📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

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Day 21:

日本語: I read a lot 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 a bit of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事.

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Summary Post

Day 22: Today I read 6 pages of よつば&!

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My listening level is I recognize this. This is Japanese. :confounded:

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Yesterday I read four pages of キャラぱふぇ and tonight I read 29 pages of ちゃお. Here are some words I learnt.

雨宿り------あまやどり------taking shelter from rain

料理上手------りょうりじょうず------being good at cooking; good cook

調理実習------ちょうりじっしゅう------cooking practice; (school) cooking class

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:house:

Day 23: Read pages 192-194 of Kiki today. My mental block against reading in Japanese is still there, for some reason. Of course once I start reading it’s fine, but today I procrastinated for at least one hour before finally picking up Kiki. Could have slept pretty early, but now it’s after midnight again…

But I do find it a lot easier to read now than a few months ago, so that’s progress I suppose.

On a lighter note, I think I should be able to reach page 200 — also the end of Chapter 8 — tomorrow! Since I’m not working until Friday and will likely be spending most of the day at home, hopefully I’ll be able to binge read and see what I can get up to before the end of January.

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Summary Post

January 23
君の名は , 7 pages.


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:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220123 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XXIII: ほらふきの竹 :bamboo:

Read today’s folktale from Gunma Prefecture!

About three merchants who get talking in an inn, and try to wow each other with impressive feats of their hometowns. One of them tells a lie that massive bamboo grows in his hometown (to make a huge bath for Buddha too), the other two, intrigued, insist that they go see it, and he rushes back to his wife for help.

Also attempted Nioh 2 in Japanese again last night, just to check that it was indeed difficult reading… and yep, still beyond me. I’ll see if I have any other games that let me play in Japanese.

This was on a different story, but please enjoy this image of a fox and a cat enjoying a kotatsu together:


I think this is intended for you to colour in, I just love how happy they are

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

それぞれ「夫れ夫れ」ー Each; Respectively
国自慢「くにじまん」ー National or local pride; pride in the place you’re from (province; village etc.)
天下「てんか」ー The whole world; the whole country; society / the public
(though the meaning in this story is “Shogun” but its use in that way is an archaism and will probably only show up in olde-timey stories like these)
愛想よく「あいそよく」ー hospitality, to greet someone in a warm friendly way
風呂桶のタガ「ふろおけのたが」ー the ring that goes around a bathtub (traditional Japanese bathub)

Alt Meanings
「り」ー An old unit of measurement 1里 = 3.9km (approx.)

Places
越後「えちご」ー Echigo, former province in present-day Niigata Prefecture.
蔵前「くらまえ」ー Kuramae (Town)

Forgotten Meanings

たまたま「偶々」ー Occasionally; Unexpectedly; By Chance

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Main Post

Thought I would make a new summary post, as it’s been a while. It’s been a cozy read everyday with dekiru neko and it get surprisingly tricky whenever work is involved. Today I read a chapter more as the first chapter was so short and all the cute stuff was coming up, plus it was a sunday chapter so it fit well. I definitely don’t regret that and need to share some of the screens of todays read. :black_cat:

chapter 8 & 9

The context is that the protagonist once got drunk so much, her superior carried her home and met her kitten. Plus saw her nasty room (she’s very carefree in casual setting). So to make up for that embarrasing look, her superior asked her to come to the aquarium for a live event as a sort of date. She mentally prepares for it… and well has to babysit his adorable niece and also her cat followed her :joy:

Desperately looking for an outfit suitable to wear, only to find it doesn’t fit anymore. Luckily her cat whips something up in a sec.

Instant love.

Cat spotted.

Screenshot_20220123-173314_Kindle

Worked so hard he fell asleep. Yukichi’s sleeping face is super cute.

If you want to read this series as well, then you’re in good luck. At the moment the digital version is free to purchase and read on bookwalker/kindle/etc. I’ll be finishing up the rest of the chapters next week and then read something new. Look forward to it :eyes:

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Finding time to read and write a post is proving challenging so super short, easy 違い article today: 「パン」と「ブレッド」「トースト」の違いは? | 1分で読める!! [ 違いは? ]

It feels so low effort and barely worth it but I’m keeping the habit. ;_;

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Day 23 :slight_smile:
I finished the second half of chapter 6 of ミッツ星カラーズ。

I also saw a friend today, for the first time since my birthday. So I got presents :blush:
Namely the Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko editions of 君の名は and 天気のこ - excellent gifts at the best of times, but especially perfect while I’m in the middle of a read every day challenge!
I’m going to be disciplined and finish レンタルおにいちゃん before starting either of them though since I only have 4 more chapters.

(Home Post)

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Summary post :bookmark:

January 23

I did it. I started Honzuki 8 :see_no_evil: And I’m loving it, the prologue was hilarious!
Progress: 0% → 12%

This was not according to keikaku, I wanted to read more Saikawa & Moe, but the Honzuki book on my digital bookshelf was staring at me, I couldn’t stop myself from opening the book, and then I got so excited I ended up reading all morning. Hopefully I can balance reading the other books too? :caught_durtling:

[Translator’s note: “keikaku” means “plan”]

Also randomly had the realization that one of the characters has a pretty similar hair style as Kuroo from Haikyuu.

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Summary post

January 23 update:
Read 5 pages of 時をかける少女 today, i.e. chapter 16. The story took a somewhat unexpected turn. I was almost sure that Kazuo was somehow involved in this, but the explanation he provided was much more elaborate than anything before had been hinting at, especially coupled with his newly introduced device. The conversation started in the previous chapter is still ongoing, so I guess there are more details to follow. (I had no time to read another chapter, but couldn’t resist peeking at the title, and it looks even fancier than the explanation so far :joy:)

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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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