We now have three in our mini よつばと! reading pals club! It’s a party! 
Read (or attempted) to read lots-o-Japanese today, and it’s slow going but lots of fun! Hoping to read more before bed tonight 
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I will change the profile picture in one or two weeks once people are used to the name change.
夏葉 of course, it’s from a visual novel.
Speaking of visual novels there is still a sale on the japanese Nintendo e-shop which has some visual novels in it, if people here are interested in visual novels.
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ドメスティックな彼女 volume 1
I read 15 pages it has lots of words or expressions I didn’t know, which I will put into my anki deck.
たった今 たったいま just now; a moment ago; this very minute
成り行き なりゆき development; outcome; result
馴れ初め なれそめ start of a romance; beginning of love
合意 ごうい consent; mutual understanding N1
何となく なんとなく for some reason or another; without knowing why N2
下種 げす low-life
井戸端会議 いどばたかいぎ idle gossip
チャラ男 チャラお shallow playboy; frivolous lad
給え たまえ please do N2 grammar point masu Stem + たまえ
金田一耕助ファイル２
Just one page I didn’t have time to read more of it.
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Ooh, I might take a look at that, thanks! Though I feel like at this stage I have to have text hooking so it’s hard to move off the PC.
I’ve been curious about trying this game, so I’ll definitely be watching for your thoughts on it!
Ace Attorney: An hour and 40 minutes today, almost finished the investigation phase, but not quite. A little over 2 days (at an average of ~90 minutes) to finish a segment like this isn’t so bad I think. Either way, I’m learning. There are a few sections dense with the sort of specialized words I wouldn’t know like oxygen deprivation, but overall, Ace Attorney is chill. Since I like to attach an image for fun, well, you just can’t do better than this line:
My favorite new word is definitely 月並み （つきなみ), which can mean “every month,” but has a secondary meaning of “trite; commonplace; conventional; hackneyed.” If Jisho can be trusted, this was " orig. used as an insult towards old-fashioned poets who would meet monthly to write poetry." I don’t have the knowledge needed to make any sense of that, but it’s amusing.
Zoo 1: I’ve read a few pages. Certain words are getting repeated so much that they’re drilling into my head, but as I mentioned before, it’s a story more loaded with descriptive words for environments and now actions, which is a little more challenging. I’m finding my book reading stamina really low, but I think I’m just tired these days. It’s so dark outside all day; winter is never fun. Hard to drag myself out of bed, and hard to feel like I’ve ever truly woken up after I do. Still, however much I manage, I’m still doing it.
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Sure playing on pc is more convenient. I just mentioned it here because people on this forum sometimes ask, where to buy visual novels.
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Day 9!
I finished reading the first volume of 極主夫道.
(Big thanks to @MaraVos for their help with the vocab sheet, it was a big help!)
I enjoyed this manga so much more than I expected to. I’m quite tempted to buy the next volume, but I know I should probably read some of the stuff I already have first 
I also did a little bit of reading with one of my tutors today. It was an article full of “Would you rather…” questions. Things like “Would you rather know when you are going to die, or how you are going to die?” and “Would you rather be given £100, or 100 lottery tickets?”
It contained a lot of new vocabulary, so he was helping me to read each question, and then we compared our answers. It was a lot of fun 
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This weekend I treated myself by playing a whole lot of ときめきメモリアル GS(Girls Side) 4! This game is so addictive and fun haha. And while it does seem less like serious work than a novel, it’s still a lot of reading! Lots of everyday vocab that is repeated fairly often too which is good for learning (repeated more often if you are like me and have replayed the first year about 4 times so far, because the stats system is deceptively tricky to get the hang of.) and also your character writes short articles in the game which you can then read. For anyone who doesn’t know the tokimeki series, it’s essentially a high school simulation game, where you are a high school student and you study and take part in school activities and date people. This one is the girls side series, so the MC is a girl and you are dating guys. This play through, I’m trying to win over the lil cute button below, who is adorable and has also encouraged me to do a lot of googling of kansai-ben to figure out what the hell he is saying sometimes lol (the screenshot below isn’t a good example of this but there’s been a few screens where it’s taken me some deciphering.)
But disaster (one more pic below)
His older brother has just been introduced who might be even more cute 
This game is evil! I get the feeling I will be doing many playthroughs to ‘collect them all’ 
some fun vocab/expressions from the weekends ときめきーing
月とスッポン ー two things that are superficially similar but completely different - literally ‘the moon and a turtle’
文武両道 (ぶんぶりりょうどう）- being accomplished both academically and in sports
おおきに ー (kansai ben) thanks a lot
Also found this site which I think I’ll be needing a lot: [http://www.kansaiben.com/] (http://www.kansaiben.com/)
Right! I should already be asleep, this game is too addictive! Happy reading everyone!
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I was thinking this when you mentioned it before, but that’s awesome that you’re playing Tokimeki games. I got curious about the series when Tim Rogers made this ridiculously lengthy video on it… didn’t come anywhere close to watching the whole thing because it’s 6 hours long, but what I did see intrigued me. Glad you’re enjoying it!
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Haha yes, that’s where I heard of it too! I have a friend that is slightly obsessed with Tim Rogers who put on the start of it when we were hanging out. I don’t think I got through the whole thing either but I remembered him saying that he thought that an early dragon quest game (I forget which) was best for beginners of Japanese and that the tokimeki memorial series was his pick for intermediate learners. So when I heard there was a new one coming out for switch I was excited to play it and it’s so far living up to being fun and also feeling very useful Japanese wise!
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Day 8:
日本語: I read some of 伯爵と妖精 30.
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.
Yesterday was a day of pushing on studying, so I spent more time looking at language textbooks than reading. Still, that work will make it easier for me to read later, so hooray.
And: first complete week done!
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Depending on the type of dye used, black can wash out with repeated washings or fade to a lighter colour. It could also be the type of fabric used to make the clothes that can’t hold the dye that was used for black. TMII am actually wearing underwear that has faded to a sort of brown-ish tinge right now.
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Today I read chapter 2 of 蓮住荘のさんかく volume 1.
Picture of 蓮住荘のさんかく
It’s a very cute and easy manga, definitely nice to wind down with after a long day!
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Today I read twenty-two pages of manga from the magazine, ちゃお. It went a lot faster because I’ve been practicing writing out Katakana.
無礼講------ぶれいこう------no-holds-barred party; free and easy gathering
告白------こくはく------professing one’s feelings (to someone one wants to go out with); declaration of love (This is the secondary meaning).
I found it interesting that the primary meaning of 告白 is “confession (to a crime, wrongdoing, etc.); admission”.
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While I’ve heard 告白 used this way (confess to a crime) I mostly hear 自首 in crime dramas (closer to like ‘give yourself up’) along with 白状 and 自白. So many words for confession!
(I know too many crime words. My tutor teases me about it ;_; )
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Day 9: January 9th
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 29 min
Today’s color: 山鳩色 (やまばといろ) - an elegant green
Named for the 山鳩, a very cute and very green birb
This color is for nobility only 
And apparently it changes with the light - in dim light, it looks kind of pale brown, but then when you step into the light - bam, green. I like colors like that
Some words I learned
- 禁色 (きんじき) - restrictions on the use of colors by ranks of Heian era courtiers
- のみ - only; nothing but - literary equiv. of だけ
- ものの - although; though; despite the fact that …
- 晒す (さらす) - to expose (to the sun, public, danger, etc.) this is how the definition is written in Jisho and it makes me chuckle for some reason
- 摑み (つかみ) - grip - I’m including this one because I couldn’t even look up the freaking kanji in Jisho using the radical search, like it literally just…wasn’t in there. Google translate app saving the day. Thank you for teaching me this completely obsolete kanji, book xD
まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 8 min
Today’s reading was about 寒中見舞い (かんちゅうみまい) - a winter greeting card you can send between January 8th and the first day of spring if a) received a New Year’s card (年賀状) while you were in mourning or b) you just forgot to send your 年賀状 at the appropriate time xD This card should a) apologize for the lack of 年賀状 and b) tell them to take care of their health during the cold season.
What else did I read?
囀る鳥は羽ばたかない Vol 1
Amount read: 17 pages
Time spent: 37 min
Finished chapter 2 - now I’m only one chapter (and a little) behind the book club. Thank goodness that club has a slower pace xD I’ll catch up eventually!
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It is also used a lot in high school manga in the sense of a love confession, that’s how I got to know the word xD
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I think vol. 2 and 3 are currently free to keep on BookWalker, if you’re interested in digital reading.
EDIT: Seems like I misremembered, sorry everybody!
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Day 10: January 10
- 君の名は。page 52-53
- 彼女、お借りします vol 1
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