January 12th
新書太閣記 progress: 01.53% // Volume I: 17.69%
Almost reached the end of the chapter but too tired to read any further today.
Also keep getting side tracked by all these Daimyo names and trying to link them with each other, gets even more confusing when throughout their lives they go through many name changes.
Words found under the kotatsu
手桶「ておけ」ー Bucket 傷々しい「いたいたしい」ー Pitiful; painful to look at (also: 痛々しい) 日向「ひなた」ー Sunny place; in the sun 臍「へそ」ー Navel; belly button; protrusion/depression in the centre of an object 左官「さかん」ー Plasterer; plasterwork 口巧者「くちごうしゃ」ー Smooth-spoken 窶れる「やつれる」ー To become haggard/gaunt
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
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」// also お奈加「おなか」ー Mother
おつみ - Older sister
小竹「こちく」- Baby brother
加藤清正「かとう きよまさ」// also 弾正「だんじょう」- Ojisan (only distantly related (before marriage))
– Married to: おえつ (sister of お奈加)
Friends & Acquaintances
仁王「におう」- Big kid friend
於福「おふく」// 楊景福「ようけいふく」(Chinese Name) - Timid kid friend
– 五郎大夫 「ごろ だゆう」// 祥瑞「しょうずい」(Chinese name) - Father
– 梨琴「りきん」- Mother
捨次郎「すてじろう」- Servant to Goro // tea bowl seller // Adoptive father of 於福 // Employer of Hideyoshi
Others
織田信秀「おだ のぶひで」- Daimyo
– 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
斯波義統「しば よしむね」- Daimyo (head of the Shiba clan) at Kiyosu castle
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)
Frick… I told myself I was going to make the post the second I got up but I got distracted at work and completely forgot. Still planning on doing it anyway but it kind of hurts from an accountability standpoint.
Slowly, very slowly inching towards the ending of the volume… feels a little like Zeno’s paradox at work though…
Word of the Day: 木の実 - fruit of a tree, nut, berry. The ‘truth’ of the existence of the tree being contained in the fruit is certainly a poetic way to put it.
Coming across new and interesting words was definitely my favorite part of reading in English and I’m really glad the enjoyment of that seems to have carried over to Japanese!
Today was way better than yesterday. I’m not sure if it’s because I made the conscious decision to stretch every hour while at work, or because I got paid today lol. The glorious reward that is a salary… I’m ordering some manga asap!!! I need to run now because I’m heading to the pool, but I read some more チーズスイートホーム and it’s the perfect reading material for the end of the work week. My brain is sloooowly checking out, so it’s a good thing tomorrow is Friday.
Another long day of work but hey at least I finished the chapter so I’m currently at page 142. I’m enjoying the manga a lot so far, pretty fun read. Had no problems with understanding today’s part so it was a really pleasant reading experience. Tomorrow I plan to read more
Let’s try some more stories. This one is about delicious carrot cupcakes. Also first time I became aware of the Kanji for egg; what a weird shape that is 卵.
Next it seems we have some more pirates. It’s cute how even the parrot gets a drink at the bar.
マジーク・ツリーハウス pg 86 → 92 - had the interesting experience of seeing a kanji i’ve only seen used in a name get used as a normal noun today for the first time. I’ve seen 堀 more times than I can count at this point, but always 堀さん and never 城の堀
the phrase 耳をすます also showed up in the chapter today and I was like “!!! i know you !!! i’ve seen you !!!”
Good Words
ホリミヤ
家鳴り「かなり」ー rattling of a house
染まる「そまる」ー to be tainted
拉致「らち」ー taking captive, kidnapping
内緒「ないしょ」ー secrecy, confidentiality
黙る「だまる」ー to stay silent, to say nothing
態度「だいと」ー attitude, manner
文庫本「ぶんこぼん」ー small format paperback book (like real small)
マジーク・ツリーハウス
兜「かぶと」ー helmet of a warrior
鎧「よろい」ー armor
倉庫「そうこ」ー storehouse
城壁「じょうへき」ー castle walls
潜る「くぐる」ー to pass under, to go under
堀「ほり」ー moat
Very fair! If you’re looking to save a little more, BOOKOFF might be good for SBR. I think the digital price and BOOKOFF price for JJL might be the same (400-450 yen/volume)
The kindle price isn’t too different, so I have been opting for that. I figure SBR has high enough acclaim I am not sweating owning it digitally. If its a series I am just trying out or the art is so good I need it physically I usually just go the BookOff route.
Day 11: January 11th
What did I read?: おでかけ子ザメ2
How much did I read?: 8 pages
How long did it take me?: 3 min
I didn’t post yesterday, but I did do a tiny read of tiny shark. It was as cute as ever - watch as tiny shark goes to a shop and finds a tiny Hawaiian shirt with sharks on it
Ok I’ve been glossing over mentions of this one around the forums but your post made me actually go read the synopsis and now I’m intrigued Confession, I tend not to pay much attention to the “real” books that get mentioned around here, because I low-key assume I don’t have the skills to read them anyway, which is probably not, like…the best mindset but it’s also not wrong Not that I have time or energy to attempt it right now, as evidenced by my barely countable reads the past few days, but Putting it on the list
This sounds like top quality news content I hope it at least came with a cute picture to ease the pain of trying to read it!
Yay! Welcome to the dark side! I might add that I wanted with every fiber of my being to not want to read it and not like it, but it’s primary book I look forward to reading every day now.
And it’s looking more and more of being my first completed novel (not counting children’s books), and I have mixed feelings about that because 1) it looks like a “trashy” book like the equivalent of a chic flick, 2) and if someone even happened to be familiar with the title, it’s not exactly the kind of thing to admit to reading to other (Japanese) people without them questioning what kind of person you are lol. Basically it’s hard to make conversation with outside the forum, and I definitely couldn’t talk about it at my schools if I don’t want to be fired
For this book, I look up practically every word I don’t know, but I’ve decided not to push too hard to understand details if I don’t quite get it. I’ve found the discussions in the book club to help fill in the missing gaps, so if I don’t get everything the first time, everyone can be a big help!
I think you will be surprised by how much you understand, and if you can just get the major points in every chapter, I think that’s enough! Since the chapters are pretty short, it’s a lot easier to reflect on the events of each chapter! I say read the first chapter and see if it will suck you in right away.
I didn’t think I had the time to read a chapter a day, but I find that I make time to read it because it’s that intriguing…
January 12th
What did I read?: にわにはににん
How much did I read?: 27 pages
(Finished 4th Story: にわにはににん Started 5th Story: 庭師の休日 )
How long did it take me?: 2 h 32 min
I started reading earlier than usual today, and ended up reading for quite awhile, which was nice, especially after missing two days this week. It might be better to aim for something a bit more steady and regular, though. But anyways, today I finished the 4th story, and a two chapter one at that! I liked it quite a lot! Not everything was explained in it, but it was a lot less vague than the other stories so far, with a bit more of an overarching plot. Which, I guess is a lot easier to achieve when you have 2 chapters’ worth of pages to work with. And the cover art hits different, now that I know who the characters are and what their story is.
The 5th story is pretty intriguing too~ We have the gardener from the prologue, and the appearance of a water orb similar to the one in the 1st story. The gardener also mentions the garden from the 4th story, which somewhat confuses me since he doesn’t look like any of the characters in that story? I mean, it could be a lot later than that story or before, so people could look different, but it isn’t obvious who it’s supposed to be, if anyone.
Finished sub chapter 1 of Chapter 3, no real new developments story wise. Just characters kind of dropping hints at things alluded from before, which is kind of standard. There were some like “oh snap” moments in chapter 2 but I am eagerly awaiting the shoe to drop on this story. The first two chapters were everything I want from 青ブタ but now I am concerned the author is doing that thing where he gets going on a lot of needless details about everyday things that don’t have anything to do with what’s happening. He hasn’t done that yet this volume, but I am concerned it’s gonna happen. One more subchapter for the day, I am pretty tired -_- hopefully I can muster enough energy to finish on the way home.
I’m so glad everyone is working and reading through the slump that seems to have hit a lot of us this week. Not gonna lie, I felt better when I saw I wasn’t the only one struggling to be productive these last few days.
Thanks for 頑張ります-ing and inspiring me to keep going, too. I hope we can all feel better now that the weekend is almost here!
Switched books out! Small reads for both days, but progress is progress. I think this is the third time I’ve started reading the current short story (コイビト) in this collection…That being said, I made it farther than the last two attempts, so good job me! The story’s piqued my interest, so it may be a while before I go back to 冬物語.
I came across the word for pores today, and I don’t know whether to be amused or weirded out (I’m probably a mix of both): 毛穴. “Hair holes”?! I mean, I get it, but…maybe I don’t want to picture it?
The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den 
１月１２日 
Confession, I tend not to pay much attention to the “real” books that get mentioned around here, because I low-key assume I don’t have the skills to read them anyway, which is probably not, like…the best mindset but it’s also not wrong Not that I have time or energy to attempt it right now, as evidenced by my barely countable reads the past few days, but 
Putting it on the list
I might add that I wanted with every fiber of my being to not want to read it and not like it, but it’s primary book I look forward to reading every day now.
I liked it quite a lot! Not everything was explained in it, but it was a lot less vague than the other stories so far, with a bit more of an overarching plot. Which, I guess is a lot easier to achieve when you have 2 chapters’ worth of pages to work with. And the cover art hits different, now that I know who the characters are and what their story is. 
授乳 (25% → 29%)