📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220216 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XLVII: お菓子の神様・神社 :tangerine:

Today I read further on お菓子の神様, the god of treats. This was pretty hard reading.

But it is said that Tajimamori [田道間守] travelled to the fabled lands Tokoyo no Kuni [常世の国] to acquire a “Timeless fruit” (or non-transpiring fruit) which turns out to be the Tachibana Orange. Fruit used to be called かし in old Japan so that’s were お菓子 comes from, and the Tachibana Oranges were considered to be so good that Tajimamori became known as the God of Treats.

It explains it better than I have but I’m having trouble putting thoughts into words now after all that heavy reading.

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

本殿「ほんでん」ー Main shrine; Inner sanctuary
流造「ながれづくり」ー A Shinto Shrine architectural style
商売繁盛「しょうばいはんじょう」ー Thriving/prosperous business; rush of business
市街地「しがいち」ー Town area; Urban area; Built-up area
「たちばな」ー Tachibana orange

Word Extension?
世紀後半「せいきこうばん」ー I know both these words but putting them together is how to say “the second/later half of the #th Century”, and 世紀前半 「せいきぜんはん」 is first half.

Names
田道間守「たじまもり/たぢまもり」ー Tajimamori, a figure of legend of the Kofun period (300-538 AD), the figure who is now worshipped as お菓子の神様.

The kanji of his name is also seen as: 「多遅摩毛理」「 多遅麻毛理」

推古天皇「すいこてんのう」ー Empress Suiko, reign: 593-628AD.
垂仁天皇「すいにんてんのう」ー Emperor Suinin, one of the “Legendary Emperors” supposed reign: 29BC - 70AD. (Also supposedly lived for 139 years).

Eras
室町時代「むろまちじだい」ー Muromachi Period, 1336-1573.

Historic Things
古事記「こじき」ー The Kojiki - Japan’s oldest historical record
日本書紀「にほんしょき」ー Chronicles of Japan, Japan’s 2nd oldest historical record (though much more detailed than Kojiki and thus more important for historical studies).
非時香菓 「ときじくのかぐのこのみ」ー a magical fruit of sorts from the magical land of 常世の国 「とこよのくに」、which is a place found beyond the sea in Japanese legend, like an immortal land. The fruit can be seen as a magical elixir of life or sorts that is seen in numerous religions and tales (like the Golden Apple).

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Summary post

Thanks gang, today has been better. I did actually make time to read more like my normal amount later yesterday anyway, heh. Just one of those days. Here’s hoping it means I’m about to see noticeable improvements as I tend to after worse times.

On that note – ~3800 characters, ~320 lines. The most I’ve read of Summer Pockets in a day since figuring out that I could track that, at least. Today was quite easy!

I’ve been found out :eyes:. All that time spent picking 紬 (つむぎ) over and over hasn’t gone unnoticed. Turns out メロメロ is an onomatopoeia for being madly in love. Calling it out and using one of THOSE words all at once; she’s really got me (I could be wrong but, in all seriousness, this feels like one that’ll stick more easily, heh).

That’s probably the most interesting new word, but in off-time I’ve also been visiting the shrine a lot, where the protagonist muses on shrine procedures and the state of the grounds and I learn a lot of Shinto related words. Not sure how quickly I’ll be able to put them into use, but I find the topic very interesting so I’m happy to learn them. Today’s simple one is 神主 (かんぬし), Shinto priest.

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Summary post :bookmark:

February 16

笑わない数学者
Progress: 52% → 58%

Finished chapter 6! :3 I was gonna go sleep after a tiny read, but then action happened and I had to read the whole chapter :eyes:

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Summary post

February 16 update:
Had very little time to read today, so only managed to read a couple pages of きまぐれロボット. So far I really like the pacing – since these stories are so short, they drag you right in. I had to force myself to stop :sweat_smile:

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I admire your self-control! As you can see, I have none of it :joy:

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Day 47!

Chapters 11 and 12 of Yotsuba today. Chapter 11 was hilarious, her just giving up and taking a nap while leaving her dad covered in marker and mayonnaise really tickled me :joy:.
I’m really feeling some progress since starting this challenge, particularly in my reading stamina. At the start of this year I wouldn’t have believed that in 6 weeks I would be able to comfortably read 2 chapters of a manga in one sitting.

(Home Post)

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Home post

Day 45:

日本語: I read some of ミステリークロック.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of ハイキュー.

中国語

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

Day 46:

日本語: I read a fair amount of ミステリークロック and a lot of a book in English.

中国語

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

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Home Post

I decided to start reading 黒魔女さんが通る volume 4. And it’s been sooo much more relaxed than reading Death Note. (Uff) There are still some pitfalls here and there though. There is this one side character that’s notoriously bad at studying and keeps messing up words and sayings. I sometimes try to look stuff up she says and get confused… but it’s usually a better idea to read on because many times our main character is just as confused as me and keeps correcting her in her head :joy: This time around we got a letter from said character that used all the wrong but at least partially similar looking kanji. I guess this time I relate heavily :sheep: Maybe I’ll post it here tomorrow as a fun little riddle :joy:

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Summary Post

Day 47: Today I read 9 pages of よつば&!

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Home post :house:

Day 40:

I read one page of よつばと! today :four_leaf_clover::relieved::four_leaf_clover:

よつば was raging against 地球温暖化

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It was an exciting day today because I received the entire Dragon Ball series from Japan. It’s one of my favourite anime next to Gintama and Toriko. I read the first fourteen pages. A few of the new words I learnt were:

山奥(やまおく) deep in the mountains

億割(おくわり) hatchet; axe

じろじろ()ろ to stare at

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General update:
Sorry all for the radio silence, my wrists are still in outright rebellion so I have to minimize computer & phone usage.
This thread grows so fast I can’t even read all your posts sorry T.T

I’m still reading every day, although some days it is very little - usually a page but for really hard pages I might split a page over 2 days.

Reading both Demon Slayer (volume 3 still) and Death Note (volume 1 with the Beginner BC).
I have a bunch of Demon Slayer fragments that I’m not confident on or just outright don’t get, so at some point I need to form those into a question I can ask for help on.

I’m finding it super weird that this challenge is in the final quarter =O
I’ve now kept up this reading streak for 169 days, which was unexpected and wouldn’t have happened without the earlier versions of this challenge, but OTOH I am feeling exhausted - although reading probably isn’t a huge part of that - some days it takes a lot of oomph to make sure I get my reading done.

Some specific replies:

On one hand, I’m sorry.
On the other hand, phewf glad it wasn’t just me.

I went in expecting this book to be pretty easy, but even from the start it put up something of a fight.
I find Demon Slayer & even Death note easier to read, but I have a lot of context from the Death note anime and the pictures so take that with a handful of salt.

That’s really impressive! 4 pages in an hour is really solid!

I technically live in Australia but my sleep schedule is … just inconsistently messed up >.>
My university friends used to joke that I operated on GMT+Chris…

+1 same, I was quite unsure but when I squint the picture seemed to show Australia in the bottom right and seemed the closest.

Thanks again for the amazing work on the 夜カフェ vocab doc!
Sorry if I missed it, and hope it is okay to ask, how old is Tan-chan?

NZ representation!
Maui’s tale(s) is/are great fun, sounds like you got pretty good coverage, that’s awesome.

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Summary post

Day 47: February 16th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 11 min
Today’s color: 今様色 (いまよういろ) - a red plum color, or a lighter peachy-pink, depending on who you ask

This is another case where the color in the book is vastly different from the color that comes up when you google this word online, but this time the book explains it/acknowledges it, at least xD Whoever named this color was obviously not considering the idea of changing fashion trends when they did so - the name implies it’s modern and trendy, but it was actually “今様” in the Heian period, which is, uh…maybe not so modern and trendy anymore lol.

Good words
  • 紅花 (べにばな) - safflower
  • 今様 (いまよう) - modern style; contemporary style; current fashion
  • 今風 (いまふう) - modern; current; contemporary; trendy; latest; up-to-date
  • 流行り (はやり) - fashion; fad; vogue; craze
  • 高位 (こうい) - dignity; eminent; high ranking
  • 階級 (かいきゅう) - (social) class
  • 相応 (そうおう) - suitable; appropriate; befitting; becoming; adequate; reasonable; proper
  • 華やぐ (はなやぐ) - to become brilliant; to become cheerful

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 7 min

Today’s reading was about 芥子菜 (からしな) - Indian mustard (Brassica juncea); Chinese mustard; leaf mustard; brown mustard; mustard greens.

What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 5 pages
Time spent: 40 min

Gosh, this felt hard today for some reason :sweat_smile: It was mostly a little anecdote of the author going to Seaworld in Kamogawa to talk to some of the people there for research, but it was just hard to figure out what was going on/who exactly the author was meeting with, and there was a lot of handwritten kanji I couldn’t read that well…it’s like the author’s handwriting randomly got worse for this chapter lol, I didn’t have as much trouble with it in earlier chapters.

Anyway, the next chapter is on sharks :shark::shark::shark: And I thought the opening panels were really cute:

Some good words
  • そっちのけ - neglecting; ignoring; paying no attention to
  • 色々あって (いろいろあって) - what with this and that; for a number of reasons
  • 気が引ける (きがひける) - to feel awkward; to feel ashamed; to feel inferior; to feel shy (about doing something)
  • 似顔絵 (にがおえ) - portrait; likeness; sketch (of a face)
  • 館長 (かんちょう) - superintendent; director; curator; chief librarian
  • 事務的 (じむてき) - administrative; businesslike; practical; impersonal; perfunctory; robot-like
  • 広報 (こうほう) - public relations; PR; publicity; public information
  • オオメジロザメ - bull shark
  • ホホジロザメ - great white shark
  • イタチザメ - tiger shark
  • 気性 (きしょう) - disposition; temperament; temper; nature
  • 要因 (よういん) - main cause; primary factor
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February 16 :snowflake: Home Post

Alright, definitely better today :joy: I mostly played 999 which was super fun as always, and I read a few pages of (かぜ)つよ and oh man are they going through it lmao. ハイジ said no mercy :muscle:

A bit of 999

I was definitely warned about 999 going off into scientific territory and it’s sure happening :joy: It’s cool though! Not as much of a nightmare as I might have thought, actually; since it’s already supposed to be an explanation even for people who are fluent, it kinda guides you through it I suppose?

Anyway, (むらさき) has been talking about dry ice and freezing and melting points and such while we’re in a freezer, サンタ’s gonna freeze to death in his tank top dude and it’s pretty cool seeing the words for all these things! I like 固体(こたい), 液体(えきたい), and 気体(きたい), pretty intuitive. Of course, in typical 999 fashion, the sciencey stuff is tinged with conspiracy theory-type things, so that’s also a fun time.

八代(やしろ) also managed to sum up 999 pretty well:

All in all a good reading day! It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you’re not super tired :joy:

~Words~

(あさ)っぱらから - very early in the morning, at this ungodly hour
()()てる - to drive on, to urge forward (cattle)
つかず(はな)れず - maintaining a reasonable distance
率先(そっせん) - taking the initiative
軽快(けいかい) - nimble, springy, light-hearted, buoyant
融点(ゆうてん) - melting point
架空(かくう) - fictitious, fanciful
オヤジギャグ - dad joke (amazing)
あたかも - as if, as though

Speaking of what you can accomplish when your brain works, I circled back around to this and it makes way more sense, thank you!

e x p o s e d
(She really said “oh you’ve been struggling with onomatopoeias? let me absolutely shred you real quick”)

Ooh that sounds fun :eyes: very curious if I’d understand it even a little bit lmao, the real test

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Update February 16

  • Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia - Scenario 3 - A Man’s Place. + Section Quiz.
    The English translations continue to be very ‘colorful.’ The quiz contained another furigana typo, the third. あががってきています Makes my brain bleed.
  • Animal Crossing ~45min.
  • Mr. Driller

I really need to read Death Note tomorrow but Volumes 2 and 3 of よつばと! are ready for me to pick up at Kinokuniya. So many people reading chapters beyond my collection. Its been hard not to catch spoilers.

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I wanted to participate in one of them them in the past but I would need to get up super early so I decided it wasn’t worth it.

About the Onomatopoeic discussion I see them pretty often in manga and also the Monobeno visual novel is full of them. I don’t really think I need to study them that much. Nevertheless I still put them into SRS.

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Yeah I appreciate everyone’s ideas, but I’m with you, can’t bring myself to not SRS a lot of them, personally. I’m not concerned about the manga sound effect type of situations right now… sure, everything in a panel was put there for a reason, but with visuals you kinda get it anyway.

Zoo has had virtually none, but I feel like that’s a result of Otsuichi being very straightforward and plain in his writing. Summer Pockets is absolutely loaded though; I come across multiple new ones most days. I’d say my experience with just understanding it in context are kinda 50-50. There are tons of times where they look almost repetitive and basically just more closely describe something, like telling you something is wet while using the wetness onomatopoeia right with it.

But too often I get, like, “負けるときは、ホント、アッという間にぽっくりいきますからね!” where ぽっくり is the sort of sudden snapping type meaning (or amusingly stretching the dying one, what do I know) and it just carries the meaning of this whole sentence. With context I can infer that… something bad would happen if they lose, but that’s about it. Other types they’re alone doing the heavy lifting of being descriptive, some like “とぼとぼとカブを押して歩いていると、…” I know they’re walking while pushing the thing, but so much is lost if とぼとぼ does nothing for you. And to be fair, at this stage, applying some vague approximation to what it means isn’t the same vivid image it’s meant to conjure for a native… but it’s step one to there I hope!

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15th February
Monobeno
I didn’t have that much time so just a few lines.

A Town Where You Live Vol.1
For some reason I enjoy slice of life manga. The characters in it use I little bit of kansei ben.

16th February
Started reading the next Yamada kun and the Seven Witches volume 70 pages. I already like it much more than the second volume. Like always all characters in it are super fun.

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For those of you who feel ready to tackle a not-too-difficult book at a moderate pace, you might want to have a look at the Intermediate Book Club who is currently voting for their next pick:

The club will start to read this pick from April 2nd, which sounds about perfect for the (hopefully upcoming) spring challenge :smile:

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Home Post

As promised the little mixed up kanji from 黒魔女さんが通る!! (volume 4)
We got a letter handed from our classmate who is notoriously bad at kanji. So she uh “simplified” or mixed up a few things, when she tried to copy this chain letter.

これ は 不幸 の 手紙 と いっ て 矢口 さん から 木 た 死 雨 です。 三日 以内 に、 心 で 書き なおし て、 三十 三人 に 出して ください。 出さ ない と 軍 が どんどん 黒く なり ます。 出さ なかっ た ため に、 お父さん の 会社 が 父さん し て しまっ た 人 も い ます。 これ は 木 ヨ の こと です。

Our MC is utterly confused as well!

まったく 意味 不明……。 死 雨? 心 で 書き なおす? 軍 が どんどん 黒く なる? お父さん の 会社 が 父さん し た? だいたい 矢口 さん って、 だれ?

Can you guess what it was supposed to say?
Solution:

これ は 棒 の 手紙 と いっ て 知ら ない 人 から 来 た 死霊 です。 三日 以内 に、 必ず 書き なおし て、 三十 三人 に 出して ください。 出さ ない と 運 が どんどん 悪く なり ます。 出さ なかっ た ため に、 お父さん の 会社 が 倒産 し て しまっ た 人 も い ます。 これ は 本当 の こと です。

As チョコ explains:

ありゃ あ。 「矢口」 じゃ なく て「 知」 じゃ ない。 「来」 は「 木」、「 死 雨」 は「 死霊」、「 心 で」 は「 必ず」、「 軍 が どんどん 黒く」 は「 運 が どんどん 悪く」。

I’d say ありゃ あ indeed!

The 棒 の 手紙 thing is the most fun actually. People changed 不幸 to 棒 more or less intentionally (even wikipedia has a short paragraph on it), but our well meaning friend brought us back the misfortune!

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