I’m back to Orange, my old friend. The club have now been active for slightly more than 6 months. Feels a bit surreal.
Today was chapter 23 from start to finish. Took me a little bit to get back into the writing style, I haven’t read Orange for a month, but then it flowed well.
Me gushing about Orange—well me recommending Orange to others xD
I can’t recommend Orange enough. The thing that takes it from being a really good beginner manga is probably the amount of casual language, it is literally everywhere, and those of us who read with the book club so far, already had pretty good grasp on it, so there aren’t really questions and answers about that.
But outside that, Orange is fairly simple. Mostly using everyday, high school vocabulary. With really good characters, a great story, and beautiful art. What more could you ask for? Well, no casual language I guess, but nope, lots of it everywhere. A tiny bit of science fiction, time travel-ly vocabulary, but only crops up 2-3 times across all 5 first volumes, so not much in general. If it sounds interesting, you can check out the club for additional info (such as content warnings).
Unfortunately, we just started volume 6, so you might not be able to catch up with the club itself, but please read it. It is great. ^^ And the threads are available for questions and such, of course.
January 22nd
新書太閣記 progress: 03.37% // Volume I: 39.13%
Not had much time to read today, but happy year of the BUN!
Words found under the kotatsu
後手「ごて」ー Losing initiative; being forestalled; second move/going second (Shogi/Go term) 物見「ものみ」ー Sightseeing; scout; patrol; lookout 小勢「こぜい」ー A small force 嶮岨「けんそ」ー Steep terrain; precipitous // (also: 険阻)
Character Name List
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」(Nickname - full name: 福太郎「ふくたろ」) // 楊景福「ようけいふく」(Chinese name/birth name) - Timid kid friend (older than Hideyoshi)
– 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」- Previous servant to 五郎, later the adoptive father of 於福, and owner of a tea ware shop - and employer of, and master to, Hideyoshi
Hachisuka Clan
蜂須賀小六「はちすか ころく」(also 正勝 「まさかつ」) - Head of the Hachisuka clan
– Married to 松波「まつなみ」
– – 亀一「かめいち」ー Son
Oda Clan
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
Shiba Clan
斯波義統「しば よしむね」- Head of the Shiba clan, at Kiyosu castle
Others
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 (700s)
白楽天「はく きょい」ー Chinese poet (Bai Juyi / Bo Juyi) also known as: 白楽天「はく らくてん」in Japan. (Late 700s)
道元「どうげん」(or 道元禅師「どうげん ぜんじ」ー Japanese Buddhist Priest, writer & poet (also known as 栄西禅師「えいさい ぜんじ」) (Early / mid 1200s)
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 / early 800s)
源頼政「みなもと の よりまさ」ー Prominent poet and warrior (1100s)
The last couple of days have just been kind of a blur of being sick and having to go to work still… despite that I did manage to get more reading done than I expected.
Word of the Day: 灰汁 - soup/broth scum, lye. “Ash soup” certainly makes the scum seem as unpleasant as possible… and the reading itself doesn’t quite contradict it either!
Replies
Thank you!! I haven’t been able to get in as much R&R as I would like with work and all but I’ll hang in there.
夜市 is at 51%, so just 9% this week.
I didn’t feel to well for a few days so I did less. I also did not read anything on Friday but that’s okay. I don’t feel too bad about it. I’ve been a lot more consistent than usual so it’s kind of a win already.
And I did read a couple of YT comments, so I technically did read something, but I don’t want to count that.
Finished manga from last week and started reading Spirit Circle. Still in Volume 1 but I hope I’ll finish it after writing this post. done! Some chapters with some old speech stuff is a bit of a slog.
I forgot to thank everyone for their appreciation of the photos. ^^ I will try to catch Kiro when he is being super cute. I might just have to let my phone be glued to me for a couple of days for that though, because if I try moving to get it, he stops to watch me. xD
And since I’m here anyway. I have now also read some fiction in English. ^^
He’s really growing into his own. Although I’m sure he’s not done yet. Just noticed today that he isn’t as easy to move around with just one hand.
Also, did I tell you guys that he charmed everyone in my friend’s family so much when they met him, that I think all of them threatened to kidnap him? (I can’t remember if I told you guys or not.) He is very social and purrs for anyone, likes being petted by anyone. He’s a good cat. ^^
Must of my reading was from pokemon scarlet. I’m starting to be and to piece together what I’m reading better without needing to breakdown every sentence first
I also read another couple of stories in Satori Reader. I finished the free content for long distance relationship, which i really enjoy, and the first story for jam maker, really good practice for descriptive text at least in part 1. Looking to subscribe once money isn’t as tight.
Lastly, my 5yr old has been interested in doing japanese with me so we’ve been reading level 0 graded readers together, which are too easy for me but fun for her
Today I’ve read chapter 24 of チュベローズで待ってる AGE32. My brain is still a little foggy from the illness and it makes it so hard to keep track of what’s happening… Especially the conversations - I keep having to go back to re-read sentences and try to piece together who said what It also doesn’t help that I’m finding it quite hard to get invested in the plot.
Read 2 sub chapters for re:Zero. Probably gonna read a couple more since my commute is kind of killer today. Then I’m just gonna watch JoJo the rest of the day.
I read a few pages in all of them and, well, the ones without furigana are still a little intimidating. I read 雨宮さん from start to finish with barely any lookups to see how that felt and while a good portion of the dialogue had parts that went over my head I was easily able to follow the action and get the gist of each situation. I should probably take the time to decipher some of the harder parts for the learning opportunities they provide, but atm my university workload is pretty high so I’m planning to just keep going with 日常(一) at the same pace. Reading a manga in two sittings felt really good
Today I started Volume 6 of Orange. I’ve been looking forward to starting this book with the club, and I’m really happy my copy arrived in time for me to start with everyone else.
Found a great article on learnnatively.com’s forums about how to approach reading. A lot of great advice for my fellow followers of the crabigator. If you find yourself losing motivation, its possible you just have the wrong mindset about reading in Japanese (or a foreign language in general).
Still not quite back up to speed, but felt ok reading today so I think i’ll add 夜カフェ back in tomorrow. I think I just pushed a bit too hard and needed a little bit of rest. I have already finished 8 volumes (6 manga + 2 childrens book) this year, that was a pretty strong start to the challenge, but was definitely a huge volume increase from what I was doing last month and maybe a bit more than I could keep up long term for now
Read:
ホリミヤ ch 89, 90 + おまけ, volume 12 done!
Good Words
ホリミヤ
独創性「どくそうせい」ー creativity, ingenuity
室内犬「しつないけん」ー indoor dog
薄々「うすうす」ー slightly, thinly, a little
怪事件「かいじけん」ー mystery case
Probably could’ve seen this coming, but for today’s reading I just… played a lot of Genshin Impact It’s been a while since I read extensively like this, I’m usually terrible about doing so, but Genshin suits it well so far. And it’s just fun, I’ve continued to mostly explore and do my own thing and occasionally follow what the missions tell me to do business as usual really.
Oh yeah I can imagine! I wouldn’t call it easy exactly, if I were actually looking up every single thing I don’t fully know like normal I think I would’ve given up a while ago, but the type of game it is really doesn’t suit that kind of reading anyway For my purposes it’s pretty solid, I can follow along just fine with context clues and educated guesses and the like. I figure half the words I “don’t know” are made up and I’d only have a vague idea in English anyway
January 22 
The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den 
からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 10 (80% ➨ 87%)
It also doesn’t help that I’m finding it quite hard to get invested in the plot.
10分で読める伝記, 17min. Just this for tonight, feeling too 
１月２２日 
It’s been a while since I read extensively like this, I’m usually terrible about doing so, but Genshin suits it well so far. And it’s just fun, I’ve continued to mostly explore and do my own thing and occasionally follow what the missions tell me to do 
business as usual really.
For my purposes it’s pretty solid, I can follow along just fine with context clues and educated guesses and the like. I figure half the words I “don’t know” are made up and I’d only have a vague idea in English anyway