Day 62!
Chapter 25 of Yotsuba today. Can’t quite decide whether this chapter was funny or sad - Yotsuba doing her best to be kind… by telling poor heartbroken Fuuka that she has fat legs 
16 Likes
March 3 
Home Post
Still busyyy 
but I read some ヴァニタスの手記 so that was fun! I have theories 
(that I’m sure I won’t find out about for a long time considering I only own the first volume lmao) but yeah still keeping it up! I’m looking forward to having more reading time soon 
Words!!
然るべき - proper, suitable
生け捕り - capturing (someone) alive
殲滅 - extermination, annihilation (bruh that first kanji)
かの - that well-known (person)
刷り込む - to instill (a thought, impression)
Aw yay, very much agree! Definitely gonna have to watch more 
Hey last time you did that you ended up with Summer Pockets, so I’d say it worked out! I know it can still be frustrating to drop something, but if you’d have more fun elsewhere then go for it!
17 Likes
I only know a little about him, but Namajague was portrayed by a Japanese wrestler during his stint in the Mexican promotion CMLL, hence, I believe, the spelling of his name. The same guy also portrays El Desperado in New Japan Pro Wrestling, though El Desperado and Namajague are treated as different people, in kayfabe. He used to run different social media accounts for them, even. I’d wondered a bit about the character, haha, but obviously searching for “namajague” only brings up results about the wrestler, and doesn’t really explain the namahage origin!
9 Likes
March 4
本好きの下剋上 9
Progress: 13% → 21%
…When did I read this much? 
I feel like I’ve done nothing productive today. I even spent the morning reading manga in English 
Yabai
23 Likes
Sadly, going right back on what I had previously decided, I think I’m going to take a break from posting. My mental and physical health are both tanking – feels like not the place to go into much self-pitying detail so I’ll leave it there. I hope I can keep learning Japanese, if I’ve actually managed to learn much of anything yet.
Thank you so much for the challenge; hope I manage to see you all next time 
24 Likes
Take care, I hope you feel better soon 
12 Likes
Day 63！
The ABBC started reading ハピネス today, so I read this weeks assignment. It was only half of the chapter so I actually read a little too far before I realised and had to go back!
Haven’t read enough to have much of an opinion about the story yet, but the art on the first few pages was lovely, so I was a little disappointed when the art style switched!
@Daisoujou
Sorry to hear this, please take care of yourself.
I hope to see you for the next challenge 
16 Likes
Playing a game entirely in Japanese, reading books, listening to audiobooks…
Learning a language is a long road, but you’re hardly at a the starting line.
Take a breather, be kind to yourself, and hope to see you in the spring challenge 
13 Likes
Aw yeah, I was just going to say pretty much the same as @pocketcat - I think the things you’ve managed to read, play, listen to etc speak for themselves. You’ve been doing great!
But also, bodies and brains sometimes need a break or even just like to be butts sometimes, so taking a rest isn’t a bad thing at all. I’ve had a couple of periods of very low ‘being able to do things’ capability while learning Japanese and one thing that helped massively was to hit vacation mode on all the SRS things I was doing. That took the bit that I found the most mentally straining away and then I found that I was actually able to still do a little light reading/watching in Japanese just for fun (without adding any words to SRS or actively trying to study from it etc). This may or may not work for you and it also might be that you need time away completely but just mentioning in case it’s helpful.
Regardless, hope you feel better soon and thanks for sharing all of the interesting VN tidbits throughout this challenge!
12 Likes
I’m sorry to hear that things have gotten hard! I hope you feel better soon
If it helps any, I think you’ve managed to learn a heck of a lot, and the progress you’ve made so far is not nothing! Even if you have to take an extended break, the time you’ve put in so far won’t be lost. I have two friends with severe chronic illness, and they’ve both managed to keep getting better at the language, despite having to take frequent breaks. None of your work is wasted.
15 Likes
March 4 Home Post
Busy again, so pretty brief today. I read a little more ヴァニタスの手記 though, just one more chapter left! Then I suffer until whenever I actually buy more volumes 
I should be a lot more free tomorrow so hopefully I can get some good 999 time in, I’ve been missing it!
Take care of yourself! Japanese will be here whenever, your health is far more important. And yeah playing a visual novel is nothing to sneeze at, you have plenty to be proud of! Best wishes 
16 Likes
Finished reading Pretty Boy Detective Club volume 1 yesterday. Bit annoyed they didn’t manage to finish this case and it ended on a cliffhanger, but it wasn’t good enough for me to continue reading it lol. I did feel I saw plently of grammar points I learned that I didn’t see pop up in other stuff. Like more formal grammar. There was also some more vocab related to stars and celestial bodies.
As a palette cleanser I was thinking of reading Gal & Dinosaur. It’s a bit easier than what I read lately, but I know I’ll like it and I need to bridge the gap till new goods arrive anyway.
19 Likes
Day 64!
Volume 5, chapter 4 of からかい上手の高木さん today. As usual, poor Nishikata never learns.
18 Likes
March 5
本好きの下剋上 9
Progress: 21% → 23%
I feel like there were a few tricky sentences today. Also tired from having coffee withdrawals. I marked the confusing sentences, so I might ask for help tomorrow.
18 Likes
Still reading so why not post haha
I had a flight today, and so a lot of reading time! I read from 77-93% of 鏡の孤城(上) and maaan it was so hard to stop at 93% but also it’s nearly midnight and I have holiday things to be doing tomorrow. On the plane I read while listening to the audiobook at the same time (pausing when I needed to check things) and it was really nice experience 
I also read a bit of ハイキュー vol 7. My boyfriend was making fun of me for taking a paperback manga volume as well as my kindle that has a million things to read on it but we got told to turn off all electronic devices for the last 20 minutes or so before landing so I felt justified in my book hoarding ways, lol. ハイキュー still sometimes will surprise me with new vocab or grammar but it still feels very cool when I think back to just how difficult/impossible it was when I started trying to read it that it’s now something that I can quite happily read without access to a dictionary/the internet to look things up and not feel like I miss that much. Nice to have those moments where you can see progress!
22 Likes
March 5 Home Post
Late post again, but I did read more today! Got some good 999 time in 
I realized how much I’d missed it once I got back into it, so that was nice. Wonderful サンタ goofs as always:
He’s talking about a pile of sandbags :') love him
But yeah I can kinda feel the overall plot starting to wind down, so I’m very curious to see how it all goes many questions to be answered!
Cool words
吊るす - to hang (up)
滑車 - pulley (slippery vehicle?? omg)
度胸 - courage, guts
天邪鬼 - contrarian (guess who this was describing lmao)
18 Likes
March 6
本好きの下剋上 9
Progress: 23% → 30%
I somehow forgot to check out the tricky sentences from yesterday, I guess I’ll check them out later instead.
Phrase of the day: 目から鱗が落ちる
Meaning: to see the light; to be awakened to the truth; to have the scales fall from one’s eyes
19 Likes
We say the same thing in German
10 Likes
I looked this up as I had heard it in English too, but was never very sure of why someone would have scales on their eyes. Seems it from the Bible. Googling around there is some back and forth about what the ‘scales’ were but it’s suspected to have been some kind of scaley-looking disease that caused blindness?
Learn something new every day!
11 Likes
Just after I had posted I low-key started to wonder why one would say that 
So thanks for investigating! I also checked whether the origin of the German saying was identical, and it turns out that yes, it was the name of a disease that led to blindness. Interestingly, the post also mentions that snakes get almost blind during their shedding and that maybe that also led to the saying, just like the commentor in your post remarked.
11 Likes