📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

[eoame]

29th of April
Day 29

I read pages 40 and 41 of かがみの孤城 today. There were a few things I looked up but other than those, it was pretty easy to understand.

@eoame

Seems like page 40 is where things get interesting/sad

Oh yeah, this is where I find out more about what happened to Kokoro at her old school. Poor Kokoro… The classic gossip, backstabbing and exclusiveness of middle school girls. Wonder if it gets worse.

Honestly, what I really love about novels is that you get to step into someone’s shoes: someone that’s completely different from you; someone you would never have been able to emphasise with otherwise. Reading their story (which is, of course, most likely influenced by the author’s experiences) is gaining an entirely new perspective of the world and living a different life through their eyes. Obviously I’m saying this as an avid reader in my native language, English, but I hope I’ll be able to read in Japanese and get the same immersive experience someday.

Just the fact that I wrote all that is showing I need to go to bed I have not gotten enough sleep these past two days like last night, I said I would go to sleep early and then ended up finishing a novel at 1:30am why can’t I do that reading in Japanese instead

[sycamore]

I have not been updating but I’ve been enjoying reading everyone else’s updates, you are all killing it

I was on a work trip at the start of this week and had about 1hr each day that wasn’t accounted for with either work or (not enough) sleep. I am now back, but am feeling terrible (so far testing negative for COVID so fingers crossed, especially as I’m meant to be starting a new job Tuesday and have so much to finish before then)

I tried reading more of the various novels I’ve been reading but have been too exhausted tbh, sorry books But luckily 13 sentinels has been there, so I’ve actually still read every day. A combo of the repitition & mainly direct speech means that it’s manageable (& fun!) even with fried brain. It’s also nicely broken into 5-15 mins story chunks so works well when only got a little time. I’m really enjoying it so far! Being able to bounce between the different character stories is also really nice as they tend to vary a bit in difficult and style as well. It’s quite nice in that it feels more like ‘i want to play more of this game I’m enjoying that happens to be in Japanese’ than ‘must try to read something in Japanese and so will play this game’…if that makes sense

[Zakarius]

Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220429

Tanuki Scroll XXIX: 山びこになった男の子

Read today’s folktale, from Kagoshima prefecture!

About a boy’s mean step-mum who makes him go out into the mountains to do meaningless tasks every day just to pick on him. One day an old man finds him crying in the mountains and asks what’s wrong, the boy tells him and he’s just like: “Well, you don’t have to go home, let’s make you into a Mountain Spirit instead!” and so -POOF- the boy becomes Yamabiko 「山びこ」.

And now he is happily running around in the mountains playing pranks on people by mimicking their voices and sounds. Until lumberjack-san reminds him of his step-mum and he gets sad and stops his mischief.

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Japanese found in the tall grass

New Things

蔓草「つるくさ」ー Vine

Word not recognised because it was in katakana (these always trip me up)
マヌケ「間抜け」ー Idiot; stupid
I feel very マヌケ now after trying to work out what it could possibly even be, then as soon as I see the kanji it just clicks.

Bonus word I found earlier
牝鹿「めじか」ー Doe; female deer

[Redglare]

@rikaiwisdom

At the same time, nothing wrong with stopping the challenge if you feel like it’s taking a mental slot that you need right now. At the end of the day it’s an artificial thing to work in your favour; you can stop it when it’s no longer useful, and resume it when it is. You could also forget about the “every day” and go for whatever frequency works.

Thanks for the reminder! Hehe, mental slot, I like that phrase. Now where’s the “unequip” button ? Throwback to when the players couldn’t log out of SAO.

I’m kinda conflicted actually, I agree but at the same time I’m like… I don’t think I have it in me to stop just yet? I’ll figure this out somehow. But if things become too much I’ll definitely take a break from the challenge ^^

@GrumpyPanda

Same. Let me know once you’ve figured something out

Hmm, it really depends on your situation My problem is that I don’t know how to relax properly after a long day of studying (turns out doomscrolling/endless youtube is not very effective ) and I tend to put off reading until it’s very late. Because of that, I end up not getting enough sleep and I find it difficult to be productive the next day.

You know what, I’m starting to think this could be part of the challenge Figuring out how to spend my time the way I want to, as well as managing my level of energy. Recently, I’ve learnt the joy of waking up early without feeling tired. Might be a weird thing to be excited about xD Maybe I’m getting old :P I’m not even 25 yet…?

@Axazel

I’m thinking of switching to manga I’ve already read or something else like picture books, the next time I feel burned out or pressed for time.

Basically anything fun and purposefully short, only to check the box

ohh, manga! I think for me, Honzuki (light novel) might fill that role I’m just scared of enjoying Honzuki so much I can’t put it down and end up putting off sleep As for actual manga, maybe I should pick up Flying Witch again.

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Yawing is more contagious than I thought??? what in the actual xD

@saidahgilbert

@Redglare

You know you’re tired when a character yawns and you start yawning too. I know yawns can be contagious? infectious? but to such a degree…

@NicoleRauch

What if you read about somebody reading about a character yawning, and that urges you to yawn as well?

@windupbird

I literally yawned while reading this sentence, what is this sorcery

@MissDagger

Well, seems it works even when just reading about someone else reading about someone else who read a book where someone yawned.

The magic spell continues. Each time this topic came up, I yawned. It didn’t help that I was already tired because I’ve been getting less sleep than usual these days.

[Beyond_Sleepy]

Reply

@Redglare

My problem is that I don’t know how to relax properly after a long day of studying (turns out doomscrolling/endless youtube is not very effective ) and I tend to put off reading until it’s very late. Because of that, I end up not getting enough sleep and I find it difficult to be productive the next day.

I go to bed between 22:00 and 00:00, wake up between 08:00 and 09:00, and study until 19:00-20:00… in the 2-5 hours I have for relaxation I don’t do anything I do not want to, which sometimes means not doing anything at all. I think that might help? Because I can remember feeling frustrated by not being able to enjoy things properly after working hard, and that frustrated desire to relax by doing something just made me more exhausted and depressed. If you can cultivate the mindset that it’s okay to not do anything then maybe you’ll find it easier to relax by doing stuff as a result. It might not be the most actionable advice, but it works for me.

Also, I stopped participating in the challenge when I started working with the schedule I described. I can’t prioritize reading Japanese until after exams🙃

[Redglare]

@Beyond_Sleepy I’ll think about it and get back to you later

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Summary post

April 29th

・薬屋のひとりごと (71% → 73%)

Halfway-ish through chapter 25. Thoughts: I’m suspecting Maomao is drinking all that alcohol just because she wants to instead of actually investigating it

Word of the day: A non-fishy sakana 肴(さかな) Means appetizer or snack served with drinks.

[wiersm]

Today I just read the last chapter for Week 4: 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん 👵🏼. Only six pages.

[omk3]

Day 29

告白 ~ 8% to 11%

Early update today, because I don’t think I’ll have the energy for any more reading.

I commented on yesterday’s section that I was glad the teacher had reached her main point - well, immediately after, she sort of digressed again. This lecture must be torture for the students, but if things go as expected, this will be the least of their problems. In this section she talked about the Juvenile Act and reforms of it, the supposed innocence of young minds, the (often exaggerated) responsibility of teachers, the role of mass media in glorifying criminals, and more. She also described a specific crime that (supposedly?) happened recently. As I was reading it I remembered the details, but I don’t know if I remember it from the movie (was it even mentioned? - it was about a decade ago when I saw it) or if I had read about it somewhere else (which might mean it actually happened?). I’m not googling it to find out. If you really want to know, it’s about a 13 year old girl who experimented with mixing several poisons in her family’s food, and then blogged about the effects. In the end both her parents and her little brother died from poisoning, after which she calmly went online to blog about the specific chemical being the most effective. Eek .
Is the whole book going to be a monologue? I guess I’ll know when I reach the next chapter.

I also read this week’s chapter of 夜カフェ for the BBC. This usually flies by very easily, but this time there was a bit at the end that confused me. As always, it wasn’t a matter of vocabulary - I understood all parts separately, but was completely unsure of who was supposed to be doing what to whom. The lack of pronouns and those あの人’s (as if it’s clear who that is supposed to be) still sometimes throw me for a loop. Or maybe I’m just tired, and all will become crystal clear in the morning.

I haven’t read any ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 today, but here’s a nice spring panel from yesterday’s reading.

[MissDagger]

Replies

@Naphthalene

In this case, the disconnect is necessary. It feels like he is just bored at first, then has the realization he could just go to the onsen. I’m having trouble explaining what I mean, but something like “I am bored so I’ll go to the onsen” versus “I am boooored… Oh! I know! I’ll go to the onsen.”

That makes a lot of sense.

@Naphthalene

That book is starting to sound pretty fun, actually. I should check if they have it at my local library

You should. The story got interesting enough today that I’m posting tonight despite being tired.

I might have been up a little late yesterday.

@windupbird

Didn’t have a ton of time to read today, but still really enjoying this! I low-key love the main detective character in this, she’s great xD And I’m extremely intrigued by Rui I think he’s where the title of this must come from.

This one is sounding like a lot of fun.

@eoame

like last night, I said I would go to sleep early and then ended up finishing a novel at 1:30am why can’t I do that reading in Japanese instead

I both love and hate when I stay up late reading. I’ve learned that if I’m nearing the 60-70% mark in late evening (I mostly read digital for my regular/English reading), I have to either stop immediately or resign myself to finishing the book that night. Sometimes I pick the wrong option and stay up until 4-5 am.

@Zakarius

And now he is happily running around in the mountains playing pranks on people by mimicking their voices and sounds. Until lumberjack-san reminds him of his step-mum and he gets sad and stops his mischief.

Why lumberjack-san? Why ruin the fun of the boy? (Or maybe his mischief was dangerous, but still, that boy needed a nice long break.)

@Redglare

Yawing is more contagious than I thought??? what in the actual xD

Or we are all silly people staying up late to update each other on what we read, so we all be very tired. But curse works too.

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Today was probably the day I’ve been closest to just noping out of reading because my brain is feeling so exhausted. But, I thought: I can just check a sentence or two.

Which ended with me getting sucked in and reading the next “chapter”. This one about four pages long (I put chapter in quotation mark because four pages does not make a chapter in my opinion ).

There were some sentences I had to read multiple times before I felt like I had a handle on them. And while there are some small bits I could ask for clarification on, I’m both tired and far more interested in sharing story bits.

So spoilers ahoy

So in a previous chapter, every day 坊ちゃん came into school, something related to what he did last night was written on the blackboard in his classroom. Like 天ぷら先生 (had tempura for dinner, a lot of it) or 温泉では水泳禁止 (坊ちゃん likes to swim around if he is alone in the onsen). Obviously he (and I) thought his students were pranking him and somehow someone was always watching him (even when he thought himself alone). Kinda nasty-ish prank (the implication of always being watched anyway).

Then there was another incident which I will keep hidden for those who read spoilers but still want to read the story. Let it not be known that I tell all.

But today… today there were implications that maybe it wasn’t the students who was pranking 坊ちゃん. Instead it seems that it might be the head math teacher who was nice to him when he first arrived, but first impressions—even ones based on action—can be deceiving.

Seriously, this story is pulling me in, and if I wasn’t so tired already I would read the next chapter to see what follows from the new development in chapter five. (In fact I skimmed a little ahead because I’m so curious!)

Also, I’m starting to really like the main character. He has a short temper, but he is kinda funny in his view of the world. And he hates lies. When he did pranks as a kid, he never lied about them if asked. (Like if someone ask “Did you do X?”, he would answer “yes” if he did it.) Such a weird man.

Can recommend this story so far.

[NicoleRauch]

@eefara

How in-depth are these historical explanations, out of curiosity?

I found them to be pretty detailed actually. I mean, of course it’s only tailored to what we need to know in order to understand the circumstances of the plot and the main characters, but since European history in the 16th century was pretty intertwined and convoluted, we need quite a bit Also sometimes they mention sea battles as well as famous seafarers and their achievements, which already sent me to Wikipedia more than once The central aspects of the historical detours seem to be catholicism and protestantism, mainly expressed in the lives of Elizabeth I. and Maria Stuart.

Regarding the pirate story, we finally see some action on various levels! And I must say, the author handles this pretty well, and writes in quite a funny/witty style at times.
E.g. I was wondering how he’d express difficulties in communication between people of different nationalities, and whether he’d gloss over that and just make them “magically” understand each other without it being clear which language they speak, but he solved that elegantly by using furigana to express what was actually said in the respective language (while the meaning was expressed via Japanese as expected). Of course this only lasted for a few sentences, and then this issue was settled and everything was expressed in Japanese.

What made me chuckle: 「吐きそ……」-「我慢しなくていいぞ」

[Natsuha]

Not really I am still not happy, until I finish the hardest books I have in my collection and then I will probably just buy even harder books.

@dunlewy I always wanted to say it, I think it’s super awesome that you are learning japanese at your age. Keep up the good work.

[dunlewy]

@Natsuha

@dunlewy I always wanted to say it, I think it’s super awesome that you are learning japanese at your age. Keep up the good work.

Thank you! I appreciate that. What started out as a way to keep my brain sharp has turned into a fun hobby. I love Japanese!

[Daisoujou]

@MissDagger

Today was probably the day I’ve been closest to just noping out of reading because my brain is feeling so exhausted. But, I thought: I can just check a sentence or two.

Which ended with me getting sucked in and reading the next “chapter”

Nice job! Good evidence the advice I see thrown around from @ChristopherFritz works very well in regards to just making yourself start something, to see if that leads to doing more.

@Natsuha

Not really I am still not happy, until I finish the hardest books I have in my collection and then I will probably just buy even harder books.

Oh, the treadmill of always setting your expectations somewhere above where you currently are? I want to go “oh you shouldn’t do that” but I know most of the time I end up running it too nonetheless

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Summary post

A little oddity in Summer Pockets’ structure appeared now. I was met with a bit of a different title screen with fewer options, and no choice to skip some of the opening this time. So in visual novels you can usually skip all previously read text quickly and I’ve indeed been doing that here, but now, Umi’s conversations have become unskippable. They’re largely the same except she calls the character by his first name instead of last now. In the overall scope of things it’s not a terribly large amount of reading, and I’ve actually enjoyed the bit of forced repetition today because I see just how much quicker and easier I can read these segments I went through a few months ago. With those parts boosting me a bit, I read over 9000 characters today, which is also 1000+ lines! I’m loving the recent increase in what I manage.

And it’s good timing for me to be going faster, because Shiroha seems to have a likely longer than average route. I already know she’s kind of implied to be the most plot-important (so true route related) character just from how the game positions her from the beginning. And normally when I go to pick who to hang out with they appear in one of the two time slots in a day, and sometimes are even gone some days. So far, unlike any others, she has been available every time every day.

This increase in Summer Pockets reading has been leaving me feeling a little more mentally fatigued and I haven’t been making great progress on my side books, but it’s all good. Overall I’m seeing big gains and definitely enjoying what I’m reading.

[dunlewy]

I thought some of you would like these kittens brought to Officer Ryou!

In today’s story, Officer Ryou is in charge of the Lost and Found department. People bring in everything from a wallet, eyeglasses, a box of kittens, and a bird. By the end of the day, everything had been claimed except for the bird. Ryou took that home. I loved the way the kittens’ mama came to the office to collect them.

I found out I really need to find out how Japanese addresses work, as that was the hardest part of this story. So research tonight is the next order of business.

[lucylavelle]

April 29th!

I finished reading Volume 1 of Happiness today. I’ve really enjoyed the artwork in it, and while the story has been a bit odd, and a bit slow, I’m definitely intrigued enough by it to keep reading the series, especially since I already own the next few volumes.

(Home Post)

[Gorbit99]

Day 29 / Calendar

I’ve read a bit of SPY × FAMILY up to the point where Twilight starts monologuing about him giving up his life for the spy business. I’m following along with the anime, so hopefully that will make understanding the whole thing just a bit easier as it does seem like a hard read.

[rikaiwisdom]

Summary Post

April 29
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

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Just one more mission. Officially next one is the last one.

I’ve been pretty lazy with my updates lately, but I have some ideas that have been on my mind for a bit these days. Hopefully I can elaborate tomorrow!

[windupbird]

Summary Post

Day 29: April 29th
What did I read?: ダイロクセンス Vol 1
How much did I read?: 23 pages
How long did it take me?: 36 min

Wrapped up the first chapter today!

The thrilling conclusion

Apparently in addition to having some sort of special power, Rui is also a magician (Who has fans, or at least something of a reputation? Would love to know the story behind that one, hopefully we’ll get more of a glimpse into his magic career later on ) Anyway, he starts up a magic show and uses his magical tricks to make the perp give himself away xD Sumire takes the guy down, and in the end, gives Rui her card, tells him to call her sometime if he wants to help out with any more investigations. Rui has absolutely no intention of doing this, but it turns out to be a good thing he got her card, because what she does not give him is…the camera I’m sure we will be hearing more about this in the next chapter xD

A couple good words

• 面通し (めんとおし) - (police) line-up
• ジリ貧 (じりひん) - gradually becoming poor; situation getting gradually worse and worse
• 癇に障る (かんにさわる) - to irritate one; to get on one’s nerves
• おちょくる - to tease; to banter; to make fun of (someone)
• 大歓迎 (だいかんげい) - warm welcome

@Zakarius

“Well, you don’t have to go home, let’s make you into a Mountain Spirit instead!”

…Introduce me to this man please?

@Redglare

Might be a weird thing to be excited about xD

Not weird, can confirm it is the best xD But I am also old, so

[potatonaught]

@Gorbit99

I’m following along with the anime, so hopefully that will make understanding the whole thing just a bit easier as it does seem like a hard read.

This is what I’m doing too but in reverse order. I’ll watch the each episode first and then read the chapter so I have a sense of what’s being said

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April 29
Today’s my birthday! It’s also my Japanese tutor’s too lol.

Had a lovely day off work. Went to a cafe, picked up flowers I ordered for myself, received flowers my friend ordered for me, another friend bought me lunch (a huge thing of duck pho), and I hung out with even more friends online!

Managed to read the last of the level-two graded readers. They were both still about Ooita prefecture. There was a book writing event there which is where all these books about the place came from. One was about a type of food, Yaseuma and why it’s called that. Another was a folk tale about a clever ferryman.

Progress on Tadoku graded readers
44 / 44 level-zeros
12 / 12 level-ones
10 / 10 level-twos
x / 18 level-threes

Omgosh, almost forgot too, MEXT research applications are finally out! I had been refreshing my consulate’s webpage for MEXT info for the past two weeks and getting worried that it hadn’t been updated with this year’s application yet. I searched and saw another consulate had its page updated. Then I tried doing a hard refresh on my consulate’s page to clear the cache, and then it showed the updated information!!! Technology, whyyyy???

I’m so glad I’ve been prepping and have almost everything ready. And I’m glad I finished the translation before I saw it was updated. It feels good to be ready to send it off soon.

[enbyboiwonder]

Home

Hah, well, I found out today that my sister doesn’t give a good goddamn about Chick-fil-a funding conversion “therapy” in other countries and regularly gets food there even knowing full well, which, hah, that was a slap in the face. Yet another reason why I’m never coming out. Anyway, I got quite a bit of reading done this evening. Can you tell reading is escapism? (I’m still low on sleep though, so it still didn’t really end up being all that much, but more than it woulda been.)

I read 壁の穴 ch 40-58, finishing the story! I’m happy Chuuya calls what happens to Kumiko イジメる, because it is actually bullying. Also, this line was really sweet: “それに、僕は、クミコの髪の色が一番カッコイイと思った.” ♡♡♡

So a while back while reading 2.43, I came across the word タオルケット because Chika had been sleeping under one, and it was summer, so I thought, “Really? Doesn’t that get hot? Is it not that hot at night in Fukui, then?” But today, Satori Reader gave it as an example of 和製英語 (in the writeup for ガッツポーズ, which I hadn’t really thought of as being odd English or anything since I could easily understand what it was, but yeah, it’s 100% made-in-Japan) and explained that it’s counterintuitively good to sleep under in hot weather, so. Huh. I wonder if I should find one and try, then, because I don’t do well in the heat and I often find myself lying awake during the summer because it’s too hot to sleep.

I also read part of ch 2 of クールドジ男子. I’d wanted to read the whole chapter but ran out of steam partway through, so I’m off to bed now. Anyway Shun’s the type to, when he messes up (like accidentally puts on his scrimmage vest inside-out), pretend he did it on purpose, and I love how everyone, girls and boys alike, thinks he’s cute for it.

I wonder if Shun’s favorite song, which Igarashi wrote, is gonna be one of the theme songs for the anime. Even if not, it’s still gonna make it into the anime since he’s always listening to it, so I’m excited to get to hear it.

Some vocab of note:

仲間外れ (なかまはずれ) [noun] excluding (someone) from the circle of friends; being left out
強がる (つよがる) [ラ五, intransitive] to pretend to be tough; to put on a brave front; to bluff
振舞う (ふるまう) [ア五, transitive] to behave, to conduct oneself