working at about 50% capacity today (let me sleep, storm ) which i did nothing to help by stopping every couple of pages in the next ouran chapter to look stuff up that i really didn’t need to (e.g there was one speech bubble of 土佐弁 that i spent too long on). ah well. wasn’t expecting to see more 幕末 stuff so soon, but at least i had an incredibly basic idea of what the references were! didn’t pick another manga with the randomiser, just read a few more pages of the 幕末・維新大事典 instead.
today’s nhk article was this one, another chapter of granblue (first time i’ve seen を余儀なくされる in the wild i think), plus the entry on につれて in aDoIJG
words that stood out
桜蘭：
ルーズ - loose, careless, slovenly. i love that the jp definition specifically says 英語発音はルース
時代錯誤 - anachronism
条件反射 - conditioned reflex
Very happy to have finished my first manga of the year! I know 狼ちゃん is a particularily easy one compared to most but it was still a nice confidence boost, and I’m excited to carry on
I think I will focus on my other three books until the end of the month, and then maybe add something a bit lighter back into the mix in Feb.
I also read another 18 pages of Bungo last night/today, again picking out a few new words but not stressing too much about being able to understand everything as long as I can follow the plot.
New Words
手配書 てはいしょ wanted poster
口答え くちごたえ backchat (note, the version in Bungo was written as 口応え）
生意気 なまいき cheeky, saucy, cocky
手に負えない てにおえない too much to handle, uncontrollable
宿業 しゅくごう karma
善からぬ よからぬ evil, wicked
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Alright everyone, time to plan your reading projects so that they are end before March 1st, to make sure that you are available to come and read ISLAND with the VN Book Club from that date
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Curious to know which stories made you feel that way? Of course not everything is for everyone, but there are a few stories that I really enjoyed and was looking forward to for my daily reading: 恋人 and 奥日光 for the writing and the plot, A hole in the wall for the cultural elements..
Kiki-Mimi Radio on Satori Reader, episodes 24 and 25.
I’m almost finished !!! It’s really getting exciting, so I wonder how the tension will go down after these 2 episodes. I found them a little more difficult than the rest too, but I’m very tired, so that may explain why.
Yesterday I found a bilingual ebook of a short story of one of my favorite japanese autor, Murakami Haruki, and I’ve prepared it all to try to read it in a few months when I’m more experienced (however, the level is not too high, according to Natively)
There was a mega plot twist, omg. Double spread illustration and inverted text/background color even though the rest of the book is plain black text on white background (unless you use themes to change it in the app). Anyway, it was very cool and unexpected. Now I have more respect for the characters involved in that scene.
I’m aiming for at least 50% read by the end of this week
Maybe the stories I tried were not the best examples, but in all cases I thought that while the learning value was excellent, they did not captivate me. However, the only story I read from start to finish was Sakura and Suzuki’s Long Distance Relationship. More recently, after my subscription had long expired, I tried the free episodes from Kiki-Mimi Radio and from The Jam Maker. I can’t really comment on the plot since I only read the free samples, but they did not leave me wanting to know what happened next.
Finishing up the week’s reading of 不思議駄菓子屋 for the Natively club. It seems in the first nine pages (?)/5% or so I had 62 lookups, so… yeah. Lol. Oh well, just have to chip away.
Read a bit of トモちゃんは女の子! 1 | L21 mostly without lookups and without a timer. 4koma are always a bit harder than regular manga, but now compared to prose I’m beginning to think they’re not too bad. This one is also, alas, another school-based romcom, so I have a fair amount of vocab coverage at least.
As mentioned, taking it a little easier after the big push at the end of last week with the novel, so back to a manga for now, with Girls Und Panzer: Little Army. So this was actually one of the first manga I bought to read, but I got pulled up in book clubs and forgot about it until looking at my Natively list.
For those unaware of the franchise, it’s basically a cute girls doing cute things show mixed with a sports anime. The cute thing being tank driving (Yes, really). The basic premise is that in the universe, competitive tank driving is considered a common competition for becoming a “fine lady” like flower arranging. (there is approximately 1 character in-universe who finds this weird). Is that safe you might ask? Yes, because carbon fiber, is the series answer. In other words, don’t ask too many questions on the physics of the whole thing.
Despite that, the anime is really fun series and genuinely one of the better takes on the sports anime themes I’ve watched.
The manga in question is a prequel to the anime, starting at the beginning of episode 1 then flashing back 6 years. For those familiar with the anime, this places it before Miho’s competitive role
Today’s chapter was basically a “introducing the cast” segment as we see how they met. It was pretty fun.
Note: ガルパン is sort of the fan abbreviation, equivalent to the English one GuP (but sometimes you’ll see Garupan from English fans too even). I’m using it in my tables because the full name is too long and will break all my formatting.
Thanks for the replies. It’s nice to have a label to what I’m doing as well as the list of benefits of my strategy. Now I don’t have to worry that I’m straying off the path of Japanese learning in terms of reading. I’ll keep this in mind when I’m thinking of my goals and whether or not I’m completing them.
Had to work over the weekend and didn’t feel like updating, but I’ve kept up with my reading. I’ve finished all of the free Level 0 stories available on Tadoku and am working my way through the level 1s.
Monday - I had ensemble practice so not much!
2 episodes Akiko
Prologue mysterious Sweet shop - intensive to check and read alongside audiobook! Then listened to this week’s reading.
Tuesday
Akiko - 3 episodes
Reading Road -1 article to see if this would be a good extensive read. By which I mean, easy enough to leave on my nightstand without a dictionary. I think the answer is yes, the rare times I need a kanji reading or word definition that isn’t already glossed, I can guess it and check the translation in the back.
I’d say that series is pure utility for being ensy and learning short forms. It’s widely commented on as their least engaging series and the developer also acknowledges they “learned a lot”. I need to update my Satori guide to set expectations pretty low for that one…
Regarding the others, they are pretty representative and I find it takes about 10-15 episodes to hook me. Once I’m hooked though it’s much stronger than something that is a thriller from the start. So perhaps Satori is not the writing style for you if you lean toward narrative that has a much quicker pace. But I haven’t read the series that look like thrillers so someone else would need to comment on that.
Thanks for the description this looks like fun!
I meant to tell you your enthusiasm for the art has put thes firmly on my wishlist !
) which i did nothing to help by stopping every couple of pages in the next ouran chapter to look stuff up that i really didn’t need to (e.g there was one speech bubble of 土佐弁 that i spent too long on). ah well. wasn’t expecting to see more 幕末 stuff so soon, but at least i had an incredibly basic idea of what the references were! didn’t pick another manga with the randomiser, just read a few more pages of the 幕末・維新大事典 instead.
(28-34%)
. Made into フカヒレスープ 
.
. No Furigana for this person.
January 22 
2024年1月22日 
? Daijoubu?
Previous
ガルパン：リトルアーミー１
Manga
1 chapter
40 pages
１月 ２２日 
I’m gonna be really sad when I finish Atelier and need to move on to another bingo category ahaha