📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Yesterday I read all of this week’s assignment of 大聖堂 - this is the first time that I managed to read that amount in one day! :tada:
Yesterday and today I read the second episode of しあわせのパン - almost done with it. I also reached the 50% mark today. That means I might be able to finish the book around the weekend or slightly afterwards, which leaves me with enough time to watch the movie in the film festival.

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Day 45!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I read Chapter 14 of 極主夫道 today - it took me a little while since there was no vocab in the bookclub sheet yet and there isn’t much furigana! But I did it, and I filled in the vocab sheet too :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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It’s read ちきゅうおんだんか, right? And means global warming? I guess it made quite an impression on me the first time I read よつばと!1 that 6 years later, I can still remember it.

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Yupp, I’m not going to forget it any time either:p

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Home post

Day 44:

日本語: I read some of ミステリークロック and a bit of 機動強襲型令嬢アリシア物語1.

中国語

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean, one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学.

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Summary post

Day 45: February 14th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 10 min
Today’s color: 樺色 (かばいろ) - a reddish yellow

Named for the color of birch (樺) bark. It can also be written as 蒲色, because the color of birch bark is also the color of cattails. I guess the 樺色 writing was more popular in the Heian period.

Good words
  • 樺 (かば) - birch
  • 山桜 (やまざくら) - mountain cherry
  • 樺桜 (かばざくら) - any cherry tree with birch-like bark
  • 表記 (ひょうき) - expression in writing; written representation; notation; transcription; orthography
  • 蒲 (がま or かば) - common cattail (Typha latifolia); common bulrush; common reedmace
  • 同一視 (どういつし) - viewing and treating as one; regarding as the same; equating one thing with another; identification
  • のちに - later on; subsequently; by and by; after a while

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 6 min

Today’s reading was about バレンタインデー and the best part of it, the チョコ :gift_heart:
ハッピーバレンタインデー, 皆さん :heavy_heart_exclamation:

What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 6 pages
Time spent: 11 min

It’s MANATEE TIME :DDDD
And also dugong time~

Look at this smol manatee eating with its hands :pleading_face:

Some good words

Creatures:

  • カイギュウ - sirenian (any aquatic mammal of order Sirenia, incl. manatees, and dugongs); sea cow
  • マナティー - manatee
  • ジュゴン - dugong

Words:

  • 川岸 (かわぎし) - riverbank; riverside
  • 下向き (したむき) - pointing down; pointing downward​
  • 河川 (かせん) - rivers
  • 苔 (こけ) - moss
  • 長らく (ながらく) - long; (for a) long time
  • びっしり - closely (packed, lined up, etc.); tightly; densely
  • 胴回り (どうまわり) - waist; girth; measurement around waist
  • 圧巻 (あっかん) - highlight; best part; stunning; incredible; superb
  • 主な (おもな) - chief; main; principal; important​
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February 14 :snowflake: Home Post

Sleepy day :') I just read a few pages of ヴァニタスの手記(カルテ) to keep up the habit so not a whole lot to say there. I should have more time to read tomorrow (and hopefully be less tired :joy:) so onward and upward!

(Also happy valentine’s day everyone! :sparkling_heart: Don’t forget to go get some discounted candy tomorrow :wink:)

A few words

まどろっこしい - dull, sluggish
単刀直入(たんとうちょくにゅう) - straight to the point, frank
()かす - to let live
戯言(たわごと) - nonsense, drivel
ガラクタ - junk, trash
心外(しんがい) - regrettable, unthinkable

(wow no wonder my brain didn’t wanna do it today, this was from like five pages :joy: when I’m already tired?? no mercy, vanitas)

I also ran into this てみたはいいものの construction (the return of the infamous ものの) and I really did not have the mental capacity to fully grasp the hinative explanations and connect them to what was happening but I got the gist, I’ll probably go back to it another time lmao

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Grammar thoughts

It seems like it’s more or less “It would have been better if I didn’t”? Or close to ending the first clause with a “but” in English :joy: I actually haven’t seen this construction before but the example sentences make sense I think:

EDIT: I was looking at this HiNative btw, just incase you were referencing something else.

エアコンを買ったはいいものの、台湾では暖房機能はあまり使う機会はないかな。

would be like ~I bought an aircon, but in Taiwain I barely have the chance to use the heat setting

:heavy_check_mark:Tシャツを買ったのはいいものの
1回も着てない

~I bought this shirt but I haven’t even worn it once

:heavy_check_mark:ラーメン屋に行ったのはいものの
その日は開いていなかった。

~I went to the ramen shop but they weren’t even open that day

I didn’t see this word for such a long time and then suddenly it was everywhere. It was one of those words that I’m convinced I was just blanking out before.

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Update February 14

  • Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia. Introduction, first scenario, and first quiz.
  • 三星カラーズ Chapter 8.
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Home Post

Day 3 - February 14
Yotsubato vol.2 pg. 25-40

Reading it now, I feel kind of silly for not finishing chapter 8 earlier. Those last few pages were fairly easy. Chapter 9 however… Yotsuba’s doing some kind of murder mystery play pretend that’s a lot harder to understand lmao There’s already a number of jokes that I haven’t really gotten because I didn’t understand them until I’d studied them too long for them to be funny. I’ll probably fall back on more Shirokuma cafe tomorrow to give myself a break since I have a lot of studying planned.

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Oh I forgot about this book! You’ll have to tell me what you think of it. When I started Japanese I was like “ooh frequent onomatopoeia; that’s fun.” Flash forward to today and most cards that are tormenting me on Anki are onomatopoeia that just will not stick at all no matter what I do. Been hoping the long term fixes that (I say while they all slowly start auto-suspending…), but I might need a new approach, heh.

Oh yeah, that chapter’s cute, but it’s so much harder than the surroundings. I kinda glided through it on my first read back then tbh.

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You might like Onomappu’s onomatopoeia playlist? His videos have a sprinkling of English (and other languages) but are 95%+ in Japanese from what I remember.

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Yeah, thanks, this looks good! Just tried a video and this is totally within my comprehension level, so Japanese (almost) only is just a plus. Here’s hoping this helps some start to stick. :crossed_fingers:

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:house:

Read pages 147-151 of 銭天堂 today. Yesterday my Korean friend, who is also learning Japanese, recommended me a light novel on sale for Valentine’s Day (今夜、世界からこの恋が消えても). I bought it on Bookwalker as well as 君ノ声, a manga previously recommended to me by a Japanese friend.

I tried the first page of the manga, and… well, let’s say I barely have an idea of what’s happening, and keep having to use DeepL for unknown vocabulary, but hopefully if I keep going I’ll eventually understand more :laughing:

They both seem to be centred around romance, which usually isn’t my thing, but why not give them a try lol.

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Started reading a new volume of the それいけズッコケ三人組 series - the third one I’ve read. Honestly, it’s a bit of a relief after the last couple of books I’ve read. It feels very familiar and easy - ironically much easier than Doraemon where I was having to piece together a lot of what was happening from the pictures. There’s a lot of descriptive storytelling in these that makes them a pleasure to read.

That said, whereas previous volumes have given me every Japanese word I could possibly need to describe a tree, and every japanese word I could possibly need to describe a cave, this volume is set by the ocean so I think we can see where that’s going.

Favourite word I’ve learnt recently is ひんやり, which I’ve come across in several different contexts but came up again today to describe jumping into the sea. It means ‘feeling nice and cold’ which I’m not sure we have an equivalent word for in english? But as some who swims in the sea a lot, I’m glad to finally have a word to describe it.

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Today’s reading was 「鵜の真似する烏」の意味とは?読み方、類語や使い方、英語や対義語を紹介! | Meaning-Book - the last of my 鵜 readings. It basically means to forget your own talents, try to mimic someone’s elses’, and fail.
There were bonus ことわざ at the end of the article which I didn’t read, perhaps tomorrow. I’m short on time this morning.

Perhaps ‘crisp’ or ‘bracing’? They have slightly different nuances themselves, though. I also feel like I’d only ever say that “the air was crisp” and never water, but water can be bracing. :thinking:

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I think crisp definitely has a pleasant side to it, if you’re describing an autumnal day but I only ever use bracing as intentional irony - i.e. there’s a force 9 gale blowing and you come in and say ‘oooh it’s a bit bracing out there’.

I posted about ひんやり on instagram and a japanese friend replied “the other side of the pillow!”.

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:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220215 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XLVI: 幽霊の道案内 :pray:

Read today’s Hyakumonogatari, from Tokyo!

About a samurai who helps the spirit of a body he stumbles upon to find peace, and the spirit pays him back.

今日はお菓子の日!:chocolate_bar:
Today is treat day! It says that every 15th of the month is treat day, I will now have to partake in this sacred day of treating, for spiritual enlightenment purposes of course. But February 15th is the most important of all the treat days, that it’s: “いちばんじゅうよう …that’s what I’m talking about, discount choko day.

The 15th is the most important because this was the day of the festival dedicated to the お菓子の神様 - deity of the holy, tasty, snacking glory. Best deity. It gives some shrines that I will take dutiful notes of.

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

おぼれる「溺れる」ー To struggle in water; to go under the surface of water and be in danger; to nearly drown
羽織「はおり」ー A formal coat (the ones that you sometimes see people wear on top of kimono, especially in old samurai stuff)
お気の毒「おきのどく」ー A pity; I am sorry to… hear/say etc; my sympathies/condolences (when followed by に)
門構え「もんがまえ」ー In the style of a gate; (a house eg.) equipped with a gate
すうーっと ー Suddenly; to move unhindered (as in “to slip out (of a room eg.)”) - this one was kinda awkward to find a definite meaning for.
我が身「わがみ」ー Myself; Oneself
末永い「すえながい」ー Permanent; Everlasting

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Pillow was the first thing I thought of for ひんやり too. The word is all over the packaging for cooling products for summer, like pillows and mattress pads filled with cooling blue gel, or cooling spray in a can. It’s really used a lot in advertising, so I feel like it must be a nice sort of cool. I don’t know if we have such a word in English.

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Summary post

February 15 update:
While I kept postponing starting また、同じ夢を見ていた (apparently I’m not as keen to read it as I thought I was?..), a new batch of books arrived, and now I have quite a few interesting options to pick from. I’ve glanced through some, and decided to go with きまぐれロボット (thanks @basilsauce for the recommendation!). It’s a collection of short stories, seemingly with sci-fi elements, mostly 5-8 pages each. I read the first story today, and it was pretty good. It was about sleep-learning, inducing some 時かけ flashbacks :grin: The level is probably about the same as 時かけ or maybe even easier due to less academic-sounding terms (at least in the first story).


After reading your explanation, that was my first association as well :joy:

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