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.
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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.
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++ 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!
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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.
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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).
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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 ^^
23 Likes
February 21 
Home Post
Yay more than bare minimum day!! I’ve still been kind of busy so I didn’t do a whole lot; I read some 風つよ between classes, and then played some 999. (no pictures today rip, it was kinda spoiler-heavy today haha. also サンタ didn’t talk much which is probably a contributing factor 
) But it was pretty wild, 八代 is very much concerned for her well-being only and 一宮… I wasn’t prepared for that whole situation, I’m really not gonna get to know him much this playthrough huh also where’s ニルス??? I like him a lot and hope he’s okay but like also sketchy, as of now my theory is that either he or 紫 (or maybe both idk) is somehow working with ゼロ, but who knows 
I’m very much at the point where I have to make myself stop playing because I’m invested but also I have work in the morning It’s really cool having that with something in Japanese though!
Words of the day
寝そべる - to sprawl
音を上げる - to give up, to throw in the towel
横やり - interruption, interference
仲裁 - arbitration, mediation
則る - to conform to, to follow (rule)
もろ手を挙げて - wholeheartedly, unconditionally
なす術もない - having no choice, at a loss for what to do
死の床 - deathbed
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Day 6 - February 20
Yotsubato vol.2 pg 68-69
Day 7 - February 21
Yotsubato vol.2 pg 70-117
I read an entire chapter and then some! Chapter 11 was pretty easy, though. There was a lot I could guess from context… although it was mostly Yotsuba talking. I’d read more, but Jumbo talking to Fuuka just got too complicated lmao It’s definitely easier to read stuff focusing on the kids. Any time two characters older than 10 talk to each other, it’s a struggle lol
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Just looked up the article - they say that if you have hayfever and are infected with covid, you could spread covid in your sneezes so please wear a mask and use a hankerchief.
I have really bad tree pollen allergy so I’m going to be interested to see if wearing a mask helps this year.
I have both of these in my flashcards and confuse them CONSTANTLY so I’m hoping that yesterday’s reading might help me with this in the future!
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I continue to be bad at updating due to my habit of reading 鏡の孤城 last thing at night and staying up too late reading it until I am exhausted . I’m 71% through the first volume now, and since I got past the halfway point it’s felt a whole lot easier. There still tends to be a sentence or two each reading section that I have to read through a few times to get but mostly I will get there in the end and if not, the WK threads have proved useful as it’s often the same things others have already discussed. I think I’m actually only 3 weeks behind the bookclub now? At my current pace I should catch up soonish then will need to decide whether to follow at bookclub pace or just keep going
I also read chapter 6 of 魔女の宅急便. This book continues to be a slog to be honest. It was about the same page count (20ish) and time taken (hour and a half-2 hours) to read as my usual 鏡の孤城 readings but felt about five times longer.
From the WK threads it looks like it’s meant to pick up again for the last few chapters so I’ll maybe give the next chapter a chance and then make a decision but to be honest if I wasn’t reading this in a book club I would have already dropped it by now. So many people seem to love it but I think I might be too grumpy for it lol, many of the characters and decisions that are meant to be fun and whimsical I just find annoying and am like ‘but why are you doing that???’.
Last thing - the last part of my book order arrived today and is very pretty! It’s the ヴィオレット．エヴァ−ガ−デン light novel series (I just finished watching the Netflix series and movies with some friends and fell in love)
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Today’s article is http://daihitsu66.com/syuppan/文章術/「一箇所」と「一ヶ所」はどう違うのか
It started out talking about North Korea firing missiles (there’s no date on the blog oddly) and then segues randomly into what they consider the best way to write いっかしょ（一か所・一ヶ所・一箇所・一個所).
I asked my tutor about the blog I’ve read a few times (Polyglotism) and while she said it was normal, natural Japanese, she also couldn’t really make out the point of what they were trying to say. I think I’ll drop them as a reading option since “communicating better in Japanese” doesn’t seem like something I’ll improve by reading vague posts.
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Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220222 
Tanuki Scroll LIII: しじみの恩返し 
Read today’s folktale, from Fukui prefecture, about helping out some magical talking clams.
As well as today being ultimate twosday, it’s also 猫の日, because 22.2 = 二ゃん二ゃん！二ゃー！ 
☆ Learnings ☆
New Words
恩返し「おんがえし」ー Repayment of a favour/obligation/kindness/etc.
しじみ「蜆」ー Freshwater clam
小川「おがわ」ー Stream; Brook; Creek
枕元「まくらもと」ー Bedside; Next to your pillow
コロコロ ー Lightly rolling; Pleasant high-pitched sound; Changing frequency; Roly-Poly; Chirp chirp; Ribbit or croak of frogs; Paint roller… (basically it means everything).
ザル「笊」ー Traditional draining basket, but can be used to mean a colander or sieve.
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February 22
笑わない数学者
Progress: 67% → 72%
New kanji encounter the first kanji in both of the words:
竣工・しゅんこう・completion of construction
堆積・たいせき・accumulation, pile
I’m getting durtle withdrawals 
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Somehow once again I finished half a chapter of Monobeno.
After that I read 80 pages of The Town Where You Live.
Even though I read every day my reading skills don’t have improved that much.
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I just want to sleep now, good night 
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February 22 update:
Only managed to read a single page of きまぐれロボット today 
The story still looks very promising, but it’s using much more unfamiliar vocab than the previous stories in this book – which didn’t help in finishing it in the little time I had…
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You’re going to make me jealous! Haha.
It’s been a very productive day for reading! First of all, for Summer Pockets, I got through ~3700 characters and 305 lines. I’m reaching a point where, in the sections of the game I’ve chosen to explore this run, the words are repeating more and more, so that’s helping. There was a time where the protagonist was telling a joke (probably intentionally badly) that I more or less understood the words of but couldn’t make sense of what he was getting at… but otherwise, no big issues.
I now present, two characters smiling with their eyes closed, I guess:
What I do want to highlight is, it’s hard to get a read on how far I am and I don’t think I’m exactly locked into what I’m doing yet (if the VN is even structured that traditional way?), but often in these games as you go down a route, the rest of the world melts away and people who were vying for your attention seem to no longer exist, haha. So at least thus far, I’m enjoying that this one has more interaction between the cast.
I also read, at @pocketcat 's suggestion, 雪女 today! After realizing just how short it is, I gave the audiobook a few listens last night, then read through it today. It’s read at a slow, even pace, and I think I did decently for my standards when listening. What reading it today taught me was that, in this story’s case, the vast majority of comprehension slipups came simply from words I didn’t know, which were more numerous than I had thought before. Not so bad that I couldn’t look them up and understand pretty readily, but they were dotted throughout for sure. It’s an interesting little tale, which I knew the plot of already from the film Kwaidan (highly recommend by the way, 雪女 in that film is especially filmed just gorgeously), but I had a good time reading over it too!
None of the new words I found in Summer Pockets particularly amused me that much today, so I’ll go with 暴論 (ぼうろん), irrational line of argument. Quite specific.
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Day 52:
日本語: I read some of 機動強襲型令嬢アリシア物語１ and a lot 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, 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.
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Day 53!
Two chapters of よつばと！ today. Chapters 16 and 17.
I actually laughed out loud in Chapter 17 when 風香 turned around looking for よつば and then saw her leaving on the bus 
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Day 53: February 22nd
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 11 min
Today’s color: 黄柳 (きやなぎ) - another nice yellow
Named for the color of willow flowers. I did not, in fact, know that willow trees produced flowers, so I learned that today xD
Good words
- 同様 (どうよう) - same; similar; (just) like; equal
- 表地 (おもてじ) - outer material of a garment; shell of a jacket or coat; garment minus the lining
- 裏地 (うらじ) - lining
- 配置 (はいち) - arrangement (of resources); deployment; stationing; posting; disposition; configuration; layout
- しだれ柳 (しだれやなぎ) - weeping willow
- 模する (もする) - to imitate; to copy; to mock; to replace; to model after
- ほんわか - warm; snug; cozy; cosy; comfortable; pleasant; soft; fluffy; gentle
- 浮き彫り (うきぼり) - bringing to the fore; throwing something into relief
まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 13 min
Today’s reading was about 梅見 (うめみ) - plum blossom viewing! Apparently this was actually more popular than cherry blossom viewing at one time.
What else did I read?
Nothing…I am very tired today for some reason. Just wasn’t feeling it. I think the ridiculous weather fluctuations here are messing me up, they tend to do that. I hate weather
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