April 30 
Home Post
I played more Zero Time Dilemma today! Not a whole ton, at some point my brain decided to start watching Jujutsu Kaisen again instead, but not a bad day all around!
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Day 30 
告白 ~ 11% to 14%
ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 27 pages
I’ve written about 告白 earlier, so not much to add. Uncomfortable things keep coming up (and it’s bound to get worse). There has been mention of a student conducting experiments on animals and eventually killing them. Thankfully there were no details and I hope there will be none in the future. Animal abuse is one of the few things that I can’t bear to read about even in fiction.
In other news, this ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 story turned out to be more involved than I expected. We meet an awesome youkai called ほうこう (the lack of kanji in his name is driving me crazy), who, among other things, likes making everything (and everyone) into pickles.
ほうこう pics
ほうこう can use his teeth as bullets - and they’re laced in powerful anesthetic!
He can split into the four elements: 水ほうこう、火ほうこう、地ほうこう、風ほうこう:
(Which of course means one element can be used against another to defeat him…)
Here he is relaxing after a hard day of pickling:
Fun words from ゲゲゲの鬼太郎
バラ色 - rose coloured, but also rosy/bright (for future, prospects, life, etc)
がめつい - greedy, tightfisted, calculating
自由がきかない - restricted, confined, unfree
命からがら - for dear life, barely escaping alive
毒消し - antidote
台無しにする - to spoil, to ruin, to make a mess of
ほっぺたが落ちる - to think something is delicious
油断のならない - treacherous, sneaky, cunning
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1st of May
Day 31
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to read three pages today, just the rest of page 42 of かがみの孤城. My shift got extended by one and a half hours, and some unexpected things cropped up, leaving me with only a two-hour interval to study (while I was still mentally exhausted from work) and an hour of downtime (which I used up writing my study log post and this post, as well as reading and my evening WK reviews).
It’s only 9:30 but I want to sleep in about ten minutes since I only had five and a half hours of sleep last night my fault though, me and my book addiction again 
. I’ll get a good night’s rest banning myself from picking up a novel other than かがみの孤城 and refresh my mind and body for a fun and big day ahead I have planned for tomorrow!
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May 1, Sun home post
Week 6 of Spring 2022’s planning (1st week of May 2022)
- Committed, and paced - for the sake of discussion
-
Night Cafe
Ch.5
-
Death Note
Vol.3 Ch.11 -
Happiness
Ch.5 (It’s somewhat re-reading, but who cares)
- Also, I am already committed to the whole series, even if the discussion after the first vol dies down. But what are the pace and methods of reading, that I still learns well?
-
Night Cafe
- Committed, with マイペース
-
Yuru Camp
vol.1 - first half = 3-4 chapters
- Reason: it’s a kind of manga that I research around a lot on real places and real activities (camping / food). I will also read real non-fictional Japanese, if I have to.
- Of course, I have already bought and read a little.
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 2 - A few more chapters
-
(1/5) Wanted
- Eiichiro Oda - will try to finish the whole book.
-
Yuru Camp
- Listening (Yeah, I can’t find
Listening everyday challenge…) and my focus is not Extensive Listening 
yet; more of learning to graze.
- 3 grammar listening
- 1+ casual listenings
I might start Japanese writing later once I get more comfortable with listening; and has some nice inner voice.
April 2022’s recap
I think that the most important factor is to set learning goals here, is that it is not too short, nor long. Too short (imo, daily), is hard to keep consistent in the first place, and can be tiring / burdensome; or too long (imo, monthly; but it is too easy to speak ill of something in retrospect), and it will be inconvenient to push forward to reach the goals.
Still, I might eventually slow down to monthly, if I want to focus a little less on Japanese language.
About the vocabularies, I feel like there are too many vocabularies to learn in depth. I could as well give all enough attention; but not too seriously…
Other than resources I previously found useful (Goo progressive JE; Wiktionary; Jisho/ichi.moe’s parsing; Prosody Suzuki; Japanese Wikipedia; ググる), I found that Kotobank may have the definitions or explanations I need (more than Goo JJ or Weblio sometimes).
May 2022’s planning
I plan to get into two areas that were too hard to reach before.
- Listening - while I can listening to anything, and not making so much sense; it might be better to listen to something I can’t afford to miss - grammar. And of course, grammar can be apply elsewhere as well.
- Writing - I can indeed write, and open a dictionary a lot; but that would be unnatural, and perhaps unfun. I want to do it better, and not feeling uneasy enough, to make writing a regular activity.
As always, I am finding better ways to learn from reading (language-wise; also, Kanji-wise); and listening.
I think it is only the second month of the challenge, that I can still say so much.
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Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220501 
Tanuki Scroll XXXI: 火車 (妖怪) 
Today I read about 火車「かしゃ」the fiery yokai cat chariot that is said to devour the bodies of the dead.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read a wiki article and I was surprised at how fast I could read each sentence compared to last time.
Japanese found in the tall grass
New Things
悪行「あくぎょう」ー Evil deeds; Wickedness
積み重ねる「つみかさねる」ー To pile up; to accumulate
正体「しょうたい」ー Identity; true form; true colours
檀家「だんか」ー Family which supports a temple; parishioner
出棺「しゅっかん」ー Carry out a coffin; funeral procession
妙八「みょうはち」ー Myohachi (instrument), little cymbals on string used in Buddhist ceremonies.
古典「こてん」ー Classic, like “classic literature”; the classics
奇異「きい」ー Odd; strange
参照「さんしょう」ー Reference - like a dictionary reference, or a footnote
篇「へん」ー Older way of writing: 編 (compilation/volume (of text eg.))
使者「ししゃ」ー Messenger; envoy
下半身「かはんしん」ー Lower half of the body
雷鳴「らいめい」ー Thunderclap; thunder
轟き「とどろき」ー Roar; rumble; booming
Places
播磨国「はりまのくに」ー Harima province, now part of present day Hyogo prefecture.
宍粟市「しそうし」- Shiso city, Hyogo prefecture
八幡浜市「やわたはまし」ー Yawatahama City, Ehime prefecture
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May 1st!
Today I read chapter 5 of 夜カフェ.
I’m still finding it tough to get the hang of reading a novel. There is so much text compared to manga!
But I’m managing it, even though each chapter takes me ages 
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I’m alive! Unfortunately I did next to no reading while visiting my friends. I guess you could count replying to a language exchange partner each day and skimming JP headlines, but when I’m used to 10-30 pages a day checking a box for 5 sentences feels like cheating 
Anyways, I plan to get back on the wagon this evening. I did my best to catch up on everyone’s posts, and some small replies:
This book is one I want to read. I’ve heard a lot about it and it seems right up my alley. I think I also have a copy of the movie somewhere…? But it looks like only one person has rated it so far, and that can throw things a lot.
Spoilered for sensitive:
Pretty bad. I’ve only ever seen it in movies but it strikes me as akin to calling someone a ‘homo’ but not quite up to the level of the F word?
Also, re animal cruelty if that does come up again I might nope out of reading it too. It’s also my only “crime too far”. 
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Today was a pretty good reading day! I read the full section for かがみの孤城 🪞 Week 23. It went pretty quickly even despite a surprising number of unfamiliar kanji.
Like this sentence
城が輪郭を失って、ぐにゃぐにゃに捩れているような錯覚に陥る。
(Noting that 捩 looked significantly different in the font of the book than on my mobile.)
The action is really gearing up at this point, by the way 
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Quick update for the month:
I started 2 days late but then only missed one day. It’s been a busy month and I haven’t been able to read as much as I wanted: I’m still catching up on 2/3 bookclubs and I’ve only managed to play バリアブルバリケード for a bit over 10h even though I had some holidays. However, I’m still feeling a little bit of progress and an improvement on my reading speed (at least for the current books/VN), so I’m happy I’m following the challenge and hopefully for May I can do some more!
I’d say I’ll update more frequently too, but that hasn’t happened yet so…we’ll see.
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Day 28 to Day 31 - Calendar
I was so busy somehow…
I read a little every day, but it sorta felt like cheating somehow. I think on April 29th I only read one chapter on Satori Reader, but I’m not too sure anymore.
Anyways… I continued ジャム店さん and 恋人 on Satori Reader. 恋人 is becoming really interesting now, think I will continue it next week, at least for a little.
I also read a little of 魔城の宅急便 and I’m now on page 124 (chapter 6). It did became easier. My goal is to finish the book before the challenge ends. Let’s see if I can do it.
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I finished the book on the tokyo trains. One page says that at 8:00 AM, one train car can carry 300 people! I can’t even imagine that. Then on another page, they show exhausted business people going home at midnight. That’s too long a day for me!
New Vocabulary:
りょう
両 counter for vehicles
ひる
昼 noon
ゆうがた
夕方 evening, dusk
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Another 8000 characters down! Not a lot to say at the moment, simply relaxing. I’ve made it far enough to hit the point where it locks me into Shiroha’s route for good, though by the game calendar it’s still pretty early. Day length pacing isn’t necessarily consistent, but if they want, there’s room for this to stretch quite long. I’m pretty curious about the mysteries implied today, anyway.
Simple enough, but I like this image with the temporarily black and white background.
That’s about all I’ve got! I’ve finished this week’s reading for 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん again and I’m definitely more comfortable with that style now. Though some of that (at least for dialect stuff) is my increased confidence in my ability to sometimes simply assume what it makes sense for them to be saying. Gotta pick my battles on what I devote more effort to really studying right now.
Cool new word: 万能 (ばんのう), either “all purpose” or “almighty.” I love how often 10,000 just stands in for all in Japanese.
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It’s May 1st and I’m going to attempt to start the first Magic Treehouse! I had some issues getting it downloaded, but it’s finally there, so here we go. I keep most of my study journaling on private files and offline – I’ll try my best to check back in tomorrow. I’m honestly unprepared? But I think that’s best for this – I’ve been around Japanese my whole life, and I work best when I’m just tossed in, especially with reading.
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Day 31 / Calendar
I’ve read a few pages of 夜カフェ today, I’m a bit less than a 4th of the way through. I could only get this much reading done, because I’ve done this reading way too late into the night (or morning, however you want to look at this) and my mind kept telling me no, so I stopped. Still, progress!
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Frequent reading…check
Infrequent updates…check
The rest of April was solid. No breaks, mostly just browsing my way through some more manga. Work has been kicking my butt a bit, so it’s been short reading bits, but it’s getting done. I’m going to take that as a win. There have been days when I read before bed, and then when I go to read again the next day I look at the page and have no idea what’s happening and need to backtrack to re-read because apparently I was semi-conscious the first read through. It didn’t feel like I was that sleepy while reading… oops. The second reading is always easier though 
Going to try to tackle a novel page or two now before bed - I spent an excessive amount of time this morning googling pictures of a “ユニットバス” because the translation did not help me at all and one character kept complaining about it, so didn’t get very far in the text.
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Day 31: May 1st
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?: 37 min
Another exciting conclusion! I love how Sumire always leaps into action, like this woman has no fear or hesitation whatsoever (sorry, I’m really low-key in love with her I don’t often feel drawn to female characters this way for whatever reason, so this is fun for me lol).
The chapter winds down with Rui finally explaining a bit more about how his power works and what he can generally do. (Honestly I think it’s really cool, and I think it has a lot of potential for interesting plot lines 
) In the end, he also ends up agreeing to work on more investigations - it seems like this should have felt predictable, given that this is a series, but somehow it still made me happy :3 I think it was Sumire’s sincerity at the end of the chapter, when she said that she really thinks he could rescue more people with his power if he keeps helping them with cases - that was really a nice moment imo. Maybe I’m reading way too much into it, but I sort of get the impression that Rui’s not very used to feeling like he can do much to help people, which…I would like to see him have the opportunity to think more of himself and believe in/find his own usefulness. I think he failed to help someone (possibly his sister) in some way in the past, based on some very vague flashbacks/visions(?) we’ve seen, and that’s why he feels like what he’s got isn’t worth much. It’d be nice to see him feel like he’s redeeming himself and contributing toward the greater good.
Anyway, I love this. I’ve said it in like every post, I think, but I love this premise, I love the way it’s been done so far, and I love the main characters. Good job, me who bought this almost a year ago. 
Good words
- 真に受ける (まにうける) - to take seriously; to take someone at their word; to believe (to be true)
- 道すがら (みちすがら) - along the road; along the way
- 新調 (しんちょう) - making (a new suit, dress, etc.); having (something) made; buying new
- 息絶える (いきたえる) - to die; to lay down life’s burden (what a morbidly poetic way to put that, Jisho xD)
- 追体験 (ついたいけん) - vicarious experience
- 霊視 (れいし) - clairvoyance
- 歯切れが悪い (はぎれがわるい) - inarticulate; not making oneself quite clear; slurring one’s words; evasive
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I was hoping I’d be able to play DQXI with the text in Japanese, but it’s only the voices whose language can be changed. Hyrule Warriors, on the other hand, I can set to Japanese… but I’ll have to reset my game if I wanna play from the beginning because you can only have one save file. Damn. Guess I’ll just have to finish this game first, though I have no idea how far I am. Unless I do just start over. It has been a while…
I’m super tired today though and it turns out I didn’t really have the energy to process Japanese today, so I only read a few pages of クールドジ男子 ch 4. I didn’t even play any HW to see if it’s even worth continuing with this save file or if I’m fine with just starting over now after all lol. Or read any 夜カフェ, which I’d kinda planned to do since it’s easy…
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May 1 Home Post
Month 2! 
Today was a better reading day; got some good ZTD in! It’s a wild time, I’m never really ready for anything that happens They’re going through it for sure.
ZTD stuff
I’ve said it before but ZTD really is the most consistently messed up so far, some of the stuff that happens is just brutal. It’s relentless lmao, and the decisions?? In the others you rarely actively caused other people to die but here, man that happens a lot I had the scene with ファイ in the incinerator room and シグマ with a gun against his head and it’s like “pick who you want to die!!” and just oof, that sort of stuff is rough. And yeah there’s a possible positive outcome, but obviously I have to do all of the options to experience the story so ouch! ZTD hurts me
I still have very little big-picture concept of what’s going on, a lot’s still vague and weird as I suspect it will be for a while. One thing I’m trying to keep an eye on is the X-Passes, I feel like everyone’s word is relevant to them so I’m keeping track of them in an attempt to puzzle some stuff out
I’m still pretty limited as far as theories go, but some things: I feel like the incident 17 years ago that ゼロ keeps bringing up involves ファイ’s parents, like they’re dead and the couple there left behind a young child so the timing checks out 
エリック could potentially be involved? He clearly has some sort of past trauma with someone getting hurt or killed or something and blaming himself, but idk any details at this point.
In adjacent news, I got AI: The Somnium Files on sale for like $7 today so perhaps that’ll be my next adventure? I know it was recommended to me before and clearly I’m no match for spike chunsoft so! Plus I see the sequel is set to come out this summer so the timing all works out
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May 1st (Calendar Post)
Finished volume 2 of my current manga yey~
私の拳をうけとめて! => 114 pages (149 minutes)
Some fun panels from today:
怪しい人じゃないよ～
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