マジーク・ツリーハウス pg 41 → 72 - I realized I was actually pretty close to finishing the first story today (The e-book is actually the first 2 books combined into one volume), so I decided to push a little bit harder on this to finish it today! That means I have technically finished my first book in japanese! I definitely didn’t understand everything, and (like @NicoleIsEnough mentioned a while back) even in a kids book like this there’s a surprising amount of pretty difficult grammar. But! 100% perfect comprehension was never my goal here; I understood enough of what was happening to read through and enjoy it, and I picked up some neat vocab and grammar stuff along the way! Now we just rinse and repeat
Good Words
ホリミヤ
フラれる ＝ 振られる ー to be turned down (Weird katakana usage here but 2 different people say it like this)
お似合い 「おにあい」ー well matched (of a couple)
誤解「ごかい」ー misunderstanding
誘う「さそう」ー to invite someone
唇「くちびる」ー lips
マジーク・ツリーハウス
危うい「あやうい」ー dangerous, in danger
悲鳴「ひめい」ー shriek
カモノハシ ー platypus
吠える「ほえる」ー to bark, to roar
脱出「だっしゅう」ー escape
包丁「ほうちょう」ー kitchen knife
しゃがみ込む「しゃがみこむ」ー to crouch down (completely, face looking through knees)
鋭い「するどい」ー sharp, perceptive, keen
たどり着く「たどりつく」ー to finally arrive
街灯「がいとう」ー street light
congrats!
The english title is frustratingly ambiguous, and I think more people read it incorrectly than correctly (myself included ) The english titles of many series are, frankly, pretty bad, but sounds like you’re well on your way to understanding the japanese titles for yourself now!
Aria: the masterpiece volume 3 – progress report Yesterday: (Card Captor Sakura) Continued up to page 189, finished chapter 22 and volume 5 Today: Began reading volume 3 of Aria: the masterpiece, read up to page 16.
The person on the cover confused me for a second but it turns out that it is Aika who at one point apparently gets a haircut and thus, short hair. Problem solved!
I was relieved that I wasn’t once again greeted with several pages of world building which would have made me go back to the volume 1 word list yet again.
Instead, the chapter started like many others with Akari’s diary/letter(?) entries. Turns out that it is spring again and that Akari has officially spent one whole year on Aqua – time sure flies (despite having 24 months over there), huh.
I’ll simply feed on the scenery in this volume as it may take a while before spring arrives in my err vicinity…sigh, I don’t like winter, especially when snow is scarce and everything is just barren and grey.
I can only second @sddsdd : being able to finally read even one book or volume of beginner friendly manga is satisfying and motivating. I hope that this will motivate you to read much more for a while to finish more volumes and eventually a whole series. 頑張って。
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Word or expression of the day:
再び - (ふたたび) - again, once more, a second time
Honourable mention(s):
骨の折れる - (ほねのおれる) - to require much effort, to be hard to do, to be bone-breakingly hard
Skipped a few days, but that’s okay. I’m squeezing in work on a family holiday and have to prioritize how to use unexpected bits of down-time. TBH sometimes catching up on sleep takes top priority.
Satori is easier to pick up when I have a few minutes here or there so going to focus on them. (PS they’re having a sale right now!) Currently reading the one about the jam maker and the one about the mouse
These are adorable! Adding them to my list right now!
Some people read a lot and some of us are just trying to do a paragraph a day. It’s all good.
If you get to that one please let us know how it is? Really curious about it.
There was a book club here for it I believe, and I and some others have read it outside of that. It’s a heart warming and calming book. The writing style is really nothing special, though, and perhaps the pacing could be better. I greatly enjoyed the audiobook and I’ve heard other people loved the movie - and IIRC it was actually based on a stage play.
Finally had a chance to get back to Bustafellows, in the middle of a very long scene I stopped in before because I got fatigued on figuring stuff out. After quite some more talking it finally ended.
The end of chapter one nowhere in sight yet. I haven’t even gotten to all the choice points in chapter 1 yet, and I seem to remember people talking about there being quite a bit after them too.
I knew I’d fall behind on the VN clubs (I haven’t even had a chance to start 9-nine- yet…) in the first half of January, but I had thought I’d at least finish chapter 1 of Bustafellows before chapter 3 begins next week, but… I’d be surprised if I did with how busy I will be.
And it is quite early here yet, so I will probably end up reading some more of the English novel I’m reading later. But I wanted to post right now. ^^
Hurray! Well done!
What is this “technically” I hear? If you in any language bought a trilogy in a one volume set, would you then say that you hadn’t finished a book when you finished the first book of the trilogy?! Shame on you.
I suppose “technically” in the sense that I can’t check it off as done on natively or bookmeter (I did mark it as read and put it on my goodreads japanese shelf though, so you got me there )
Well, I can see that. *nods sagely* But in reality you still finished your first book and in this challenge we don’t care if you can check it off on natively/bookmeter. xD
January 7th
新書太閣記 progress: 00.53% // Volume I: 06.10%
I said it yesterday but again, the descriptions are really good. It’s impressive how much emotional weight Yoshikawa can express in such few words, really makes the scenes feel very real.
Also managed to finish the chapter.
Words found under the kotatsu
旗指物「はたさしもの」ー The small flag that some samurai carry on their back in battle 騎「き」ー Counter for horsemen 荷駄「にだ」ー Pack; horseload 野薔薇「のいばら」ー Multiflora Rose / Japanese Rose 兵馬「へいば」ー Arms and cavalry; troops; military affairs 前線「ぜんせん」ー Weather front; the front lines; action zone 床几「しょうぎ」ー Folding stool; camp stool 籠手「こて」ー Gauntlet; bracer 颯々「さつさつ」ー Rustling; murmuring; whistling 恍惚「こうこつ」ー Rapture; ecstasy
Forms
酬いる ＝ 報いる「むくいる」(to reward; to recompense; to repay)
Alt Meanings
駒「こま」ー Shogi/chess piece // But has an archaic meaning: horse; foal
Character Name List
for easy referencing later, because these will take some remembering
Also probably some spoilers, but this is a historic novel, so can spoilers really exist for things that have (for the most part) actually happened
Main Hideyoshi: 豊臣秀吉「とよとみ ひでよし」// 豊太閤「ほうたいこう」
Volume I Characters 日吉「ひよし」
(Hideyoshi as a child)
Friends
仁王「におう」- Big kid friend
於福「おふく」- Timid kid friend
Family
弥右衛門「やえもん」- Father
加藤清正「かとう きよまさ」- Ojisan (only distantly related)
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」
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)
Finished the first 20 pages of よつばと！- vol. 1
This was probably the most exhausting reading experience I ever had due to this being the first ever manga I read, not to mention barely reading anything in Japanese recently. I must admit though that getting through just these 20 pages feels great because I’ve revised grammar I nearly forgot, learnt some new words and expressions. Time to take some notes of the new vocab I gained then relax for the day.
This is called a challenge for a reason and I’m happy to be a part of it, looking forward to finishing the first chapter tomorrow.
Day 4
Continued reading Your Lie in April manga Vol.2. It must be really rough what happened to the protagonist being on a stage and starting to panic. But they somehow managed to save the situation but were still disqualified. In my opinion that really doesn’t matter as an artist it’s more important to give your best every time and to make people smile.
Started the next short story in ボッコちゃん 5 pages.
Day 7: January 7th
What did I read?: 夜の名前を呼んで Vol 3
How much did I read?: 36 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 20 min
Wow, I was struggling today in the reading department, I feel like there were a lot of words I didn’t know and kanji I couldn’t remember how to read so it slowed me up a bit. But nevertheless, I read two chapters today and finished off this last volume when are there more I need them
In the second-to-last chapter, a butler man randomly shows up in their garden and engages Rei’s magical doctor services for a young girl who apparently can’t be in the sunlight. I think her and Mira are going to become friends somehow - idk how, but I can sense it
And then the last chapter. THE LAST CHAPTER WAS THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE It’s a flashback to young Rei, Karutos, and Stela being in magical med school together.
Spoilers, but cute spoilers ;_; And they're not really related to the main story I don't think, just this particular chapter
Stela decides she’s going to be an inventor, and the first thing she invents is…No. ワン
But then - tragedy - we find out that Rei is allergic to puppy so he can never pet the puppy again
But then, but then
Stela invents him this little space helmet thing so he can play with puppy again ahhhhh
January 7th
What did I read?: にわにはににん
How much did I read?: 12 pages
(Continued 4th Story: にわにはににん )
How long did it take me?: 46 min
This story’s getting really interesting! The main character has been trapped in a miniature garden and has a doppelganger of him running around the house! I’m a big fan of doppelgangers in stories, so this is a fascinating development~
I’m pretty sure I missed a day somewhere here if you don’t count reading a Japanese guest’s message
But somewhere down the line, I got a couple pages of 世界から猫が消えたなら read, and I took advantage of the coin back sale on Bookwalker to finally get かがみの孤城 and get a couple pages in. It’s interesting that it’s rated lower on Natively compared to the former book because the former feels like it’s much easier to read, in my opinion. But we’ll see how they compare down the road.
I also got chapter 5 of 夜カフェ3 read, and thankfully this chapter was better than the last two. But honestly, if it wasn’t a book I could literally just read anywhere at any time, I probably would put it on hold. It’s just far less interesting compared to the other books I’m reading.
Thanks all for the birthday wishes!
Funny! Mine was the day after, the 4th.
And look it all these early January birthdays! Happy (belated) birthday guys!
One of our guests from Belgium came on the 4th and left on her birthday on the 6th, too. Such happy timing!
So I’ve read another chapter of Teasing-master Takagi-san, but have to say that there were so many things I couldn’t understand today. I can get the gist of the story from words I know and of course the drawings but my low level of grammar is really hindering me from being able to fully understand or even attempt at making translations which I’ve seen other readers do in the book club thread.
I’m beginning to wonder if I’m ready for my first ABBC at all! But paraphrasing from this chapter: 別にいいけど… Ready or not, I’m just gonna do it since the next two in line are both mangas I voted for and look super cute!
Replies
@javerend i was just thinking how strange that is but then I thought about how I pick books to read. I guess I don’t really give that much consideration for titles. Usually I heavily base my selection on the blurb and genre. Unfortunately, based on my reading progress for today, it’s only until the title for now…
@nyxqueenofshadows thank you for the reply to my question related to the feminine speaking styles! And for prompting others to respond! Very useful inputs.
More 山猫! I was determined to make progress and read 49 pages so guess I succeeded I’m enjoying all the mysterious happenings and trying to figure out what’s going on, but mostly I’m enjoying all the ridiculous things 山猫 does and everyone around him being like “why are you like this” poor 勝村 lmao, he’s gonna be so mad when the crossword puzzle 山猫 was messing with inevitably ends up being the key to the clues 今井 left for him, rip. There are also still interesting side characters being introduced, I have no idea if anyone other than 山猫 will end up actually being a recurring character in the series so we shall see!
Only one short story today (8 pages, 19 minutes and 48 seconds). My spouse was playing Lego Star Wars, and it was hard not to stop reading to watch the cut scenes…
Today’s story once again involved a runner. However, I had an easier time understanding what was going on, so it was an all-around better time. That said, it was just so-so.
I see that a couple of people finished their first book/manga in Japanese! This is probably my favorite aspect of the reading challenge. Congratulations! For those still on the journey to that first finished book, keep at it! A little bit goes a long way!
１月７日 
) The english titles of many series are, frankly, pretty bad, but sounds like you’re well on your way to understanding the japanese titles for yourself now!
and the one about the mouse 
)
It’s a flashback to young Rei, Karutos, and Stela being in magical med school together.
シャドーハウス Volume 4 (13% ➨ 33%)
I’m enjoying all the mysterious happenings and trying to figure out what’s going on, but mostly I’m enjoying all the ridiculous things 山猫 does and everyone around him being like “why are you like this” 
poor 勝村 lmao, 
ラストで君は「まさか！」と言う 冬の物語 (48% → 52%)