Home 
January 2nd-5th
1/2 prefecture stories 4 more pages
1/3-1/4 no reading
1/5 ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 63 start - 49
I thought I had read more often but I guess not. Maybe in Spring I’ll be able to get every day 
23 Likes
The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den 
January 6th
新書太閣記 progress: 00.41% // Volume I: 04.78% 
Chapter start:
There’s some really nice descriptions so far, but it jumps around quite a bit, I have to keep pausing to make sense of it in my head.
Words found under the kotatsu
悪童「あくどう」ー Naughty child; brat
胎内「たいない」ー Inside the womb; in the womb; inside a Buddhist statue
撥ねる「はねる」ー To hit; to run into
敏捷「びんしょう」ー Nimble; agile; quick
潜行「せんこう」ー Underwater navigation; going underground; going into hiding; travelling incognito
殲滅「せんめつ」ー Extermination; annihilation
敵愾心「てきがいしん」ー Hostility
Forms
貌 ＝ 顔「かお」(face) // can also be: 形「かたち」(shape; form)
口惜しい ＝ 悔しい「くやしい」(Frustrated; annoyed; vexed)
Character Kanji-Name List
for easy referencing later, because these will take some remembering
Main
Hideyoshi: 豊臣秀吉「とよとみ ひでよし」// 豊太閤「ほうたいこう」
------ Father: 弥右衛門「やえもん」
Volume I Characters
五郎大夫 「ごろ だゆう」// 祥瑞「しょうずい」(Goro’s Chinese name)
– Servant of Goro: 捨次郎「すてじろう」
– Mother of Goro’s child: 梨琴「りきん」
– Rikin’s & Goro’s child: 楊景福「ようけいふく」
日吉「ひよし」(Hideyoshi as a child)
– 仁王「におう」(Big kid friend)
– 於福「おふく」(Timid kid friend)
織田信秀「おだ のぶひで」(Daimyo) (Foreshadowing drum noises)
今川義元「いまがわ よしもと」(Daimyo)
Historical People
– 阿倍仲麻呂「あべ の なかまろ」ー Japanese scholar & poet (around 700AD)
– 白楽天「はく きょい」ー Late 700s Chinese poet (Bai Juyi / Bo Juyi) also known as: 白楽天「はく らくてん」in Japan.
– 道元「どうげん」(or 道元禅師「どうげん ぜんじ」ー Japanese Buddhist Priest, writer & poet (Early to mid 1200s) (also known as 栄西禅師「えいさい ぜんじ」)
– 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 to early 800s)
Reply
Return of the cute sharks!! 
24 Likes
Jan 6, Fri of Week 2 of Winter Q1 2023 
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Death Note Vol.6 Ch.46
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うたわれるもの
Interesting words
- ゴキブリ = cockroach. I even have seen it referred to as G-san. Kanji form is 蜚蠊.
- ミミズ = earthworm. Just remind myself of some animal vocabularies.
- へそくり = secret savings. Kanji is 臍繰り, sounding like going back to navel (臍).
- ひしめく = to be packed in crowd. I also have seen Kanji form before (犇めく).
- 見出す = to discover; to find. The verb parts are from 見る + 出だす.
- 蔓延る = to become rampant
- 恥部 = disgraceful things
- 杜撰 = sloppy
- 健全 = healthy
- 適任 = competent
- 人望 = popularity
- 物色 = selective choosing, like buying a book
- 逸材 = outstanding talent. I couldn’t remember an On reading for this one, but it is in Wanikani Level 54.
- 釈然と = fully satisfied
- 憮然 = disappointed
- 楼閣 = multistorey building
- 説話 = tale
- 寓話 = fable; comparative tale
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終始 = from beginning to the end. Similar to 始終, but the latter has Rendaku.
- 終始 => 終始一貫
- 始終 => 一部始終 (I have found this one a few days ago.)
- 必然的 = inevitable
- 四苦八苦 = being in dire distress
- 前途多難 = having many difficulties in prospect
- 魑魅魍魎 = evil spirits of rivers and mountains. Also, somehow no Furigana here (but has audio).
- 途方に暮れる = to be at a loss
- 死体遺棄 = abandoning a dead body. 死体遺棄事件 is a crime of putting a corpse somewhere, rather than cremating or burying properly.
SFX
- ちょいちょい = repeated slight movement
Kanji
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門 (Level 16)
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門
- 門出
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門
Anyway, my lookup of 大味.
Short summary
- 「大」は「おおきい」「おもんじる」「ものごとの初め」「おごる、ほこる」などの意味の他に「おおまか、粗（あら）い」という意味があります。
- 「味」は文字通り、舌で感じる「あじ」です。他に「うまみ」「気持ち」などの意味もあり、日本では「気が利いている、乙（おつ）」という意味も生まれました。
この二つの字からなる「大味」は、
- 「味がおおまかで、微妙な味わい、旨味（うまみ）に欠けるおおざっぱな味」
という意味です。
味自体が「おおまか」とする辞書と、「食物が、見てくればかり大きくて、本来期待される旨味に欠ける」と説明する辞書があります。
25 Likes
➳ January 6th.
What: ハイキュー！！ volume 1
Pages: 8
Time: 10 minutes
Another short read day… Not much time this evening since I had dinner with a friend after work. It’s weekend now so I’m all fired up about reading more tomorrow, hehe. Have a nice weekend, everyone! I’m very much looking forward to sleeping in 
24 Likes
I know in some dialects there’s a gender-neutral わ which is spoken with a falling intonation, which is different from the feminine わ which is spoken with a rising intonation (not that you get that in text though lmao), so when you see men who aren’t effeminate or otherwise queer-coded, then that’s probably it
Off the top of my head there’s Fukuiben, though I can’t remember if Kansaiben also has it? There’s quite a bit of overlap between them, so it might. I just know I’ve seen male characters in multiple manga use this gender-neutral わ whom I know weren’t speaking Fukuiben (lol and I was just reading a series where some of the characters speak Kansaiben, I feel like I should remember if any of them used わ)
Update: It does, multiple male Kansaiben-speakers have used it.
16 Likes
January 5th & 6th (Days 5 & 6) 
Yesterday, my friends unexpectedly showed up at my door and whisked me away before I could write my post - so this will be my update for both yesterday and today.
I finished reading the second half of chapter 10, and read most of chapter 11 of 海辺のカフカ. Today, I finished the last three pages of chapter 11, but felt too tired to continue any further. I can’t believe I am almost halfway through the first part of the book! Currently at 20%.
Interesting words
蜘蛛の子 [くものこ] - baby spider
携帯魔法瓶 [けいたいまほうびん] - thermos
枕もとの明かり [まくらもとのあかり] - bedside lamp
ぶちの猫 [ぶちのねこ] - tabby cat
I didn’t read any Russian yesterday, but today I finished the last short story in the collection - Конец бульки и Мильтона (The end of Bulka and Milton). To be honest, I am excited to be moving onto reading something else (and hopefully more interesting)! I think I may start with Bulgakov’s Morphine. Until very recently I wasn’t aware that Bulgakov also wrote more realistic fiction - so I am curious to see how it will compare to his other works.
Happy belated birthday @lucylavelle! 
29 Likes
Home post // Jan 6 
・ 本好きの下克上 16 (35% → 37%)
Today was an oddly satisfying day. Woke up way too early, but then fell back to sleep after eating breakfast, so in the end I got enough sleep. Was very productive doing chores/errands and a bit of studying. Ended up not having much time for reading, but I enjoyed the tiny read nonetheless :3
I’ll try reading Saikawa and Moe tomorrow, haven’t done so this whole week.
29 Likes
January 6 
チュベローズで待ってる AGE22, start-17%
Today I started チュベローズで待ってる AGE22 with the informal club, and read the first three chapters. The books is off to a great start, curious to see where it goes.
26 Likes
Finished ユージニア just barely in time for the next assignment and started チュベローズ which is just…a hilarious name to me. I wonder if it sounds cute or sexy or nice to Japanese people? Because while the English name is ‘tuberose’ too, the feeling I have is neutral at best.
That said I’ve only read the first chapter and I’m already excited about it, hoping I can read more tonight.
I hear men say わ all the time when watching youtube or listening to podcasts and stuff, but I feel like I rarely see it in writing unless it’s women speaking.
edit: omg how many typos can I make in one post? 
26 Likes
softlyraining’s snowy book stack 
January 6th
ラストで君は「まさか！」と言う 冬の物語 (40% → 48%)
Okay, so, I glanced at the timer while I read the first story, and I was on the second page when it said roughly 1 minute and 45 seconds had passed…I honestly don’t think I could read 8 pages in 3 minutes in English, let alone Japanese! I also felt myself rushing, though after maybe 5 pages in just decided to read normally. My total reading time for this story (花を抱いた人) was 14 minutes and 48 seconds. The story itself was fine; I don’t really have anything positive or negative to say about it.
The second story (抜け道), which was also 8 pages long, took me 20 minutes and 57 seconds to read. 
This one had a lot of vocabulary that I didn’t understand, and I’m not even entirely sure I’m clear on what the premise was. Granted, I generally don’t look up words when reading from this book. I guess it’s nice that my method’s worked out pretty well up until this story, at least.
24 Likes
January 6th!
Today I read a chapter of Happiness.
I also did some reading practise with my tutor today, we were practising writing polite emails so we read an example.
25 Likes
2023-01-07T01:30:00Z
Well, that’s quite a polite way of saying tasteless. Unless in Japanese, a bland and dull taste is a more positive thing than in English?
15 Likes
Day 6: January 6th
What did I read?: 夜の名前を呼んで Vol 3
How much did I read?: 24 pages
How long did it take me?: 19 min
Pretty easy breezy chapter today, but we got to see how far Mira has come since she first came to live with Rei 
She had a nice day home alone, getting all the chores done with her little shadow buddies.
Rei came back a little bit late and he was clearly running the whole way there 
My cute little disheveled bean 
Replies!
omg that’s so cute 
I think they would definitely get along
ALWAYS CUTE SHARKS
29 Likes
January 5th and 6th
I finished コーヒーが冷めないうちに the other day! 
Then, I decided that I no longer wanted to parallel read ぼくらの七日間戦争 . So, I started the first few pages of 夜は短し歩けよ乙女, チュベローズで待ってる AGE22, and 夜市.
One of the changes in my reading routine was utilizing Satori Reader because some people I know kept raving about it.
Satori Reader: コナの大冒険 (21/45)
While reading this series, I translate sentences in my head or try to explain grammar points and check them against Satori’s. I also adjusted the settings to include all joyo kanji. It’s been a good activity for intensive reading so far because the scaffolded stories help reduce cognitive overload.
Book 2: 夜市 (7%)
Out of the three books I previewed, this one appealed to me the most because it was the easiest! 
The others have been tabled for another day. How do you choose the books you read? What happens when you find them to be too difficult? I’d love to know.
Edit: Will be back for the replies to others
29 Likes
That came up on the Natively forums the other day…
Based on what I’ve heard it’s harder than チュベローズ though I haven’t tried reading it.
12 Likes
So far I’ve been mostly coasting by either picking books already read by WK book clubs (mainly Beginner Book club), or picking books currently being read. xD
I did read a couple of things last year that wasn’t either. One was a manga I could read without doing look ups (except for maybe 1-3 each volume when I really needed to understand the word), because there were so few unknowns. The other one was zenitendou, and I struggled through the first short story, feeling like I was having trouble the whole way and not quite figuring out why (something to do with grammar, sentence structure/syntax more than anything else). And I ended up dropping it for now, and haven’t had a let up in book club reads since then to consider going back to it.
But I’m also reading the VN Loopers (I read it with the club for a little while but then fell behind and now I try to get to it whenever I’m caught up with book clubs), and I find I lack a ton of vocabulary for it, but I keep reading it anyway, doing tons of lookups. But I find it entertaining enough to be worth it.
So maybe the answer is that if I’m struggling too much with grammar I find it easier to drop for later, but if the amount of lookups don’t push me over the edge, then I will keep reading.
23 Likes
Quite a successful read on the plane, would have done more if I hadn’t had so much wine before I boarded I reckon.
6/1 6 pages おばちゃんたちのいるところ (finished story 9), 22 pages Spy Family (whole mission), 7 pages チュベローズで待ってる (chapter 1 then started next)
27 Likes
I set a goal this year to read an entire Japanese book and I think this challenge is a perfect way to get the ball rolling.
What I’m reading:
窓ぎわのトットちゃん
| Jan | ||||||
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| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01 | ||||||
| 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06
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07
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08
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| 09
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10
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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 |
32 Likes
January 6th
What did I read?: にわにはににん
How much did I read?: 8 pages
(Started 4th Story: にわにはににん )
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 7 min
I like this story so far~ It has a strange house that you can lose your way in, passing through the same rooms again and again. And the main character’s laidback personality is a nice change. Although it means dealing with some slang and contracted words! 
(Never would I have guessed that こえー was supposed to be こわい!)
25 Likes
I don’t have too many Japanese books but this time I have books on things I actually like so I’ll definitely enjoy reading a lot more (hopefully).
Reading List
- ハンターハンター１
- ハンターハンター２
- ポケットモンスターブラック・ホワイト 公式完全ぼうけんクリアガイド
Calendar Tracker
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| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
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| 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 | ||||||
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| 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 Likes