📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2022 🏖 ☀

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Week 2

July 7
Final Fantasy 7 → 1h 10 min.


Quick update no. 234871.

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:green_heart: Home :green_heart:

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険18

152 - end (~188)

Whoot! Finished! At the cost of going to bed late again… Although yesterday something urgent came up so I was dealing with that :sweat_smile:

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2022-07-07T04:00:00Z

I think it does. I did a formal Japanese course while I was in university but that was 10 years ago. I know I’ve learnt more vocabulary through osmosis than I learnt in that course. Now that I’m participating in this read everyday challenge, I am recognising quite a lot of vocabulary words that I’ve met for the first time on WaniKani.

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Home

I’ve got two coats on the better part of my shelves now (it’s just the trim that still only has one), and it’ll hopefully be done with a third, but if not, then I’m just gonna have to accept that my shelves are gonna look bad, 'cause I ain’t doing more than three. As long as the front looks fine, then… whatever. I don’t have the energy for more.

I also drew Shun from クールドジ男子 for his birthday today! I haven’t been drawing at all lately, so I’m kinda rusty. Which is all to say, I didn’t have much time for reading today.

…Although I soon developed a headache, so I was able to read even less than I’d hoped. Well, I read about a page or so of 2.43 before calling it quits, leaving off on pg 87. Ochi meets Kanno, though he doesn’t realize who he is yet, since he’s in the gym with the girls’ VB team. One more page, and we’ll get him figuring it out and getting annoyed that he didn’t have to speak so politely since Kanno’s younger than him. And then, the commotion on the outdoor court and some Aoki-Ochi interaction! I hope there’s more than in the anime, because those two do not get along and I find it entertaining.

I don’t have work tomorrow, so I’m hoping I can read more then.

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Summary Post

July 7th
What did I read?: Orange Vol 1
How much did I read?: 20 pages
How long did it take me?: 22 min

Finally felt like I had the energy and time to do some (semi)-substantial reading today. Finished the first week of reading for Orange and I am very interested to see where this goes :eyes: I already like Naho + Kakeru but I feel like that means something bad is going to happen to them :rofl: Idk, the letters created such an ominous vibe over Kakeru, I don’t feel good things coming in his future.

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July 7 :blossom: Home Post

I played a bunch of バディミッションBOND and just wow! Things are rough :sweat_smile: I keep playing these dramatic VNs with complicated mystery plots and character angst everywhere and yet keep getting surprised by how dark things get :joy: But yeah I’m very much at a point now where all I want to do is keep playing to see what happens, language is no longer a factor haha. So yeah going well reading-wise! :+1:

dumping my BOND feelings

Well I finally circled back around to the opening scene and it sure hurts more with context! It’s ルーク and アーロン angst hours; アーロン is understandably really upset and going completely wild, so naturally the rooftop confrontation happened and… yeah, it’s a lot. This game’s so good at giving characters such clear motivations and beliefs that make total sense for each person but inevitably end up at odds. There are just a lot of complicated emotions tied up in all of it.

アーロン just looks so upset despite how much he’s trying to act like he doesn’t care about any of it, I’m sad :cry:

…yeah, it’s bad out here. And now ルーク’s knocked out in the hospital having nightmares about the encounter and saying アーロン ()くな in his sleep and モクマ particularly is really worried about both of them and me too dude! Things are messy for sure. チェズレイ just thinks it’s pitiful that ルーク’s stuck on someone who discarded him like that which is also ouchies :sweat_smile: But even with all the destruction アーロン caused on his path, how insistent he is that he doesn’t care about anyone but his family, he made sure there were no casualties which really sums it all up huh.

They’re all angsty but アーロン’s such a tragic character really, like look:

This game super isn’t just dumb goofs anymore! Rip my feelings :joy:

Oh very relatable, I’ve tried reading digitally but I just like physical books too much :joy: The power of VNs!!

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:spiral_calendar: Day 7: July 7th :tanabata_tree::stars:

Today’s focus: Make extra progress on limited free trial volumes. One more week to finish up トカゲ volume 1, to get through ツバキ volume 2, and to get through キョーコ volumes 2 and 3. No need to rush, but I want to ensure I’m aware of my time limit here!

🎀 ふだつきのキョーコちゃん Volume 1 (70% ➨ 100%)

I’d been wondering: What would happen if Kyouko loses her ribbon, the item that suppresses her being emotional and thirsting for human blood, when her big brother isn’t around to handle things?

image

Seems like a problem for the unsuspecting kids around her, until she inadvertently gets stuck in a wall.

(Eventually, her brother finds her.)

🦎 怪獣のトカゲ Volume 1 (16% ➨ 28%)

What stands out to me most going into this series is how much the art style differs from the one-off.

The original one-off story had the same bold lines art style as 「からかい上手の高木さん」 grew into and 「それでも歩は寄せてくる」 (which is a style I like). For this series, the art style has softer lines.

image image

This results in the image resolution feeling lower, even though it’s the same resolution as the short stories release. This series probably would benefit from being the larger resolution of 「それでも歩は寄せてくる」 (which is 1125x1600, versus this series being 844x1200).

image

I feel a bit vindicated that someone noticed! Good to know the mangaka was aware as well :wink:

spacer:ninja:t2: くノ一ツバキの胸の内 Volume 2 (0% ➨ 34%)"]

This got me curious about how many characters there are in volume one of Orange.

Excluding any unrelated story chapter or afterward notes from the author, the total character count for volume one of Orange is somewhere around 13,800 characters.

(Not that that tells us anything substantial.)

I ended up relying on my browser's bookmarks for WaniKani community bookmarks.

Screenshot_20220707_150757

But I always have the bookmarks toolbar enabled, so it’s easy to access.

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:house:家投稿

Day 6

カリスタルハンータズ
:dagger::gear::dragon::moneybag::handshake::bow_and_arrow::sparkles::unicorn::man_supervillain::facepunch:t2::face_with_peeking_eye::face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth::sob::raised_hands:t2::v:t2::two_hearts:

Progress - :100:!!! I finished volume 1! Onward and upwards to volume 2! :sunglasses:

Japanese in the wild :seedling:
止める (カルはデバンを止める)
今 (今だ)
会 (あえて嬉しかった)

New words :face_with_monocle:
倒れ - to collapse/to fall over
しっぽ - tail (animal tail)
なったよ - to become/to end up
仲間 - partners/teammate/team
大丈夫 - are you okay?
乗った - to get on/in
成れる/なろう- to become

Excited to start volume 2 tomorrow!

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Day 7 :heavy_check_mark: :cyclone:

~ 28-32%

Once again I was half-asleep while reading the last paragraph. I need to stop doing this…

Food preparation and choices were a big theme in this section. I wonder what would make あたりめ (dried squid) [1] a bad choice to eat at one’s workplace. Is it smelly? Crunchy and therefore noisy? Apparently 柿ピー (mix of peanuts and baked or fried mochi chips) [2]are a bad idea for workplace snacking because they’re noisy to chew. I’ve tried 柿ピー (delicious) but not あたりめ. It doesn’t sound especially appetizing, but then you never know.

Interesting expression:
肩身が狭い - feeling of one’s inferiority



  1. image ↩︎



  2. ↩︎

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:evergreen_tree: :books: July 7 :books: :evergreen_tree:
(home post)

Hotel :evergreen_tree: page 149 → 180 (32 pages)

Guys, guys, guys, I was reading earlier, like around dinner time but didn’t quite have time to finish the chapter, and then I didn’t get back to it until bedtime. :sob:

Well, at least I read some of it earlier in the day. ^^ Also now we got some backstory for Jun, and it is as tragic as expected from the hints of darkness in his past. :sob:

I gotta say I’m really, really enjoying this and I will probably nominate it in IBC later, and I’d even reread it with the club and use that reread to actually look up words I don’t know, so I can get a bit more out of this nice story. Since this is set in Finland, and Sweden and Finland are very similar in culture and such, it just feels so cozy, heartwarming to read this manga.

It literally feels like it could be happening only a few miles away from me. I guess, technically, Finland isn’t that many miles away, so it would be true in that sense too. Although I did mean it could be happening a few miles away from me and in Sweden.

One more chapter and then volume 1 will be done.

In my book haul last week, I got myself volume 1-3 of Yoru Cafe, and I now see a book club for volume two is starting up. I’m trying to decide if I want to dive into volume 1 and try to finish that before the club for the second volume starts. But I haven’t decided yet.


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I do a lot of intensive reading on paper. But I’m perhaps a bit choosy about which material to intensively study. I tend to pick something that is fairly close to my ability, and so far I’ve been enjoying a lot of previous book club reads which gives me a lot of lookups for free. Midori is probably iOS only still, but I know I’ve seen people talk about similar apps that are just as good for android.

Same feeling here.

I bought a kindle 8 years ago (and it is still working fine), and switched over to reading novels (in English) exclusively in ebook. More or less any paper book I’ve bought since then to read (that isn’t in Japanese) I’ve ignored. :sweat_smile: So I personally have no specific affection to paper books in general, but I do prefer to look at art in books on paper, which is why I started buying paper for Japanese things. ^^

Oh, but it does tell me something!

Because I was wondering how much reading (approximately) that one chapter of the Loopers VN would be. Assuming that each chapter is roughly the same (which is not a given but anyway), that means each chapter is ca 7800 characters. Which I now know is a bit more than half a volume of Orange. So the pace of Loopers would be slightly more than 2 chapters of Orange per week (roughly).

It gives me something to work from when it comes to allocating time. Thank you so much for your statistics, @ChristopherFritz!

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:books: :video_game: :shallow_pan_of_food: :sunny: July 7

Today I just played バリバリ for about an hour as I was busy with other things. I did one section and started the big section that closes the board so I should soon be half-way through this route.

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I used to do that too, but (I probably sound like a hopeless forum addict when I say this) I had to hide the folder away from plain sight because I’d compulsively click the bookmark soon after closing the tab :caught_durtling: That WK folder of yours looks handy though!

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:sunflower: DAYS 6 - 8 :sunflower:

I finished chapter 12 of 海辺のカフカ - Kafka on the Shore :beach_umbrella: (Advanced Book Club)

It’s been so nice being home!! I’m so pleased with myself because while I haven’t been on social media, I have been remembering to pick up my book :sparkles:

Chapter 12 took me a little longer to read. I wish I could blame it on my being on vacation… but I know it’s because of my inability to focus through pages of keigo and big words. The only way out is through, right? Haha

@Greti33 I know how you feel :sob: Look forward to better times ahead! 応援しております!

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I wouldn’t worry too much about the opinion of someone who didn’t even bother to engage.

Maybe he disagreed with it, maybe he didn’t understand it.

Even if he disagreed, it doesn’t mean that you are wrong.

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I’m not sure I see myself as upper level from a reading perspective, but obviously am from a WK perspective.

You can learn a lot of vocab, but you’ll always be missing kana only words and quite a few others. I use Kitsun for vocab also.

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I managed 5 pages of Spy Family today. Work was fine but tiring.

I could probably push on and finish the chapter, but I’ll leave it till tomorrow, as I’m up to date with my other books.

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:tiger2: :books: The Tanuki Beach Resort: Date 20220708 :beach_umbrella: :raccoon:

No Longer Tanuki Progress: 82.42%

There hasn’t been much dialogue so far in No Longer Human, but these past few pages have been full of it. It’s also pretty light hearted at the moment, so you know what that means, tomorrow’s reading’s gonna be >fun<

Learnthings

「しかばね」ー Corpse
何気ない「なにげない」ー Casual; unconcerned
明滅「めいめつ」ー Flickering; blinking
鬼刑事「おにけいじ」ー Crack detective
(I was hoping it’d be an Oni who’s a detective in their spare time, solving the crimes of the yokai world, but what would even be considered a crime in the yokai world? what would they, the yokai, need a detective to investigate? are Oni detectives moody, suit-wearing, cigarette-smoking, whisky-drinking and always talking about the one that got away? :thinking:)
抗議「こうぎ」ー Protest; objection
険しい「けわしい」ー Inaccessible; precipitous; impregnable
蜜豆「みつまめ」ー Mixture of boiled beans and fruit with syrup (Usually just: みつ豆)
氷炭相容れず「ひょうたんあいいれず」ー Being completely different and not compatible with one another - oil and water; fire and ice etc.
走馬燈「そうまとう」ー Revolving lantern; ever-changing scene
殺気立ち「さっきだつ」ー To be seething (with anger); to be frenzied

Forms
嗚呼 = ああ (Ah! / Oh!)
(If you really want your vocalised exclamation to be extra super formal)

What even…
ドストイエフスキイ

I spent awhile trying to figure this out, like what is this mysterious word… it’s Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist.

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:sunny: :beach_umbrella: Memoria’s Summer Readin’ :beach: :sunny:

Day 8!

26 pages of ピーチガール. It’s been a pretty bad day for my studies, honestly. I was looking forward to being on top of new lessons after I leveled up, but my accuracy has taken a nosedive. I’m down to around 70-75 % accuracy each review session. I know it’s because I have a lot on my plate both at work and in my personal life, but I wish it didn’t have to affect my Japanese learning :disappointed: It’s always the first thing that suffers when I’m having a hard time. Thankfully my habit is strong enough now to be able to push through it anyway, but it’s still frustrating.

I’m thinking I’ll finish this manga either tomorrow or on Sunday. Looking forward to reading something different soon! :beach_umbrella:

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Today: 16 more pages of よつばと!(now on p. 134). Finding this chapter (4) more difficult to understand, especially the beginning, but that’s making me eager to finish the volume and go back to the beginning with my dictionary. And I guess the nice thing about a child protagonist is that sometimes the grownups define words for her and for me (美少女, for example, which I guessed but it was nice to have it confirmed!)

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I read some more Nekopara Extra. Nothing too exciting happening in the story since its just a slice of life but it is pretty cute (although the sister character annoys me whenever she is on screen :joy: ).

In one of the scenes, メイプル got an iphone for some reason and was trying out the voice commands. The phone kept misunderstanding what she was saying so she got all mad at it, it was a rather funny.


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