Spent a good couple of hours reading today. Sometimes I can cruise and I’m so happy, and then I’ll get a three sentence textbox and feel like someone tripped me.
I am definitely getting better at not looking up words I’m fairly sure of, and then I forget and look up stuff anyway.
For example, 秘密保持契約 showed up today, and due to context and a glance over the kanji I guessed it meant NDA. But because I wanted to look up other things in the same comment I somehow ended up looking it up and proving myself right. >_< Tripped myself for no reason.
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Oooh, what a cool thing to happen. I’m so glad you could help her out.
And yeah, getting 日本語上手 is a bit of a mixed blessing.
But considering the situation, I don’t think it was that “oooh you can say ABC” kinda impressed thingy.
Okay let’s try another page. Feeling like I’m getting out of shape because I haven’t read much in a while.
Today we take in the atmosphere in the inn the two are staying at. To remind myself: that’s 大気 not だいき!!! terrible leech Anyway, the bar inside the inn is rather quiet, and there’s only one person working the counter. Some stock phrases common for sales people are said; those are always really hard to remember…
Yesterday and today I read the first chapter of ユートロニカのこちら側 with the informal book club. I’m finding it well written and easy to read for the most part. The characters are well rounded and relatable, but the world (our world sometime in the future) still lacks detail in my eyes. I suppose it’s still early though.
That’s so cool! 日本語が上手ですね！
Of course I had to go look them up, and I found that they’re not actually caterpillars, but caterpillar-shaped fungi that grow out of dead caterpillars Pretty awesome actually. I guess the book took some liberties because as far as I could tell it’s only insects that these fungi grow out of (entomopathogenic is the word, apparently). Today I learnt!
Today was super busy, read only a couple of phone pages.
(I didn’t expect so many people replying to me after random train incident, you guys are so nice )
Thank you for taking one for the team and sharing your newfound knowledge! In that case, I most likely misinterpreted some parts of that story. When I see words and stuff that are related to bugs I just mentally nope out
Day 42
I started volume three of the Kindaichi Shounen manga. Miyuki is sick and won’t show up in this volume it seems. I’m already missing her, she and Kindaichi make such a nice couple. In addition to that I read some more of Tsugumomo vol.4.
This week was very colourful and pretty inconsistent - had to do a lot of business-related stuff which left me with not so much time for reading.
Anyways, what I read:
Read (and finished) one of the Flesh&Blood extra stories - it was really nice to go back to that universe for a bit!
Continued reading the ABC pick この本を盗む者は. This book is clearly for teenagers with some fantastic elements. The story is written ok though. Let’s see…
Continued 1Q84 - now in the middle of chapter 16
Started the new Compulsive Readers book ユートロニカのこちら側 which is quite interesting, but I have no idea yet where this will lead to.
Finally, today was sauna day, and I read some 世界から猫が消えたなら. I’m really starting to like that book a lot. It starts out with a bit of a silly setup (a Death God wearing a hawaii shirt ) but it has gotten pretty deep contents-wise while being super-easy to read. I hardly encounter any words that I don’t know, and as such I can read pretty fast. Gives me a glimpse of what it might feel like to be able to read the majority of books at that pace
Regarding ユートロニカのこちら側:
I… share the doctor’s assessment though
(For those who don’t read the book: he said that one of the persons is not the brightest candle on the cake…)
Word of the day: 配偶者 - person distributed by chance spouse
I learned this recently courtesy of the SKM N1 Vocab book, and at the time I figured that I will probably never see that in the wild, and bam!
(Now I just need to see my other currently favourite N1 vocab 着色料 - colour arrived in the food food colouring agent )
Day 43: February 12th
What did I read?: ペンギン・ハイウェイ
How much did I read?: 9 pages
How long did it take me?: 36 minutes
Oh boy, now we not only have penguins, but bats too? The mystery deepens
Also learned that there’s a word for resting one’s chin in one’s hands - 頬杖 (ほおづえ) (used as 頬杖をつく)
I finished my second book of the challenge, かくりよの宿飯三! It was very fun. I also read the last 200 pages of it in 2 days (~8 hours of reading), which is a new record for me. It’s nice to know that I can do that if I want to (and if I have the free time, of course)!
I actually ended up getting bored and reading another chapter of 夜カフェ yesterday, which I guess is a good sign, right? I’ll count it for today though since it was pretty late last night and my sleep is super messed up
Read:
夜カフェ chapter 7 (pg78 → 89) - mmmm this chapter made me want to cook…
三ツ星カラーズ ch 10 - some more wordplay
prolly will do a bit more reading after i get settled for the night, but don’t want to forget to update
Word of the Day:
紛らわしい「まぎらわしい」ー easily mixed up, confusingly similar
February 11th
Unfortunately, no Japanese of any sort Unless Japanese music videos count? I won’t count that, though. And more unfortunately, there really wasn’t any good reason for it. But oh well.
February 12th
What did I read?: 魔女と猫の話
How much did I read?: 8 pages
(Started 4th Story )
How long did it take me?: 1 h
And the new kitty of the chapter is Ginger! Or Gin for short. As seems to be the norm, the meeting between witch (Nina) and cat does not go well in the least… Ginger’s first comment to Nina is his disappointment in her appearance. (While her first thought was that he was beautiful! D: The injustice!).
Work from home went so-so but I wasn’t able to complete my work goals, so I ended up with very little reading time. Actually, I really should’ve gone to sleep lol. Doesn’t seem to be hitting bad today though.
I read the first chapter of Yotsuba in 20 minutes. Now, of course, I didn’t know all the words but my first full read-through is just about understanding the story. I remember last year going through 2 pages for 20 minutes and feeling so frustrated because I couldn’t understand. So while I feel sometimes that all the hours I input are amounting to nought, they actually add up to some progress. YATTA
Life happened and I couldn’t update and missed three days of reading this weekend. I read on February 9 though but forgot to post so here are the notes from then and today.
2 月 9 日
コナの大冒険 第 40 話
疑う 「うたがう」 to distrust, to doubt
立派 「りっぱ」 praiseworthy
救う「すくう」 to rescue from, to help out
優雅 「ゆうが」elegance
風に乗り「かぜにのり」 riding the wind
飛ぶ 「とぶ」to fly
覗き込む「のぞきこむ」 to look into, to peer in
2 月 13 日
コナの大冒険 第 41 話
井戸 「いど」water well
まく to scatter, to sprinkle
町中 「まちじゅう」the whole town
夢中 「むちゅう」daze, trance, ecstasy
見張り 「みはり」watch-keeping
張り切る 「はりきり」 to be in high spirits, to be enthusiastic, to be eager, to stretch to breaking point
On another note, so close to finishing this series!! Four more episodes left! Just in time for the start of the next ABBC!
Work has been ok last couple of days (work last night ok, off today). Catching up.
I’m up to date with Spy Family, behind but progressing with Orange, and behind with おばちゃんたちのいるところ, but making slow progress. May read more tonight before bed, but should probably just sleep.
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Pretty awesome actually. I guess the book took some liberties because as far as I could tell it’s only insects that these fungi grow out of (entomopathogenic is the word, apparently). Today I learnt! 
)
In that case, I most likely misinterpreted some parts of that story. When I see words and stuff that are related to bugs I just mentally nope out 
) but it has gotten pretty deep contents-wise while being super-easy to read. I hardly encounter any words that I don’t know, and as such I can read pretty fast. Gives me a glimpse of what it might feel like to be able to read the majority of books at that pace 
)
２月１２日 
Unless Japanese music videos count? 
I read on February 9 though but forgot to post so here are the notes from then and today.
ひよ恋 Volume 1 (50% ➨ 74%)
YAIBA Volume 1 (16% ➨ 25%)
好きな子がめがねを忘れた Volume 10 (27% ➨ 38%)