📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

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 :thinking:

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)

Pretty pictures


It has fold out colour illustrations at the start of the book and also very pretty black and white illustrations throughout :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
VideoCapture_20220222-124748

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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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:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220222 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll LIII: しじみの恩返し :shell:

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! :black_cat:

☆ 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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Summary post :bookmark:

February 22

笑わない数学者
Progress: 67% → 72%

New kanji encounter :eyes: 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 :durtle_hello: :durtle_the_explorer: :durtle_tomato:

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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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Home post :house:

Day 46:

I read a page of よつばと! again​:four_leaf_clover: :upside_down_face: :four_leaf_clover:

I just want to sleep now, good night :crescent_moon::sleeping::zzz:

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Summary post

February 22 update:
Only managed to read a single page of きまぐれロボット today :pensive: 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.


Summary post

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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Home post

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 :rofl:

(Home Post)

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Summary post

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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February 22 :snowflake: Home Post

Tis a sleepy twosday :joy: I had a good bit going on so not much reading time, but I played a super teensy amount of 999, so I got something in!

(I also listened to インフィニティ from SK8 earlier and was struck by how sappy it was so I read the lyrics which also kinda counts yeah? :joy: love the skateboardy boys)

I hoped to play more today but it’s cool, I’ll have time before class tomorrow so :+1:

Very few words

(こころ)にもない - (something) one does not really mean, insincere
苦渋(くじゅう) - bitterness, anguish

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Summary Post

Days 52 and 53: Yesterday we read aloud a chapter of ハイキュー!! and today I read 2 pages of よつば&!

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Home Post

Day 8 - February 22
Yotsubato vol.2 pg 118-123

今日少し読んだ。I can’t focus enough to read more ;u;

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Here we go again! Today I read an article about our dear プーチン. Yay. Lots of talk about ウクライナ, so I’m going to make an assumption and guess they are talking about how プーチン wants to invade ウクライナ, and the ensuing crisis. I learned a word way above my level! 大統領, president, and I’m proud to say I knew the first kanji. Those pesky presidents won’t be able to hide their identity from me from now on.

I also learned the kaji for country! Kuni, 国, which makes a lot of sense, as it’s the territory surrounding the King-, wait, why is it the kanji for ball???

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Read a few more pages of ズッコケ恐怖体験 today. They’re gearing up for a 肝試し きもだめし which basically seems to be a haunted house-style experience but in existing buildings, graveyard etc. Some older kids are meant to be providing the scares but I get the feeling they might not be the only ones!

I’ve also started reading some of the blogs on the https://kinarino.jp/ app, after an illustrator I like posted on Instagram that she had done some work for them. I like reading Japanese lifestyle magazines but they’re too heavy to carry around with me, so this is a good alternative for days when I’m commuting.

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:house:

Short update. Haven’t posted for a few days… been really busy and my workload’s increased a lot.
I missed another day yesterday, but today I read pages 165-167 of 銭天堂。

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Today’s article was about data driven match making: AI婚活は”ちょっと気の利いた占い?” テクノロジーは近所のお節介焼きになれるのか、開発者に聞いた. Much less interesting than it sounded, I should know better by now about these types of articles.
I did learn two useful words - if you tack 焼き onto the words お節介 and 世話 you get busybody (お節介焼き) and helpful person (世話焼き). Had no idea. Wonder if I can add it to other words. :thinking:

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Updating for yesterday.

I tried reading ヴァイオレット・エヴァ−ガ−デン out of curiousity as to how difficult it would be…and ended up taking almost an hour and looking up 25 words just on the first page :sweat_smile: That said, I feel like 1 page of this is probably more like 2 or more pages of something like 魔女の宅急便 because the font is tiny (some comparison pics below)! I still really enjoyed the bit that I read but I think I will leave reading it properly until I’m done with 鏡の孤城 and perhaps might also read the Free!! LN first as well as it definitely seems a bit easier. I’m impatient but also it’s nice to have a goal to work towards! :muscle:

Also read some more 鏡の孤城 for just half an hour of so to finish up the 八月 chapter. Continue to love this one :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Teeny fonts are teeny/comparisons

ヴァイオレット・エヴァ−ガ−デン


魔女の宅急便 for reference

order of font teenynees top to bottom 魔女の宅急便ー>ハイースピードー>ヴァイオレット・エヴァ−ガ−デン

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I did the thing again where I get curious and go on a whole tangent lmao

Basically from what I could find it seems like both of those are coming from same kind of base concept/saying.

For 世話焼(せわや)き: 世話を焼く〔世話が焼ける〕 | ルーツでなるほど慣用句辞典 | 情報・知識&オピニオン imidas - イミダス so basically someone who 世話(せわ)()くs is a 世話焼(せわや)き, which makes sense.

節介焼(せっかいや)き isn’t as clear-cut, but it seems like it’s just an extension of the same concept using a different word that already has the implication of butting in where you’re not wanted. I read a bit about it here: 「お節介を焼く」とは?意味【使い方や例文】 | Meaning-Book

So from that I don’t think it’s a productive suffix like that (at least not yet)? I couldn’t find anything like that expect for food :joy: I think it’s more just phrases getting shoved together into a single word.

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