📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

:house:

Day 26! Last day of holidays — I got home late in the evening and need to sleep soon, so I only read pages 201 and 202 of Kiki today.

I can read most pages fairly quickly now, which means I can take a more relaxed approach on reading in Japanese — like I did as a bookworm novel-loving kid I suppose, just read whatever I want, not focusing overly much on the details and understanding every single word and phrase (not like I did that anyway… I never could be bothered to translate every little bit of what I read).

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It’s interesting how different that works for different learners. It’s probably because I was in Japan for a while with very very little language knowledge and had to make do. And at that point trying to translate everything was just futile. I mean in conversation even focusing on a word you kind of know and trying to remember it properly can take way too long, so I’m just really good at picking up clues here and there and just live with the uncertainty for the rest. So rather than being too mechanically accurate I’d say I’m just way too good at glossing over things and that is why it’s hard to feel emotionally connected.
I’m sure with more studying and a general increase in my language proficiency this will balance out eventually, but I just found it super interesting that I face a similar problem, but am coming from a different angle.

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Day 23: January 26

  • 君の名は。page 136-168 (67%)

I love having some time to focus on just reading again ^^ This was just the first reading session, I plan to read some more later today as well!

Edit: It’s 6 PM here and I’m already past my previous record of reading 20 pages in one day xD Want to read more tonight since it is getting really good now that Taki-kun is back in Itomori to prevent people from dying from the meteor!

Edit 2: More than 30 pages in one day… The story is too good to put down now but my head needs rest :joy:

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It’s nice to get back into reading Pokemon Special again! Unfortunately that means I’m almost done with the first volume and will have to decide to look into buying the second volume soon or start something else. It looks like I have a copy of Assassination Classroom, and I just learned the 殺 kanji last week so maybe I’ll go with that next? I’ve been wanting to revisit the anime too.

1月25日 ~ Day 25 / Back to Home

Pocket Monsters Special Volume 1 - page 117 of 200 (14 pages total - chapter 8)

We get to see Kasumi kick Red’s butt this chapter, whoo! It’s interesting that Kasumi is presented as an only child (I don’t think they ever introduce siblings later on in the series) who’s family seems loaded based on the maids serving her and the gorgeous dress she wears (I wonder if this is her personal taste in clothes or if she’s just showing off for Red since she’s usually presented as a tomboyish mermaid).

I liked the character development in the end - Kasumi unloading her feelings and Red regretting that he hurt her pride with his offhand comment. If I was still in the shipping scene, I would totally adore this chapter, but even without those feelings, it was very moving (and feels even more fast paced than the other chapters for some reason).

I know Red and Satoshi are two completely different characters, but it was funny seeing Red misquoting sayings like Satoshi often does too. He’s such a dork sometimes, but that’s why he’s loveable.

Vocab for Reference - New words are bolded

姿・すがた・state; condition
紹介する・しょうかいする・to introduce
衣装・いしょう・outfit; garment; dress
馬子・まご・packhorse driver
馬子にも衣装・anybody can look good with the right clothes; clothes make the man; fine feathers make fine birds; clothes on a packhorse driver
早々・そうそう・early; quickly; promptly
気を失う・きをうしなう・to lose consciousness; to faint; to black out
頼れる・たよれる・to be relied on
大活躍・だいかつやく・being very active; being very useful; playing a very active part; making a spectacular showing; great efforts; splendid work
回復・かいふく・recovery
対抗する・たいこうする・to oppose
特訓・とっくん・special training; intensive training
主領格・しゅりょうかく・main territory
強大・きょうだい・mighty; powerful
執拗い・しつこい・insistent; obstinate; persistent; tenacious
気絶・きぜつ・faint; swoon
鱗・うろこ・scale (of fish, snake, etc.)​
狙う・ねらう・to be after (something or someone)
案内・あんない・guidance; leading (the way); showing around
冗談・じょうだん・joke; jest; funny story
襲う・おそう・to attack; to make a sudden visit
効く・きく・to be effective; to take effect; to be good (for)​
数日後・すうじつご・several days later
鍛える・きたえる・to drill; to train; to discipline

1月26日 ~ Day 26

Pocket Monsters Special Volume 1 - page 131 of 200 (14 pages total - chapter 9)

Masaki finally makes his appearance! But I could’ve waited a little longer because his Kansai-ben (or should I say Johto-ben?) is a little difficult to grasp. If I remember correctly, he lives in Kogane City (Goldenrod City) which is based on real life Osaka. It makes sense because his accent sounds specifically like Osaka-ben, but I’m not that familiar with all the different dialects to know for sure.

What’s interesting is he calls himself a “Pokemon commentator” in Japanese while I think the English version refers to him as a “PokeManiac” in the games at least. Compared to the last few chapters, this one was a little slow to get through. Red needed a place to store his Pokemon so he didn’t have to carry all of them with him (interestingly, they don’t just teleport to Okido-hakase like they do automatically in the anime or games), so it was necessary for him to meet Masaki, help him out and in exchange he would help Red store his Pokemon.

Vocab for Reference - New words are bolded

小屋・こや・hut; cabin; shed
転送・てんそう・transfer
調整・ちょうせい・adjustment
番道路・ばんどうろ・route
持ち運び・もちはこび・carrying
張り切る・はりきる・to be enthusiastic; to be eager
新種・しんしゅ・new species; new variety
一苦労・ひとくろう・a hard time; pains
板切れ・いたきれ・scrap lumber; piece of wood
辺鄙・へんぴ・hard to reach place; remote place
驚く・おどろく・to be surprised; to be astonished
正体・しょうたい・true form
評論家・ひょうろんか・critic; reviewer; commentator
飛行・ひこう・flying
凍らす・こおらす・to freeze; to refrigerate
痺れる・しびれる・to get an electric shock
翼・つばさ・wing
封じる・ふうじる・to prevent; to forbid; to block
飛ぶ・とぶ・to fly; to soar
拉致・らち・taking captive; carrying away; kidnapping; kidnaping; abduction
態勢・たいせい・attitude; posture; preparedness; readiness
嘴・くちばし・beak; bill​
分離・ぶんり・separation
離れる・はなれる・to be separated
うっかり・carelessly; thoughtlessly; inadvertently
機械・きかい・machine; mechanism
合体・がったい・union; combination; coalescence; amalgamation; merger
目指す・めざす・to aim at (for, to do, to become)
即時・そくじ・prompt; immediate; in real time

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Update post for 22/1 - 26/1 | Home post here!

I’ve read through the first chapter of カードキャプターさくら クリアカード編 this week, and honestly feeling a small sense of achievement being able to read the sequel to the series that got me into anime/manga in the first place when I was a child. I know クリアカード started in 2016, but I haven’t read it in English or watched the anime adaptation as it was always one of those low level goals I wanted to hit in my learning journey. Unfortunately, I only have the first volume so I don’t want to rush through it too quickly! Deciphering Kero’s Kansai-ben is really quite fun and a useful nudge to take things slowly, and now I definitely have 「どないしたん」 ingrained in me. :sweat_smile:

れつ!ハイキュー is proving to be great fun, and a surprisingly (but I suppose not, in hindsight?) good way to pick up random culture-based words and start getting used to wordplay.

A few words/things from れつ!ハイキュー

笏 - しゃく - flat wooden or ivory baton carried in the right hand when in ceremonial imperial or Shinto garb
正露丸 - せいろがん - beechwood extract popular as a herbal treatment for diarrhoea (diarrhea), etc.
甲子園 - こうしえん - Kōshien is a series of Japan-exclusive High school baseball-themed video games. (Released on Family Computer and Super Famicon).

I will leave you with perhaps my favourite two panels of れつ! so far:

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:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220126 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XXVI: 牡丹の花と若者 :hibiscus:

Read today’s folktale from Ishikawa Prefecture!

About a man who finds a magical peony field in the depths of the mountains.

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

牡丹「ぼたん」ー Peony (Flower)
薄紅色「うすくれないいろ」ー Blush Red is the closest English name I could find.
つぶやく「呟く」ー To mutter
天女「てんにょ」ー Celestial Maiden; Heavenly Nymph

Places
能登の国「のとのくに」ー Noto Province, an old province that is now part of Ishikawa.
深見山「ふかみやま」ー Fukamiyama

Not really a word but grammar usage I guess
山の奥へ奥へ「やまのおくへおくへ」ー 奥 = depths. “into the depths of the mountain(s)”, but double depths, so like “deepest depths”.

Forgotten Readings

はち」(Bowl)

Forgotten Words

綺麗きれい」ー Pretty. (Don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing this in kanji)

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Summary Post

January 26
君の名は , 7 pages.


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Summary Post

sumsum reporting in for duty! :sheep: I read another chapter of 時をかける少女. It was a bit difficult language wise… but the main character didn’t get everything either, so I think I’m good with glossing over it as well :sweat_drops: I’m on holiday for (almost) the next three weeks, so I will probably not be reporting in every day, but I will try to keep up the reading streak.

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Haven’t been updating regularly again, still have been reading everyday. Mainly due to my ときめき addiction which I actually think is getting a bit under control now so I might be able to get back to reading more varied things. Also read the first chapter of デスノート seeing as I saw the bookclub was doing it and I was lured in with the pretty colour version. It is indeed, very pretty and silly.

ときめき updates
I finished my first full play through and got a good 大地 ending, woo! I know that probably in the future I will want to play though his route again as I missed some things due to not befriending another character early enough, and I also want to get more of the friends group route because the snippets of that that I got this time were just the cutest. But in order to get quite a different experience this time through, I have been doing a Nanaくん play through (the pink haired model that I mentioned I hadn’t met yet in my last play through). I’d only seen pictures of his school look before and had been a bit ‘meh’ but then I saw his model persona and I see why he seems to be a fave…

pictures for proof



I love this so much and it seems so bizarre hahahahaha.

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Home post

Day 19:

I read three pages of よつばと! today :four_leaf_clover::upside_down_face::four_leaf_clover:

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Summary post

January 26 update:
Had extremely little time today, so managed to read only a single page of 時をかける少女, just to keep reinforcing the habit (or at least not let it degrade too much), and now I should be sleeping instead of writing this :sweat:
I was somewhat glad to see the skeptical (in Kazuko’s reaction to Kazuo’s finisher) direction the story is heading now, because the alternatives would make less sense. But it’s still not clear what it’s going to come to in the end.

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Main Post
January 26th
I guess I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from posting. I got a little busy over the weekend with changing around my office. Anyway, I got back into it with chapter 6 of それでも歩は寄せてくる. I learned that 彼氏 and 彼女 mean boyfriend and girlfriend. I recognized some other kanji as well. Other than that, the chapter had some funny moments as usual.

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Summary Post

You know, that might be my summary post, but while I’m reading what I am, everything is a summer-y post. :wink:

Summer Pockets: I read another hour or so, long enough to get a lot of new words! There’s basically a conga line of introductions now, first impressions to get a feel for which route I want to go on (if it’s intuitive in this game? who knows). Honestly, the goofy hijinks with the girl he’s related to have amused me more than anything so far – I know enough to know that’s kind of the default “you didn’t set off the flags to get onto other routes” option though, heh. We’ll see.

Some odd words came out at times, the conversation here can be a little scattershot, but ultimately, not too tough of a read. There’s a pet named Inari that reminded me that I really want to take the time to read about Shinto some time; I think I’d find it fascinating. I do have two little omamori that I ordered from a shrine after reading the Tofugu article on them. One for health (felt appropriate these days…), and one for learning. So any of my successes in Japanese are really thanks to the omamori. Since they are real religious items I do my best to treat them well and whatnot.

If anyone wants to see

This VN loves its silly face styles, so I had to pair yesterday’s image with this today:

In contrast to yesterday, I think today’s words were pretty cool so I want to share a couple this time. 狸寝入り (タヌキねいり), means feigning sleep. Perhaps somewhat like the idea of “playing possum” in English. 恩を売る (おんをうる) means to do something for someone so that they will owe you.

What is less cool is, for the first time, coming across もらう using its kanji (貰う). That’s an unwelcome reminder that I’m still going to have to make myself learn the kanji for a lot of “usually kana” words. :sweat:

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Today’s reading was 「うp」の意味とは?スラングの元ネタ、使い方を紹介! | Meaning-Book which I thought was delightful. I really like the fun things that happen when languages cross. うp being slang for “upload”.

I had to get comfy with a lot of those after last year’s Aozora binge. It was…rough. I feel like it’s usually not a problem in everyday reading though because after a certain point of consuming so much media you kind just go “…this seems like a good place to say ほとんど so I bet that’s what 殆ど is” and you end up being right. :sweat_smile:

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First I finished なんでここに先生が!? volume 1 (50 pages) not that interesting but I only got the first volume free from bookwalker anyway.

Next I started (30 pages) the second volume ドメスティックな彼女 way more interesting and it will probably be full of useful words. :joy:

To pass the JLPT N1 people recommend to read The Nihon Keizai Shimbun 日本経済新聞. Soon I will start to read one article from it every day hoping that I will become better at japanese that way.

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Yeah that makes sense! I’m just making it a slow transition as these come up to try to actually learn them. Someday I’ll have to face old kanji usages, which I imagine is what the Aozora problem partly was? I have these annoying itches to read stuff like Natsume Sōseki, but I figure I’m at least a few books (if not more) away from that being a particularly good idea.

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If those books are dictionaries explaining old kanji, then that might work out :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
(Nah, just kidding! We‘ve read a few older books in the Advanced Club and you can always check out the previews if you get curious.)

That sounds like an excellent idea! I was recently thinking of reading some NHK to broaden my skills in that direction, but Nikkei sounds great as well. Will see how far I can get :sweat_smile:

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Ah yep, if not known already I was referring to 青空文庫. Lottttssss of old kanji and old grammar. If you’re interested in Soseki though, have you heard of the Soseki project? http://www.sosekiproject.org/

こころ is rated at 38 on Natively but there is a review saying it’s easier than Dazai and I have loved the Dazai I’ve read and only thought one of them was that tough (tougher actually as it was close to being poetry!). IMO there is an initial, unavoidable hurdle of getting familiar with older grammar and biting into those rarer kanji usages but the classic authors I’ve read (except 芥川竜之介, ugh) are actually quite smooth reads.

YMMV and I’ve also been told more than once I undersell book difficulty so grain of salt and all that but reading classic lit in Japanese is super fun and I’m an advocate for jumping in sooner rather than later, although starting with short stories to not burn out.

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Appreciate it! For now I’m comfortable putting it off while I keep sorta getting my bearings with books, but there’ll definitely come a time when I’ll start looking into that.

I had somewhat heard of, but not really used Aozora yet, thanks! And I didn’t know about the Soseki Project but that looks fantastic. I know my fiancée loved こころ (in English). I’ve got a bit of a particular pull to 夢十夜 especially since surreal, dreamy things really speak to me. Knowing that’s in short chunks makes it something I’ll probably dip my toes into earlier, pretty fitting with your short story advice.

With me still being in the “oh I can kinda fake my way through a simply written book” stage I think, sorta like what I was talking about with that bit of Ace Attorney I dropped, it doesn’t quite feel like time to add on rare kanji and old grammar when I could be getting a little more knowledge/comfort with the widely applicable things first. But it is something I want to do so I’ll keep in mind that it might not be QUITE as bad as I’d expect. Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain this stuff!

Also when you mention Dazai, I definitely need to at least read 人間失格 some day, but I’m keeping that as a later goal. Despite my constant posting of pictures of cute anime girls, I just love art, and that sprawls out in most directions, haha. Getting into the “serious literature” is a bit of an end goal for me. His works aren’t as old, but I feel like Kōbō Abe is about the final goal for me, given that when I read something like The Box Man in English, I could barely even understand it then, haha.

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Day 26!
I read about half of chapter 18 of レンタルおにいちゃん today.
I was hoping to read the whole chapter, but I had a bit of a rough day and I just didn’t have the brainpower left to read that much!
I’m having dinner with friends tomorrow evening, and won’t have much reading time - so having a half-chapter to read tomorrow is actually kind of convenient I guess, so thats a silver lining :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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