Today I read 3 pages of Konosuba and 3 pages Shin Kanzen Master Reading N2. I could have read more but I didn’t feel like it.
Maybe I should play some videogames in japanese for a change or read some articles on internet sites. Doing the same thing every day is boring maybe I should mix up things a bit.
| REDC | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 4 |
July 21
Monster Hunter World
Loopers: chapter 1
Caught up with Loopers just in time for next week. Ever since I set up yomichan properly with anki connect and now also using ShareX, it’s so easy to make cards from anything, even more so from VNs apparently. I used to have a love-hate relationship with Anki but nowadays I think it’s definitely drifting more towards love. If I had to put effort into making these cards I’d hate every single second of it, just like I used to c:
2022-07-22T01:14:00Z
I’'ve finished another volume of manga in less than a month. Since I’ve started this reading challenge, I’ve found my reading speed and reading comprehension increasing. A couple years of this and I might be able to read Japanese as fluently as I do English!
Today was another low-energy day, unfortunately, so I didn’t read much. Just 1 page of 2.43, leaving me off on pg 156.
I looked at the character profiles from the official website again, and they have Uchimura listed as a wing spiker, probably because he’s swapped in for Oda on the starting roster in the latter half of the series. But in the section I read yesterday, we learn that he’s sort of a jack of all trades (has no outstanding characteristics as an athlete), and he’ll sub in wherever he’s needed. He has no set position.
They also say that Kanno cannot exercise outside for long periods of time due to his health. Uh, it ain’t just exercise. He’s allergic to the sun. Although I grant that it’s more difficult to keep the sun off your skin when you’re exercising. But then again, the anime got rid of all reference to his sun allergy and thus just inexplicably have him indoors with the girls’ team in ep 6, though of course he still wears long sleeves, and his oversized hoodie outside of practice/games, and when they’re standing outside before the first match in the prefectural qualifiers they’re in the shade (although anime-only watchers would just think it’s because of the heat).
Y’know, I think I did know this, actually, it’s just not in my active memory or anything yet.
口惜しい (くやしい) [い-adj.] A rare alternate spelling of 悔しい. I dunno why, but it really speaks to me for some reason.
本末転倒 (ほんまつてんとう) [四字熟語, noun, の-adj., する verb] failing to properly evaluate the (relative) importance of; putting the cart before the horse; mistaking the cause for the end; mistaking the insignificant for the essential; getting one’s priorities backwards
ぶら下がる (ぶらさがる) [自ラ五] to be within one’s reach; to dangle (before one’s eyes)
埋める (うめる) [他一] to make up for (a loss, shortage, etc.); to compensate for; to make amends
Finished ウテナ volume 3. It’s definitely diverged from the TV series but I like it a lot. I think some of the fun with the different versions of ウテナ is they all play on the same themes but go very different directions.
I’m traveling this weekend so no idea how much, if any, reading I’ll manage to get done.
Also tiny shout out to the 
Mystery Book Club 
on the Natively forums. We’re voting for our first read now!
July 21st
Today, I read some of それでも歩は寄せてくる (0 - 6%). I decided to start over now that I have a vocab list to help (Thanks again, @MrGeneric). It feels a lot better to refer to the list rather than typing everything into deepl. Looking forward to reading more.
July 21 
Home Post
A decent amount of my reading today was actually looking at the nominations for the mystery book club over on natively 
lots of interesting stuff! I generally find things like summaries more taxing to read, I guess because there’s less context? Swapping between different styles and such more regularly? Idk, but I did it and I have a lot more books I want to read now 
And then I played more バディミッションBOND, naturally; things are still wild! I just read a few side stories which were fun as always, though the further I get there’s definitely a tendency for them to not be so lighthearted, which… yeah, makes sense 
there’s a lot going on!
I reread some of the last scene with モクマ and チェズレイ because it was kind of a lot and I was pretty tired when I read it and yeah there are just a lot of complicated emotions in that whole situation? Like モクマ clearly blames himself for whatever it is that happened 20 years ago, and he’s just been ridden with guilt and searching for some sort of recompense or honorable death that whole time, which… yeah. And チェズレイ’s so adamant about seeing the real モクマ, but it’s not just about proving that he’s actually a bad person or anything like that. There’s a lot to it all and チェズレイ’s anything but straightforward about his thoughts and feelings, but it’s more like… mercy? Like he tells モクマ he set fire to the village, and that he’ll spare someone in exchange for モクマ’s life so that he can die protecting people as is his vow, but… he didn’t. At least I don’t think? There’s something about a fire that I don’t know about yet, but the screams モクマ heard that convinced him of the situation were from チェズレイ hypnosis, so it doesn’t seem like he actually put anyone else in danger. But then モクマ, in the face of what he’s wanted this whole time, fights back so that he can continue protecting people, and that’s the real モクマ チェズレイ wanted to see all along!! Not some deep dark truth, just genuine goodness! The whole situation is still very complicated (チェズレイ’s well-being isn’t the most guaranteed currently) but there’s been some real growth :')
Aside from that, ルーク had a moment where his food didn’t taste as good as it should’ve because モクマ wasn’t there to enjoy it with him 
モクマ’s a lot of things, but he really has good relationships. People just like him, you know? Despite everything He’s a hot mess but there’s something so genuine about him, and he can be so wise when the moment calls for it. He’s good :') Him talking about タンバ and how he would’ve like アーロン and アーロン saying he would’ve liked too meet him… they all have such good dynamics!!
Day 21
カリスタルハンータズ本3
Progress [||||39%] Finished chapter 7!
Things got so intense! They definitely ended on a cliff-hanger! I’m really enjoying the intensity and pace of this book. I almost started chapter 8, but my brain is pretty fried so I’ll leave it for tomorrow 
Still procrastinating on doing new lessons. I’m gunna be level 6 forever 
Day 21: July 21st 
While I still feel there’s some room for fleshing out Hibino’s character a bit, I’ve been enjoying how this series is moving along.
Looks like I get another 念のため, just to be sure I remember it in-between Anki reviews.
Early on, I was afraid the series might not have much variety in what happens from chapter to chapter, volume to volume. So far, that hasn’t been an issue.
There’s also a nice bit of indirect backstory here, as their visiting cousin notes that Kyouko didn’t wear a ribbon when they last saw each other two years prior.
からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 5 (10% ➨ 17%)
And…here’s my second 念のため in one day.
It’s crazy how it barely appeared in anything I had read before (based on OCR text analysis of prior manga I’ve read), then once I added a card for Anki for it, it constantly comes up, over and over again.
This case took place in 1996, and to think over a quarter of a century later, Conan is still a little kid.
ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん Volume 2 (82% ➨ 88%)
Day 21 
穴 ~ 71-76%
I’m hoping to finish the second story today. So far nothing much out of the ordinary has happened, but again there’s this constant suspicion that there’s something going on behind the scenes that is not quite as it should be.
I’m realizing that for some reason I’m reading this book more slowly than previous ones. On day 23 last challenge I had completed 三毛猫ホームズの推理, a much longer book, while also reading other stuff on the side. After another 23 days I was at 80% of my next book, 告白. I’m not overly concerned about reading speed at this point (I’m still amazed that I can even read at all, a year ago I wouldn’t have thought it possible), but I wonder if 穴 is after all harder than I initially thought. Or it may be that it’s not the kind of book that has you turning pages like crazy (that’s not a criticism, by the way). Or maybe it’s just that life got more in the way this time.
I had the same impression (regarding my reading speed, not yours 
)! And I was also wondering why because like you said, the stream-of-consciousness writing style is a bit different and I had a few questions in the beginning and in conversations throughout, but not really much more than my usual level, and the book doesn’t feel really difficult… One explanation that I came up with is that it’s so brimming full with all these little details, and I think that especially reading mystery books has trained me to try to keep track of everything and to constantly relate everything to everything else in order to find out how things played out. It’s just that in this book so many details somehow just add to the atmosphere without being actual plot devices (in the sense of Chekov’s gun), and so I maybe ended up being really overloaded and slow because of all of this internal processing 
July 21
Accidentally did a tiny read because by the time I was able to get to reading ビブリア I was so tired I fell asleep after a couple of pages ( 4% → 5% ).
Oh, well.
Said screw it and finally got Danganronpa S. I am already juggling The Hobbit and Bunny Senpai. X.X what am I doing…
Home
ジョジョの奇妙な冒険21
14 - 27
I got too excited researching last night and then it was pretty much time to go to bed
July 21
(home post)
Night Café page 55 → 66 (11 pages)
I read right before bed yesterday. It is nice that Night Café is easy enough that reading it right before bed isn’t a problem. I’m also really enjoying the story. Although Hanabi’s dad have to get over himself. He behaves a bit like a kid in a candy store whose parents won’t allow him to buy everything he wants. My wife should cook our dinner, do laundry, and everything else despite both of us working. And it is all because of mom/my wife that you don’t wanna live with us, isn’t it Hanabi? >_> I totally get why Hanabi wants to get away from the war currently happening between her parents.
I just finished the second story. This was much more a “short story” in terms of both length and feel. The way it began, it could have gone in any direction. I can’t say I particularly loved where it led - neither the theme of trying to conceive nor animal extermination are among my favourites. I did enjoy the explanation on why it had to happen like this, though, and especially the final twist on the wife reevaluating her desire to be a mother.
Once again there were strange details that seemingly led nowhere. The wife lying about having eaten wild boar before, the friend calling his own wife 奥さん, the emphasis on the food (I was convinced they were eating weasels at some point), on drinking, on the ばばあ neighbour and the fruit with no smell, to mention just a few. It’s probably like @NicoleIsEnough says, I’m probably too used to crime novels and constantly on the lookout for clues.
I do need some help with the story’s title, いたちなく. “Not weasels”? I threw it into Deepl to see if it had something else to suggest, and it had, but I have no idea where its interpretation is supposed to come from. ”Incessantly". How and why?
Today: p. 59-74 of よつばと！Despite painstakingly looking up new words, I laughed a lot again during this section, where Yotsuba crawls out the bathroom window and then makes bewildered Fuuka demonstrate greetings with the neighbour.
追いかける (おいかける): to chase, to run after
いらん: don’t need/want it (Kansai-ben)
がたん: bang, crash, jolt
つまり: that is to say; in other words
そっと: softly; to leave as it is
訳 (わけ): conclusion from reasoning; situation
何か用なの (なんかようなの): what do you want?
どうかした: is something wrong?
にっこり: grinning
Could it be イタチ鳴く? Like… Weasel’s cry? Do weasels make noise? Surely they do.
I think you’re on to something! There is a weasel cry mentioned that’s quite significant actually…
The Tanuki Beach Resort: Date 20220722 
Tanuki Scroll of 蒲鉾 
Random article - today’s reading is about kamaboko! First time seeing the kanji for it.
The article is a bit too long to read all of it, I managed to get up to the 歴史 section.
Japanese found in the sand
広義「こうぎ」ー In a broad sense; in a wide sense
薩摩揚げ「さつまあげ」ー deep-fried ball of fish paste (more common as: さつま揚げ)
狭義「きょうぎ」ー In a narrow sense
代表的「だうひょうてき」ー Representative; exemplary
円筒形「えんとうけい」ー Cylindrical
蛋白「たんぱく」ー Protein (usually written like: タンパク)
筋原繊維「きんげんせんい」ー Myofibril
Fish Names
介党鱈「すけとうだら」ー Walleye pollock / Alaska pollock
糸撚鯛「いとよりだい」ー Golden threadfin bream
石持「いしもち」ー Silver white croaker
太刀魚「たちうお」ー Largehead hairtail / Scabbard fish
鱧「はも」ー Daggertooth pike conger
狗母魚「えそ」ー Lizardfish
葦切鮫「よしきりざめ」ー Blue shark
Thanks for sharing! I’ll have a listen to this when I can, the whole case seemed pretty confusing even when I looked it up on English wiki.
Home Post
