January 13 update:
Read 3 pages of 時をかける少女. This time it was very action-filled, and I had to look up more words than in the past few days, so I feel exhausted, and at the same time still a bit vague on the exact events (perhaps I should’ve looked up even more words…)
I’m thinking that maybe I should check out the book club’s discussion. I actually found out about both 時をかける少女 and よつばと！ by virtue of seeing them in the master book club thread, and I definitely picked them up with the intention to at least lurk the club threads, even if years after they read them. But somehow I never did 
This is very reassuring! I felt it would likely be that way, because my prior experience with languages, both foreign and native, was somewhat similar. But after plateauing with Japanese for a while, I had some doubts whether what I had been doing was effective, so thanks for confirming that it worked out for you! Now I feel somewhat relieved 
I’m almost done with Vol. 3 now and I’m so enjoying the character development, I’m going to be quite sad when it’s all over. I feel like we’re going to get a happy ending so it’s not going to be too bittersweet but part of me is still fearing a curveball at the end.
It’s a shorter chapter, only twelve pages, but like… that’s wild? That would’ve been exhausting to even think about like two weeks ago; it’s amazing to see how much has changed already! I’m definitely feeling the whole “the beginning of a book is the hardest part” thing; it’s still really hard for sure, but I have a much better feel for the book at this point and I think it’s really making a difference. The hardest part now is really some of the flowery language and weird speaking styles of some of the characters, but what else is new huh? 
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