If anyone like snails, here’s an adorable one in the rain with an ENG+JP caption.
I read 5 pages of 明日をくれた君に, leaving off on pg 46. I completely forgot Kaito’s surname is Ichinose lmao when someone mentions an Ichinose-kun and the way Midzuki acts in front of him, I’m like, what? It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out who they meant, even though he’s really the only guy she interacts with. I am so bad with names.
I continued with 青年ドリーミー, finishing the volume. No but it’s cute because even though their first meeting since middle school is when Kazunari drops his phone while scrolling through the feed of the idol he stans (uh, what’s it called? His bias? Or is that just Kpop? I don’t go here lol) and Wataru picks it up and calls him キモッ for being an idol otaku, but he still finds him and it interesting, and he supports him and even joins in, like when he goes to a concert with him and cheers for his fave with him, and he also learns the dance for their latest single with him. Wataru likes fashion, so even though he doesn’t particularly care about idols, he becomes interested in the different outfits they wear during their shows. He finds a way to participate in Kazunari’s interests even as a normie. He’s the best boyfriend. I really liked this one.
I also read わたしのかみさま, the third story included in 竜のかわいい七つの子. It’s the shortest story in this collection at only 17 pages, but it’s a good one. It’s set in a world where gods are everywhere, ranging from giant puppy-shaped gods who play around apartment buildings to teeny-tiny humanoid gods living on grains of rice, but only children can see them. Yukie, a 6th-grader studying to get into a good middle school, meets a god of the hills and fields who looks like a fish who, as the local river is being filled in for construction, now no longer has a home. Thinking that if she prays to the god she can get better grades, she takes them home and puts them in her old rhinoceros beetle tank, buying a few minnows to put in as well so that her mother won’t dump out the water (and the god). As the god’s power wanes now that they’re no longer a god of anything, they grow smaller and more transparent, until finally Yukie can’t see them anymore. She buys enrichment for the tank (sand, plants, etc.) and starts taking proper care of the minnows, and the god appears again, now minnow-sized but properly able to exist because this fish tank has become their new domain. They pray for her success, but as they’re just a fish tank god and not a god of academics, they aren’t any help and she still fails the entrance exam lol
Some vocab of note:
下校 (げこう) [noun, する verb] leaving school (at the end of the day); getting out of school; coming home from school
気が引ける (きがひける) [expression, 一] to feel awkward; to feel ashamed; to feel inferior; to feel shy (about doing something)
ヘソを曲げる (ヘソをまげる) [expression, 一] to go into a sulk; to get cranky; to become cross
非の打ち所がない (ひのうちどころがない) [expression, い-adjective] impeccable; unimpeachable; cannot be faulted; beyond reproach; perfect
力む (りきむ) to strain oneself; to bear down; to exert oneself; to try (too) hard; to draw one’s body taut. to put on a bold front; to make a show of strength; to swagger; to bluff; to boast
帯びる (おびる) [一, transitive] to have a trace of; to be tinged with
せり上がる (せりあがる) ]ラ五, intransitive] to gradually rise
陰口 (かげぐち) [noun] malicious gossip; backbiting; speaking ill behind someone’s back
立ち竦む (たちすくむ) [マ五, intransitive] to be petrified; to be unable to move; to be paralyzed (with terror); to be stupefied (with amazement)
鉢合わせる (はちあわせる) [一, transitive] to bump heads; to bump into one another; to collide head-on. to meet by chance; to encounter; to run into.
オタ芸 (オタげい) [noun] type of dancing and shouting performed by fans at concerts (usu. idol concerts)
立ちくらみ (たちくらみ) [noun] dizziness from standing up too fast; lightheadedness; vertigo; orthostatic syncope
ソリが合わない (ソリがあわない) [expression, い-adjective] unable to get along; unable to cooperate; unable to hit it off; not seeing eye to eye
つかぬこと [expression] something unrelated (to what has been discussed thus far)
神も仏もない (かみもほとけもない) [expression] it’s a cruel world
I just have too many first volumes of things I’ve accumulated and never touched, and I keep finding other books I wanna read but I’m like “I cannot buy more books until I get through some of these, that’s just irresponsible” lmao so we’re making progress!
It’s been a while since I’ve really read any manga honestly, but I don’t think I’d ever read a whole volume in a day, much less three, so it feels pretty good! It definitely helps that I went in with the mindset of not really looking stuff up, and it was at a level where I either understood or could figure it out from context 
Japanese found in the tall grass 
34 → 36 (3 pages)
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But this felt like important information for me to know and I’m happy that I’ve learned how to talk about biases in Japanese now, thank you for sending me on this learning journey 
