Day 8:
日本語: I read some of 伯爵と妖精 30.
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!
| J | A | N | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 日 | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 |  |
 |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
|
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.
Today I read chapter 2 of 蓮住荘のさんかく volume 1.
It’s a very cute and easy manga, definitely nice to wind down with after a long day!
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”.
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 ;_; )
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
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!
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
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!
Day 10: January 10
ちゃお is a 少女 manga, so that’s exactly what was happening.
It may well be me missing something but it isn’t showing up as free for me on bookwalker 
Oh, I’m sorry! I think I got confused and mixed it up with something else. Apologies! 
haha no worries, while checking I spotted some other free stuff that looked interesting so I still managed to add to my ridiculous to read list 
Day 10: Read pages 143-148 of Kiki today. I feel like I get the most reading done in the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning 
. Not good for my sleep schedule lol
Today’s article was 快進撃が続いた町田啓太「最近よく『言霊ってあるんだな』と思うんです」 because my news aggregator recommended it to me last night and it looked easy. Also 言霊 (power of words) caught my eye since I recently finished watching the spooky TV series 言霊荘.
快進撃 - steady progression
大河ドラマ - type of long running NHK period drama
土方歳三 - Hijikata Toshizou, a historical figure, 1835-1869
流鏑馬 - horseback archery
並大抵 - ordinary; run of the mill
先駆け - leading the charge
Pretty easy breezy read, as expected for a 2-page promo interview. He seems like a nice guy, very positive.
Home post
ok so late up date. I’ve still been reading most of the days but I missed one day when I kinda just felt a lil sad.
After day 5 I kind of forgot to keep track of how many cards I was adding to my anki deck (I know that every time I read よつばと that I definitely added cards). I’ll try to keep a closer count on that as I progress as it feels kind of important to me.
I can see I’ve slowed down a little but hopefully once I get in to a better routine it’ll be a little bit easier
to do more.
I’ve just been catching up on the forums and realised we’re reading the same book! I didn’t put it into my home post because I consider this a separate challenge for myself - I’m trying to read the appropriate entry every day throughout the whole year, but then wanted to make sure I didn’t read just that so I’m still reading novels/manga on top for this challenge.
Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220110 
Tanuki Scroll X: 雪女 
Read today’s Hyakumonogatari [百物語], about two hunters in the snowy mountains encountering yuki-onna.
Today is 成人の日!
Coming of age day, were you celebrate becoming an adult… and then wish you could go back. The age of becoming an adult has been 20 in Japan (says here it’s been that way for the past 140 years), but it was changed to 18 in 2018, and fully coming into effect this April.
Not exactly sure why it’s being changed, and it seems I’m not the only one confused from a quick search. Further reading (in English I’m sorry, searching for it in Japanese killed my brain) states that a few laws are being changed so you can legally do more at 18, festival holders are in chaos, and kimono rentals/sellers are rolling in the profits.
☆ Learnings ☆
鉄砲「てっぽう」ー Gun
(I looked this one up further as it felt like the meaning would be more specific than just “gun”. It can be used to mean guns in general but seems that it connotates more to the Tanegashima (matchlock) type of guns; the olde rifle-like ones you see in all the samurai stuff.)
吹雪「ふぶき」ー Snow storm; Blizzard
チロチロ ー Flicker (light) - in this case the flickering of a fire.
フッ ー Huff / Puff (the noise of something disappearing; here it’s used as the fire is extinguished by the wind)
儘「まま」ー Condition / State (I don’t think the kanji is used much but I added it anyway)
針仕事「はりしごと」ー Needlework / Sewing
包む「つつむ」(to wrap up; to bundle)
(Though in this story it’s used to mean “to cover”, as in ‘the mountain is completely covered in snow’, I didn’t know it could be used like this, so new meaning too!)
覆う「おおう」(also means “to cover”)
January 10
君の名は , 8 pages.
The SRS is starting to take off. I haven’t had a proper SRS routine since I finished WK in March of last year. Currently doing around 20 new words a day, which was also my WaniKani pace, and it’s reaching about 70 words per day right now. I expect it to go up to around 150-200 a day like WK, which normally I have no problem with. But I hope I’m ready for it when it comes D: I can always just stop adding words if I feel overwhelmed.
I’ve also started listening to podcasts again, finally c: But I’m not using SRS at all for these. I do check some words that come up to see what they mean or how they’re written, but that’s about it. I think I’ll go with a much more relaxed route with listening, and not worry as much if I don’t understand something. But so far it’s been really good and enjoyable, and I generally don’t get overwhelmed since it’s not as straining as reading is sometimes. Also I just listen for as long as I feel like, some days it’s nothing, the other day was 2h 
. But this is only because I found one that is absolutely perfect for my level and I understand the majority of it. It wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
