Got a pic or titles? Curious if you’ve got any other users have read. 
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I went through them all and it turns out I have a total of 24 books 
In total I’ve now read a whopping TWO 
so I got some work to do
So in no particular order, here’s what I got:
きいろいばけつ
ちびどらごんのおくりもの
ピーターパン
イップとヤネケ
ルルとララのスイートポテト
オバケちゃん 松谷みよ子作 いとうひろし糸会
夢の彼方への旅
八月がくるたびに
パンやのくまちゃん
虫は小さな天使たち
打ち上げ花火、下からみるか？横から見るか？
サン=テグジュぺり 星の言葉
ももいろのきりん
ぐるんぱのようちえん
トガリ山のぼうけん Vol 1 風の草原
トガリ山のぼうけん Vol 2 ゆうだちの森
よつばと！ Vol 1-3
フルーツバスケット 高屋奈月 Collector’s Edition Vol 1-3
とんがり帽子のアトリエ Vol 1-2
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フルーツバスケット I’ve read and よつばと！ is crazy popular (never read it myself though) but the rest I don’t know…except ピーターパン I suppose Quite the stash though
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July 18 
Home Post
Today was a バディミッションBOND day 
I didn’t play a whole lot, just some side stories but they were a lot of fun! I always love seeing their antics 
I’d love to play more but alas I’m sleepy so that’s for tomorrow haha
buddy bond things
Hot springs episode!! There’s a whole set of side stories centered around them going on a little hot springs trip and it’s great :') So have some antics:
怪盗ビースト plushie omg 
I need like five immediately 
Some ladies (and モクマ) were thirsting over アーロン in the sauna and really who could blame them:
And then アーロン and チェズレイ had a super intense ping pong battle and well…
アーロン is terrifying
On an angstier note, モクマ is having a generally rough time. He’s been in his head ever since they decided to go to his hometown and just… it’s clear there’s a lot of heavy emotion there. Still don’t know exactly what happened 20 or so years ago, but I’ll probably find out soon! チェズレイ and モクマ interactions were pretty much as always:
They had kind of a sweet interaction too (at least on モクマ’s side lmao, チェズレイ is relentlessly チェズレイ); they were by an 足湯 and チェズレイ was adamantly against doing it because of his high standards of cleanliness and general distaste for public use things, so モクマ went and got him hot springs water directly from the source :') he just put it in a normal bucket though so チェズレイ still refused to touch it but it was a thoughtful gesture regardless!
Oh geez that’s so stressful, I’m glad everything’s okay!
Ahhh congrats, that’s a great accomplishment!!
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Only the last 3 on the list are manga and most are probably too easy for a lot of people here but I want to make a really good dent in it before next year.
The Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition were only 100円 each so I’m particularly happy with that Book Off Japan find and last time I went to Book Off NYC I picked up 6 for about $20. Definitely too easy to hoard if you get those good good deals. 
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Day 18: July 18th 
Minimal reading day today.
ふだつきのキョーコちゃん Volume 4 (0% ➨ 19%)
🔍 名探偵コナン Volume 10 (80% ➨ 86%)
As I’m on a new case, having read these stories in English before, it’s sort of a game to see how soon it is before I remember who the culprit is.
This time around, I made it to the bottom of the eighth page before remembering who the culprit is and the proof. Now to see how long before I remember how the victim gets it.
I always find it interesting to see the use of 「ＴＶ」 here, rather than simple テレビ.
It makes sense, of course. And it looks like the way of writing comes up in various other manga as well:
Eleven pages in to remember about the dying message that shows up a little later.
I’ll probably be in trouble once I run out of material I’ve already read in English to remember. Just about 1/6th of the way there…
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I spent wayyyy too much time on my listening practice today (仮面病棟 is sooo good though!) and ended up only reading a bit more of ウテナ volume 2 before my brain gave up for the day. I’ve got crazy work stuff followed by crazy social stuff this week so who knows how much of anything I’ll end up getting done in the next few days. 
Hmm they don’t strike me as unusually easy. Lots of people working through よつばと and Fruits Basket is a few levels above it I believe. Gotta whole swath of different reading levels on here, and that’s a nice stack to make a dent in on your way to even more books 
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My last order from Manga Republic got here today! I got two more もふもふ枝子 manga (キミに言えないことがある and 不器用な僕らの隙間) as well as ひばりが鳴いたらつかまえて by 円藤エヌ. I started reading キミに言えない today and read the first chapter. The end of it was like a punch to the gut, but I wasn’t sure if I could read another whole chapter, so here’s where I’m leaving off today! Frick. But one cool thing was I encountered a new word in 2.43 today (修正, correction) and then came across it in this!
I read 3 pages of 2.43, leaving off on pg 149. Chika is not pleased to have been roped into hanging the sign lmao. Also one time when I don’t struggle with untagged dialogue between two characters is when one of them is him; he’s like the one character in this series who speaks standard Japanese.
In non-reading news, I watched ep 15 of アオアシ! At first, I was glad I’m caught up and only have the one ep since I didn’t have much energy today, but… I need more… I dunno when I’ll be able to buy more books, but at least one volume of this is going on that list (contrary to what I decided last time about getting a set off eBay, there aren’t any listings but for merch or the odd single volume). And Amazon does have the original (B6版) as well as the ジュニア版, they just don’t make it obvious. On the one hand, I feel like I should get the ジュニア版 since it is cheaper, but on the other hand, 1) it’s not all that much and 2) what if they don’t end up re-releasing all volumes as the new edition? Especially as they’re different sizes, I’d like to get the same one for all of them. But on the other other hand, most of the B6版 are out of stock for international delivery, so who knows how easy/cheap it would be to get all of them… Gah.
Some vocab of note:
寝ぼける (ねぼける) [自一] to be still half asleep; to be half awake; to be not yet quite awake
いわば [adverb] so to speak; as it were
たじろぐ [自ガ五] to shrink back; to wince; to flinch; to recoil
喫す (きっす) [他サ五] to suffer (e.g. defeat); to receive (e.g. a blow)
独りごちる (ひとりごちる) [一] to talk to oneself; to mutter
日日是好日 (にちにちこれこうじつ) [expression] every day is a good day. This is the title of a 藤巻亮太 album, and I was like: (in fear of it) “No, no, that’s not Japanese, that’s Chinese.” It’s not…
I got curious about whether there was any Buddy Mission Bond fic on AO3 (like, pre-checking, since I plan on getting the game eventually, though no idea when of course), and out of 78 fics, 12 were in English and the rest in Chinese.
In fact, comparatively there aren’t that many JP works on AO3 at all, though I did find some HQ, tenipuri, kazetsuyo, natsuyuu ones that I may want to try reading later.
I also found an explanation of “genderfluid” in Japanese: 自らの性別を男性または女性と固定して考えていない人物
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Home Post
So uhm starting on the 19th aka for me today.
Hope this will go okay. Am trying to use the dictionary as little as possible. Wish me luck and good luck to everyone else reading this summer!
So quick Update: Completely forgot to mention what I will attempt to read. So basically anything I have nearby will be read this summer. I was very lucky and fortunate and got to go to a bookstore where they had loads and loads of japanese books twice now so I got quite the backlog. Currently I am reading 10 分で読める こわい話 1年生。In case I read anything else I update this again or maybe write a different thingy all together don’t know yet. Again good luck everyone and hope you have a great summer!!!
Edit: I am counting playing video games in japanese as having read.
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19th of July
Read page 114 and 115 (31 – 32%) of かがみの孤城. Couldn’t concentrate well today, but I should be less busy tomorrow (hopefully).
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I’ve read over quite a bit of the last chapter of Spy Family (about 10 pages left!), plus one page of the prefectures book.
I need to try to catch up and read ahead with the latter as I’m going overseas, but I’ll probably just take photos of the relevant pages. 4 pages per week makes that doable.
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Quick update for today: Finished remainder of ウテナ volume 2 before heading to work. Probably will be the only time I have for reading today. Still, 
!
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Congratulations! Also, what a cute book!
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Day 18 
穴 ~ 62-62%
Tiny read yesterday (so tired!), maybe a couple of pages. But I read some more today, and unexpectedly reached the end of the titular story! And…I’m still rather at a loss. I wish we had read it in a book club, there’s so much to speculate on…
Open for very long, very rambling thoughts on the story. Major spoilers for the whole story of course.
- The mother-in-law looked surprisingly like her mother-in-law. At the end of the story (and after getting a job), the narrator also resembles her own mother-in-law in the mirror.
- Things the narrator perceives that seem to not actually be there: A hikikomori brother-in-law. Lots of children. A middle-aged neighbour with a very young child. A beast unlike any known animal that digs holes.
- The grandfather-in-law must be real since there’s a funeral and everything. Yet his strange behaviour is only perceived (if it even happens) by the narrator. In the eyes of everyone else he’s just a regular old man watching TV. So, a grandfather-in-law who only smiles and waves, never speaks, and constantly, even in the pouring rain, even at night, waters the garden.
- The voices of cicadas permeate everything. They stop when the neighbour or the brother-in-law make an appearance - signifying a departure from reality? A shift to another point in time? (Although I think the brother-in-law also comments on the cicadas at one point.)
- The beast isn’t aggressive after all. It meekly stays in the hole with the narrator, doing nothing at all (and smelling of nothing).
- The husband. In the beginning, I got the impression he had a good balanced relationship with his wife, discussing all decisions with her and respecting her opinions. After the move, he’s constantly absent. Even when he’s there, he’s typing on his phone. When he sleeps, he appears dead. Interestingly, his father seems to be also entirely absent.
- The neighbour, who may not exist as such, talks about her own life and her move to that place, how there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go without a car, and how a child gave her life purpose.
- The brother-in-law, who probably doesn’t exist and it’s unclear whether he ever existed, talks about how he couldn’t bear the pressure to be a productive, children-producing member of society (a very Murata moment, I thought) and just withdrew.
- There are red things scattered in the neighbour’s garden. (Oh, and what about the vegetables? Those seemed to be real, they ate them). There are red things in the grass at the riverbank. What are those?
- The mother-in-law seemed very together and all-powerful in the beginning. A very dynamic woman that might be likely to get too involved in her son’s marriage. She soon loses much of her power though, and at the end she seems more lost than the narrator herself.
So what was the story about? I feel an obvious answer would be it was about trapped women (hence the holes and why three unrelated women looked alike), or being trapped in general (the neighbour “escaping” with a child (as if), the brother-in-law “escaping” by becoming a hikikomori. But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. What about all the (non-existent) children? What about the focus (which I loved) on all the mundane little details, the insects, the flowers (only one in each vase!), the Japanese ginger from the neighbour’s garden (which only felt unpleasantly crunchy to the husband), and so many more. What about the beast? Why did it dig the holes? Why did it get in there itself? The brother-in-law jokes that they should name the beast Asahi. Is the beast supposed to be the narrator’s wild nature, and how it’s constantly getting trapped maybe?
And what about the grandfather-in-law? Why was he always watering? Why did he die after falling in a hole? Why was the mother-in-law so lost and dejected after his death? Was he keeping nature (or the wild side) alive? Why did so many unknown people come to mourn him?
I feel like every little detail had significance, I only wish I could see it.
I’d be very interested in reading @Myria 's and @NicoleIsEnough 's thoughts on the story (or anyone else’s who has read it of course!)
All in all, I loved the story, and the slightly surreal, slightly off feeling that was constantly there in the background. I loved all the vivid descriptions that appealed to all the senses - I felt that I could hear, and feel, and smell what the narrator was describing most of the time. And it was indeed (thanks @Myria ) very close to the kind of “horror” I was looking for. Not horror at all, but something off, something unknown hiding behind normality, only vaguely perceived.
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Thanks everyone for your messages on my dog’s adventure, they all meant a lot to me. Yes, it was horrifying beyond belief, and I still can’t stand looking down any kind of height, I just see her in my mind lying there and remember the horror. I still don’t get how any of it happened, how she fell, and how she survived without a scratch. She’s doing well though, or at least as well as can be hoped for an 18-year old dog with mobility issues and probably advanced dementia…)
Rats too? I knew that about cats, never expected it from a dog though. My dog’s upper body is so much wider than her head, I never thought she could squeeze through such a tiny space. Lesson learned.
Isn’t that the absolute truth! There was a stray cat that visited the garden, we had been casually feeding her for ages. After she gave birth in the garden for the third time or so, we decided it was about time we formally adopted her and the kittens. Nothing changed really apart from them getting names and vet visits. Yet they suddenly became a source of constant worry. Somehow she stopped being just a casual acquaintance and became our child, our responsibility. Sigh. And there’s always something to worry about. There’s no way to protect outdoor cats from cars and such, after all, you can’t stop them going anywhere or doing anything they set their mind to…
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Our cats are outdoor cats and we always celebrate a “no-abscess summer” when they manage to get through to the fall without any major fights. One in particular often gets into scrapes and because the wounds are usually on his face, the vet has speculated that he’s the aggressor. (The other is a coward and gets bites on his butt. We prefer his approach.) Our next cats might have to be indoor cats, but they do seem so much happier when they get to work off their energy outside…
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Today I was able to read 12 pages of よつばと！ before reaching my quota of 10 new words/expressions. However, I came across a couple of things that stumped me. For example, the following:
手はなしちゃダメよ
seems to mean “don’t take your hands off!” in this context (Yotsuba is swinging on a swing and Ena is horrified about how high she is going). But Yotsuba doesn’t show any intention of letting go of the swing until Ena says this. Maybe I’m interpreting it wrong? What verb is “なしちゃ” in this case?
New things
くるくる: whirling around, spinning
ブランコ: swing
反動 (はんどう): recoil, kick
動く (うごく): to move, to swing, to operate
空き家 (あきや): vacant house
いいとこ: the right moment
途中 (とちゅう): on the way, en route
お嬢ちゃん (おじょうちゃん): young lady (honorific kanji)
迎える (むかえる): to go out to meet
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The verb is 離す(はなす). The は is part of it 
手を離す, “to let go of something”, is the expression. The をis omitted here.
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Oh, I see! So much clearer. Thank you!
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Still reading Bunny Senpai but getting the hang of speed reading a little in Japanese. About 60% of the way done and should finish in time to read Tumugi for Intermediate book club. I read 2 parts today and should be on chapter 4* by tomorrow. (Each chapter is broken into parts I guess)
I don’t know if English books count as part of the challenge but I finished Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe over the weekend and currently working through the Hobbit.
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