Day 19
Read section 2, Chapter 7 in 手紙!
A really pleasent chapter! Lately starting to wonder if I’m tense for no reason… but thinking that makes me put my guard back up.
Due to life being how it can be, I’m so wiped out. But it feels good to keep up with these challenge with you all 
Day 18:
日本語: I read a lot of 鋼の錬金術師 (finished v3), a fair amount of はめふら 10 (started new novel), and some of 魔王城でおやすみ.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of ふしぎの国のバード.
中国語: I read 给丈母娘的礼物. 送 is pretty much 送る, yay.
Another week completed, success!
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Almost forgot to make an update today. I have finished reading through volume 2 of Polar Bear Café Today’s Special. There was an panel where Grizzly says 和気藹々 and the last part makes this a たる adjective. I had not seen this before, was quite interesting to discover on a sunday afternoon. Volume is pretty varied as usual, the coffee stories with Misaki are always kinda fun learning opportunities and 
also showed up briefly.
Got one more volume left and then I’m caught up with the series.
Summary post
September 19 Tiny read today. Did many study 
9月19日：
Day 12
What did I read:
The conflict continues, Sakemichi insists that Wadanohara has to leave, while Wadanohara says that she looked for him. Sakemichi says that if she won’t leave by herself - he will force her out.
Finished reading 光る葉 chapter, which seems to be a sort of a prologue. I wonder now if a boy and a grandfather from this chapter will show up in later chapters (I guess they will) and, well, who are they in the first place, and also I wonder if these algae have any meaning to the story by themselved, or if it’s a philosophy behind this chapter is what does matter later. Story:: Grandfather tells that when these “glowing leafs” plant seeds, they shortly die, all at once, without exception. The boy, seemingly sad, asks if it means that they die without raising their children , to which grandfather nods and tells that there are unexpectedly a lot of species like this. The boy then asks how the algae died, because he finds it weird that you would die by laying an egg, and asks if it’s an egg what kills it. Grandfarther says that it’s not the egg, but “the seed of illness”, and that this “seed” exists in every living creature, proceeding that if you can win over it - you’ll live, but if you don’t - you die, and that’s how it is with everything.
Read three pages today and yesterday! Today’s pages went so much faster because we are back with ボンボン and ナコ, and they are having a big fight, because ナコ wants to teach ボンボン tricks, and ボンボン says that his (? actually not at all sure what ボンボン’s gender is… and it feels weird to use pronouns for ボンボン!! This is such an interesting aspect of reading in Japanese!) anyway, ボンボン’s mother said corgi’s should think for themselves, and ボンボン is not going to do a trick just because ナコ said, and maybe ナコ should do the trick if she wants to do tricks so badly. 
I was entertained. 
由緒正しい・ゆいしょただしい・having an ancient and honorable origin
役に立つ・やくにたつ・to be helpful
ありとあらゆる・every conceivable; every single; every possible; all kinds of
→ context: ありとあらゆる悪口
Wow, egg-laying algae is not at all what I would have expected the prologue to be about! Not even a little bit! Have you met any 鹿 yet? Deer are really the main reason I’m interested in this series.
Me neither, really. XD
Not yet, but I read like… apparently around 3, maybe 4 pages of a physical copy? Not that much. Going by search function, I should meet one in the next chapter I’ll start tomorrow, so, soon.
—Double Story Combo—
Read (and listened to) today’s and yesterday’s folktales, and both were about a boy and a monk. The second one (仏さまに失礼) has pictures too, and amusing readings as usual:「（（馬鹿者！））」.
Don’t think I’ve seen this word before: 檀家 (だんか）= parishioner.
Day 11 (9月 19日) 
What did I read:
暁のヨナ , ch36, halfway, ~14pages.
歴史366, 3 stories, 25min
読解, a couple of texts and then their comprehension questions 
also, read a bunch of bookmeter reviews on ヨナ第6巻
総書記| そうしょき | secretary-general, general secretary (esp. of Communist parties of the Democratic Republic of North Korea and the People’s Republic of China)
正常化 | せいじょうか| normalization
拉致問題| らちもんだい | abduction issue (esp. of those Japanese abducted by North Korea)
首脳会談| しゅのうかいだん｜ leadership conference, summit meeting
土器｜ どき｜earthenware
石器| せっき｜stone tool
気が気じゃ無い｜to feel nervous; to feel uneasy | weblio
September 19th
Satori Reader: Secret, episode 44.
I couldn’t read yesterday, finally. I would actually like to use this opportunity to my advantage, to interiorize that even if it won’t be that sweet 100% completion, the challenge keeps going and there’s still a very wide range of benefits to reap from it. I need to embrace “failure” more often in my life, so I hope this is a good opportunity to work on getting rid of the toxic perfectionist mentality, while still keeping the healthy one of pushing oneself in a realistic and wholesome way.
Day 19: September 19
What did I read?: 夜は猫といっしょ Vol 1
How much did I read?: 32 pages
How long did it take me?: 26 min
Omg it’s so late, frick, I gotta write this post and get out of here, why did I spend hours writing an essay on a different thread
So basically the premise of this manga is “cat does weird cat things” and I love it <3 The cat is so cute, his name is キュルガ now because the main kid’s sister was taking pics of the cat and the pattern of its fur apparently read like a QR code to her phone camera, it was all “do you want to scan this code” xD The name comes from キューアール がぞう
The cat kinda looks like a bunny to me for some reason, why is it so cute xD
Good words:
二次元コード - two-dimensional code (of which QR codes are a type - I also learned that term for the first time in English today 
)
読み取る - to scan (a barcode)
撫でる (なでる) - to stroke; to caress; to brush gently; to pat; to rub
神経 (しんけい) - nerve
弄り (いじり) - meddling; fumbling; fondling; playing around with something (written in kana, but the kanji is cute so I kept it lol)
Day 19: Finished another two pages of よつば＆！
I can’t, the cuteness is ending me, the uwu’s oozing out of my body lkasdjalkd
Yesterday/today I managed to read two pages of パラサイト・イヴ. It has become much harder, lots of things to look up. I have already seen at least five kanji not taught on wanikani.
I wonder what my friends are reading. But knowing them, they probably play some stupid japanese gatcha games and spend real money on said games.
Friday I had a looong day of socialising (!!! a rare treat these days!) so just read a few pages of こぐまケーキ屋さん before bed.
Saturday I sat in the garden to read and my mobile battery was dead so I plugged it in to charge in the house and decided to try reading without a dictionary. I understood the narrative, but there were a couple of nouns that I just couldn’t deduce from the context including one that seemed fairly central to the plot.
Sunday I read some new cookery books and marked up pages of recipes I want to cook with some リラックマ page markers that I bought on Friday, and then made a new spinach and tofu recipe for dinner.
Today I had conversation class before work and so didn’t read until lunchtime. I re-read the chapter from Saturday but looking up words this time. Turns out the word I didn’t know - 貝塚 - means shell heap or kitchen midden. I feel like this is one of those words I either won’t see again for 10 years or will weirdly find coming up all over the place.
DYING. Also glad it’s not just me who feels obliged to put things on their cat’s tiny head.
Does anyone have any recommended 日本語の本? Not really looking for any manga rn though, they be $$$. But I do wanna get a hard coppy of something 
There’s always lots of free stuff at Bookwalker:
If you don’t know how to set up your account on Bookwalker, just have a look in here:
September 20 I’m still undecided if I’m going to wait for the 大海原と大海原 club or just keep speeding ahead =\
Today I re-read parts of 大海原と大海原 Chapter 1 & read my grammar dictionary to answer some questions in the book club, after this I didn’t think I had much more reading in me for the night given its now past midnight.
Buuuutt I decided to try make some progress on チーズスイートホーム and typed out all the pages from chapter 9 and read 2 of them.
Day 20
Read section 2, half of Chapter 8 in 手紙!
Another long chapter! I’m running low of reading focus lately. So, in an effort to avoid skipping a day, I’m gonna relax and just read as little (or much) as the mood strikes me for a while.
I did get a pretty great expression today!
捕らぬ狸の皮算用 (とらぬたぬきのかわざんよう)= counting one’s chickens before they hatch. Literally, “counting tanuki pelts before they’ve been caught” ah, maybe not so great ( •̀ㅁ•́;)
