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!
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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.
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 
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 29
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
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!
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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
…Introduce me to this man please?
Not weird, can confirm it is the best xD But I am also old, so 
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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 
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.
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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
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April 29th (Calendar Post)
Bookclub friday let’s go~
からかい上手の高木さん => 16 pages (13 min)
それでも歩は寄せてくる => 20 pages (15 min)
Happiness => 33 pages ( 26 min)
Flying Witch => 30 pages
Some fun panels from today:
じ～
ニコ
コンッ
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April 29 
Home Post
Late post but I did play some ZTD today! Things are still busy so progress is somewhat slow, there just aren’t enough hours in the day hopefully I can get a nice session in tomorrow!
I really need to get back to reading that sometime huh, it’s only my avatar I’ve enjoyed it a lot though, it’s like coming home to old friends 
(But also my reading list is already a billion miles long but クールドジ男子 sounds so fun!! From the number name puns alone it’s definitely my vibe lmao)
Yessss the best feeling!! Definitely a game-changer, I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I keep hearing about 13 sentinels
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Happy (belated) birthday, @potatonaught ! 
(and to your tutor too 
)
I thought 三毛猫ホームズの推理 would be the first Japanese book I’d be reading alone, without a book club, but an impromptu book club did form after all, and I enjoyed having fellow readers with whom to exchange thoughts and speculations. This makes 告白 the first book I’m actually reading alone, and I suppose this is why I feel the need for constant, detailed updates. It’s funny, because I’ve been an avid reader my whole life, and never particularly cared about sharing my reading experiences with others, nor had I ever taken part in a book club before joining this forum, yet with Japanese books I feel like I need to share my thoughts on what I’m reading at all times.
So, in that vein, here’s a half-day update:
It’s now 100% confirmed that the teacher is in a classroom speaking to the students. At one point she comments on the corridor getting noisy, which would mean that lessons have finished and whoever wants to is free to go (I was wondering how long this speech of hers had lasted). Since she just said that out of the blue, it took me a second or two to realize that this wasn’t part of her main narrative, but a comment on something that was happening at that very moment. It’s things like this that make the book feel harder than others to me. She’s constantly jumping from one thing to another and also reacting to things happening in real time, things the reader can’t see and can only deduce from her reactions. It would probably be no problem in a language I’m actually fluent in, but in Japanese I need to be on high alert at all times. Even then I’m sure I’ve missed stuff. I’m aiming for 100% comprehension, but I fear it’s closer to 80% or lower, even with all the lookups.
Also, not that it was unexpected here given the premise, but I think I haven’t read a single Japanese book yet where a funeral isn’t featured at some point. Apparently it really is a thing (something I had wondered about earlier in this thread) to hold a 告別式 (memorial service) at different places that were part of the deceased’s life, like a workplace or a school or university. I also learned that it’s customary to offer money or other condolence gifts (香典) to the bereaved family.
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Reply
First, I have to say I’m amazed at that kind of schedule, 10-12 hours of studying sounds intense 
My brain would explode and I’d have no more brain for the next day.
I get where you’re coming from, sometimes the best way to decompress after a long day is to simply do nothing at all and just chill out ^^ The two of us definitely do not have the same schedule, but I agree that such a mindset can be helpful when things become too much. Thanks for sharing your view.
I feel like I’m overthinking and making this a bigger problem than it really is. I’ll just try focusing on what I should be doing instead :3
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30th of April
Day 30
Only read half of page 42 of かがみの孤城 today, because I was out the entire day having fun lol. I still have 40 minutes before my bedtime (since I have to wake up before 6am tomorrow) but I’ll spend that time trying to finish off my own video editing project. Will try my best to read at least three pages tomorrow.
Edit: Forgot to say. I told my Korean irl friend, who is also studying Japanese, about this challenge and me participating in it. She’s actually the friend I lent 魔女の宅急便 to when I finished it, but she said she was intimidated by the amount of kanji on the first page and it took her more than 10 minutes to read each page. She’s not keen on joining me here on an online forum, but I encouraged her to just do one together haha.
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Read chapter 11 of デスノート ・ Death Note 📓 Vol. 2. Lots of dialog of L explaining things which made for some nice translation work and featured some interesting vocabulary 
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April 30th!
Since its the final day of April, I guess we are about half way through this challenge already!
I read Chapter 18 of Mitsuboshi Colors, which made me realise that its been AGES since I’ve been to a museum and now I want to go!
Only one more chapter left in this volume now 
Then I read the next chapter of Teasing Master Takagi-san, which was a really sweet one.
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Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220430 
Tanuki Scroll XXX: 大蛇とお尻 
Read today’s hyakumonogatari, from Chiba prefecture!
About a traveller who is climbing a mountain and a giant snake appears and tries to eat him. In an attempt to stall he throws his belongings at the creature, then his clothing, but the snake just munches them all up until he is completely naked. It knocks him over and his trembling bum sticks into the air causing the snake to flee. Confused but happy to be alive the traveller runs away.
It turns out the snake mistook his shiny bum for a scary monster with a big mouth
Japanese found in the tall grass
New Things
薄気味悪い「うすきみわるい」- Creepy; uncanny. Seen this before but completely forgot how to spell it.
褌「ふんどし」ー Loincloth
Meanings
人食い「ひとくい」- I knew this as “man-eating” like a man-eating lion or something, but it can also mean cannibal or cannibalistic.
Replies
Lumberjack-san sorta just appeared out of nowhere, and somehow knew about the boy’s past, I’m thinking perhaps it was step-mum in disguise 
perhaps I shouldn’t think this deeply over a minor detail in a folktale
Look for an old man with long white hair and a big beard in the mountains, it could be him! It seems crying out your woes in the mountains attracts him… not sure if it’d be a good idea to do this in practice though 
Happy birthday for yesterday, hope you had a nice day!
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april 30 home post
Finished up another Satori story (三途の川) today!
And since it’s the end of April and we’re halfway through this challenge, I’ve decided to do a little recap and think about my goals for May
April Recap
- I have not read every day, but I’m still proud of the progress I’ve made b/c on the days I do read, I read a lot (at least, compared to the Winter Challenge)
- Finished 2/5 Intermediate Satori Reader stories (コナの大冒険 and 三途の川)
- Finished 1 manga (極主夫道３)
- at the beginning of the challenge I said I’d be reading the 神々のトライフォース manga but I haven’t read any since before the challenge began… I want to return to it in May (might start from the beginning though)
- I wanted to be caught up to the 夜カフェ club by today, but unless I read about 40 pages in one day (
) that’s not happening
May Goals
- Once the semester is over in the middle of May, I want to start on 999. This has been a goal for me since around this time last year, and based on what I remember from when I tried to read it then I think I’m ready
- But before that, I also want to finish some of the things I’ve started! I’ll prioritize in this order:
- 極主夫道４ (btw the club starts reading this today!!)
- the remaining 3 Intermediate Satori Reader stories (隣人, 恋人, and 奥日光)
- 神々のトライフォース
- if I decide not to drop either of these, 夜カフェ and ふらいんぐうぃっち
Obviously I’m not expecting to finish all those things in May, but I’d like to get through a big portion of them. And I might drop both 夜カフェ and ふらいんぐうぃっち b/c they’re not really holding my attention
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I started reading about the Tokyo Train lines. This picture of people on the train at 5:00 AM makes me laugh. They look like I would at that hour!
New Vocabulary:
たくさん
沢山 many, a large number, a lot
の
乗る to get on ( a bus, train, etc.), to board
やまて
山の手 a hilly section of a city, Yamanote (a hilly part of Tokyo)
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