Day 42:
I read three pages of よつばと！ today 
Me trying and failing to meet my self imposed deadline for reading today
24 Likes
Day 49: Read 4 pages of よつば＆！
23 Likes
Day 49: February 18th
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 14 min
Today’s color: 猩々緋 (しょうじょうひ) - scarlet
Named for the 猩々, a mythical beast reminiscent of a drunken orangutan this word can also mean orangutan, or a person who’s a heavy drinker 
Apparently this is the color of the 猩々’s blood. Popular with warriors on the battlefield.
Good words
- 想像上 (そうぞうじょう) - imaginary
- 霊獣 (れいじゅう) - sacred beast
- 鮮烈 (せんれつ) - vivid; striking
- 大航海時代 (だいこうかいじだい) - Age of Discovery; Age of Exploration (the big sailing period xD)
- 羅紗 (ラシャ) - felt; woollen cloth
- 愛用 (あいよう) - favorite; favourite; habitually used
- 鮮血 (せんけつ) - fresh blood
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 was about 白魚 (しらうお) - icefish, which are auspicious in the spring? There’s a famous kabuki line about this, I guess Not really getting it but going along with it anyway 
I did learn a great word from this though, 名ゼリフ (めいゼリフ) - famous line (from a movie, book, etc.); famous quote
What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 5 pages
Time spent: 28 min
Sharks sharks sharks~ Today’s chapter focused on megalodon, the biggest shark of them all :o Also got to see my buddy シュモク again, sort of xD
For those who don't know/remember, this is シュモク
He is not actually from this manga xD He’s from another shark manga I read in the first challenge and he’s my favorite シュモクザメ/Instagram influencer. He’s so cute 
Cutest thing of today goes to おるかちゃん in her tiny teaching hat
Second place for the cutest thing of today goes to these squishy-lookingトラフザメ
Look at them D: I wanna squoosh 'em 
Good words
- 統計 (とうけい) - statistics
- 満たない (みたない) - less than; fraction of; below
- それどころか - on the contrary; far from it; if anything; in fact; instead
- 圧倒的 (あっとうてき) - overwhelming
- 駆除 (くじょ) - extermination (esp. pests); expulsion; destruction
- 凶暴 (きょうぼう) - ferocious; brutal; atrocious; savage; barbarous
- マイナスイメージ - negative image (of something or someone); bad image
- 滅ぶ (ほろぶ) - to be ruined; to go under; to perish; to be destroyed
- 伴い (ともない) - companion; accompaniment
- 出現 (しゅつげん) - appearance; arrival; make one’s appearance
- 捕食 (ほしょく) - predation; eating prey; preying upon
- 軟骨 (なんこつ) - cartilage
- 復元 (ふくげん) - restoration (to original state or location); reconstruction; reversion
- 死角 (しかく) - blind spot (e.g. of a driver)
- ゆるゆる - very loose; slowly; leisurely
- 平べったい (ひらべったい) - flat; even; level
- ゆるふわ - soft and fluffy
- 幼体 (ようたい) - immature form (of an organism); young animal
22 Likes
Update February 17 & 18
- 17th: よつばと！chapter 8
- 18th: よつばと！ chapter 9
Animal Crossing.
Really glad to have よつばと！back. Sorry Death Note, we’ll catch up at some point.
19 Likes
Day 5 - February 18
Yotsubato vol.2 pg. 57-67
I am very thankful for the existence of vocabulary lists so I don’t have to fight to understand when Yotsuba mispronounces words haha Her adventures playing pretend are so cute though.
Is anyone else surprised by how much they have to read out loud in Japanese compared to English or their native language? The only time I remember reading out loud in English was when I was reading with someone, so this feels like a totally new experience to me. I’ll be at work muttering under my breath in this cutesy child’s voice and then laughing to myself as I read. It feels creepy as hell, but I’m too excited about actually reading in Japanese to care too much haha
20 Likes
February 18 
Home Post
I played some more 999 today, of course! It was lots of fun, though it did make me do base-16 math 
A wild ride all around.
Zero Escape talk
Oh boy Titanic came up a lot again today I swear sometimes 紫 talks and I’m like “I think I’d be just as lost playing this in English” lmao, she was talking about how some authors supposedly predicted the Titanic sinking and that got convoluted real fast.
I did encounter a neat concept though:
So the 百万歩ゆずって here doesn’t seem to be a set phrase on its own, but more of an exaggerated version of 百歩譲る basically saying like “let’s say I’m completely wrong for the sake of argument.” This makes sense too with 一歩譲る just conceding one point rather than 100 or 1,000,000 of them. I think it’s a neat sort of range of expressions! (Also probably related is 譲歩? I’m not an etymology expert but these concepts all seem pretty linked to me) ((I also found this tweet talking about it, pretty interesting!))
Anyway I finished this puzzle section and I think we’re about to reunite with the group so 
exciting times!
It’s the weekend 
so hopefully I’ll be able to get some more good reading in! We’re getting near the end of the official challenge after all
Fun words
変哲もない - ordinary, commonplace
取り憑く - to take hold of, to possess
眉唾 - dubious tale, questionable information
荒唐無稽 - absurd, preposterous
支離滅裂 - incoherent, illogical
まわりくどい - circuitous, roundabout
デタラメ - nonsense, haphazard
Very relatable, physical books just hit different you know? Reading digitally is so convenient in so many ways but like… pretty book good
Admittedly this is still the same like branch section so I haven’t had the chance to do otherwise but like… you’re not wrong I’ll be hard-pressed not to tag along with him in the future, he’s just wild. (Though honestly at this point I’m really attached to the whole little group I’ve been with, I’m gonna be kind of sad when we inevitably split up some other way, though I am excited to interact with the rest of the characters more )
21 Likes
My partner once said it sounded like I was chanting incantations when I sat reading books on the couch 
I do it less now, but it used to be a must for me.
15 Likes
Day 48:
日本語: I read some of ミステリークロック and some of 機動強襲型令嬢アリシア物語１.
Read-aloud: We read 4 (!!!) chapters of ふしぎの国のバード and finished v7.
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.
23 Likes
I finished 七夜物語（下）last night. On Wednesday I read 34 pages in a burst to get to the end of the climactic part. Then last night, 41 pages for the wrap-up. I didn’t really want to read that much but it’s awkward to leave off with only a little bit of conclusion left dangling. The end was okay, but I didn’t love it. And I’m not sure this book really needed to be 1,100 pages (3 volumes) long.
Now I’m starting ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖, Tsubasa Bunko version with furigana. I found out after I bought this book that my library system has the full series in the regular edition. I hope I enjoy this and it isn’t too hard, because it would be nice to take advantage of that.
24 Likes
The last two days were minimal reading days. I usually read at night before going to bed (or in bed) but it got to a little too late and I was just super tired so I did the bare minimum… I hope I’ll get a little more done today, though it will be quite a busy day as well 
23 Likes
Today’s article was 『笑わない、絶対に笑わない』 and I felt like I only understood about half of it despite having very few words to look up. I might show this one to my tutor to check if it’s actually a good choice for reading practice or not. I suspect the blog’s author just writes in a more roundabout way that’s hard for me to grasp right now in Japanese.
It also made me think that if there’s a spring challenge (I hope there is!) I will switch gears into reading about business and politics. I’ve watched 3 shows recently where I’ve missed a lot in scenes where those topics are brought up, sometimes to the point where I miss major plot points. Just far too many missing words or words that are too vaguely known to be part of my listening vocabulary. Today’s article had a smattering of politics and while I don’t think that’s why I felt puzzled, it did bring the topic to mind.
24 Likes
Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220219 
Tanuki Scroll L: トラのあぶら
Read today’s folktale, from Kochi Prefecture!
Today’s moral: If you want to dry your clothes on a fire but the fire is too small and the fire master is too stingy with it, then tell them that you eat the big bits of bamboo so you need more fire, then, when the fire is roaring and you’re drying nicely be like “but we need tiger oil to eat it! えええなに？ you don’t have tiger oil? I best go then” and escape - you have now managed to dry your clothes successfully 
☆ Learnings ☆
New Words
とんち「頓知」ー Quick-Wit (usually only written in kana)
ビショビショ ー Soaked; Drenched
初耳「はつみみ」ー Hearing something for the first time
New Forms
ちょいと ＝ ちょっと
Though I think ちょいと is seen as a little old-fashioned, and if you ever wondered if ちょっと can be written in kanji like me then it’s: 一寸.
Names
是市「これいち」ー Koreichi
Old Places
土佐の国「とさのくに」ー An old province Japan, now part of Kochi prefecture.
20 Likes
Read a couple of pages before breakfast again…and then read a whole chapter this afternoon because it was raining and I wanted to know what happened next.
Yep had to do this all the time when I started reading. Now I read silently but deliberately pronouncing each word in my head if that makes sense? Particularly with kanji to confirm to myself that I know the reading.
17 Likes
I read しあわせのパン all week. I’m almost done with it, I should be able to finish it tomorrow (if not today ^^). That means I’ve read the whole book (200 pages) in two weeks. Not mind-boggling, but it’s okay, I’m happy about it. (Plus, I can finally watch the movie next week )
Next up is 笑わない数学者 (read the first two sub-chapters yesterday, will continue today) and then 大聖堂 (my reading partner is a bit behind so there is no rush for me, luckily 
).
Finally I will be able to continue with ifの悲劇 (which I deferred to focus on しあわせのパン).
Yes, that’s how I do it as well.
21 Likes
Day 50!
That feels like a cool milestone 
I read chapter 15 of 極主夫道 today. I find this manga pretty difficult to read, but I really love it so I keep pushing through even though its tough! I’m glad the chapters are pretty short, because it means that I can usually read them in one sitting even though I always need to look a lot of stuff up!
I also started playing Pokemon Legends Arceus in Japanese yesterday. Pretty sure that counts as reading, but its a bit hard to measure how much I read so I’m not sure how include that in these daily logs! Going to play a bit more today though
23 Likes
February 19
笑わない数学者
Progress: 61% → 63%
Yet another tiny read 
Kpop (especially dance videos) is not good for reading 
I didn’t choose a new bias, bias choose me.
23 Likes
23 Likes
Oh ok, I forget how often the branches happen haha. It’s been a long time! I know what you mean though, making those sub-groups creates its own little dynamics.
It took a real push today, but ~3000 characters and ~255 lines again. I feel slightly aggravated at just how often I have to run off for help, but that’s life for a long time I guess. I don’t mean it’s seriously bothering me, but, you know. I think it’s less indicative of a problem and more just the inevitable result of how much work there is to do. I’m still enjoying myself, just, super long way to go. The book was meant to be my harder material I stretch for while the VN was more comfortable, but I’m not sure what I think about that now. Like, the VN setup is so easy for lookups that smooths it more, and I’d say Zoo’s sentences are regularly longer and slightly more complex. But when difficulty spikes happen… Otsuichi almost never uses super specific obscure looking words, my problems there are usually just new verbs I haven’t learned and stuff. This VN loves to dip into all sorts of weird topics and language though.
And while I don’t think anything in this sentence is THAT odd, here’s an example of how things pile up:
いかつい漁師さん達が、うさんくさそうにこちらを一瞥した。
4 unknowns in a sentence of that size doesn’t happen too often! 漁師 is kinda borderline cause the VN has used it a lot today especially, but yeah. Wide vocabulary in this VN.
Today was all side events cause 紬 hasn’t been available for a bit, but I had fun because they started playing around with ミニ四駆 (those little motorized cars) from their childhood. I have only a few personal memories of that as a kid, but it also brought to mind Yakuza’s pocket circuit, so that amused me a lot.
Check out those SPEED LINES! They were animated in the game lol.
The coolest new word today is 五十肩 (ごじゅうかた), stiff shoulders especially from age. The kanji is 50 shoulder. The age part is implied I suppose. I love it.
25 Likes
February 19 update:
Read the fourth story of きまぐれロボット today. This one was not a sci-fi story like the previous three, but rather a fable about greed. Not especially exciting, but still a decent read. Not sure whether it’s due to the author’s style or just my imagination filling the gaps, but these stories seem to have character. Even if the plot isn’t too complex, the atmosphere and the characters are quite interesting. I especially appreciate how this all comes through within just a few pages of text.
22 Likes
