29 jan
ギリギリだな。。。
idk what happened to today but i ended up not really having time or mental concentration to approach 四月は君の嘘 so i just played granblue for about half an hour (did some main quest stuff and some side quests) and i’ve got the apollo justice japanese script up while i play through again. will be better next week!
The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den 
January 29th
新書太閣記 progress: 05.15% // Volume I: 59.72% 
This is a long chapter with lots of long dialogue, I keeping losing my place.
Please samurai guys, use some full stops.
海原「うなばら」ー Ocean; the deep
漫然「まんぜん」ー Aimless; rambling
忌々しい「いまいましい」ー Annoying; provoking
空嘯く「そらうそぶく」ー To feign ignorance/unconcern
膠もない「にべもない」ー Curt; point-blank
小脇「こわき」ー Under your arm; in your armpit
Forms
騙く ＝ 欺く「あざむく」(to deceive/delude)
Probably some spoilers, but this is a historic novel, so can spoilers really exist for things that have (for the most part) actually happened 
Volume I: 1535 - 15??
日吉「ひよし」- Hideyoshi (as child)
Nicknames: 猿「さる」/ 針売り「はりうり」
Family
木下弥右衛門「きのした やえもん」- Father
– – 乙若「おとわか」- Old friend
筑阿弥「ちくあみ」ー Step-father
大政所「おおまんどころ」// also お奈加「おなか」ー Mother
おつみ - Older sister
小竹「こちく」- Baby brother
加藤清正「かとう きよまさ」// also 弾正「だんじょう」- Ojisan (only distantly related (before marriage))
– Married to: おえつ (sister of お奈加)
Friends & Acquaintances
仁王「におう」- Big kid friend
於福「おふく」(Nickname - full name: 福太郎「ふくたろ」) // 楊景福「ようけいふく」(Chinese name/birth name) - Timid kid friend (older than Hideyoshi)
– 五郎大夫 「ごろ だゆう」// 祥瑞「しょうずい」(Chinese name) - Father
– 梨琴「りきん」- Mother
捨次郎「すてじろう」- Previous servant to 五郎, later the adoptive father of 於福, and owner of a tea ware shop - and employer of, and master to, Hideyoshi
Hachisuka Clan
蜂須賀小六「はちすか ころく」(also 正勝 「まさかつ」) - Head of the Hachisuka clan
– 七内「なない」- Younger brother
– Married to 松波「まつなみ」
– – 亀一「かめいち」- Son
Retainers:
– – 稲田大炊助「いなだ おおいのすけ]
– – 青山新七「あおやま しんしち」
– – 長井半之丞「ながい はんのじょう」
– – 松原内匠「まつばら たくみ」
– 国吉「くによし」- Gunsmith/blacksmith
– 渡辺天蔵「わたなべ てんぞう」- Deserter - Nobushi (Nephew to Koroku)
– 難波内記「なんば ないき」- Spy disguised as a Komuso
– 仁田彦十「にった ひこじゅう」- Subordinate
(蜂須賀正利「はちすか まさとし」- previous head of the Hachisuka clan)
Saito Clan
((questionable) Alliance with the Hachisuka clan)
斎藤 道三「さいとう どうさん」- Head of the Saito clan
– 斎藤義龍「さいとう よしたつ」(also: 高政「たかまさ」) - Son
明智 光秀「あけち みつひで」(common name: 十兵衛「じゅうべい」) - serves under Dosan
– 又市「またいち」- Underling / foot soldier
弥平治光春「やへいじ みつはら」- Retainer (cousin to Jyubei)
– 明智光安「あけち みつやす」- Father
Oda Clan
織田信秀「おだ のぶひで」- Daimyo
– 織田与三郎「おだ よさぶろう」- Younger brother
Shiba Clan
斯波義統「しば よしむね」- Head of the Shiba clan, at Kiyosu castle
Others
今川義元「いまがわ よしもと」- Daimyo
阿倍仲麻呂「あべ の なかまろ」ー Japanese scholar & poet (700s)
白楽天「はく きょい」ー Chinese poet (Bai Juyi / Bo Juyi) also known as: 白楽天「はく らくてん」in Japan. (Late 700s)
道元「どうげん」(or 道元禅師「どうげん ぜんじ」ー Japanese Buddhist Priest, writer & poet (also known as 栄西禅師「えいさい ぜんじ」) (Early / mid 1200s)
空海「くうかい」ー The one and only Kukai or Kobo Daishi - a Buddhist monk. Posthumously given the title of: 弘法大師「こうぼう だいし」born as: 佐伯 眞魚「さえき の まお」(late 700s / early 800s)
源頼政「みなもと の よりまさ」ー Prominent poet and warrior (1100s)
One of the tenets of bushido is that you never end a sentence before your brush runs out of ink and you need to refresh it on the inkstone…
Week 4 - Jan 23rd to 29th
Last week was my first time reading a manga in just two sittings, this week I read 日常 volume 1, and a bit over half of 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 volume 1. I’ll also be reading a few more chapters of the latter tonight. 日常 turned out to be funnier to me as a manga than as an anime (and the anime is hilarious) so I can’t help but smile when thinking about reading the rest of the series 
I’ll have to try out CITY too (aslo by あらゐけいいち).
I initially meant to read 古見さん with the BBC in Feburary but it’s my last non-よつば manga with full furigana coverage and so I wanted to read it before I got started reading something without that level of support. I’m still planning to keep an eye on the book club threads and I’m bookmarking dialogue I might want to revisit with the club:) Having also seen the anime version of 古見さんは、コミュ症です I’m noticing that I enjoy the manga more than the anime in this case as well. I didn’t expect I’d discover a general preference for manga over anime but I’m starting to suspect that might be the case. I guess I’ll probably like novels even better once I get around to reading them 
Did you have to buy the japanese version of the game or does it have a jp option? I adore klonoa and have been eyeing up the remake on switch and being able to do a little jp practice would be an incentive to pick it up
Jan 29, Sun of Week 5 of Winter Q1 2023 
The owner gets hopeless and cry.
I guess I have the same sentiment. Also, the whole trope and unprogressing story thing.
I am also looking at this, and this thread; but I prefer not to have fantasy elements.
Indeed, I am concerned quite a bit when I can’t read an email properly. Sometimes I feel it’s not really about vocabularies, but rather about getting enough of what is required.
Similarly, I have a concern over manga vs novel, even if I don’t mind reading a few pages of text.
Home post // Jan 29 
・ 封印再度 (82% → 86%)
Hmm, there’s something about the beginning of the end stage of the books in this series that just makes me want to quickly finish the book so I can read something else. I blame Saikawa. He’s kinda annoying.
Also reread the epilogue of Honzuki 15 because it has a scene I like a lot. Has been thinking about it lately, so I figured why not read it again :3
January 29 
狐火の辻, start-7%
I started a new book 
This one is an impulse buy from my Christmas book shopping spree, based on nothing but cover, summary and a few random reviews. It’s supposed to be a mystery, but the author has also written horror if I remember correctly, and the first section that I read was definitely the most horror that I’ve read in Japanese so far. While nothing actually happened, the atmosphere had me holding my breath throughout. Curious how it continues. In the part I read, a school boy of indeterminate age dares himself to explore a dark, creepy forest in his neighbourhood. When a neighbour tries to discourage him with a scary story about something that supposedly happened there, he decides to prove to himself that such stories can’t scare him, and he goes exploring again…at night. 
Day 28
I read some more of Kindaichi Shounen. I’m surprised that the manga is rather easy I thought a detective manga would be actually hard to read. It seems the manga will be one case per volume.
2310 pages read 17690 to go
January 29th!
I read a chapter of Teasing Master Takagi-san, and also a chapter of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun.
I’m enjoying Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun a lot, but I think I’m going to have to skip the offshoot club if there is one, because I don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with as many clubs as I’m currently trying to, and with 14 volumes in the series so far its going to be too much of a commitment I think…
Yall on here reading some fun ass books but I am not ready for that so I am onto Volume 2 of “Japanese Short Stories for Beginners”, which is a graded reader I think at level N4. But if I keep going I predict that I will be able to pick up a BL manga within 6 months after purchasing a new kindle. YOSH!!!
I‘ll take you up on that!
I read the second section of 二銭銅貨 | L37 and finished the first week’s reading for この本を盗む者は | L46?? (note - it doesn’t start for another week but I’m reading ahead a bit due to scheduling chaos on my end). 30ish pages in and I think it’s closer to 35 than 46, and maybe even a smidge lower? The difficulty is almost exclusively from vocab, but all the uncommon words get furigana’d the first time round. In any case, I think the ABC readers will keep up no problem. I’m enjoying the story and looking forward to reading more.
I also impulse bought 爆弾 | L35?? because there was a 40% off coupon for it on Rakuten. I need to stop buying books. I don’t even want to know what my true 積読 count is, as I know I haven’t been recording books perfectly.
Lost three days to a migraine and lingering headache, so I’m behind on my manga of the week. I don’t want to push another week out so I’ll plan to finish both volumes next week.
I am so glad I swapped books for Jan and Feb. I’m reading a book I got probably a decade or more ago “Breaking into Japanese literature” which has several short stories from Natume Souseki and Akutagawa Ryuunosuke. I can’t say I care for them much, but what’s been really interesting is how language has changed since the early 1900s. Words like ここ、もちろん, etc used the kanji, and 入る was 這入る – I’d guess that the first characters pronunciation (は) eventually got absorbed into 入 over time, thus 入る vs 入れる pronunciation differences.
The story choices are, uh, interesting for a book geared at introducing people to literature. Several trigger warning apply.
Other than that, Persona 3 released on PC and I’ve been playing the female route in Japanese. sadly the quick save feature doesn’t work in the middle of dialogue, only in the overworld.
Curious what those are - feel free to put behind a spoiler or toggle of course! I don’t know Souseki to be very problematic (by reputation, only read one thing by him) but Akutagawa is…interesting. I can’t say I enjoy his writing at all, but I don’t avoid it entirely like Yumeno (another classic author).
Yeah it’s mainly Akutagawa. I’m finishing up “in a grove” and it’s got rape, murder, and attempted suicide.
Souseki read more like Edgar Allan Poe, which does still have sensitive content ( depression, suicide) but somehow feels less…direct I guess?
Edit: should add at least in “in a grove” the rape is not explicitly described, just stated to have occurred. I just find the choice of content to be an odd choice to introduce people to Japanese literature.
I think Re:Zero has made me give up reading Light Novels lol
I just really like the anime and reading it makes me just want the anime version. I want to read the novels I have, but I bought this volume to prove I could in fact read a volume of Re:Zero. I just like the idea of finishing a book with an ending that doesn’t require that any and all reading time going forward will be just this series.
I am enjoying Re:Zero, don’t get me wrong, its just White Rabbit has does such a good job adapting the books that I don’t feel like I am missing out by waiting. Thats just me though. Maybe I will go back to read volume 17 when I have time but I would like to read more self contained stories.
Home 
January 29th
ジョジョの奇妙な冒険8
44 - 53
Busy day yesterday. Some interesting panels in this section though. Idk if I’ll remember to post them later.
Day 29: January 29th
What did I read?: ペンギン・ハイウェイ
How much did I read?: 3 pages
How long did it take me?: 26 minutes
Well that didn’t take long, the penguins are here 
Here’s our protagonist, studying the penguins very intently
Unfortunately suicide is a super common theme in classic Japanese writing. I actually accidentally read Akutagawa’s own, real, suicide note thinking it was just a short story titled ‘suicide note’ (遺書).
I’ve read a lot of classic literature by this point (it’s free on the internet, so why not) and dark themes abound, although there’s also heart warming stuff and thoughtful things without darkness. I wonder if the editors were trying for a holistic view of Japanese literature when picking the stories? ie, a bit of everything? Or they just went by popularity / things that are required reading in 国語 classes.
