📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

natarin · February 21, 2022, 4:22am

February 20 Home Post

Today was a bare minimum kind of day (except for the multiple random tangents I went on looking up words and things here? hey that’s reading too I guess, chaos mode)

Not much to say really, I played a super tiny bit of 999 and that’s really all. On to tomorrow!

Accidental deep dive

Soooo I tried reading more about it and it’s really unclear honestly? Most stuff in Japanese seems to refer to the card as ウォーティー, but while also talking about how it’s “The Watery” which is adjacent at best.

I found a couple things that at least mentioned both ウォーティ and ウォータリー but only super briefly. The first was this クロウカード(CCさくら) - アニヲタWiki(仮) - atwiki（アットウィキ） which says ファイヤリー can be pronounced ファイアリー to be more accurate, and also that the same thing happens with ウォーティ and it can also be read ウォータリー.

I also found カードキャプターさくら | Anipedia | Fandom which says that ウォータリー was originally the correct pronunciation, so honestly jury’s still out. My best guess is the pronunciation varies a bit with different people interpreting the names (classic katakana), especially since they’re being associated with kanji.

But yes to answer your question it should be like a quick sort of うお sound, basically approximating a w.

basilsauce · February 21, 2022, 5:21am

In case you didn’t know, verb stem + にくい is a grammar point, and you can use it with other verbs to mean “hard to ~~~”
There’s also the opposite: verb stem + やすい (easy to ~~~)

lucylavelle · February 21, 2022, 1:10pm

Day 52!

Chapter 15 of Yotsuba today, it was very cute.
Not got any time to read more today though, since its my wedding anniversary so we are going out for the day

(Home Post)

pocketcat · February 21, 2022, 2:04pm

Today’s article was 耳障りが悪い？ – 出版レッスン帳 which ended up being rather rambley. It started out talking about Murakami not winning literary prizes and then went into people making mistakes using words. The example one in the title 耳障りが悪い being one that is redundant and 耳障りがよい being one that makes no sense and is a result of 耳障り（みみざわり - s.t. unpleasant to listen to）sounding similar to 歯ざわり（はざわり - mouth feel）, 手触り（てざわり - feel [with hands]) and so on. Note the kanji difference - 触り vs 障り, both read as さわり, but with different meanings.

rikaiwisdom · February 21, 2022, 3:41pm

Summary Post

February 12 ー February 20
Tobira lessons 1 to 5.
An NHK article I´m too lazy to find about gear-shaped valentine’s day chocolate.

Okay I haven’t read today yet, but I keep postponing the update and it’s getting much harder to track so might as well .

So, I’m alive!! ;-; What a chaotic week. I haven’t actually been too busy, but I’ve been taking care of something these days that moved my usual reading times to the regular “eh I’ll read later”. And that meant, of course, that I read last moment before going to bed, as the great procrastinator in me will forever try to do. My reading amount and quality have taken a big hit, but I still forced myself to keep reading even if just a little bit.

So I mostly resumed Tobira. I haven’t worked on it for a long time and I know at this rate I probably would never have anyways. I just can’t bring myself to do the exercises; I know they’re really beneficial, but following a script bores me a lot. BUT, I have decided that I still want to go through all the texts because they introduce a lot of grammar, and I want to check that I know all the grammar in Tobira, which is apparently around N3-N2, so it should cover a fair bit.

Now, I didn’t rush the lessons or anything. I actually had already done lessons 1 to 4, but it had been such a long time that I wanted to go through them anyways, see if I comprehend everything. And to my surprise, my comprehension level must have risen, because I had the impression I now got everything from the texts as opposed to back then, when I still comprehended the vast majority of it, but was still just a tiny bit of work. That was nice to discover, I’m apparently doing something that is working over time. Since I’m only reading though, and also listening afterwards, it will probably still take very little time to go through one lesson, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I finish it very quickly.

I hope I can resume a proper schedule again very soon, if not today, and to keep posting like I used to ;-; . I think I will most likely keep going after the challenge is done, though, I don’t feel particularly exhausted because honestly I had a chance to chill a lot these days, so I’m back with energy again.

Zakarius · February 21, 2022, 4:38pm

Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220221

Tanuki Scroll LII: 上の字さま

Read today’s folktale, from Tokyo!

About a giant frog who loves まんじゅう and helps out a samurai lord to pay back for stealing all that delicious まんじゅう.

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

たらい「盥」ー Washbasin; Washbowl (That kanji is really cool, the 水 is contained!)
ひきがえる「蟇」ー Toad, especially the Japanese toad (Bufo Japonicus), this big frogge boi:

(The story, since it’s from Edo times, uses「かま」as the word for toad, but this is outdated, it also uses 「がまがえる」which is another way to say toad, there’s a lot of ways it seems.)

ポチャン ー Splash! Plop! (Onomatopoeia)
せめて ー At least; At most; Even just

Kanji Form
まんじゅう ー饅頭

@rikaiwisdom おかえり！

Thud · February 21, 2022, 6:03pm

Main Post

Finished reading through Kuma Miko vol 1 yesterday. It’s mostly a wholesome experience when it’s just Machi and Nuts (the bear). My problem is whenever her cousin Yoshio is involved (introduced in chapter 2) it kinda shifts into making Machi or other girls as uncomfortable as possible. I have really outgrown this type of “humor” in anime and manga. I’m not surprised, but it’s something I can never get used to. That said it’s possible they were still trying to figure out the identity of this manga while making it, something that early Yotsuba also struggles with.

Anyway I found to be surprisingly difficult at times and had pages were I had to look up nearly everything on a page. Guessing it’s because of the countryside life and the vocabulary that comes with it. That said I feel the next volume would probably be a lot easier to read and it’s something I would consider returning to later on when I read through more of my kindle library.

Volume 1

I added some pics above of volume 1 of Kuma Miko. I’ll be reading What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 1 from my kindle library. I haven’t tried a cooking manga before, so kinda excited

NihongoLearner19 · February 21, 2022, 6:12pm

Today I read ティアムーン帝国物語 3 chapter 1, which was fun! I also paid attention to my reading time and realized that since starting this challenge, my reading speed has gone from about 12.5 pages per hour to 18 pages per hour, so I’m feeling pretty accomplished! Consistency is key, it seems.

Sunstorm · February 21, 2022, 6:29pm

I’m joining late, but I’ve been reading this last week an article from News Web Easy every day, and I’ll try to keep it up. I never really get anything, but it doesn’t really matter, it’s fun.

Today, I read something something about pollen in Tokyo from the Japanese Cedar, and something something about Corona. I guess it’s that they mistake corona for this allergy, or vice-versa? And that they should keep their masks on, I believe.

Beyond_Sleepy · February 21, 2022, 7:39pm

Home post

Day 45:

I read one page of よつばと！ again. Would read more but there’s a party

Natsuha · February 21, 2022, 9:32pm

Once again I forgot to post the last few days. In that time I finished reading Yamada kun and the Seven Vol.3, started and read the whole first volume of Rental Girlfriend.
Rental Girlfriend is probably one of the funniest manga I ever read.

I read every day a little bit of the Monobeno visual novel. Some parts were a little harder the ones they talk about gods and shintoism but it’s still manageable. Somehow I already reached chapter five, so there is a good chance I will finish it this year. Someone asked for pictures?

Burnannator · February 21, 2022, 10:05pm

Today, I read about these things, Tarigerades. Very cute.

BadWeather · February 21, 2022, 10:05pm

Summary post

February 21 update:
Read just a couple pages of きまぐれロボット today. This story is promising to be quite fun, but I barely managed to squeeze in even this much reading, so the rest will have to wait until tomorrow

Daisoujou · February 21, 2022, 10:17pm

I love the addition of pictures! That looks like a pretty nice style.

Summary post

Today was fun! New best, ~4100 characters and ~340 lines. Improvement for sure. There was even a rather sweet moment with 紬, as the game briefly toed around getting more serious, touching on but quickly backing away from the protagonist’s and her background. On that note, I have a couple images that brought to mind something I like about Japanese

Pictures, collapsed for size

Basically, as soon as serious things came up, both parties brushed it off with いろいろあります. And I’ve noticed this happening elsewhere when listening to Japanese people talk! It seems like a very elegant way to be like “yeah, there’s a history, some things happened, but I don’t want to talk more specifically here and now.” You know how often I get pressed for details in English and I wish I could just go throw an 色々 at them? Haha.

While I had a great time, this VN despite having no outright sexual content, does kinda dip into fan service images, which is part of why I haven’t really been posting that many CGs. Would prefer if it didn’t but I can brush it off.

On the Zoo 2 front, at the halfway point I reached a new story and wow this is hard all of the sudden! What are all these words? When did he start structuring sentences like this? I’m struggling with comprehension and probably going to slow down a lot (also because Elden Ring is about to come out too, heh).

All the same, I’ve been excited about thinking about what’s next, so I have a question to pose. I’ve never been much of an audiobook person, but I especially know absolutely nothing about getting them in Japanese. This is partly from @pocketcat 's nice advice on working on my listening comprehension. Would anyone knowledgeable be willing to point me to where/how they get Japanese audiobooks? No clue what I’m looking to read next, but I’m about to need to weigh my options.

Today’s word of the day is 育む (はぐくむ), to raise/cultivate/nurture etc, entirely because I want to glare at it for that reading. It truly is every day that I add a few words with totally new (to me) readings to Anki.

sycamore · February 21, 2022, 10:28pm

I tend to get mine from audiobook.jp! They seem to have a good selection and also have an app that you can use to listen to them (though also you can just download the files) I was also able to just register with my UK details, didn’t need a fake Japanese address or anything like that. Of the things I have read/am reading, 鏡の孤城 & 世界から猫が消えたなら both have really good audiobooks, would definitely recommend.

Redglare · February 21, 2022, 10:55pm

Summary post

February 21

笑わない数学者
Progress: 66% → 67%

So busy these days, is like Autumn challenge all over again - tiny read challenge.

pocketcat · February 21, 2022, 11:01pm

++ To this recc. I love audiobook.jp - just getting the raws files is soooo convenient. I sometimes have to use Audible (some things are only on there) but I prefer not to although there are ways to convert those into plain files too…
I also strongly recc スマホを落としただけなのに (natively, audiobook.jp, honto, bookwalker) as an audiobook that is mostly faithful to the text, not boring (except the conversations about Facebook ), and very approachable from a grammar standpoint. It is kind of mindless fluff in the thriller genre, though, which I know you’ve said you’re not keen on
Or several Aozora stories have free youtube readings if you want to test out the method first and see if you even like it before committing to purchases. Ex: 人間椅子 - this one is probably something you’ll enjoy (short story), but it is challenging read due to old grammar + extensive vocab. 雪女 is much more approachable and a fun folktale (also short story), but I dunno if it’s actually representative of a 22 or not - I rated it as similar to 記憶の森の魔女 which is 25 and that sounds more realistic to me.

Also I’m so glad you’ve found something that helps your migraines! I meant to reply this morning, but morning-brain plum forgot!

Daisoujou · February 21, 2022, 11:18pm

Much appreciate the source and recommendations – 鏡の孤城 is something I’ve been a little curious about because the overall reaction to it on this site seemed to be so positive. Not familiar with the latter but I love that concept…

For real, anything but Facebook, haha. I was mostly talking about in movies where I get particularly picky! And a lot of that comes from the filming style and aesthetics that tend to come along on video more than the plots themselves. I think I’d be interested in the book, from the sound of it.

You know I already wanted to read Ranpo, and 人間椅子, back in English long before I started learning Japanese, but never got around to it. I’m not very confident in my reading that while I’m struggling a bit with part of Zoo at the moment, but it certainly tempts me. 雪女, while I haven’t directly read it, is a cool tale I’m familiar with from seeing it in the excellent film Kwaidan, so that seems to be a good idea as well…

Basically, two comments in and I have too many good options, assuming I can actually handle them, haha.

valkow · February 22, 2022, 12:03am

Home post

Day 51:

日本語: I read a lot of ミステリークロック. Really enjoying the setup for the title story (now that I’m getting a handle on everyone’s names).

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, and a bit of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事 (phew).

windupbird · February 22, 2022, 1:59am

Summary post

Day 52: February 21st

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 15 min
Today’s color: 菜の花色 (なのはないろ) - a bright pretty yellow

Named for the color of rapeseed flowers (菜の花).

Good words

密着 (みっちゃく) - relating closely (to); having relevance (to)
入り日 (いりひ) - setting sun; evening sun
朧月夜 (おぼろづきよ) - misty, moonlit night; (spring) night with a hazy moon
辺り一面 (あたりいちめん) - whole area; surrounding area; all around; everywhere; all over the place
凝縮 (ぎょうしゅく) - condensation (of ideas, emotions, etc.)
荏胡麻 (えごま) - wild sesame
田園風景 (でんえんふうけい) - rural landscape
包容力 (ほうようりょく) - tolerance; broad-mindedness

まいにち暦生活日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 4 min

Today’s reading was about the difference between 霞 (かすみ) and 霧 (きり), which I thought was interesting. Technically, 霧 is just water vapor, but 霞 also has dust mixed in. Both have specific seasonal associations: 霞 is for the spring, while 霧 is for the fall.

What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 13 pages
Time spent: 35 min

I finished off this manga today - it ended with a description of how fish and marine mammals swim differently, and then a little afterword. I love how much the author loves orcas lol, honestly it reminds me of how I was as a kid I had at least 3 stuffed orcas They’re just so cute D: I really enjoyed this manga a lot ^^ I love sea creatures and I learned some interesting fun facts from this. This is the type of book young me would have adored (and adult me still enjoys :3)

Good words

ぶっちゃけ - frankly; honestly speaking; to tell the truth; to put it bluntly
甲殻類 (こうかくるい) - crustacean
ずばり - decisively; decidedly; boldly; once and for all; unreservedly; frankly; precisely; exactly
縦向き (たてむき) - portrait orientation; vertical orientation
横向き (よこむき) - turning sideways; landscape orientation
着眼点 (ちゃくがんてん) - focus of one’s attention; what one is looking for; point of view; viewpoint
ネコザメ - bullhead shark
微動 (びどう) - slight movement; slight tremor; quiver
だに - even
ザラザラ - rough (touch, voice, etc.); coarse; gritty; sandy; granular
鮫肌 (さめはだ) - rough skin (like that of a shark)
楯鱗 (じゅんりん) - placoid scale
尖る (とがる) - to taper to a point; to become pointed; to become sharp
トンデモ - unthinkable; unexpected; outrageous; offensive
実寸 (じっすん) - actual size; exact size

Wow, I think I either…forgot? Or didn’t know/realize? I know I’ve seen the やすい ending, but にくい…did not register in my brain as the same type of thing somehow In any case, thanks for the link! I can always use more grammar stuff ^^