Day 3 (9月 11日)
posting now bc I went to bed early last night, oops
What did I read:
暁のヨナ , bookclub read aloud session! was super fun, as always… but we were only four members this time around, and we didn’t distribute the lines all that well… read chapters 33-34, took us almost 2h but we do translation as well, and… we deviate a looot
I also read the tanuki story@Zakarius shared! That was super fun! And the whole website actually is such a find!! Thank you for that
What i learnt:
修羅 = fighting; carnage; conflict; strife
引けを取らない = not losing out (to); holding one’s own (against)
門前払い = turning another away at the gate or front door
Uh, seems like I did not post for quite a few days… this week was super busy so I lost a bit of steam, both wrt reading and also wrt posting. Let’s see how it went:
Sep 8th: Read a bit more than a page of 糞尿譚 (until 47/158) Sep 9th: Read about a page of 糞尿譚 (until 49/158) Sep 10th: Started the 3rd week of BBC 小川未明 stories Sep 11th: Finished the 3rd week of 小川未明 stories (and wrote a post about various grammar points)
Huh, that doesn’t look too good Will try to read a bit more today…
Read chapters 6 and 7 in 手紙！
On one hand: woo! I doubled my pace and still understand the story!!
On the other: but… I didn’t look up any of the words I didn’t know, or check my pronounciation
Last update has been a week already… I finished reading through Polar Bear Café Today’s Special volume 1. It was good, as there’s a variety of stories and difficulty in it. A lot more focus on sidecharacters you hardly noticed in the first series. I did feel it was slightly more difficult than the first series. Not entirely sure where that lies, maybe the vocabulary use. As Today’s Special does have longer words/kanji compounds in my experience. I did feel I learned quite a bit from it. There’s a yojijukugo that I found pretty neat in it: 適者生存 which comes close to the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’. The little character notes are also fun to read as they have summary of the characters on them and for the animals this typically means they also list what type of animal they are.
Help. To my own surprise, I was able to get most of the grammar. It’s just the prologue, so nothing really interesting happening yet, but it sets a good ground for future events still. Also much more interesting to read than watered down text in beelinguapp :")
Words I didn’t know: 変わらぬ, 過ぎ去る, 幾度, 照らす, 想い, 揺らぐ, 祈り, 続ける, 今宵, 緊張, 城, 記憶, 取り戻す, 使い魔, お呼び. Basically solid half of the vocabulary for said pages. I knew some of kanji, though, so I was more or less able to guess the meaning in some cases.
I listed to the story first without reading and was surprised with how much I understood, since I feel my listening is super poor. The slow and clear narration really helps.
Also, I love the narrator’s samurai voice: – わはははははは。ついに正体を現しおったな–
I read the story without listening after, I think I managed to fill in most of the gaps in understanding that I’d missed with listening (my head’s voice made sure to make the Samurai’s voice very epic). But I’m not so sure if I got all the readings correct, so I read and listened together to check on the kanji readings.
And, as always with Japanese, I’m surprised with what they decide to have in kanji and what to have in kana. Suppose I’ll get used to what to use eventually.
What did I read: 日本の歴史366This is the book most fitting for this challenge tbh haha, it’s one of those one-page-a-day books, and it’s truly so nice. I got the book around May and started it, and I actually kept a strike till August… right now I have a month’s worth of pages to catch up to, so if I just do my daily page, +1 from August backlog I should catch up by the end of month…
2 stories today, ~15min
What I learnt:
公衆電話 = pay phone, public phone
設置 =establisment, installation
通話料 = charge for a phonecall
命 を 絶つ = to end one’s life; to commit suicide (命を絶つとは - コトバンク )
出 家 entering priesthood; to forsake one’s life so far and practice asceticism (Buddhism)
Day 12: September 12
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 5 pages
How long did it take me?: 52 min (new record?)
Aaaand we’re back And Haru’s back, too, actually, haha, from being out sick. Being healed by the water I love that he just skipped school and only came to swim practice, because school was not healing (the book legit said that, I didn’t even make that up I cannot with this boy)
Rin being all, “Haru, come on, we have relay practice,” and Haru being like “…wtf are you talking about, relay practice” is so funny to me. Um, Haru, I think you’re about to get a surprise that you’re not gonna like But we finally get a version of Haru’s iconic line: フリーしか泳がない (tiny fangirl noises)
I think my favorite word of today is じゃまくさい - troublesome; pain in the butt. Idk why but this made me laugh out loud when I looked it up, Haru thinking Makoto’s concern is a pain in the butt just kills me. he’s your friend and he loves you, be nice
Some other good words from today
苛立つ (いらだつ) - to be irritated; to get annoyed; to lose one’s patience (variations of this word seem to be coming up a lot lol)
荒げる (あらげる) - to roughen (e.g. one’s attitude); to raise (one’s voice)
言わんばかり (いわんばかり) - as if to say; as much as to say; as though (omg @Axazel, same word this kind of feels like a grammar point, so I want to try and remember it. …god knows I’m never going to learn grammar any other way)
すれ違う (すれちがう) - to pass (by) each other; to brush past (can also mean to be at odds; to clash; to be in conflict)
掻き消える (かききえる) - to disappear; to vanish into thin air
躊躇う (ためらう) - to hesitate; to waver (what even are these kanji, omg, I would hesitate too if these showed up out of nowhere it was written in kana in the book though lol)
まし - better; preferable; less objectionable; least-worst
心配を掛ける (しんぱいをかける) - to cause someone to worry
(I feel like at some point I’m going to accidentally repeat some word, because sometimes I have to see a word like 5 times before I remember having seen it ever, but I don’t think any of these are repeats)
Why do I keep accidentally making everyone want to read cute manga in these challenges
It’s 'cause I like cute manga, they’re cute D:<
Day 12: September 12th
Satori Reader: Secret, episode 38.
Random words
発作 = ほっさ fit, spasm, attack.
確信 = かくしん conviction, belief.
芽生える = めばえる to bud, to sprout (works figuratively).
Today was hard, I was really going to call this one off. I don’t even know how I decided otherwise, I suppose my stubbornness is helpful occasionally. めっちゃ眠いけど ；；
Read chapters 8 and 9 in 手紙！That’s two days in a row of two chapters Am… Am I speeding up?!
Guys. I’m in so much trouble with this book. I just finished only the first part (out of 5) and it is already bringing tears to my eyes. It’s the brothers personalities, where both of them care so much while both refusing the other’s love, which seems to be ultimately driving a wedge between them.
Today's words
罵る (ののしる) = to curse, verbally abuse. Can be used when you curse yourself in your head too. My mnemonic: you caught a horse in a net and it’s cursing you. “No, no!! See here!!”
Ahh!! Word twins! I also thought it was a grammer point, but wasn’t successful in finding any YouTube lessons or anything on it yet (unrelated, but I also have been enjoying your reviews each day!!)
Hello!! It’s never too late! Will be cheering for your JLPT studies~
Hi, I’m joining late! I’ve never done a challenge like this before, so I’m going to set the goal of reading at least one panel of よつばと！per day. I just read two pages of it, so far so good!
Day 3 (9月 11日) 
was super fun, as always… but we were only four members this time around, and we didn’t distribute the lines all that well… read chapters 33-34, took us almost 2h but we do translation as well, and… we deviate a looot 
Will try to read a bit more today…
* big virtual hugs *
Day 12
And Haru’s back, too, actually, haha, from being out sick. Being healed by the water 
I love that he just 
I cannot with this boy)
this kind of feels like a grammar point, so I want to try and remember it. …god knows I’m never going to learn grammar any other way)
Am… Am I speeding up?!
(unrelated, but I also have been enjoying your reviews each day!!)