June 4th-9th 
Didn’t post but I read at least a bit every day, some of my book club reads (two chapters of 夜カフェ and the first chapter of Flesh&Blood), more 夜は不思議などうぶつえん, and started volume 6 of マグメル as well as volume 1 of 宝石の国. There’s so many things I want to read that it’s getting hard to decide which one I want to read which day. I think for now I’ll focus on finishing some of the ones I started, probably starting with LOOPERS.
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I got a quick update. I have read a few chapters of ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 and I’ll use the YKK abbreviation from now on. It’s pretty cozy after getting a feel for everyone’s speech style and such. It has a peculiar style that you don’t see as much today and Alpha has a bit of a #girlboss vibe.
On the other side, I have read through the first chapter of Spy x Family novel. There’s some sections and words I’ll have to look at again. It definitely is more effort to read than the manga and there’s less furigana, but the story itself was pretty simple and cute. I think I’ll leave the book at home for reading whenever I get back from weekends. I’m bringing the rest of my books along for reading to the camping site as well as my tablet with manga.
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The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220610 
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 14.75%
The last few paragraphs from yesterday’s reading were all pretty humorous and light-hearted (well, as light-hearted as this gets). Today the first few sentences went straight into the deep end with all the heavy stuff.
And that’s chapter/note one finished - onto number two!
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
凡「おおよそ」ー Approximately; about. (more likely to be seen like: 大凡)
対蹠「たいしょ」ー Antipodal; at opposing sides of the earth
下等「かとう」ー Inferior; vulgar; low (grade/class)
所詮「しょせん」ー After all; in the end; anyway
嘲笑「ちょうしょう」ー Ridicule
エホバ ー Jehovah
演説「えんぜつ」ー Speech / address (like public speaking)
三々五々「さんさんごご」ー In small groups (of people eg.) (also seen as: 三三五五)
家路「いえじ」ー The road/way home
クソミソ「糞味噌」ー Harsh; severe (like criticism or verbal abuse)
同志「どうし」ー Like-minded; shared sentiment; comrade; fellow person
立ち寄る「たちよる」ー To stop by; to drop by; call in for a short visit
妙諦「みょうてい」ー Amazing truth; cardinal principle
時折「ときおり」ー Sometimes; on the occasion; from time to time
Outdated Stuff
哀しい = 悲しい「かなしい」(Sad)
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June 10th
・ かがみの孤城 下 (84% → 100%)
Finished the book! 
I liked it much better than I thought I would. Quite the development and such a satisfying ending. The first book I’ve finished within a week 
Increased amount of free time and low number of unknown words helped a lot.
(Had a moment where I couldn’t finish a short paragraph without my mind making up it’s own version of how things went down - that was super distracting, felt like listening to multiple songs at the same time 
)
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June 10
Had to get up several hours earlier than usual, plus didn’t go to bed earlier, so got barely 6 hours of sleep last night. Meaning my brain have been fried all day long.
Therefore I’m counting a lot of grazing of Japanese I’ve done today, from reading little samples for the VN club, and an article on Japanese grammar in Japanese. Not to mention I also played more Atelier Sophie so I got some listening practice.
I had to get up early and get to the police station to apply for a new passport. It is currently passport chaos in Sweden, and have been for the past few months and will keep going probably the year out. Because almost no one renewed passports in the last two years for some reason. 
And now everyone wants to, so what would have in the before times taken no time at all to book a time to apply, and then get the passport within 5 days…
Now getting a near-ish time, means constantly searching for open times and hoping someone canceled theirs, because otherwise you’ll get a time (for applying) in about 4 months. And even if you, like me, manage to get a time, you will have to wait at least 5 weeks to get it, and they can’t guarantee getting it in 5-6 weeks, and I need my passport in about 7,5 weeks… 
Now I realize that in some countries, getting a passport can be a hassle. But us Swedes are used to getting it easy and quick, and now it is perhaps not hard, but it certainly isn’t quick…
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June 10th!
I read the next chapter of Teasing Master Takagi-san today, which was the final chapter of volume 6.
I ordered the rest of the series a few days ago too since I think at this point there is very little likelihood of me not wanting to read them all! 
I got really lucky though, because I put them all into my basket on CDJapan, but then decided not to order them straight away as I have a friend who I sometimes combine orders with so we can share the shipping costs.
Then I went to bed, and woke up the next morning to an email from CDJapan telling me that Volume 18 had just been released! I had no idea it was coming out yet.
I would have been so cross if I ordered “the rest of the series” and then woke up the next day and there was a new one. 
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June 10
Final Fantasy VII
Didn’t read the last two days but today I could play for a long while and it was so productive I’m quite satisfied.
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June 10 Home Post
I started out the day looking into things for the VN book club, so I read a bit of ATRI which seems interesting! I think any trouble I had with it was really just me being in the headspace of like “this is a demo, I’m not seriously reading it so it should be easy” which… isn’t how things work 
but I’m interested to read it sometime for sure.
In more normal news though I played more AI: The Somnium Files and oh boy. I really can’t tell how close to finishing it I am, but I feel like I’m getting relatively close? And I still have endless questions lmao, classic spike chunsoft huh?
AI stuff!
Well okay things are really getting weird in this other main branch; イリス is alive again?? I have to admit, I did not see that one coming 
AI is really good at having me like 40 hours in and still throwing completely new concepts at me like “yeah this is also something that can happen in this world apparently, isn’t that wild!!” You’d think I’d be used to it after Zero Escape, but somehow AI’s still caught me off guard time after time haha. But like… how? Still wondering why イリス’s corpse showed up in みずき’s somnium, and then her murder in <世島>{せじま}'s, and then us changing it via dream-world? There’s a lot huh 
Finally had a scene that really had some Zero Escape energy:
So yeah talking about like the Mandela effect, bouba and kiki (hello?? Didn’t really expect to see that one in a VN lmao), and parallel universes? Alternate histories? Anthropic principle? Now that’s the wild science talk I remember It was a fun scene though, they told some interesting spooky-type stories, I enjoyed it!
Buuut on a more angsty complex note: we’re talking about 89 again, oh boy. We haven’t gotten his whole backstory from him in this route yet, but he sure knocked us out and escaped huh! And there’s been <瞳>{ひとみ} and イリス talking about a “mysterious man” who they were close with 6 years ago (because that’s when everything happened huh) and yeah it’s obviously him, but they don’t have all the pieces in-game yet and oh man it’s a lot! We’re like “oh no there’s this awful scary murderer on the loose and our sketchy friend is helping him” and like… yes, sure, but also he’s basically イリス’s dad and it’s Complicated, I am concerned but curious to see how it all goes 
Anyway reading’s still going well! Whether I’m all that close to finishing or not, AI will still end sometime so I need to figure out what I’ll play next Too many choices as always, the ongoing struggle haha.
27 Likes
June 10th
Finished LOOPERS! I had a lot of fun with it and it was definitely on the easier side reading wise. When you reach the last few lines it goes into auto mode on its own and you can’t turn it off which made me panic a bit. Two more days until I can check how many hours it took me but it was on the short side for sure. I loved all the geocaching shenanigans and Mia was super cute. It was cool to see how the experiences they had in the time loop came around in the end to help them succeed. I see now why it’s tagged as a nakige. 感動した 
I think my next game will be even if tempest 宵闇にかく語りき魔女 which is apparently a dark fantasy otome game with some gameplay in the form of investigations and trials. This one just came out so I’m gonna try going walkthrough free, can’t see that going well though It makes me happy that it seems like more games on the Switch are being released with both English and Japanese capabilities. Makes it way easier to purchase and if I’m ever super stumped on something it’s pretty easy to check how it was translated in the English version.
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June 11
Read the second story in The Best Selection 2 from Yuu Watase. オトメの事情. The premise is completely unbelievable and it is very manga-esque slapstick humor (it isn’t slapstick exactly but I don’t know what else to call it). But it was quite entertaining to read because the last few pages seriously redeemed the first 3/4 of the story. Not that the first 3/4 was bad, just zany without substance nor not zany enough (to work as zany); if that makes sense.
I ended up buying a couple of otome VNs last night because they were on sale. They were less then 10€ each. Debating with myself about another one that is on a 40% sale (but like 27€ish with that discount), but I don’t expect to be able to read that one in quite a while (ninjas in Edo period). So can probably wait with buying that one until another sale. It is so hard to resist though because Ninja & Edo! 
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The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220611
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 15.40%
第二の手記… スタート‼
And what’s the best way to start a new chapter? With a very long sentence that takes up almost a whole paragraph of course! But it used one of my favourite words「花吹雪」, so it’s okay.
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
波打際「なみうちぎわ」ー Beach; water’s edge (more common to see as: 波打ち際)
岸辺「きしべ」ー Shore; bank (also a name)
嫩葉「わかば」ー New leaves (more common as: 若葉)
絢爛「けんらん」ー Gorgeous; brilliant; dazzling; ornate
鏤める「ちりばめる」ー To inlay; to set; to stud; to mount (like “diamond studded ring”) (more common as: 散りばめる)
砂浜「すなはま」ー Sandy beach
日一日と「ひいちにちと」ー Day by day (it’s watching you)
Choose Your Own Meaning
褐色「かっしょく」ー Dark brown
BUT it can also be:
褐色「かちいろ」ー Dark indigo that is almost black
Here there is no furigana, so who knows, but I’m guessing by the context it’ll be the dark brown version since it’s talking about leaves.
Other Forms
樹肌 ＝ 木肌「きはだ」(Tree bark)
徽章 ＝ 記章「きしょう」(Medal; insignia)
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June 11th
Usually on Saturdays I read the chapter of Yoru Cafe that I need to read for the BBC, because it always takes me ages so its good to do it on a weekend day. But today I had a class with my tutor this morning, had an hour long phonecall with my dad since we havent had a proper chat for a week or two, and also we are visiting friends this evening for pizza and board games…
So instead I read chapter 8 of Happiness today as thats always a quick read. It was interesting.
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Is it Nightshade?
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Yes. Have you played it? I totally want to buy it now and try and read it, but… eh… I’m trying to be kind to myself.
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That’s the one I’m currently playing! It’s really good, but there is some time and subject specific vocab used, haha. The grammar isn’t too bad, actually. If you want, I can take some screen shots next time I play - probably tomorrow. 
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Please do!
Hmmm… I wonder if there is like a samurai/ninja/Edo SRS deck out somewhere. I could see myself actually working through such a one for a bit, just to get some familiarity with the vocabulary.
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This may or may not be helpful to you, but jpdb has an SRS system where you can learn vocabulary from a VN. I couldn’t find Nightshade on there, but Hakuouki is on there which is an Edo Samurai type story. Unfortunately can’t export the deck to anki or anything so you’d have to do daily SRS on jpdb but it might interest you! Here is the link to the vocab list for Hakuouki on there if you want to check it out Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms – Vocabulary list – jpdb
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Not sure this is gonna work for me, but thanks for pointing me to it.
With over 12k entries and the majority of them being everyday modern vocabulary, it would be a nightmare to sort out the interesting terms. (Unless there is extra sorting possibilities when logged in.) It did amuse me though to see entries for character names, for the の particle and other particles, その, etc. The list literally have all words that appears in the VN. O_O
Of course, maybe there are great sorting and other tools while logged in. I guess I should check that… ^^
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There’s an option to sort out wk vocab for Patreon supporters, but other than that you can just mark words as known manually.
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June 11
Final Fantasy VII
Just did a little today, running low on energy. Hopefully more tomorrow!
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