📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

February 4 :snowflake: Home Post

Still living the 999 life! I played like four hours today I think? I’m definitely getting to that stage where I obsessively play it and it’s like all I wanna do when I have free time (as always happens to me with games like this rip) so it’s really cool to have that happen with something in Japanese!

I have way too much to say about 999 (mild spoilers ahead)

Things are starting to happen :eyes: 淳平(じゅんぺい) was finally like “wait I don’t even know who any of you people are” which like very relatable, I was like 12 hours in at this point and still calling them 銀髪(ぎんぱつ) and (おど)() :joy: So names yay! サンタ of course:

He really doubled down on that, like no I mean Santa :joy: Love the energy. The 三太郎(さんたろう) thing sent me on a whole tangent that I think was kind of pointless because I think the point was just “no I don’t mean a normal name, I mean Santa” but I found this like ad campaign for a cell phone company that’s a whole drama series? Idk I’m unclear but it’s wild:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTGbj0gy-D0

Also the whole thing with (あかね)'s name was so smart; she’s number six so 淳平(じゅんぺい) came up with the codename (むらさき) since it starts with む as in like (むっ)つ, but that kanji can ALSO be read as あかね so like… it double works.

I also really love 四葉(よつば) and ニルス, they’re very wholesome :pleading_face:

I somewhat suspect they might have known each other before this, or maybe they’re just both very sweet and caring people, who knows :man_shrugging: I love both of them regardless.

You know when you repeatedly come across a word with seemingly contradictory meanings and you read way too much about what’s going on with it? Yeah that was me with 適当(てきとう) today :joy: Basically the vibe I got for it (and いい加減(かげん), which it compared it to) is that it can be suitable/enough in the sense like “you done enough for this to succeed, nice work” or in the sense like “ugh you’ve done enough” if that makes any sense. So that was an interesting rabbit hole!

I’m looking forward to playing some more tomorrow, I think there’ll be more puzzles soon :eyes: Onward!

Some words!

挙動不審(きょどうふしん) - suspicious behavior
途切(とぎ)途切(とぎ)れ - broken, intermittent, disconnected
()(さば)く - to cut, to slit
(あご)をしゃくる - to jerk one’s chin
命拾(いのちびろ)い - narrow escape from death
用済(ようず)み - having served one’s purpose
声色(こわいろ) - tone of voice

Oh very relatable :joy: Yeah if you have it and the mood strikes give it a shot! I can only speak from my own experience but honestly, I think my biggest periods of growth have come from tackling a piece of media above my level and pushing through it, even just as much as I could (generally not very far haha). Your mileage may vary for sure, but if that’s in any way encouraging then hey!

20 Likes

Summary Post

Day 35: Today I read 8 pages of よつば&!

22 Likes

Day 30: February 5

  • 君の名は。page 232-252 (100% :tada: :tada: :tada:)

I finished my first novel ever! :tada: My goal was to read at least one novel in 2022, looks like I overestimated my Japanese ability a bit, so that’s good xD Since I have read the same book and it was also my first book see my exact thoughts in the quote below:

Happy to be improving and looking forward to all the things I will read now :eyes: I think I will focus on manga for the rest of the month, and start a new book in March (if I can wait that long xD). I want to get some more vocab knowledge by just reading a bunch of things and manga might be the best material for that for me right now!

27 Likes

Yayyy congratulations!!! :tada: :tada: Well done.

How did you find the language in the final pages, did you find them as challenging as I did? I remember two very specific moments when the book got difficult for me: one is the very obvious transition I think we both mentioned a while back, and the other was while reading the final chapter with its very long sentences and suddenly a lot of unknown vocabulary.

Good luck with your next goals, keep us updated! :wink:

9 Likes

I finished reading 世界から猫が消えたならlast night, woo :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:! It’s a fairly short (200 pages) and not super difficult novel but it still feels really cool to have fairly comfortably read a novel in a week given that the first ones I read took a month! I think just how much I enjoyed the story made a real difference, as well as having read quite a lot (games and manga) in the time since finishing Harry potter and NO.6. Now I must decide what to start next :thinking: too many options!

Aw yeah that’s really good to know! I’d really like to play that one too. Hoping that they might announce a PC port at some point because PS4 being available on Steam with Japanese audio and subs makes it a lot more accessible. Will see I guess! I have a huge list of things I want to read and play so can wait hahaha.

Just stopping in to say that I’m really enjoying your updates on this game and it’s definitely moving up towards the top of my list to play in the near future!

25 Likes

Recently, I recalled Line Manga was a thing and that you can read some manga on there for free (including the first 100 or something chapters of Pokemon Special). It’s similar to Bookwalker in that it has free trial periods for the first couple volumes. There are some cases where you can read a chapter a day for free or exchange coins or passes, etc. to read certain chapters or volumes.

I stumbled across 絶叫学級 転生 under the free trial books. It looked familiar and I realized it was related to one of the nominations in the Beginner Book Club (Scary Stories). I don’t know for certain, but the one I’m reading is a sequel of 絶叫学級, which is the manga version of the book nominated in the book club. I don’t know if the book and manga have the same content or not, but reading 転生 didn’t give me the feeling like it was a sequel or that I missed anything, so I don’t think it’s a big deal to read them out of order.

I think the free trial period ends on the 11th or 12th, so for a change of pace I decided to read this manga, Compared to Pokemon Special, the language feels easier to understand so I ended up flying through 3 chapters. I almost read the whole volume but got stuck at chapter 4 because of the sudden difficult vocab I didn’t know appearing too often. It kinda killed the momentum.

2月5日 ~ Day 36 / Back to Home

絶叫学級 転生 1 (page 92 of 192 - chapters 1-3)

Unlike my previous summaries, I’m not going to go into details about the chapters here because I don’t want anyone to feel tempted to read the spoilers and give away the ending for them. Instead, I’ll list the titles of each chapter and give my overall impression of the manga so far.

第1章 手作り彼氏・The Handmade Boyfriend
第2章 悪魔の教室・The Evil Classroom
第3章 かくれんぼ鬼・The Demon Hide-and-Seeker

The series is episodic as far as I can tell so far, so each chapter is an entirely new story with no relation to previous chapters besides the demon(?) storyteller Yomi who introduces each story. The nice thing is you can skip a story if you don’t feel into it without missing out on anything. The stories sometimes gives off a Jigoku Shoujo feel except the main protagonist (if you can call Yomi that) doesn’t involve herself in the stories at all unlike Enma Ai.

Unlike Jigoku Shoujo which had some really depressing episodes you sometimes couldn’t bear to watch, I haven’t encountered anything too triggering personally. I do wonder if the whole series is purely episodic or if they’re going to introduce a plot sometime down the road too. The stories can certainly creep you out regardless of age. I would recommend it if you’re looking for that thrill while reading.

Vocab for Reference - New words are bolded

第1章
逆に ぎゃくに conversely; on the contrary
真剣 しんけん serious; earnest
アホ臭い あほくさい ridiculous; stupid; foolish; absurd; laughable​
おまじない good luck charm
戸惑い とまどい being at sea; losing one’s bearings; confusion; wonderment
体中 からだじゅう all over the body; from head to foot; all over
外見 がいけん outward appearance
増し まし better; preferable; less objectionable; least-worst​
自慢 じまん pride; boast
再開 さいかい reopening; resumption; restarting

第2章
潜む・ひそむ・to lurk; to be hidden; to be concealed; to lie dormant; to be latent
列車・れつしゃ・train; railway train
罪悪感・ざいあくかん・feelings of guilt
標的・ひょうてき・target
余程・よっぽど・very; greatly; much; to a large extent; quite​
掲示板・けいじばん・bulletin board; display board; notice board
踏切・ふみきり・railway crossing; railroad crossing; train crossing; level crossing
判断・はんだん・judgment; judgement; decision; conclusion; adjudication
善・ぜん・good; goodness; right; virtue
巣窟・そうくつ・den; haunt; hangout; nest; lair
常識・じょうしき・common sense; good sense; common knowledge; general knowledge; common practice; accepted practice; social etiquette
通用・つうよう・to pass as; to pass for
身近・みちか・near oneself; close to one; familiar

第3章
団地・だんち・multi-unit apartments; apartment complex
おんぼろ・worn-out; run-down; shabby; tattered; dilapidated
誘拐・ゆうかい・abduction; kidnapping
そもそも・in the first place; to begin with; from the start; originally
管理人・かんりにん・administrator; janitor; manager; concierge; caretaker; superintendent; supervisor
土地・とち・locality; region; place
所々・ところどころ・here and there; in places
祠・ほこら・hokora; small wayside shrine
加える・くわえる・to include
要注意・ようちゅうい・need for caution; need for care; requiring special attention

22 Likes

What is this thread? What kind of positive magic are we building up here? Seirously, you guys are beasts :tada: . I’ve been thinking that the Winter thread has surpassed in a month the activity that the Autumn one had in its entirety. I think that tells that these threads are proving to be very positive to the ones participating, not to say anything about the fun interactions between us all. And it’s silly to think that this all started out of @Redglare just wanting to read daily last summer :joy: . Well, look what you’ve done! Casually started a cult if we include the tanuki.

21 Likes

mwehe

Gotta give credit to @windupbird for the tanuki tho :joy: :raccoon:

14 Likes

In all seriousness, reading and hearing about other people making progress and what they are reading etc etc is so motivating and nice :slight_smile: It also definitely helps to build up my ‘want to read’ pile as I see other people talking about fun sounding things haha.

18 Likes

Home post :house:

Day 29:

I read another couple pages of よつばと!:four_leaf_clover::slightly_smiling_face::four_leaf_clover:

27 Likes

Home Post

Day 34: Yesterday I read chapter 41 of 45 of ティアムーン帝国物語 vol. 2!I’m 77% in, and it feels really good! I also noticed that my reading speed has increased since I started this challenge. Back in December, it took me around 45 minutes to read 10 pages of ティアムーン and now it’s taking me around 30 minutes (at least on easier chapters). I’m also at a very fun part of the book, so that’s definitely increasing my desire to read more of it, which is nice!

24 Likes

Today’s reading was 『全く同じ』 - another blog post from the same blog as yesterday. Seemed like a good challenge level for me. Not many / any words to look up, but the style of the sentences I have to think about because it’s so different from novel writing.
This one was about an incident at her child’s karate lessons with the mother of another student. Some friction also between her expectations and British culture.

image
Congratulations!!! :tada:

Don’t sell yourself short! It might not have super complex writing but it is 100% a novel aimed at adults with normal vocabulary and grammar. That’s a big deal! :muscle:

22 Likes

:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220205 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XXXVI: かげぐち :rice: & プロ野球の日 :baseball:

A little read today, I read today’s Edo story and “On This Day”.

The Edo story is about a restaurant that’s cheap but not very good… it’s just rice gruel, all day every day.

Today issss プロ野球の日!
Pro-Baseball day, this day in 1936 is when the ぜんほんしょくぎょうきゅうれんめい was founded :baseball:
I forgot to put the meaning, that’s the: All Japan Professional Baseball League

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

かげぐち「陰口」ー Hurtful gossiping (behind someone’s back); back stabbing (by talking bad of someone)
権助「ごんすけ」ー Manservant (Though this meaning is archaic, it seems more common as a name)

Forgotten Words

まき」ー Firewood (I feel I’ve come across this before but I can’t remember)
雑炊ぞうすい」ー Rice gruel, but with bits of veg and fish in it. (Another word I’m sure I’ve seen before but not entirely sure)


Amazing how well everyone’s doing finishing all these books! :partying_face:

These threads are such a positive impact, and there seems to be more people participating each time! So great to see! :smile:

All hail TANUKI :raccoon: :raccoon: :raccoon:

21 Likes

Summary Post

February 5
星の王子さま, p. 31-34.


Being super lazy with my updates lately. Forgive me ;-;

23 Likes

Yesterday
First I read an article, on a japanese site about urban legends and ghost stories. It was about a little girl and her doll. The girl really loved her doll, but one day the girl got sick and died. After the girl’s death the doll’s hair started to grow.
After that I started reading the second volume of Yamada kun and the Seven Witches 50 pages. It’s fun but I slowly get bored of reading manga every day. I need to read harder things than manga.

Today
I felt tired the whole day so I just read 50 more pages of Yamada kun and the Seven Witches.

19 Likes

That’s so great! Congrats!!! I’m thrilled for you.


Summary post

I’m literally just a few pages from finishing story 4 in Zoo 1, and I’m at exactly 75%. While this has never really been my main focus compared to the VN, seeing everyone finish their first books is making me want to set a soft goal to get this done before the end of February so I can do the same. Should be doable! :crossed_fingers:

Today was pretty fun! The girl from the last picture I posted is growing on me quite a bit; today she had a chat with the MC about legends of demons, including one related to the island, then leading into discussing the Momotarou story (not much of a spoiler but since it seems more significant to her character I’m blurring in case anyone wants to not know anything significant at all).

Was gonna put up a picture of a line from her… but then, I encountered cats.

Cats take priority. I came across this character basically right as I was getting ready to quit so I can’t say anything about her, but she is covered in cats, so she’s a frontrunner for first route now.

A few interesting language things I encountered:

  • 行き倒れ (いきだおれ) - “collapsing in the street (from exhaustion, illness, etc.)” . The existence of a specific word for this is kind of distressing!
  • お手上げ - (おてあげ) - “giving up, being in a hopeless situation, etc” . The idea of throwing up one’s hands, which I love.
  • ご飯三杯はいける - (ごはんさんばいはいける) - literally something along the lines of “I could have three bowls of rice.” This took me really off guard until I looked it up, haha. It appears to be a phrase basically indicating that you are very interested in something, as “I’ll take a triple helping.” The link I found that explained it spoke solely in the context of people on the internet being a bit objectifying, but we were only talking about interest in legends, so it seems more widely applicable.
23 Likes

I just discussed the topic of 過労死 - かろうし - death by overwork - with my language partner the other day, and that’s an even more distressing word in my opinion. BTW he said that it’s slowly getting better in Japan, but it’s still a thing.


Today was sauna day again! I read the Little Prince (two chapters and a bit because one of the chapters was so short). Then I also read this week’s assignment of 笑わない数学者. It’s such a crazy story! I can hardly fit all the details in my head :face_with_spiral_eyes:

19 Likes

Oh for sure. That one I even knew prior to starting Japanese because of how the work culture is. It’s tragic. Glad to hear it’s improving at least, I had no idea.

This one is more like, I have to imagine the history of the word comes from some sort of awful time where that was more common.

6 Likes

Day 36!
I read the last chapter and bonus chapter of Volume 4 of からかい上手の高木さん.
It was another super cute chapter. I love the art in this manga, the characters have such expressive faces. I’m looking forward to starting the next volume with the Off-shoot book club next week - and hoping we keep reading together since I’ve already bought volumes 6 and 7 too :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

20 Likes

I was immediately thinking overwork and also Tuberculosis, which is a huge thing in Asia up to today, and whenever I look into authors from 100 years ago or so, I find that so many of them died of Tuberculosis at a very young age, which is also really tragic, I think.

9 Likes