📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

DIO-Berry · May 15, 2022, 2:07pm

Yeah I think the title you made looks just fine

downtimes · May 15, 2022, 2:16pm

Hello everybody from this lovely thread.
It’s me, after a successful week . Homepost 44/61

It’s still hard to stick to this challange given the current nice spring weather here. One day I was only hanging on by a thin thread. I counted 2 Todai articles as a pass -.-.
Otherwise my progress over the last week looks like this:

Weekly Saga
Weekly Yoru Cafe
Little progress on Tobira
NO Slam Dunk this week
8 Todai articles
ミイラ by 吉本ばなな (apparently she now is callled よしもとばなな )

So I’m pretty happy with my progress given the weather.
The short story ミイラ I read because I saw that Tugumi by the same author will be the next book after SpyXFamily (which I’m not interested in). So I wanted to see how well I like her writing. I stll have these “Read real Japanese” books lying around and the mummy story was in one of them, so I took the plunge.
Really liked the writing in that story, so I’m getting excited to try Tugumi as well. I expect, beause she’s a famous author, that other people here probably have read some stuff from her already.

I feel like I’m taking too much time converting my weekly reading into Anki flash cards. Every time I add cards I start rereading the story and fall down random rabit holes looking up more background information on sayings or figuring out which definition fits best. On the other hand I feel like the resulting cards are really solid. Because of the deep care taken creating them I already half know the words when I get to review the cards.
Not sure I want to change something but I’m def. keeping an eye on it.

lucylavelle · May 15, 2022, 4:27pm

May 15th!

I started Volume 3 of 三ツ星カラーズ today, and read Chapter 20.
Afterwards I also read 23 pages of ふしぎねこのきゅーちゃん which continues to be adorable. I was only planning to read a few pages, but there was a multi-page story arc involving a forgotten lunchbox which I was enjoying too much to stop in the middle.

(Home Post)

Zakarius · May 15, 2022, 5:13pm

Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220515

Tanuki Scroll XLV: 鉢かづき姫

Read today’s folktale, from Osaka prefecture!

About a couple who a longing for a child, and one day they finally get a daughter. But when she turns 13 her mother falls gravely ill, and to remember her by she puts a rice bowl on her daughter’s head.

Japanese found in the tall grass

New Things

形見「かたみ」ー Memento; keepsake; heirloom
若君「わかぎみ」ー Young lord or prince

Forgotten Things
枕元「まくらもと」ー Pillow-side / bed-side

Redglare · May 15, 2022, 9:12pm

Summary post

May 15th

・薬屋のひとりごと 2 (15% → 19%)

Finished chapter 3 and a tiny bit of chapter 4. I feel like these chapters are getting longer and longer.

Thoughts: Maomao is fun and self-contradictary (did I spell that right). On one hand Maomao is kinda unintentionally savage causing Jinshi to take emotional damage, but on the other hand Jinshi lurks behind every corner and overhears things not meant for his ears and misinterprets stuff. So miscommunication is a thing, even Maomao took notice. “Gaoshun, just express what you really want to say, just tell me… Not that I tend to do the exact same thing which results in major misunderstandings or anything like that, lol”. Like, Maomao what do you mean, the series could’ve stopped short at the end of the first book because of lack of clear communication?! This girl, I swear dksdksjksd. Thank god for plot armor, right

New phrase: 無(な)きにしも非(あら)ず, “not non-existent”. I can’t tell what’s going on with the kana between the two kanji. Shimo = ?. Since it is an expression maybe it’s some lingering grammar stuff from ye olde times.

_Mae · May 15, 2022, 9:14pm

Day 45

Read 2 pages of 都道府県のおはなし as part of ABBC. Today’s pages were about ねぶたまつり in あおもりけん and リアスかいがん in いわてけん.

NicoleIsEnough · May 15, 2022, 9:18pm

There is another grammar point, 必ずしも、where Bunpro explains: “… and the 副助詞ふくじょし (adverbial particles) し and も. し and も are often combined in order to strengthen the meaning of the word before it.”

MissDagger · May 15, 2022, 9:19pm

I missed my first day yesterday. Or skipped. I had a friend over from early in the day and she was staying over. And by the time, we finished watching Eurovision Song Contest (we watched for the weird and the wonderful that sometimes also comes with good music ), it was after 1 am, and I decided that I wasn’t up for just symbolically reading something to give myself an artificial check mark—also I was very tried.

But today I was back at it again. Although I thought I’d have to ask for help with some confusion in 四十七人の侍, but decided to carefully read through the confusion passage again. I knew most of my confusion came from me not being sure who was saying one specific thing.

So carefully I read and guess what was hiding the grass? A very important て conjugated verb that told the story clear as day who was saying the dialog. And knowing who was saying it, made it about 10000% more easily parsed. (As in suddenly what he was saying made sense, rather than me trying to figure out what it could mean when I thought it was the other guy who was saying it.)

Confusion cleared up, I reread the rest of the chapter (which was only one more page), and then embarked on reading two chapters. I’m enjoying the samurai/historical setting. (There is a reason I bought the full set of Rurouni Kenshin manga since I enjoyed the anime. I am however somewhat terrified about the difficulty so it isn’t very high on my next-to-read list. )

And maybe because I’m reading so regularly now, or maybe because I’m digging into the sentences I’m not sure about, but I really feel like my reading have taking giant steps forward. The idea of reading any light novel/novels have terrified me before. They still do, but to a lesser degree at least. ^^

wiersm · May 15, 2022, 9:24pm

A busy day today, but I still managed to read a good chunk of かがみの孤城 🪞 Week 25 so I’m happy with that! The book can be quite a breezy read sometimes.

Redglare · May 15, 2022, 9:32pm

ohhh, seems like kotobank has a page on shimo as an adverbial particle しもとは - コトバンク

I didn’t even watch but someone told me they thought Norway was the funniest, so I checked them out. Well, the concept was hilarious “Before the wolf eats my grandma, give that wolf a banana”. So Norway sent meme lords to Eurovision this year.

Naphthalene · May 15, 2022, 9:47pm

It even contains a link to the にし combo when explaining the different usages of も

MissDagger · May 15, 2022, 10:04pm

Norway was weird, but funny.

If you wanna watch creepy, look at Serbia’s. Their performance evokes kinda medical psychological thriller vibes for me.

I liked Australia’s, it was wonderfully different that worked so well for the song.

(There was one performance that had a good pop song but the performance just clashed with the song so they kinda ruined each other somehow. The performance could have worked for a different song though, it was kinda cool, if also a bit evocative of mental hospitals. This year’s theme? )

As I said, I don’t watch Eurovision song contest for the great music. It can have that, but it is more about the performances and what they bring. And I also enjoy those that just have good dancing/performance with a good song, it doesn’t need to be weird. But honestly, I mostly watch ESC for the weird. xD

windupbird · May 15, 2022, 10:29pm

Summary Post

Day 45: May 15th
What did I read?: クマとカラス
How much did I read?: 47 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hr 27 min

I finished this today and low-key cried my eyes out The situation wasn’t what I suspected yesterday, but uh somehow this is worse, WHY IS IT WORSE After a certain point I could kind of see that Crow was going to have to “go” somehow once his wish had been fulfilled, because ヤタガラス did say that it was just a little more time, but why did Bear have to forget Crow too?? They were bestie friends and now No memory, just vague feelings that someone was there helping him Like he almost remembers but not quite and it hurts me, Bearrrrrrr On the bright side, Bear made it to the other island and found some bear buddies finally But my heart though

So yeah, this manga is extremely sweet and pretty cute, but it’s not pure fluffy-happy lighthearted animal antics like a lot of the other animal-centered manga I read. I recommend it but only if you want to cry, like a lot, at the end

Soothing my soul with some cute panels

Words

存続 (そんぞく) - duration; continuance; survival; persistence; retention
個体群 (こたいぐん) - population (e.g. of animals)
収容力 (しゅうようりょく) - capacity; accommodation
鳥獣保護区 (ちょうじゅうほごく) - wildlife sanctuary; protection area for birds and wild animals
武者震い (むしゃぶるい) - trembling with excitement

Idk The whole thing definitely has more bittersweet undertones than I thought it would when I bought it, but it mostly felt like things were ok/not too sad until the end wrecked me

dunlewy · May 15, 2022, 11:07pm

I read four more pages of “Hikoichi and the Living Umbrella”. It appears that Hikoichi is in a world of trouble for deciding to sell the umbrella (which doesn’t work) to the Lord of the region. I will see how wise Hikoichi is tomorrow.

Daisoujou · May 15, 2022, 11:36pm

Summary post

Well, today’s reading sure was different.

I decided to take one of those full scale JLPT practice tests (thank you @NicoleIsEnough !) so I’ve been at that for the past 3 hours. That involves reading. I took the N2 just to see how hard I could push it and what would happen.

And I umm… theoretically passed? All I can do is assume equal weight to all questions because the JLPT grading can’t be replicated, but if I do that, I got 109 points, with 90 needed to pass! The reading section is indeed brutal, wow. I almost auto-failed due to that with like a 38% on that section. Honestly might’ve gotten a little lucky cause I didn’t understand all that much . There is a pretty big difference between these essays and visual novels. I’m normally a fast test taker but I finished that section with only 5 minutes left, heh. Anyway, the others carried me. I’ll talk about this more in my study log another day or something; I have the worst headache I’ve had in a long time lol.

But I did it, and I’m extremely pleased and honestly slightly shocked . If my energy returns I’ll do a little Summer Pockets to mine words tonight, but hey, I read! Just, you know, some of the worst reading material ever since starting to study this language

polv · May 16, 2022, 1:36am

There are some benefits to using a better Furigana syntax (with an extra syntax parser), and one of them is guiding to learn Kanji readings.

絆(ばん)創(そう)膏(こう) bandage, all in Hiragana in text - first Kanji is 絆(きずな), third is 膏 (paste in toothpaste)

Another benefit is when I don’t use auto-Furigana inserter. Should I unnaturally type in sub-vocab or omitting-Okurigana, or type in a real vocabulary? (And seeing suggestions in the IME might help learning too.)

Of course, I can just 百鬼夜行 (ひゃっ.き.や.こう) , only that it is less Kanji specific.

May 16, Mon calendar post

I’ve just relearned to look up vocabularies along the way (and use Google when vocabulary isn’t found)

Week 8 of Spring 2022’s planning

Committed, and paced - for the sake of discussion
- Night Cafe Ch.7
  - I haven’t stopped Night Cafe yet, and I am glad that I continue. (It will take some efforts, though.)
- Death Note Vol.3 Ch.14
- Happiness Vol.2 Chap.6
  - Since I have read it, more of checking that I don’t misunderstand or can understand deeper.
- SPY x FAMILY Episode 1 on Netflix
  - I have checked that is doable in my region, with Japanese audio (the only choice), and with or without Japanese subtitle.
  - I have finished rough reading on Vol.1, but the free period have ended. I might need to rebuy volume 1, anyway. ~~Though, it doesn’t have to be this week.~~ I’ve bought it anyway.
    - Reread MISSION 1
Committed, with マイペース(my＝pace)
- Yuru Camp vol.1 - last chapter and extra = 1.5 chapters
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 2 - Currently on リサリサ’s training - planned その1-2 (2 chapters)
- Dragonball Super Novelization, finish chapter 2. (There are 10 chapters.)
On hold, can’t promise
- WANTED! Story 3 (一(いっ)鬼(き)夜(や)行(こう)) - the chapter title is an obvious wordplay on 百鬼夜行(ひゃっきやこう)
Listening
- 2 grammar listening
- SPY x FAMILY mentioned above

DIO-Berry · May 16, 2022, 1:47am

Day 44

ジョジョの奇妙(きみょう)な冒険(ぼうけん)

72-91

The talk about what newspapers published was a pain in the ass to read. I’m also glad to finally finish off the parts with Speedwagon in them, he grinds my gears (sorry to people who like him).

I hope to read the last 50 or so pages today… We’ll see how that goes

polv · May 16, 2022, 1:49am

He seems like a joke character, who always survives… (although may be helpful occasionally)

DIO-Berry · May 16, 2022, 1:53am

Yeah, I think most of my dislike is from the character’s popularity in the fandom. Although that could stem mostly from my dislike of the behaviors of the Western side of the fandom. I don’t feel like the Japanese fandom overdoes it. I don’t think I’ve seen the same joke from them 20x in a row.