Home post Day 1 - 3 log
Only been reading yotsubato so far
Day 1 - pages 3 to 17 - 6 cards added
Day 2 - pages 17 to 29 - 4 cards added
Day 3 - pages 29 to 50 - 5 cards added (first chapter finished)
I’ve really been wanting to get the most out of yotsubato this time as previously I always read it in a more extensive reading sort of way rather then an intensive one. So now that I’m back learning again I’ve decided to fix that so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on easy to learn vocabulary.
I’m doing this by putting words (with context sentences) in to my anki so I’m taking a bit longer to read things then i normally would. But plus side is, is that there are words that I swear where not there before!
I’m hoping I get to a volume I haven’t read before (by or before the end of the month) so things get a bit more interesting.
Anyway that’s all for the update. Hope everyone’s reading is going well!
I still love that film so much. Last time we were in Tokyo (May 2019) I finally got to to the steps and literally had to queue up to take photos there! Since it went onto Netflix I’ve been able to start watching it with the japanese subs, which is super helpful.
Day 3 complete!
Today I read the wikipedia article for 平林都 (basically the Miss Manners of Japan) because last night I somehow stumbled into a YouTube rabbit hole where all the big personalities had videos with her. I started with this one where she visits a butler themed cafe.
Day 3! 銭天堂, pages 17-28. I’m honestly surprised how easy this is to read. I’m still using the vocabulary sheet very frequently, but the grammar’s a lot simpler than Kiki and I can speed read in some places.
Tomorrow I’ll finally start reading Kiki again.
取り消す = とりけす to retract, to take back something said, to withdraw.
冤罪 = えんざい false accusations.
I keep remembering the scenes from the movie as I read, which is cool, but I’m also wondering if it’s not counterproductive to dissecting the meaning of some words . I see myself skipping words because I know what is happening from remembering the movie, but I need to hold myself or I think I won’t learn as much ^^ .
I’m not used to sitting to read in Japanese one hour everyday and while I’m enjoying it a lot, going slow while comprehending as much as possible, I see myself thinking “when is this over!?” a few times throughout the hour . Which is weird because once I was done these previous two days, I felt like a bit later I actually wanted to sit and read a bit more. But I don’t want to burn out, so I’m limiting myself to not reading more than my current amount for now. I know it will backfire when I’m not feeling as willing.
Ok I’m in, starting today. Last month I bought volumes 1 and 2 of Fruits Basket from Amazon Japan. I found the book club thread about it to follow along with. Four pages a day is my goal and seems sustainable. I’m excited!
I was mistaken yesterday when I said I was finished with my bookclub reading for the week, because I forgot I’d only read one chapter of 極主夫道.
But I read Chapter 9 today so now I really am finished.
Still not fully decided on what to read for the rest of the week though. I might start the second volume of レンタルおにいちゃん, but maybe I should read some news articles or something similar.
I usually stick to reading mostly manga because I really struggle with larger blocks of text, but this challenge seems like an opportunity to work on that a bit.
I had this when I started reading the manga of March Comes in Like a Lion…it’s one of the reasons why I prefer to read things that I don’t already know the story of before I start. Although I will definitely be going to March Comes in Like a Lion later because the manga goes on way beyond the anime and I have to know what happens!!
Read this week’s chapters for the 極主夫道 book club! For some reason I didn’t realize that this is technically the end of the book (the rest is bonus chapters)… so I can say I’ve read my first manga in Japanese!! And first book in Japanese in general (not counting graded readers)
I’m excited to read the bonus chapters next week! Although I’m tempted to read them right now… but I also like reading alongside everyone else
Split chapter 2 of レンタルおにいちゃん over yesterday and today as I was reading after work both days. As much as I wanted to continue on Sunday night I was tired and my brain wasn’t having it. So, I read 37 pages on Sunday night and finished off the last 6 pages tonight, along with chapter 3 which was such a wholesome chapter with some wonderful character progression. It’s interesting to see how much I’m able to follow without even really ‘thinking’ about it, as that definitely wasn’t the case when I read Vol.1 earlier last year.
In Animal Crossing I got to have a chat with Celeste, and Isabelle reminded me about the fishing tournament happening this Saturday. Trying to place a particular focus on noticing the different speech patterns across all the islanders, as I can struggle with making sense of things when I’m presented with multiple characters on a page who all speak differently.
Notable words from this update:
日和 (ひより | fine weather) - Used by Jacques in AC to describe the ideal conditions to be sweeping out the island plaza.
寄り道 (よりみち | stopping off at, making a detour) - Used by Kanami’s new group of friends whilst planning their walk home from school. I know we learn 途中 on WK, but this provided a good insight into more nuanced ways of talking about things on the way to somewhere else or ways around other things.
I’m currently halfway through Vol.2 of レンタルおにいちゃん and it’s even better than Vol.1. We’re getting some great character development, and there’s even a dog.
January 3
・かがみの孤城. I finished the second week. This went smoother than expected. Very nice.
Progress: (8% → 15%)
Things are starting to happen in the book Have to remind myself: read the weekly threads. And to update the table in the second post, I totally forgot that yesterday apparently.
I see you guys posting every day, so I’ll try to share my thoughts about my progress as well.
January:
1st: I spent 37 minutes reading 僕らはみんな河合荘. I started by rereading pages 9 and 10, to verify how much I remembered from last time and then read 3 more pages. I’m currently at chapter 1, page 13/15.
2nd: I decided it was a good moment to catch up with the ABBC. I reread the first half and then read the second half of 三ツ星カラーズ chapter 4. It took me exactly 30 minutes. I learnt about the use of やがる. Now I’m completely caught up. Next week, I’ll start reading chapter 5.
Later during the day, I discovered that chapter 1 of おじさまと猫 is available for free (for a limited time) on BookWalker. I read 5 chapters / 24 pages (in 42 minutes). It’s quite simple and extremely cute!
3rd: At first, I wasn’t sure if I should start another manga, but there are still 16 days until the first volume of 地縛少年花子くん expires and I noticed it has furigana over every kanji, so I couldn’t resist. I read 16 pages in 57 minutes.
I also needed some more of おじさまと猫, so I reread chapter 5 and read chapter 6 and 7. It took me 30 minutes.
Hopefully, I can finish them both in time.
Today I picked my next novel to read! I have been deliberating since finishing NO.6 during the last challenge, thinking potentially too much about what would be the best pick in terms of vocab level, interest etc etc. And then I kind of ignored most of that today and picked 鏡の孤城 somewhat on a whim. I read the first about 5% today and while the story hasn’t really kicked off yet, the character voice and atmosphere are already very readable and interesting. It also feels like a really nice level for me right now. I’d like to catch up with the bookclub, but will have to see how that goes once I am back at work.
I also read a bit more 呪術廻戦 (5 chapters from volume 7) - including a baseball chapter!!! I love how silly this manga can be at times.
Hahaha, well, I was exaggerating a little but when Toudou turned up with his whole ‘what type of woman do you like?’ bit I was a bit “ugh…” but his bromance with Itadori and just his general silliness mean that he’s now one of the characters I enjoy the most.
A dog, you say? I actually read the first chapter of vol 1 a while back and wasn’t hooked but now that I know that there’s a dog…I feel like another try might be in order!
January 3 update:
Read chapter 5 of よつばと! 1. Some slang was a bit hard to figure out, but otherwise it went pretty smoothly, and was super fun. There were hints to this before, but now it’s obvious that よつば clearly took after her father
Thanks for the pointer! Too bad I saw this after ordering a different one I was actually considering it (as I have another book in Tsubasa Bunko edition), but in the end I went with the 新海誠ライブラリー edition, which seemed to be nicer and more durable than the bunko ones. Now I’m wondering if this was the right choice, because I imagine my lookup time will increase dramatically without having furigana…
On the other hand, my experience with having furigana for every kanji is ambivalent: my eyes tend to automatically look at it even before seeing the kanji because it’s much easier, and then I only look at kanji to confirm or disambiguate the meaning. I’m a bit worried that this hinders my progress with internalizing kanji vocab by not getting me to apply the effort to actually recognize the kanji/words first. I do try to consciously stop myself from doing that, but that doesn’t always work, and it takes away some focus from what I’m reading.
<-time spent on また、同じ夢を見てた
. I see myself skipping words because I know what is happening from remembering the movie, but I need to hold myself or I think I won’t learn as much ^^ .
. Which is weird because once I was done these previous two days, I felt like a bit later I actually wanted to sit and read a bit more. But I don’t want to burn out, so I’m limiting myself to not reading more than my current amount for now. I know it will backfire when I’m not feeling as willing.
Have to remind myself: read the weekly threads. And to update the table in the second post, I totally forgot that yesterday apparently.