So since finishing the challenge, I haven’t been pressuring myself to read every day as much, but I’m still reading most days. When I last posted I was starting Chapter 4 of 銭天堂。Now I’m on the first few pages on Chapter 5 (page 103)!
I hope to be starting a new book by the time the next challenge begins!
March 11 
Home Post
I got distracted again and so didn’t do a whole lot of reading today but what can you do 
I’m on spring break now though so 999 awaits!! For now though, sleep 
It’s a ton of fun! If you like kinda mystery-puzzley visual novels then I’d 1000% recommend it, it’s been a really great experience! Yeah I was absolutely not prepared for the automatic bad ending lmao, very much threw me all the more reason to play it obsessively over break!
(Also congrats on 鏡の孤城, that’s super awesome! 
absolutely crushing the reading game out here 
)
Day 71!
I read Chapter 5 of Volume 5 of Teasing Master Takagi-san today.
It was about them asking each other “Would you rather…?” questions, which I was really pleased about because thats the exact same activity as I did with my tutor this morning!
Decided to check in for once, hope you all are doing well! I’ve been glancing at the posts sometimes, but things being how they have for me, I’m still a little distant. But at the moment I’m not so bad, still doing my best to work through everything.
Japanese though! I finished my first route of Summer Pockets 5 days ago . It was quite nice; I’m having a lovely time. I had a day or two where I couldn’t do much of anything; I think there was a single day where I read absolutely nothing as a quick break to reset myself, but otherwise, I’m rolling through, usually with a minimum of at least 5000 characters read each day. Today is amusing because I hit exactly 7777 when I finished. 
I’m sure my reading is better; it’s already hard to keep in mind just how much more I was struggling when I started this VN. I’ve moved onto 静久 (Shizuku)'s route because she was very much the major side character in Tsumugi’s so I really wanted to see what else is going on under the surface with her story, and I’m already comfortable reading the way she’s speaks. Skipping all the repeat text moves me past huge swathes of the common route, but I’m still pleased to be at the point where I’ve locked into her route (by picking her events over and over) relatively quickly. Especially considering that there were a few changed events and, when given the choice, I went for other non route-specific side events.
There are still so many routes to see, and I’m looking forward to doing all of them, but at this improved pace I’ve worked towards, I’m no longer as worried that I’m going to spend a huge chunk of my life on Summer Pockets alone, haha.
March 12 Home Post
Alright, better reading day today!! I’m pretty solidly into my second 999 playthrough now, skipping all the repeat sections really moves stuff along
I continue to be very suspicious of ニルス, 四葉, and 紫, so I’m really interested to see what ends up happening there! I enjoy all the characters a lot though, going through their interactions and figuring out new puzzles has been lots of fun. There was a good callback to a joke I saw in my first playthrough:
淳平 made the same joke he boldly made to 八代's face before, and of course セブン thought it was absolutely hilarious and then it just got escalated even more, so good times all around.
I am intrigued by a branch I’ll be going down in the future: at the second branching path I tried going through door 3, but it’s impossible to do that without leaving like half the people behind, which I didn’t have the heart to do this time but I will have to eventually so… interesting to see how that will go
All in all a good reading day, I wanna play more but I’m sleepy so tomorrow!
筐体 - case (of a machine), cabinet, chassis
怨念 - deep-seated grudge, hatred
対照的 - contrastive
Ahhhh congrats, that’s super awesome!! I’m glad you’re still having a good time with it!
I did stop this challenge at the official end date, but since the thread is still alive I thought I’d share an amusing article I read while trying to wrap my head around the vocab item 周旋屋: 「しゅうせんやさん！」って - さなだやま不動産のブログ
It seems to mean a mix of realtor/broker/employment agency. Kind of a mixed bag of meanings which is why I was having trouble wrapping my head around it. What I found fun though is that in this blog post the author heard it for the first time while dealing with a 不動産屋 and they mistook 周旋（しゅうせん - mediation) for 終戦 (しゅうせん - end of the war). Nice to know I’m not alone in misguessing homonyms in speech
Day 72!
I started reading Volume 2 of Mitsuboshi Colors with the Offshoot Bookclub today, and read chapter 1.
I found the ending a bit confusing, but it was still a fun read overall 
March 13 Home Post
Ohhhh boy, I went absolutely wild today and finished up my second playthrough of 999 and… whew, that was a lot 
For a while I was just having a good time, lots of cool puzzles and character interactions, ie. 淳平 making dumb jokes to make fun of 一宮's tendency to do so:
And then I was getting close to the end and pushing through to see what happened, and WOW I was not prepared uhhhh I super don’t think 四葉 is working with ゼロ anymore for REASONS, my god. Like not that I wasn’t expecting people to die in a bad end, but this one was just so much more brutal
But yeah idk what to think anymore, that really threw out most of my theories, soooo… Idk I still think there’s something going on with 四葉 and ニルス, there’s a lot that’s weird with them, but maybe only ニルス is working with ゼロ? I’m still not entirely convinced his death isn’t faked, but I’m not sure what to make of that if 四葉 isn’t involved.
I am realizing that the branch I was talking about yesterday is actually probably the good ending since it would probably prevent the whole ニルス thing from happening, but it’s gonna hurt on the way there 
like yeah I know they’re not actually leaving anyone behind, but they don’t yet!!
But yeah my devastation aside, 999 is going great! I’m genuinely getting close to finishing the whole game which is really exciting 
I did get to skip a good amount for this playthrough, but I still went WAY faster than I did the first time around; my first playthrough took a bit over a month, and this one (which I’d estimate was around half the content maybe?) took five days, most of which I was like “ugh I didn’t read much today” so that’s some real progress for sure!
I did also read a little bit of 錆喰いビスコ for the first time in ages, I missed them! It definitely still has a lot more words I don’t know than 999 does, but I can feel a difference for sure. It’s still far from what I’d call an easy read, but I’m definitely improving! 
(Anyway since I went feral on 999 it’s late so I’m not dealing with vocab right now, good night )
ボケなす - halfwit; faded, dull-colored eggplant (love the energy of calling someone a gross eggplant as an insult )
ほうほうの体 - scuttling (to escape in a panic), scrambling
いかさま師 - cheat, swindler
しどろもどろ - confused, disordered
ふて腐れる - to become sulky
口が減らない - fast-talking, always having an argument ready, never at a loss for words (this and the sulky one were both about ミロ lmao I love him)
心ここにあらず - there in body but not in spirit
一縷の望み - sliver of hope
うわ言 - talking in delirium, incoherent muttering
I’m about two thirds into Gal & Dino or what I’ll like to call my break lol. Like to prolong it a bit more this week and then find something else to bridge the gap.
Anyway this post is mostly an excuse to show more screenshots of dino.
Day 73!
Back to reading Volume 5 of Yotsuba today - Chapter 30, which is the first time I’ve gotten to see Yanda. Which is interesting since he is mentioned in the very first chapter.
In other, less reading related news - I applied to do the JLPT (N4) in July today
Winter Challenge: Final Thoughts
Would you look at the time, it’s already half-past March…and I still haven’t done that summary post I was going to do. Whoops (Carrying on my tradition of late summary posts, I guess haha)
What did I accomplish this challenge?
Well, I read every day - that’s one thing I did xD Not that much else, I feel, but I’m not mad about that.
Let’s take a look at the numbers:
I realized as I was summing all this up that I did make significant progress in my reading speed with these daily books, though :o I went from spending ~45 min a day (sometimes closer to an hour) on those at the beginning of the challenge to ~20 min a day near the end - that’s pretty awesome, actually, I’m very happy about that.
Historically, this time of year is the literal worst but I actually didn’t find it as hard to keep reading every day as I thought I would. I also didn’t get too burned out writing posts, which I thought would happen. …One could argue that my time spent writing posts might have been better spent doing the actual reading but I like writing the posts haha, I love to share what I love 
I love showing people stuff, and I love to see other people enjoy the things I love. How many times can I say the word “love” 
…I am essentially the little kid being like “you guys, look at this!!” constantly Thank you for letting me (over)share and liking my incredibly long and illustrated posts xD
What have I been doing since the challenge ended?
Well…not reading, I’ll tell you that
I went to a k-pop concert the day after the challenge ended and I’ve been rapidly devolving into some kind of Oneus-obsessed gremlin ever since - that’s it, that’s my excuse for this late post lmao, I’m so very distracted It was the best time ever though, wrote about it in the k-pop thread if anyone really wants to read my fan ramblings lol. Then I learned about some k-pop related things I probably should not have learned about but too late now, here we are with a new thing to spend money on
Anyway, I haven’t even been keeping up with my daily books…like at all Does anyone else ever feel like they need to just let everything completely go for a while after staying “on track” for some time? Like, aren’t habits supposed to be easier to keep up the longer you do them, not harder? I feel like it doesn’t really work that way for me sometimes. It’s more like carrying a heavy burden that I want to set down (and then, once I set it down, I have trouble motivating myself to pick it back up because I know what it weighs). Like…what is that, brain. What’s that about.
Anyway, I’m not too bothered about it, though. I think someone (I can’t remember who, maybe multiple people ><) in the last challenge said that, you know, the challenge is only a commitment for that period of time. You didn’t say you’d read every day for the rest of your life, you just said you’d read every day for those months. And I did that, so I fulfilled my goal. I’m satisfied with that.
Sometimes I get caught up in those thoughts of, well, you could be doing more when it comes to…well, everything, but Japanese too. But I feel like I’m really beginning to understand that just because I could theoretically be doing something more doesn’t mean I’m obligated to do it if it’s not what I want to be doing more. I can choose to not care about one thing or do less or do some things vs. other things. What I do with my time is my choice. …This might sound very common-sense to people, idk, but it’s a shift for me; I’ve always had this feeling of wanting/having to do the most or the maximum with whatever I’m doing, and if I’m not doing that “most,” I’m…wasting something? Myself? The chance? That time? “Doing it wrong.” Which is sometimes not the worst thing to feel, but for this situation it doesn’t really make sense or apply - after all, this is just supposed to be fun for me (it’s a hobby, not something I need to do), and if I’m pressuring myself to engage beyond what’s enjoyable for me, what am I even doing? What’s the point of fun that’s not very fun? Going to this k-pop concert actually brought me this realization LMAO, like…forget about what you “should” be doing to “maximize” or “make the most” or “do it right” according to someone else’s definition, make it fun for you and what you want or need. Don’t “perform” at the expense of actually having fun. Enjoy the experience without worrying what the “results” afterward will look like to someone else’s eyes. …I’m getting way too deep about this but honestly though, this whole live the moment, love the ride thing was like…
brand new to me and I want to try and keep this thought with me - there’s not one way to have a good experience and not one way to make your time/actions worthwhile
Anyway, that was a ramble and a half
tl;dr I’m not reading, but I’m fine with that for now. Will be all rested up and rejuvenated for the next one 
I love all of this! Happy to see you living in the moment and letting go of expectations and having fun! I feel like recently a lot of folks have been rediscovering the joy of spontaneity that you get with not locking yourself into one thing or another … Feels like spring is coming for us all!
Sorry if that got too sappy. 恥ずかしいセリフ禁止❣
(I have been watching a lot of Aria lately.)
(I tried but failed to find a gif because I’m the worst at gifs.)
Yeah this is a thing I sometimes have to remind myself of too. When people ask me why I’m learning Japanese my standard response lately is, “for shits and giggles”, because really I don’t have any real need to learn the language. Heck, I basically just replaced watching crime shows in English for watching them in Japanese and saying ~*I'm learning*~. And yet I too will get down on myself at times for not going fast enough…as if I have an end date. All I’m going to do when I reach a happy level of Japanese is start a new language and put myself through the whole thing all over again
So yeah, this is all to say, you’re not alone in that. I think some of us have perfectionist drives that need to be brought into check from time to time because the needle moves from “motivating” to “stressful”.
Oh yay, me too.
I was asked this recently and I ended up replying “uuhhhmmm to read manga”. But before learning Japanese I’d barely read manga, I started reading more manga to learn Japanese.
I think for me: I wanted to learn another language, the only other language’s content that I regularly consume is Japanese, and the point that kicked this all of was an awesome holiday in Japan where I fell in love with travel.
That’s hhuuuUUUUGGGGGggee!
Yeap, I feel like my life goes in cycles of ups and downs. I can’t have a good up without at some point needing a recovery down.
It’s really hard for me to keep a consistent pace, even now I am still technically reading every day but I feel like I am limping through it most days - reading a minimum viable amount - whereas previously I would read and get lost in the manga and chew through way more pages in less time.
Yes, this so many times.
Semi-recently I looked at my Japanese and got really self-critical about my lack of speaking ability, I felt crappy because I’ve been working so hard on my Japanese and yet I couldn’t hold a basic conversation.
Eventually I snapped out of this when I remembered that my original goal I set was to be able to read basic Japanese manga in like 5-10 years. A year in I was struggling through manga I wanted to read, goal met and exceeded.
I hadn’t spent anytime working on speaking, as that wasn’t something I wanted to focus on, and yet my inner critique came at me.
After this I actually feel it was a positive experience, because I realised that because I had spent a year focusing on reading manga I was now able to (slowly) read manga.
It made me feel like if I decided that speaking should be my goal and started focusing on it in the same way, that I would get better, which felt empowering?!?.
Nope absolutely not common-sense to me at least.
I went through a cancer scare last year, I started reflecting negatively on how I was “wasting my time learning Japanese” and how I’d “likely die before I could even use it”.
This led to a big perspective shift (both in terms of Japanese, but alos more widely work and life).
This and it made me realise that the reason I do things like learn Japanese isn’t (and shouldn’t be) for the end ‘result’, instead I do things because they bring me value as I do them, I find learning Japanese fun and enriching, regardless of if I ever meet some hypothetical “finished” state.
Even if I stop before reaching some ‘finished’ state, my time wasn’t wasted, and I am not a failure.
For me at lest I think this is related to perfectionism.
I think we often see a perfectionist mindset in the Japanese learning community. A lot of people (myself included) spend a lot of time researching the best most efficient method of learning Japanese, and there’s a lot of in-fighting with people comparing different approaches and debating which is “the best” and how “X is a waste of time”.
There are a few helpful things I’ve read and which I often repeat to myself:
(I hope this doesn’t come across as preachy, this is probably all super obvious)
@windupbird Sorry for long replies, no expectations they’ll actually be read, TL;DR +1 you are not alone.
March 14 Home Post
Ahhh I went wild again, I almost finished another 999 playthrough but it just kept going and I have work tomorrow so I’ll talk about it tomorrow! For now, bed
This is a big thing. It’s part of why I track my hours (but also I’m a spreadsheet person. I 
spreadsheets). My speaking is also kind meh. I’ve done 22 hours of conversation practice this year, but I’ve read almost 1900 pages and listened to over 90 hours. Guess which skills are stronger So yeah, having perspective that you can get better at anything if you dedicate the time is huge.
I love all of these. They all kind of speak to my go-to which is ‘the best method is the one you’ll actually do/the best tool is the one you’ll actually use’ but with more depth into why.
I’d been meaning to ask @windupbird as they also mentioned time. Do you track time using a simple timer or … ?
What do you primarily listen to?
Thanks, I was worried it was obvious/trivial
I still find myself slipping into that same negative perspective, but each time it is quicker for me to pull out.
=D for me each serves as a kind of a counter to a specific trap I fall into.
For example I tend to fall into thinking “I’m one more purchase/tool/thing away from having the perfect setup”, so I whip out “owning a toolbox does not make one a carpenter” on myself.
I still fall into the same traps, but I’m slowly getting better.
Lately the ‘next thing’ has been a first book book, so I now have a pile of books. Reading 夜カフェ with the BBC will hopefully shake me out of this.
I have absolutely not been keeping up with my daily book since the challenge ended - I’ll read three entries in a row to get back up to date and then let it slide again for a few days. But that’s fine. I’ve done two of these reading challenges now and each time on the last day I’m like ‘I’m going to keep reading every day!’ and then life gets in the way and I don’t. But I do keep it up for the entire duration of the challenge.
I’m now thinking of it like an extended version of Pomodoro technique - I can keep up with the reading challenge because it’s time limited and because I know I’m going to have a break at the end of it.
I think Windupbird tracks reading time which I don’t (I did early on, but stopped when the gains became less and less), but I do track my listening hours. I like to enable myself to be lazy, so my spreadsheet is set up like so:
The majority of what I watch for TV will fall into one of those time buckets and if it doesn’t I can just pop it into the Misc category. So I mostly watch TV, listen to a fair amount of audiobooks, dabble in YouTube, and barely watch movies. That will fluctuate over the year, though.
@windupbird Happy birthday!! 
I get like this too! Feels like I always having to be doing something toward whatever it is I’m working at, be it Japanese or such, or I’m failing in some way. Having downtimes from it all is good though, brain needs rest to let the learnings settle, sometimes we need to remind ourselves just to enjoy that thing we’re doing rather than thinking about what we’re gaining/learning/etc. from it (which is kinda hard, I’m always like “if I had done this instead…”).
Glad to hear you enjoyed the concert! And that it opened a new way of thinking for you!
Hope everyone’s either keeping up with their readings or enjoying the break until the next one!
My daily reading may not exactly be very daily at the moment
