The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220621 
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 38.61%
I’ve been reading aloud while reading, but because it feels weird to talk at normal levels alone, I speak hushed. I feel that I have mentally conditioned my Japanese speaking abilities to only be done in whispers, if I need to speak at normal levels in Japanese I’m not sure if I’ll actually be able to 
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
同様「どうよう」ー Same; similar; equal
小遣い「こづかい」ー Pocket Money
慄然「りつぜん」ー Terrified; horrified
電報「でんぽう」ー Telegram
上策「じょうさく」ー Excellent plan; good idea
情死「じょうし」ー Lover’s suicide; joint suicide
出席日数「じゅっせきにっすう」ー Number of days someone has attended somewhere (like school); attendance days
武装蜂起「ぶそうほうき」ー Armed uprising
用箋「ようせん」ー Stationery; writing pad
くたくた ー Exhausted; worn out
Fun with Hiragana
へのへのもへじ ー A way to make a face with hiragana (popular to do as children)
Poor attempt:
へ へ
の の
も
へ
じ is supposed to be at the side to make it look like the side of the face.
Here’s what it looks like:
Forms
聯絡 ＝ 連絡「れんらく」(Making contact; getting in touch; communication)
Magic P
Ｐ
24 Likes
June 21
Zenitendou 1: page 20 → 21 (2 pages)
I’m still going at what feels like a super slow pace, but I feel not used up at the end, more like done. Like, yeah, I’ve used 60% of my tank, don’t wanna go too low or run it empty because tomorrow it won’t be back to full then.
At this rate I’ll finish the first story in another 4-5 days. Feels very slow, but I’m also enjoying the ride. And I am reading comprehensively so some sentences take a little while. Trying to nail down those areas I’ve often glossed over because I found them confusing. And not paying enough attention to particles is still kicking my ass.
This author really loves putting commas after the subject particle, and I keep missing that, so I dismiss the first part of the sentence from my mind and the second half becomes not very clear because it is missing that vital subject. 
I’ll get used to it eventually.
Happier news. Still playing Atelier Sophie and pretty happy with my listening comprehension. I think I basically catch every word I actually know, and I’m catching the grammar constructions used and figuring out what roughly is said as long as the sentence doesn’t include a lot of unknown vocabulary. I’m also enjoying how casually I can do it with English text right there. It doesn’t feel like studying at all, just playing a game with some additional benefits.
Also, I’ve been looking into potentially joining a university Japanese course, emailed the institution today to see if I could get an answer on how I prove my Japanese skills, because I want to join the N3 level course which is about where I am (halfway-ish through it). But the diploma from my one year at Japanese school doesn’t mention level of Japanese at all. 
And I’ve not taken the JLPT… The first time ever I’ve thought 残念 about that. xD
21 Likes
June 21!
I noticed that Hana ni Arashi is free on Bookwalker for a few days, and since Natively rates it as a similarish level of difficulty to Yotsuba I thought I’d give it a go during my lunchbreak.
And then I ended up reading 5 chapters and my whole lunchbreak had disappeared 
(Home Post)
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Oh nice, I am glad you are enjoying it! I added it to Natively a while ago and really enjoy the series, its super cute. I still need to catch up though cause I’ve only finished the first 8 volumes and the newest volume 11 comes out soon
7 Likes
It was actually your review that encouraged me to try it!
Thank you for the indirect recommendation 
6 Likes
june 21 home post
It’s finally not raining here so I decided to read outside I read a couple pages of 夜カフェ chapter 8 and 極主夫道 chapter 37, but my main focus today is 神々のトライフォース. I really want to finish this manga today
edit: I did it! 神々のトライフォース is finally finished!!
23 Likes
(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #12 by DIO-Berry)
6/21
74 - 92
I wanted to read a lot more, but I was too hyper and distracted last night I couldn’t concentrate and lost an hour or 2 to mental flailing 
21 Likes
Home
I read the couple 描き下ろし pages that are technically a continuation of ch 4 (whoops), then ch 5 花火 and the 描き下ろし mini-chapter 桜の記憶, finishing vol 1 of 晴れのち四季部! I can’t wait to get the rest of the series. I adore it so much.
(The outer space inside his head lol) And then on a later day when Yamato bends down hoping to get a forehead kiss from Haruno, he gets a headpat instead. まあいいか…
In ch 5, their school is hosting a 夏祭り, and after inviting Yamato to go with him, Haruno worries over what to wear, thinking that Yamato would surely wear either a jinbei or a yukata, before finally deciding on a yukata since he thinks Yamato’s more likely to go with that. He shows up in his school uniform lmao. So Haruno drags him back home with him to borrow a yukata from his older brother before going to the festival. He needs the full experience! And later they sneak off to the roof to watch the fireworks holding hands ♡
I also played 16 min of DQXI; it’s the continuation of the 46 min from last night lol. I didn’t end up playing any after I got some sleep like I’d originally planned.
And that’s all I ended up reading today. I finally finished going through the last of the binders on my bottom shelf and copying down the fic stuff I wanted to keep into my Docs, and then I got sidetracked with other fics for that pairing that I already had in my Docs. Now all I’ve got left is my yearbooks, what looks like some old sketchbooks, and some file thing. I just gotta figure out what I wanna do with those (and work myself up to touch them since it looks like there’s webs on at least some of them…) and then I can finish sanding and finally get to painting, and then I can finally get all my books back outta their boxes and back on the shelves! Shouldn’t take too long, right? Of course, it’s hotter now than when I started, so I’ll probably tire out sooner, and I already tire out pretty quick…
Some vocab of note:
露店 (ろてん) [noun] street stall; stand; booth. I assume this uses the “expose” meaning of 露, not “dew” lol
一喜一憂 (いっきいちゆう) [四字熟語, expression] now rejoicing, now worrying; swinging from joy to sorrow; glad and sad by turns
息を引き取る (いきをひきとる) [expression, ラ五] to pass away; to breathe one’s last
他愛もない (たわいもない) [expression, い-adjective] silly; foolish; absurd; childish; easy; trifling; guileless. The 他愛 is 当て字, not to be confused with 他愛 (たあい) meaning “altruism.” 他愛もない and its variations are usually written in kana, though.
冬至 (とうじ) [noun] winter solstice
臆病者 (おくびょうもの) [noun] coward
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I was all “I’m going to read all 31 pages today!” which like, doable tbh. But I got halfway through the scientist chapter and my brain also just checked out. It’s not that it’s hard so much as it’s quite boring. So far it’s all basically info we’ve gotten before presented in a very verbose format.
I’m going to try to knock out the rest as soon as I can so I can join the discussion but oof. These chapters are very inconsistently interesting!
14 Likes
June 21 Home Post
Well I started off fighting through the 海辺のカフカ scientist talk again and I wasn’t sure how far I’d get, but I managed to finish that chapter and then I got sucked in and read a whole other chapter so… I basically read two chapters today? So that’s pretty cool 
Being occupied with that I didn’t play as much バディミッションBOND today, but I still did some; mostly just reading through some side stories and replaying a section to unlock one I didn’t before, all that good stuff. (I also got in the mood to mess with 怪人二十面相 again because チェズレイ reminded me of it so I read a little of that, we’ll see if I actually keep on with it this time 
)
buddy things!
I mostly just have fun screenshots today:
He’s so powerful I am curious what the deal with all his like “beast” traits is, like is it just thematic or is there a reason he has super senses? It keeps coming up so it feels like it’s probably relevant but idk; maybe it has to do with the experiments that happened in his country? I might just be primed for that kind of plotline from other things lmao but it’d make some sense
…is that an ace attorney reference Wild, this is not a capcom game but whatever! Also モクマ naruto runs because of course he does 
Have I mentioned that I love her?? She’s probably gonna betray us all (I have bad experiences with characters using たまえ lmao) but also her using たまえ? Powerful 
I can’t believe she’s gonna turn us into backup dancers, this game is absolutely wild
On a more serious note: モクマ definitely has a complicated past we don’t know about, he’s kind of an alcoholic and clearly just in a bad place but really good at putting on the whole nonchalant goofy act, but I don’t know why 
ナデシコ seems to? It seems he was more like ルーク once, some sort of hero-type vigilante, but something happened and I have no idea what but it’ll probably hurt when we find out!
Lmao it’s so reassuring when it’s not just me Like yeah there’s some interesting stuff in the chapter, but the ratio of new information to number of words I was looking up and convoluted phrasing I was wrapping my head around? Yeah not ideal It gets better after though, can confirm!
23 Likes
The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220622
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 42.02%
40%!
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
気障「ぎざ」ー Smug; pompous; snobby
愁え「うれえ」ー Lamentation; grief; anxiety (more common to see as: 憂え)
身動き「みうごき」ー Moving around; stirring about
絣「かすり」ー Splashed pattern (on cloth, like a kimono)
図々しい「ずうずうしい」ー Impudent; shameless; audacious
技倆「ぎりょう」ー Ability; competency; skill (more common to see as: 技量)
訛り 「なまり」ー Accent (like Kansai accent, German accent etc.)
地金「じがね」ー Ore; unprocessed metal; one’s true character/self
青大将「あおだいしょう」ー Japanese rat snake
頬「ほお」ー Cheek
木枯らし「こがらし」ー Cold, wintry wind
詐欺罪「さぎざい」ー Fraud
馬耳東風「ばじとうふう」ー Talking to the wall; complete indifference
Forms
鮨 ＝ 寿司「すし」(Sushi) (can also be: 鮓)
21 Likes
June 22nd!
Three more chapters of Hana ni Arashi today.
The Bookwalker limited free period has done its job well, its going to expire before I can finish the volume so I guess I’m buying it so I can finish…and then inevitably buying the rest of the series too…
(Home Post)
20 Likes
June 22
Zenitendou : Page 22 → 31 (8,5 pages) (one page was only a picture)
Well, that was me pushing through. I’ve gotten more used to the voice so that makes a bit of difference, but I did read 4 times as much as I have any other day. Took about 1,5 hours, I think, or possibly 2 hours. Not entirely sure when I started.
Pushed through because it was the end of the first story. Got that “it is soon ending” momentum going.
Tomorrow, I will probably reread the first story from start to finish (not looking up any words unless I get super confused). Just to kinda get a better idea of the story as a whole, and hopefully cement the author voice better in my head.
I look forward to when 
start because I suspect that will be so much easier to read. Will be a nice break from Zenitendou. But that is a little more than a week away. So another week and story of Zenitendou before then.
24 Likes
So
I bought some books
Can we all just appreciate how F R E A K I N G CUTE the covers in the bottom row are 
Like they just get progressively cuter with each volume (the cover of vol 5 is even cuter but that volume wasn’t going to be out for another week and I didn’t want to wait, so that will probably be in the next order, along with some stuff I just realized I forgot to buy too distracted by soft boy with soft cat 
)
Anyway, I’m feeling excited for the next challenge now, I think I really needed a pile refresh
32 Likes
Hooray! I’ll be sure to keep a look out 
Thank you!
1 Like
Home
I still can’t seem to get myself to read any of the books I’ve already started, so I picked up another of the manga I got recently, その恋、自販機で買えますか？ and I ended up reading the full volume. It’s a two-volume series (I think; I don’t actually know if it’s completed or if it’s getting another sequel; guess I’ll find out in a couple years) with two slightly older guys (32歳の会社員と28歳の自販機補充員) experiencing something like first love. It’s pretty cute. Office-worker Koiwai has a crush on the younger Yamashita who restocks the beverage vending machine at the office (who, it turns out, likes him back! And is bi!), and he can act cool and calm and collected in front of him, but as soon as Yamashita’s gone, he’s just beset with nerves. Oh, and his coworker’s name is Ooishi, so they’re all named after rocks.
lol the second time in as many days with outer space when his brain shorts out.
And he was literally just freaking out about going to the house of the guy he likes.
There are words that are normally written in kana that get written in kanji (including ones I’ve never seen before), and absolutely none of them get furigana, but I still did pretty well regardless. I even figured out 充分 pretty quickly despite only ever having seen it as 十分. The only furigana in this volume was on the names the first time they showed up, and then on four other kanji, and one of them only so you could still tell what word it was since Koiwai cut off before the okurigana.
I actually feel like, if I had started earlier in the day, I could have read both volumes, but I started reading around when I was making dinner (around 6 p.m. I think, and I finished it around 11 p.m.), so I’ll be reading the sequel tomorrow.
Some vocab of note:
声にならない (こえにならない) [expression, い-adjective] soundless; mute
ツボに入る (ツボにはいる) [expression, ラ五] to be mad about; to be hooked on
損ねる (そこねる) [auxiliary verb] to miss one’s chance to (do something); to fail to (do what one ought to have done)
煮え切らない (にえきらない) [expression, い-adjective] half-cooked; vague; halfhearted; indecisive
自意識過剰 (じいしきかじょう) [noun, な-adjective] excessive self-consciousness; excessively self-conscious person
同期 (どうき) [noun] same year (of graduation, entering a company, etc.); contemporary; classmate
視野に入れる (しやにいれる) [expression, 一] to consider; to eye the possibility (of); to bring into view
烏龍茶 (ウーロンちゃ) [noun] oolong tea
見合わせ (みあわせ) [noun] postponement; suspension; interruption
既視感 (きしかん) [noun] déjà vu
上の空 (うわのそら) [noun, な-adjective] inattention; absentmindedness
口実 (こうじつ) [noun] excuse; pretext
前言撤回 (ぜんげんてっかい) [noun, する verb] taking back what one has said; eating one’s words; negating one’s previous comment, opinion, etc.
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Will you be reading with us?
You always buy the cutest manga. 可愛すぎよ！ 
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(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #12 by DIO-Berry)
6/22
93-120
Conked out against my will again lol. Every time I pick up on the page I gave up on the night before, it looks so easy
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I ended up reading this short story about a teacher reading a crazy essay one of his students wrote, and it was pretty cute! (In case you’re interested: