Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220108 
1 week (+1 day) of reading!
I was too preoccupied with the healthy plants yesterday that I didn’t even notice it’s been a week already
Tanuki Scroll VIII: おいしいおかゆ 
& キツネの恩返し 
First is a world folk tale (a Grimm’s tale) about porridge! so much porridge
I think this one’s aimed at smaller kids than the usual stories on here since I found it rather easy. Which is a nice reminder that my reading has actually improved!
Small reflection that ended up not being so small
I enjoyed the Summer and Autumn challenges (a lot) but I’m enjoying this one even more as it feels my reading has improved quite a bit (big thanks to these reading challenges!! 
). It doesn’t take me as long anymore, so the stories are making a lot more sense, since I don’t have to keep checking and rechecking the same words all the time, and I’m catching on to some of the puns and nuances a bit more.
I did keep up with my reading after the Autumn challenge but didn’t read anything during the Christmas-New Year period and it feels like my Japanese ability has magical incubated itself in the downtime (that or it’s the magic power of the sake I had at new year). Well, my reading has improved at least, I’m still bombing the reviews I have left on WaniKani but I think that’s more due to the words left are ones I never come across and just, you know, those words that for some reason your brain refuses to learn because reasons.
It actually feels like I’m making headway on this whole Japanese thing.
ANYWAY back to the reading!
The second story was another short one, a folktale from Yamagata Prefecture, about a fox who tricks people but ends up getting caught and sees the errors of its way (after getting threated to become fox soup).
☆ Learnings ☆
New Words
騙す「だます」ー To deceive, to trick. (I feel I should have seen this by now with all the fox stories I’ve read, but if I have I really don’t remember it)
村はずれ「むらはずれ」ー Outskirts of a village / the edge of town
Names
次助「じすけ」
善作「ぜんさく」