Congrats! That sounds like a perfectly good excuse for a minor lapse in habits! 
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Yeah I think every part of that is pretty reasonable. There are ways, especially for the beginning of such a visual novel club concept, to pick ones that would introduce fewer issues to work around. Now’s not the time for me just yet, but knowing that I’m not totally alone in liking the concept, maybe eventually I could make a thread to probe for interest for a non-structured read and check in when you want type club. It’d be fun, and I think they’re a super useful medium for learning from, so it could be a good way to introduce some people if anyone lurking around the forums is up for that.
Also, @softlyraining congratulations!!!
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Unfortunately, I can really only second everyone saying that the only way I’ve been able to progress at a reasonable speed with Japanese is by throwing out my other hobbies. I’ve kept watching pro wrestling (which serves as both a source of immersion and also motivation for me), but everything else has absolutely fallen by the wayside.
I’m hoping that once I reach a solid intermediate level in Japanese, I’ll be able to get some of my time back, but that’s at least another year out for me. When I’m able to read Japanese at an actual reasonable speed and not have to do quite as many lookups, things will get easier, but until then, I’m buckling down and diverting more of my time and energy into studying so that I can reach that point faster.
Other than that, I’ve had the most success with forming strong daily habits, and focusing on consistency over speed. SRS is really great for enforcing strong daily habits, for better or for worse, so at this point, I’m very tied down by WK, Anki, and KaniWani. A year from now, WK and KW should both be significantly more relaxed, since I’ll just be reviewing, but until then, balancing three SRS absolutely forces me to stay on track.
I’ve also had good success tying my grammar progress to my WK level-ups. Like, I always aim for getting at least one textbook lesson done every WK level (about every two weeks for me). It’s just enough pressure to keep me plugging away at my textbook without letting it fall by the wayside.
And of course, the read every day challenge and the book clubs here have also been motivating for me, personally, though I think you also need to give yourself permission to drop out or fall out of schedule or just generally cut yourself slack.
I ended up being unable to complete 大海原大海原 volume 3 alongside the club because some other things happened very unexpectedly that forced me to suddenly have to change priorities, and I felt bad for abandoning the club (though I’m still continuing the book! Just… very slowly), but sometimes life just happens, and that’s okay.
I also think it’s okay to count just the bare minimum for this challenge. For me personally, that’s the only way I got through this challenge at all this past month. Getting married is a pretty huge life event, so it makes sense that it would take up a lot of time and energy! There’s no obligation for you to read 10,000 characters every day, or to finish a manga chapter a day, or to read all of the posts in this thread.
I think really all you can do is to set out to do the best that you can do on any given day, and just understand that on some days, your best is going to be a lot more than other days, and that’s okay. I have a minimum daily workload that I absolutely have to do at all costs (mostly SRS, as well as reading at least something during the challenge), and if I get that done, I consider my day a success.
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Day Something
- ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 14巻
6/1
46-55
6/2
56-62
6/3
63-66
I’ve got a lot of reading to do today and tomorrow lol
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I learned today that the Napoleon or humphead wrasse is in Cantonese known as 蘇眉, which I kind of get, so I looked up what they’re called in Japanese, and it’s 眼鏡持之魚 (メガネモチノウオ), which I don’t get at all lol. They don’t look like they’re wearing glasses.
I did a little better reading 海辺のカフカ today, reading 5 pages. Is-Isn’t ジュラルミン the name of Yotsuba’s bear. I didn’t expect it to be an actual word: duralumin, a type of aluminum-copper alloy, whose name is a combination of “durable” and “aluminum.” How would the lady even know that something high up in the sky was made of duralumin, anyway? Whatever, in any case, this chapter’s still mind-numbingly boring so far. I wish I’d left myself some time to read クールドジ男子 too.
Some vocab of note:
いずれにしても [conjunction] anyhow; in any case; either way; anyway
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June 3 
Home Post
Well I got super into AI: The Somnium Files today so that was fun! I feel like I’m close to another “ending” which is exciting 
Who knows though, it’s hard to tell haha. I ran into a character who used あっし and でござんす and 伊達 was just like “…what is this” He said he was from 埼玉 so 
do with that what you will I suppose.
AI stuff
Well a lot of things happened today; so much so that I almost forgot that みずき has like super strength?? They really just showed her causing a whole shockwave and have addressed it no further, what She’s terrifying, she was just casually bench-pressing like 200 lbs, this child could absolutely destroy me.
But a lot happened with 応太 as well; his somnium was incredible lmao, he really went full shounen protag like I would believe for a second that’s actually what happened I really like him though, as time goes on I’m more and more like “aw he has a good heart, he’s just an idiot” and I’m sad about basically everything that’s going on. The kitchen knife sure did end up relevant huh, figures he’d get stabbed with it 
And his poor mom… Their whole family situation is rough, I have many feelings about it 
And this whole 世島 situation too; no idea why he showed up in イリス’s somnium, but why did the car with her in it go to his estate on the night she was attacked? Why was he chopped up and shoved in a vase?? Not that he seemed like a super great guy or anything, but absolutely brutal.
My most crackpot observation so far: I haven’t actually done 応太's mom’s somnium yet so I don’t know what it’ll show, but I am slightly suspicious about ピュータ conveniently saying that the Psync machine wasn’t working when we first tried I really don’t know anything about him outside of him doing tech stuff for ABIS and him knowing stuff about the incident 6 years ago and that feels weird to me, I feel like there’s gotta be something else going on there that I just don’t know yet so! We shall see
Anyway have 伊達 doing the magic mirror thing in his rearview mirror:
(He immediately followed this by saying yes of course it’s him, complete with fake echoes and all, I love this ridiculous man lmao)
Edit: dude I just now looked at the actual definition for 伊達, I’d never realized it was a word, he really is the most extra just by nature huh?? Incredible
Omg congrats!! 
As others have said it’s definitely reasonable for maintaining habits and the like to get harder with that much going on, fitting anything in is an achievement for sure. I’m not super great with time management so I don’t have much insight to offer, but I’m sending you がんばれ vibes 
I have no idea about the practicality of doing it either, but if we’re able to work something out I’d definitely be down! I’ve had a great time reading VNs in these challenges, doing so with a group would be a lot of fun 
so mark me down as “interested if it’s possible” haha
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Hey, all the best for the two of you!
Regarding the reading challenge: Just don’t stress out on it too much, would be my take on it. Sometimes life just gets in the way, and it sounds like life provided you with a big colourful box of things to deal with at the moment. So I wouldn’t worry too much, continue where you dropped off, and try to keep up with it a bit more next time. 
For building a habit, I feel I cannot add anything that hasn’t been said (I’m still working on that bit myself, so… )
Given the general interest in the medium, it might actually be worthwhile to read a VN in a kind of club, I guess. Due to the recent Big Tread Move™ I learned that we already have one VN reading club, it’s called DokiDoki Literature Club iirc. They even have some weekly threads; maybe you can see what they did and whether it worked out well or not? Other than that, my spontaneous idea would have been something like one thread per route or something, without fixed schedule? This way everybody could read in any order and in the end everything comes together or something 
But these routes seem to be very long so that might be too large a chunk. Or you could read up to a forking point together, and then poll on what route to take next, and then the whole group takes that route together. This way you could synchronize your experience a bit more.
Anyways, sounds like an interesting experiment!
I can see that 
Anyways, whatever y’all end up coming up with, I’d be curious to hear about how it worked out for you.
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Congratulations on your marriage! Good luck with time though
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I see you 
. I’ll keep this in mind as something I want to try to try starting a little ways down the line then!
Oh thank you! I had no idea! I guess it makes sense they’d do one for Doki Doki, since that game exploded in popularity a little while back. I guess it’s time to play 君と彼女と彼女の恋, which I always heard should appeal to Doki Doki fans. Doki Doki’s a game that has somewhat clear delineations for days which helps, plus it was originally an English VN later translated and it seems a lot of people were replaying. That’s the thing about trying to make a schedule – often you kind of need someone who has already played it to have any idea what divisions the game has, if any, and how they’re paced. I think both of your ideas could work and I see in that club they did at one point vote in relation to the choices presented there.
I want to say what’s on my mind right now is, a little bit in the future, to simply make a thread to check for interest and find out what people want to read, aiming to hopefully begin with a visual novel that avoids most trickier issues (there are “kinetic visual novels” that don’t feature choices at all, for example). While I think the polls might be a good idea, I feel like we just have to go no schedule unless we have someone on hand who already knows how that VN works… even when they’re sorted by chapters or days or something, I’d worry about some being unexpectedly lengthy or short. But once we see that there’s even interest and that we make it through a VN, if more happen, those among us who already have experience can feel out if we want to tackle ones that require more problem solving and can knock together our ideas then. Of course if people feel strongly about playing something not like that from the beginning we can work something out, but y’know.
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I have actually played one of these before, and personally, I really prefer the format. It’s nice to be able to enjoy the story with art and voice-acting and not have to worry about making the wrong choices or having to backtrack to get the other pieces of the story. I think it would definitely make for an easier club format, because everyone would be on the same path, essentially.
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Work really swept me away these past few weeks, but I’m really proud of everyone who participated and/or finished the challenge this spring 
I’m almost used to my job again so my plan is to participate for real in the next challenge 
go go readers!!!
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June 3rd 
Continued LOOPERS today, lots of fun so far, we’ve got time looping, the explanation of what’s going on with that, and more fun with geocaching. Most of the characters have interesting ways of speaking. I saw someone say it took them 4 hours to play (in english) so I’m curious how long it’ll take me (probably at least three times that lol). I’m about halfway through now, I won’t be able to check for a while though since the switch only shows play time after ten days. I’ll probably take a break from it tomorrow to focus on some book club reads.
Also came across the word 一本気 today, didn’t know it and looked it up, turns out it’s from level four and I somehow completely forgot it whoops
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June 4th.
I read this weeks BBC chapter of Yoru Cafe.
It took me about an hour and a half to read this chapter, so it wasn’t quite as tiring as last weeks chapter! I think its because I recognised more of the vocabulary than I did last week as there weren’t lots of specific terms about cooking!
I also had a call with my tutor today and we did the 読解 section of a JLPT paper as preparation for the exam next month.
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First of all, grats on getting married!
As for tips, I’d just recommend reading whatever you feel like reading, that always works most natural to me. To guide it you can set yourself a limit like wanting to finish it in a certain period of time (day, week, two weeks, a month) and additionally set aside a small amount of time each day (15min, 30min, 1hour) to try to do that without having any distractions around you. I typically like to read books before bed, while manga I’m okay with throughout the day, games and anime I like to pick evenings. It gets easier when you’re more used to it and give yourself a break when you need it.
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I read recently about the idea of developing a “rhythm” rather than a “habit” or “routine”, and I think this is a great way to look at it. A rhythm can skip a single beat, yet continue without that detracting in any way from the rhythm as a whole. A rhythm can also be disrupted by unusual events or travel or big life changes without that being a bad thing. (In fact, I think our daily rhythms probably should be disrupted from time to time.)
I’ve been thinking about reading every day in this way for a while (although I didn’t have such a good metaphor for it until recently haha). It really changes the focus. When I don’t read for a day, instead of thinking “ugh, I didn’t do the thing I want to do every day” I think “ah, my rhythm is totally disrupted today because ______, but it will go back to normal on Monday”. For example. And often the disruption is a positive thing that just took a lot of time or energy.
My tip is mainly the one above, about thinking in terms of rhythms rather than habits or streaks. Cause … it’s awesome that you got married! (Congratulations!) And it totally makes sense and is maybe even a good thing that that disrupted your regular rhythms for a while.
My other tip is, if you are a caffeine drinker, making a habit (or rhythm) of doing a certain thing while you drink your coffee or tea is a pretty effective way of making it happen every day. I love doing my WK reviews over my first cup of coffee every morning, and I get sad when I can’t do that haha. Hopefully someday I’ll finish with WK and then I can use that spot for reading.
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June 4 Home Post
I’m gonna be busy later so early post today; I played some more AI: The Somnium Files and finished 応太's route! It was an emotional ride; all the stuff with まゆみ was really sad, I hope she gets good things. But then イリス taking the flower knife with her (which makes sense actually, it definitely doesn’t mean she actually did everything but it certainly seems like she had some sense something was going to happen) and more than that, 硝子's eye being in 沖浦's intestines?? Um?? Concerning to say the least, not sure what to make of that but it explains why we haven’t found any of the eyes so far… yikes
Anyway it’s still all good reading-wise! There’s definitely more like modern slang than I’ve encountered in other things which is fun. I look forward to seeing more of what’s going on
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Also @softlyraining (ご結婚おめでとうございます!, nonetheless) – Although I don’t know the exact answer to time management, I believe it is half of SMART goal setting, and half of DRIVE, and might be another half of ever-changing prioritization matrix (Eisenhower Decision Matrix).
Lifestyle of my own, is pretty much of – can be disturbed at any time, for extensible periods. Still, I do have not-so-little free time. So, I prefer goal setting, rather than ensuring ultimate daily consistency. (I believe daily schedule can be done, but just varied everyday, and I need more diligence.)
Jun 4, Sat calendar post
Week 10 of Spring 2022’s summary
Reading
- I read JoJo to finish Part 2 Vol 2, and a little of Vol 3.
- Also, I read ahead Death Note Vol 3 a little.
- However, I still have problem reading Night Cafe - unable to focus, perhaps?
- I am interested in 人間失格 so far (and try reading on Bookwalker), but I can’t really tell if I will really be able to consistently read it until the end… Not yet interested enough in 糞尿譚, though.
Listening
- Even though I watched Yuru Camp S01E02, I find forcing myself to understand every sentence bothersome.
- Listening along with reading is possible – tried a little with Death Note; so SPY x FAMILY should also be possible.
- But I still need to be much much better… to make it useful at all!
- Get some games (on Windows PC), believing I should be able to try it and survive well.
- Haven’t updated Genshin Impact for a long time, but now it says data file is broken - but I can’t fix it, and forcing verification is always successful, anyway.
Grammar
- Sentence breakdown continues. However, probably gains lessen, and I don’t want to take my time outside native materials and grammar texts.
- I will try to finish all of Level 3, nonetheless. Ideally, I want to finish up to Level 10, as this is more of Kana chalenge (rather than Kanji without Furigana challenge.)
- I tried reading Japanese grammar on Wikipedia. Indeed, I do need to know grammar terms in Japanese to be able to use JJ dictionaries well.
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The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220604 
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 0.05%
There’s some very long sentences to start part one off, I am very thankful for the comma usage, if there were no commas I’d probably hide in the corner and cry.
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
停車場「ていしゃじょう」ー Stopping place (for trains), like junctions, stations, railyards.
構内「こうない」ー Premises; grounds
遊戯場「ゆうぎじょう」ー Amusement centre (like an arcade)
ハイカラ ー High collar; stylish; smart
設備「せつび」ー Equipment; facilities
垢抜け「あかぬけ」ー Refinement; Style; Sophistication
頗る「すこぶる」ー Extremely; very much
病弱「びょうじゃく」ー Sickly; feeble; weak; poor health
寝込む「ねこむ」ー To fall fast asleep; to be confined to bed
敷布「しきふ」ー Sheeting; sheet
掛蒲団「かけぶとん」ー Duvet; bed cover; futon cover (more common to see as: 掛け布団)
Congrats!!
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I’m not reading at the moment so I can start training my new shelter dog. She has NO manners and NO training, so this is going to be a big challenge. But she does want to please, so maybe it won’t be beyond doing. Then, back to reading for the Summer Challenge, if not before.
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Aww best of luck! They can be a lot of work sometimes, but totally worth it. Is a new dog picture sometime too much to hope for? 
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