I don’t have anything to add but those pictures are amazing. The drawings are gorgeous.
No wonder you all fell for the Tanuki. What’s the name of the series again? You know… for science.
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Yeah and the pictures don’t even capture the entirety of its beauty. It’s called 雨と君と by 二階堂 幸.
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Thank you so much!
I think I’m going to need a bookmeter account for my future “want to read” list. Browsing this community is both a delight and a dangerous thing 
.
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I still have two more chapters of 山田くんと７人の魔女２ to read but the month is almost finished. I don’t want to strain myself reading so I guess I will be continuing the manga for the spring reading challenge. I have a pretty good system going alternating between one shounen and shoujo manga volume at a time. And I still have over a hundred free volumes of manga to read on my Bookwalker app so I can keep the challenge going for a while. I started the fall challenge late and didn’t even manage to read two volumes of manga before the next challenge but this time, I’ve read two whole volumes and most of the third one before the spring challenge starts next month. That’s progress!
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Looks like I’m slipping back into posting more or less daily, heh. Take that as a sign I’m doing a little better 
Let’s get the big one upfront: I finished my second Japanese book today! Zoo 2 is finished! 
I once again wrote a somewhat detailed review on Natively. TLDR, I loved some of the humor and concepts, but it’s overall weaker than Zoo 1 and the inconsistency in difficulty makes it a hard recommend for learning. I have so many things I’d like to do that I’m not even sure if I’m going to launch right into another book (I’ll be reading Summer Pockets as close to daily as possible regardless), but if I do… the path of least resistance would be to try Goth, what seems to be everyone’s favorite Otsuichi book. Then definitely finally reading someone else, if I do opt for one more by him, haha.
I also read Summer Pockets, but only about 2000 characters today from a combination of being more busy and shifting a little time over to finishing up Zoo 2. It’s been fun. Just 2 quick observations to share:
There are harder sentences in this VN, but again, after finding 限り kind of a difficult concept in the past, it made me happy to get through this sentence without much issue.
Also, a character brought up 名字ランキング, which I had to look up to see exactly what they meant by ranking names. Turns out, as I had suspected, it’s about the most common surnames. And going by this website, it seems Summer Pockets was indeed correct when it listed the top 4 most common across Japan, haha.
Feeling great about this again, can’t wait for the return of the challenge proper 
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New thread is hereeeee
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March 27 
Home Post
I kinda finished another route today? (you were just in time @Daisoujou, I got “to be continued”-ed basically right after where I was 
) So yeah I started another one and went a completely different direction, and it’s been fun! Honestly the hardest part was some of the puzzles, not the language
Woo VLR things
Yeah so the route I got cut off on wasn’t going super well, as it turns out ディオ was definitely not the only killer which I had a feeling was the case, but considering he very much got killed there’s absolutely more going on there so who knows! Plus his bangle being destroyed, and 四葉 and 天明寺 still MIA, rough all around, so we’ll see how I can maybe fix that in the future 
Schroedinger’s cat huh… I get the distinct feeling this will come up again haha. シグマ keeps accidentally saying にゃ which is funny and cute but I also don’t trust Zero Escape to not make this an angsty backstory thing somehow I also have a feeling this will end up being used with the like recovery pods which… yikes, that’s a prospect
I still have very little idea what’s actually going on big-picture, but I’ve had a decent track record with crackpot theories so I’ll throw one out there: so something’s clearly up with ファイ, she knows too much and she uses a lot of weird old words, and apparently she was also kidnapped on 12/25, when シグマ was, but I’m suspecting maybe not the same 12/25…? I think she might’ve been in like cryo-sleep or something for a while, idk any details obviously but that’s my current guess 
Hmm I’m thinking about K again too, I’m always suspicious with characters where their faces are specifically kept from us it was true with サンタ’s sister, I suspect it’ll be relevant again. Also whatever experiment ruined his whole childhood is definitely relevant, I’m sure I’ll find out more later on
Ahhh the spring challenge approaches!! I’ll have to get set up soon, very exciting 
Ahhh very exciting, congrats!! 
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Oh yeah, now that you mention it, the VLR puzzles are kind of hard sometimes. Pretty sure, as I recall, it’s a step up from 999. I know I had some difficulties.
Also, thanks!
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…I am in the exact same position but somehow still keep buying more things to read in Japanese 
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Hey, that’s really good to hear!
Just a minor heads-up that the Intermediate Book Club is starting 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん 👵🏼 (Intermediate Book Club) on Saturday just in case you (or anybody else, of course) are looking for a new book 
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I struggled with this so much on the first book I read and I used the obi strip that came with the book as a bookmark which really helped. I’m surprised how quickly I’ve got used to it now and my eye goes to the right column about 80% of the time now!
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Day 87!
Chapter 40 of Yotsuba today! I’ve been looking forward to reading this chapter since the last one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger
Only one chapter left in this volume. I was tempted to read it tonight, but its almost midnight already so I probably shouldn’t!
Ooh, thats a good idea!
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Yeah they’re definitely more elaborate overall, I was doing the cabin area and I’m way too stubborn to not go for the gold files but absolutely no combination that made sense to me was working I got there eventually though lmao
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March 28 Home Post
Woo more VLR! I… have more questions than ever Still going well though!
Oh man VLR
Hmm as you would expect, playing a different route gives you very different information But like are we on the moon?? Hello?? シグマ’s what, prediction? Memory? Who knows
It seems like everyone’s having memory issues, based on all the headaches, and maybe also these situations where one person remembers the other and not the other way around? 四葉 might just be keeping secrets, idk why 天明寺 would know her though
Also a funny - if concerning - クォーク and 天明寺 goof:
This went on for… a while concerning interaction all around, really.
I wanna play more and see what happens but alas, my brain said to go to sleep lmao, so tomorrow it is!
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Day 88!
I read chapter 41 of Yotsuba today, finishing off Volume 6
Today was a rough day at work, so a chapter of Yotsuba being adorable was a good way to de-stress a bit!
Her happy face at the bottom of page 181 after successfully using the drill to drill a hole was just perfect.
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March 29 Home Post
VLR’s still going strong! I didn’t play a whole lot today but that’s okay, all progress is progress 
Obligatory VLR things
I can’t believe it, ディオ’s really the whole circus
I mean looking at his clothes it seems obvious, but wild.
I’m still very suspicious of クォーク, and 天明寺 is doing nothing but making it worse lmao. He’s so sketchy about all of it?? Like he won’t tell how they know each other, he had a whole thing about how it’d be normal for クォーク to be in elementary school, implying he’s not?? Plus クォーク got really weird I think after talking about schroedinger’s cat or the virus or something, idk there’s definitely something up with him
It is now bedtime so I can play some more in the morning
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Day 89!
Started Volume 7 of Yotsuba today. Chapter 42 was a lovely nostalgic chapter for me as I remember making a string phone when I went to a friends house when I was little and using it to whisper messages to each other with her at the top of the stairs and me at the bottom just like this
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March 30 Home Post
I “finished” my third route today! It was another one where it’s like “to be continued” so we shall see how that goes but either way progress is being made! Things were wild to say the least
Oh man VLR
This playthrough got rough toward the end, oof some things happened and uh well:
Hearing this child screaming at the top of his lungs to kill him, to let him die… ouchies man. This whole virus thing is no joke huh
On a lighter note, シグマ was kind enough to read out some brilliant prose
But the ending though, ファイ!! Bro!! I said I learned after K betrayed me but clearly I didn’t, she played me so hard It’s really true, she never promised huh. But like what did I do to her? Clearly she remembers something that current シグマ does not but like oof. It’s probably related to these “premonitions” he’s been having, they’re probably more like memories but I’m not entirely sure how to reconcile that. We shall see
I did also get bored in between classes, and I guess I had mysteries and also @pocketcat’s 推し on the brain so I went on aozora bunko started messing with 怪人二十面相 I am truly a chaotic mess huh. But I figured out how to use yomichan with it so it’s actually really nice, I’m very intrigued by the bit I’ve read! Love a good mystery
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…there’s also a 朗読 playlist of it on YouTube which is delightfully creepy / campy if you like listening along to text. 
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Finished reading Avan vol 4. I think the neat part of it is that Hadler is very much like his part in the dai anime, so that makes his lines easier to read (because I know that voice). Tried to not look up that much words and I could understand most of it just fine. Been seeing some grammar pop up I’ve been recently learning so that was kinda nice. The new volume will be released sometime in July, so that will be a treat after the jlpt exam is over I’m sure.
With that being said, the winter challenge is over. I read something everyday for the past 90 days. For the coming days and months I’m actually not sure if I’ll keep it up, but I’m sure I’ll have new challenges to face. By overcoming these challenges it definitely gets easier to read the stuff at your level and gain the confidence to read a bit beyond my own level and expand upon that. Past me would be amazed at what I’m doing right now and maybe be satisfied enough to be able to read native material, of course it is not enough and there’s still much to be learned.
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