Day 27:
日本語: I read a lot of はめふら 11.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of ハイキュー (finished v1).
中国語
中国語: I read 水果.
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My tutor had me using a lot of カピバラさん books when I first started (ngl, this is probably why I stuck with Japanese) and they used うとうと to describe the capybaras so it’s one of my favourite onomatopoeia.
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Day 20（9月 28日) 
What did I read:
Bad reading day, and a pretty tiring day tbh… I only read a bit about Miyagi prefecture, from the treasure trove of a link Zakarius shared.
Thank you so much! I love reading and learning about prefectures, and honestly this page is a goldmine!!
Read as far as the emblem, flower, tree and bird of the prefecture go, leaving the deer out. But will definitely go back to it!
Emblem is meant to look after a the prefecture flower,
The actual flower is:ミヤギノハギ (Thunberg’s lespedeza)
Blooms July-September, the flowers take a beautiful magenta colour and are butterfly-shaped! So pretty!!
Prefecture tree is the zelkova tree
Bird is the goose and animal is the deer 
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Bless you, I’m loving this whole post, so educational and documentaristic haha! In Portuguese too, カカ is also like baby talk for 
Don’t you guys find it amazing how a single concept can have similar-sounding words in so many different languages, lol
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Thanks for linking this! Navigating the site without using any translation I was able to find free capybara chapters. So cute!!
Thank you for writing this post even though you were tired! I wish I could give it more than one heart! It was super fun to learn a little about Miyagi prefecture. 
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Decided taking another pass on this book aimed for young Japanese learners to encourage reading. I had followed it before with the book club on wanikani, but it was pretty hard to keep up and interest waned. To change things around a bit I’m reading a story every night before bed. Normally I would read manga during the day, either before or after doing reviews.
Look it has a cute snail carrying a house on its little shell! This book has 13 different short stories. Most of them are classic Japanese stories, but there’s also poems, a haiku, western stories and a bit of science.
Yesterday I read the first story (きつねのしゃしん) again. Not gonna lie, I still struggled reading through it, but luckily not as much as before. Part of the difficulty is in the hiragana and lack of vocabulary.
Anyway this will keep me busy for a while. Gives me a bit more room to think up what to read after that.
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September 26
26
total: 93/100
- カラフル (53 → 57% text)
September 27
27
total: 94/100
- カラフル (57 → 59% text)
September 28
28
total: 95/100108
- カラフル (59 → 61% text)
- カラフル (52 → 57% audio but was falling asleep again)
→ listening to audiobook has it’s benefits even if I’m sleepy - I had to figure out where I am in the story each time I woke up 
(yes, it was only a 18-minutes fragment and yet I managed to get several mininaps during that time 
)
but I’m going to relisten to it once more.
→ officially changing my goal to 108, because I’m going to read every day anyway until I finish カラフル and catch up to the 授乳 book club
(…I hope 108 will be enough because I’m no longer sure. But I should have more free time at least for the next 2 weeks)
Why 108
The number the Buddhist temples’ bells ring in Japan at midnight on December 31st. I have a soft spot for that number since I learned as a teenager that’s why Death Note has 108 chapters.
I’m not very into its spiritual connotations, but it has a meaning of completion/end-of-old-start-of-new for me.
(but i’m aware it does have connotations in things aside Buddhism too)
How did I do that
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and btw if you want to do this
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::: TANUKIDATE 20210929 ::: Day XXIX: 長崎県
Thought I’d explore the prefecture page a bit more today, so much reading… and I didn’t manage to read it all even, pretty tired now. 
This site just keeps on giving! And same, I love how the prefectures all have their symbols.
(That Zelkova tree looks straight out of Studio Ghibli, so pretty)
A lot of new words
~ Words! ~
ヒノキ(檜) - Hinoki Cypress / Japanese Cypress
ツバキ(椿) - Common Camellia
ツツジ(躑躅) - Azalea (Rhododendron) - those are some real complex kanji
オシドリ(鴛鴦) - Mandarin Duck – no way! I clicked on Nagasaki at random, but Mandarin ducks are my favourite ducks! (also scary kanji)
哺乳類 (ほにゅうるい) - Mammals / Mammalian
偶蹄類 (ぐうているい) - even-toed ungulates
角化 (かくか) - Keratinization / cornification
皮膜 (ひまく) - Membrane (Skin membrane)
(not sure that I’ll ever need these scientific words - but you never know! 
)
~ Places! ~
五島列島 (ごとれっとう) - Goto Islands (archipelago)
対馬 (つしま) - I know this one! (thanks Ghost of Tsushima) but I didn’t know the kanji
壱岐 (いき) - Iki
雲仙 (うんぜん) - Unzen
屋久島 (やくしま) - Yakushima Island
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Miyagi! I lived there for two years (in Sendai, to be specific). Absolutely loved it there. Despite that, I didn’t know all those facts about the prefecture! Interesting that its animal is the deer, even though Nara is the one famous for its deer.
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Aaah so lucky!!! It’s my dream to next visit the Touhoku area and I really want to go to Sendai!! I’ve heard only the best impressions tbh! And, ikr?? I was surprised about the deer, for the same reason!
Awww, you’re so sweet;; and thank you for taking the time to read it 
I actually wrote it up this morning, it was my entries from yesterday… I will write today’s either later or tomorrow 
Rrrright?? And at first glance, the site’s layout and design doesn’t give away a think, but honestly, it’s been so comprehensive so far…!
Thank tou for sharing all these words today!! Really useful!
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September 29
・乳と卵. (17% → 21%)
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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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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 
.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing 
. And yes, caca is poop in Spanish too 
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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 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 
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) (
)
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 
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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 
Mainly because of all the “science” babbling.
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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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Day 21（9月 29日)
What did I read:
- 暁のヨナ, bookclub read-aloud, chapter 37, it took us around 25min
- this article about 雨女
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. 
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
(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 
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 
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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