Kagoshima’s emblem is especially cool since it symbolizes the prefecture’s incredibly distinctive geography of two peninsulas cradling an active volcano in the bay, 桜島:
Don’t mean to butt in, I just also think it’s neat 
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January 12 update:
Read 3 more pages of 時をかける少女. I noticed there’s actually a limit of how much I can read, even with few to no lookups, before mental fatigue (of a very specialized sort – it doesn’t translate to other activities) starts to set in, but hopefully this interval will grow with practice. In any case, I really like how this is going so far. The most important part is that I’m enjoying the book and looking forward to reading rather than being stressed about it.
Oh, I relate to this so much!
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In my experience it does. Right now your brain is doing a lot of processing for each sentence I bet. When I started out just reading Harry Potter was a total mental drain and now light fiction is easy to go and go but classic lit or topics with vocab outside my wheelhouse tire me out.
I’ve noticed that this exists in English, too, though. I read English all day (work remotely) and don’t feel taxed by it, and enjoy reading English books as well. Everyday stuff I can read for hours, no issue, but I decided to ‘treat’ myself to Pale Fire by Nabokov when I reached my page goal last year and tapped out from mental exhaustion after 45 minutes. In my native language!
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January 12
・かがみの孤城. I finished week 12. Four weeks left to go. As long as I don’t randomly stop and read something else (Honzuki 
), I might complete it during the weekend.
Progress: (67% → 72%)
Was a busy day, but finished before 9 pm c:
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Day 12: January 12
- 君の名は。page 60-64 (25% done!)
Unfortunately, the booster vaccination has not been kind to me at all, with light side effects on Friday until Monday and after finally feeling better, the fever and fatigue began on Tuesday… 
I was still able to read all days, maybe even more today and yesterday because I was not capable to work these days xD Hoping to continue reading more and more until the end of this challenge and beyond ^^
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Ace Attorney: Case 4 complete! It took another two hours today because I underestimated the final protestation stage of the trial and the wrap up. This case was originally the end of the game; back when it was released on the Gameboy Advance in Japan only it had 4 cases. A few years later it was rereleased on the DS with a new final case, and given an English release. And here I am playing a remake of a remake on the PC. Case 5, for being a “bonus,” is no dip in quality, and I’m looking forward to seeing it. If I recall correctly it’s just as long, or even longer than 4, so it’ll be a while before I’ve truly finished the game. That said, since this was an ending before, there’s a whole air of finality. Some of the celebratory chatter was unusually difficult for me to wrap my head around for Ace Attorney dialog, but overall, could be worse. This case also includes credits still, and characters auto-scroll talking in between them. At that speed, I’m lucky to read half the line! So be it for now, heh.
Can’t argue with that. I mined too many words since I kept playing to wrap it up, and can’t help myself with that juicy one-click Yomichan to Anki pipeline. Future me can deal with that! I’m always dumping my problems on future me. Coolest new word? I think I like 迷宮 (めいきゅう), which can mean labyrinth, mystery (perhaps comes non-literally from the former?), and apparently in videogame terminology is the word used for “dungeon.” That’s neat to know.
Zoo 1: Read a little more, made a bit of progress into section 3 of Seven Rooms! I’m 29% through the book. All I can say right now is this story has a real air of impending doom and terrible things that the characters involved either haven’t fully worked out or just aren’t explicitly acknowledging. Basically my reaction to this short story every time I try to update is “I am worried about people!”
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Today I read 25 more pages of ドメスティックな彼女 I enjoy the manga more and more. Okay I admit I really love romantic manga.
片思い かたおもい unrequited love; one-sided love N1
ややこしい puzzling; tangled; complicated; complex N1
出方 でかた attitude; approach; move
成人 せいじん adult (esp. person 20 years old or over); grownup
初対面 しょたいめん first meeting
Then I started playing the Demonbane visual novel. People on the net claim it’s above N1, so I thought playing it will make me super clever and awesome at japanese.
Demonbane vocabulary list
星々 ほしぼし celestial bodies
限りない かぎりない eternal; unlimited; endless
深遠 しんえん profound; deep; unfathomable
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Day 12!
I finished chapter 9 of レンタルおにいちゃん today. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so it was really difficult to make myself not carry on reading the next chapter, but its late already and I know I need to go to bed instead.
But I want to know what happens next! 
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Wow! I can’t believe how fast 12 days has gone by already.
Still using my verbs / particles book for example sentences while I wait for my よつばと! pals to catch up, but we should be taking off with vol. 1 together soon! Excited for this, but in the meantime, just happy with trying to read something every day.
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Today, I finished the book シュモーハウス (Level 1 graded reader) for free on Natively (recommended here by sosanlx).
It was just above my reading level (some vocab I had to look up), and I feel pretty accomplished. It was so interesting and heartwarming, and I highly recommend it!
@sosanlx Thank you for recommending it on one of your posts!
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I read through a lot of the Tadoku graded readers some months ago in a big combined format someone had put together. And I absolutely agree, I had never heard of this guy, but he sounds like a wonderful man and it was a great story in the end!
…but let me tell you, I got SMACKED in the face by the tonal whiplash of having read some fluffy tourist stories and the like, then turning the page past “This is Floyd Schmoe and his house etc” to a summary of the atomic bombings when I had no idea what I was getting into.
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Books that you can read for a limited time have this on their home page. See example below.
I’ve highlighted the relevant sections. This is just in case you wanted to know. @liveunderwater
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Day 12: January 12th
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 10 min
Today’s color: 濡羽色 (ぬればいろ) - glossy jet black
I’m honestly obsessed with how this color is described by this book, and where the name comes from - it’s literally the color of a wet crow’s feather. And that led to this 濡れ色 concept/word that is just like…so much logic? Like yes, I totally understand exactly what you mean when you say that. Why is Japanese so satisfying this way sometimes, like it just…makes sense 
Also look at how pretty crows are, isn’t he handsome
Good words
- 艶 (つや) - gloss; luster; shine; sheen; polish
- 羽毛 (うもう) - feathers; plumage; down
- 濡れ色 (ぬれいろ) - color of something wet
- 光沢 (こうたく) - brilliance; polish; luster; glossy finish (of photographs)
まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 23 min
Today’s reading was about one of the 七十二候 (しちじゅうにこう) - the 72(!) microseasons based on the solar calendar. The season is 水泉動 (しみずあたたかをふくむ), so named because even though everything still seems frozen on the surface, the waters deep in the Earth have already begun to move - a sign that spring is coming. oooo~
I learned an expression from this today, 身にしむ - it’s kind of like “feeling something in your bones,” from what I understood, like feeling it way deep down in your core. For example, feeling the cold really strongly (which was the context here).
What else did I read?
囀る鳥は羽ばたかない Vol 1
Amount read: 15 pages
Time spent: 16 min
Wow I’m almost caught up :o Amazing what happens when you actually read the book
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Interesting, with the title I mentioned, having ‘temporarily purchased’ it removed the expiration date from its home screen.
However, I added Basara to my library and then went back to its home page and it has the expiration still. I just don’t know.
Ideally, it would always show when the trial period ends. Maybe the book I picked is missing a flag or two on its page.
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January 12th:
Read chapter 2 of それでも歩は寄せてくる
Noticed these kanji appear a lot in the chapter. Apparently, their definitions are:
守 = Defense
攻 = Attack
I feel like I’m close to learning these on WK since I can recognize all the radicals that make these kanji.
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Last two days I’ve been wiped out, so I stuck to just the lower level tadoku readers. Level 0 is essentially “see spot run” type grammar but it’s been neat from a vocab perspective.
I learned しまうし (zebra) 、かまきり (praying mantis) 、and various cooking vocab including the lovely めだまやき (sunny side up fried eyes eggs) 
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Day 12: Today I was very sleep deprived so I just read three pages of The Way of the Househusband
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Day 11:
日本語: I read a lot 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.
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January 12 
Home Post
Well I read seven pages of 錆喰いビスコ today 
wild how far I can get before getting mentally exhausted when I’m invested in what’s happening! I think my like reading stamina is also getting better which is also wild considering it hasn’t even been two weeks?? Progress
So today I started chapter two and finally met ミロ and he’s already just the sweetest boy in the world, I’m adopting him immediately. Very excited for the inevitable chaos when he and ビスコ eventually meet lmao, I love them both 
Also very concerned for ミロ’s safety omg, what in the world is he involved in?? it’s gonna hurt me I know it
I’ve already made it way farther in 錆喰いビスコ than I really ever expected to, so I’m excited to see how much more progress I can make!
Fun words!
控えめ - reserved, mild-mannered, humble
引ったくる - to snatch from
面食らう - to be bewildered, taken aback
あどけない - innocent, cherubic
臆病 - cowardice, timidity
円ら - round and cute (especially eyes)
威圧感 - intimidating air, overwhelming aura
他人行儀 - treating a friend as a stranger, unduly distant
剥ぎ取る - to tear off
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You’d think, but they don’t come until 16 and 28! If you’re ever curious, you can search directly through wanikani’s dashboard with the magnifying glass at the top right – maybe you already know cause it’s right there, but it took me a strangely long time to realize it, personally. I use that sometimes now when I come across new kanji if I suspect it might not be on WK and I want to learn it.
Hope you’re enjoying the manga, too! Joining the book club for that here was one of the first native things I ever read (concurrent with reading Yotsubato on my own), so I have a real personal fondness for it.
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