That absolutely sounds like something I’d read haha. Good taste!
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I find that period of Japanese history fascinating, so I pick up most books I see on it. I have a book on the development of the railways in Japan during that period too, which is fantastic (and lavishly illustrated).
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Home post 
July 13th 
・詩的私的ジャック - JACK THE POETICAL PRIVATE (57% → 63%)
Finished chapter 7. One more chapter left for this week!
・ 花嫁は元男子。[Bookmeter]
A biographical manga about a transgender woman. The author talks about her journey, discusses some (probably) common misconceptions and explains some of the laws regarding 戸籍 and marriage in Japan. If you’re interested in the topic, I can recommend checking this out. ^^ First time I’ve seen a manga with references at the end.
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July 13
(home post)
Night Café page 12 → 15 (4 pages)
Pretty tired today. More physical yard work today. Aye, summer is in full swing… 
It is supposed to rain for the next few days, so that would mean no yard work. Hurray!
Only a small read today. Finishing chapter one of Night Café. I enjoy it so far. The only obstacle is vocabulary and I have the spreadsheet from the club for that. I did look up a few words outside that today. Probably because I’m too tired to get the nogging to figure it out itself.
@Memoria I hope your cat recovers fully and quickly. 
All of you talking of the student council terms showing up in やがて君になる, made me think of how sure I was that I wouldn’t really have use of the baseball terms taught by WK ever, or at least not for a long time or seldom, and then some of them showed up in this week’s portion of Orange. 
You never know when you gonna need domain-specific vocab. ^^
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Incidentally the book’s cover image is this:
which is Natsukashi no mikoe 懐かしの身声, a 1920s painting by Takabatake Kashou 高畠華宵 (1888-1966).
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July 13th!
Chapter 85 of Yotsuba today! This was a sweet chapter, and the pages where Yotsuba were walking round in the dark had some really lovely art. I’m excited that Yotsuba’s gran is coming to visit! It’s always fun to meet a new character!
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Just 6 pages 5分で読める恐怖のラストの物語 the ninth short story is much easier than the previous one and more interesting imo.
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July 13th/14th - Day 7/8 - Home
天気の図鑑
Chapter 1 - 雲のはなし - Progress 14 (+3) / 21
Another article regarding cumulonimbus cloud, and two more regarding arcus cloud and UFO-shaped cloud. It’s also the point where I left off before the reading challenge. So reading gets slower and harder after this.
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(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2022 🏖 ☀ - #9 by DIO-Berry)
ジョジョの奇妙な冒険20
start - 30
I finished off the prior fight from the last volume. It was fun. I remembered this fight because it’s the one where Jotaro compliments a woman, but I forgot that the other Crusaders sucked up to her too lol.
Next up is Iggy’s introduction and N’Doul. N’Doul is one of my favorite secondary antagonists, so I’m really excited to read him in Japanese and see the original manga art for him.
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July 13th
What did I read?: 猫には猫の猫ごはん Vol 1
How much did I read?: 18 pages
How long did it take me?: 17 min
Oh my gosh, this is so cute 
The kitty gets a name in this chapter - Yuki 
Because Taiyou found him in the snow 
Break my heart with that page, gosh
I love Yuki’s chronically unimpressed face xD
Then we find out that apparently Taiyou isn’t fond of cats, supposedly (or at least he feels like he doesn’t really know how to interact with them)
And yet look at how he sits there and watches this cat every time he feeds it
LOOK AT THE WAY HIS FACE FREAKING LIGHTS UP WHEN YUKI SNIFFS HIS FINGER I CAN’T
YEAH OK HE’S DEFINITELY NOT A CAT PERSON, SURE
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| REDC | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 3 |
July 13
Chrono Trigger → 2 h.
Quick update, might talk a bit about the game soon. So far, so good.
Several days of heat wave not so good, help.
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nearly finished with Kase-san, about 40 more pages. or so i thought! apparently a new volume was published just last month 
we’ve actually got a bit of drama now. Kase-san’s roommate (Kase currently lives at a student dorm) has been acting weird for a while, and seems to have some issues with Kase and Yamada’s relationship. she’s actually been stalking them, and just now attempted to break them up with some very manipulative shit. but Yamada’s self-confidence has grown a lot since the beginning of the series. and where early on she’d have run away from such a situation, she’s now got the courage to face it, even if she doesn’t yet know how she’s been manipulated. so that’s good on her!
in a quiet time together when they were discussing goals in life, Yamada (who’s studying horticulture) was talking about her dream of visiting england to see the gardens and such. and Kase was like, i’m a simple girl, i don’t have any such lofty goals or anything. but i dream of living together with Yamada next year. and i actually stopped and looked up a kanji there, because i thought this was an important bit, and i thought the kanji meant something else. and i was right! it was an important bit, and it was a different meaning for the kanji 
also, Kase is horny! she notices Yamada’s body, and then blushes terribly when someone notices that she’s noticing…
so yeah, i hope they do get to live together. and now they’ve got a whole new volume to get there ^^
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Day 13: July 13th 
くノ一ツバキの胸の内 Volume 2 (81% ➨ 100%)
怪獣のトカゲ Volume 1 (87% ➨ 100%)
🪠 スーパーマリオくん Volume 1 (0% ➨ 10%)
This series has been on my radar since I first encountered it in the mid-1990s.
Over 25 years later, I’ll finally be reading it!
Or, at least, the first volume to check it out.
Will I like it? Will I not like it? Will a quarter of a century of thoughts about one day reading it have been in vain?
The first thing I noticed is a difference in character design. Is this the same series?
Apparently what I have in a monthly manga magazine from 1995 is スーパーマリオくん by 嵩瀬ひろし.
In contrast, the series available to buy digitally is スーパーマリオくん by 沢田ユキオ.
After 27 years of waiting, I’m finally about to read…a different series.
まあいっか。The manga I bought is what I’ve seen covers for online over the past 20+ years, so it’s actually what I expected to see.
This series started out around the launch of Super Mario World, meaning it includes characters from that era right at the start. It makes me think of how The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was heavily influenced by the American Super Mario Bros. 2 release.
The table of contents shows chapters range from 8 to 19 pages long, meaning it should be good for fitting in a quick chapter here and there between reading other manga.
Although I already know all the kanji in the first chapter’s title, I do appreciate it when the kanji is extra readable for me as a native English speaker. I wonder, for a typical young Japanese child reading the comic in the early 1990s, were they more likely to recognize the kanji or the English words?
Mario appears caped alongside Yoshi on the title page, but it’s nice to see a Super Mario Bros. 3 reference right on the first page of the chapter. Here’s hoping Raccoon Mario makes an appearance at some point.
Naturally, things start off with Peach having been kidnapped by Bowser.
From there, the comic follows a pattern of gag after gag, and juvenile humor. From the first chapter, it’s not looking like something I’ll read past the first volume, but I’ll at least give the whole volume a go.
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July 13 
Home Post
I went for some manga again today, and funnily enough the next manga on my list was 潔癖男子！青山くん so that’s two soccer manga back to back Hadn’t even really realized I owned two separate manga about soccer haha. But the vibes were completely different of course; much more cute and silly than ブルーロック for sure. I ended up enjoying a lot more than I thought I would! I read a little bit of it a while back and wasn’t sure how I’d like a sports manga with more of an episodic comedy vibe, but it was actually a really nice time. There’s a good balance between the goofs and the overarching sports plot and the characters coming together as a team and all that. It also had basically no furigana which I wasn’t sure how that’d go, but it was totally fine! Any words that I would’ve known with furigana I knew without so that was reassuring.
Next up was 青春×機関銃 which I didn’t read much of yet, but it happened so 
then I played バディミッションBOND as always! Nothing super exciting, mostly just replaying sections with different characters to unlock all the side scenes. Still a good time though 
Perfect, exactly my brand I saw you talk about it the other day and I was like 
soon, and yeah I really like it so far, I definitely wanna read more! just have to wait until I buy more books rip
Universal experiences nice to know it’s less of a thing later though! I mostly just went like “hmm this is another student council-y word huh… whatever, close enough”
Oh no I’m sorry, I hope things get better for you 
Truly, it’s always when you least expect it
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july 12 
home post
Lots of free time today, which means lots of reading!!
- I finished 夜カフェ today!
First book that’s not a manga complete!! - Read some しろくまカフェ. tbh this manga kinda bores me so I’m not sure how much more I’ll read. But I’m about halfway done with this volume, and I’m getting through it quickly, so I’ll probably finish volume 1 at least…
- I want to read more non-manga books, so I read a page of 魔女の宅急便. It looks a lot more doable than it did when I bought it!
- I also took a quick look at the very beginning scene of ルーパーズ. I’ll start over on July 15 but I wanted to see ahead of time how difficult the beginning would be. I think I understand what’s going on but I’ll definitely need to reread.
- I added Death Note back to my Reading list on Natively and on my home post, but I didn’t actually read anything new. Just rereading the few pages I actually got through back in January to gauge how hard it will be now, seven months later. It’s definitely easier now, but it’ll still be a challenge. Once I study a bit more grammar I’ll get back into it!
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Day 12 
穴 ~ 44-47%
Day 13
穴 ~ 47-53%
I did manage to read more than I expected these last couple of days, but not as long as I’d like. The whole thing I’ve been reading over the last few days was one continuous section, and it would have been better to have read it in one go, but 仕方がない I guess.
I still have no idea where the story is going. It’s definitely not going where I had been expecting it to go though [1] . As for the difficulty, it isn’t anywhere near L37 as Natively suggests, unless something changes dramatically in the latter half (you never know). There are however some bits I choose not to dwell too long on, all of them in a particular talkative person’s conversation. I’m pretty certain I’m getting the gist even if I let some very few details go.
Two interesting expressions I ran into:
身を粉にする - to work assiduously, to make the utmost effort (to make your body into dust!)
人畜無害 - harmless to humans and animals; also: insignificant, having no influence
and an extra:
いたたまらない (居た堪らない）- unable to endure (being somewhere) a second longer, feel like running away
Edit: I had somehow, completely accidentally, set this thread to muted instead of watching at some point during the last couple of days! No wonder I had missed so many new posts! 
@Memoria , I hope your cat is doing well and completely recovers as soon as possible!
@MarnieDEB , I hope your vet visit went well too!
-
Unexpectedly, a similar theme to another book I’ve read recently has emerged. Or rather, maybe not so unexpectedly, if I consider the setting. ↩︎
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I, very tentatively, may have found a means of actual improvement in my arm. Too early to be sure, but here’s hoping after a long time of seeing no change! I’ve also kept reading quite a bit at all 3 of my projects, since I had to drop some other activities while I rest. Let’s briefly discuss them all for once:
Flowers: I keep moving ahead at more characters than the previous day! Today was approaching 6000. Working my way up just fine. I want to think I’m settling in with the writing style as much as I can expect to for the moment. Above all else the protagonist is still ruminating hard on shyness and self doubt, to a pretty intense degree. The VN keeps pulling these things where it skips forward then puts the reader and the protagonist on the same level because she gets so stuck in her head that she regularly doesn’t hear what’s going on until it’s later presented, haha. The cast is small, but everyone is likable so far (well the stickler for the rules types never make great impressions on me but the VN always makes sure to show she’s being nice and caring after she makes a big deal out of something for form’s sake, heh). Still waiting to see what those mystery parts look like!
The titular flowers, no doubt. I just want you all to see how lovely the background art is on top of everything else.
スマホを落としただけなのに: Things are heating up! 70% in and now the real threats are coming in. There were times I was a little uncertain with just how often this book felt like it was an excuse to explain cybersecurity best practices, haha. It’s kinda wild to me seeing someone interrupt their own fiction story to go “ちなみに…” and take out a whole paragraph or multiple to define ransomware, or give some real world facts about passwords people use, haha. But I think seeing the whole elaborate trap unfold has its appeal the further I get. Anyway, I’ve sped up, and it’s a fantastic level for both my audiobook comprehension and for me to pleasantly sit and read.
Dragon Quest 11: Hey this game is good! I love JRPGs, played them a ton as a kid, but somehow more or less never this series. When I tried it in the past I quit really early (since reading was so hard then) after just getting the first party member, and up to then all I really saw was the most basic form the combat takes, some super tropey stuff, and BLARING music. The music is still a little too excited for what’s happening at times, haha, and it’s not like the combat is deep yet, but I’ve gotten a lot more into it just because the game has started pulling out more fun little tricks. Just random little events that take me off guard and spice things up are adding so much. Comfy game. Plus I just met presumably the third party member and she’s kind of adorable. Very simple sentences, and I’m chilling with the game so I mostly only look up words I don’t understand in important main conversations. If deprived of all tools, I’d get by, and while I really want to read things a lot more complex than Dragon Quest, maybe nothing yet feels better than knowing there are some videogames in Japanese I could pick up and comprehend to a high degree unassisted. Feeling accomplished
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Missed reading yesterday, as I was running around trying to get the house straightened up before my surgery today. If I have a good anesthesiologist I’ll update later today! If not, I’ll be knocked out until tomorrow🥴Praying for the former!
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(Accidentally passed out last night before I could post this)
I read the preview for シャドーハウス. Not sure if I’m gonna end up getting it or not.
So a while back, I stumbled upon the JP dub of NUMB3RS, but it’s only available with Prime. I wasn’t sure if it would even let me get a free trial of Prime, but I guess since free (domestic) shipping isn’t all it is, it makes sense. Anyway, it’s not available in my region, because of course not. So I went looking through Prime Video to see if there was anything that interested me that was, and I saw アオアシ (which I’ve been meaning to check out), complete with JP subs! But apparently even when it seems something is available, it isn’t actually unless you have a valid address within Japan. Ay. The US site doesn’t have it at all, and it seems like they don’t have non-ENG subs on any anime anyway. I don’t get why there are so many restrictions on things that aren’t even physical anyway. There’s no reason for it. Especially within one company.
I got started on ch 1-6 of 2.43, CHARGE THE ENERGY, reading 6 pages and leaving off on pg 106. I’d thought this was the last (not to mention longest) subchapter of ch 1, but there’s actually one more after it lol. And once I finish it, I’ll be halfway through the volume! And it’s still got ch 2 and 3 as well as the short intermission. As it is, I’ve still got 11 more pages left of it.
I like 設定 and 設置 because they both kinda sound like “set,” which they more or less mean.
Some vocab of note:
すす [noun] soot
残暑 (ざんしょ) [noun] late summer heat; lingering summer heat
皮算用 (かわざんよう) [noun] ever-optimistic calculation; counting one’s chickens before they’ve hatched
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14th of July
Read page 98 to page 100 (27 – 28%) of かがみの孤城 today. To be honest I don’t know how long I can keep up with this for. It’s only the start of the academic term and I’m already super short of time with a long list of things to do. I’m currently balancing a lot
If it comes to it, I unfortunately won’t be able to make this challenge my first priority 
. But I will try my best to keep reading!
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