Looking back at my goals for the challenge, I’ve definitely made a lot of progress towards both those and my goals for the year!
Progress
“Finish every volume of manga I physically own in 2023” = 66 vols/52 weeks = ~1.25/wk. I read 7 volumes of manga in janurary = 1.75/wk, so well ahead of that pace!
“Finish ホリミヤ during this challenge” only 2 volumes left, definitely making serious progress on that front
“Finish either a childrens book or a light novel” already completed! I finished 2 volumes of magic treehouse, plus a VN that I’m counting towards the “pure text” part of the goal.
Be prepared to take N2 by december - this one I have been making incremental progress towards: starting anki again, using the kanken game, and just noticing that the words/grammar I’m looking up tend to be a bit harder.
The only goal I failed was managing to keep time tracking up for a whole month With how interspersed my study time is between other things, and how many tangentially studying things I do I just couldn’t quite manage it.
So, looking forward to this month, I have a few main goals:
Finish 夜カフェ vol 1
Finish ホリミヤ and pick a new easy manga before the ABBC and BBC start (maybe finally do しろくまカフェ)
Pass the ９級 full mock test in the kanken game
Finish parts 1 and 2 of 新完全マスター N3 reading book
Basically, I want to dial back the difficulty of my reading just a tad so I can continue reading while adding in some studying proper on the side, which is also what I did in the last challenge: I read a huge amount in october, and then lowered my reading just a bit in november while adding in some Tae Kim readings, and that seemed to work really well for me then.
Read:
ホリミヤ ch 110, 111, 112, maybe a bit more later but i’m so tired
Word of the Day
百面相「ひゃくめんそう」ー making different (comic) faces, esp. using small props
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(but love this door, and it looks like a lot of the books on the shelves might be ex-library books, or are heavily damaged in some way, perfect for re-using as a clever decoration!)
Aww that’s hard sending love and well wishes
Good eye! Two of their albums, even! Related to the ex-library book thing, I’ve found that you can buy used CDs that are retired from internet/manga/cd cafes for super cheap! (also where I tend to get my physical manga) So whenever i’m putting together a buyee package i look to see if I can get a few albums to throw in, since they don’t raise the shipping cost too much. They usually keep their little inventory stickers and stamps on them, so you can even see where your books/music came from!
Today’s reading was 1 story from Japanese Short Stories for Beginners and 1 from Japanese Folk Tales for Language learners (this includes a free online audio). I really couldn’t follow the story when listening but I did get the gist after reading it for myself before actually rereading with the English translation. More enjoyable than the JSSB.
All together this took me about an hour and I may read another story from JFTLL later.
I finished わたしの幸せな結婚 on the last day of January through sheer force of will. I didn’t end up liking it any more than I did earlier in the book, so I was happy to finally be done after avoiding it for a few days.
I started reading 乳と卵 and it is such a refreshing change, even though the first page/paragraph was pretty much about how everything is 厭. I’m only ~9% in, but I definitely like this more. It is interesting how much satisfaction 緑子 seems to get from dissecting the components of words.
I didn’t get to eat dinner until after 8pm so I just didn’t have a lot of time last night. Tonight’s only chores should be dishes and laundry though I think
Went ahead and read 3 sections of 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 during lunch. I am starting to get more comfortable with the ambiguity and I know what part of the movie I am reading which is cool! I really just wanted to get to that level where I could read and know what is happening but I am happy to see enough new words that I gotta guess via context and what I know of the movie (it’s been 4 years since I watched it so my memory is just cloudy enough there is a challenge).
Read 3 chapters of 推しの子 on the way to work, I might be able to read 3/4 more chapters today but like I said yesterday it is probably gonna take me until tomorrow to finish as there’s a LOT of dialogue (for real just make it a book).
I saw a book that looked super up my alley that I want to buy but 推しの子 is filling that itch so maybe once I finish or get caught up with that I will go and buy that book.
January 31st
Just Aomi Japanese today.
I need to stop this only reading every other day nonsense already! It’s really mostly due to me not managing my time very well…
February 1st
What did I read?: 魔女と猫の話
How much did I read?: 4 pages
(Started 3rd Story )
How long did it take me?: 54 min
A new story, a new cat! Although this time it’s actually a prequel story about Suzu’s grandmother Chise, and her cat Sei.
New month, new chaos! I finished up this session’s BU$TAFELLOWS chapter; I think it ran a bit shorter like others have said, I just wanna keep playing Things are definitely getting wild, but I will be patient haha.
Then I got in a mood and played some more Steins;Gate! It’d been a while, I feel like it seemed harder last time but honestly I think I just wasn’t in the right headspace for it before I’d say it generally runs a bit harder than BU$TAFELLOWS, but that’s at a reasonably comfortable level for me so it’s not like an impossible challenge. The worst part is definitely all the glossary items lmao, though they are interesting! I’m learning so much internet slang from 10 years ago It’s pulling me in more for sure, I’m starting to see the spike chunsoft characteristics I’m in for a ride to be sure.
Total of 1 hr 40 minutes reading today. My best Japanese reading session because I was so bored today. Woot woot. Still graded readers though but improvements bit by bit.
Yes… I’m back to reading 天使様… and I actually started reading volume 6 (and quite a lot of it today too) just because I couldn’t stand the boredom of the short stories anymore, lmao.
I’ll start であいもん tomorrow and maybe nibble at the yuri LN I bought the other day too.
Word of the Day: 癖っ毛 - kinky hair, frizzy hair, curly hair. I like the idea of curly hair having ‘habits’ of their own. Would certainly make a lot of sense…
Read 10 pages of ウチの娘は彼氏が出来ない!! I really really really loved the drama so it’s a read I don’t mind taking my time with. Something I’m noticing between ウチの娘 and 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 is that they feel a lot more to the point than the light novels I’ve been reading. Light novels tend to dance around things more and I wonder if that’s because of the format.
It’s like reading a one shot vs a ongoing manga series. Probably the same principle applies. Anyways, I had a good time reading today.
辿り着く [たどりつく] to to struggle on to; to arrive somewhere after a struggle; to grope along to; to barely manage to reach; to finally arrive at; to finally hit on
隙 [すき] chink (in one’s armour)
荒らす [あらす] to invade; to break into
Episode 37 Vocab:
やつ fellow, guy, chap (derogatory)
価値 [かち] value, worth, merit
見逃す [みのがす] to turn a blind eye, to ignore
さっさ promptly immediately quickly
現れる [あらわれる] to appear, to come in sight, to become visible
二度と [にどと] never again (with negative verb) [adverb]
力が抜ける [ちからがぬける] to become weak, to lose strength
込み上げる [こみあげる] to fill one’s heart
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Love the kitty picturessss! I think I may drop by a book off this weekend to find this manga! Not gonna read it just yet but I feel like I just need it on my shelf
On a cat related note, I bought this back in 2019 when I went to work for Japan and only had a day to explore. I found this in a random stationery store and just had to buy it. Never read it. But since I’m taking Japanese seriously now I should!
chapter 4 of volume 4 completed! another one with unnatural birth oh no this one was weirdly more disturbing to me than the last one, even though the overall tone of the chapter was lighter. another easier one to follow, for the most part - either they’re getting easier or i’m actually getting the hang of it!
words that stuck out: 竹林 (ちくりん, bamboo grove - this turned up a lot), 他所様 (よそさま, outsider, stranger), and 地点 (ちてん, point on a map, site, spot). also learned another meaning for 株 - clump of roots, plant with attached roots or stem, stump
２月１日 
With how interspersed my study time is between other things, and how many tangentially studying things I do I just couldn’t quite manage it.
sending love and well wishes
Took me a little while to read, but mostly just because I was tired.
It’s really mostly due to me not managing my time very well…
The 夏草が邪魔をする album has some really solid classics, and I really like “詩書きとコーヒー” and “五月は花緑青の窓辺から” from the だから僕は音楽を辞めた album~
I’d say it generally runs a bit harder than BU$TAFELLOWS, but that’s at a reasonably comfortable level for me so it’s not like an impossible challenge. The worst part is definitely all the glossary items lmao, though they are interesting! I’m learning so much internet slang from 10 years ago 
It’s pulling me in more for sure, I’m starting to see the spike chunsoft characteristics 
からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 11 (0% ➨ 10%)
ひよ恋 Volume 1 (17% ➨ 28%)
