📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Wow, now you have me wanting to attempt a recipe from my 食戟のソーマ recipe book (from the manga/anime). It would be fun to see what a fail the result might be, both from my translation and cooking abilities.
Your dumplings sound delicious.

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:snowflake: Main Tracking Hub :snowflake:

1月22日〜27日

Materials:
:red_square: 地球星人

I dedicated all of my reading time to catching up with the Intermediate Book Club. After reading through Week 4, I am PERTURBED. First of all, I take back any sympathies I may have had for her sister and her mother. The next time we see Natsuki’s sister, she literally kicks her in the back while the girl’s talking with her friend on the phone. Meanwhile, the mother continues to insult her in both private and public. Natsuki says that she uses her as a “garbage can,” and I just…it’s beyond depressing and infuriating. Speaking of which, her freaking cram school teacher. The scene that ended the week’s reading made me anxious throughout. I am NOT okay. I know Natsuki wants to be obedient but…it’s one of those moments where you want so desperately to transport yourself into the book and help out the main character. Despite this, I’m having a good time reading it. Murata always knows how to hook me in.

Vocab

口ばっかり[くちばっかり]:all talk (and no action)​
達者[たっしゃ]:

「あんたはいつもそう、ろくなことができないくせに口ばっかり達者で」

二けた[にけた]:double-digit number

カレンダーに書き込んだ、ゆうに会える日までのカウントダウンの数字は、ついに二けたになった。

露わにする[あらわにする]:to expose, to reveal

振り向くと、不機嫌さを露わにした母が、店の奥からでてきたところだった。

急かす[せかす]:to hurry
のろのろ:slowly

急かされて、わたしはのろのろと鞄の中からポーチをとった。

For those interested, I saw on Twitter a Japanese version of Wordle: https://taximanli.github.io/kotobaasobou/.
I shamefully lost yesterday on a word I most certainly should have known. I can only hope to redeem myself going forward. :face_exhaling:

Those are so nice! I only have one that someone gave me from Hokkaido. It’s a generic one, but still quite pretty imo. :slightly_smiling_face:

写真

I’m so sorry for your loss. This happened to me a couple of years ago with my own 猫姫 (who I called my “elder kitty” in her final years). Props to you for finding a way to stay productive, but don’t hesitate to take a break if you have to. Heck, I still tear up if I think about my previous cat for too long. Would love to see a picture of the sweet girl, if you don’t mind sharing.

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Thank you, that’s super fun! Happy to say I got my first attempt in 4 guesses.

I think everyone gets the same word each day if I'm understanding it? Big spoilers if so

Quite a common word this time, luckily.

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Ooh neat! I was wondering whether there was a Japanese version.
I got super lucky this time

spoiler warning!

image

which was nice, haha.
This will probably be pretty hard for me most of the time but also fun!
Thanks for sharing :smile:

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Summary post

January 27 update:
Read 4 pages of 時をかける少女 (finished chapter 19). This chapter finally fills in a few blank spaces that had been bothering me, and although the explanation is a bit cliché (maybe not by the standards of 1960s when the book was written?), everything makes sense now.

Also, just a couple chapters left, so it’s time to start thinking what to read next. This book was a bit of a stretch for me, so I’ll probably pick something easier this time to give myself some rest :weary:
Although I got my 君の名は and 天気の子, which I want to read so much! :sob: But the time hasn’t come, not yet.

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Summary post :bookmark:

January 27

本好きの下剋上 8
Progress: (24% → 33%)

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Thank you both! The white and gold is the health one. If you ever have the chance I’d love to see yours too, softlyraining, but no pressure!


Summary post

Another hour or more done? I’ll never think to actually time this properly haha. Had a nice time reading, too, it’s better landing in that zone where, yeah this is goofy and frivolous right now, but it’s not goofy and frivolous in a way I’m going to pretend to be too cool for. There’s a fine line for me sometimes with this stuff, but today, it was as charming as I was hoping for.

No history lessons or anything big today, but what I did learn is that おむすび is a more polite word for おにぎり🍙. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that such a word exists.

This game has a super wide vocabulary right now and isn’t nicely repeating words too often for me, but I suppose I’m still in a prolonged introduction to the cast phase (and I guess I’m about halfway on total number of main characters, who I assume have routes, encountered?). Can’t complain about learning words, though I did seem to pick up more odd readings or kanji not featured on WK than usual today, so Anki might be a pain in my near future.

My favorite new word is 隠し味 (かくしあじ), secret ingredient/“subtle seasoning that brings out the flavor” according to jisho. It’s hidden taste!

I feel like I’ve really been falling behind on being able to read and add Japanese definitions recently, which isn’t a huge deal, but I’m only getting a couple most days which can be a little bit of a drag. Too many words in those definitions that I don’t know.

On the subject of Japanese dictionaries, I just want to leave you all with a definition I came across for 二言 : "その場の都合で前に言ったことと別のことを言うこと。” – こと sure is a useful word. こと々々

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I put it in my post under 写真 (which, in hindsight, I could have labeled a little more explicitly than that :sweat_smile:).

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Oh! No you’re fine, it’s just a small enough bit of text sandwiched between some stuff that I totally missed it, sorry! I love those colors!

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Day 27!
I finished Chapter 18 of レンタルおにいちゃん, another very emotional chapter!
Only two chapters left now… I’m going to be sad to finish it I think.

Also need to decide what to read next - I have the light novel of 君の名は which I’m excited about starting, but am also aware that I’m going to struggle with. So I’m thinking that I should pick something simpler to read too, so that I can switch to that if there are days that 君の名は feels like too much.
I’m thinking either よつばと! or しろくまカフェ at the moment.

(Home Post)

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Home post

Day 20:

I read another three pages of よつばと! today. I struggled a bit, in part because I’m pretty tired (between Japanese and university I’ve spent the whole day studying pretty much).

おやすみなさい😴

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Thank you!

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Summary post

Day 27: January 27th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 8 min
Today’s color: 消炭色 (けしずみいろ) - charcoal gray

Some good words
  • 起源 (きげん) - origin; beginning; source; rise
  • 炭火 (すみび) - charcoal fire
  • 消し炭 (けしずみ) - partly burned charcoal
  • 判明 (はんめい) - establishing; proving; ascertaining; identifying; confirming

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 13 min

Today's reading had a ton of different words describing snow, which I thought was quite fun
  • 銀世界 (ぎんせかい) - snowscape
  • 銀盤 (ぎんばん) - skating rink; ice surface
  • 細雪 (ささめゆき) - light snow fall; small snow flakes
  • 綿雪 (わたゆき) - large snowflakes
  • 牡丹雪 (ぼたんゆき) - large snowflakes (like the really big fluffy ones that are like big clumps)
  • 粉雪 (こなゆき) - powder snow; powdery snow
  • 雪化粧 (ゆきげしょう) - coating of snow; blanket of snow​
  • 綿帽子 (わたぼうし) - clumps of snow (on tree branches, stones, etc.) “cotton hat” you guys, that’s so cute

What else did I read?
お前、タヌキにならねーか? Vol 1
Amount read: 10 pages
Time spent: 36 min

Continuing to meet more of the tanuki! This one’s name is タヌキチ and he’s so in love, it’s super cute :3 He’s married to a human, and the way they met is like the sweetest thing <3 She’s living a fairytale and she doesn’t even know it lol

Good words
  • 良くある - to often be the case; to occur frequently; to be common; to be popular
  • れっきとした​ - accepted; fully-fledged; clear; respectable
  • 野犬 (やけん) - stray dog
  • 世話焼き (せわやき) - helpful person; person who likes looking after others​; overly helpful person; annoyingly helpful person
  • がっつく - to be greedy; to devour greedily​
  • おとぎ話 (おとぎばなし) - fairy tale; fairy story; nursery tale

AND!!
My manga came!

The Haul

So this is the one I’ve been dying to get my hands on

why is this tiny shark so darn cute??? I keep squeaking when I look through it, it’s so cute >< I cannotttt D: It’s a little baby shark that goes on adventures, how can you not love it
The purchase even came with a free phone background. Just look at him, he drew you a picture ;_;

Anyway…yeah, I’m continuing on my tradition of cute shark manga :rofl:

Here are the other ones I bought along with it!
Hopefully they are good, I kind of semi-blind bought a lot of them based on the cover art and the google translated amazon blurbs (which always come out like 50% nonsense but I’m just lazy enough that I can’t be bothered with the Japanese blurbs xD It’s a bad habit)

…One of them is literally called “Sea creatures are too cute!” so uh…that’s a winner, obviously :rofl: they are too cute, I looked inside and I’m dying

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peony snow! That’s so poetic and appropriate.

Also, ALL those books you just got look so good. I have such a craving to order new books now. :joy:

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Update January 27

  • Animal Crossing. Chatted with my villagers for a while today. ~2hr
  • Watching Terrace House Aloha State with Japanese subtitles. I can almost read as fast as they are speaking some of the time. A noticeable improvement over the last attempt I made. Probably from all the reading I’ve been doing. Hooray!

Not interested in doing any heavy lifting, reading wise, today.

@Zakarius & @softlyraining Much appreciated. Some photos

Gilda写真




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January 27 :snowflake: Home Post

I didn’t have much time to read today, so just two pages of (かぜ)つよ :blush: They were some non-negligible pages though; very little dialogue and therefore dense, and also we’ve started talking about ハイジ’s knee which I am NOT ready for, not the angst pls so still a good read! I hope to do more over the weekend for sure :+1:

(One of the nice things about (かぜ)つよ is that it has a little ribbon bookmark built in, feels very fancy, very refined)

Some words

ぼんやり - absentmindedly, idly
片隅(かたすみ) - corner, nook
残滓(ざんし) - remnant, residue, dregs
くすぐったい - embarassing, ticklish
()きが()る - to get tired of, to lose interest in

Ooh very interesting :eyes: Not like I’m that great at wordle even in my native language lmao, but that’ll be a fun challenge each day, thanks for sharing!

Ohhhh those are all so pretty :heart_eyes: very good aesthetics, and the little shark bud?? Hello?? Definitely interested to see how those turn out!

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Home post

Day 26:

日本語: I read a fair amount of 伯爵と妖精 31.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of 7SEEDS.

中国語

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean, one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学, and a bit of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事 (new story started!).

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Summary Post

Day 27: Today I read 3 pages of よつば&!

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I will be reading Tenki no Ko when I’m finished with Kimi no Na wa (just 80 pages left) :eyes:

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Today I translated the first half of a recipe from my 食戟のソーマ (Food Wars) Cook Book. The recipe is for a 三食丼 (tri-coloured donburi). (A どんぶり is a bowl of meat/fish/vegetable served over rice). I’m going to try and make it in a couple days. I learnt a lot of new vocabulary, including counters for measurements.

三食丼------さんしょくどん------tri-coloured donburi

杯------はい------counter for cupfuls (rice in this recipe)

本------ぼん or ぽん------counter for long cylindrical things (green onions in this recipe)

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