In case anybody is looking for a nice book to read in the Autumn Challenge:
The Intermediate Book Club is currently polling for the next pick! Jump right in and vote for your favorites 
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Sep 14: Spice & Wolf (24 → 27%)
Sep 15-16: Honzuki 11 (0 → 10%)
TiredGlare didn’t feel like reading anything, so she went for Honzuki 11 because she couldn’t hold back anymore after 2 weeks of no Honzuki.
Basically this 
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September 16th
Today I read Chapter 22 of Happiness. It was a relatively simple read, though one page in particular had a quite a bit of vocab I needed to look up, which was weird since the rest of the chapter didn’t!
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september 16 
home post
Today I read chapter 57 of 極主夫道 and a bit of 耳をすませば. I’m thinking of reading a bit of 時のオカリナ before bed too
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September 16 
Home Post
Played some more モノマギア・カンタービレ today! Not like a whole lot, but definitely still more solid reading than I’ve generally been doing lately. I’m still in the demo so we’ll see how much longer it goes on 
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Day 78: September 16th 
からかい上手の高木さん Volume 8 (44% ➨ 55%)
Time got away from me today, but I did read something!
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岸辺露伴は動かない 2
37 - 64
I finished the story about the moon viewing family. I think I liked it overall.
I started the next story, “A Rainy Monday” although I think a better title in English would be “Monday - Rain” given that the Japanese is 月曜日 天気‐雨. It looks like it’s about the evils of phones. I can’t say I’m too surprised that Araki would use this as a horror concept given that he’s the kind of guy who insists on taking a walk everyday and staying healthy. Not that that’s a bad thing, I’m just not surprised.
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The Tanuki Falling Leaf Party: Date 20220917 
吾輩は狸である progress: 27.89% 
Wagahai-cat continues to be very nosy his very important surveillance of the neighbour’s conversations.
His commentary on people really pulls no punches 
Japanese found within the acorns
Meowords
盛徳「せいとく」ー Splendid virtue
脳裏「のうり」ー One’s mind
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September 17th!
Today I read the next chapter of Teasing Master Takagi-san.
I usually do more reading on Saturdays, but I had a busy day today as I went to a concert 
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岸辺露伴は動かない 2
65 - 112
Yep, it was a story about the evils of phones. Rohan is very Rohan. At least he didn’t say oi or some other phrase an obnoxious amount of time? And on the bright side, we saw so many people shoulder check him hard. Just as he deserves.
I started on the next story, DNA. It’s a really fascinating story, I’ve seen the live action version twice and the incorporation of Rohan’s stand in it is really fantastic. It looks like it might be fairly different from the source material though. I’m excited to read it later today.
I might finish this volume today or tomorrow 
It’s just DNA and the Run, which should be a bit easier since I’ve seen their adaptations and am therefore more familiar with their stories. There’s an obnoxious lack of page numbers but I have 50p of DNA and then the thickness of the volume looks pretty similar to other JoJo volumes so maybe 50-60 more pages for the Run?
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A three-fer this time.
Two days ago:
I continued with HQ vol 26 through ch 130. lmaoooooo I’m loving how Tsukki got manipulated into babysitting problem children KageHina. さすが次期キャプテンの縁下!
Also how did I not know Eye of the Tiger is the Rocky theme song (I mean, I’ve never watched Rocky and have no interest in it, but I still feel like I shoulda known this. Not like I’ve never heard the opening bit as the Rocky theme)
I also watched ep 7 of はじめてのおつかい.
Yesterday:
I finished HQ vol 26 and watched はじめてのおつかい ep 8 and 9.
I also reset my island (I realize I didn’t have to, but it’s been absolutely forever since I last played, and the longer it’s been, the easier it is for me to just reset rather than continue) on ACNH and restarted in Japanese. The tutorial was much easier to get through than I expected based on what people in the thread have said; I guess I’m just used enough to reading after 13 months that it’s not that bad for me. Definitely still prefer informal/casual language though. The only reason it took me a while is I got saddled with a resident I hate, and since making her move out would take forever (I never even got to a full island my first time playing), I closed the game and started over. At least that time I could pretty much just fly through it. Nah, it’s the bits where they can’t put furigana so it’s all in kana that I struggle with. Even if I know the word, it takes me a little longer to make the connection.
lol I got 日本語上手d by Mamekichi. (And I can finally keep them straight in my head now! I could never remember which was Timmy and which was Tommy since their names are so damned similar, but now I know the soft-spoken one is Tsubukichi because つぶやく.)
It’s cool that they let you choose how the 島 in your island’s name is read. I named my character Chika after the 2.43 character and the island ななふ after the city where Seiin is, 七符市, so I chose しま to keep that し. (It wouldn’t be “walking stick” otherwise! Plus it sounds better than the other two.) I coulda gone with すずむ since that’s where he lives, and I do like bell crickets… but eh.
Some vocab of note:
ミミズク [noun] horned owl. I was today years old when I learned that Bokuto’s name, 木兎, is literally a way of writing “horned owl” in kanji. He’s not just designed after one, he’s named after one, too!
二の舞 (にのまい) [noun] …all over again (repeating the same failure). As Ｘの二の舞.
就任 (しゅうにん) [noun, する verb (自)] assumption (of office); taking up (a post); inauguration; installation
Today:
I read the first two chapters of HQ vol 27. Suga better get put in this game or the fic I’m writing ain’t gonna work lmao. Ohh but I don’t remember what happens immediately post-game either, so it could still end up being non-compliant…
I also continued playing ACNH. On the one hand, I can’t wait until Blathers arrives because I love him, but on the other hand… that’s gonna be tons of terms I don’t know… But today unlocked the mail-order service of the タヌポート (or whatever it’s called), and thus I learned that 通販, which I learned a few days ago on WK, is actually an abbreviation of 通信販売. I checked its page again today, and as I thought, there’s no mention of it being an abbreviation, unlike with 自販機.
I’m so happy there seem to be just as many puns in the JP as in the ENG
Some vocab of note:
持ちこたえる [他一] to hold out (e.g. against an attack); to hang on; to withstand; to endure; to last
俯瞰 (ふかん) [noun, する verb (他)] overlooking; looking down at; having an overhead view; having a bird’s-eye view; having a high-angle view
嘲笑う (あざわらう) [他ア五] to laugh at; to ridicule; to mock; to make fun of; to sneer at
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Day 79: September 17th 
からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 7 (17% ➨ 24%)
Another small-read day. Goal for Sunday: read lots!
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September 17 Home Post
Played some more モノマギア! It’s still a wild experience all around I’m very curious about basically everything that’s happening. It’s been a pretty chill read language-wise aside from a couple pockets of weirdness here and there, so that’s nice! There’s a lot of character language but it’s really all stuff I’ve seen many times before, feels good to be comfortable with it 
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Sep 18, Sun of Week 12 of Summer 
2022
I read かぐや様は告らせたい Vol.26 Ch.253 (1 chapter), which although took time, it was simply one moderate coffee shop sitting. Also read a chapter of Happiness Vol.6. (I am curious of veracity of that mentioning of Vol.7).
I reflected on reading-to-learn styles. Kanji and Jukugo -heavy, are both difficult and easy in a way, but it’s possible to guess the meaning without ensuring the reading (which can blank out, or just be learnt wrongly). Not to mention that meaning can be guessed wrong too.
Manga are relatively easier to read, if I can focus at all; maybe simply because they are easier to focus than novels. But then, deciding to focus on reading a wall of text is another thing too. Focus or not isn’t really the matter of actually skill though, but nothing would come without actual start.
Otherwise, I still have games (with JP writing and audio) and I can play on laptop anywhere (now I use a gaming laptop). However I don’t feel like playing them at all (due to presumed suboptimal learning experience). I lost my interest in visual novels (or perhaps depending on additional contents, like minigames).
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The Tanuki Falling Leaf Party: Date 20220918
吾輩は狸である progress: 28.97% 
This is a long conversation, and Wagahai-cat has hunkered down in a hidden spot to eavesdrop on every last detail.
Japanese found within the acorns
Meowords
髭面「ひがづら」ー Unshaven face
酔興「すいきょう」ー Eccentricity; whim; capriciousness (outdated kanji, in-date version: 粋狂)
剛腹「ごうふく」ー Obstinacy; stubbornness
禿頭 「はげあたま」ー Bald head (also: 禿げ頭)
比丘尼「びくに」ー Buddhist nun; travelling entertainer dressed as a nun; but the best meaning: female servant hired to take the blame for a noblewoman’s farts (also a 科負い比丘尼「とがおいびくに」also 屁負い比丘尼「へおいびくに」).
標札「ひょうさつ」ー Nameplate; doorplate (also: 表札)
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Been reading through Vagabond. Havent been reading novels as I’m just watching a lot of Anime with subs this past week. Figure that still counts for reading. Once I finish Cyberpunk and get caught up with Classroom of the Elite I’ll start dedicating my time to reading again.
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September 18th!
Lots of reading today! Chapters 15 and 16 of Shadows House, this afternoon.
This story gets more and more interesting with each chapter!
Then this evening, Chapter 6 of Yoru Cafe, Volume 2.
As usual it took me absolutely ages to read, but it was an enjoyable chapter this week.
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I don’t suggest paying attention to reading speed for newer learners and I it doesn’t seem like more advanced people on here really care…BUT, I figured I’d share this just in case someone could get use out of it. I’ve been using this extension while reading
With the way I have it set up, it looks like this
Now, at first I thought it wasn’t as useful because it only stepped by words, and its not really built for japanese so it doesn’t parse words correctly and there was no cpm option. However, after some testing, I realized that it averages out basically to the same speed every page anyways. Using:
Steps/min: 250
Step: 1 word
I get about 22,000 ch/hour for my book, and I can’t imagine it would be terribly different for other books. In other words, multiply the steps/min by 88 and you will get the characters per hour. For someone wanting to read at 10k an hour, you would set it at 113, for example.
Downsides/notes:
So a couple things about using this with ttu ereader like I do.
- even if you set your reader to paged mode, it will still keep track of the position, so no need to worry about going much faster and getting a lead on the pacer (as seen here)
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Blurring pictures seems to be the exception for whatever reason to the above rule. It will automatically start at the netabare tag.
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It can be distracting having this on your page, so you can either change to color, or do what I do and just start it at the start of the first page you finished. This means that your goal is not necessarily to keep pace with the red text, but to make sure it never appears on your screen. I find this a lot more exciting and makes me keep reading at a high speed even when I get a massive lead on the pacer, since I can’t actually see that I have a massive lead and let my guard down.
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Using yomichan starts the pacer at that point in the text. Can be annoying, but not a huge deal for people who don’t actually have to use yomichan in the first place I guess.
10 Likes
Day 80: September 18th 
くノ一ツバキの胸の内 Volume 5 (0% ➨ 18%)
orange Volume 3 (0% ➨ 31%)
からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 7 (24% ➨ 31%)
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岸辺露伴は動かない 2
113 - 161
I read all of DNA. I learned that I extremely misunderstood the whole plot to the point of the story being entirely different. I’m not sure how much the live action differs from the manga though.
Spoilers for DNA
When I watched the live action, I thought that Mao’s power was to change the dna of a person to turn them into her father. I figured she erased this guy’s old life to turn him into the deceased husband of her mother. I don’t think that’s the case though.
The live action did make notable changes though, swapping Izumi for Yukako and drastically changing the appearance of the man. Mao actually trips the man into falling down the stairs in a park and there’s no boy that he’s watching either. I loved that instead of opening people like normal with Heaven’s Door, in the live action, they had the people turn into books this episode- Izumi into a magazine, I don’t remember for the mom, and Mao into a picture book. Another major change is that live action Rohan forced himself into the situation it felt like while manga Rohan was roped in and very clear that he’d rather be elsewhere.
In the manga, Mao’s mom asks for Rohan to fix 治す her daughter normal普通. Mao has a tail, sweat(? Pee?) problem, long bottom eyelashes, sideburns along with some sort of chameleon ability? Rohan reads Mao and says there’s nothing to fix. She’s normal. Yukako and the mom insist that she needs fixing so she can live a normal life. Rohan declines and says that this is Mao’s normal 普通. He won’t change her because there’s nothing to change. She plays perfectly fine with her peers. Aside from being a stand user, she’s a normal toddler. It takes Mao’s mom some time to process that he’s right. Mao was born from sperm donation as Mao’s mom never got over her husband’s death but wanted to have a child. While she’s processing what Rohan said, she runs into this man who has long bottom eyelashes, sideburns, and some problem with body fluid. He resembles Mao more than her own mother. They get to chatting and he even has the same mannerisms as her late husband.
Overall, it’s a very interesting story. It might become one of my favorites. I need to rewatch the live action though now that I better understand the story.
Also, I didn’t realize this while watching but finally picked it up while reading- Mao, the toddler, speaks backwards. I had thought she was using babytalk (which I have very little experience with), but nah. Shes says はちにんこ instead of こんにちは.
I hope to finish this volume with the episode The Run today and then start Part 5 tomorrow
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