📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Yesterday I read this week’s Death Note assignment as well as the first half of this week’s 笑わない数学者.
Today I finished Demon Slayer 3 and continued 笑わない数学者 (I hope I can finish this week’s reading later today).

A quick review of Demon Slayer 3

I found this volume to be very weak compared to the first two. It mainly consisted of fighting (I guess that’s what you get when reading a shounen manga :woman_shrugging:), horrible demons and shaking my head about this idiot demon slayer called Zenitsu that Tanjirou picked up along the way. That was a bit disappointing. I hope the next volume will be more balanced.

What almost made me laugh out loud was this:

2022-01-23 22.26.08

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Home post

Day 16:

I read :four_leaf_clover::four_leaf_clover::four_leaf_clover: (3) pages of よつばと! today:)

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Home post

Day 22:

日本語: I read a fair amount of 伯爵と妖精 31.

中国語

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean, one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学, and some of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事.

Read-aloud: We read about a page of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事. First ever Mandarin read-aloud!! It was a mess but a start.

And another week, success!

J A N
:books:
:clinking_glasses:
:woman_cartwheeling:
:roller_skate:
:parachute:
:green_circle:
:yellow_circle:
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more demon slayer

I felt the same way about volume 3. I can’t really remember if it goes into volume 4 or not but once this little mini arc is done (so the demon in the old house) the next one is much better from what I recall. And…ummm…Zenitsu kind of gradually gets more tolerable…kind of? Like I still wouldn’t say that he’s anywhere close to my favourite character but he kind of tones down a bit after his initial introduction. I’m not much ahead of you (just a few volumes) so he may redeem himself more in the future!

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Some more demon slayer

Thanks for your comment and for the heads up! I was actually hoping that it doesn’t stay in this mode forever…

Regarding Zenitsu, I guess he’s a very valid shounen manga character, little whingy boy who gets his act together and grows up, I guess :woman_shrugging:
Also Tanjirou probably needs a character like him to counterbalance his skill and wit and everything.

Oh also I forgot to ask, @chrisosaurus are you still interested in my vocab list from volume 3?

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Home Post

Only one chapter of 時をかける少女 today. I think I need to count chapters again, because I’m somewhat unsure :joy: (Should be 15 if my previous count was right?) Kazuko went to school and everyone was confused as she suddenly had disappeared. Aaand she’s once again at the place and time where it all started. And there we conveniently stopped. ah!! I also found Kazuo a bit suspicious this chapter “夢みるような目つきのまま” and all that, but maybe I’m just thinking too much.

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So I finished 山田くんと7人の魔女 1 today. This challenge has been the best tool for getting practice in Japanese reading for me so far. I’ve always had the goal to read in Japanese but I’ve never actually sat down and followed through. Now I am glad that I finally started. I am recognising more and more kanji and vocabulary in ‘the wild’ and not simply relying on my memory to follow the plot. However, I will still be reading manga that I’ve read in English for the next while. I am not confident enough to branch out as yet. Since I’ve just finished a shounen manga, next in the pattern is a shoujo manga. So tomorrow, I will try out 会長はメード様 1 again and see if I can get past the wordy dialogue. If not, then I will have to try another shoujo manga. I have many on Bookwalker to try out.

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Summary post

Day 23: January 23rd

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 15 min
Today’s color: 東雲色 (しののめいろ) - pink with a yellow tinge; color of daybreak​.

I love the kanji of this color, they’re so descriptive - 東雲, eastern clouds :sunrise_over_mountains: Apparently 東雲 is an archaic word for daybreak/dawn. Why did we stop using this as a mainstream word for dawn, though, that’s what I wanna know

Some other good words
  • 空模様 (そらもよう) - look of the sky; weather
  • 窺う (うかがう) - to guess; to infer; to gather; to surmise​ (usually used passively)
  • 霞 (かすみ) - haze (esp. in spring); mist

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 10 min

Today’s reading talked about 春菊 (しゅんぎく) - edible chrysanthemum/crown daisy/garland chrysanthemum. It’s supposed to be good for your respiratory system and gastrointestinal tract, as well as your autonomic nervous system.

What else did I read?
お前、タヌキにならねーか? Vol 1
Amount read: 10 pages
Time spent: 27 min

Hm, now we have chapter 4 centered on a completely different person :thinking: I love this chapter so much though, it’s so sweet and cute <3 Today’s tanuki candidate (this is what I’m calling them now) is basically a host club guy who’s a big a-hole to this little boy (because the boy accidentally bumped into him and got ice cream on him) - as a result, he gets turned into the most angry-looking tanuki ever xD

But then (spoilers)

While he’s wandering the streets, cold and alone in the rain, the little kid happens to find him again and gives him the sweetest lil hug ever :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Of course, he then realizes that he was being a big a-hole and he turns back into a person - then, he takes the kid to go get an ice cream. :3 The “afterword” panels for this chapter are pretty hilarious, because apparently the kid invited the guy to his birthday party and it was…an eventful time :rofl:

Good words/expressions
  • ざけんなよ - eff you/don’t eff around/don’t eff with me
  • びちゃびちゃ - splashing; dabbling​
  • かっこ悪い - unattractive; ugly; unstylish; uncool (I don’t think I ever realized there was a direct opposite to かっこういい lol)
  • 通り雨 (とおりあめ) - shower; passing rain
  • 参観日 (さんかんび) - parents’ observation day (at school); parents’ visiting day; open day
  • 脅迫文 (きょうはくぶん) - threatening letter; intimidating letter
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Update January 23

  • Played もじぴったんアンコール for several hours today. Read new (to my play data) dictionary entries.(>100) I even started using it as my JP-JP dictionary while reading Manga today. The entries are so concise. A pocket dictionary on a portable gaming console. I’m in love! A perfect companion for my Kanji Learners Dictionary.
  • Needed to “retire” 極主夫道 from my desk shelf to make room for my current reads. Decided to read it again first, front to back, in one sitting, and that felt great! Only a handful of look-ups.
  • Animal Crossing chores. ~hr
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Jan 23 update :snowflake: summary post

Today and yesterday I read some Death Note (almost finished the part the book club’s supposed to read this week). Reading this I’m realizing I need to work on grammar so I’ve been getting back to that too.

Also, I got Chi’s Sweet Home 1 today and got about halfway through. Definitely an easy read, but it’s kind of a nice change from having to analyze every sentence to only needing to look up a word here or there

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Summary post

I was struggling a little more today with sentences I should definitely theoretically be able to understand – perhaps just an off day for me. Not bad enough to be a true bother, not at all, just lots of moments of not quite putting the pieces together right, or a sudden shift in unstated topic catching me off guard, or the like. Played for an hour and 20 and had already mined too many words, plus it’s getting late.

Much more dialogue today, as I ran into two new characters. One of whom, is Umi:

We’re going to have the childish sibling-type character in this game it seems (though not a literal sibling, a… cousin? I think? This isn’t a reading comprehension problem, either it’s intentionally vague or was mentioned briefly and my memory is failing). And of course, that has to start with her trying to drag us out of bed. Not exactly breaking new ground in this VN so far, but it’s got great production values for what it is, and while it’s too early to know anything substantial, I’m finding that it flows nicely so far. I also love the aunt’s voice acting. She’s probably exaggerating pitch a bit; everything she says is almost sing-songy and it’s just really pleasant to listen to.

The neat new word of the day is 夢見心地 (ゆめみごこち), “dreamy state of mind.”

Oh yeah, one of these days I need to remember I’m in a book club or two…


Haha, well said. You know, there are a few people I’ve come across who slur enough that even that is almost an achievement.

I just need to indicate how much I adore that picture, and a simple “like” isn’t enough.

I decided to click through for the spoiler and wow, so sweet. Had never heard of it, but what you’re reading looks really nice.

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If it isn’t any additional effort for you, then yes please I’d love it =D

some demon slayer v3 thoughts so far

I have also not been enjoying volume 3 as much, I really really dislike reading Zenitsu’s lines. For a while I slowed down a lot. I’ve picked it back up a bit now, and with that I am allowing myself to spend less effort trying to break down Zenitsu as I just find the way he talks and what he has to say to be very uninteresting.

I’ve just finished chapter 22, so still a while to go.

Since I’m here, update time I guess.
Still reading every day.
Mostly 鬼滅の刃 volume 3.

I attended a 3 day wedding and needed some reading for the train and down points of the wedding, I didn’t feel comfortable reading manga/鬼滅の刃 in that context, so I started 星の王子さま and found it quite funny although a LOT of work - the shift from manga with picture context to full sentences is really a lot for me.
It was doable and fun, just slow. Post-wedding though it was a bit much for me to keep reading that alongside 鬼滅の刃 so I’ve re-parked 星の王子さま for now.

I’ve also started reading デスノート with the Beginner BC, so far so good, read the first half of this week’s assignment in one sitting in a little over an hour. I’m expecting this good progress mostly comes down to this being chapter 1 and me having a lot of context. Later on it will presumably get rougher.

Still working my way through ファイナルファンタジーIX in Japanese, taking lots of screenshots and writing out the lines to do breakdowns.

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January 23 :snowflake: Home Post

Read some more (like seven pages?) (かぜ)(つよ)()いている today! It feels like ages since I saw the anime; it’s like seeing old friends again :blush: I’m still thoroughly in the character introduction portion, so it’s fun getting to meet them all in book form! Looking forward to meeting some of my faves, I miss them haha. The twins (who I honestly forgot about lmao but I’m reminded now!! I love them!! first being introduced with them stepping through the ceiling is just… so in character :joy: And ハイジ’s a (loveable) weirdo as always, and (かける) (yeah that’s his name, on the nose huh) is already just like “what is going on” :joy: very relatable. (foreshadowing spoilers) I already know (ひざ) is going to scar me, it came up like once and I’m already tense lmao

I do miss the ビスコ squad so I’ll definitely have to go back to them sometime, but this has been a lot of fun too! It’s really nice to be in the world of (かぜ)つよ again :blush:

Cool words!

(くず)す - to write in cursive style (I knew “to destroy” but cursive :eyes:)
なすりつける - to lay blame on
人懐(ひとなつ)こく - friendly, sociable
点在(てんざい) - dotted with, scattered

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Home Post :slight_smile:

皆さんこんにちは、久しぶりですね
I’m glad to say that I’m on Chapter 3 of また、同じ夢を見てた and realised a very weird thing about myself: I’m more likely to stick with a book that I randomly selected than one that I actually want to read :thinking::thinking::thinking: Thus, I selected 夏へのトンネル、さよならの出口 :blush: Has anyone read that book before?

I’ve decided to stick with weekly updates due to the surprising amount of work from school!

Thanks for reading :slight_smile:

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Summary Post

Day 23: Today I read 4 pages of よつば&!

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Weekly check in for January 23rd:

Read this week:

魔女の宅急便 - Chapter 3

Thoughts:
I haven’t actually read anything since Thursday because life got in the way (in the best way possible) and I was away for a long weekend celebrating my best friend’s 30th birthday. Back on it this week and will probably try to get the last couple of graded readers for this level thrown in to break up some of the hard work of reading Kiki. I’m also revising the previous chapter of Kiki before moving on just to make sure I’m taking the time to understand more complex grammar/unfamiliar vocab. As always, the best thing is learning new Japanese onomatopoeia!

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Today I read eight pages of Death Note. The neatest looking kanji I’ve seen so far is 魔 (witch, demon, evil spirit). Here are some words I learnt, (including the new kanji):

魔力-----まりょく------magical powers; supernatural powers; spell; charm

警視庁------けいしちょう------Metropolitan Police Department (esp. Tokyo)

追い詰める-------おいつめる------to corner; to drive to the wall; to run down

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Home post

I finished the first chapter (88 p) of 旅猫リポート a few days ago and think I need a break. It’s harder than I expected and I’ve been sick and don’t have the brainpower to push through something challenging right now. (a previous reader on Natively decided this should be level 27 so in theory this should not be so hard for me, even if I’m sick, and it was honestly really discouraging.)

I started reading the third volume of 七夜物語 instead. It’s easier and I’m used to the style.

I also picked up ゆっくりおやすみ、樹の下で again, which I read a few months ago. The narrator has such a kind, friendly tone. I thought after I finished it that I’d like to read it again sometime, and I was happy to have found a book in Japanese I enjoyed that much because I think there’s a lot of value in re-reading books. This is sooner than I expected, but I think I read books again this quickly when I was a kid. I’m picking up details and hints that I missed the first time, and a few sentences I didn’t get before are clear now. It’s relaxing after fighting with 旅猫リポート。

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Tan-chan got her 4 month shots this week, so on top of teething and another growth spurt, she’s been really sensitive lately, so I haven’t had any real down time to sit down to read Pokemon Special, but thankfully there were other things I could do while feeding her. (It’s very helpful that Kanji Drill books can be laid down flat while reading and writing so I can multitask with them when manga are impossible to read.)

1月18日~19日 ~ Days 18~19 / Back to Home

Kanji Drill 1年生 (20 kanji per day/includes list of sample vocab under kanji writing practice, then one of each page for kanji reading practice and kanji recognizing practice - 24 pages total)

This is my first kanji drill book practice for this year and the third for this grade. I was happy to find a new copy I didn’t already have from Seria (the other two were from Daiso). I remember when doing the drills last year, there were a lot more words I looked up and wrote down, some of which were verbs that had multiple meanings and it was hard to guess from the few details in the sentence which meaning it was. This time, I felt more confident about what many of the words meant. I still looked up words if I didn’t feel 100% sure, but at least this time, I could guess what I thought it meant based on the surrounding kanji (if any were given). Most of the time, I was right or fairly close.

Kanji Drill Vocab for more practice

二重瞼・ふたえまぶたて・
三つおり・みつおり・
四苦八苦・よくはっく・
四つ角・よつかど・
一番星・いちばんぼし・
八百屋・やおや・
枝・えだ・
元日・がんじつ・
火花・ひばな・
木刀・ぼくとう・
材木・ざいもく・
並木・なみき・
木の葉・きのは・
汲む・くむ・
水泳大会・すいえいたいかい・
与える・あたえる・
用心・ようじん・
水車・すいしゃ・
大木・たいぼく・
見上げる・みあげる・
黄金・おうごん・
金物・かなもの・
土足・どそく・
土地・とち・
赤土・あかつち・
円形・えんけい・
円周・えんしゅう・
上着・うわぎ・
地上・ちじょう・
風上・かざかみ・
下方・かほう・
川下・かわしも・
下り坂・くだりざか・
金槌・かなづち・
下ろす・おろす・
上り・のぼり・
下り・くだり・
粘土・ねんど・
救う・すく・
逆さま・さかさま・
水中・すいちゅう・
的中・てきちゅう・
中休み・なかやすみ・
大小・だいしょう・
寄る・よる・
中流・ちゅうりゅう・
人物・じんぶつ・
人手・ひとで・
子孫・しそん・
天女・てんにょ・
百科事典・ひゃっかじてん・
呼ばれる・よばれる・
口笛・くちぶえ・
耳鼻科・じびか・
空耳・そらみみ・
手段・しゅだん・
目玉焼き・めだやき・
二口で食べる・eating for two・
中耳炎・ちゅうじえん・
一目散・ひとめさん・
禁止・きんし・
減る・へる・
澄ます・すます・
耳鼻科・じびか・
水田・すいでん・
田園・でんえん・
田畑・たはた・
河川・かせん・
川上・かわかみ・
百万石・ひゃくまんごく・
石材・せきざい・
松竹梅・しょうちくばい・
竹馬・たけうま・
竹林・ちくりん・
籠・かご・
工事・こうじ・
地帯・ちたい・
山頂・さんちょう・
潜る・くぐる・
山門・さんもん・
竹やぶ・たけやぶ・

1月20日 ~ Day 20

はらぺこあおむし (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

I usually read this book in English to Tan-chan (I translate the Japanese version we have on the spot since it’s pretty simple) and her father or grandfather reads it to her in Japanese, but Tan-chan wouldn’t give me much time today so I decided to just read it in Japanese. She usually stares at the book and follows along, but this time she stared at me like she realized there was something different (or she could have been staring because of my not so smooth reading lol).

Everything is in hiragana to make it accessible for any age, but that’s what makes it harder to read smoothly. It’s a great book for learning counting and the days of the week, so it’s good practice for kids and second language learners alike. There wasn’t really any new words I struggled with except I learned the word for pupa (蛹).

1月21日 ~ Day 21

JLPT Mock Exam (N4)

I found a really useful website in the JLPT 2022 thread that allows you to take a mock JLPT exam (only up to N4 unfortunately) that times you and everything. I was surprised by how much kanji and vocab I recognized even without the addition of kanji (in the first section). I was also really surprised by how quickly I could read through the readings and get not only the gist of the information but also be able to decipher nearly every detail.

I think there was only one question I kind of gave up on (but planned to go back to) because it was costing more time than I was taking on the other questions. Otherwise, I think I may have missed no more than 3 in the first section and maybe no more than 3 or 4 in the second. The only reason I don’t know exactly was… I accidentally held my finger down too long and refreshed the page so it sent me back to the start just before I got to the third section :smiling_face_with_tear: Next time I try it, I’ll definitely do it on my computer. But I did manage to write down this word I didn’t know from the first section: 熱心に・ねっしんに・eagerly; earnestly

1月22日~24日 ~ Days 22~24

Kanji Drill 1年生 (20 kanji per day plus final kanji test - 28 pages total - FINISHED)

The test part was easier to complete compared to my last two experiences. I think I had to keep looking up the kanji because I forgot the strokes. I only missed 文字 (one of my leeches) and second guessed the first kanji for 草原 and looked it up but I was pretty sure it was 草 not 早.

Kanji Drill Vocab

天文台 てんもんだい
恋文 こいぶみ
大字 おおあざ
根本 ねもと
大元 おおもと
大名 だいみょう
名人 めいじん
正門 せいもん
正夢 まさゆめ
姿勢 しせい
正義 せいぎ
本文 ほんぶん
写す うつす
学び取る まなびとる
先日 せんじつ
先発 せんぱつ
店先 みせさき
一生 いっしょう
校庭 こうてい
新記録 しんきろく
花壇 かだん
花瓶 かびん
草原 そうげん
海草 かいそう
若草 わかくさ
昆虫 こんちゅう
幼虫 よんちゅう
名犬 めいけん
犬小屋 いぬごや
千本 せんぼん
千鳥 ちどり
千代がみ ちよがみ
害虫 がいちゅう
雑草 ざつそう
番犬 ばんけん
赤道 せきどう
白夜 びゃくや
白身 しろみ
白波 しろなみ
一朝一夕 いっちょういっせき
夕日 ゆうひ
夕焼け ゆうやけ
貝殻 かいがら
貝柱 かいばしら
白線 はくせん
炊く たく
沈む しずむ
赤道直下 せきどうちょっか

圧力 あつりょく
力作 りきさく
早朝 そうちょう
早足 はやあし
王国 おうこく
宝玉 ほうぎょく
水玉 みずたま
玉手箱 たまてばこ
綿糸 めんし
生糸 きいと
糸口 いとぐち
込める こめる
巻く まく
揃う そろう
王冠 おうかん
製糸工場 せいしこうじょう
縫う ぬう
豪華な ごうかな
記入 きにゅう
出場 しゅつじょう
遠出 とおで
見学 けんがく
立春 りっしゅん
直立 ちょくりつ
建立 こんりゅう
夕立 ゆうだち
休息 きゅうそく
連休 れんきゅう
外出 がいしゅつ
独立する どくりつする
出席する しゅっせきする
創立記念日 そうりつきねんび
祝う いわう
林道 りんどう
林業 りんぎょう
雑木林 ぞうきばやし
山林 さんりん
森林 しんりん
森林浴 しんりんよく
村長 そんちょう
農村 のうそん
村里 むらざと
市町村 しちょうそん
町人 ちょうにん
車輪 しゃりん
水車 すいしゃ
風車 かざぐるま
町立 ちょうりつ
駐車場 ちゅうしゃじょう
地帯 ちたい
天体 てんたい
天井 てんじょう
天の川 あまのがわ
気候 きこう
空き地 あきち
雨天 うてん
風雨 ふうう
雨傘 あまがす
母音 ぼいん
物音 ものおと
音色 ねいろ
含む ふくむ
本音 ほんね
話し合う はなしあう
雨天決行 うてんけっこう
耕す たがやす

I intend to go back and edit in the English translations of the vocab later, but I’ve written them out in my kanji drill book so it’s not a dire need at the moment. I just really want to post this before I lose another draft, haha.

24 Likes

I have and thought the plot was interesting but didn’t really vibe with the characters. Huge caveat on that though - the style of character writing that didn’t resonate with me which happens to be quite similar to how the author of また、同じ夢を見ていた writes (I haven’t read that book, but I’ve read two of his other works). Which is to say you might like it so don’t weigh my opinion of his character writing too heavily.
Looking at Natively though the book you’re currently reading is leveled at 25 and 夏へのトンネル is 32 - if you find the plot exciting and really want to read it and get through that bump in difficulty could be no big deal, but it could also be frustrating so just keep that in mind I suppose. :slight_smile:

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