You know how you can tell the author of a book by how it is written? Well, I’ve also found that you can tell the publisher of a book by how it is formatted. I started 実は私は １ today and realised that the formatting was different from what I was used to. So I looked up the publisher and realised that it wasn’t Shueisha or Kodansha but Akita Shoten. That’s a publisher that I’ve never heard of but on their Wikipedia page, some of their popular series were ones that I’ve heard of often. I just was never interested in reading them.
Anyway, the point that I was trying to make was that the fonts are almost as crazy as in a shoujo manga and there is handwritten Japanese everywhere (which I just ignored like in となりの怪物くん) . It was too hard for me to try to make it out even though I was reading in my web browser with the manga zoomed to 100% but the picture quality was not clear so the words were blurry. That’s what made me realise that there was a difference in format from previous manga that I’ve read.
It wasn’t as hot today as I expected, at least not this morning, so work wasn’t as awful as it could have been. And I heard the first cicadas today! It’s cicada season!! They’re, like, the one good thing about summer.
I played like 9 hrs of DQ today. I’d wanted to read some books today, but it wasn’t happening. I left Saltico without getting the coins to get the bunny suit (and then got distracted and forgot to go back and get it lol); explored some of the islands before going to Nagimuna and completing that, getting the Green Orb from the mermaid queen; and then made my way to the Girls’ Mini Medal Academy. I’m pretty sure in one of Ittetsu’s journals, he says he went to the Academy and was turned away at the gate because it’s girls only, but I could be misremembering. But I wasn’t really expecting to be made a guest/honorary student so easily; I’d thought maybe we’d have to disguise as girls. But also I got it partially mixed up with DQIX, where you’re actually there to investigate mysterious goings-on at the school and have to pretend to be a new student. You just go there to enquire about the Orb, and the principal sees you and is like, “I can see in your eyes that you’d make a wonderful medal collector! Hm, but this is a girls’ school, what should I do… Ah, yes! I’ll use my authority to make you an honorary student!” and then you learn about the birds of paradise living in the nearby valley who steal shiny things and likely have the Silver Orb.
Some vocab of note:
みなぎる [ラ五, intransitive] to rise high (of water); to overflow; to swell (e.g. a river full of water). to be filled with (emotion, energy, etc.); to be bursting with; to be brimming with; to pervade
敵に回す (てきにまわす) [expression, サ五] to make an enemy of
お安いご用 (おやすいごよう) [expression, noun] easy task; no problem
不意をつく (ふいをつく) [expression, カ五] to take by surprise
紙芝居 (かみしばい) [noun] picture story show
突拍子もない (とっぴょうしもない) [expression, い-adjective] astounding; tremendous; crazy; exorbitant
好奇心 (こうきしん) [noun] curiosity; inquisitiveness
探求心 (たんきゅうしん) [noun] spirit of inquiry/enquiry
手口 (てぐち) [noun] modus operandi; criminal technique; trick
Week 12 of Spring 2022’s summary (maybe updated on weekends)
I have read JoJo for the Stroheim 's reappearance (3), and skimmed through Kars 's arc (2).
This JoJo Part 2 is full of place names, from time around World War 2 – so it is good for learning place names (which is sometimes historical), and reading Katakana for usual foreign words (often not English).
Also, Shadows House Chap 1-2. Even if it is without Furigana, the conversation (text) isn’t so complex, so it can be read relatively quickly – as long as I know the vocabularies beforehand.
I saw Orange reading club, which is not so bad a series, but I have to consider genres, artwork and reading queue at hand too. So, maybe?
I am a little busy this week, and has worries (of assignments for a monthly course I am attending). So, yet to read Night Cafe.
About gaming, I have downloaded MONSTER HUNTER (Demo) also, which works very well with my ultra-wide screen. (Unlike other games I downloaded earlier.)
Soulworker isn’t so bad, but I can’t install the interface in Japanese (another option is only Chinese).
Metal Gear Solid is playable, but I will need to train myself a little.
Devil May Cry has Human mode (easier), and is playable so far.
I can’t get past even the second opponent in NIOH, and I already equipped a weapon. Also, on-screen instruction is somehow, based on controller (joystick).
ATRI can be classified as a game, but gives a different feel. Anyway, I didn’t really touch it this week, so I can’t really tell…
I found some other VNs in Steam, but should I buy them? Looking better comes with a price tag. Outside Steam might be installable on Windows too, but won’t sync across machines.
I worry if too focused on gaming, and it will distract me from learning the language. All in all, I didn’t play much games.
For much time of next week, I won’t have access to my PC (with a graphic card), so much less gaming. ATRI can still be considered (as it is synced to all machines).
For the language / grammar, I have 18 vocabularies / 54 context sentences left in Level 2. I guess it is now best to focus on not only context sentences, but also Pattern of Use. I haven’t read any more grammar.
For listening, I will progress in Listening Every Day topic, but in short – Some materials are relative hard, but still can be listened. Some are just right, but I may still miss something; also still need some focus… I did watch quick some anime, but definitely on hard side.
I am listening to a anime song I have problem noticing the lyrics right now…
I want to listen to DIO’s songs later too, if they are any good. (I think I saw a listing on its concert a while ago.)
Alright if I wasn’t in on バディミッションBOND before, I definitely am now; interesting plot things are happening and the characters are an absolute delight, ルーク and アーロン have maybe one braincell between them ルーク is like “hmm アーロン sure shares a lot of characteristics with 怪盗ビースト, that’s a wild coincidence” like sweetheart… it’s literally so obvious It’s okay he got there. Language-wise it’s still pretty good, I’m starting to get a feel for the writing I think. There’s definitely more gratuitous use of specific set phrases and slang than I’ve seen in other stuff I’ve read, which is a bit of a challenge but also fun! So many specific metaphors
He’s warmed up to us :') And clearly I’ve latched on the loud aggro man, who could’ve guessed! I would never lmao
But yeah it’s a lot of fun, it’s very much like “oh you wanna say a bunch of nonsense and read side stories about all these characters hanging out? got you” but also there’s interesting overarching mystery plot stuff So entirely up my alley basically. I’m glad I came across it!
ぎょっと ー Being startled (onomatopoeic word) 陰惨「いんさん」ー Sadness and gloom 胸底「きょうてい」ー Bottom of one’s heart 陰鬱「いんうつ」ー Gloomy; melancholy; depressing; dreary 官吏「かんり」ー Government official; public/civil servant 寮生活「りょうせいかす」ー Dormitory life 粗暴「そぼう」ー Rough; wild (in a behaviour sense) 辟易「へきえき」ー To be fed up with; to be tired of; to be bored with 肺浸潤「はいしんじゅん」ー Infiltration of the lungs 診断書「しんだんしょ」ー Medical certificate 歪める「ゆがめる」ー To bend; to warp; to distort; to disfigure 性欲「せいよく」ー Sexual desire; lust 滞在「たいざい」ー Sojourn 別荘番「べっそうばん」ー Caretaker of a villa 登校「とうこう」ー Going to school; school attendance 本郷「ほんごう」ー One’s hometown デッサン ー Rough sketch (from the French: dessin) 聴講生「ちょうこうせい」ー Auditor 白々「しらじら」ー Growing light (like at dawn); pale 画塾「がじゅく」ー Private painting school 淫売婦「いんばいふ」ー Prostitute (out-dated kanji form) アトリエ ー Studio; Workshop (French: atelier) へどもど ー Flustered; stuttering 美男子「びだんし」ー Handsome young man 浅黒い「あさぐらい」ー Dark or tanned skin ポマード ー Pomade (hair wax) 含羞む「はにかむ」ー To be shy/bashful 敬意「けいい」ー Respect; honour 与太者「よたもの」ー Hooligan
Kanji Form 煙草「たばこ」ー Tobacco; cigarette
Other Forms
馴れる ＝ 慣れる「なれる」(to get used to)
Extremely Confusing Word
ビイル
I was like, what on earth is a biiru? Then it suddenly dawned on me… it’s just ビール.
After all the yard work, ca 4 hours. I’ve not gotten around to reading more Zenitendou. Instead I did some sampling of a couple of books/manga to figure out if I want to order them. I need to do an order soonish, so it was needed anyway.
But tomorrow it will rain and rain (unfortunately I couldn’t finish all I needed before the rain ), and rain some more, and rain means read day, right? So hopefully I can make some good progress on Zenitendou tomorrow so I can figure out if I want more of it. ^^
Today was really hot here in the UK, so the company I work for gave us all the afternoon off to go and enjoy the sunshine.
I used my afternoon to do some JLPT practise questions, and then went and sat in my garden on a blanket and read two chapters of Yotsuba.
It was a very lovely afternoon
I’m looking forward to the fourth Saikawa & Moe book tomorrow. I’ll try pacing myself by reading a bit every day instead of a bunch during a short time. That way, I won’t risk reading ahead of the book club and I can read SAO afterwards if I want to read more.
Went to sleep super late last night, so was a bit tired today. Reading out loud did the trick, even mom talking loudly on the phone in the background didn’t distract me while I was reading.
So I found out today that I may be mildly anemic, which would explain some things. Like the tiredness and lack of energy not entirely explained by my not-the-best sleep schedule that will sometimes affect me, like today. Yeah I did not do much today at all after I got home from work.
It’s fitting that I’m reading the 夏祭り chapter (22) of クールドジ男子 today, as my town has a little carnival set up downtown today.
It’s バディミッションBOND era now It’s like… darker than I expected actually? There’s some real angst in these characters, there’s a lot going on. I’m definitely getting a crash course in police slang but also aggro shounen-type terms to an extreme degree, アーロン is just like that huh I think he’s called people about twenty variations of trash by now so that’s fun.
Dramatic shot!! Really highlighting アーロン’s ridiculous character design lmao. It’s even more exacerbated half the time because ルーク just looks like a normal guy and then アーロン’s like that But yeah hero seems to be a word with a lot of weight behind it in this game… there are a lot of memories and feelings tied into it, it’s definitely gonna be recurring theme I think.
But yeah characters had a real bad time today actually? I got some アーロン backstory about how he was just a kid surviving on his own and he stumbled upon the others also like starving to death and they convinced him to stay despite his aggressive hesitance, and how アラナ’s little brother had just died of starvation and they were all in a really bad place emotionally and physically… it’s really messed up actually? アーロン backstory dark, and it seems like a lot of the reason he does the things he does is so he can support the other orphaned kids and just… it’s all really sad actually And then in the current time ルーク just got straight up tortured, like?? He was a broken man for a lot of it, that was rough. There’s a lot of messed up stuff going on and it feels like just the tip of the iceberg really.
It’s not all angst though of course, lots of fun screenshot opportunities as always:
This アーロン face kills me lmao; I have a really bad feeling about him saying that though, definitely feel like we’re gonna see him cry and it’s gonna hurt me!! Yikes for that
This man hates planes, he’s really like “you want me to trust a hunk of metal?? I trust these fists only” Thinking about it now there’s probably an angsty reason for that too but for now it’s fun, ルーク’s just like “wow his one weakness ” haha
He’s many things People were applauding him and he was like “if anyone wants to meet up later for a ~rendezvous~ keep clapping!” and the crushing wave of second-hand embarrassment I felt as only ルーク kept clapping, the deafening silence, oof. But the きゅん face They’re all a hot mess for real.
So yeah all still going well! Keeping up with 海辺のカフカ hasn’t monopolized my time the way I thought it might so that’s nice, gives me time for plenty of other chaos haha.
June 11th-17th
Haven’t kept up much with posting but read all but two days. I’m headed out on another trip so I might not be able to post much until I settle down there.
This week I started even if tempest, not far in yet but so far it has a lot more formal language than things I’m used to since the setting has nobility, lots of new vocabulary related to that as well. I can never remember the different 爵s (to be fair can never remember the order in English as well ). So far it seems like a good game to get more used to reading this kind of speech. Then I read volume 6 of マグメル (new character at the end ) and half a chapter of Flesh&Blood which I’m having a lot of fun with so far. Finally I tried to finish 夜は不思議などうぶつえん before I leave, couldn’t make it quite to the end but I’m about halfway through it, it’s a pretty light story (with a lot of zoo/animal vocabulary) about a girl working part-time at an old zoo that’s about to close down who ends up working a night shift and discovers that the guy who works the night shift has the strange ability to swap bodies with the animals. All of the animals have different speaking patterns so It’s funny to think that when they’re talking they all just look like the guy. Also finally able to look at my hours for LOOPERS, the switch says 10 hours which really means somewhere between 10-15 hours which is a little closer to the average play time than usual for me.
Posted this way too soon because my keyboard got stuck - the shift key got stuck on super activator mode or something and this somehow caused it to be posted when I pressed enter.
Today’s reading was also about making awkward mistakes in public
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
案内者「あんないしゃ」ー Guide; usher 絨緞「じゅうたん」ー Carpet; rug (also seen as: 絨毯 or 絨氈) 案内嬢「あんないじょう」ー Usherette ボーイ ー Boy, but can mean bellboy; waiter etc. ぎこちない ー Awkward; clumsy; stiff 吝嗇「りんしょく」ー Stinginess 半狂乱「はんきょうらん」ー Half-crazed; frantic お釣り「おつり」ー Change (from a purchase eg.) 円タク「えんタク」ー One-yen taxi (in Taisho & Showa periods) ポンポン蒸気「ポンポンじょうき」ー Pop-pop boat, toy boat with a simple steam impeller (like the one in Ponyo!) 目的地「もくてきち」ー Place of destination 朝帰り「あさがえり」ー Coming home in the morning (after a night out or the like) 電気ブラン「でんきブラン」ー Denkibran - cocktail of brandy, gin, wine, curacao and herbs 危懼「きく」ー Fear; misgivings 白痴「はくち」ー Idiot (an offensive word) 同類「どうるい」ー The same kind; accomplice 円光「えんこう」ー Halo
I read this weeks chapter of Yoru Cafe, which was Chapter 11. As usual it took a long time, but I’m just happy that I’ve broken through the mental barrier of feeling like I can’t read blocks of text, so I don’t really mind if it takes me ages!
There was a bit I struggled with in the middle of the chapter today. A lot of people were speaking and I was finding it difficult to work out who was saying what, but even though I may not have worked it all out correctly I definitely got enough to understand what was going on, and I think thats enough
Read two more pages of Zenitendou today. And felt like I’d been hit over the head with a mallet. Page 12 was harder than the others so far. Here I thought I could happily waltz into this book, and honestly with the help of the book club threads I figured out everything. And asked for help with a breakdown to fully figure out a sentence.
But I really hope I can pick up the speed a bit.
I think I probably spent 1 hour today too, although I didn’t check closely. I’ll look forward to when the Orange book club starts because I’ll be back to reading something I can actually fly through (in comparison to my current snail pace).
Who’d guess I’d get really good at casual language before narrative sentences? Not me anyway.
Maybe I just need to get used to the author voice.
Oh, fun (Swedish) cultural thing about that emote there: (I’m feeling like I’m all bummer, so gotta bring up the fun/energy.)
So crossing your fingers like that in Swedish is usually done behind your back when you’re telling a lie, a kinda get out of jail free card kinda gesture. Like this isn’t a lie, because I’m crossing my fingers behind my back or kinda it’s fine because behind my back I’m acknowledging this is a lie. A very kid thing to do. Example: when telling their parents that “yes, I did my homework, can I go play with my friends now?” when they haven’t done their homework.
That emote feels very weird for me to use for wishing or luck. In Swedish, we hold our thumbs for that (making fists with thumb in the middle/on the inside) “hålla tummarna”. So if a Swedish person ever responds to your message that ends with with , especially if you are wishing them luck, now you know why.
Break a leg!
(No, I really mean it. BREAK YOUR LEG. )
Haha for Germans it’s the same with both ^^ (at least it used to be when I was young )
I must confess it was sort of the same for me, back when I tried to read it. I just thought it contains way too many unusual vocab which slowed me down enormously….
and the characters are an absolute delight, ルーク and アーロン have maybe one braincell between them 
ルーク is like 
Japanese found in the tall grass 
I’ve not gotten around to reading more Zenitendou. Instead I did some sampling of a couple of books/manga to figure out if I want to order them. I need to do an order soonish, so it was needed anyway.
), and rain some more, and rain means read day, right? So hopefully I can make some good progress on Zenitendou tomorrow so I can figure out if I want more of it. ^^
” haha
June 11th-17th 
, especially if you are wishing them luck, now you know why. 
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