📚📚 Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2024 🌸🍡🌱

I have to say @soggyboy your calendar looks especially cute with the bugs and the flowers :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Hehe, thank you! I spent way too long deciding on the perfect emojis to use :sweat_smile:

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I’d say, worth it :laughing: :heart_eyes:

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I am not formally signing up for this challenge or participating officially, but I thought since I just committed to a crazy ambitious reading project, I might as well post about it in here for some extra accountability!

So, Hyper Misao, a Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling wrestler, is really into tanka poems, and I bought a book called 推し短歌入門 (which is an introduction to tanka through composing poems about your favorite characters) sort of with her in mind, because she’s one of my favorite wrestlers, so the concepts of “推し” and “短歌” are already kind of linked in my brain. (For a bit about Misao’s history with tanka, see here).

Misao had her first produce show on May 25, 2023, and it was wildly ambitious and really stretched the bounds of what pro wrestling can be (here’s a description of the show. It involved dimension hopping/time travel and all sorts of nonsense). She has another produce show scheduled for April 19, 2024, which will likely be similarly genre-defying, though we have no hints toward what this year’s show will involve, at least not at this point.

Last year, Misao’s show was extremely well-received and many people (including me) shared their thoughts on twitter, and she went through the tag and liked pretty much every post in it.

So I started to get a crazy plan: what if I read 推し短歌入門 and learned the basics of writing tanka before her show, then wrote a tanka that was inspired by her produce show and shared it on twitter where there’s a strong chance she will see my poem? I feel like it might make her day to see her own wrestling work inspire someone to write tanka, so I really want to try it.

The only problem is that I have a whole lot on my plate reading-wise right now, because TJPW is about to be in the middle of an extremely busy period, so there will be a big show that I’ll have to translate next week, and then their show in America, which will likely include a press conference that I will also have to translate, and I’ll be watching a whole bunch of other shows on top of all of that.

Oh and also I still have yet to have actually finished reading a proper book in Japanese (just manga and some digital text and a few books with a lot of English in them), so this one would be my very first finished Japanese book, and it’s substantially harder than everything else I’ve read. And not to mention I’ll be attempting to compose poems in a language I’m not at all fluent in.

What could possibly go wrong? :sweat_smile:

The book is a little less than 90k characters total, and I started it a few days ago, so I have to read it at roughly a rate of 3k characters a day to keep up. This is fine when I have no translation workload. It’s substantially harder when I do. So far, I’m doing an okay job keeping up, but the real busy days will be the end of March and the first week of April, so I’m hoping to get a bit ahead now while I still can in case I fall behind then.

As of right now, I have read 18k/90k characters!

I am not sure how often I’ll post updates in here, but it definitely won’t be every day, haha. My deadline is April 19, so I should be done reading the book before the challenge ends.

I’m just about done reading part 1, and just wrote my very first tanka. Here it is:

半時間あなたと俺のにらみ合い空き会場を照らす火花だ

(Inspired by this)

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Epic plan, I love it. These are the kind of projects that grow into beautiful things you can’t predict :seedling: perfect for spring!!!

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🌸Nyx's Home Post🌸

new season new challenge! thanks to DIO-Berry for hosting again! :sunny:

plan for this one is a bit more concrete than the last one cos i ended up reading a bunch of different things and felt a bit spread thin, which wasn’t helped by getting sick right at the end of the challenge. so!

  • finish ouran (i’m so close!! one vol left!! should actually finish it before the challenge properly starts but you never know)
  • finish no.6 vol 2 and 3. i haven’t touched no.6 since i started focusing on ouran and i really want to get back to it
  • finish the bakumatsu book. i’m about two thirds of the way through, so this should (:crossed_fingers:) be doable. also want to keep using it for translation practice, but i’m prepping for n2 (specifically using the skm listening book) so that might have to wait until summer
  • assuming i manage that, i’m gonna read すきまのおともだちたち, which i’ve said i’m gonna read in two separate challenges now but i’m actually doing it this time!
  • plus every (week)day i’m gonna do an nhk news article and an entry or two in aDoIJG cos i’ve fallen off reading it in the off month
currently reading

previously read

ouran
no.6 vol 2 + 3
wind breaker vol 1
bakumatsu book
すきまのおともだちたち
日本人(にほんじん)()らない日本語(にほんご)
スクールゾーン vol 1
探偵(たんてい)ガリレオ

Apr
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08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
May
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
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20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31

previous challenges
winter 2024
autumn 2023
summer 2023
spring 2023
winter 2022

bookmeter (i also put what i’m reading in english on here, for those curious)

natively (this gets updated a lot less frequently than bookmeter but i try my best)

20 Likes

Just the gentle push I needed to start exploring beyond Tadoku… This is going to be fun, thank you @DIO-Berry for getting this started!

Thoughts and logs
  1. Satori reader Tokyo Cat Rides Free, easy news episode 1. Knowing the kanji is indeed just the beginning :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. Got stumped quite a bit, especially on 手前 (second kanji makes sense in context, but what’s the hand doing there?!) and 行き先 (last kanji could possibly mean ‘previous’ but is translated as the opposite?!).

  2. Satori reader Chi-Batman Spotted Again, easy news episode 2. Nice to see kanjis ‘in the wild’ from my last level like 映画 and 格好 ! In context, the latter is translated as ‘dressed up’… but using the WK primary meaning ‘in the shape of’ gets the job done :sunglasses:. It’s all about getting the gist of the story at my level right now.

  3. First time on NHK easy news! The headline is about the Taiwan earthquake and the picture says it all. Scrolling down, I spot the kanji for Spring. Aha, the piece is about 竹の子 , which brings me all the way back to level 4… it’s written in hiragana, but hover over it and the kanji appears. Nice. The audio is great too and I had fun reading the Japanese-only dictionary entries.

  4. 2nd day on NHK news, article about keeping time on the moon. I thought I would be well equipped with all the kanjis for planets, but there’s always a surprise; there is space and then there is outer-space. The latter appears only in level 19! Well, something to look forward to :smile:. It was fun seeing the 2 kanjis for ‘plan’ in the same sentence: 計画 をつくる予定です。”Planning to make a plan”, anybody?!

  5. After going through the couple of panda news on NHK, discovered the reading passages on bunpro. Not terribly entertaining, but useful to consolidate grammar points. The notes are great. Too bad there’s no audio on the mobile app and the only way to toggle the furigana is to switch to vertical reading. I definitely need some practice with reading top down and right left :sweat_smile:

  6. Slowly getting used to top down reading. Deciphering would be more accurate :melting_face: Opened a few ‘easy’ stories on Satori reader and got stumped. Back to tadoku, a sherlock holmes novel. I plough through the first page, and suddenly recognise dates, ‘London’ and ‘Watson’. A few familiar kanjis appear and I’m already 3 pages in. From the picture it looks like I guessed roughly what the story is about so far. I’m a bit surprised that what must surely be ‘lady’ in the original text is translated as 女性 (“female”)?!

  7. Managed to read 6 pages more of the Sherlock Holmes story. It’s still a lot of guesswork, but I’m somehow automatically filling the gaps to tease out a coherent story out of bits and pieces. After going through a whole page I plug it into a translator. Yikes, my imagination does run a bit wild :crazy_face:.

  8. Continued doggedly through 3 more pages. Met a few of the kanjis from my current level, which was great, but overall comprehension is still pretty nebulous.

  9. Three more pages, it’s getting exciting! Word of the day: 歯ブラシ :toothbrush: :grin:

  10. I’m now alternating between reading/translating —to check what I understood—, and doing it the other way round — to recognise sentence structures and figure out overall meaning, based on the translation. This gets me 6 pages further through the story and the suspense is building up!

  11. Tadoku lvl 5 Sherlock Holmes short story: :white_check_mark:. Started Ali baba lvl4 and it’s much easier in terms of vocabulary. This should be manageable with a couple of jisho lookups per page, with some luck :four_leaf_clover:.

  12. Travelling right now, but managed half a dozen pages of Alibaba. Definitely easier than Sherlock Holmes, with colourfull illustrations. At least one kanji from lvl 15 comes in handy: 岩 :rock:

  13. Finished Alibaba. Even though I certainly didn’t get all of it, what I understood made more sense than the translation :joy:. Having broken all the golden rules of Tadoku :bowing_man:, I think I am ready to give Satori Reader another try!

  14. Second attempt on Satori, Hole in the wall episode 1. Ah that feels much better! Now I can follow the audio on normal speed, and tease out the structure of each sentence. I still need to translate about half a dozen critical words to make sense of what the story is about, but that’s a total breeze on the Satori app. What a great app :heart_eyes:!

  15. Hole in the wall episode 2 is something else :sweat_smile: Could not make sense of the grammar even with added spaces to ease parsing (another great feature!) and got stumped by the many adverbs and kana-only words. Ah well, Satori will have to wait again. Back to Tadoku level 3 野のばら. Much better… the illustrations definitely help. Word of the day 蜜蜂, which would have been easier to guess from the 虫 part, than the katakana version used in the text ミツバチ :honeybee:!

  16. 野のばら :white_check_mark:. That was a good read, though not a story to cheer one up after a long day. Tadoku seems to be heavy on dark subjects, especially the longer stories. Time to look elsewhere!

  17. Somebody mentionned Sakura and Suzuki as a good starting series on Satori, so I gave it a shot. Indeed, it’s much easier than Hole in the wall. Read two episodes. Then spotted again the Tadoku lvl 4 book on French painter Paul Jacoulet, and realised I could now follow along pretty well! I sure must have been learning something those past couple of months :grin:.

  18. I went overboard and finished the Paul Jacoulet book last night. New vocabulary is pretty limited and repeats throughout the book, something to do with prints and woodblock printing. Favourite kanji: 蝶 :butterfly:! Sakura and Suzuki episodes (easy version) are pretty short, and I managed to read 4 episodes. My grammar is still very shaky… Tae Kim and Bunpro have been very good at making me fall asleep, but I don’t think I’m absorbing much.

  19. Sh*t is hitting the fan at work :exploding_head:! I can just about keep up with WK reviews and I barely managed 1 episode of Sakura and Suzuki. Looks like work is spilling over the weekend too, oh well.

  20. Finally got back on track :relieved: . Back to reading Sakura and Suzuki, what fun to spot a word that I’ve just learned 建築家.

  21. Too much going on for daily logs, but managed a couple of episodes on Satori every day. The grammar points are great, I’m hoping that the same explanations will keep reappearing… and they will eventually sink in. The episodes are nice and short, perfect for me right now. Fun article on NHK easy about 富士山

  22. I’m through the first 15 episodes of Sakura and Suzuki on Satori reader and slowly getting into the groove. Listening to the voice actors helps me get a feel for the rythm of the language. The story is simple, but keeps me sufficiently engaged to want to read more :smiling_face: .

  23. Busy Sunday, but somehow managed to squeeze a few reading sessions. Our Japanese friend was very impressed by Satori as an app, but after shooting a quick glance at the text, promptly declared: “I don’t speak like that!”. Mind the generation gap :rofl:

  24. Read five more episodes on Satori. The epistolary format is great for getting used to sentence structure without becoming overwhelmed with new vocabulary. There’s a fair amount of repetition between episodes, where one message echoes the other. Very clever. Breezed through Tadoku level 3 book about a little きつね. I decided to simply follow along with the audio, without worrying too much about understanding every word. It was very relaxing to sit back and enjoy the storytelling and whimsical illustrations.

  25. Sakura and Suzuki :white_check_mark: . The style was very colloquial and according to the notes, borderline rude, but I guess the point was to simplify the sentence structure to make it more easily accessible?! Suited me well, and the story was engaging. Now on to the next series :partying_face:!

Log part II.

Log part III.

A :snail: C Apr E :cherry_blossom: G
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22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
:turtle: May :dango:
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27 28 29 30 31
:sloth: Jun :seedling:
01 02
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24 Likes

I really enjoyed the last challenge, and it definitely pushed me to read more than I probably would have by myself, so I’m up for joining again! :slight_smile:

CandyKale’s Home Post

:books: natively

Reading Type Progress
:tiger: 文豪ストレイドッグス Vol 2 Manga 116/194
:woman: 老女的少女ひなたちゃん Vol 1 Manga 031/174
:star: 星の王子様 Book 008/160
葬送のフリーレン Manga 015/192

Completed

ブルーロック Episode 凪 Vol 3


Apr
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
May
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
Jun
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
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Previous

Winter 2024

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This’ll be my first challenge so it’s going to be doable - I’ll start with an episode a day of Satori Reader’s ジャム屋さん. Looking forward to it! Thanks for organising @DIO-Berry.

A B C Apr E F G
01⭕️ 02⭕️ 03⭕️ 04⭕️ 05⭕️ 06⭕️ 07⭕️
08⭕️ 09⭕️ 10⭕️ 11⭕️ 12⭕️ 13⭕️ 14⭕️
15⭕️ 16⭕️ 17⭕️ 18⭕️ 19⭕️ 20⭕️ 21⭕️
22⭕️ 23⭕️ 24⭕️ 25⭕️ 26⭕️ 27⭕️ 28⭕️
29⭕️ 30⭕️
A B C May E F G
01⭕️ 02⭕️ 03⭕️ 04⭕️ 05⭕️
06⭕️ 07⭕️ 08⭕️ 09⭕️ 10⭕️ 11⭕️ 12❌
13⭕️ 14⭕️ 15⭕️ 16⭕️ 17⭕️ 18⭕️ 19⭕️
20⭕️ 21⭕️ 22⭕️ 23⭕️ 24⭕️ 25⭕️ 26⭕️
27[:o: 28⭕️ 29⭕️ 30⭕️ 31⭕️
A B C Jun E F G
01⭕️ 02⭕️
03⭕️ 04⭕️ 05⭕️ 06⭕️ 07⭕️ 08⭕️ 09⭕️
10⭕️ 11⭕️ 12⭕️ 13⭕️ 14⭕️ 15⭕️ 16⭕️
17⭕️ 18⭕️ 19⭕️ 20⭕️ 21⭕️ 22⭕️ 23⭕️
24⭕️ 25⭕️ 26⭕️ 27⭕️ 28⭕️ 29⭕️ 30⭕️
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Alygator’s Spring 2024 Reading Challenge Home Post

:honeybee: :cherry_blossom: Apr :cherry_blossom: :honeybee:
01 :jar: 02 :older_woman:t3: 03 :jar: 04 :older_woman:t3: 05 :wave:t3: 06 :wave:t3: 07 :older_woman:t3:
08 :nerd_face: 09 :jar: 10 :nerd_face: 11 :jar: 12 :leopard: 13 :x: 14 :x:
15 :x: 16 :leopard: 17 :jar: 18 :jar: 19 :jar: 20 :older_woman:t3: 21 :two_men_holding_hands:t2:
22 :jar: 23 :two_men_holding_hands:t2::older_woman:t3: 24 :jar: 25 :older_woman:t3: 26 :jar::wave:t3: 27 :jar: 28 :jar:
29 :jar: 30 :x:
:lady_beetle: :tulip: May :tulip: :lady_beetle:
01 :older_woman:t3: 02 :older_woman:t3: 03 :x: 04 :x: 05 :x:
06 :x: 07 :x: 08 :x: 09 :x: 10 :x: 11 :x: 12 :x:
13 :x: 14 :x: 15 :x: 16 :x: 17 :x: 18 :x: 19 :older_woman:t3:
20 :globe_with_meridians: 21 :globe_with_meridians: 22 :bread: 23 :two_men_holding_hands:t2: 24 :bread: 25 :bread: 26
27 28 29 30 31

Another bilingual reading challenge for me. Hoping to read:

  • Japanese at least 4-5 times a week
  • Spanish 2-3 times a week

Resources:

  • :jar: The Jam Maker on Satorireader
  • :older_woman:t3: Little Granny Hinata Chan with the ABBC
  • :nerd_face: Dr Dru’s stories
  • :leopard: La Ciudad de las Bestias
  • :wave:t3: Hola Que Pasa Spanish News
  • :two_men_holding_hands:t2: Spanish for False Beginners transcripts
  • :globe_with_meridians: BBC Mundo / CNN en Español

Challenge conclusion - 8 months later: (Jan 2024)

Fell off the bandwagon the last week of that challenge. I don’t remember exactly what happened but right about the time I started a new job and my cat’s seizures and other FIP symptoms started emerging. So I’m guessing that’s why I didn’t finish the challenge. Here are the results though:

April 2024 - Read 26/30 days
May 2024 - Read 10/31 days
Combined - Read 36/61 days

Not even reaching 60% of the challenge :frowning: I guess it’s still something though! I only read 10 days in Spanish and 27 days in Japanese. There were days I read both Japanese and Spanish though!

25 Likes

:hibiscus: Ruby’s Home Post :hibiscus:

Hi everyone, I am very new to learning Japanese through WaniKani and other resources, but I recently found the forums, and what a cool community you guys have created here! I’m not sure if I’ve done my post right but I’m excited to join this challenge and see what I can accomplish. I took Japanese in high school, so I have a basic understanding of things, but its been a while, and I want to learn more than what I did in school. So while my reading will probably be very elementary for this first challenge, I’m hoping to continue improving each day. If anyone has reading recommendations, please let me know. I look forward to reading about everyone’s progress!

:sparkles: :hibiscus: Apr :hibiscus: :sparkles:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
:sparkles: :cherry_blossom: May :cherry_blossom: :sparkles:
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
:sparkles: :butterfly: Jun :butterfly: :sparkles:
01 02
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Currently Reading:

:hibiscus: Book Type Pages Progress
:orange_book: Genki I Book 91 / 382 17% → 24%
:books: Human Japanese: Extra Credit Article N/A 2 Posts (no change)
26 Likes

In the first line, add a space between the div align and the first emoji, like this:

<div align= middle> 

:hibiscus: **Ruby's Home Post** :hibiscus:

And it will look like this:

:hibiscus: Ruby’s Home Post :hibiscus:

15 Likes

Thank you! That fixed it. I have never used script editors when formatting, so this went straight over my head.

12 Likes

Never a better time to learn!

anyone remember learning html and CSS to spruce up your Geocities?

10 Likes
Apr
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
May
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
Jun
01 02
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Possibly reading:

19 Likes

:tulip: :books: Frootlooper Spring 2024 Home Post :books: :tulip:

My main goal is to reduce my backlog and have read a higher percentage of my owned manga. It’s not quite over yet since I do all three months, but last challenge, I managed to go up 2.3%. I’m too lazy to count up how many volumes I read, but I read AND bought a decent amount :laughing: This time around, I’m limiting myself to only one order of manga since the monthly release of Tokyo Revengers is ending in April. I’ll buy that, fill out my order and try not to buy any more until the end of the challenge. This way, hopefully my backlog will stop growing and go down for a little while… :crossed_fingers:

(I’m also trying to improve my English manga backlog as well. Though I won’t be tracking the individual titles I read here)

Learn Natively

April
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
May
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
June
01 02
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Previous Challenges:
Spring 2023 :white_check_mark:
Summer 2023 :white_check_mark:
Fall 2023 :white_check_mark:
Winter 2023 :white_check_mark:

23 Likes

I can’t remember why anymore, but for some reason I picked Angelfire over Geocities very specifically. Probably Angelfire gave you a subdomain while Geocities only gave a path at first, or maybe it was a storage space thing.

3 Likes
I will be starting today!
:cherry_blossom: Apr :cherry_blossom:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
:seedling: May :seedling:
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
:sunflower: Jun :sunflower:
01 02
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
:hibiscus: Book Pages
:dress: 「世界から猫が消えたなら」 start
27 Likes

:dragon_face: :cherry_blossom: Kokinshû’s home post :cherry_blossom: :dragon_face:

This is my first challenge, I was not regular with my reading these lasts months so I thought it would be cool to do this. I also have a lot of reviews to pass through.

Wanikani and reading goals :

  • Level 18
  • The complete 少女終末旅行 series
  • 遊☆戯☆王 - Vol. 5 and 6
:white_flower: :cherry_blossom: April :cherry_blossom: :white_flower:
01 :cherry_blossom: 02 :cherry_blossom: 03 :cherry_blossom: 04 :cherry_blossom: 05 :cherry_blossom: 06 :cherry_blossom: 07 :cherry_blossom:
08 :cherry_blossom: 09 10 :cherry_blossom: 11 12 :cherry_blossom: 13 14 :cherry_blossom:
15 :cherry_blossom: 16 :cherry_blossom: 17 :cherry_blossom: 18 :cherry_blossom: 19 :cherry_blossom: 20 :cherry_blossom: 21 :cherry_blossom:
22 :cherry_blossom: 23 :cherry_blossom: 24 :cherry_blossom: 25 :cherry_blossom: 26 :cherry_blossom: 27 :cherry_blossom: 28 :cherry_blossom:
29 :cherry_blossom: 30 :cherry_blossom:
:green_apple: :four_leaf_clover: May :four_leaf_clover: :green_apple:
01 :green_apple: 02 :green_apple: 03 04 :green_apple: 05 :green_apple:
06 :green_apple: 07 :green_apple: 08 :green_apple: 09 :green_apple: 10 :green_apple: 11 12
13 14 15 :green_apple: 16 17 :green_apple: 18 19
20 :green_apple: 21 :green_apple: 22 :green_apple: 23 :green_apple: 24 :green_apple: 25 :green_apple: 26 :green_apple:
27 :green_apple: 28 :green_apple: 29 :green_apple: 30 :green_apple: 31 :green_apple:
:honeybee: :blossom: June :blossom: :honeybee:
01 02 :blossom:
03 04 05 06 07 :blossom: 08 09 :blossom:
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 :blossom: 18 :blossom: 19 20 :blossom: 21 :blossom: 22 :blossom: 23 :blossom:
24 25 26 27 :blossom: 28 29 30 :blossom:
26 Likes

Does anyone know how I can erase this weird space between 木 and 金 ? :sweat_smile: I don’t want to delete the cool emojis :blossom:

2 Likes