📚📚 Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Winter 2026 🌅🔔

Japanese Language Reading
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:books::books: Welcome to the “Read Japanese Every Day” Challenge, Winter 2026 Edition! :sunrise::bell:

Hello! Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re experiencing winter. It’s the perfect time of year to curl up under some blankets and read. For folks in the Southern Hemisphere… well you need something to take your mind off the heat, don’t you? So let’s get reading!

This Season's Emoji Explanation

This year, I’ve themed the emoji around new years. In Japan, staying up until the first sunrise of the year is romanticized. I have met very few people who have actually done it, but it is a tradition. A way more common tradition that many people actually do is to go to their preferred temple or shrine and ring a huge bell after midnight.

Where does this challenge come from?

Back in the summer of 2021, @Redglare had the great idea of a “Read Every Day” challenge, in which participants challenged themselves to read something in Japanese every day for 2 whole months. Since then and until winter 2024, @Redglare and @windupbird have hosted this challenge every season. Thanks to them, many of us have improved our Japanese and lifestyles! You might notice that I am neither a bird nor glare. I offered to take over the challenge since they’re quite busy (お疲れ様！), but of course they’re welcome to take it back at any time if they want to. I’ll do my best to keep up the encouragement!

Please help us keep this a positive, encouraging, and fun space! Please feel free to bribe encourage fellow participants with cute pet and animal photos or recipes even.

Archive of Past Challenge Threads

Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 :beach_umbrella::beach_umbrella:

Read every day challenge - Fall 2021 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf::raccoon:

Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 :snowman_with_snow::snowflake:

Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 :cherry_blossom: :seedling:

Read every day challenge - Summer 2022 :beach_umbrella: :sunny:

Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf:

Read every day challenge - Winter 2023 :snowman_with_snow::snowflake:

Read every day challenge - Spring 2023 :cherry_blossom::tulip::blossom:

Read every day challenge - Summer 2023 :sunglasses::sunny:

Read every day challenge - Fall 2023 :scarf: :fallen_leaf: :maple_leaf:

Read every day challenge - Winter 2024 :bamboo: :snowman_with_snow: :evergreen_tree:

Read every day challenge - Spring 2024 :cherry_blossom: :dango: :seedling:

:books: :books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Summer 2024 :beach_umbrella: :watermelon: :cricket_bat_and_ball:

:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Fall 2024 :maple_leaf::chestnut::apple:

:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2025 :snake::frog:

:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Summer 2025 :milky_way: :tanabata_tree:

:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Fall 2025 :moon_viewing_ceremony::full_moon:

While the name of the challenge is “Read Every Day,” you may have noticed that it also has a season attached. That’s because each challenge only lasts 2 months. Forever would be a long commitment. By having clear start and end dates, it becomes a much more manageable goal. At the end of the challenge, please consider what worked or didn’t work for you. Did you have fun? Then you can take a break or decide to keep going.

Also, please don’t worry about starting late or not completing the challenge! Life happens. This is an open opportunity for everyone who wants to set some reading goals. Everyone is welcome. Some participants have even started tracking their reading in other languages.

As @Redglare has said:

This is a thread for people who:

:bookmark: want to spend time reading a bunch

:bookmark: want to improve their reading speed and comprehension

:bookmark: want to hold themselves accountable and have a place to document their progress

:bookmark: simply want to join in on the challenge of reading every day for two or so months :books: :books:

To add onto that, this is also a thread for people who want to track or talk about their reading too. If you’d like a computer to do most of your tracking, please check out Natively.

Time frame: January 1 - February 28

Again, late starts are totally welcome! Usually people will continue posting through March and some may give some updates even later. It’s all good! You can start and finish your personal challenge at any point during that time, and shorten or lengthen the challenge to the time period that works best for you. Personally, I usually extend my reading into the 3rd month since I find these challenges have been great at helping me reach my annual reading goals.

As @windupbird has said

Your reading materials can be whatever you want, be it manga, light novels, books, visual novels, magazines, graded readers, satori reader, Japanese webpages/blogs, or Japanese games - you name it, anything goes as long as it is something in Japanese :jp: :durtle_the_explorer: “Reading” can be interpreted creatively, if that helps keep you motivated - for example, some people have counted reading Japanese subtitles as reading some days. In general, we are a pretty flexible and forgiving bunch :wink:

Need help finding something to read? Check these threads out!

The News Reading Challenge - folks typically read the easy NHK article of the day or other similar articles from various apps

The "news reading" challenge 🗞

The Immersion portion of this thread has a lot of great resources

The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List!

Reading the same book with others can be pretty motivating. It’s also easier to ask about grammar or vocab, so how about joining a book club? If you don’t want to join, you could always take it as a recommended book instead. A list of book clubs can be found here:

Master List of Book Clubs

Would you like to participate?
  • Yes
  • Yes, but I might start late
  • Not sure
  • I’d like to but I can’t
  • No
0 voters

Happy reading!

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Tip's Notes & Plans
:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Fall 2025 :moon_viewing_ceremony::full_moon:
Speak Every Day Challenge - 2026
2

Participants

Feel free to add your username to the list!
Note: please try to keep this alphabetical. Also it’s better to update your day count at the end of the challenge

Username Date Joined Days Completed
Alethe January 7 Home post
An98765 January 1
bubble_Demo January 19
bumblingbaboon January 29
Dary January 1 :flexed_biceps:
DIO-Berry January 1 :thinking:
Dunlewy January 10
eggyolks January 1
FeralFuton January 1 :alien:
FredLearnsLanguages January 7
csimpson0608 January 1
coraldragonstar January 1
hrudey １月1日 :dog: Home post :dog:
hughlings January 4 Home post
ironwaw January 29
Izabelle January 1
Jaaaaaared January 1 待ってる
jul (home post) January 1 :open_book:
Kay January 2 Home post
Kigi January 1 Home post
KotsuCoder January 3 Umm…
Lisaveeta January 1 :magnifying_glass_tilted_right:
Meme456 January 13 Home post
Neon_Kitsune January 1 :fireworks:
TheNerdyNova January 1 :saluting_face:
Nemuitanuki January 1 :raccoon: 8
pocketcalamity January 1 Home post
pyororon January 1
Redglare January 1 Home post
saidahgilbert 1 January TBD
shenmui 1 January Home post
shitsurei January 1 :spiral_calendar:
tta January 1
carlosf47 January 1 1
YandrosTheSane January 1 Home Post
ハイジ January 1 0
StevenAu January 1 TBC
Saty January 1 TBC
Megumi January 4th 2
shuada0201 一月五日 :carousel_horse: Home Post
Xelvanox January 1 TBD
Roags January 1 Home Post
MeowsterOfChaos January 7 home!
Gibraltardeu January 11 1
NajaSAKAii89 January 16 :upside_down_face:
Hantsuki January 1 Home Post
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1月
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For easy extension

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For easy copy/paste


||||1月||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|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[]||

||||2月||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|日|月|火|水|木|金|土|
|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[]

For easy extension

||||3月||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|日|月|火|水|木|金|土|
|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[]|||

More formatting things… Do you want centered text?

<div align= middle>
enter the text you want centered here
</div align= middle>

Do you want to hide books you’re reading but didn’t read on a particular day? For example, book club books?

Normally my book list looks like this on a post…

:cat: Book Pages
:dress: 女装してめんどくさい事になってるネクラとヤンキーの両片想い 1 start - 32

But if you look underneath the hood…

|:cat: | Book | Pages|
|--- | --- | ---|
| :dress: | [女装してめんどくさい事になってるネクラとヤンキーの両片想い 1](https://learnnatively.com/book/7296952c20/) | start - 32 |


<!--
|:bug:| https://learnnatively.com/book/f7ef0ac1a4/ | 56- |
|:butterfly:| https://learnnatively.com/series/ca3c2862a1/ (2・65)| start - |
|:dagger: | [ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 2](https://learnnatively.com/book/5a735f0743/)  | 67 - 86 |
| :family_man_boy_boy: | [腐男子家族 3](https://learnnatively.com/book/c100594e39/) | 43 - 92 |
|:musical_note:| [気になってる人が男じゃなかった](https://learnnatively.com/book/0f5d164515/) | 97 - 116 | 
| :baseball: | [変人偏屈列伝](https://learnnatively.com/book/80604f5d7b/) | 6 - 20 |
|:rainbow:| [日本の美しい色と言葉](https://learnnatively.com/book/233aa6e60b/) | 84 - 87, 165 |
|:horse:| [ララの結婚 4](https://learnnatively.com/book/a79c6ad26e/) | start - 68 |
| :horse_racing: | [STEEL BALL RUN 3](https://learnnatively.com/book/b0308988a6/) | start -  |
| :telescope: |  https://learnnatively.com/book/4e727091c6/  | 13 - 15 |
|:cherry_blossom: | https://learnnatively.com/book/191965a834/ | start - 13 |
 -->

<!-- and --> can hide text that you don’t want always visible. This text can be easily grabbed from your last post by quote replying to your previous post.

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:cat_face: DIO-Berry Home Post :frog:

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Current streak: from June 29th, 2025

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Great initiative! I am on Wanikani level 13 and going strong. I’ve studied Japanese on and off for about 5 years now in between family life and a busy career and other hobbies. I began the free Tadoku graded readers about a month ago and I’m a few books into level 1 so I’ll be continuing reading those.

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The time has come!

I’m going to do a slightly different challenge this time around - I’m going to read an article from the 優しい朝日 daily, since my regular news vocabulary has diminished a fair amount. Hopefully this will revive my politics/science/econ vocab which has taken a bit of a hit recently.

I will probably read as well alongside this, but I wanted to try and focus it in a bit this time around

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Thanks! It was Redglare and Windupbird’s idea.

Welcome to the forums and happy reading!

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Wanting my momentum with video games to continue. The game I’m playing is such a meme to have been ported to the Switch 2, so I have hope that I will actually finish it for the lolz.

1月
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Yay! I noticed the post early so I can actually get my home post in at a reasonable time.

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日 月 火 水 木 金 土
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For easy extension

3月
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Usually I miss it, then want to read everyone’s post before adding mine, then I forget…

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I usually forget to actually track progress, so let’s see how this one goes…

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19 Likes
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( ◕ᆺ◕)

YandrosTheSane Home Post

( ◕̣ ︿ ◕̣ )

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New year resolutions and all that…
I’d like primarily to cut any “too tired for Japanese day” from my calendar.
Reading and rereading endlessly sentences from ひぐらしのなく頃に 第一話 鬼隠し編 上

20 Likes
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@DIO-Berry Thank you for hosting again! :heart_hands: :sparkles: Interesting choice of emotes :durtle_noice:

Btw, there’s a mysterious # at the start of the thread title :eyes:

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Thank you organising!
Didn’t do too well during the fall challenge, things got real messy… but that won’t stop me from trying again.

Previous Challenge | Natively

monlitt’s reading tracker

Title Type Start January February March
魔女の宅急便 2 Book 44% :chequered_flag:
ひとり暮らしの智恵と技術 Book 26% 57% 85%
永遠の出口 Book - 22%
デューク Book - :chequered_flag:
orange Manga 4/7 :chequered_flag:
葬送のフリーレン Manga - /15 4/15 5/15
メジャーセカンド Manga - /31 3/31 4/31
January 2026
1月
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

Goals
Read something every day
Finish Orange
Finish 魔女の宅急便2

2月
日 月 火 水 木 金 土
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

Goals
Read something every day
Finish ひとり暮らしの智恵と技術
Reach 50% of 永遠の出口

3月
日 月 火 水 木 金 土
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

Goals

22 Likes
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Really happy to join this Challenge again!

After taking a break because of inconsistency thingies I am ready to start trying again :books:

1月
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
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Goals

Finish スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり 4
Finish ふらいんぐうぃっち 5

2月
日 月 火 水 木 金 土
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

Goals :phoenix:
Read every day of February
Finish スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり 5
Finish ふらいんぐうぃっち 6
Read a chapter of any book

3月
日 月 火 水 木 金 土
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
Goals

Taking it easy on the goals for January for now. Hope I can achieve it and gain some momentum from it :bird:

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Of course! I’m happy to organize it and continue the tradition :slight_smile:

Thank you! It’ll be out of date by February but oh well. I like referencing Japanese culture

Yeah, Idk how I missed that the title and first line are different lol

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You can scroll to the bottom of the first post and there’s a copy/paste version of the calendar and also the formatting text for centering posts :slight_smile:

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Thank you! I think it looks different from the other posts though I’m not sure why..

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Something is adding extra lines. You’ll have to delete them to make the table format

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Hmm.. I’m not entirely sure what happened there. Would it be alright if I posted updates instead of using a table to track my progress?

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If you use a phone, it probably added them.

Yeah, it’s totally fine to do just updates! It’s however you want to do the challenge :slight_smile:

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