笠松紫浪 全木版画集
Read pages 68 - 74 - After leaving the Watanabe workshop he worked with another company for awhile, but he increasingly wanted to have more control over his prints so he started to do it all himself - the artwork, the wood-carving and the printing.
I love the effect he’s used here for the waterfall.
灰神楽
Started the next Ranpo story - read the first chapter. Quite a few of Ranpo’s works slowly build up the tension, this one starts the opposite and right into the action.
S/G added ch 4 of the DQVI event, and it’s now definitely outpacing my level. Using the metal tickets is such a pain thoughhh
Anyway, I was watching a video on what metal precisely the metal-family slimes are made of, and the guy pulled out the モンスター物語 and アイテム物語, which I’d seen and passed over last time I was on Surugaya since I wasn’t sure what they were. Turns out they’re short story collections! Since Surugaya’s currently got a free shipping and bulk book purchase campaign ongoing, I got them plus a few others. The only non-DQ item I got was a misawa DJ I’d wishlisted and saw they’d gotten back in stock. I forgot I was gonna check what 3DS games they have, but oh well. Not like I have a 3DS rn anyway.
Read:
・ドラクエ幻の大地 Quest 31
・some more unused text for a sunken ghost ship in DQB2 on TCRF
Man, I wish that ghost ship chapter had made it in. It sounds like it would have been fun.
30/7/26 WK L:28 30 : ジャム屋さん、第16話
Daily reading done
This woman’s life story makes me question everything. What the hell am I doing I must immediately move to rural Japan and live in a quaint home overlooking the ocean! People often ask me why I’m learning Japanese. I used to say for travel, out of interest, and to read Japanese books and manga, but I think it’s changed to “to facilitate my early retirement to rural Japan” lol.
Week total: 146 pages in 2 hours and 51 minutes.
Grand total: 814 pages in 17 hours and 34 minutes.
It was a bit of a lighter week. Finished volume 3 of the 安達としまむら manga along with the Short Story at the end of the volume; Chapter 18 itself was really short. I might not continue reading this for the Read Japanese Every Day Challenge. I have been keeping up with the manga in English for a long time now, so I might read new chapters as they come out in Japanese instead. Especially since new chapters in Japanese are free for a short time from the publisher’s website. I just need to actually keep up with it because they do remove the chapters after a while, so there’s just this big gap between the first 3 chapters and the latest one.
I also finally got around to finishing Chapter 55 of 悪いが私は百合じゃない. I only read 4 pages on Saturday because I joined the Summer Audiothon on Natively and that’s the day I started the audio marathon. I had to panic read something towards midnight just to have a little progress and keep the streak/habit going. I wanted to finish Chapter 55 on Sunday, but I had to continue the Summer Audiothon and then I had to make preparations for a role madness game of Mafia/Werewolf I’m hosting. I had to finish it on Monday instead. Anyways, いつみ is my scum GOAT and I’m looking forward to the upcoming island inn arc, but it will probably one or two chapters before it starts in earnest.
I started volume 3 of IDOL×IDOL STORY! I’m enjoying it so far, but I will probably take a break from it after finishing the third volume so I can try completing my third goal for the Read Japanese Every Day Challenge: finish ネコぱら Vol.1. That’s not to say I won’t continue reading it for this Challenge, because I like this manga and I will continue reading it in Japanese, but I don’t want to forget my goal and fail to complete it. There’s over 90 chapters of IDOL×IDOL STORY! and I’ve read 14 of them (Chapter 14 is not on the chart because I read that on July 29). At my current pace, I doubt I will catch up to the manga before the challenge ends even if I were to do the extension.
Read about half of the newest きょうはなにしよう？ chapter today on my lunch break. Totally gonna get the physical of this on 9月26日 when it comes out. I wonder if there are any preorder bonuses or anything that are reasonably priced to import… hm. Research is needed!
Also 百合姫9月 was delayed at my local shop another week so I will again have to learn patience. C’mon, don’t they know that patience is boring!?!
Look, we’re just trying to help with the abandoned house issue, right?? When we’re both retired out there we can visit each other at our rural retirement homes; I think the spouse and I have decided on a mountain town.
The struggle is real! I want to catch up with 冷たい柔らか (Pink Candy Kiss) in Japanese because the English books left off on the most brutal cliffhanger, but I feel like I should read up to that point in Japanese first? But maybe I just jump into the 6th volume instead?? If only I had enough time to just read and study several hours a day…
笠松紫浪 全木版画集
Read pages 74 - 80 - now he was more independent Kasamatsu produced so many prints, I have no idea how he managed to fit it all in. He was in print-making rapid fire mode.
Giant Buddha! The book mentions that there aren’t many ukiyo-e of giant Buddhas despite how important they are in Japan. It also mentions that in photography it was common to take the photos of Buddha front-facing, but here Kasamatsu decides to go for a more dynamic approach.
Great use of colour again, this is more pink than the print in the book. I could just get lost in the colours.
灰神楽
Read chapter 2 - the criminal in Ranpo’s works is usually a smug mastermind being like “look at how I intelligently outwitted you all! here’s how I did everything… [large explanation of elaborate plot” - but in this one the murderer is dealing with remorse and mixed emotions about what they have done. It’s an interesting change of pace.
Haven’t updated for a few days but I’ve now finished Chap. 51 of よつばと。
One thing that strikes me throughout these books is the degree to which adults and older children bend over backwards to accommodate よつば。In this chapter, for example, there’s a massive panic whenよつば doesn’t like the cake she’s served. There are other situations, though, when she’s sternly corrected for misbehaving. I’m a big fan of literature and film in which adults take children seriously - this is one thing I love about Ghibli films - and it’s one of my favourite things about よつばと. That said, my experiences in Japan and with Japanese media make me want to know more about Japanese attitudes to and philosophies about child-rearing.
July 29th 
30 
: ジャム屋さん、第16話
I must immediately move to rural Japan and live in a quaint home overlooking the ocean! People often ask me why I’m learning Japanese. I used to say for travel, out of interest, and to read Japanese books and manga, but I think it’s changed to “to facilitate my early retirement to rural Japan” lol.
July 29
7月29日
