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. 
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Day 4 - April 4
- 美少年探偵団 1 - 6,37% → 9,67%
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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Never seen this before tbh
You know, Amazon scratches every itch: https://www.amazon.com/Fun-Express-K231-Bottles-Candy/dp/B005DS7ZL6 
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Some info if you’d like – it’s not 屋油 but 油屋 (あぶらや)! Older (like pre-war) store signs (or ones that are meant to look old) are usually read right to left.
Interestingly, the bathhouse itself has a wikipedia page, that goes into a fairly lengthy section about the name, but it sounds like it’s mostly about potential real-world people and bath houses in Beppu that inspired the name and setting production-wise (apparently there was a guy with the name 油屋熊八)- so maybe not helpful for why it says that in-universe.
My impression though probably is that it’s an old name of the establishment - not necessarily a descriptor of what the business is, but just its name - 油屋 shows you the name, ゆ shows you what to expect inside.
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Thank you for this! I was curious why it appeared to be mirrored, but learning that pre-war signs are read right to left clears that up.
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Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220404 
Tanuki Scroll IV: 油屋の娘 
Read today’s Hyakumonogatari!
Japanese found in the tall grass
New Things
夜釣り「よづり」ー Night Fishing
ボーッ ー It can mean: In a daze; absent-mindedly; abstractedly - though here in the story it’s used as an adverb and it means: with a roar of flames; the whoooosh sound that fire makes when it suddenly flares up. Can also mean: dimly; hazily; faintly - all depends on context.
あばら屋「あばらや」ー Dilapidated house; falling down shack
うつろ「虚ろ」ー Cavity; hollow; void
悲鳴「ひめい」ー Shriek; scream
Places
高野山「こやさん」ー Mt. Koya, a temple settlement in Wakayama prefecture.
Forgotten Things
Forgotten Readings
岸「きし」ー Bank; shore; coast
Forgotten Meanings
~軒「~けん」ー House counter
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Psst, you have a typo here that made me worried I somehow learned this word wrong, haha. It actually came up a little while back in Summer Pockets, too.
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Woops, thanks for pointing it out!
I have no idea how that happened.
oh wait, T’s are next to Y’s
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I loved learning this phrase while reading Haikyuu. 
Chapter 19 of Haikyuu
Daichi is telling Asahi it’s okay to come back to the team even though he got in a fight with Nishinoya. In this panel he says something to the effect of: “even though you’re huge, you’re such a coward. you’re like the complete opposite of Nishinoya.”
To which Asahi responds, “Couldn’t you say that a little nicer…”
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Day ４ - Calendar
Well, like yesterday I was relatively busy and just so tired. I didn’t do much. But I’m happy that I kept up with the challenge and read a little at least.
I continued on with 夜カフェ and read about 4 pages of chapter 8. As easy as the last chapter was, I somewhat struggled today. Maybe it’s due the lack of sleep though.
Anyways, just learned 板 today as vocabulary and it showed up in todays reading. Sorta like when stuff like this happens.
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Home post
\huge\color{ #B4F2BA}\mathrm{🌺Day 4🌺}
\huge\color{ #B4F2BA}\mathrm{🌺Day 4🌺}
\small \color{ #FADBD8}\mathrm{★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★}
Today I translated 3 pages of よつばと！I finally finished chapter 4, at my pace these things take a while 
onward to chapter 5 
\small \color{ #FADBD8}\mathrm{★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★}
\huge{がおー！}
\huge{がおー！}
Tooltip
The flowers above the “Day #” links to my post for the previous day, and the flowers below link to the next day, except for the latest day ofc, they link somewhere special 
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春２０２２の毎日読みチャレンジ ４日 
Today, I read 1 1/2 pages to finish up section 2 of 燃える. All translated as well so far, I’m just struggling with one sentence and how to translate it. Probably overthinking it but I thought maybe someone else can tell me more. No worries, not really spoiler-y:
The sentence and my blurred thoughts on it
笑わせるつもりだったが、金森は笑わず、きょとんとしていた。
For a bit of context: Kusanagi (I think he is a detective?) goes with Kanamori, a potential witness to the crime, to another witness called Maeshima because Maeshima is mute and Kanamori offered (kinda) to translate. Kusanagi asks his questions, looks over and sees a difficult book by Ray Bradbury, and they talk briefly about it, and Kusanagi says that he once tried to read it, but did not finish it and makes a self-deprecating comment about it not being in his nature. Then comes the sentence above.
My thoughts:
While I am not sure, I think until the first comma, it’s Kusanagi kinda laughing about his own comment while Kanamori doesn’t get the joke and doesn’t laugh (the middle part) and is instead just flabbergasted (last part).
Some fun vocabulary
突っ込む - to thrust something into something
無愛想 - grumpy, unsocial, short, unfriendly
手がかりを見つける - to find clues, leads
何気なく - coincidentally, innocently
Not per se a word in the pages but interesting nonetheless: 何気なく装う - to pretend to be innocent
きょとんとして - flabbergasted (for some reason I think of a wall suddenly popping up and you running into it so you’re flabbergasted by it)
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I’d say you’re on the right track!
笑わせるつもりだったが、(intended to make laugh)
金森は笑わず、(Kanamori, without laughing)
きょとんとしていた。(looked blankly)
Altogether: I had intended to make him laugh, but Kanamori just looked at me blankly, without laughing.
You can jazz it up from there, but I believe that’s the basic idea.
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Day 4
こぐまのクーク物語: はじめての海とキャンプ: 31% → 48%
Here’s a somewhat complex sentence I was happy to completely understand:
クークは、かき氷を食べながら、波を、あきることなく見つめた - While eating shaved ice, Kuku was tirelessly staring at the waves
波 - wave
あきる - to get tired of
I’m tempted to start reading another book at the same time, since I have just received a bunch of 10分1年生, but I suspect that if I do this, I won’t finish the current one.
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Day 2 
The whining section becomes a regular thing, I'm scared
Had an incredibly mediocre day at work, probably should not have stressed that much but oh well.
Today I was planning to jump into the 夜カフェ that lots of you guys seem to read at the moment. Never really touched a book so indeed I was hyping up myself. The moment I opened the first page my god I went hysterical. Never would’ve guessed I had this in me. A sheer amount of words and concentrated information just struck something within me that should not be meddled with. Guess I’ll have to hold back a bit with the ranobe.
So anyways I went with a simpler route and decided to restart reading Death Note. I totally forgot how vocab-intense it was since I dropped it at the start of the year so it’s going a bit tough at the moment. The good news is I also forgot how incredibly sick the art style is, so I’m enjoying it twice as much.
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That can always happen but you may also miss on some super awesome ones if you are afraid to get something which looks interesting. As for me I always get the visual novels with awesome looking art.
Speaking of otome games I think I already played an otome game the crazy one with the pigeons but in english. It was before I started studying japanese.
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Booklet 2 in this volume is done. on to number 3 (or nr 8 if counting for the whole level) tomorrow!
Both stories were enjoyable to read. Which is not always the case due to content. I’m not a fan of tragedies which makes Japanese fairy tales and folk tales hard for me sometimes.
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4.4.
Today I spent a bit more time listening to la quête d’ewilan than usual since there was only a short chapter of around 3 minutes left to finish the first part of the book club im reading it with. I also noticed that that is scheduled for 2 months and not just April, so I have way more time than I thought. I think I’ll keep aiming for ~10 minutes a day and just go over the week’s part again when I’m done. It won’t be the completely passive exposure I was going for, but 
I also read another chapter of le petit Nicolas. That’s become a thing I can do when I’m tired already, which is great. 
My progress since last time
Le petite Nicolas (87→95/148p)(49→53%)
La quête d’ewilan: d’un monde à l’autre (34→58/334m)(10→14%)
A1 5 Minuten-Lektüren Où est le thym (1/20 stories→NA)
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Day 4 / Calendar
Today I didn’t have much time to read for reasons. So I’ve only read 3 pages of Takagi-san in about 30 minutes or so while being occupied with entirely different things. The reading itself went well, didn’t need much dictionary usage and only found 1 or 2 sentences where I didn’t know where to even begin.
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April 4th!
Chapter 44 of Yotsuba today - The chapter was called よつばとねつ, which is a coincidence since I’ve come down with a bit of a nasty cold, so I have a temperature too. 
I was sad that she never got to go and see the cows, but the panels of her dad pulling her along in the futon were adorable
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