📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

NicoleRauch · January 31, 2022, 11:17pm

Response to BadWeather

Ah, yeah, no, sorry for misleading you! I would not consider it a children’s book at all, it’s pretty deep and philosophical - and I just read some background about the author and what the book is probably actually about… I would have never guessed that tbh. (And I’m not giving that away to somebody who has not read it yet )

Hmmm, lemme think…
scrolls through bookmeter list
Hah, found something! If you like medieval fantasy, then you might be interested in reading 狐笛のかなた (Bookmeter). It’s a children’s book, though, aimed at about the same age group as Time Girl, I’d say. I found the language to be fairly easy, once you get past the special fantasy vocab that inevitably crops up here and there. This author generally has a faible for long-winding world-building, but in this book it was not that extreme (as it’s a pretty short book). We read it in a stand-alone book club, so you might find some discussions and can also still ask questions, as with all the book clubs.
Also, did you check out Night Market yet? (Bookmeter) Maybe it’s also too difficult right now, but that was definitely a story that made me think.

Apart from those two, I’m afraid the other books I read were probably a bit harder than Konbini Ningen, so I’ll stop my recommendations list here.

Yeah, that’s really horrible! I once started to read one of those (I just liked the cover as it looked like medieval fantasy) but it was more like an RPG, as you said, with a scorecard for the MC and with references to the modern world and stuff. I’m still contemplating finishing it once I get a bit better (it was still pretty hard for me when I started to read it), but definitely not a second volume

Yaaaay! Congrats

Natsuha · January 31, 2022, 11:19pm

Today I finished Eden Cage volume 3 my eighth manga volume in January. The manga was boring I will stop reading this series. Which manga to read next? Probably the next volume of Domestic Girlfriend it will surely be full of useful words.

Started to read some lines from the No Game No Life light novel it’s pretty hard but I really want to read it. Also read some lines from Melty Blood Actress Again video game lots of N2 grammar points are used, even learnt a N1 grammar point from it までもない there is no need to, unnecessary. Last I read two texts from the Kanzen Master Reading N3 book and got both times the answer right maybe there is still hope for me.

lucylavelle · January 31, 2022, 11:35pm

Day 31 complete
I’m glad to have made it to a whole month. Feels like an achievement!

I started reading よつばと！ today, and read the first chapter.
This was the first manga I bought to try to read in Japanese, over a year ago, and at the time it was much too difficult and I was a little disheartened about it.
Today is the first time I’ve tried to read it again since, and I picked it up and just… read it. I only had to look up one thing. It felt pretty magical.

(Home Post)

Daisoujou · January 31, 2022, 11:47pm

BadWeather response

Oh yeah, you know, I used jpdb to look up visual novels here and there, then natively became my usual book lookup place, and I kind of forgot jpdb can do that too! I never know what to make of the difficulty spit out by their algorithm, but that’s cool. I think what I’m learning from this thread is Satori Reader might’ve prepared me better than I realized, haha. I will say I sampled the very beginning of コンビニ人間 and Zoo (along with another thing or two) when I was looking for what to read and actually chose Zoo because I thought it seemed easier at the start. But that very beginning of コンビニ人間 looked relatively descriptive, and right now I’m trudging through a bit of a particular story in the last day or two, so maybe Zoo also lulled me into a false sense of security, haha. There are exceptions, but it’s overall fairly straightforward and not descriptive; some of the reviews of the English translation complain about the writing being too minimal, heh. Nonetheless, it may still be more of a step beyond the traditional first books than I realize.

I’m not sure what kind of setup you have for books, if you’re reading them on a PC or something it might be similar, but I just love visual novels because of how well you can set up the text hooking for instant lookups, Anki integration, etc. Plus with a variety of narration, spoken dialog, voice acting, etc, it’s kind of a well-rounded practice experience. But you’re kind of right that there is no… super easy entry point. VNs with furigana borderline don’t exist and I guess the simpler ones are on the easyish light novel end of the scale, allegedly? They can get very hard though.

Stuff like the Key visual novels that are more slice of life are probably some of the easier ones you can get while still having them be generally considered pretty good. And I know a lot of things more or less around this difficulty level, though the few significantly easier ones have bad reputations, heh. Been eying Flowers as something people recommend for around entry level too, though I’m hoping that maybe by the end of Summer Pockets I’ll feel like ratcheting the difficulty up a little and reading Musicus! or something. I’d say some of the images I’ve posted are on the upper end of Summer Pockets’ writing complexity, but if it looks like too much of a headache then yeah, might be best to read a little more before diving into VNs.

That aside, I don’t think this is an easy one, but whether in Japanese one day or just in English, I have to very highly recommend The House in Fata Morgana if you ever get the chance. That VN is phenomenal.

That’s incredible, congrats!

Congrats on the results! And I remember that grammar point from Ace Attorney again, haha. My scattered random learning pays off again I’ve always thought it’s really cool how learning from native material like this leads to everyone having their own personalized set of knowledge. I know it’s kind of self-evident but I dunno, building your own language understanding subset is neat. Glad to hear you’re seeing results.

While I’m at it, I have to congratulate you too. Sounds amazing

Summary post

I hate that inbetween zone where sometimes it feels like “wow, I finally get it,” then other times I wonder if I have learned a single thing this entire time. I’m sure you all know what I mean cause I hear this described as pretty much how life will be from now on with Japanese unfortunately, heh. I dunno, doesn’t help that I feel a little ill today. Probably not actually sick? My body just isn’t behaving too well. Still read about the usual amount. Right now I’m doing my best not to get at annoyed at wildly specific words you’d need a sentence to describe in English and how I seem to come across them constantly. There are, it turns out, many words.

Wow I love this background; it’s triggering my desires to go climb a mountain in Japan pretty hard. I’ve been living vicariously through this mountain climbing Youtube channel while pretending I understand more than a few words in most sentences, haha.

pocketcat · February 1, 2022, 12:19am

I feel these so much. I sometimes have to remind myself that past-me would be very pleased that I’m reading books and holding conversations (even if said conservations are still stilted ).
A win today was a friend saying they’re planning a trip to Japan (assuming borders open. Big if) and feeling confident in replying, “Yeah hit me up with any questions you have about buses or hotels or whatever. I should be able to read the sites for you if they’re not in English” and that was about my own growth for the first time in a long while.
And then I go try to read the article on 敵性語てきせいご - term from WWII, language of the enemy (generally English) that a language exchange partner sent me and I’m back to despair.

windupbird · February 1, 2022, 2:31am

Summary post

Day 31: January 31st

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 20 min
Today’s color: 紫紺 (しこん) - bluish purple

This is a very pretty color :3

Good words

補色 (ほしょく) - complementary color
引き立て役 (ひきたてやく) - person who makes someone else appear better; foil
即位 (そくい) - accession to the throne; enthronement
由緒ある (ゆいしょある) - venerable; prestigious; with a long history
旛 (ばん) - an obscure kanji for flag, it seems
授ける (さずける) - to grant; to give; to confer; to award
単色 (たんしょく) - single color; monochrome
反対色 (はんたいしょく) - clashing colors

まいにち暦生活日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 16 min

Today’s reading talked about 雪明り (ゆきあかり) - brightness of snow; reflected light of snow; (by) snow light. Apparently there’s a saying or word, 蛍雪の功 (けいせつのこう) which means “the fruit of diligent study” - the kanji in 蛍雪 (diligent study) are meant to symbolize, like, even if you only have the light of the fireflies or the light reflecting off the snow, you’re still using that light to study.
There were also some nice proverbs in the reading today:
冬来たりなば春遠からじ - when winter comes, spring isn’t far behind
柳に雪折れなし - literally, willow trees don’t break under the weight of snow (meaning those who are flexible can endure hardships better)

What else did I read?
おでかけ子ザメ
Amount read: 67 pages
Time spent: 29 min

Small shaaaaark~ I finished the manga already lol - solid 11/10 in the cuteness department, I love it so much :3 I love how friendly everyone is to the small shark (I mean, how could you not be friendly to him, really, but it’s still cute how all the humans are like, helping him and playing with him and showing him cool stuff) Sometimes you want a manga that’s just friendly and happy and cute, and this is it, this is that manga. Should it have really counted for reading practice, maybe not xD But am I counting it anyway, yes

Today the shark made some really adorable animal friends

First, a duck family, who helped him get out of the rain

Then this tiny frog

And then this cute little traveling bird

And did some adorable things

Like do some ラジオ体操

And enjoy some かき氷

And take a smol nap

A couple good words

来場者 (らいじょうしゃ) - visitor; attendee; spectator; guest; audience
特典 (とくてん) - privilege; special favor; special favour; benefit; prerogative; perk; amenity

Can’t believe it’s been a month already :o I feel like I’ve…accomplished very little tbh xD Though I have managed to read every day so far! That’s something, at least. The 365-day books kind of threw a wrench in things, more so than I thought they were going to - I have been enjoying them, and learning some interesting stuff from them (both language-wise and culture-wise), but they are definitely taking up a lot more time than I thought I’m a bit torn, but I think I’ll keep going with them, and just accept that I probably won’t finish as many things as I have in past challenges. After all, it’s not really about numbers, anyway.

頑張って、みなさん！

Congratulations!

tiny_river_otter · February 1, 2022, 2:44am

Summary Post

Day 31: Whoo! One month doneee today I read chapter 19 of ハイキュー!! aloud

liveunderwater · February 1, 2022, 2:44am

Update January 29/30/31

23 pgs Death Note. Completed first chapter with book club. (29th)
12 pgs 極主夫道 (30th)
22 pgs One Punch Man (31st) Had to re-read chapter 5 to get back into the book.
Animal Crossing

Can’t give enough likes for this.

natarin · February 1, 2022, 4:43am

January 31 Home Post

And one month down! Today started out pretty normal; I read a bit of 風(かぜ)つよ between classes, they’re all still freaking out about secretly being on the track and field team this whole time, all is good.

And then this happened:

I’d totally forgotten about 999; someone recommended it to me a while back as just like a game I’d like, completely unrelated to Japanese. So I decided to take a peek, see if it was even available in Japanese (yes), and then the whole trilogy was on sale for like $15 sooo obviously I have no self control and I bought it and tried it out, and honestly? Not so bad! Like yeah I’m looking up plenty of stuff, but it really doesn’t feel any rougher than any of the nonsense I’ve been doing lmao. I got an ocr set up so if anything this is a luxury compared to all the physical books I’ve been reading

Granted I’m not very far at all so who knows, it could end up completely impossible, but I won’t know unless I try! (channeling my inner ハイジ there haha, he’s rooting for me )

Words!!

幽霊部員(ゆうれいぶいん) - member of a club who never participates (what a good term )
偉大(いだい) - greatness
強豪(きょうごう) - overwhelming strength, powerhouse
我関(われかん)せず - no concern of mine
取(と)っ手(て) - doorknob (I love this for some reason, it’s just very correct and feels like a play on words)
びくともしない - unperturbed, unyielding

Ahhh congrats, that’s so exciting!! Great job hope to be there with you soon-ish (if I can stop picking up new projects lmao)

Omg congrats to you too, that’s such a good feeling! (not that I’m super well-versed but) It’s so nice actually feeling progress like that, we’ve all come so far :’)

edelstein · February 1, 2022, 4:50am

– Home Post –

January 31st
Various Readings

I’ve actually spent most of my reading time today looking through this thread at various other books and things that people have been reading. Notably, the mention of “まだ、同じ夢を見ていた” by @BadWeather really caught my eye. I looked around at various reviews and descriptions (a lot of random Japanese library posts that chose it as their book of the month), and reading through the preview on Amazon, it seems much more approachable than other readings.

Admittedly, Shirokuma Cafe may be a bit more than I could chew; I’ve only recently really started to push myself into learning grammar through Genki 1 and Bunpro, meaning that I’m hovering around a very shaky N5 level.

Congratulations! Have fun watching the movie again, it’s one of my favorites : )

Daisoujou · February 1, 2022, 4:51am

Hey that’s awesome! Best of luck; I played in English and totally loved that series. Another thing I’d love to replay someday once my reading speed doesn’t make everything a huge undertaking. If you keep playing it, you’ll have to keep us updated with your thoughts!

fallynleaf · February 1, 2022, 6:01am

Summary post

Thought I’d make a check-in post, since we’re halfway through! January was a success!

Jan	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
Week 00
Week 01
Week 02
Week 03
Week 04
Week 05

= Japanese
= Japanese and Spanish

I was planning on waiting until after I finished 大海原と大海原 to start reading in Spanish, but there was enough interest for a spin-off book club for the third book (which is both way longer than the other volumes, and is much darker and aimed at an older audience, so there’s not much furigana and it’s much harder ), and I ended up committing to that one as well because I wanted to get the full story. The club starts on February 5, but I’ve already started reading because I know I’m going to fall behind.

I guess at that point, I decided I might as well pick up the novel in Spanish I just bought, so that is also happening now! I will probably be much spottier with this, but it’ll be some good practice trying to read with a monolingual dictionary.

Here’s everything I read in Japanese this month:

The picture books I already shared in this thread
Finished 大海原と大海原 volume 2
Read a good 10 or so NHK Easy articles
Translated 3 DDT show recaps (posts about them are here, here, and here), as well as starting on a fourth

I learned over 200 new words from my reading (in addition to WK and my textbook vocab)! And 3 new kanji that aren’t in WK.

All in all, a pretty productive month! I’m happy with the work that I’ve put in over the past several weeks.

February plans:

Summary

Once again, my main priority is the DDT recaps. Everything else will sort of just have to fit around that.

My second priority is volume 3 of 大海原と大海原, which is definitely above my level . I think I’ll be able to get by, but I might struggle to keep up with the book club. Then again, I did manage to catch up by the end of the last one, so maybe I’ll do better than I thought.

I think I’ll have my hands pretty full with just those two things, so I’m not currently planning on reading anything else in Japanese.

With Spanish, if I have the time/energy, I hope to read more of Tempestad by Lucía Vázquez de Prada. There’s absolutely no way I’m finishing this anytime soon, though, because it is over 800 pages and is also beyond my skill .

superfunc · February 1, 2022, 6:39am

I read through mostly random satori reader bits this month, but I also read through my first novel It was from the MCU (minna-no-nihongo cinematic universe): Shosetsu Miraa-san - Minna no Nihongo Shokyu Shiriizu - | スリーエーネットワーク . I would recommend it as a good reading source for those who are late N4 to early/mid N3 (e.g. finished minna 1&2 or genki 1&2 or equivalent grammar).

fallynleaf · February 1, 2022, 6:57am

I had to let you know that “the MCU” made me laugh out loud, haha

newname · February 1, 2022, 8:36am

I read the first eleven pages of the second volume of The Way of the House Husband. I also translated another section of a recipe for どんぶり from my 食戟のソーマ (Food Wars) Cook Book.

Here are the things I will be doing to the たまご (egg)

割り解す------わりほぐす------to beat (e.g. egg)

かき混ぜる------かきまぜる------to mix; to stir

I should be able to make dinner soon

pocketcat · February 1, 2022, 2:02pm

Today’s reading was 「友人に会いに行くため、大嫌いな飛行機に搭乗。恐怖で震える私を見て、隣の席のカップルが笑いだし...」（京都府・30代男性）｜Jタウンネット

This was a cute story and honestly really easy to read despite looking long. It’s about a man with a fear of flying talking about his first flight.

Some words I looked up

奮ふるい立たつ - to encourage/cheer up
精神統一せいしんとういつ - focusing on just one thing
身振り手振り - gesturing w/ hand and body
台北 - Taipei (always so bad at place names…)
ご褒美 - prize. I actually know this word by ear, but have not seen it written before I think
陥おちいった - get in a bad situation (this is already in my Anki deck )

eoame · February 1, 2022, 2:17pm

Day 32. Read pages 222 and 223 of Kiki today.

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement and support, especially those who replied to my post yesterday. I really appreciate it

Zakarius · February 1, 2022, 4:57pm

Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220201

Tanuki Scroll XXXII: 耳なし芳一

Read today’s Hyakumonogatari, from Yamaguchi Prefecture!

About a biwa story teller, it’s a quite well known one but it was rather difficult reading. There was a lot of historic words for places and people so I didn’t make it all the way to the end (it’s rather long too).

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

真言宗「しんごんしゅう」ー Shingon Sect of Buddhism
幼帝「ようてい」ー Young Emperor
縁側「えんがわ」ー Engawa: the external corridor on the outer side of traditional Japanese houses
やかた「館」ー Mansion; Palace; Manor House. Nobleman/woman.
ガシャッ ー a cracking/slapping noise

Places
下関（市）「しものせき（し）」ー Shimonoseki
阿弥陀寺 「あみだじ」ー Amidaji Temple

Names
芳一「ほういち」ー Hōichi

Historic Events
壇ノ浦「だんのうら」ー Battle of Dannoura, the final battle of the Genpei War (1185)

Historic People
安徳天皇「あんとくてんのう」ー Emperor Antoku, 81st Japanese Emperor (12th Century)

Forgotten Meanings

才能「さいのう」ー Talent; Ability

Whooo, nice going!!

vonnutje · February 1, 2022, 8:07pm

Day 27: January 31

君の名は。page 186-189 (75%)

chikorita157 · February 1, 2022, 8:30pm

For the last few days, I played Pokemon Legends Arceus and picked up a bunch of vocabulary, probably some that probably don’t get used often outside of video games. But I spent like two hours finding Female Eevees at the beginning of the game just because.

To close off the month, I started reading Japanese stuff again after a few week hiatus. I managed to find 57 new words with Kanji and 11 Kana only words. I will be importing those into my SRS program and create a new list for the month of February.