📚📚 Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Summer 2024 🏖🍉🏏

[Redglare]

Home post // July 14

・本好きの下剋上 18 (0% → 7.3%) | 14.4k characters ( 14 456 / 197k char.)

Starting Honzuki 18. Now that wifi is back, I didn’t read as much やっぱ、そうだよね。To be fair, I didn’t do much else yesterday, while today was cleaning day Did some listening practice too :3

Lookups (28)

Word	Meaning
切磋琢磨せっさたくま	diligent application (to work or study), working hard together
軌道修正きどうしゅうせい	course correction
盛もり立たてる	to revive (e.g. a company), to boost (e.g. morale)
気きが塞ふさぐ	憂鬱な気持ちになること
恨うらみ言ごと	grudge
認したためる	to write (e.g. a letter)
出でだし	start, beginning
彷彿ほうふつ	(bearing a) close resemblance
驕おごる	to be proud
死相しそう	shadow of death
10
高得点こうとくてん	high score
追い込みをかける	競走や長期にわたる仕事の最終段階で，いっそう力を入れる
表彰式ひょうしょうしき	award ceremony
上乗うわのせ	前に示した金額・数量・条件などの上に，さらに付け加えること
擦すれ擦すれ	by a slim margin
元号げんごう	Japanese era name (e.g. Heisei, Shōwa)
準備万端じゅんびばんたん	fully prepared
跨またぐ	to span
魅入みいる	to entrance
とどのつまり	in the end
20
普遍的ふへんてき	universal
潜くぐり抜ぬける	to get through (difficulties, danger, etc.)
諌いさめる	to warn against, to advise (someone) not to
裏打うらうち	support
入いり浸びたる	to stay long
ごてごて	over the top, 物事の進め方が、問題が発生したりトラブルが起こってから対処するようなやり方になっていること。後手に回っていること
常備じょうび	常に備えておくこと。絶やさないようにすること
潜在顧客せんざいこきゃく	潜在的な顧客のこと。特に、自社の製品やサービスなどはまだ購入したことがないものの、新規開拓によって、顧客になってもらえる見込みがあるような種類の人や企業のこと

[JellyfishLove]

Total pages read this week: 67

Started reading ルリドラゴン this week! It’s a bit slower going as I have to look up more things, but on the plus side there’s a lot of repeated words. I’m having fun with it! I also read a bit more of オオカミちゃん 2 and got caught up with 玉藻の恋 for the bookclub.

[Jintor]

15 July | Study Log

	Title	Type	Natively	Progress
	紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 1	manga	29	73% → 82%
	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%()

• Rest of 大正月’s week’s reading for the IMC. Alas, this series is just that little bit too difficult for ‘comfortable reading’ and I’ll honestly be a bit glad when we’re done with it, though it really is nice to experience some formal upper-class vocab I normally wouldn’t otherwise (rather it crosses over a little with my 令嬢 stuff as well, but that tends to lean a bit more western-European than historical Japanese)
• Also read this notice from one of my old fave bands Shishamo … apparently the drummer has entered a civil union with her girlfriend! Much nicer than the usual お知らせ you see with this presentation lol

[soggyboy]

back to my home post

07月14日

	Club	Title	Type	Progress
	Natively	ふしぎ駄菓子屋	prose	124 → 126/148pgs

Tiny bedtime read.

[generalteddie]

July 13th

Title	Type	Progress
鹿の王4	Book	p228‐286 (71%-89%)

July 14th

Title	Type	Progress
鹿の王4	Book	p286‐322 (89%-END)
サマータイムレンダ Another Horizon	VN	64%-67%
黎の軌跡II	Video game	around 20-30 mins

Another book finished! I’m impressed with myself that I managed to finish one in just over a week.

鹿の王 thoughts (potentially vague spoilers for 鹿の王 and 獣の奏者)

I’m not sure what to think of the ending of this one being very open ended, but I did like the overall story in that it was pretty different, being a fantasy story focused on a disease other than a singular antagonist. I must admit that I got rather lost regarding all of the political goings on, and I think this is only partly a Japanese comprehension issue… I think if I’d made notes I would have been fine, I think it’s mostly just the slower reading speed in Japanese leading to taking longer to finish the series, hence I forgot some of the details/ setting up from earlier books. That said, the various political goings on weren’t resolved in this particular story.

I think I have a stronger affinity for one of the author’s other series, 獣の奏者。That said, for that series I really enjoyed books 1&2, but felt that books 3&4 felt rather redundant in a sense and I didn’t like the ending of the 4th book (but the first 2 books had a strong narrative arc and conclusion from what I remember).

I do like the writing style of this author. In this series in particular I quite enjoyed having 2 perspectives that shifted. Also I thought that the opening to 鹿の王１ was very good. Also I always find myself learning new words and being engaged with the overall way she writes. Also, even though her books are aimed at children (or at least meant to be accessible to them), I wouldn’t say that there’s anything dumbed down or easy about the vocab she uses (as opposed to say, a lot of LNs where sentence structure is rather basic and matter of fact as opposed to more descriptive), but there is maybe more furigana than a book strictly aimed at adults might have. That said, there are definitely certain things she really likes in descriptions (perhaps overuses): for example, I think I’m fine if I don’t hear about 木漏れ日 for the rest of my life!!!

[hotdogsuplex]

July 14

Type	Done today	Progress
こぐまクーク	Chapter 4	4/8 chapters chapters

[CandyKale]

Home Post

	07月14日	Type:	Progress:
	ブルーロック Vol 3	Manga	045 → 065/191pgs

Finished off another chapter of Bluelock last night (handily they’re all 20 pages long so it’s a nice goal to aim to either read half or a full chapter each day)

I’ll probably do a second read through today as I didn’t use any look ups and there were a few words I wasn’t quite sure on that I want to go back and check.

[Cathm2]

Well, I’ve had a good start to the challenge with my holiday, but limited internet signal, so didn’t post for 2 weeks. Sorry for the long post!

1/7 3 pages セーラー服と機関銃, 3 pages Spy Family, 10 pages 玉藻の恋 (finished week 2, read week 3), aDoIJG その上

2/7 8 pages セーラー服と機関銃 (finished week 18), aDoIJG そこを

3/7 8 pages 魔女の宅急便, 17 pages とんがり帽子のアトリエ, aDoIJG それでも

4/7 4 pages 魔女の宅急便 (finished week 4), 6 pages Spy Family, 6 pages とんがり帽子のアトリエ (finished chapter 9), aDoIJG そうになる

5/7 9 pages Spy Family, 17 pages こぐまのクーク (read week 1), 10 pages 舞妓さんちのまかないさん (read week 7), aDoIJG それも

6/7 11 pages セーラー服と機関銃, 18 pages 老女的少女ひなたちゃん (read chapter 12), 30 pages ホリミヤ (finished page 21, started next), aDoIJG それぞれ and すぐ

7/7 12 pages セーラー服と機関銃 (finished week 19, started next), 31 pages とんがり帽子のアトリエ, aDoIJG それどころか and たびに

8/7 9 pages 魔女の宅急便, 14 pages 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 (read week 2, started next), aDoIJG それが and それは

9/7 9 pages 魔女の宅急便 (finished week 5), 11 pages 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 (finished week 3, started next), aDoIJG ただ

10/7 6 pages 魔女の宅急便, 22 pages Spy Family (finished mission 89, read mission 90), aDoIJG それに and ただの

11/7 14 pages 魔女の宅急便 (finished week 6), 51 pages ホリミヤ (finished page 22, read page 23, started next), aDoIJG それと and 確かに〜が

12/7 3 pages 紡ぐ乙女と大正の, 15 pages こぐまのクーク (read week 2), 9 pages 舞妓さんちのまかないさん (read week 8), aDoIJG たところで and て

13/7 15 pages セーラー服と機関銃 (finished week 20, started next), 14 pages Spy Family, 22 pages とんがり帽子のアトリエ (finished volume 2), 18 pages ウスズミの果て (read chapter 1), aDoIJG て初めて and 点(で)

14/7 7 pages セーラー服と機関銃 (finished week 21), 8 pages Spy Family (finished mission 91), 9 pages 舞妓さんちのまかないさん (read week 9)

In summary

• I’m somehow in 12 book clubs
• all manga except the IMC are either up to date or max 1 week behind
• I’m catching up well on セーラー服と機関銃 and should finish with the club
• I’m 3 weeks behind on the dictionary
• 魔女の宅急便 is 3 weeks behind but I can catch up
• こぐまのクーク is a week behind, but that’s fine

[WeepingWeeb]

Home Post | Study Log | Week 2

Resource	Pages
Flying Witch Vol.1	112/162 → 162/162
Shirokuma Cafe Vol.2	0/168 → 11/168
Zatchbell Vol.1	0/384 → 20/384
Granny Girl Hinata Vol.2	21/178 → 62/178
Frieren Vol.2	22/200 → 42/200
Happiness Vol.1	0 → Fin
:>ribbon: Shikimori isn’t just cute Vol.1	0 → 56
Horimiya Vol.1	0 → 40

[nyxqueenofshadows]

15th july

home post

	Title	Type	Natively	Progress
	東京(とうきょう)トイボッス	manga	24?	pg 157-end
	ブレイブリーデフォルト	game	N/A	5 diary pages
	axiom’s end	eng book	N/A	pg 21-51
	aDoAJG	grammar	N/A	pg 67-74

finished tokyo toy box and yeah, not gonna be continuing with that one i don’t think. it felt messy and there wasn’t enough there to really keep me engaged even in the bits that were more cohesive. learned some nice bits of trivia about retro japanese game development tho

[MarnieDEB]

Read p. 37-40 of よつばと！ Vol. 4 today.

Vocab

追加する: ついかする: to add
一画: いっかく: one area, one plot
少なくとも: at least
やらせ: faked situation
難易度: なんいど: degree of difficulty
入門: にゅうもん: beginner training, introduction
向き: むき: direction, orientation
養殖: ようしょく: aquaculture, nursery
ヤマメ: landlocked mesu salmon
騒がしい: さわがしい: noisy

Trying to be patient with the fact that I sometimes look up words only to discover that I’ve looked them up before. For example, 追加 appeared at the end of よつばと Vol. 3. Another example: I know what the kanji 向 means, but couldn’t quite figure out 向き in this context. So I just note the words down again, with the understanding that I probably won’t fully remember them until I encounter them in a few different contexts.

[Phryne]

July 15th

Home post

る・らる today. It’s interesting to see the origin of modern Japanese grammar in classical Japanese

	しろくまカフェ	L20	p. 71-80・6%
	望月光の古文教室 古典文法編	L28?	p. 101-109・4%

[Redglare]

Home post // July 15

・本好きの下剋上 18 (7.3% → 11.16%) | 7.5k characters ( 21 995 / 197k char.)

That was one chapter, so that’s good for today.

Lookups (16)

Word	Meaning
算術さんじゅつ	arithmetic
確たしかめ算ざん	checking (e.g. result of calculation)
筆算ひっさん	暗算・珠算に対し，数字を書いて計算すること
保留ほりゅう	そのままの状態でおさえとどめておくこと。特に，その場ですぐに決めたり実行したりせずにのばすこと
剥むき出だし	frank, open, blunt
司つかさどる	to be in charge of
相乗効果そうじょうこうか	複数の原因が重なって，個々に得られる結果以上になること - synergy
知名度ちめいど	その人の名前が世間に知られている度合
勧すすめる	to recommend
爪弾つまびく	to pluck the strings (of a guitar)
10
在あり来きたり	ordinary
自己顕示欲じこけんじよく	craving for the limelight
心こころの友とも	kindred-spirit
虎視眈々こしたんたん	vigilantly (watching for an opportunity)
ファスナー	zipper
一環いっかん	part (of a plan, campaign, activities, etc.)

[hughlings]

7月13-15日 | Home post

Date	Title	Today	Progress
7月13日	LOOPERS	1.4k	41.2k (~32%)
7月14日	LOOPERS	1.1k	42.3k (~33%)

Had a lot of things to deal with this weekend, and did not read much.

Today (7月15日) only a tiny read before bed, but I tried something different — I keep getting discount e-mails from Satori Reader, and I had only tried their beginner stories before. I read episode 1 of an intermediate story (Kona’s Big Adventure) and of a harder story (Trees of Happiness). I was pleasantly surprised that I could read the harder story with very few lookups, and the content was also more interesting than the stories I had tried before. I might re-subscribe for a few months, to have something easier to read when I don’t have my laptop…

[Daisoujou]

Day 15!

22k characters of Chaos;Head today! I’ve liked it a lot, but I think I’m hitting the fatigue point with it a little. Luckily I have just 3 endings to go. Most VNs like this end with me a little exhausted and ready to move on even though I like them a lot, haha. Of course, doesn’t help that I’m slow about reading them

Still playing some SMT5 as well

Still a lot to learn, when they break out the fancy words like this

[Marifly]

July 15 | Home post

Today I finished the first chapter of the こぐまのクークbook. It’s the perfect difficulty level for now, so I’m really happy that I started it!

[Cathm2]

@MarnieDEB

I know what the kanji 向 means, but couldn’t quite figure out 向き in this context.

Don’t worry too much - 向き is actually more a grammar point than a specific vocabulary. It’s N3.

向き (JLPT N3) | Bunpro

[Jintor]

16 July | Study Log

	Title	Type	Natively	Progress
	世にも奇妙な商品カタログ 1	light novel	23	75% → 82%
	紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 1	manga	29	82% ()
	悪役令嬢おじさん１	manga	28	39%()

• Finally back on the カタログ train to try and wrap the last story … it’s really fun to be able to sneak pages in between work tasks because I feel like I’m getting more fluent (and because lookups are so easy. Seriously, making the process simple with the least amount of barriers possible is so key to making reading enjoyable).

[Kay]

Home post

July 15

Started new job.
Finished Japanese Short Stories for Beginners.
Feelsgoodman.jpg

Surprised I have the 3rd of the series, Intermediate Japanese Short Stories, in my Kindle app. Strange that I don’t have the second, though… It’s free on Kindle Unlimited, so that’s another incentive for me to try out the subscription. Maybe on payday…

Don’t really want to make a big level jump like that right off the bat and go straight to L20 from just finishing L16…but I know it will be good for me since it will help me identify new and common grammar points to study more efficiently instead of going at them one by one on Bunpo. (I’m still doing that anyway.)

[MarnieDEB]

Ah, interesting! Thanks for the reference.