📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2023 ☃❄

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~

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:spiral_calendar: Day 7: January 7th :snowflake:

spacer:bust_in_silhouette: シャドーハウス Volume 4 (13% ➨ 33%)

Too much coding and not enough reading today. But my plan to get caught up with the Shadows House book club is…sort of getting there. Back to coding.

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1月5日~8日

I’m pretty sure I missed a day somewhere here if you don’t count reading a Japanese guest’s message :sweat_smile:
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! :slight_smile:

Funny! Mine was the day after, the 4th.

And look it all these early January birthdays! Happy (belated) birthday guys! :sparkling_heart:

One of our guests from Belgium came on the 4th and left on her birthday on the 6th, too. Such happy timing!

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Home post

1 月 8 日
からかい上手の高木さん Volume 1 Chapter 2 :smiling_imp:

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… :sweat_smile:

@nyxqueenofshadows thank you for the reply to my question related to the feminine speaking styles! And for prompting others to respond! :grin: Very useful inputs.

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January 7 :snowflake: Home Post

More 山猫! I was determined to make progress and read 49 pages so guess I succeeded :stuck_out_tongue: 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” :joy: 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!

Ooooh that’s very exciting, congrats!! :tada:

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:books: :snowflake: softlyraining’s snowy book stack :snowboarder: :open_book:

January 7th

:orange_square: ラストで君は「まさか!」と言う 冬の物語 (48% → 52%)

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!

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:bookmark: Home post // Jan 7 :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake:

・ 本好きの下克上 16 (37% → 42%)

Was too tired to post last night, so here goes instead. I did not read Saikawa and Moe :eyes: I watched the last few episodes of Bocchi the Rock instead. I hope there will be a season 2 :crossed_fingers:

Honzuki spoilers: I can’t help but ship ローゼマイン and フェルディナンド, they have an interesting chemistry together. I don’t want her to be married to ヴィルフリート :sob: I know the two of them are just engaged for political stability right now to counter unwanted attention from the noble people, so I guess there is room for other developments further ahead :eyes:

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home post

8th jan

another chapter of 彼女とカメラと彼女の季節 and we’re only in chapter two but things are heating up! there’s still cute moments tho so i feel comfortable carrying on.

no words jumped out at me, but that’s okay. back to 蟲師 tomorrow!

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I technically started this challenge on the first, but I was so busy with it being イッテンヨン week in Japan and all, plus having family visiting, I wasn’t able to be around the forum much, and just quietly got my reading done on my own :sweat_smile:.

But I am here now!! :triumph:

Jan
Week 52
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Feb
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9

= Japanese
= Japanese and Spanish

As usual, I’m aiming to read in both Japanese and Spanish every day if possible! I also have an ambitious new goal that I outlined in my 2022 retrospective/2023 goals post

Basically, I’m going to try to get a full 365 day streak of either reading or listening every day (I typically do the reading challenge for two months and then the listening challenge on the off-month) with both Spanish and Japanese. I honestly got pretty close to accomplishing that last year without even planning on it from the outset, and since I’m freshly unemployed, I figured I might as well aim extra high.

What I'm reading in Spanish:

I’m currently reading Sí, sí es contigo by Calle y Poché, which is a book I had earmarked for adding to the library’s Spanish language collection. I saw it on recommended lists of LGBTQ books in Spanish, and it looked like it would have a lot of everyday vocabulary and be a bit less, well, literary, for lack of a better term, haha, which might make it more accessible to me, since I’d mostly just been reading kids books before.

What I'm reading in Japanese:

As usual, my main priority will be translating post-match comments for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling! This still counts as reading haha because I’m still heavily dependent on typed transcripts of the comments and don’t have good enough listening comprehension to translate from video yet.

The TJPW comments are very time-sensitive and have to take priority, but whenever I have extra time, I have some Shakespeare deathmatch wrestling shows from over a decade ago on some rare DVDs that I bought recently, and I’m trying to translate the card/cast list for those shows, as well as other materials, like the really cool program that Romeo vs Juliet came with (and I’ll be getting the guidebook for Macbeth hopefully soon…). It can be a somewhat research-intensive process haha because I have to look up a lot of names and such.

As far as, like, normal reading goes, I’m still hoping to finish 大海原と大海原 volume 3! I’m pretty sure I started it during last year’s winter read every day challenge, but, well, life had other plans for me that year, haha, and I ran out of time for reading manga after taking on a huge translation workload. But I still want to finish it!!

I also started reading 女装してめんどくさい事になってるネクラとヤンキーの両片想い recently, after reading the first two volumes in English and getting curious enough to try reading the third in Japanese. I’m reading this series much more extensively than everything else I’m reading, so sometimes I find myself gravitating toward it when I want something a little lower effort.

In addition to that, pro wrestling’s greatest epic gay love story, the Golden Lovers (who are the entire reason I got into wrestling and ultimately the reason I started learning Japanese), have recently gotten back together, and it’s likely that things are going to ramp up a lot with that story in February (when Kota Ibushi’s contract is up), so I’ll probably have tweets and interviews and such from them to read, too. I’m hoping, at least! The first week of January has already been very generous in that regard…

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Home Post

Day 7 Progress:
お隣の天使様 五冊 - 75.57% → 81.48%

It’s 6 AM and I regret everything.

The anime adaptation for this started airing today… but I can’t bring myself to watch it. I hate this series so much lmao…

Word of the Day: 鴛鴦夫婦おしどりふうふ - loving couple, happily married couple. Unfortunately it seems that the mandarin ducks (鴛鴦) the phrase was coined from are not quite the lifelong couples they were believed to be… the male simply leaves to find someone else in the autumn. Still a cute if slightly ill-fitting phrase.

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:snowflake: :snowman: Home Post :snowman: :snowflake:

January 8th.

What: ハイキュー!! volume 1
Pages: 48
Time: 45 minutes.

Wooo, I finished the volume before it stopped being free to read :sparkles: I admit I rushed things in the end because I don’t really care about volleyball :melting_face: I’m sorry, volleyball boys… But hey, I learned some new words and expressions, so that’s something. I’m excited to read something different tomorrow. I’ve also got this real itch to purchase some physical manga. I might be getting paid next week (I didn’t think I would until next month??) and I really want to order something for myself, something to look forward to. Getting stuff in the mail is like getting a gift from my past self.

We’ll see! Have a nice Sunday, everyone :bouquet:

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January 8th

:snowman: Home post :snowflake:

Aria: the masterpiece volume 3 – progress report
Yesterday: Began reading volume 3 of Aria: the masterpiece, read up to page 16.
Today: Continued up to page 38, finished chapter 21.

This chapter was full of revelations for me but not because the chapter had a big one to offer. It’s because I managed to put some discoveries on my part together.

a) A new character named Alice came into the picture and I’m noticing a trend here: first I found it peculiar that everyone’s name started with an ‘A’ but by now I can say that this was most likely not a coincidence by the author but all done on purpose. So in other news, I’m captain obvious and oblivious… soo captain oblovious…obvivious? :sweat_smile: To my defense, I went into this series blind but I still could have put 1 and 1 together sooner.

b) I might be on the way of developing a love-hate relationship in regards to Aika. I do find her amusing as she’s pretty sassy but this chapter made her rather obnoxious when she tried 'asserting dominance over the new character Alice in terms of ranks. Granted, she’s still pretty young, so immature behaviour like that is nothing out of the ordinary but meh…

c) I might also be on the way of developing a love-hate relationship in regards to Akari. I do like that she’s in good spirits, enthusiastic about many things, willing to learn and improve and just a cute gal in general.
However, she’s too good natured for the lack of a better word? Except for her annoyance with Akatsuki calling her err ‘sideburns girl’ she almost never expresses any ‘negative’ feelings except for being embarrassed and panicky here and there. On the contrary, she seems happy about basically everything and doesn’t mind losing as long as she can still help someone in the midst of a race which has happened twice by now. She seems too good and accommodating in a way and it’s getting slightly irritating for me. Come to think of it, Alicia fits the ‘good and accommodating’ nature as well but she seems a bit more ‘wild’, at least when she drank too much.
But at the end of the day, maybe I should simply enjoy the good-natured and relaxing ride of this series where most things are nice and comfy… hmm. :thinking:

Grievances aside, I just began reading volume 3 out of 7, so maybe I’ll change my mind soon enough and (fully) like both of them again; who knows.


I missed this one, apologies. Congrats to finishing your first book! :smile: :tada: …which you finished practically and not technically just as @MissDagger pointed out. :wink:

Reply

It may have been your own decision to continue reading this series but I hope that you will finish it soon to finally set your soul (and sanity) free from it – 頑張って! Do you already have a (palette cleanser) book in mind once you finish this one?

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Word or expression of the day:
素直 - (すなお) - honest, frank, upfront (about one’s feelings)​

Honourable mention(s):
照れる - (てれる) - to be shy, to be bashful, to feel awkward, to feel embarrassed

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:open_book: :desktop_computer: :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake: January 7

Good progress with ユージニア (21% → 26%).

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Day 5
I finished reading the second volume of Your Lie in April. The manga is slowly improving a little bit. It starts to focus more on the relationship of the main characters.

581 pages read 19419 to go

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Thanks! Heartwarming and calming sounds good, adding to my TBR (in English, that is :sweat_smile: )

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:snowflake: Day 8, 8th of January :snowflake:

:open_book: Back to my Home Post

Today I read one page of Kiki. Compared to last year it went much more smoothly, so learning vocab in advance shows its usefulness. It was still quite difficult because the text has to be read vertically and not horizontally. And there are still places where I’m stumped on how to interpret the grammar, but overall I got the gist.

I stopped at the part where Kiki’s father is laughing because he heard the bell in the high tree(s?) ring, which means Kiki had a mishap with her broom again.

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Jan 8, Sun of Week 2 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

  • かぐや様は告らせたい Vol.26 Ch.256-257

I don’t feel strongly about this arc, but prior vocabulary learning making going through much easier.

  • うたわれるもの
Interesting words
  • ブレ = blurring. From ()れる. Probably like ボケ?
  • ちっと = a little bit. Also, ()っと, and I have seen ちっとも…ない before.
  • (すぐ)れる = to surpass. The vocabulary isn’t new, but without Furigana, and thinking about (やさ)しい (as well as (うれ)しい and (うれ)える) makes it even more confusing. Kanji Level 23 and vocabulary in Wanikani.
  • ()わった = odd; weird. Like (へん)な as an adjective.
  • ()てもなく = aimlessly. No ()て.
  • (なみだ)する = to shed tears
  • ()(ちが)える = to mistake one thing for another
  • 不憫(ふびん) = pitiable
  • 稽古(けいこ) = practice; training
  • 猛威(もうい) = violence; menacing
  • 言伝(ことづて) = hearsay; rumor. (つて) = connections, and in Wanikani.
  • 蚊帳(かや) = mosquito net. Exceptional reading for 手帳(てちょう), which has additional meaning of a veil ((とばり)). () is just a mosquito.
  • 利権(りけん) = personal interests, like of business and politicians
  • 軟禁(なんきん) = house arrest; confining in their own house
  • 幼子(おさなご) = little infant. Written in context with 幼児(ようじ).
  • 調達(ちょうたつ) = supplying; procurement. First Kanji uses the meaning of 調(ととの)える.
  • ()(ごの)み = being fastidious; being particular. The first Kanji is for choosing ((えら)ぶ).
  • 道交法(どうこうほう) = Road Traffic Act (law article) = short for 道路交通法(どうろこうつうほう)
  • 百面相(ひゃくめんそう) = making different comical faces (面相(めんそう))
  • 益荒男(ますらお) = excellent warrior. Probably 益々(ますます) + (あら)い + (おとこ).
  • 艱難辛苦(かんなんしんく) = hardships. First Kanji is about hardship.
  • 色恋沙汰(いろこいざた) = love affairs. Matters (沙汰(さた)) about love (色恋(いろこい)).
  • ()(しょ) = office; crew room. Also, 詰所(つめしょ).
  • ()めが(あま)い = not planning well towards the end of the game (()め)
  • ()()ちない = hard to swallow
  • ()世離(よばな)れ = otherworldliness. 浮世(うきよ) = this fleeting world. The reading from 浮世絵(うきよえ).

SFX

  • ほんわか = cozy; warm; fluffy
  • もちもち = springy texture
  • ぐさりと = deeply thrust; stab

Kanji

  • (カン)

    • hardships
    • カン
      • 艱苦(かんく),     艱難(かんなん),     艱難辛苦(かんなんしんく)
  • (ビン)

    • pity; compassion => (ビン)
    • ビン
      • 不憫(ふびん),     憐憫(れんびん)
    • ミン
      • 憐憫(れんみん)
  • (チョウ) (Level 48)

    • notebook / veil
    • veil
      • チョウ
        • 几帳(きちょう),     開帳(かいちょう),     紙帳(しちょう)
      • (とばり)
      • 蚊帳(かや) (in Wanikani)
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Read challenge first week done, too.
I think my 夜市 progress is at around 35% now. Not as much as I hoped for but since I’m reading this before sleep in bed I sometimes fall asleep while reading and then I have to reread a lot on the next day or just don’t end up reading much because I’m too tired. But seems like I’m on par with the intermediate book club pace, haha.
Also found some manga to read that’s gonna keep me occupied for a couple more days. I just wish I’d get myself to read more.

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January 8th progress update :snowflake:
Home Post

Today was really successful in my opinion. :blush:

Finished the first chapter of よつばと!- vol. 1. That means I went from page 20 to 53 in about 90 minutes or so. Today wasn’t nearly as tiring as yesterday, reading felt a lot more comfortable as I had to look up less grammar and vocab compared to yesterday. I’m using the old yotsuba&! book club thread along with the memrise course to speed up the learning process and help better understand even the tiny bits.

So far I’m having a blast with the manga which is a cute and funny story, a perfect beginner manga imo. Definitely going to read more in the future, got all the 僕だけがいない街 vols ready but I don’t feel like i’m even remotely close to that level yet.

Today I learned the following expression:
遣っ付ける - to beat; to attack (an enemy); to finish off

Does the manga have parts that weren’t included in the anime or you haven’t seen the anime itself?

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:raccoon: :books: The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den :snowflake: :raccoon:

January 8th
新書太閣記 progress: 00.86% // Volume I: 09.98% :rice:

Chapter start: この一軒

I think I got a little carried away reading today, I began and finished the chapter at least, but at what cost?

My brain is mush :melting_face:

Words found under the kotatsu

納屋「なや」ー Shed; barn; outhouse
焚物「たきもの」ー Firewood (also: 焚き物)
癒える「いえる」ー To recover; to be healed
陣笠「じんがさ」ー Ancient soldier’s hat; common soldier
顫く「おののく」ー To shake; to shudder; to tremble (more common to see as: 戦く)
足軽「あしがる」ー Common foot soldier; lowest rank samurai
工面「くめん」ー Contrivance; one’s financial condition
細腕「ほそうで」ー Slender arm; slender means
「ざる」ー Draining basket
産後「さんご」ー Postpartum; after childbirth
馴れた「なれた」ー Tame; domesticated
駄々「だだ」ー Tantrum; fretting
汲む「くむ」ー To draw water; to ladle; to pump; to pour
「かん」ー Temper; nerves
水甕「みずがめ」ー Water jug (also: 水瓶)
奇異「きい」ー Odd; peculiar
叱言「こごと」ー Scolding; telling off (also: 小言)
旗揚げ「はたあげ」ー Raising an army; raising a banner
刀鍛冶「かたなかじ」ー Swordsmith
系図「けいず」ー Family tree; genealogy
呟く「つぶやく」ー To mutter/murmur/grumble // also has a more modern meaning: to tweet on Twitter
燈心「とうしん」ー Wick (candle, lamp etc.) (this kanji is now outdated though, newer version is: 灯心)
膳越し「ぜんごし」ー Rudely reaching over your serving tray with your chopsticks to grab food behind it
密使「みっし」ー Secret messenger
魘される「うなされる」ー To cry out in your sleep
怯え「おびえ」ー Startled; trepidation; panic
疳の虫「かんのむし」ー Convulsions (in a child); nervousness; short-temperedness; bug thought t cause diseases in children
「やいと」ー Moxibustion (Traditional Chinese medicine)

Forms
呶鳴る = 怒鳴る「どなる」(to shout/yell in anger)

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 :thinking:

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
木下弥右衛門「きのした やえもん」- Father
筑阿弥「ちくあみ」ー Step-father
大政所「おおまんどころ」ー Mother
おつみ - Older sister
加藤清正「かとう きよまさ」- Ojisan (only distantly related)


Others
織田信秀「おだ のぶひで」- Daimyo (Foreshadowing drum noises)
– 織田与三郎「おだ よさぶろう」- Younger brother
今川義元「いまがわ よしもと」- Daimyo

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)

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