Day 65!
I read the bonus chapters of Volume 2 of 極主夫道.
It’s definitely still a bit tough for me to read usually, but these chapters were quite text light so they were extra fun to read 
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March 6 
Home Post
I thought I was too sleepy to read very much today, but then I started 999 and it wasted absolutely no time 
Still not a huge reading day but it’s cool, I’m getting closer and closer to finishing a playthrough 
wild
999 things
On a lighter note, there was a cute 紫 goof:
She mixed up 淳平 and 心配 :') fun little language joke for sure!
But then サンタ happened and I was not prepared:
Vague spoilers ig: It really wasn’t even explicitly angsty, just like… seeing a character who’s normally goofs and aggro just be so suddenly serious and silent hits pretty hard. And his sister 
it’s very classic “yeah the aggro boy has feelings” but it gets me man
Words!!
安らぐ - to feel at ease
目に入れても痛くない - being the apple of one’s eye, loving someone dearly
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This… it me 
So I’ve decided to take a break from participating in the reading challenge. It’s already March 7th, so in a way I guess this is one week overdue, haha. Looking forward to the next one! 
I’ve usually been reading in the evening after finishing up studying for the day (sometimes way too late at the expense of sleep time), but recently I’ve been reading in the morning before getting up. (Good for Japanese studies - not so good for my uni studies )
The books I’ve completed:
・かがみの孤城 (上)・5% →
・笑わない数学者・13% →
・本好きの下剋上 8・ 0% →
Books I’m still reading:
・かがみの孤城 (下)・33%
・薬屋のひとりごと 1 ・7%
・本好きの下剋上 9・30% (started March 2nd)
It’s hard to measure, but I feel like both my reading speed and stamina have increased. I’ve probably written that at the end of every challenge so far But it shows that reading a lot/frequently helps. During the 
Autumn Challenge 
, I set out to read TINY amounts each day, because I knew I couldn’t devote much time for reading, which is why I called it a TINY CHALLENGE. During that one I read one book, 1/4 of another book and two volumes of manga. This time I completed 3 books in two months. It might be a new record for me, considering I was busy with uni stuff this time too.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with my progress so far 
I even had a random moment where I could skim the text for a few pages, i.e. didn’t have to subvocalize and could still comprehend what was going on. One really gets used to seeing the same phrases that are being used over and over again throughout a series (Honzuki). I hope it wasn’t just a “fluke” or me misremembering how it actually went.
Tip for increased focus: Read out loud. It might be slower, but I feel like it is more engaging (less chance of random wandering of attention). And it’s fun! Whenever I come across an unknown word, I have no choice but to look it up or else I literally can’t read it. Takoboto dictionary app automatically saves all my lookups in its history folder (as long as I actually click on the word after looking it up), so that’s convenient for whenever I want to add them as lessons later for SRS-ing.
That’s all for now. Hope to see y’all again in the next one 
25 Likes
I miss your TINY CHALLENGE! I’m still busy but want to rejoin in the spring, so I’m thinking of doing my own TINY CHALLENGE. With your blessing of course!
I’ve been doing this in my private lessons, but never thought to do it for reading on my own. Think I’ll give it a try from now on.
Congratulations on your new record! Hope to be reading with you again next time 
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Even if for some reason I don’t join in the next challenge, I’ll be sure to lurk for the たぬき！ 
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Day 66!
Chapter 26 of Yotsuba today. This might be my new favourite chapter so far, it was adorable My favourite panel is either Yotsuba reading the newspaper on page 137, or her cute happy face when she gets her stamp on page 145. Poor Fuuka though! 
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March 7 Home Post
Got some 999 in! I’m actually currently stuck on a puzzle situation, not a language one, so that’s kinda fun I’m too sleepy to give it the brainpower it needs right now, so tomorrow hopefully!
Wooooords
写真うつり - photogenicity
惹く - to draw (attention), to attract
ズンドウ - having no waist
男前 - handsome man, good looks
バカップル - lovebirds, idiot couple (I’m obsessed with this word, absolutely amazing bet you can’t possibly imagine who said it huh)
いじる - to fiddle with, to touch
ぬか喜び - premature joy, short-lived elation
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Day 67!
I read chapter 27 of Yotsuba - the final chapter of Volume 4.
I love how often a minor part of a story is Yotsuba wanting an icecream 
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March 8 Home Post
Welllll something happened:
I finished a playthrough guys!! 
Definitely did NOT expect that to happen today, really came out of nowhere I got so sucked in so fast, the ending times in games like this are really unforgiving like that, I absolutely cannot stop in the middle
999 things
I got a bad ending lmao rip, I can’t believe 淳平's dead 
not his spine, that was so brutal oof
No but it was really out of nowhere, suddenly I was down the last branching path without doing anything to trigger it as far as I could tell, and then!! Wild
It’s pretty wild to think I actually “finished” a game in Japanese in any capacity. 999 has a bunch of other branching paths to check out, though; I know I said I might slow down on it once I finished a playthrough but oh boy I don’t think I can, I got like no answers from this ending I need to know!! So onward I suppose 
Yay words
にらめっこ - staring-down game, constant looking at something
よじ登る - to climb, to clamber (over)
してやられる - to be taken in, to be outwitted
狂おしい - mad (with grief), out of one’s mind
打開策 - plan to overcome an obstacle, breakthrough solution
待てど暮らせど - despite having waited a long time
もぬけの殻 - vacant, deserted
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The 999-games are structured in a way that you can only get the good ending, when you finished all the bad ones. Luckily you don’t have to play a lot of things again (you can fast forward text you’ve already seen and you can start at most scenes in they you’ve already played, including decision moments)
The true ending is absolutely worth it! 
Besides the 999-games, a game with a similar structure is AI: The somnium file. I can’t recommend this enough! It’s everything I love about 999, but more streamlined. Absolutely full with bad jokes as well. I played it in English, but it can be really good in Japanese as well, since almost every line is voiced and through the log you can listen to the sentences again
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About a third of my way through Gal & Dinosaur and it is a treat. I had read the translation before and watched the anime, which was also very funny and great, but ultimately being able to read the manga in Japanese is a different experience altogether. The premise of the story is very simple, it’s about a gal and a dinosaur that went home with her after a party or something, who then decides to stick around. They bond quickly and everyday is fun. In terms of difficulty it is around the level of yotsuba, there’s maybe even less dialogue (dino doesn’t talk) and chapters are generally shorter. On the other hand it is also more colloquial with some (outdated) gal slang, so it might be more difficult to others. It is a fun read and good breather, has plenty of chapters left, so I can always decide if I want to read more or not on a given day.
To kinda compare the difference. I would be done reading a chapter in like 5 minutes, while I have also had manga take me at least a hour to read a chapter and really struggle. In the first case I don’t learn a lot, but I can have a lot of fun with and it is a good motivator. The latter is more challenging and where you can learn a lot more, but it also asks more of your time and energy. So I think I’ll pick something easier from time to time to remember why I’m doing this in the first place. It’s also not like it’s my sole source of reading, as I can also grab arceus and dive into that for a bit.
Anyway I thought I would share some more screenshots I took while reading it from my kindle. I had kinda skipped it in my last two updates. It’s kinda a pain to upload them from my tablet. Some vocab I had to look up were the two card games, 大富豪 and 神経衰弱, mentioned in the story.
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Day 68!
Chapter 28 of Yotsuba today - Its always exciting to start a new volume, so I’m pleased to be starting Volume 5
Well this looks adorable, definitely adding it to my to-read list!
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March 9 Home Post
My 999 adventure continues! I’ve started back from the first branching point and gone the other way, and it’s been good. Nice to see characters I hadn’t seen in a while because of, uh, events
A bit of 999
I’m hanging out with ニルス and セブン now! セブン’s always a ton of fun, and I never really got to interact with ニルス much before because… you know, so it’s a good time! I got threatened:
He really said “try it” (also he has the same voice actor as Reigen from Mob Psycho so that’s a time)
I also read some 風つよ between classes, and I can definitely tell that my reading speed’s improved! Not that I’m even a little bit fast, but definite progress! It’s always nice to see what the running boys are up to 
Words!!
頭にくる - to get pissed off, to lose one’s cool
些細 - slight, trivial
行き倒れ - person collapsed and dying in the street (this was in 風つよ lmao)
懸案 - unanswered question
志す - to intend, to aspire to
思う存分 - to one’s heart’s content, as much as one likes
ブランク - time spend not (practicing)
茶々 - interruption
鍵盤 - (piano) keyboard (they’re keys!!! neat)
デタラメ - nonsense, hogwash
本日は晴天なり - testing, testing (it’s what you say when you’re doing a mic check! never really thought about that, pretty cool)
目眩 - dizziness, vertigo
Ohhh that makes sense!! Good to know I’m not just like awful at it somehow yeah I’m definitely completely invested at this point, I’m about to have spring break so knowing me I’ll just play it obsessively the whole time lmao
Oooooh yeah I’ve heard good things about that one! Definitely seems up my alley, I’ll have to check it out once I’ve finished the 999s.
Oof I’ve been nailed, absolutely seen, completely sold Ahh I still have so much to look forward to!! The list grows ever longer 
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Day 69!
Chapter 29 of Yotsuba today.
The panel where Fuuka smiles back at Yotsuba after tucking her into the futon on page 52 is so sweet.
I also loved the page of Yotsuba cleaning the bathroom and getting soaking wet. I could identify with that, since I also never manage to clean my bathroom without accidentally showering myself
I’m planning to play some more Pokemon Legends Arceus tonight too
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March 10 Home Post
I got distracted and didn’t play a whole lot of 999 today, but that’s okay; I’m about to have tons of time to play it so very exciting!!
(I also came upon like a character song from 錆喰いビスコ and it’s a bop but wow it made me miss them!! It’s been so long, I really need to go back to it :') )
But yeah looking forward to getting a bunch of reading in over the next week or so! Who knows, maybe I’ll even finish the first 999 game
Some words
訝る - to wonder, to doubt
一過性 - transient, temporary
ズボッと - something going right into or coming right out of a place where it fits snugly
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Over the last few days I’ve been on holiday, I have discovered the power of actually having more time to read haha. I have been doing holiday things but even so have had way more reading time than I usually do.
So, I finished 鏡の孤城 
I finished the 上 volume on my first full day here (6th march), started 下 on the 7th and finished it last night (10th). Given that I don’t think the volumes are that much different in length it’s quite a change from taking months (with pauses in reading during that time to read and play other things) to read the first volume. Part of that is that the plot really gets going in the second volume so that meant that I really wanted to find out what was going to happen (Also I’m on holiday so do just have more time to read than I usually do) I really enjoyed this book - tempted to try something else by the same author at some point.
Time to choose what to read next! While I decide I might read the volume of ハイキュー that I brought with me and see how those volleyball boys are doing!
Woohoo! 999 files does sound so cool, it’s definitely on my want to play list. Although think I would feel guilty for triggering the bad endings even knowing there was no other way haha 
Here’s hoping that you manage to get the good one in the end 
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Wow that’s an amazing increase in pace! Awesome progress.
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Yeah I mean I fully expect to be back to my previous pace when I start something new! A perk of longer books is that you get lots of time to get used to the common vocab and the writing style, so the last volume I was having to stop much more infrequently to look things up/it was a lot more rare for me to have to pause and read through something a few times to understand it. I think if it was in English I would have probably read the second volume within a day hahah, the plot really picked up so it was so hard to stop reading!
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Day 70!
I read this weeks assignment for Happiness, which I’m reading with the ABBC.
It was the second half of the first chapter. I wasn’t sure about this manga at the end of last week, but now at the end of Chapter 1, its captured my attention and I found it difficult to not carry on reading into Chapter 2!
I really like the art, and I’m interested to see where the story goes.
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