Played some more VLR (as you might expect lmao), still going strong! I finished up the route I was on to a “to be continued” point anyway and a second little bit to finish off that branch, and now I’m off on a new one! Progress is being made
VLR talk
Man maybe I am お人よし I’m too nice for this game, I get betrayed at every turn rip. Like come on ディオ, what’s your deal?? You seriously want me dead?? Brutal even for you lmao, though since that’s the “to be continued” route there may be more going on there idk I still feel like there’s stuff seriously up with him, but I still have no idea what so we shall see
There’s also been even more hints about time being weird, I’m very concerned about how much time has actually passed since they all got kidnapped or whatever happened. Also just thinking about what the motivation for this nonary game could possibly be? Because like 四葉 said, the perpetrators from the first two seem very unlikely for various reasons, but clearly whoever’s doing has some connection or awareness since they knew to wear a gas mask and just general thematic things, sooooo… lots to think about
Another thing that’s interesting is the big differences between the three main routes. I’ve reached a bad end and a to be continued in each of the main branches now, and like… the dead woman isn’t always found? Where is she in the rightmost branch? Like presumably she was still killed since that’s presumably how ディオ got his bangle in all cases, but like… where is she? And the variations in クォーク’s situation, and sometimes other people dying, lots of variables to keep track of
Oof you can tell I’m in it, I had way too much to say It’s been a good time! I’m about 34 hours in right now, so it’ll be interesting to see how much longer it takes me
Yup, that’s what I meant, and I did add my API, but there are a bunch of kanji outside of ones that I’ve learned on here that I already know, so I had to add those to my known list manually
There is often a subtly humorous twist in his sentences, yes. If I find the time at some point, I would like to collect a few sentences that stood out to me and post the non-spoilery ones here.
Ooh, I remember coming across this in 地球成人. To me, these kinds of expressions always feel more rewarding to learn than mere vocabulary for some reason, and they stick better too.
オブラート apparently comes from Dutch, but I’m not sure what it meant originally. Wikipedia says it was a thin wrapping for bitter medicine so that you wouldn’t feel the bad taste when swallowing it, but this sounds way too specific to have a dedicated simple word just for it. Nowadays in Japan it’s an edible thin starchy transparent wrapping, a cellophane out of rice starch basically, that is used to wrap gelatinous sweets and protect them by absorbing humidity. Oblate in English (new word for me) seems to be a geometrical term that describes a sphere squashed at the poles, probably the equivalent of oval in 3d? It’s also used for Christian individuals dedicated to religious work, apparently. TIL.
Day 3
I picked up 車井戸はなぜ軋る again from the first letter of 鶴代. There were a lot of names from the books, so I almost forgot who is whom in her letter. It has also been a while since last time I read it. I find 横溝正史’s 背景説明 pretty long before going to the exciting part. So I don’t find it very interesting so far.
鶴代は丁寧な言い方で手紙を書いていますので、敬語の勉強にもなります。
あらすじ：小野宇一郎 is trying to get the 屏風from 鶴代’s home, but 鶴>代’s grandmother rejected his request. It seems 小野 is not aware of the inflation, or he’s just being rude.
Words of the day:
屏風: びょうぶ
葛の葉：くずのは。It seems to be related to the story of 安倍晴明. Looking at its wiki, a lot of stories mentioned 葛の葉.
手許＝手元
筆が脇道に逸れたまま：Diverted from the main story
We have that word in German too (there it is Oblate), and it’s a very very thin paper-like sort-of-cookie that is nowadays mainly used as holder for special types of cookies to prevent them from sticking to the baking tray without the need of using fat:
Spot on
Although I must admit when I was a child and we would bake such cookies, I could eat quite the amount of those I like how they melt in the mouth and then sort of disappear.
I read section 3 (chap 1) of 三毛猫ホームズの推理。 This section is only 11 pages, which was nice after the last longer one. There are some place names at the end of the last section, and the beginning of this one.
Place names in 三毛猫ホームズ
東中野（ひがしなかの） where the Katayamas live
府中市（ふちゅうし） where 羽衣女子大学 is located
調布市（ちょうふし） the city next to 府中
甲州街道（こうしゅうかいどう）a major road running east/west through Tokyo
Tokyo isn’t a city (市) in Japanese, it’s the metropolis 東京都（とうきょうと）。
都 is a special weird category, more like a prefecture than a city. 府中市 and 調布市 are both located within 東京都。
I think ‘oblaat’ is also an old-fashioned Dutch word for a Eucharist wafer, which looks a bit like a starchy wafer, just like the edible paper that @NicoleIsEnough posted about. I don’t think the word is used anymore in Dutch, but I’m not religious so I’m not sure.
Day 3 I had only a tiny bit of time to read. Was more busy than I expected, but I started the second story in booklet nr 7 of level 4 (Ask graded readers) (aka a booklet in volume 2).
Interesting phrase/sentence
So I don’t know if there is a word in Japanese for a serpentine road (when an incline/decline is too steep to go straight up or down on, and instead the path/road goes slalom like a serpent.), but this is how the story described it (梅津 is the protagonist and the road is dark for some reason and he’s walking on the road):
梅津は暗い道を、右へ、左へと曲がりながら登っています。
I thought it an interesting way to describe it, and thankfully there was a picture beside it that cemented that, yes, this was describing a serpentine road.
Also added a way to track if I did some regular (English) reading, but only if I did Japanese reading too. Maybe I’ll make a mark for if I only do English, but so far I haven’t needed it.
Thanks for that! For reasons unknown to me (I guess it was the “flat wafer” part that conjured images from movies, as I’m neither Catholic nor religious) that’s where my mind went first when I saw the word , but then couldn’t find any specific reference to it.
Read 31 pages of 三毛猫ホームズの推理 last night, putting me at part 1, end of section 3. When I reached the end of part 1, section 2 I was like, “Ah yes, this is an 赤川 book”. A defining feature in his books is everyone is always bangin’ Also I can’t help but feel that the extensive detail about the unfinished buildings must have some relevance, but how that relates to a killer targeting college sex workers I have no idea.
This makes me think of how as a child I loved edible wax:
I don’t think I’ve seen any recently actually
Didn’t do any updates here over the weekend, but I’ve been chugging along with 薬屋のひとりごと and みんあ愛のせいね. I’m hoping to finish the latter by like Wednesday or so this week; I haven’t decided yet whether I want to commit to reading through the last two volumes in the series or jump to something else. I think my biggest weakness with reading in Japanese so far is being unable to commit to a series: I’ll read a volume, or maybe even several, of a series and go, “that was really good!” and then just drop it to read something else.
I’m not sure if it’s just brain fatigue or something. I don’t usually have this issue in English if I’m enjoying something; maybe my brain is being tricked into thinking I’m reading something super long and panics?
Stupid wild speculation inside (chapter 1 section 3 spoiler): The dormitory manager is controlling the killer(s) as he would a crane. The killer’s movements were unnatural and robotic, weren’t they? You read it here first.
A bit later post today than normally since I woke up with a migraine Luckily I don’t have too many meetings today so I did some reading between work. During a talk with some people who are also reading this book, I learnt that all the characters are 11-13 years old??? They look so much older!! Weird choice but still a fun read overall!
Edit: I’m now reading the third chapter and it’s so much easier!! Really makes it a lot more rewarding to keep reading this. One of my favorite sentences in the book so far:
やらずに後悔するよりも、やって後悔するほうがいい
(後悔する means to have regrets)
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I’m too nice for this game, I get betrayed at every turn rip. Like come on ディオ, what’s your deal?? You seriously want me dead?? Brutal even for you lmao, though since that’s the “to be continued” route there may be more going on there 
idk I still feel like there’s stuff seriously up with him, but I still have no idea what so we shall see
I like how they melt in the mouth and then sort of disappear.
Luckily I don’t have too many meetings today so I did some reading between work. During a talk with some people who are also reading this book, I learnt that all the characters are 11-13 years old??? They look so much older!! Weird choice 
but still a fun read overall!