I decided I’m not in a particularly spooky mood right now, and since the 山の霊異記 book consists of standalone short stories, there is no harm in setting it aside for now. Instead, I started my new 赤川次郎, which is exactly as I imagined it: a black comedy of errors. It’s a light read (if you don’t mind a dead body or four), both in substance and in text - I don’t think I’ve seen so much dialogue outside of a manga before! All characters are unlikeable (I mean, the first chapter literally starts with the protagonist not being able to answer the door because he’s busy strangling his wife) which makes all their mishaps all the more enjoyable. If you thought that getting rid of one dead body might be problematic, wait till they start accumulating, while the phone and doorbell never stop ringing. Downloaded @pocketcat’s bingo card to fill out as I read too.
Jan 1-4 update Home Post
Hi!
First few days going well, except from Tuesday that I missed a day because… I fell asleep too early
I also had to think of what reading material to go through, and luckily enough, I have quite a few sitting on my shelves. Thought I’d start the challenge with a simple graded reader, to ease back into a rhythm… I’m also still carrying on with a 366 I started last spring.
1/1: 10分で読める伝記、13min.
2/1: missed…
3/1: 教養366, 26min.
4/1: 教養366, 12min | 10分で読める伝記, 36min
new vocab and words that caught my fancy
脂肪 ｜しぼう｜fat; grease
タンパク質 | たんぱくしつ ｜protein
基礎医学 ｜きそいがく｜basic medicine
帝政 ｜ていせい｜imperial government;monarchical rule
燃え盛る ｜もえさかる｜to blaze; to burn brightly
彷徨う ｜さまよう | to roam about
途方に暮れる ｜[spoiler]
とほうにくれる｜to be at a loss;
to be puzzled
[/spoiler]
奮い立つ ｜ふるいたつ｜to cheer up;to be encouraged (by)
舞い込む ｜まいこむ｜to drop in unexpectedly
語り継ぐ ｜かたりつぐ｜to pass down ( a story) from generation to generation
Also the phrase そばにいるよ (which is the chapter title) makes me so soft for no real reason, the sentiment just sounds so sweet in Japanese to me, idk, it’s one of my favorites, I love it
Capri really shines in this chapter, but both he and Rei are just so gosh darn sweet and supportive to Mira, I can’t At the very end of the previous chapter, Capri noticed that there was a サイン会 happening in town for Mira’s favorite author (the one who wrote the book that they were discussing all last chapter). In this chapter, the three of them are trying to see if Mira can get herself into town to attend it. Rei and Capri are like walking with her down the path, encouraging her as she goes the way Rei is like holding her hand and leading her gently down the road is so soft In the end, Mira’s anxiety is too bad and she can’t get all the way to town, but Capri goes to the サイン会 and gets a copy of her favorite book signed in her name, and the author writes her a really sweet note, and I just-, everyone is so sweet
Thoughts: I enjoyed the ending of chapter 1! Amusing, simple to read, but also good practice for me. The final ordeal was quite entertaining and I didn’t have to look up many words, so I could enjoy just reading it. not sure how to spoiler things here, so can’t mention what it was
Yesterday I left the book at home, so I couldn’t read it. I did read a lot about how to write 履歴書 and 自己PR, though… does it count? Hahaha
Today I read a little and stopped just right after the MC decided to give up on her first love. Honestly, this story is so trope-y and cliche, but I like it just fine. Give me the ドキs
I started to read ふゆから、くるる recently and its a pretty wild story so far. I haven’t gotten deep into the actual plot yet (its supposed to be a murder mystery) but the world building has been interesting. I’m loving the music and art in this one too.
Anyways, during my reading they were talking about chess and I came across what has to be the largest word compound I’ve seen so far 「二人零和有限確定完全情報ゲーム」
Small reading day today as I took out the time to learn all the new things in the HTML standard from the last 20 years. (As it turns out, it’s a lot less than I expected!) Between that and updating one of my projects to utilize a custom element in HTML+Javascript, I was left with little time for manga.
Happy birthday to a surprisingly large group of people! I’m a bit behind so afraid to tag names and miss anyone, but happy birthday(s) all the same!
I didn’t read yesterday and only read half the ユージニア assignment today. I’ve been very tired and busy this week so it’s not working out well for my reading goals. Here’s hoping tomorrow goes better.
I read 5 volumes of HQ today, all the way through vol 43! There are only 2 volumes left, *sobs*
Some vocab of note:
仰々しい (ぎょうぎょうしい) [い-adj.] exaggerated; bombastic; highly colored
頭が高い (ずがたかい) [expression, い-adj.] haughty; holding one’s head high
惜敗 (せきはい) [noun, する verb (自)] regrettable defeat; defeat by a narrow margin. As opposed to 完敗 (かんぱい) “utter defeat; annihilation.”
引く手数多 (ひくてあまた) [noun] being very popular; being in great demand
天秤にかける (てんびんにかける) [expression, 一] to compare and contrast (two alternatives); to weigh the relative merits (of two options); to weigh (one’s options)
呉越同舟 (ごえつどうしゅう) [四字熟語, noun] bitter enemies in the same boat; rivals finding themselves together by chance
Finished another story! This one, 「氷のジジイ」, is about a group of kids who walk through an empty lot on their way to school. They usually mess around a bit while they’re there. One of the kids, however, is afraid of the old man who lives next to it, while the other children aren’t terribly concerned. I thought this story might venture off into the spooky, but the author went for a more heartwarming ending. I think I mentioned this in the advent calendar thread, but because of the 3 minute limitation, these stories all run into the problem of needing to do a substantial bit of telling one way or another. I’m sure it’s not easy to write something amazing under this limitation. Still, there’s only been one spooky winter tale so far, so it was kind of a letdown that this wasn’t another.
Even more 山猫 today; I read 52 pages which I think is the most I’ve read of a novel in a day by a pretty large margin so… yay!! It was spread over a few sittings but still some really solid progress. Story-wise, things sure are getting interesting the book’s namesake has arrived in full force and oh he is as much of a character as I anticipated, any character who will unironically say この俺様 is bound to be a good time so it’s been a lot of fun hearing more from him directly and watching 勝村 suffer trying to deal with him lmao. Also in retrospect I can’t believe I wasn’t even a little bit suspicious about a character named 山根虎 just happening to meet 勝村 and bond with him about 今井, like wow that should’ve raised some flags But also mysteries upon mysteries what’s the deal with the necklace? Also just with 今井 in general? How many people are somehow connected to it all? Very curious
Also happy birthday to like half the people in this challenge apparently?? I hope you’ve all had a wonderful time!
Another subpar reading day and quick post before I go to bed for work tomorrow. I definitely feel like I’ve been becoming pretty lax with my JP studies lately… spending more of that time playing games with friends. Not having much to do outside for work is definitely affecting that mentality lol.
As a side note though I’m really enjoying just doing little Twitter webcomic translations for friends. It’s a nice way to feel like my efforts haven’t been going to waste and weirdly enough actually doing pretty well in the motivating department.
Word of the Day: 魔法瓶 - thermos bottle or vacuum flask. I didn’t realize Japan was so fascinated with heat-retention properties LOL.
Hilariously enough my own state (Massachusetts) placed sixth in that same video. Was not expecting that name to come up, lol.
is there any chance you could put this stuff under spoiler tags? You’re very far ahead of me with ハイキュー , think there’s a few other people in this thread too who are in the ハイキュー reading club which is on vol 11 right now. Nice to be able to have the option avoid potential spoilers as you’re at the end.
In other news, after a big reading slump (which may or may not have coincided with me downloading the game ‘Obey Me’ on my phone, but hey, it’s in japanese so it kind of counts??) I’ve got back into reading everyday! Currently enjoying BUSTAFELLOWS and Who Inside with their respective book clubs. Also read 今夜、世界からこの恋が消えても this week which I would recommend to people who like romance stories that make you cry lots, but I actually listened to the audiobook so probably doesn’t count for this challenge!
There are two ways and they are both hiding under the cogwheel in the configure row at the top of the reply window.
Blur spoiler looks like this.
Blur spoiler looks like [spoiler]this[/spoiler].
And detail tag like this:
Summary - you can type whatever you want here, doesn't need to call it summary, could even be empty
This text will be hidden
[details=“Summary - you can type whatever you want here, doesn’t need to call it summary, could even be empty”]
This text will be hidden
[/details]
Typically I use blur for short spoilers or part of a sentence spoilers. Detail tag is good if you want to spoiler a lot. Or if you want to hide a super long reply like I did recently. xD
Finally had a solid block of reading time so I could finish chapter 2 of ユージニア (13% → 16%). As expected that was a better experience than reading in little chunks so I’ll try to see if I can read full chapters in the future… I’m probably two slow for that now so maybe just half… we’ll see.
Also played like 15 min of BU$TAFELLOWS. I’m just starting chapter 2 so I better up my playing time if I’m to keep up with the club.
So the good news is I’m really enjoying everything I’m reading right now, the bad news is it’s very hard to find solid blocks of time to dedicate to them.
Same series today but will change it up over the weekend!
New words:
泥棒 (どろぼう) thief, theft
犯人 (はんにん) offender, perpetrator
Replies
Thanks for the words of encouragement @ChristopherFritz ! Will definitely be joining the next ABBC and I’m excited for the results to come out this coming Saturday!
A few of my other concerns in reading outside of Satorireader was also covered by @emiri_learns_jp (the many pauses in reading to look up stuff and whether to create additional set of flash cards for new vocab encountered when reading). The responses to that were useful too so thanks for sharing!
About upcoming book clubs, Komi-san seems interesting. Yotsuba-to! is interesting too, but digital copies seem to be nowhere to be found (other than sample chapters on the website).
Interesting words
バタつく = to panic. Also, バタバタ.
かたじけない = grateful. Kanji form is 忝い. Bad 形?
のんべんだらり = doing nothing. Probably のんびり + 怠い.
のさばる = to do as one pleases; to domineer. のせる + 張る perhaps.
名だたる = famous. Probably creating (祟る) a big name.
紛れる = to get mixed up with / to do something under cover. Not directly related is 紛れ = fluke.
零す = to spill. Related is 溢す / 溢れる (?).
連なる = to stretch out (e.g. east to west). Looks like sound changes from 連れる.
見積もる = to make an estimate
溝浚い = cleaning out mud form a drain. 溝 + 浚う.
神代 = Age of the Gods
行方 = whereabouts. Dropping Furigana confuses me a little.
湯浴み = taking a bath. The verb though, is usually 浴びる, not み.
貧相 = looking shabby / looking poor
結託 = conspiracy
界隈 = vicinity; neighborhood
憧憬 = adoration; yearning. First Kanji is from 憧れる. Second Kanji seems to serve the same meaning as the first.
蓬髪 = disheveled hair
俸禄 = a pay; a salary
暗躍 = secret maneuvers
隠密 = covert; secret (operation). Uses おん, where I confuse with 平穏.
朝廷 = Imperial Court. 朝 sounds like Chinese Dynasty.
三重苦 = triple handicap
大捕物 = rounding up of criminals = large 捕り物.
破落戸 = thug. Vocabulary was known, but not the Kanji form.
武勲 = feat of arms
七輪 = charcoal cooking stove. Yeah, 7 rings.
吟味 = closely examining
濾過 = filtering
不摂生 = neglecting one’s health
ストレス解消 = stress relief
恩に着る = to be indebt to
質が悪い = bad nature; nasty
安請け合い = promising without due consideration
SFX
ガシガシ = clattering noise / swaying and shaking / broken down
Kanji
隈
deep recess
ワイ
界隈
隈
禄 (祿)
stipend
ロク
俸禄, 高禄, 秩禄
濾
filter
ロ
濾過, 濾紙
濾胞
憧 (Level 59)
long for; yearning
ドウ
憧憬
憧れる
So many people’s birthday in not even a week of the new year. HBD
Only than I am not sure about my timezone and Discourse.
these posts are getting later and later in the day for me oh no asdfghjkl
read another 24 pages of 蟲師 which is just over half a chapter. i feel like i’m getting into the rhythm of it now, but it’s also very fun to read which helps, they really do feel like folktales, this chapter is about 蟲 who feed on sound and silence and inadvertently deafen the townspeople. one of the characters spoke in a very honourific/old-fashioned way and used おらぬ at one point, which is fun
Downloaded @pocketcat’s bingo card to fill out as I read too. 
Then please read it again later ok? 
First, can we just set the mood with this darling chapter cover page because it’s beautiful and I love it
In the end, Mira’s anxiety is too bad and she can’t get all the way to town, but Capri goes to the サイン会 and gets a copy of her favorite book signed in her name, and the author writes her a really sweet note, and I just-, everyone is so sweet 
Day 2 - January 4th 
からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 10 (10% ➨ 17%)
ポケットモンスタースペシャル Volume 7 (0% ➨ 6%)
happy birthday(s) all the same!
softlyraining’s snowy book stack 
ラストで君は「まさか！」と言う 冬の物語 (28% → 32%)
But also mysteries upon mysteries 
