February 26 update:
Today was super busy, so I only read a couple pages of きまぐれロボット. Tomorrow is going to be no different, so even though I hope to at least finish the story I started, I’m not sure if I’ll manage to.
21 Likes
Day 57: Today I read 15 pages of よつば＆！ and finished chapter 30- and oh my gosh the new character dksjfkjdskfjsdkf I loved this chapter a lot
18 Likes
You would be missed! But I think I know what you mean. (I’m usually just too lazy to make my own cards)
6 Likes
Thanks! But I won’t leave the forums regardless; you’re not getting rid of me that easy! 
16 Likes
Today I finished あさこ vol.3 60 pages and started reading the next volume right away 20 pages. Which means I finished 17 manga volumes this year.
If I continue like that I will soon be done reading all manga in my backlog. But I won’t stop reading but work my way through my book backlog next.
19 Likes
I 
What my writing process feels like rn😅Day 57: February 26th
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 13 min
Today’s color: 抹茶色 (まっちゃいろ) - the color of powdered matcha tea
Yum 
This color reminds me of matcha-flavored things, which are delicious.
Good words
- 受け継ぐ (うけつぐ) - to inherit; to succeed; to take over
- 言わずと知れた - as everyone knows; needless to point out
- 臼 (うす) - millstone; mortar
- 厳選 (げんせん) - careful selection; careful screening; hand-picking
- 精神世界 (せいしんせかい) - inner psychological world; mental world; spiritual world
まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 3 min
Today’s reading was about another traditional color (that I think I may have already seen in the other book lol) - 紅梅色
What else did I read?
猫のようなナニカ
Amount read: 29 pages
Time spent: 30 min
ナニカ is so soft and sweet sometimes :3
Like, this is what happens when Renya gets a cold
First ナニカ gets all snuggly
And then ナニカ literally becomes a pillow 
Good words
- 分け与える (わけあたえる) - to distribute; to hand out
- 拒否る (きょひる) - to refuse; to reject; to deny
- 気まぐれ (きまぐれ) - whim; caprice; whimsy; fickle; moody; uneven temper
- 思考力 (しこうりょく) - ability to think
- 前世 (ぜんせ) - one’s previous life; previous existence
- さり気ない (さりげない) - nonchalant; unconcerned; in a casual manner
- 予習 (よしゅう) - preparation for a lesson
- 徹夜明け (てつやあけ) - after staying up all night
- どころではない - not the time for; not the place for; far from; anything but; … is out of the question; … isn’t the word for it
- 薄着 (うすぎ) - being lightly dressed
- 衣替え (ころもがえ) - seasonal change of clothing; changing one’s dress for the season
- 小まめ (こまめ) - diligent; earnest; attentive to detail; brisk (working, moving); frequent (e.g. checking)
21 Likes
Not quite the same (as it’s definitely not a set phrase), but this reminded me that I came across what has to be for me the longest string of kanji in a sentence I could actually read:
女子高生身代金目的誘拐容疑事件概要
to break it up into words
女子高生・身代金・目的・誘拐・容疑・事件・概要
英語: Overview of the case of suspected kidnapping for ransom of a high school girl
Edit: And I came across 開口一番 literally just now while reading the same book, so thanks for that 
18 Likes
February 26 
Home Post
Played a bunch of 999 today! Things are really starting to happen and I have no idea what to believe anymore 
Very curious to see what’ll happen 
999!
Oh man so many things happened. It started out with a really sweet scene comforting 四葉 and an existential crisis about the Theseus’ ship paradox so classic 999 really.
I finished a puzzle section and 淳平 was upset about the lack of fanfare lmao
Later we went to investigate the E deck which in theory should have been flooded but turned out not to be so we encountered a lovely フグ:
I still definitely don’t trust 紫, but I do really like her Sometimes 淳平's sense of humor is also just exactly me:
I can just see myself in that situation like “idk, die probably” lmao me too dude
Things got pretty brutal… (pretty notable spoilers ahead) ニルス is (theoretically) dead? The descriptions were super rough as always and it was a generally emotional situation, but I’m definitely skeptical. It’s been made very clear that once the explosives go off the bodies are completely unrecognizable outside of any bits of clothing and things that may remain, and I feel like that’s a very intentional fact Honestly I’m still not convinced he isn’t working with ゼロ, plus the fact at least two others must have been involved for this to happen? Very suspicious indeed
Fun language thing! We were talking about whether ゼロ was responsible for what happened, and I had to decide whether I thought they were on the ship with us. I said no since I figured they had people on the inside, but 一宮 made a pretty compelling argument otherwise:
It makes a lot of sense! If they were talking about a ship they weren’t on, they’d have used その! It’s the sort of thing that seems super obvious in retrospect, but it’s pretty cool!
Basically I’m still really loving 999 and it’s really due to this challenge that I’m playing it all, so thanks for the push! Onward 
Some words
さかのぼる - to go upstream, to go back (in time), to trace back to
訝る - to wonder, to suspect
したり顔 - self-satisfied look
自嘲 - self-deprecation
藁にもすがる - to grasp at straws
猜疑心 - suspicion (of others)
ともあろう者が - of all people
Oooh that makes sense, I kinda got that vibe! Thank you 
22 Likes
Day 56:
日本語: I read some of ミステリークロック and some 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 and one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学.
22 Likes
Yesterday I finally found the time to play a good chunk more of Persona 4! It was really fun, and contained two instances where my Japanese knowledge was quite literally tested. The first - the persona 4 games will sometimes have your character or one of their friends get asked a question in class which you then have to answer. Yesterday’s question was about Keigo (specifically 謙譲語 
)… but I actually got it right!
Felt pretty good about that, however I fell back down to earth with the next quiz type thing, which I was completely clueless about and just had to randomly guess and it ended up being about plants that appear on Japanese money. Which yeah, I would never have got. But to be honest, I,'m really enjoying things like this about persona 4, it feels really kind of grounded in the character being a Japanese high school student in a way that I’ve not seen in many other games. Lots of fun cultural trivia and tidbits that you get to pick up while also battling monsters and solving a mystery!
24 Likes
Update February 27
- Finished それでも歩は寄せてくる chapter 51
-
Animal Crossing. ~2hr. After considering winding down on the game I decided rather to ditch my current play style to focus on constantly talking to characters and redecorating my island. I have trouble with give and receive verbs pretty often. Having many item exchanges as part of the core game-play these verbs are in constant use. Spoken in 8 or so personality types.
I had been ‘playing the game,’ and often skipping dialog boxes to get things I no longer need, faster. I don’t need anymore resources in the game. Now I can just redecorate and chat up the Animals.
23 Likes
February 21 ー February 23
Time for another brief update. My schedule has finally taken a big hit due to a little decline of my mental health lately. I was hoping to keep reading even if a short article everyday, but I was not in the mood at all and decided to take a rest altogether that I might prolong until the end of the challenge at this point; it’s undecided yet. But yeah, I was starting to feel guilty and very strained after reading very, very late at night before bed, for the sake of keeping the streak going, but it wasn’t sustainable and didn’t take long until it backfired, naturally. So that’s when I decided to drop the pressure and take a little break until I get a little better, so I can come back with more energy to keep learning 
.
In these two weeks I’ve accumulated a backlog of 400 SRS reviews, so that’s what I’ll hopefully be doing these next few days. I’m also thinking that I’ll probably start a video game soon, though I’m not sure which one yet, but I’m considering either Final Fantasy VII or Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I’ve played both already, but a long time ago, and never in Japanese other than a bit of BotW. We’ll see!
I think personally I’ve started to see these threads as a “study log” of sorts, a place where I meet up with other people reading their things and creating a small corner together. So it doesn’t bother me any more that I miss days towards the challenge, which is a big milestone for me considering the mentality I started with last year, when missing a day was highly demotivating. But at the same time, I still need to keep a healthy balance, because if I stop seeing it as something to work towards, I know that I will start feeling much more complacent and comfortable with missing days, and that won’t get me anywhere. Well, it would, but to a spot where I’m not content with my pace, like I was before the Winter challenge. Going too slow is highly demotivating for me, and I was really happy with my pace this time, reading for an hour each day. I felt it was achievable and I was learning a lot of vocabulary. So balance is key, I feel; achieving that sweet spot between taking care of yourself to not overexert and burn out, and push yourself where you can still work diligently and consistently. That balance fluctuates on a daily or weekly basis so it’s definitely hard for me to know where it’s at at all times.
So there’s that! I’ll be back soon, regardless of the challenge being over :3
Until then I’ll be lurking and slapping you all with my likes in the shadows.
28 Likes
The challenge is over soon anyway. So don’t feel bad about taking a brake. Take it slow for a month and come back for the next challenge with slightly adjusted mindset (like you seem to already have) and you will be doing fine.
13 Likes
So I read this article at the near beginning of the challenge (Jan 9): 「推しを嫌いになりたくない」と思った日のこと | DRESS [ドレス]
And I wrote:
This article kicked my butt. I spent close to an hour on it and there are still some vague parts for me. I’m going to bookmark it to read again at the end of this challenge to see if it’s any easier. Probably just not having to look up all those words will help a bit!
Tomorrow is actually the end of the challenge, but tomorrow is also a workday and I’d rather do something like this at a more leisurely pace.
Thoughts on re-reading:
There are still some sentences that confused me, for example:
どうか変わってほしい、と他者に対して思うのは愛ゆえのエゴだ。
I was lost on what 愛ゆえのエゴ was, wasn’t in my dictionary and seemed sorta philosophical which is definitely not my wheelhouse in Japanese. Ended up finding this which helped. I guess…having a ego or reluctance to part with something because of a love for it, possibly too much love. I guess.
I felt like I understood the majority of it this time around, but there were definitely a few sentences here and there (like the one above) where I felt I was missing some sort of context. I think culturally I may be missing something too, and that’s always a frustrating feeling as those gaps are the hardest to fill in.
21 Likes
Day 58!
Started Volume 4 of Yotsuba today, and read the first chapter. Super cute as always.
I have a rotten cold, and the next chapter looks longer and more text heavy than most Yotsuba chapters, so I’m not going to try to read that one today.
I’m saving it for tomorrow instead.
I’m quite sad that its going to be the last day of the challenge! I’ve had such a lot of fun
23 Likes
February 27 update:
Just as expected, I had very little time for reading again, so I read another page of the eighth story of きまぐれロボット. Due to the time constraints I also limited my lookups, so I feel like my understanding is a bit vague. I’m considering re-reading the whole story from the beginning tomorrow.
19 Likes
Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220227
Tanuki Scroll LVIII: 二月の桜 
Read today’s folktale from Ehime prefecture!
About an old man’s dying wish to see the sakura blossoms again, and they bloom early on a cold February day just for him.
☆ Learnings ☆
New Words
満開「まんかい」ー Full bloom (especially for cherry blossoms)
負んぶ「おんぶ」ー Carrying someone on your back; Piggyback
19 Likes
Any of you having life get in the way or otherwise getting busy are still doing great just for hanging in there; the dropout rate on this language is so high (for good reason). You can do it 
I’m tentatively experimenting with my idea of funneling Wanikani time to reading and Anki. It’s going to take a little bit of time for my Wanikani reviews to really significantly drop, but all the same, I pushed a little more today. I haven’t been timing myself, but I read ~6500 characters and ~580 lines!
I’m very glad I picked this route; the writing style is so comfortable now. I look up words, but I feel little to no strain at all with reading, and it’s only the occasional line phrased in way that throws me off. Those happen daily, but they’re never THAT bad. Definitely big progress since starting the challenge.
With no context at all, enjoy this image that looks like 紬 introducing herself as a superhero, or something.
I like how the VN has transitioned from “summer vacation is going to last eternally this is great” to “oh no summer vacation has an end and it’s approaching.” Pretty much sums up every vacation I had as a kid, haha. I never quite had these island adventures, but this game captures the spirit of that time really well.
Turns out there’s a verb for having a nightmare / making a noise during a nightmare: 魘される (うなされる). That’s neat.
On the other hand, I went back to Zoo 2 for a couple pages last night and still really struggled, ended up putting it down on a sentence that was totally losing me. This particular story is rough. I may have just been too tired, but it’s the ego check I expected it to be back when I started reading a book on the side 
25 Likes
Like always I was lazy and just read 60 pages あさこ vol. 4.
20 Likes