Day 2: January 2nd 
夢みる太陽 Volume 1 (53% ➨ 100%)
6月のラブレター Volume 3 (80% ➨ 100%)
シャドーハウス Volume 4 (0% ➨ 13%)
名探偵コナン Volume 13 (16% ➨ 22%)
夢みる太陽 Volume 2 (0% ➨ 7%)
I have a feeling I’m going to be (unintentionally) focusing on reading 夢みる太陽 a bit.
Day 1 - January 3rd
This was the first story of the anthology. I only read the first half. There were some kanji I could not read and vocabularies I did not know. However, I was able to understand most of the story since it was a very light read.
➳ January 3rd.
What: ハイキュー！！ volume 1
Pages: 30
Time: 30 minutes.
Definitely faster today, but I didn’t bother listing things in my spreadsheet. Today is my first day of work, but it’s only a half day, so I’m sneaking in a little reading before I leave. I’m enjoying ハイキュー！！ well enough so far. I’m not really into sports manga/anime though, so I don’t see myself continuing with the series after this week. I’m also thinking of finally placing an order for some physical books, just to get less screen time when I’m studying.
Thank you! I’ve seen the club but I’m unfortunately only on volume 2 so don’t think I’ll manage to catch up 
I’m going through the older threads as I go along though, so might pop a message here and there 
softlyraining’s snowy book stack 
January 2nd
ラストで君は「まさか！」と言う 冬の物語 (27% → 27%)
That’s not a typo; I basically read one paragraph of the next story in the collection before bed. It was my mother-in-law’s last day with us, and we were out for most of it. (It was fun, but I’m tired.) She leaves to visit some more family tomorrow, so I should have more time for reading then.
January 2 Home Post
Read some 怪盗探偵山猫 today! I’m starting to get out of the intro kind of stuff and more into what’s actually going on and it’s a good time, but man am I feeling the difference in reading a standalone book versus a voiced VN or whatever 
I haven’t really been reading novels lately so it definitely feels slower and takes more mental energy but I’m getting there, I’ve also casually picked up jpdb SRS again so hopefully that’ll help me feel better vocabulary-wise 
1 月 3 日
コナの大冒険 第17話 from Satorireader
Felt the suspense during this episode of Kona’s big adventure! What could the looming shadow be?! 
This is definitely helping me with the casual form which I only recently started learning from my Minna no Nihongo classes. Well if you count maybe a month ago recent since I had a holiday break from classes. Up til now we’ve only been exclusively learning in the formal form.
Words/phrases of interest:
January 2
One of my goals for 2022 was to try a mock N2 exam (just a mock one since I don’t need the real thing for anything and just want to more or less check my level) so I did that today (just two days late P:). I’ve done absolutely zero practice for this apart from doing the same with a mock N3 exam a year ago so it was pretty exhausting to get through, props to anyone taking these for real! The whole time I felt like I was missing a looot and I though I might not pass but in the end I did (barely)!! So that’s kinda exciting and I’m counting it as my reading for today. Definitely not trying for N1 at the end of this year so maybe I’ll try N2 again but aiming for a more comfortable pass. It’s hard to say if I’d have passed the real thing this time…
I also read a little ユージニア (12% → 13%)
Day 2 Progress:
お隣の天使様 五冊 - 54.61% → 62.18%
Not much to say about today’s reading but I did try my hand at translating a decently-sized ウマ娘 twitter comic today. It was simultaneously kinda fun, but also time-consuming and exhausting (typesetting aside) after I realized how much of Japanese nuance I had simply internalized and was actually unable to explain properly…
Word of the Day:
I had heard about French having an unwieldy counting system but this is certainly nuts lmao. And for such a specific subset of numbers, too, all the stranger…
Yesterday:
For once, Amazon recced me a book that wasn’t already on my list (or Minato Coin Laundry), 食堂かたつむり by 小川 糸, so I read the preview for that. It’s about a woman who comes home one day from her part time job to find that her boyfriend she’s been living with for three years has taken everything and left her, so she decides to return to her hometown and open a 食堂. The writing isn’t too difficult and the story seems it may be good, though with only 4 actual pages in the preview, it’s hard to tell. Anyway, I came across the phrase “イタリア製ペティナイフ,” which is so incongruous because “petit” is French! Why couldn’t it be “小さい (小さな?) ナイフ”…
I read ch 4 of 夜カフェ③, which was 16 pages of text. This chapter just increased my feelings of not liking this volume/series, which is disappointing, because I did like the first.
I finished vol 38 of HQ, and then read 暫定、恋人.
不動産 (ふどうさん) [noun] real estate
猫かぶり [noun, する verb] feigned innocence or naïveté; beguiling innocence; wolf in sheep’s clothing
上顎 (うわあご) [noun] upper jaw; palate. I knew 顎 was “chin,” but “jaw” too.
January 3rd
Card Captor Sakura volume 5 – progress report
Yesterday: Continued up to page 70.
Today: Continued up to page 86.
Feeling a bit under the weather today and couldn’t concentrate much. The play continues and I find myself chuckling at some of the performances such as the very convincing one of liar-kun as the wicked fairy and the less convincing but err passionate one by Shaolan as the princess. The contrast between Toya’s and Kero’s comments being bewildered by these two or even roasting the latter and Yukito being as friendly and encouraging as always is also pretty funny to me. 
Haha, it’s nice to hear that your friend is so enthusiastic about those ladder lotteries. 
I’m not sure about all the things one could possibly do with them in a maths context but if I had to guess it may be probability related.
Don’t hold back on letting your excitement for Rei (simply existing) out!
And let me relish in it from far away.
My book order actually arrived today. Now I have access to Aria: the masterpiece 4 & 5 – and also to these:
I won’t be reading the adventures of adorable magical girl and adorable magic man anytime soon, though, because I want to finish the two series I’m currently reading first and that will take a few months.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Word or expression of the day:
演技 - (えんぎ) - acting, performance
Honourable mention(s):
お祝い - (おいわい) - congratulations, celebration, congratulatory gift
１月３日 (Home Post Link)
Read:
(it will not be the last)I may read more later but I woke up super early and really need a nap first
Round 2:
ah… yes… “西”… absolutely 
ホリミヤ
正々堂々「せいせいどうどう」ー fair and square
裏切り「うらぎり」ー treachery, betrayal
気迫「きはく」ー spirit, drive, vigor
理不尽「りふじん」ー outrageous, absurd, unreasonable
応援「おうえん」ー cheering, rooting (for)
怪しい「あやしい」ー suspicious
目つぶし「めつぶし」ー throwing sand/rocks in someone’s eyes, poking someone’s eyes out
マジーク・ツリーハウス
図かん「ずかん」ー picture book
ゆうゆう ー leisurely
シダ ー fern
舞い降りる「まいおりる」ー to swoop down
白亜紀「はくあき」ー cretaceous period
絶滅「ぜつめつ」ー extinction
The first chapter of よつばと！ is definitely one of the harder ones because of all the moving terminology and adults talking to each other, but don’t let that discourage you! The chapters do get a lot easier after that for a while (occasionally, when there are chapters with mostly adults talking it gets a little harder again, but most of the chapters are definitely focused on the kids). Looking at vol 1, if you’re through page 25 I think you’re definitely done with the roughest parts.
Enjoy!
Congrats on passing! (i’ll count it 
)
Better late than never 
I had every intention of joining this thread before the new year and then I forgot lol. Hopefully that isn’t an indication of how this reading challenge is going to go for me. I need to find some easily accessible reading content because my biggest challenge is becoming demotivated trying to find things online.
Anyway, here’s to a Japanese-reading-filled winter! Cozy up ~ 
| Jan | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01 | ||||||
| 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 |
| 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
| Feb | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | ||
| 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 |
The fun thing about that word is that it’s now been borrowed into English as “petty knife” to refer specifically to this kind of small Japanese style knife… (I don’t know if ペティナイフ is a technical cheffy word in Japanese in the way that ‘petty knife’ or ‘paring knife’ is and ‘kitchen knife’ isn’t.)
The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den
January 3rd
新書太閣記 progress: 00.12% // Volume I: 01.44% 
I am so glad for furigana. So many place names. I forgot how hard it is to start a new book and you get bombarded with piles of new vocab until you get used to the author’s vocab usage.
隣邦「りんぽう」ー Neighbouring country
国号「こくごう」ー Name of a country
国運「こくうん」ー National fortunes; destiny of a country
駆られる「かられる」ー To be driven by… (emotions / impulse / feelings); to be seized by; to be stricken with; to be spurred on by; to succumb to
気遣い「きづかい」ー Consideration; concern; worry
旦那様「だんなさま」ー Husband (honorific); master (of a house/shop etc.)
臥床「ふしど」ー Bedroom; bedchamber (seems to use 臥所 now)
榻「トン」ー Ceramic bench
宵「よい」ー Evening; early hours of the night
窯業「ようぎょう」ー Ceramics; ceramic industry
官窯「かんよう」ー (Government owned) porcelain furnace // with 窯「かま」meaning: kiln; furnace; stove
附随「ふずい」ー being accompanied by; being collateral with
殷賑「いんしん」ー Prosperity
辛苦「しんく」ー Hardship; toil
Places in China & Dynasties
揚子江「ようすこう」ー Yangtze river (also: 長江「ちょうこう」)
江西省「こうせいしょう」ー Jiangxi Province
饒州「じょうしゅう」ー Raozhou (old prefecture, now part of Poyang county (in Jiangxi))
唐「から」ー China (also used to sometimes refer to other neighbouring countries of that area) (Archaism) // also: 「とう」ー the Tang dynasty (618-907)
宋「そう」ー Song dynasty
廬山「るざん」ー Mt. Lushan
Character Kanji-Name List
for easy referencing later, because these will take some remembering
|| P E O P L E ||
Main
Hideyoshi: 豊臣秀吉「とよとみ ひでよし」// 豊太閤「ほうたいこう」
Side?
五郎大夫 「ごろ だゆう」
捨次郎「すてじろう」
梨琴「りきん」
Historical People
阿倍仲麻呂「あべ の なかまろ」ー Japanese scholar & poet (around 700AD)
ごろ or ごろう ? IME 郎 in names usually comes out as ろう.
Jan 3, Tue of Week 2 of Winter Q1 2023 
It appears that I glide pretty well with Kanji. Cruel nature makes it interesting so far.
癬
潰
I thought it’d be ろう but the furigana given is just ろ
I decided to try digging into this a little bit today, and discovered that this phrase itself is based on an older phrase 二六時中, which also meant around the clock (a full day). I was like “there’s no way this makes any sense unless japan used to have some really messed up clocks that no one has told me about.”
Japan had some really messed up clocks that no one had told me about. A full day was divided in to 12 “hours”, 6 day and 6 night (hence the 2x6 = full day), but the length of those hours was based on the actual length of the day/night periods. So in the winter, the 6 night hours were longer, and the 6 day hours were shorter, and reverse in the summer. (Edit for clarification: this time system existed before the clocks, they clocks were made in a super funky way to try to capture the existing dominant way of measuring time in tokugawa/edo japan, but it was still 2x6 = one full day)
During the meiji restoration (at least, according to jp wiktionary 四六時中 - ウィクショナリー日本語版 ), this existing expression was altered to make it make a little bit more sense with a Western 24 hour day
day 3 
home post
Read: Yotsubato!
Progress: 25/224 → 35/224
Thoughts: This has definitely been a lot lighter of a read now that I got past the first part, just like @javerend said! To be fair there were a lot of panels without any dialogue, but where there was I was able to understand much better than the first 20-ish pages. I am enjoying it more now.
(I don’t know how to quote people on the forums yet, so I just pinged you lol)
