Day 38: February 7th
365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 9 min
Today’s color: 藍白 (あいじろ) - pale cyan; pale azure
I’m a fan of this one. According to the reading, the color of the Tokyo Sky Tree, スカイツリーホワイト, is based on this color.
Amazingly, I didn't have to look up very many words today!
- 観光地 (かんこうち) - tourist attraction; sight-seeing area
- 通称 (つうしょう) - popular name; common name; nickname; alias
まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 12 min
Today’s reading was about frozen everything 
Some really cool words from today that were not in Jisho:
- 凍鶴 (いてづる) - a crane standing still in the cold, as if frozen
- 凍空 (いてぞら) - the sky on a freezing cold winter day
- 凍星 (いてぼし) - the stars on a cold, clear winter night
- 凍蝶 (いてちょう) - a butterfly that survived until the winter and barely moves
What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 6 pages
Time spent: 39 min
It’s narwhal timeeeee~ Today I learned that usually only the male narwhals have “horns” (which are actually teeth) - but sometimes females have them too.
Behold the ultimate narwhal
Sort of a side note, but seeing English in the middle of Japanese-language manga always amuses me. I think it’s something about the font - I always imagine it being spoken in a very slow, loud, and clear manner for some reason xD Like low-key shouting. I do not know why it always reads that way to me. But this narwhal popping in saying “THIS IS A FANG.” is like peak comedy for me
Good words and good whales
Today’s whales:
- イッカク - narwhal (yes, they are literally called “one horn,” 一角 lol)
- シロイルカ - beluga! (aka “white dolphin” lol) baby belugas are so flippin’ cute, here’s another link with more baby beluga pictures because I just love them so much
- シロハラセミイルカ - Southern right whale dolphin (I am obsessed, he looks like a sleek, futuristic car and a penguin all at once)
- コガシラネズミイルカ - vaquita (Phocoena sinus); cochito; gulf porpoise (the Japanese name is literally 小頭鼠海豚, small head mouse dolphin, and that’s honestly exactly what it looks like). I guess they’re very endangered
Good words:
- 全否定 (ぜんひてい) - complete denial; complete disavowal; total negation
- つの - horn
- 突き破る (つきやぶる) - to break through; to penetrate; to pierce
- 得意技 (とくいわざ) - signature move (assoc. with a martial artist, wrestler, etc.); finishing move
- わっか - ring; loop; halo
- 水草 (みずくさ) - water plant; aquatic plant; waterweed; hydrophyte
- 顔立ち (かおだち) - looks; features
- キョンシー - jiangshi; Chinese hopping vampire; reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore (used here to describe the appearance of the vaquita
) - 生息地 (せいそくち) - habitat; home