And apparently I had paused reading right before this big plot development!
Ok, to be honest, I fully expected it, because how else would Katayama team up with Holmes for so many more books, I just thought it would happen towards the end of the book.
This is so adorable I almost want to start reading paper books again! Wait, I do still use some paper books, surely I could just justify getting one (or several)? Where can I get one?
So… I only read four pages over the last five days of not posting here, and some of those days I didn’t read at all.
I think I’ll start the challenge for real when I return from this trip. Actually I’m focusing on enjoying myself as well as getting lots of footage so I can compile all the videos into one summary video. My recent obsession
I’ll try harder to get some reading done during travel times though, instead of being lazy. One page per day at least.
Completely failing on finishing 銭天堂 quickly here maybe I should set a goal of finishing it before I get back, as a means of motivating myself.
Yes, I love paper books! I actually couldn’t get into reading in Japanese until I bought some paperbacks - something about settling down on the couch with a physical book, even if I need my phone or computer nearby for lookups, is so much more relaxing for me.
Also I bought them here! It looks like they discontinued some of the ones I have, but introduced new, equally adorable designs.
Same! I also thought maybe 森崎 would be involved in the plot and end up arrested.
Wouldn’t it be a more emphatic way of saying 始めから? In onomatopoeic words adding the small っ has that effect, at least, but I think it applies to all words…
I suppose I am not good at grammar explanations, to me it ‘feels’ casual in that it’s kind of a slurred way of speaking. I don’t do all that much formal grammar study and so a lot ends up “well it feels X way” and then I have to google for sources to back up my gut
Totally forgot posting yesterday.
Anyways, finished chapter 8 of 夜カフェ yesterday and today I went trough chapter 9 as well as giving chapter 10 a very quick read. I have to reread chapter 10 though. Maybe I’ll do a little more this evening after dinner.
Somehow I finally managed to remember 頷く. Don’t judge, I’m just super slow with building up vocabs
But, I noticed that my reading speed and the pages I’m able to read without getting tired increased a lot since the beginning of the year. While reading ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 (in February, I think) I managed to get trough 2 to 4 pages per hour, now I’m already at 8 to 10. So I’m happy about this.
Instinctively I feel like both of those things are true; it definitely feels emphatic to me, but I also don’t feel like it would be as likely in a more formal context, it’d be like… too much? I’m also just going off of vibes mostly but yeah, that’s the sense I get
Read today’s folktale, about a mountain priest who plays a mean trick on a napping fox. The fox gets its revenge by tricking the priest with an illusion.
コンコン!
Japanese found in the tall grass
New Things
山伏「やまぶし」ー A practitioner of Shugendo「修験道」- which is: “Japanese mountain asceticism incorporating Shinto and Buddhist concepts” 草むら「くさむら」ー Grassy place (especially long, thick grass). Can also be written like: 叢 or 草叢. 屏風「びょうぶ」ー Folding screen ガタガタ ー Rattling; clattering 近寄る「ちかよる」ー To get close; to approach; to draw near
Does this even count? ブオーッ! ー How to say “BOO” in Japanese
New Uses 一足「ひとあし」ー Thought this just meant “a step”, but here it’s used like: 一足遅く, meaning “a little late”.
Forgotten Things
Meanings 脅かす「おどかす」ー To threaten; to intimidate 愉快「ゆかい」ー Pleasant; delightful; enjoyable
(both of these were only in hiragana in the story, it’s a lot harder to recognise words without the kanji)
I think an update is in order. I finished reading Yuru Camp vol 1 yesterday and I’m progressing well with Yoru Cafe, surprisingly well with 5 chapters read. Before bed I would read a chapter of Yoru Cafe, they’re not that big and I know most of the words. I try to read naturally without looking up anything during my read. Do I get everything, most certainly not, but I can look it up outside reading. I’m going through the vocab with koohi cafe. I have not generated all the cards yet there, still I’m over 75% of known vocab already. I think the key difference between books and manga is just the sheer range of different vocab, even if the word is only used once. You see lots of onomatopoeic words I added in my vocab list.
With Yuru Camp it’s kinda like same old. Published in seinen magazine, so expect kanji and very little furigana. I have seen it in names. So there I am looking up quite a few words or unfamiliar kanji. First that took a bit of time to get familiar with, then it balances out and becomes more comfy. I have camped regularly with my parents the last decade or so, but that’s always close by and with a caravan. Also with better weather. Still there is some beauty in it and I’ve become interested in the areas they visit in the manga. So I google mapped it to make sense of the scale and relative distances. They’re pretty close to Mt. Fuji after all.
I took quite a bit of pictures of it while reading, take a look in the details above. Of the main characters so far I guess I’m a fan of Rin (the dango bun girl) and Aoi (doggy girl). It’s been a pleasant read near the end of the volume and I think I’ll grab the next volume on kindle and read the continuation of the current trip they have.
Yesterday, I only read like two pages of the current booklet in my graded reader volume, was planing to do more in the evening but watched TV with family instead. Today I read more, the current volume is the second non-fiction booklet of volume 2, level 4, this is unusual because all other volumes that I can remember only had one non-fiction one.
This one is called 東京を歩こう!and talks about Tokyo, surprise! The start of it had some intro and then some historical facts about how Tokyo became the capital and such. So most of the interesting words were the Japanese words for some historical events/policies I only knew the English word for before.
Historical terms!
征夷大将軍 = Shogun, or as my dictionary said: commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force against the barbarians
幕府 = Shogunate
藩 = feudal domain (Edo and early Meiji)
参勤交代 = Daimyos alternating Edo residence (one year at home, and one year in Edo/Tokyo)
鎖国 = national isolation / policy of national isolation enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate
My regular (English) reading have been nice. The first three days I did it (2-4th), I read a novel, maybe more short novel range. Stayed up a bit late on the last day of that to finish it. Yesterday I read a short story in the same series and in a bit I will start the second novel in the series. Seashell Cove Paranormal Mystery series by T. Thorn Coyle, can recommend. Very nice cozy mysteries so far.
Read chapters 37 and 38 (34 pages) of ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 🛵 Volume 5. These were pretty wordy chapters (which I like) featuring some of the more technical aspects of the world that the story takes place in. Enjoyed it . Also learned what the 黒潮 is.
Today I translated 1 page of よつばと!I’m impatient to read more and faster but between uni and SRS I’m often pretty head-empty when I finally have time to read Japanese:/
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
Today I read a chunk of デスノート second chapter. People working at Interpol screaming at each other still is a harsh read for me, tomorrow I definitely will switch to something lighter (get it? light-er just like Yagami’s name, proceeds to nervous laughter)
Yay, finally back on track with this book club. I’m still on week 2, while the book club is currently on week 6, so I have some catching up to do. Finished chapter 3, it was shorter than I expected. Thoughts: I like how we didn’t actually see Maomao do anything, but all clues point to her being the one who left that message behind for 玉葉妃. Will that Jinshi person find her? Let’s find out in the next episode!
I’m having fun with the irregular readings (if we can call them that), mostly for names and social titles. #funwithfurigana. Also lots of vocab that are new to me, haven’t read anything in this genre before (in addition to my vocabulary=lacking in general at the moment).
What to call it? Chinese Tang Dynasty-inspired imperial palace kind of setting, especially with all the characters having Chinese names. And historical expressions(?), not necessarily dated, just very relevant to the setting. Like, five different words for “servant”? Check
I haven’t decided yet which one it is, but I’m having fun despite/because of the vocab. Probably both
The past few days I was pretty busy, but I managed to chip away on 沖で待つ every day, and today I finished it! I even wrote a short review here (tucking onto the book’s previous review in that thread ^^).
Also, I guess Belerith infected me with her French book I tried the audiobook but could not make much sense of what I understood (vans, knights, and monsters? How does that fit together Ok it’s a fantasy book about a girl who is able to jump to a different world as one can guess from the title, and she does so in the first chapter already, which I totally did not get with my small vocabulary ). Today I read the first chapter again, using a dictionary this time, and now things are much clearer. Interestingly, the scene pretty much reminded me of 時をかける少女 (except that she lands in a different world) so I’m wondering whether the author knew that book?
Wow, two whole chapters of 極主夫道! I’m caught up with the club now!! I don’t know why this series motivates me to read so much compared to other books, but I’m not complaining. I’m still in the mood to read so maybe I’ll try to get through more 夜カフェ
Day 6 / Calendar
Today I’ve read a page and a half of Yoru Café at an ungodly time in the night. Hopefully now I’ll have time to finish this weeks reading goal during the remaining 2 days.
I read chapter 46 of Yotsuba today. It was a pretty funny chapter, though it did make me want some cup noodles…
Does anybody have a suggestion for a manga which is a similar difficulty to Yotsuba, but with shorter chapters? At the moment I often find I want to keep reading after I finish a chapter - but a whole second chapter is a bit too long for the amount of reading time I have. It would be nice to have something shorter to fill that gap
It was such a wonderful day my nose was running the whole day. But even with me catching a cold I still spend lots of time on learning japanese and reading. In one of my manga magazines was a chapter from the beserk manga it was to my surprise pretty hard.
After that I read 1% of the No Game No Life novel it is very hard but I really enjoy reading it.
Another sleepy day …so I chilled out and read some ギブン!Very much enjoyed spending some time with ridiculous gay music boys as they fail to communicate/have emotions etc etc.