📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

May 16th!

I read Chapter 62 of Yotsuba today, which was the final chapter of Volume 9.
Finishing a whole volume always feels like an achievement :slight_smile:

I also read 10 pages of ふしぎねこのきゅーちゃん, there was a particularly cute page about going out in the rain.

(Home Post)

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I forgot to post the other day but I have still been reading every day. I finished the Shinymas event, overall it ended up being okay. I think I prefer their other scenarios more rather than them acting something out like in this one since they were doing a web drama.

The next event for Hokura has a rather interesting description and I think its more Juri focused. Although Rinze is my favorite, I won’t mind a focus on other characters to learn more about them. It’s also a rare one with an English translation so guess I need to decide whether I want to read it quickly in English or slowly in jp

Outside of Shinymas, I’ve been reading manga each day. I am currently reading やがて君になる and am up to chapter 24. The manga honestly started off pretty slow but these last chapters have gotten me really hooked on it. A lot of cute scenes in it too

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Summary post

As always, Summer Pockets. I was a little slow, and running out of time, so I stopped just short of 8000 characters. Not bad, though. The Nomiki route feels surprisingly lengthy, considering that I don’t really feel like I’m quite into whatever it’s going to build to as its main issue just yet. There are some minor things going on, but it’s still pretty slice of life without a major focus.

It had its challenging parts again, especially when characters occasionally slipped in words that are seemingly no longer in normal use. 違えど was an easy one to intuit but it seems it’s an old form of something like " 違うけど." Words like that.

Nothing big to report otherwise. It totally slipped my mind again to take a screenshot, though. I’m slacking!

Cool new word/idiom: 負け犬の遠吠え (まけいぬのとおぼえ), meaning whatever variant you prefer on “grumblings of a loser.”

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Day 45

  • ジョジョの奇妙(きみょう)冒険(ぼうけん)

92- end (~140)

Part 1 has such a good ending! I’m only sad that it’s not longer, as it much deserves a more drawn out pace. Reading it really hit different from watching as I was forced to go at my reading speed rather the animation speed. It really forced me to take my time in a way that made it all hit harder and I cried.

Now onto a new test… Can I stand reading Part 3 before the Dio’s World volumes? :sweat_smile: I get to look forward to seeing Jotaro say おじいちゃん one time though allegedly lol

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Summary Post

Day 46: May 16th
What did I read?: クマとたぬき Vol 2
How much did I read?: 14 pages
How long did it take me?: 13 min

Back to fluffy happy animal antics xD Just a tiny read on this Monday-ish Monday.
No thoughts, only soft animals. :heart:

I just started reading but this may in fact be the cutest page of the whole manga xD

Good words
  • てんとう虫 - ladybug :lady_beetle:
  • 熟睡 (じゅくすい) - deep sleep; sound sleep; profound sleep
  • 尺取 (しゃくとり) - measuring worm; inchworm; looper (caterpillar)

Ohhh I wanna go to the Totoro Forest :pleading_face:

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Summary Post

May 9-14
Final Fantasy VII

May 16
Final Fantasy VII


Been a while without updating. I didn’t read yesterday, kinda wanted to just to tick the box but it was late and I thought what’s the point. So I just went to bed instead.

I might try a little experiment in the next challenge with a home post without checkboxes, to see if that removes the tiny pressure and guilt that I get if I don’t feel like reading at all one day. I’ve said it before but I started to see these threads more like a book club / social group rather than a pure challenge, even if it’s still one. It’s nice sharing with others what you’re up to in Japanese; just that thing alone is a nice push to my motivation, silly as that may sound. I can share with some few people IRL but it’s not the same when they’re not genuinely interested in anything Japanese.

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53% → 59% of モテ薬 today. Holy cow was that a boring chapter, almost no new information and I’m getting real tired of まりか being referred to as this super duper amazing 女王、天才、美人, etc. Like I get it already, she’s super smart and hot, you don’t need to tell me this every chapter.

@Daisoujou I’ve debated doing one of the JLPT practice tests but I’m so terribly impatient, haha. Can’t be bothered to sit down for that long for a faux test! I get nagged from people around me (irl) to take it and it just seems exhausting. I think if I could sign up for it and take it whenever I’d be more inclined, but the limited seats, long turn around time, weird grading method, only available once a year (near me) all make it 超面倒くさい :joy:

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I read only 3 more pages of “Hikoichi and the Living Umbrella” because of a late meeting. It gets more and more interesting. The Lord is angry with Hikoichi because the umbrella didn’t open when it rained as Hikoichi promised. I’ll find out tomorrow how it ends.

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Oh yeah I relate to all of that. Just woke up feeling unusually energized to do it on the offhand I could pass and get a huge boost from that. But the test format is extremely irritating most of the time, and it’s an endurance test. I’m sure you’d do well but it’s easy to not want to bother. Same here on the real one – if I were to take it it’s once a year, and I’d be looking at a ~4 hour drive to a testing site. Plus it costs money. And then half the time when people take it there are just stories about how they can’t even hear the audio and stuff like that.

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May 16th (Calendar Post)

ハロー、メランコリック!=> 61 pages (78 min)

Finished the main story, only the extra side-story chapters remaining ^.^

Fun panels from today’s reading:

image

image

image

バン!

にっこー

image

マジです

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May 16

I played Stacklands while watching a stream. I have a rule now where if I play a game, it’s gotta be in Japanese, and luckily Stacklands has that option. It was fun! I’ve been playing for 3 hours straight @.@ lol. Haven’t died yet on my third run though there were a few close calls.

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May 16 :cherry_blossom: Home Post

I played more Story of Seasons today! I’ve been somewhat occupied with post-semester things so it’s been good to slot in where I can. I got a white day present from one of the villagers today so all is going well :joy:

Same wavelength :eyes: they’re so wholesome, it was a good impulse game to start! Very different impulse game than Zero Escape :laughing:

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Late again, but let’s do a recap of Week 2 of the challenge:

  • Read this week’s chapter of 夜カフェ (bookclub)
  • Read 3 weeks worth of かがみの孤城 and caught up with the bookclub (!!!)
  • Read 3 chapters of 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん (still catching up with bookclub)
  • Played ~3h of バリアブルバリケード

Not too bad considering I got sick toward the end of the week and had to take it easy for a couple of days. I’m hoping to fully catch up with bookclubs this week.

In other news, I randomly started Dragon Quest XI in Japanese since it’s available through Game Pass, and played for about an hour. My original goal learning Japanese was to play JRPGs so it was interesting being able to do that. I’ve never played a DQ before and it’s not even my console so I’m not sure I’ll be able to/want to continue but it seems pretty beginner-friendly with the furigana and everything.

Hey! I voted for Orange since I’m reading it right now (reading volume 5 at the moment). If you are looking for an overarching story this is a good choice, plus the vocab and situations are still everyday life so it’s not too difficult. It’s a pretty emotional story and you really feel for the characters (or at least I do), if that’s your thing. It took me some effort in the beginning, but right now I can read with barely any lookups.

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First I want to thank everyone for voting. :blush: I appreciate it.

So first I will comment the results so far and then make some replies. (I’ll leave the poll open for a few more days and will definitely consult it again before I actually start reading my next pick. Thereby giving time for those who maybe don’t read the thread every day. I see you. :eyes:)

What I'm reading next (most likely) decided by your poll votes!

I almost didn’t include Yotsubato nor Aria, and Yotsubato is in the lead with 61%. I guess that isn’t so surprising when considering how many people probably have read at least one volume of that vs most of my other options.

Then Zenitendou with 44%. I’m definitely interested in digging into more book-books, so I think I might slot it higher on my next-to-read list than I first intended. (This also means I will go and dig for this among my books. All my books/manga in Japanese are in boxes still because I don’t have shelves to put them on :sob:)

Next option that got quite a few votes was Sailor Moon, and then Orange/Sailor V. If I wasn’t in the middle of an arc of Sailor Moon, or close to the end of an arc I’d probably pick that up in a heart beat, but right now I am far from every day vocabulary of school situations.

After this, my thinking is this: read volume one of Yotsubato to ease into fully native material again with no restricted grammar/vocabulary. And since it is fairly episodic (every chapter is self containing, at least mostly as far as I understand?), I should be able to stop after one volume and read something else if I want something with more story.

Then I’ll have to decide between continuing Sailor Moon or reading all of Orange (I can’t see myself not reading all of it at once), I could always just finish the current Sailor Moon arc and then read Orange. Zenitendou is also lurking among these options.

@Scylie Maybe we saw @Sylph mention it?! We aren’t hallucinating. But perhaps only bad at remembering where we read that someone was reading something? :thinking:

@Daisoujou Sounds like if I read Yotsubato, I might even be able to have a harder read on the side (or the other way around, Yotsubato being my easy side read). That could be another reason to start Yotsubato so I can have it as an easy reading slot. Also congrats on the JLPT practice test, those kinds of tests are so tiring, partly because of the very strict (and weird) format.

@Sylph You’re selling me on Orange for sure. Just to fully ease myself out of graded readers, I think I’ll do a volume of Yotsubato first, after that I’m probably gonna dig in.

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So started the last booklet in the last Ask Graded Reader I own. I’m almost done and I’m so relieved because this booklet is reminding my why I picked to read these things—I wanted to get them read so I never had to look at them again. :joy:

The last 3 booklets spoiled me, they were so good. 坊っちゃん (上下) and the telling of the 47 samurai. Enjoyed both so much.

And now I have ローマの休日… The premise is pretty good: 19 yo princess of unnamed (probably European) nation is going on an Europe tour. The story mentions going to London, Amsterdam and Paris, but our story starts at the last stop of Rome. By now the princess is tired of same old same old, probably saying the same pleasantries and discussing the same meaningless things with people for the fourth time. So she runs away during the night to have her own adventure in Rome.

Well, that premise sounds like fun, so far the execution started okay with some what is wrong with people to then lead into boring.

Spoiler details of the start to this story

So the princess leaves the first (Italian) diplomatic shindig and is preparing for bed with a Countess companion/older woman (servant-ish?). After the princess lays down in bed the Countess starts going over the schedule for the next day (serious? How is that gonna help her sleep?) and the princess is so bored/tired/exhausted with these kinds of events that she starts crying and telling the Countess to stop. Well, the Countess thinks this means the princess is sick, so she gets a doctor. Who says “well, she is indeed sick, lets give her sleeping pills”, and I’m like… whut just happened? … So they inject? her (at least that was the translation of the verb used! But I think they meant sleeping aid/pills).

Anyway, they leave and after the princess has slept for a short while, she wakes up and this is when she does her escape. Yay! Except, the sleeping aid is still in her system so after a short while she falls asleep on a bench. Now enters the male lead, a 30 yo American reporter who works in Rome and is perpetually low on funds (partly because he gambles them away). He finds the princess and for the next few pages, he gets her in a taxi, takes her to his home and lets her sleep there. And this takes several pages and aren’t interesting in the least. Down right boring.

And that is where I left off for the day. I hope the story picks up when the princess finally wakes up again…


I also spent time moving around the boxes with my manga/books so that I have easy access to all the books I had in the poll, and also to some others (like Fruit Basket) so if I change my mind about what to read next, I have all the likely candidates fairly easily reached. But since everything was crammed into a corner with a slopping ceiling, my back was a little mad at my weird lifting of boxes with books. Haha. :sweat_smile:

Well, it is done. xD

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Since you have easy access to your poll options, what I’d do in your place would be I’d read the first page/paragraph of several of them, and see which one I want to continue reading right there and then. That’s what I’ve done in the past when I had piles or unread books and was unsure where to start - it was a good way to see what I was in the mood for at that particular moment.

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Home

I fell asleep yesterday before I could post this, so I’m just finishing it up and posting it as-is:

I just figured out today why, when I saw 珠 the other day I thought it was a type of red (it’s actually “pearl; gem; jewel”). 朱 is “vermillion” or “scarlet.”

Also, I love the “糸言糸” construction that appears at the top of some kanji, like the outdated form of 恋 and 変, and one I stumbled upon today, 欒, which apparently means “chinaberry tree; round; harmonious.” It’s just so pretty. 戀 doesn’t seem to be one of those old/alternate forms that still sees some use though, unfortunately, but I still wanna use it in something at some point.

Yeah okay I think Heroes is becoming a hyperfixation. I actually had to fight to get myself to read クールドジ男子, and it’s a Mima chapter. Mima. What universe is this.

I read the 描き下ろし ch 18 and the short extra at the end, finishing vol 3! Also I skimmed quickly through vol 4, and it looks like they go to a festival during one chapter, and also— beach trip!!! I’m so excited.

Mima's bonus chapter!

The color of the pages this time is more of a mauve, probably because it’s about him and Igarashi. It’s also the color of his flashback pages. I like this color better than his usual one, but tbh I’m not much of a pink person.

That’s not your mouse… (笑)

(Also, he looks good in pale pink.)

We learn explicitly that Igarashi is a novelist who will also sometimes write songs for band(s) that he’s on good terms with (no name(s), so I dunno if there’s more than one or not).

Aw, when Mima and Igarashi run into each other that evening, they both almost call each other by their given name before correcting to surnames + さん. And Mima’s started calling Igarashi “Motoharu” in his head now that he knows who he is. I hope they start using given names again at some point.

Hayate, Shun, and Souma walk through the park Mima and Igarashi are sitting down in while taking Sakura for a walk after their shifts. Hayate had her leash but underestimated her strength, so instead of being pulled along behind her, he accidentally let go of it. At least she didn’t go far though. It doesn’t seem she’s met Mima before, so I doubt it’s that she recognized him and shot off to greet him, but that would be cute if it were the case I guess she’s just a plot device here (and an adorable one at that).

Oh my gosh, Mima slips and calls him “Motoharu” once without realizing it before he’s calling him “Igarashi-sensei” again and heading back to work before Igarashi can even get past his surprise. Looks like given names are a definite possibility!!!

Wow I’m dumb. I literally only just realized today that the cover of the volume is the color that corresponds to the character who’s on the front (at least on the actual cover, since the jacket has multiple characters), who is the character whom the volume’s first chapter follows. 1 - Hayate (blue); 2 - Shun (yellow); 3 - Mima (pink); 4 - Souma (green). I’m assuming vol 5 will be Igarashi (purple).

I spent most of my time playing DQ Heroes though. I think I’m starting to get the hang of it better. Except for the names of monsters, items, and equipment. I know a lot of them in English, but quite a few of them are different from the Japanese, so there are a lot of things where I’m like, “A what-a what now?” and then I open the details page (since in this game, even though a description of the item appears to the side when it’s selected, it doesn’t show an image of it) and I’m like, “Oh, it’s [insert item].” I feel like keeping those straight is almost more difficult than the new words I come across…

I met Terry!

I also met Jessica and Yangus, though they haven’t joined up yet.

Terry ♡♡♡ Kamiyan’s voice is a good fit for him.

I learned that Lightning Slash is called 稲妻雷光斬. Lightning Lightning Slash lol. Also that 雷 can also be read いかずち (with いかづち being an outdated reading). I was just thinking that this game had also used かみなり for it before, but actually that was ゼルダ無双…

Not reading, since they’re only spoken, but I’ve been trying to pick out what your selected character says on the victory screen upon stage completion. There are a couple that I’m pretty confident about!

Akuto:「勝つためには、頭を使わないとな。」
Terry:「ふん。大したことなかったな。」

I’m kind of annoyed that DQXI has furigana. That one probably would have been the easier option then than Heroes! Furigana… manual-advance cutscenes… Oh well, I’m entrenched in Heroes now, so I won’t be switching just yet.

Some vocab of note:

酒場 (さかば) [noun] bar; pub; tavern; cantina
市街地 (しがいち) [noun] town area
闘技場 (とうぎじょう) [noun] arena
一刀両断 (いっとうりょうだん) [四字熟語, noun] cutting in two with a single stroke
心する (こころする) [する verb; intransitive] to take care; to be mindful; to be attentive
笑止 (しょうし) [noun, な-adjective] laughable; ridiculous; pitiful; contemptible; absurd
純度 (じゅんど) [noun] purity (of a substance)
おいら [pronoun] written in kanji the same way as おれら, this is a masculine singular personal pronoun
臨機応変 (りんきおうへん) [四字熟語, noun, な-adjective] adapting oneself to the requirements of the moment; playing by ear

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:tiger2: :books: Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220517 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

Tanuki Scroll XLVII: 月から降った餅 :waning_gibbous_moon:

Read today’s folktale, from Okinawa prefecture!

About a god who drops mochi cakes from the moon at the same time every night.


:seedling: Japanese found in the tall grass :seedling:

New Things

搗き立て「つきたて」- Freshly pounded/made - like a mochi

Forgotten Things
輝く「かがやく」ー To shine

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May 17, Tue :cherry_blossom: calendar post

Week 8 of Spring 2022’s progress

I’ve read JoJo and Yoru Cafe, and felt that there are some interesting things regarding vocabularies.

  • ()()(げん) fourth dimension
    • The text is しかも血管の壁と一体化している部分もあるのです…… まるで四()(げん)の知恵の輪です , that is, 四 has (just a little more) special reading, but it isn’t Furigana’d. (Not like Araki put reading on everything required, he only put on like half of text…)
    • Example sentences in Jisho and Akebi are just…
Example sentences

The second example might be OK, though.

  • 売る Jisho is underdone this time, and isn’t enough to understand the meaning. I found out later on that Wiktionary is more satisfactory.
    • Goo JE and Kotobank Android App (which also has JE) helped.
    • to build up reputation
    • to betray (a country)
    • to oblige into (pick a quarrel, kindness)
      • ケンカを売った
      • (おん)を売る
  • (かな)う in Jisho and JJ (Goo), it is lumped together with 叶う to have wish granted. This makes Anki flashcard creation with Kitsun (via Jisho API) and some Android dict apps more difficult (will not be separated from 叶う due to unified JMdict entry); however, it’s not a problem for Yomichan and Akebi.
    • Nonetheless Goo JE decides to separate the entry - 敵う, 適う
    • And Wiktionary too.
    • (どう)()(かな)う to suit a purpose
    • (かな)わない to be no match for
  • (かい) oar (of a boat) - such a short word, and uses Kanji (new for me) in text too. IME on Linux (IBus + mozc) refuses to enter this one…

More than SPY x FAMILY on Netflix, I have found JoJo (up to Stone Ocean; and Battle Tendency is also a ROUNDABOUT), and Death Note.

  • Though, SPY x FAMILY is the only one I can promise I study on.
  • For JoJo, I want to catch up, and need to choose either reading or watching first, not both.
  • Death Note might be interesting, but now it’s not time. If there is a subtitle, I can read fast enough to have some chance; though I don’t exactly understand fast enough.

Curiously, about JoJo character’s naming, I wonder how JoJoWiki found out the reason for the name? Interviews with the author? Perhaps @DIO-Berry would know…

I am a little sorry that I looked up the character of その’s name in English and namesake. It’s basically a spoiler without scrolling.

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Mostly this, yeah. Sometimes a few chapters are pretty directly connected, but that’s more of a technical correction than anything meaningful for you because every volume break provides a pretty natural stopping point; it’s only mid-volume that they do that.

Yep, Yotsubato should be really good for that use.

Thank you! Yeah I was exhausted by the end, wasn’t prepared for just how many times I was going to have to deal with a whole page long piece of writing in order to answer just one single question. And the test had me almost constantly feeling uncertain between 2 answers even on stuff I knew, because it’s really made to catch if you know something “well enough” but not entirely (which is basically all my knowledge haha), but I guess I did decently despite how it felt.

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