Monobeno
I’m really shocked but reading it seems to get easier and easier every day seriously I may even finish reading it this year. Today I finished the third chapter there are still 25 more chapters to read. But I’m not just reading it I always also speak all the lines out loud. People may think I’m crazy but I think my pronunciation will improve that way.
A Town Where You Live Vol.1
It has some interesting situations lol. Just sat down and read 70 pages I would actually read more but I’m doing a course at a university right now and there is lots I have to read for it every day. If I read too much on a day I get bored of reading and have to do something else
There are a few book clubs that do read aloud sessions as well, if you’re interested in that? (It’s much more fun with more people than just one person alone, I think. Some clubs also read manga with assigned roles, that’s also super entertaining!)
February 14 update:
Finished volume 3 of よつばと！ today. Instead of reaching some conclusion on Jumbo’s infatuation with Asagi (unbeknownst to the latter, presumably), the manga decided to have everyone else, including the kids, capitalize on it – up to the point of blackmail It’s quite funny, but it feels like this situation isn’t going away any time soon, so I hope it’ll be played out creatively at least. So far I felt like the jokes based around Jumbo-Asagi were some of the weakest in the series (besides maybe the panel where he came all dressed up to their first failed rendezvous “arranged” by Yotsuba – that one was quite a whirlwind of emotions).
Yesterday I read all of this week’s assignment of 大聖堂 - this is the first time that I managed to read that amount in one day!
Yesterday and today I read the second episode of しあわせのパン - almost done with it. I also reached the 50% mark today. That means I might be able to finish the book around the weekend or slightly afterwards, which leaves me with enough time to watch the movie in the film festival.
I read Chapter 14 of 極主夫道 today - it took me a little while since there was no vocab in the bookclub sheet yet and there isn’t much furigana! But I did it, and I filled in the vocab sheet too
It’s read ちきゅうおんだんか, right? And means global warming? I guess it made quite an impression on me the first time I read よつばと！１ that 6 years later, I can still remember it.
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 10 min
Today’s color: 樺色 (かばいろ) - a reddish yellow
Named for the color of birch (樺) bark. It can also be written as 蒲色, because the color of birch bark is also the color of cattails. I guess the 樺色 writing was more popular in the Heian period.
Good words
樺 (かば) - birch
山桜 (やまざくら) - mountain cherry
樺桜 (かばざくら) - any cherry tree with birch-like bark
表記 (ひょうき) - expression in writing; written representation; notation; transcription; orthography
蒲 (がま or かば) - common cattail (Typha latifolia); common bulrush; common reedmace
同一視 (どういつし) - viewing and treating as one; regarding as the same; equating one thing with another; identification
のちに - later on; subsequently; by and by; after a while
まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 6 min
Today’s reading was about バレンタインデー and the best part of it, the チョコ
ハッピーバレンタインデー, 皆さん
What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 6 pages
Time spent: 11 min
Sleepy day :') I just read a few pages of ヴァニタスの手記 to keep up the habit so not a whole lot to say there. I should have more time to read tomorrow (and hopefully be less tired ) so onward and upward!
(Also happy valentine’s day everyone! Don’t forget to go get some discounted candy tomorrow )
A few words
まどろっこしい - dull, sluggish
単刀直入 - straight to the point, frank
生かす - to let live
戯言 - nonsense, drivel
ガラクタ - junk, trash
心外 - regrettable, unthinkable
(wow no wonder my brain didn’t wanna do it today, this was from like five pages when I’m already tired?? no mercy, vanitas)
I also ran into this てみたはいいものの construction (the return of the infamous ものの) and I really did not have the mental capacity to fully grasp the hinative explanations and connect them to what was happening but I got the gist, I’ll probably go back to it another time lmao
It seems like it’s more or less “It would have been better if I didn’t”? Or close to ending the first clause with a “but” in English I actually haven’t seen this construction before but the example sentences make sense I think:
EDIT: I was looking at this HiNative btw, just incase you were referencing something else.
エアコンを買ったはいいものの、台湾では暖房機能はあまり使う機会はないかな。
would be like ~I bought an aircon, but in Taiwain I barely have the chance to use the heat setting
Tシャツを買ったのはいいものの
1回も着てない
~I bought this shirt but I haven’t even worn it once
ラーメン屋に行ったのはいものの
その日は開いていなかった。
~I went to the ramen shop but they weren’t even open that day
I didn’t see this word for such a long time and then suddenly it was everywhere. It was one of those words that I’m convinced I was just blanking out before.
Reading it now, I feel kind of silly for not finishing chapter 8 earlier. Those last few pages were fairly easy. Chapter 9 however… Yotsuba’s doing some kind of murder mystery play pretend that’s a lot harder to understand lmao There’s already a number of jokes that I haven’t really gotten because I didn’t understand them until I’d studied them too long for them to be funny. I’ll probably fall back on more Shirokuma cafe tomorrow to give myself a break since I have a lot of studying planned.
Oh I forgot about this book! You’ll have to tell me what you think of it. When I started Japanese I was like “ooh frequent onomatopoeia; that’s fun.” Flash forward to today and most cards that are tormenting me on Anki are onomatopoeia that just will not stick at all no matter what I do. Been hoping the long term fixes that (I say while they all slowly start auto-suspending…), but I might need a new approach, heh.
Oh yeah, that chapter’s cute, but it’s so much harder than the surroundings. I kinda glided through it on my first read back then tbh.
You might like Onomappu’s onomatopoeia playlist? His videos have a sprinkling of English (and other languages) but are 95%+ in Japanese from what I remember.
Yeah, thanks, this looks good! Just tried a video and this is totally within my comprehension level, so Japanese (almost) only is just a plus. Here’s hoping this helps some start to stick.
Read pages 147-151 of 銭天堂 today. Yesterday my Korean friend, who is also learning Japanese, recommended me a light novel on sale for Valentine’s Day (今夜、世界からこの恋が消えても). I bought it on Bookwalker as well as 君ノ声, a manga previously recommended to me by a Japanese friend.
I tried the first page of the manga, and… well, let’s say I barely have an idea of what’s happening, and keep having to use DeepL for unknown vocabulary, but hopefully if I keep going I’ll eventually understand more
They both seem to be centred around romance, which usually isn’t my thing, but why not give them a try lol.
Started reading a new volume of the それいけズッコケ三人組 series - the third one I’ve read. Honestly, it’s a bit of a relief after the last couple of books I’ve read. It feels very familiar and easy - ironically much easier than Doraemon where I was having to piece together a lot of what was happening from the pictures. There’s a lot of descriptive storytelling in these that makes them a pleasure to read.
That said, whereas previous volumes have given me every Japanese word I could possibly need to describe a tree, and every japanese word I could possibly need to describe a cave, this volume is set by the ocean so I think we can see where that’s going.
Favourite word I’ve learnt recently is ひんやり, which I’ve come across in several different contexts but came up again today to describe jumping into the sea. It means ‘feeling nice and cold’ which I’m not sure we have an equivalent word for in english? But as some who swims in the sea a lot, I’m glad to finally have a word to describe it.
It’s quite funny, but it feels like this situation isn’t going away any time soon, so I hope it’ll be played out creatively at least. So far I felt like the jokes based around Jumbo-Asagi were some of the weakest in the series (besides maybe the panel where he came all dressed up to their first failed rendezvous “arranged” by Yotsuba – that one was quite a whirlwind of emotions).
Don’t forget to go get some discounted candy tomorrow 
)
Tシャツを買ったのはいいものの
