 2nd language. mind=blown.
Thanks for the links, I had a question about the first few pages and thankfully the demon slayer thread covered it in their last post before they stopped (じゃない in the non-negative sense) =D
That is quite seriously the sweetest offer, maybe ever, reading this the other day made me so very happy and its why I wanted to make sure to get a reply in today before I vanish for a bit 
But I really wouldn’t want you to read something that didn’t interest you!
Day 44: October 14
What did I read?: 夜は猫といっしょ Vol 2
How much did I read?: 22 pages
How long did it take me?: oh gdi, I just realized I didn’t even time it 
Urghhhh man, I fully intended to read High Speed today but it got late because I got distracted and I didn’t feel like I had time anymore -_- Whyyy
But at least I remembered to read something, I suppose xD
This panel cracks me up, this little vampire child
What a perfect baby angel <3
Good words:
…
quietly lowers mushrooms
I like that kanji though, it’s like an ear growing in the grass xD (which…sort of makes sense? in the weirdest way? xD)
Good idea, don’t overdo it! Hope your wrist feels better soon <3
Oh no! I hope you will recover soon and that your recent surgeries may help you to improve that state long-term! 
That’s what I had hoped for indeed! The level comparison actually was a true question as I don’t exactly know what level you’re at and which graded readers you were reading. But yeah, I expected the native material to be somewhat harder.
I sometimes wonder how much I miss because of that… While I think that my command of English is fairly okay, there are still many words that I don’t know or where I don’t get the exact nuance or something. But I guess it will all even out over time.
Awww 
Thanks!
Well as you said, I’m responsible for this so now I gotta deal with it 
Nah, seriously, I can’t say I’m not interested if I haven’t tried it yet, can I? I didn’t expect it to be set in the olden days (which is something I really like), so the first few pages at least caught my interest. Let’s see how it goes once the demon-slaying part comes into play 
Regarding reading every day: I dropped out maybe two or three weeks ago because I was very busy (the worst part of which is over now, thankfully) and currently I somehow don’t have the mental capacity to read something difficult (because a lot of my mental energy goes to my N2 studies), but I think I could do a few pages of Demon Slayer every day to get me back on track! Therefore:
Oct 15th: Read Demon Slayer until p. 16
Hello everyone! I can’t believe it’s been a week… hope everyone is doing well! I’ve been looking forward to getting back and catching up to everyone’s posts here hehe 
I had been super busy and away from home, and when I came back I had to seriously rush and focus on a Uni assignment that was due soon;; stressful week, but I managed to read even a little everyday! Here it is:
What did I read:
Day 31 (10月 9日) 
徳島県, continuing reading the his from the day before. Friend had lived there before and he always keeps telling me about the place and I felt I should do it some justice by at least looking it up… 16min
暁のヨナ,bookclub read-aloud, chapter 40. Idk how, but I ended up doing a lot of roles, a lot of lines
Day 32 (10月 10日)
スダチ
Curious from the previous day, and ever interested in 
plants, I had to look up about this citrus, which seems to be native to and a specialty of Tokushima. It’s commonly used instead of lime/lemon to flavour grilled meat and fish.
The other reason I looked it up was bc I wanted to know what Tokushima prefecture’s mascot, スダチくん was based on… friend showed him to me, and he was so so cute, but I didn’t know what a sudachi was back then, and I thought he was a bean?? At best??? Lol pls google him, he is cute 
Day 33 (10月 11日)
Based on a question that came up during bookclub session the previous day,my reading was mostly looking up in monolingual dictionary, for the meaning and etymology of 無鉄砲 because we were all curious. It literally reads “no gun” so why does it have the meaning of ‘reckless’ ?
無鉄砲, meaning ‘to rush like a bullet’ (lol?) seems to have originated from it sounding similar to 無手法, which in turn means to do something but not having any means, any method, any special skills wrt to it. 
thus, acting without thinking much about it, acting recklessly.
A second etymology; it seems that the word was an 当て字 for 「無点法」. 無点 in said case meant ‘Classical Chinese with no okurigana’ ,which back in the day were hard for Japanese to read and understand. So the word came to take on the meaning of ‘ambiguous; unclear’.
reading more on it, found the fun fact that Natsume Souseki used it in his 「ぼうっちゃん」, and it gained a lot of popularity. Seems to be used in expressions such as:
•「無鉄砲な人」
•「無鉄砲な計画」
Day 34 (10月 12日)
歴史366, only one story, 10min. Very tired, one of those ‘just-tick-the-box’ days…
Day 35 (10月 13日)
10分で読めるこわい話, half of chapter 2. Unfortunately, I didn’t kept track of time, but it must have been 15-ish minutes?
Day 36 (10月 14日)
10分で読めるこわい話, rest of chapter 2.
Day 37 (10月 15日)
新完全マスター読解, the 言い換え examples and then the passages after then, ~1hour
edit: read more
暁のヨナ、chapter 41 and vocabulary look-up
Hope your wrist feels better soon!!!
Yesterday I read a pathetic quarter of a page today I read first thing in the morning (which used to be my regular routine). I aimed for one page and ended up reading two! Normally if I’m this unenthused about finishing a book I’ll just drop it, but I’ve already read almost 200 (okay 190) pages, and there are only about 20 (okay 30) more, so I really want to finish and get that satisfaction.
:: TANUKIDATE 20211014 :: 
