Thanks! I’ve been avoiding that thread out of a stubborn desire to keep things fresh for myself, and to force myself to investigate all angles on my own, but I should probably just consult it. Your interpretation makes sense to me, though!
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You can find the comments on it here, unfortunately I don’t think you’ll find much more info: よつばと！Vol 1 Discussion Thread (Beginner's Book Club) - #400 by jstrout
Someone had the English translation and for the narration it was: よつばと！Vol 1 Discussion Thread (Beginner's Book Club) - #408 by Euphony
And nothing wrong with wanting to do it yourself. I’ve been impressed with your work. I don’t mind giving my view, but I feel like I’m not that far along yet either. 
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Thanks! I consulted the thread and they seem to have come to the same interpretation I did. It’s a good resource to have in these moments when things don’t seem to make a bit of sense!
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The Tanuki Beach Resort: Date 20220724 
Tanuki Scroll of ドラえもん のび太の海底鬼岩城 
Random Article - today’s reading is about… a Doraemon movie 
I got halfway through the 作品 section.
Japanese found in the sand
Learnthings
古代文明「こだいぶんめい」ー Ancient Civilisation
中盤「ちゅうばん」ー Mid-stage; middle phase; mid-game
Names
藤子「ふじこ」
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I feel like it’s more natural to read it as the ‘perfunctory, chosen without thought’ option, especially given the previous line is えーいやそのーなんてゆーか…まぁ… – he clearly doesn’t know what to say and ends up going with something formulaic. The thing that’s just happened is not a よくある事, after all… The ごまかし is that Fuuka sees that but is going along with it as a way to close off the conversation and the whole embarrassing incident.
(I also suspect that the use of katakana for テキトウ may be to nudge the reader towards that sense rather than the ‘apt, appropriate’ sense, but I’m much less sure about that part.)
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Yes, I’ve been thinking about how to reconcile those two seemingly opposite definitions, and maybe it comes down to the idea of “formulaic” or “cliche”? Like, his response is “suitable” in a formal sense but obviously not heartfelt or even sensible. And then Fuuka is also doing the formulaic charade of saying, “Yes, yes, of course” so everyone can move on.
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I’m also somewhat conflicted on Tugumi. I wanted to read it because I remember having liked Kitchen when I read it (in translation), but the basic premise doesn’t really appeal to me. Neither did the beginning of the (translated, for ease and speed) sample that I read. Has anyone already read it? I’m really not sure what to expect and I’d like to avoid something too sad or with possible religious overtones (basing this on the way the narrator introduces herself, it may just be a casual comment and nothing more, though).
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Coincidentally, I just started reading Goodbye Tsugumi (translation) yesterday. My feelings about Yoshimoto are…nuanced. I used to teach Kitchen in a couple of different literature courses partly because for struggling students it is an easy read language-wise (in English)with lots of complex themes, and because it dealt with stuff like trans issues long before many others were doing so (and pretty well, from what I remember; it’s been a while). I’m about 50 pages into Tsugumi and I’m feeling all the same things I did when I first read Yoshimoto in the 90s; she was such a sensation at the time and I couldn’t figure out why. And yet Kitchen stuck with me, and I’m thinking maybe Tsugumi will as well? There’s an awkward oddness to her work and I just can’t decide if I like it or not.
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July 24th!
Today I read Chapter 2 of Shadows House. It seems intriguing so far, I’m interested to see where the story goes. I’m glad I went for the colour edition, because its really pretty.
I was planning to read the next chapter of Orange too, but the day kind of slipped away so I’ll probably save it for tomorrow since it takes me a while to read a whole chapter since they are fairly long.
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Home post 
July 24th
・詩的私的ジャック - JACK THE POETICAL PRIVATE (89% → 100%)
The last week’s reading is shorter than usual so I finished early 
I didn’t think I was going to finish today, I had difficulties with focusing. But then I thought, “if I finish this tonight that means I can read something else tomorrow, yeah?” That fixed my problem of unfocus 
I mean, I wouldn’t say I disliked this book, but it seems like my main motivator each week somehow ended up being “let me just quickly finish this so I can read something else” Which isn’t entirely bad either I guess, haha.
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July 24th
What did I read?: Flying Witch Vol 11 and Orange Vol 1
How much did I read?: 34 pages and 42 pages
How long did it take me?: 31 min and 42 min
I read 
Like, two things, not even just one thing I’m caught up on Flying Witch now, and almost caught up on Orange (just have to read this week’s chapter now). This Flying Witch chapter was classic Akane xD And Orange made me 
again, Kakeru 
Sweet precious angel, I really hope that somehow something that high school Naho does can change the past and keep him alive 
Either way, I think I’m going to cry at the end lmao
Thank you :3 At least this week I get to work at home more (I had to go in 4 out of 5 days last week, when my usual is 1-2…the commute really takes it out of me these days ) Plus there was more talking to people than usual, which also takes it out of me because I am a hermit 
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Day 24 
:
化身 ~ 0-5%
I started reading one of the Japan Horror Award winners I had picked out. 化身 is a story about someone (a man, judging from the use of ぼく and the shoe size) who got fed up with his working life, traveled on a whim to an unidentified small southern island country, and just entered the tropical forest. Very soon he fell into a …hole (there’s a theme to my summer reading ). Well, a big hole that is actually a hidden lake. While he’s not hurt, there’s no way for him to get out, as the rock surrounding the lake is high and smooth. There’s only a narrow pillar rock in the middle of the lake for him to stay dry on. The lake water is drinkable, but his struggle with hunger, and his efforts to find food, are very eloquently described, as is the natural environment.
From what I’ve read so far, it’s a straightforward tale of survival, no horror. But we’ll see what the next pages bring.
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Haha, it was the same for me, just yesterday 
I really wanted to finish, but when I still had 10 pages left, I started to be really tired. So I called it a day and went to bed, but then I thought, I could maybe just read a little bit more so that I could finish it off quicker the next day, and then I finished it 
Today, I started to read Flesh&Blood vol. 2, and it is as sweet as ever, but also a bit gruesome because we get a deep dive into the living conditions aboard a ship in the middle ages, which is… not fun 
By now I suspect there’s a theme in Japanese literature 
Sounds horrible enough if you ask me 
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Today I started playing Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind for Nintendo Switch in japanese and I’m really surprised how easy it is for me to play it in japanese. There were only three words I had to look up. Also continued reading 5 pages of the Kanzen Master Reading N2 book.
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| REDC | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 4 | |||||||
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1 | 0 | 0 | % | |
July 24
Monster Hunter World
Loopers, finished chapter 2
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Mary does say there’s no relation outside of where her name comes from. I don’t mind religion in a story but to each their own there.
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This isn’t really a proper update, but I got a few books in the mail last week, and didn’t have time to talk about them until now.
I’m not sure how interested other folks will be in these, especially the top two. They’re both essentially designed to teach highly specific English vocabulary to Japanese speakers . But as it turns out, they also work in reverse, although perhaps not quite as well (you definitely need to know kanji, at least. There isn’t furigana).
Here are some descriptions of each book as well as some photos:
This book teaches fandom-related vocabulary and slang. The vast majority of it is a glossary. It also has some examples of letters you could write to people that you are a fan of, set up in parallel text format. There is free audio accompaniment! I tried it out, and it reads the English word, the Japanese word, the English sentence, and the Japanese sentence.
This book was made by New Japan Pro Wrestling to teach wrestling-related vocabulary. It has lots of sections, including a glossary, profiles of wrestlers, and interviews in a parallel text format. It also has audio accompaniment, though I haven't tried it out because I'm assuming it's mostly just English audio of the wrestler interviews. Read this book to find out how to say useful phrases like "Boris Johnson ruined my G1" in Japanese. If you don't watch wrestling, you might get a kick out of some of the more bizarre words in the glossary, like "babyface" and "bump", which have very specific meanings in wrestling.
This is a fairly popular beginner novel written in the Minna no Nihongo universe, which is intended to be easily readable after you complete MNN 1 and 2. I bought it because I thought I'd read it after finishing the textbook so that I can experience what it's like to read a novel in Japanese without having to do any look-ups (theoretically).
I bought this one thanks to this challenge thread! Or, well, thanks to the winter one, at least. This is a book with 365 Japanese colors, each corresponding to a day of the year. It's absolutely gorgeous, though there's loads of unknown vocab, so I'm not planning on reading it in the near future. It might be the beginning of 2024 by the time I get around to it, honestly.
A month or so ago, I also bought Read Real Japanese: Fiction, which was discussed in an earlier thread. Here’s Tofugu’s review of it. This book looks awesome, and I’m excited to eventually read it, though I’m holding off until my Japanese is a little better because I feel like I’ll get more out of it then. I’m most excited about the translation section at the back which talks in detail about why it made the translation choices that it did.
The two English lesson books are pretty readable/usable at my current level, so I’m probably going to dive into those as I have time between my other reading commitments. No plans currently to SRS any of the new vocab from those, though the NJPW book is already helping me figure out how to translate a lot of words I encounter in TJPW, which are already in my Anki deck.
Both of those books are handy because they define a lot of subculture-specific vocabulary that I encounter all the time on social media and during immersion and such, which often aren’t included in Yomichan’s dictionaries.
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It’s been a while but I have vague memories of getting stuck on that too; I just went back to double-check how it works, and are you clicking on the key after you input the code? I don’t think I figured out that I had to do that for a while If it’s not that then I’m not sure, if you’re still having trouble I can try to provide more insight
Ah I remember going down a rabbit hole about this in a previous challenge! (I just looked and it was in February omg, so much time has passed ) But in case my conclusions are any interest:
Ooooh thank you! It sounds like I need to do some more investigating into amazon japan, see how things compare
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July 24 
Home Post
Today was a garbage reading day I didn’t start until I was already tired and I only got through like a page of 海辺のカフカ before my brain said “nope, it’s bedtime” lmao but that’s okay! I did more listening today so that’s a tradeoff I suppose 
I should have more time to read tomorrow so I’ll look forward to that!
Oh I feel that, going out and interacting with the with the world is exhausting I’m also looking forward to having an easier week this week, more time and mental energy for reading chaos I’m glad things will be nicer for you!
Oooh I’ve heard good things about those games, I’m interested to see how you like it! It certainly sounds like it’d be an on-brand thing for me to play someday
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Day 24: July 24th 
🪄 まじっく快斗 Volume 1 (22% ➨ 36%)
I started this series a while back because it’s an earlier series by the mangaka of Detective Conan. The art style, writing style, character personalities, and scene development are definitely similar to Conan while being a different genre.
However, because my knowledge of the cast of Kaitou Kid is from appearances I’ve read in Detective Conan (based on reading the English release), I don’t have a strong connection to push me to keep reading. Thus, it’s easy for this series to be forgotten as I keep moving through volume after volume of Conan.
It probably also doesn’t help that I’ve never read this series in English (is there even an official English release?), so I’m relying purely on my own ability with Japanese to understand everything.
I last left off a few pages into chapter two, where it seems there’s a princess of a European country with an expensive jewel, which an accompanying famous French police officer hopes to use to lure Kaitou Kid.
You can tell he’s impressive because even his laughter shows up in photographs.
The art style clearly shows that this is an earlier work. I’m curious if it improved over the series’s five-volume run. Although Detective Conan’s art style was refined a bit during its first year (1994-1995), it was already much improved over where Kaito started.
After the many months of seeing 現れる in Sailormoon before I finally properly remembered the reading and the meaning, I keep starting to misread this 現われる as あらわわれる, which is instantly followed by “that isn’t right” feeling each time.
Even though I’m mid-case at the end of the last volume of Detective Conan (maybe one chapter left), I’m aiming to finish up this first volume of Kaito before buying the next volume of Conan. But if I do a purchase of anything else before then, I’m grabbing the next volume of Conan at the same time.
おじさまと猫 Volume 6 (90% ➨ 100%)
ふだつきのキョーコちゃん Volume 4 (58% ➨100%)
Thread Comments
I’m facing similar due to certain reasons. The ones here are small (like fruit flies), so I put out some small jars with about half an inch of apple cider vinegar and a drop of liquid dish soap, and each day about 20 or so little flies suicide themselves into each.
Seem to be infectious. From my reading today…
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