finished chapter two of 蟲師 vol 1! in total about 17 pages, so a lot less than yesterday. some of it went quicker, but really struggled with the last resolution-y bit at the end. i think i got it, but i also think the story has a deeper meaning that i’m missing rn thanks to some uh less than complete understanding. ah well, back to it again next week!
it’s here on wk (i’ve not learned it yet) but 溶岩 turned up a few times, which is a fun word
edit: i checked he last couple of panels in an english version online and i was right! i just needed a little space to let it settle in my head
from personal experience and going purely of off how it appears in media (so take with a grain of salt), this is still used by some women characters, but also by men too. that used to be only ‘effeminate’ or queer-coded men (often with a negative connotation or in some humorous way at the man’s expense), but more recently i’ve heard it from more ‘masculine’ men too so maybe things are changing?
(someone else with more detailed knowledge please correct me)
I didn’t post yesterday because I only managed to read one or two pages. Today I procrastinated the entire day and read from 12:30am to 1am time to sleep now, let’s see if I can read until 30% through tomorrow.
Jisho says the opposite is 小味 - Jisho.org which somewhat defeats your speculation, I guess? While I can understand that “fine nuances in taste” would be 小味, I don’t get why “big nuances in taste” should mean “bland” or “dull”
Daijisen defines 大味 as 物事が大まかできめの細かさが見られず、趣の乏しいこと – so I guess the idea is that it’s only got the big rough outlines of what it ought to be, with none of the detail and nuance of flavour.
Will do some more ホリミヤ later, splitting jp reading into ~30 minutes in the morning and then ~30 minutes later in the day has been working well for me the last few days
Good Words
ホリミヤ
日に日に「ひにひに」ー day by day
捩れる「ねじれる」ー to become twisted, to become tangled
任せる「まかせる」ー to leave (a matter/decision to someone else)
諦め「あきらめ」ー resignation
余裕「よゆう」ー surplus, margin
餌付け「えづけ」ー artificial feeding (of wild animals)
マジーク・ツリーハウス
茂み「しげみ」ー thicket, bush
やがて ー before long
割と「わりと」ー relatively
きらり ー with a momentary flash of light
握り締める「にぎりしめる」ー to grasp tightly
January 6th
新書太閣記 progress: 00.41% // Volume I: 04.78%
Chapter start: 野の子ども
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)
– 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)
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
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.