I’m still pretty busy. Yesterday I just read some pages in manga magazines and of course worked through the Nihongo no Mori JLPT N2 preparation book.
Bought some new games which I will play in japanese one day Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance and the Yakuza collection which gog sold me for 24 euro.
I am really enjoying the different perspective! It’s written for teenagers who don’t want to be learning classical Japanese as opposed to (presumably) highly motivated university students. That means the explanations are a lot simpler and some of the less immediately important things in Shirane’s work are left out. At the end of each 助動詞 chapter there is a nifty little overview of the most pertinent information. It helps me determine what is actually important for me as a beginner and what I can come back to later in Shirane’s grammar once I have some experience under my belt. I also enjoy learning about grammar in Japanese because it makes discussing modern Japanese grammar with my tutor easier.
How far along are you with classical Japanese? I have Shirane’s reader as well, so I’ve got that to look forward to, but I’d also like something similar aimed at Japanese high schoolers. There is this series, but the aid offered in those books (modern translation and commentary) focuses on the content more than the language. From what I find on Amazon, there are a lot of teaching-to-the-test grammar books available, but fully annotated classical texts not so much (or I suck at finding them). Right now I am debating buying a guide to one of the 古典 high school textbooks (like this) and/or maybe the textbook itself, but I’d have to have it shipped over, so I am fussing a bit over what particular textbook I should buy… and paper books mean no Yomitan and I am a wuss about looking up vocabulary manually 
I wish I could just walk into a Japanese bookstore and browse 
I’ve read about halfway through Shirane’s grammar, but got a bit bogged down because it’s all grammar explanation and I felt like I wasn’t really absorbing much without some way to try to actually use it. On the other hand, because the reader is all real texts I didn’t feel like I could start it without having gone through the grammar…
I also listened to the first couple of episodes of the NHK 高校講座 古典 radio programmes, which were interesting although clearly intended to go with a set of lessons that were doing the heavy lifting on grammar etc.
Home post // July 13 
・本好きの下剋上 17 (71.3% → 100%) | 56k characters (195k / 195k ch.)
Finally finished Honzuki 17! 
Thanks to wifi being down (
), I’ve had to rely on cellular data and so I haven’t been browsing the internet (especially youtube 
) as much as I would on a regular day off. So I got more reading done thanks to that.
Things were definitely getting interesting at the end. New character replacing the previous prince, the illustration of him is so cute! So tiny, almost looking like a doll 
And there were romance as well 
I never expected フリーネ to fall in love with ダムエール! But it makes sense for feelings to arise after being rescued by cool person 
He’s totally clueless though, smh. I’m rooting for her, but she has to gain big on magic power to catch up on him. She’s starting the second year, right? How many years are there before they finish school? The waiting is going to be long, not to mention the age gap, but people in the story don’t seem to worry about that. It’s feels weird
It’s funny how ハルトムート has been studying ロゼマイン so much he knows her thought process now. Seems like she is the most interesting person he’s ever known, obtaining information and gathering stories from the people around her, spreading rumors about how she’s literally such a saint, ready to swear his life to her etc.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 明文化 | ある内容を文章に明確に書き表すこと |
| 見遣る | 視線を遠くへ向ける。そっちの方を見る |
| 恙ない | Youuu, I know I’ve already looked you up earlier |
| 大っぴら | 人目や人聞きを気にしないさま。公然とするさま |
| 忠臣 | You too, I’ve looked up Couldn’t remember the reading  |
| 決別 | きっぱり別れること。再び会うことのない別れ |
| 心酔 | ある人，その作品に，深く尊敬の気持ちをもつこと |
| 苦渋に満ちた | 不本意な状況に置かれ、事がうまく運ばないことを苦々しく思う、という苦悩がありありと浮かんでいて察せられるさまを指す表現。「表情」や「声」を形容して「苦渋に満ちた顔」のような表現で用いられやすい |
| 落差 | difference in elevation, fall distance |
| 誉れ | ほめられて世間的に光栄であること。評判のよいこと。名誉 |
| 10 | |
| 出向 | 命令を受けて，他の会社や官庁の仕事につくこと |
| 払拭 | 拭い去ること。さっぱりと、きれいに取り除くこと |
| 夜を徹して | 一晩中、休むことなくずっと、作業などに取り組むさまを指す表現 |
| 匿名 | 自分の実名を隠してあらわさないこと。また，実名を隠して別の名を用いること |
| 要注意 | 注意・警戒が必要なこと |
| 賄う | to supply (goods, money, etc.) |
| 妬み | 自分と他人を比べ、他人の優れた部分を羨み、憎く思うこと。似たような意味の「妬み」が、相手に対しての憎しみが強いのに対し、相手が優れていることに対して劣等感を抱くという意味合いが強い |
| 白羽の矢が立つ | to be selected (from among many people) |
| 動員 | mobilization |
| はきはき | 動作・態度・物の言い方などがはっきりしていて，手際のよいさま |
| 20 | |
| お見知り置き | 初対面の挨拶の言葉。私のことを心にとめておいてほしい，の意 |
| 肝を冷やす | to be terrified |
| 歯牙 | teeth (and tusks) |
| 沽券に関わる | to affect someone’s good name, to be a point of honor |
| 組する | to take part in |
| 粛々と | silent |
| 取り持つ | to act as a go-between (for) |
| 喧嘩腰 | belligerent |
| 冠する | to crown |
| 殊更に | 特別に、わざわざ、などの意味の表現 |
| 30 | |
| 不寝番 | night watch |
| 施錠 | かぎをかけること。鍵をしめること |
| 計らい | arrangement |
| 念頭に置く | 心にかける。常に考えている。念頭にかける |
| 日参 | visiting frequently |
| 抜擢 | selection (from many people for an important position) |
| 厚かましい | 恥じる気持ちや遠慮がない。ずうずうしい |
| 不案内 | 知識や心得がなくて，様子や事情がわからない・こと |
| やっかみ | envy |
| 先発隊 | advance party |
| 40 | |
| 仰せつかる | to be ordered (to do) |
| 強襲 | 強烈に相手を襲うこと。無理押しに襲撃すること |
| 大至急 | 非常に急を要すること。おおいそぎ |
| 手柄 | achievement |
| 謀 | plan |
| 大方 | general public |
| 二転三転 | 状況や情勢が何度も覆ることを意味する表現 |
| 気色ばむ | to grow angry |
| 見做す | to consider as |
| 合作 | collaboration |
| 50 |
Day 13!
A little more pressed for time today, so I took the chance when the ending I was going for hit to stop Chaos;Head at a little over 17k characters. Still not too bad. It’s going to be a while before I see more noticeably improvement I think, but reading this VN is super comfortable and easy 99% of the time by now so that’s cool.
4 endings to go! Before long I’ll be moving on to other things
2nd Week Update:
Have continued to read one episode of 壁の穴 + one chapter of Human Japanese Intermediate every day. Chuffed to be reviewing some grammar on a regular basis.
July 13
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| 雨でも晴れでも | Page 20-42 | 1/5 chapters |
Kansai dialect is kicking my 外国人 ass…
14 July | Study Log
 |
Title | Type | Natively | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 1 | manga | 29 | 57% → 73% |
 |
世にも奇妙な商品カタログ 1 | light novel | 23 | 75%( ) |
 |
悪役令嬢おじさん１ | manga | 28 | 39%() |
Hopping on the bangwagon now that JLPT is through!
Things I have either waiting for me on the tbr shelf or am currently reading:
Before JLPT-prep and associated problems took over my time, I got quite happy with my speed with the Potter book. The goal is to keep that up and work out a good reading routine, compatible with a full-time job and other commitments (such as my month-long WK backlog, which seemed a good decision until the character 誓 humiliated me in N1 vocab session).
Wishing everyone luck!
| Jul | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 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 |
| Aug | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 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 |
| Sep | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 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 |
Yeah, I’ve been getting a bit stir-crazy because I want to apply what I’m learning beyond the exercises in the back of Shirane’s book. I had a look at high school grammar text books and they seem to include a lot more practice per grammar point. But I don’t really want to buy a bunch of physical books, so I guess I will stick to making Anki cards for now.
| Title | Yesterday | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
玉藻の恋 | 12 pages | 32% |
| Title | Today | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
葬送のフリーレン | 12 pages | 92% |
Also lots of 空の軌跡.
7月13, 14日 Study Log | Home Post
 |
Title | Progress | Length | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
アオのハコ８ (24) | 27 → 47 (Ch 63) | 191 | マンガ |
 |
プロジェクトセカイ | 2 ch | ゲーム | |
 |
コンビニ人間 (29) | 81 → 85 | 137 | 小説 |
Missed update yesterday but did reading still. Kinda hard for me to keep track of individual day stats right now, since I’m trying to sleep more through the hot parts of the day so I can be more productive in the cool night 
(Du) Thirty-Six Stratagems 3 (1-2/5) (Du) Thirty-Six Stratagems 3 (3-5/5) (Du) Thirty-Six Stratagems 4 (1-2/5)So many pages in アンダーグラウンド, but anyway Prologue first. Luckily, I don’t have to look up much. Probably putting 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 on hold for now.
(Du) Thirty-Six Stratagems 4 (3-5/5)I revoke my words on difficulty. Many place names and people names, Just Bookwalker and I look up with Google Translate, and a little of my old memory. There are a few vocabularies too.
July 14
A big storm came through here that left us without power since Monday morning, so I could not update.
No internet, either, so I couldn’t access the Tadoku stories. Had a nice big stack of WK reviews waiting for me.
Luckily, I had Japanese Short Stories for Beginners: 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn Japanese & Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way! downloaded in my Kindle App and was able to read about 2-3 of the stories per day since July 8. 
It looks like I overtook myself reading this time since my previous bookmark was left at Chapter 6. I am now about to start Chapter 18.
They weren’t difficult for me and only had the occasional grammar point I had to revisit ( かも知れない ). The usual unknown vocabulary, but some could be found in the vocabulary list after each story. Having the English translation was also helpful. For the most part, I only read these if there were strange sentences.
Small success: it looks like I’ve completely internalized noun modification.
Moving forward, will probably purchase the second of this series. Will continue reading Yotsuba now that I can Google unknown vocabulary words. Will probably subscribe to Kindle Unlimited to access Japanese books.
Today: close reading with lookups of p. 32-36 of よつばと！ Vol. 4.
管理: かんり: management, control
管理釣り: かんりつり: managed/controlled fishing (cute misnomer?)
釣り堀: つりぼり: artificially stocked fishing pond
程: ほど: extent, degree
ひょいひょい: with agility; casually, regularly
ぽいぽい: tossing (pun!)
甲虫: かぶとむし: rhinoceros beetle
さんま: mackerel pike
にじます: rainbow trout
竿: さお: rod, pole
えさ: bait
ガキども: brats
July 14 | Home post
Reading at the beach today! I started the こぐまのクークbook. Have only read half of the first chapter, but I like it so far!
14th july
 |
Title | Type | Natively | Progress |
|---|
|💀|axiom’s end|eng book|N/A|pg 0-21|
new book! my copy must’ve had a printing issue cos there’s a weird small triangle of paper that sticks out of the front page. it’s still got the mark on it where it should’ve been cut to normal page shape too
also poked around on pixiv for a bit
Day 14!
Dragging today because I’m fighting off a headache from allergies, but I managed another 20k characters of Chaos;Head.
I’ve still not quite finished volume 1 of ダンダダン cause I’ve prioritized everything else way more, but there’s a spirit called ターボばあちゃん in it that I figured was made up for the manga. Nope! Turns out she’s an urban legend, about a really fast old woman you can catch a glimpse of in your car mirror. Went looking into it after she showed up in SMT5 last night.
