I haven’t been able to be online much due to traveling + work, but I have consistently been reading each day even if not very much. I’m currently up to 63% of 心霊探偵八雲 and continue to enjoy it. 
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Day 55 
夜市 ~ 50-58%
Day 56
夜市 ~ 58-68%
When I started this story I wrote that while nothing much had happened it felt pleasantly eerie. Now I might as well be writing about a different story altogether. The eeriness is mostly gone. From a mysterious, vaguely creepy atmosphere we progressed to a scene straight from an action movie (a Western maybe), and now it feels more like fantasy in genre than anything else. I don’t particularly like fantasy. There have also been very dramatic developments, but I think I liked it more when nothing was happening but all sorts of things were threatening to happen - much more atmospheric that way. I’ll keep reading and see where it leads me, but I can say that so far, both of this book’s stories turned out totally different from what I was expecting. And there’s not a hint of “horror” to be seen. surely a passing skeleton or two isn’t enough to make a story “horror”, right?
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Thanks for even more birthday wishes. 
I had a great time with my friend and her husband. Good food, and a fun board game (Mansions of Madness).
Replies
Does that mean you essentially read the latter half of a chapter and the first half of the next?
[quote=“Zakarius, post:2140, topic:56375”]
And yeah, birthdays are weird as an adult, 21 is like the last “yay” birthday, after then every year after is just… “oh, that’s another one.”[/quote]
Already at 21? I don’t know, I think I didn’t start feeling like this until 25ish. Soon to be a decade ago.
Glad you enjoy them. I’ll make sure to keep the updates coming. 
And I’m here again by the time I am tired, so maybe I’ll give up digressing all over the place about birthdays as an adult. It would spare you guys a novel to read.
Read chapter 7 of Yotsuba& today! That is the first volume done! 
For this last chapter: I’m a sucker for rain, and seeing Yotsuba out in the rain like that I was like: why not join her? When you’re right beside home anyway and don’t seem to have anything to do? Yotsuba’s dad is excused, ofc, because work.
How much I enjoy this thing that came up in this chapter
I enjoy rain so much I actually had a long holiday in Ireland, a couple of years ago. For those in Europe: remember that summer when almost all of Europe was scorched for almost the whole summer and almost no rain fell? Yeah, that is when I went to Ireland to have a rainy summer. It was the sunniest summer in Ireland in ca 30 years… At least it was fairly cool compared to the rest of Europe? 
I’ve really enjoyed reading Yotsuba& (vol 1). Beyond the fact that it is hilarous, I’m proficient enough at casual language that I can read a lot of it without help. The only big exception was when it dipped into shounen style between Yotsuba’s dad and ジャンボ because I haven’t read much shounen and none of it in Japanese, so I was utterly lost. (Even after understanding what the sentences meant because I don’t know shounen conventions.)
Next up is volume 2!
I, also, spent a bit of time checking how much is left of the Black Moon arc of Sailor Moon (the arc I’m in the middle of). Turns out it is all of volume 4 of the kanzenban left. When I went to (my boxes of books to) get volume 2 of Yotsuba&, I also picked up volume 3 (to remind myself where I left off) and volume 4 of Sailor Moon.
So apparently I’ve decided to finish that arc at least, and it was nice that the arc ends as the volume ends. Couldn’t have planned it better! Not sure I will get back into Sailor Moon before this challenge ends, but it is almost on the currently reading slate.
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May 26th 
・薬屋のひとりごと 2 (51% → 64%)
Finished chapter 12, 13 and 14. Lots of stuff happened! 
In short: Maomao put pieces together and managed to save the ritual priest (Jinshi) just before he was hit by a pillar from above, but she got hurt in the process. Turns out the tall girl (Suirei) really was involved somehow, but the details are unclear. She was found dead, but it was actually a fake death induced by a special mix of drugs/plants, so when they checked her coffin later she wasn’t there. She and the other culprit(s) escaped. Maomao laughs like a maniac from excitement just thinking about finding Suirei so she can learn how to make fake death potion / “yomigaeru” potion. In other news, we learn that Jinchi is 24 years old (and still has his “precious” bits? douiukoto). Gaoshun is 37 and has grandkids already, wow!
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Re:かがみの孤城 spoilers
Wait, no, I did not. I was literally thinking of someone else’s comment. The one thing I actually got right, I did put in proper spoiler tags, and even then, I made all possible guesses in the threads anyway, so it won’t help anyone 
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May 26th!
I finished the first volume of Shirokuma Cafe today. I’ve really enjoyed it, though I’ve found some bits of it a little hard to parse because there is a lot of very casual language. The art style is ridiculously cute, and its been fun to read so I’m definitely going to read the next volume, though I think I’ll read the next volume of Yotsuba first 
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I started 浦島太郎, Urashima Tarō. As the tale says, this is a story of Old Japan. A fisherman goes to the beach and finds a group of children hitting a turtle with a stick. He makes them stop and has them give the turtle to him so he can put it back in the sea. The turtle thanks him nicely and swims off. A week later, when Taro is again fishing, the turtle comes back and tells Taro there is a beautiful, happy place in the middle of the sea where he lives. Taro gets on the turtle’s back and off they go. The middle of the sea is indeed beautiful.
New Words:
ぼう
棒 stick, rod, pole
かめ
亀 turtle, tortoise
いた
痛い painful, sore
よてんき
良い天気 fine weather
と
取る to catch, to grab, to pick up, to take
Here is Taro in the middle of the sea:
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[quote=“MissDagger, post:2161, topic:56375”]
So, am I just weird, then? I have heard many adults act that way about their birthdays. Even my younger siblings (who are now all in their 20s) seem uninterested in celebrating their birthday but I look forward to my birthday every year and I’m turning 31 this year. I was giddy with anticipation last year when I turned 30 because it meant that I was leaving the 20s and reaching a next stage in my journey of adulthood. I am happy because not only do I turn older, I get to demand special attention for my birthday.
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Days 53-55
- ジョジョの奇妙な冒険
5/24 - 52-62
5/25 - 63-101
5/26 - 102 -111
I really just need to figure out how to set aside more time for reading. I’m really enjoying everything so far, except maybe the gore lol, but I knew what I was getting into.
I’ve gotten to Kakyoin’s introduction and the part where Star Platinum sucks Hierophant Green out of the school nurse. It cracks me up a bit because wouldn’t that feel like a really awkward kiss lol? Reading the manga is also making me further appreciate the micro-reactions the tv anime added like Jotaro leaning out of the nurse’s reach when she tells him off for his hat.
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Day 56: May 26th
What did I read?: しろくまにっき
How much did I read?: 16 pages
How long did it take me?: 12 min
This seemed like a good “read a couple pages” book for today xD I’ve been a little busy packing for my trip. On a related note, I’ve decided that I’m going to end my personal challenge today - I’m just…not feeling motivated to try and maintain it while I’m away, if I’m being honest. I think I’m ready for a little break. But of course, I’ll be sticking around to follow you all to the end! ^^
This is my favorite pic from today, the tiny bear is so cute
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Didn’t you read the Ogawa Mimei short stories with the club? That was of significant length as well. Or are you saying that you didn’t finish that one because you didn’t read the final stories?
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I read act 2 of ボーイミーツマリア. Taiga’s gone from 身の程知らずくん in ch 1 to 身の程知らずのホモキャラ男子. His nickname didn’t just get worse, it got longer too lmao. He’s so stupid, I love him. My most favorite characters always tend to fall into one of two categories, “asshole who does actually care” or “well-intentioned dumbass sweetheart,” and Taiga is 100% the latter.
Rather than the 考える人, he’s the 考えるアホ lmao
Taiga accepts the change in his perception of his sexuality super easily and decides that he doesn’t have to worry too much about whether Arima is a guy or gal and that since Arima still makes his heart go ドキドキ then he must like him even as a guy. Tetsu’s like, “Uh, no, wait, it’s not that simple,” but to Taiga, apparently, it is. 単細胞やで.
Tetsu: “I have a bad feeling about this…”
(Tetsu: “Why did become friends with this idiot?”) No but his comment last chapter about Fukumaru being Taiga’s dad is totally accurate. Fukumaru’s totally the dad friend (“Eh, just let him do whatever, he’s gotta learn his own lessons”) while Tetsu’s over here being a total mother hen, worrying about everything. They’re both great.
Some vocab of note:
悪化 (あっか) [noun, する verb] (suffer) deterioration; growing worse; aggravation; degeneration; corruption
虜 (とりこ) [noun] captive; prisoner. victim (of love, etc.); slave (to one’s lust, etc.). I’d actually seen this one recently in lyrics (don’t remember what song though) and I actually remembered how to read it, but I didn’t know what it meant.
寒い (さむい) [い-adjective] uninteresting (esp. of a joke); lame; dull; weak; corny
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May 26th (Calendar Post)
少女漫画主人公×ライバルさん => 91 pages (83 min)
Some fun panels from today… which I’d like to upload but Discourse is giving me random errors when I try to >.<
sigh
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I read another chapter of マリア様がみてる today. The story takes place in an all-girls catholic school and a lot of the girls have an お嬢様 feeling to them so some of the language isn’t what I’m used to from the more casual slice of life stuff I’ve read but it has been interesting so far. The series is famous for its drama and character development so I’m looking forward to the later chapters.
I liked this panel where Yumi was saying Shimako gives off the image of someone who’d like Waffles and croissants. Just seems like a funny thing to say to someone to me
Also a cute panel of Yumi trying to dance
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May 26 
Home Post
More AI: The Somnium Files! Things are starting to get wild; 伊達 saw イリス’s apartment in his dream? And… her mom murdered? Oof, don’t think that flower’s bringing the good fortune and happiness she wants and parting on terms like “oh I’m with the police so if you see me again it’ll be a bad time” yeah… yeah I’m sure it will
On a lighter note some dumb jokes are universal it seems:
tl;dr It’s the whole joke of like “How do you put a giraffe in the fridge? Open the door, put in the giraffe, close the door. Alright, how do you put an elephant in the fridge? The same way? No, silly, you have to take out the giraffe first” Some things transcend linguistic borders, huh.
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I’ve mostly been reading every day, but I adjusted the difficulty and missed a day because I traveled to a wedding last weekend. I put 少年H on hold because it’s too hard to read during a busy time (heaps of vocab), and switched to 吸血鬼はお年ごろ by 赤川次郎. The vampire light novel was much easier but also boring. I was glad to be done with it. 三毛猫ホームズ was fun to read so I was surprised his vampire series is so dull.
I just started ナミヤ雑貨店の奇蹟 by 東野圭吾。 If the first section is any indication, this should be enjoyable. (I hope)
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Replying to Nicole about my reading experience
I guess I should have said ‘novel of significant length’, then? But I also think the stories don’t quite add up to the same length. I also read 地球星人 with the book club in the meantime but I also consider that to be more a ‘short novel’.
In the end, it doesn’t matter much, of course, but for me it felt like an achievement because a book of almost 600 pages (a 28 week book club) seemed quite daunting when I started it.
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The page count discrepancy between Japanese books and their English translations is surprising to me. I know length can vary a lot in Japanese depending on kana/kanji ratio, but I’d expect most
contemporary novels for adults to not differ too much in kanji usage.
I’ve also been surprised by how many Japanese novels come in two volumes (上 and 下), yet some of these I remember from when I read them in English as not especially long (Murakami for example, excluding 1Q84).
かがみの孤城 is 633 pages in Japanese, 353 in translation.
海辺のカフカ is 899 pages in Japanese, 480 in translation.
So far the English translation seems to be about half the length of the Japanese original.
But then we have:
地球星人 is 288 pages in Japanese, 240 in translation (barely any difference).
or
三毛猫ホームズの推理 at 368 pages in Japanese, 246 in (Spanish) translation. (1.5 ratio)
コーヒーが冷めないうちに at 323 pages in Japanese, 227 in translation (1.4)
Page counts are a little fuzzy as they vary depending on edition (digital, hardcover, paperback) and font size tends to vary somewhat in English translations, but it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around it.
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This might be partly a reply to @saidahgilbert, but I’m also expounding on adult birthdays (or maybe mostly my situation with them…). You’ve been warned. xD
I told you it would be a novel.................
For me, I usually do like celebrating and can feel pretty giddy about it. (In fact, now I wonder why I felt so little of that this year. I will have to think on that later.)
But I always feel weird about inviting friends to celebrate my birthday with me, maybe because of three things:
- Swedish culture do have a bit of “don’t look at me” kinda culture (look up Jante’s law if you are interested in kinda what it is about, but it isn’t as absolute as that)
- My family stopped celebrating birthdays after me and my brothers became adults (mostly). Only the bigger ones tends to be celebrated.
- Few of my friends have celebrated their birthdays much, or maybe I just haven’t been invited
So when I invite for my birthday, I’ve usually felt a bit weird about it. Not that I’ve let that stop me most of the time. For example, the year I turned 30 was the same year I was going to Japan in early April (for a year of study), so I invited family and friends for celebrations in March (aka 2 months early). Of course, it was also an excuse to see them before I left. 
Maybe, my reluctance come from how few people in my life actually celebrate birthdays. I’m with you, @saidahgilbert about being happy to be in my 30s. (33 this year if anyone is interested.) Not until my 30s did I realize how much I didn’t know, even having been someone in my 20s who knew that I didn’t know much at all. (And turned out I knew even less than I could imagine.)
They say you are a productive of the 10 (20?) people you spend the most time with. I’m not sure that is all, also the person I spend the most time with (by a huuuuuuge %) is myself. I wonder what that says about me.
Birthday parties are so often framed as a thing we do for children. Although celebrating the x0 birthdays are an accepted practice. But then it is also huge parties instead. And those kinda parties can get expensive, especially if you insist on inviting all relatives and every friend you’ve had in the past couple of decades.
Maybe for me now also, I’ve moved far away from all my family, and while I moved close to one friend, another is back where I grew up. (I don’t have a lot of friends that stick around for long times. (although I do have a few more than 2, but the rest live in other countries so even harder to invite them to come to a local party. )) So there is just like a couple of people to invite to celebrate with me.
And this year my birthday was on a Monday. Kinda awkward time. And as an adult there is much else to do that also organizing a party (even a small one) for yourself, is work. I think this will change a lot more of I find a partner, because I’ll want to establish traditions of arranging each other birthdays (or at least the partner takes care of food, cooking, that kinda thing), basically a ritual of showing appreciation for each other and making sure anyone close to us gets to celebrate with us.
Honestly, I feel like I had a point with this digress way back on Monday, and now I feel like I’ve just rambled for a long time and I’m not sure what the point ultimately become. Celebrate your birthdays? If nothing else, use it as an excuse to see your friends/family? I don’t know.
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Hello everyone!! I’ve gotten so lazy with updating here, but I HAVEN’T gotten too lazy with reading everyday. I did miss one day. Also, I haven’t been reading a lot each day at all, just a page here or there.
The challenge is going to be winding down next week, but I’m going to try and keep the habit of reading even just a little bit each day! At least, I’m going to make up for the two days I missed so far.
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