📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

:blossom: Day 35 :blossom: :house:
Read: ジャックジャンヌー夏劇ー
Time: 1 hour and 12 minutes
Finished: 34 pages
Finished reading ジャックジャンヌー夏劇ー! This is the first novel I’ve managed to finish. Overall it took me around 11 hours and 56 minutes. I think I got more comfortable with big blocks of text by the end, but I’ll probably read something easier next. I really enjoyed this book, all of the stories were really good, but it probably wouldn’t make much sense without context from the game. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s played the game to get more perspective on the characters (btw there’s a free ジャックジャンヌ demo on the japanese switch store that’s quite long for anyone interested :eyes: )

New Vocab

A lot of sayings and phrases today
後の祭り (あとのまつり)a day after the fair; (at a) stage when it’s too late
手に汗を握る (てにあせをにぎる)to sit on the edge of one’s seat; to be in breathless suspense​
為す術もない (なすすべもない)having no choice; at a loss for what to do; at one’s wits’ end​
一筋縄では行かない (ひとすじなわではいかない)not straightforward; not dealt with by ordinary means
等価交換 (とうかこうかん)fair exchange; equivalent exchange; exchange of equal value
陣取る (じんどる)to encamp; to take up positions
キレッキレ agile (person’s movements); nimble; adroit; lively; brisk; skillful​
食い荒らす (くいあらす)to eat up and spoil (e.g. crops); to eat away; to devour; to wolf down
羽ばたく (はばたく)to flap (wings)
剥ぐ (はぐ)to strip of (clothes, rank, etc.); to deprive of; to divest of
凄む (すごむ)to threaten; to intimidate; to be threatening
滅法 (めっぽう)extraordinarily; astonishingly; extremely; terribly; unreasonably; absurdly
一騎打ち (いっきうち)personal combat; one-to-one fight
粟立つ (あわだつ)to have gooseflesh (e.g. from cold or horror)
労い (ねぎらい)appreciation; thanks; gratitude

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Ch 28

Wait, I thought that was was 梨花’s kid, but she has the title 賢妃, no? o: (according to proper noun reading legend in the book club)

I’m currently ahead of schedule ;3 (or did you mean something else? :eyes: ?)
Can’t remember having read it, but could very well be the case that TiredGlare couldn’t process what she has read the last couple of days :thinking: :sweat_smile:

Yay! Nafu :3

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Ch 28 & 2 (?!)

That kid also died. I’m talking of the first one in

(from ch 2)

皇帝が東宮時代に一人、皇帝になられてから二人、どれも乳幼児の頃にみまかられている。

I realized we are Friday, but I’m still on chapter 26. Kind of unrelated, stream of thoughts comment :sweat_smile:

I read that TigerGlare first, by the way, which sounds very powerful. That being said, maybe you should be SleepingSnout instead or some other more clever Homestuck reference.

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:tiger2: :books: Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220506 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

Tanuki Scroll XXXVI: 木花之佐久夜毘売 :cherry_blossom:

Today I read about 木花之佐久夜毘売「このはなさくやひめ」the goddess of Mt. Fuji (as well as volcanos in general) as well as the princess of blossom and delicate life. Her symbol is the sakura so she is also seen as a symbol of Japanese life in general.

She also marries 瓊瓊杵命「ににぎのみこと」Emperor Jimmu’s great grandfather.


:seedling: Japanese found in the tall grass :seedling:

New Things

天下る「あまくだる」ー To descend from heavens (in this case from 高天原「たかまがはら」the home of the gods)
(御)祭神「(ご)さいじん」ー (honorific) Enshrined deity
神話「しんわ」ー Myth; legend
ほとんど「殆ど」ー Mostly; almost all; virtually
よれば ー According to
本名「ほんみょう」ー Real name (kinda self-explanatory but putting it down because it was not the reading I was expecting)
神聖な「しんせいな」ー Sacred; holy
巫女「みこ」ー Shrine maiden
国津神「くにつかみ」ー Earthly deities; gods of the land
山火事「やまかじ」ー Wildfire; forest fire
五穀豊穣「ごこくほうじょう」ー huge harvest; abundant crop
(called five-grain because the five commons types of harvest crops in Japan were: Rice, wheat, (foxtail - 粟) millet, (common - 黍) millet and beans.)
一目惚れ「ひとめぼれ」ー Love at first sight
蟠り「わだかまり」ー Cares; ill feeling; reserve

New Meaning
can be used as a counter for gods (as well as Buddhas and nobles) like:
“2柱の神さま”

This one gets its own box because it's weird

Found this earlier, it doesn’t even look Japanese, like some guy just slipped it in the kanji-dictionary as a prank. Also has a sibling alt form that looks slightly more Japanese: 乄 (but this is even more uncommon).

Seems that its main usage is as an abbreviation for 締め or 締め切り (〆切).

Still, seeing 〆 instead of 締め just looks kinda weird.

(I accidentally closed the tab and thought my whole post had been vaporized, thank you WaniKani for remembering everything)

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Not much time today, but I played a bit of Triangle Strategy again.

Interesting word:
一枚岩 - in this case used in the ‘ironclad solidarity’ sense

And another interesting expression:
飛ぶ鳥を落とす - apparently indicating ‘so much power and authority that one can make flying birds drop from the sky’ or something like that :smile: It was used to describe one of the nobles, I think.

Apparently the writers of the game like these kinds of expressions :smile:

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Summary post :bookmark:

May 6th :seedling:

・ お兄ちゃんはおしまい!Vol. 2 (48% → 100%)

The characters are so cute.

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I read a few pages earlier today. I had hoped to get in as long a read as I did yesterday, but hey, I’m gonna be happy with what I got.

Nothing really stood out to me. The story is definitely racing towards conclusion and I Iook forward to seeing how 坊っちゃん ends. Will probably get there in a few days.

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May 6th!

Usually I start my weekly bookclub reading on a Friday evening, but I somehow forgot it was Friday, so I read Chapter 59 of Yotsuba. I loved Jumbo complimenting Yotsuba on her reading ability and making her smile. They have such a sweet relationship.

It’s a coincidence that I read a chapter that involved so much barbecuing, since tomorrow I’m travelling to a friend’s house for a belated housewarming BBQ :slight_smile:
I probably won’t be able to get much reading done, since it’ll be a busy day, but I’m sure I’ll squeeze a bit in somewhere!

(Home Post)

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Summary post

I dragged through 6000 characters after wanting to stop at like 2000. I guess the difficulty just changes constantly; I said it was easy before! Now the last few days have been anything but. I mean even in スマホを落としただけなのに there are chapters that are noticeably a lot more work so I guess this is how it goes with writing. Just hard to ever feel like I have a grasp on doing things, and it takes a lot of mental effort to not ride the oscillation up and down as if I’m constantly improving and decaying heh.

I get to sentences like “いや決戦に備えて、みのむし腹筋に励んでいたんだが” and there are 4 words there I don’t know, plus one used in a mostly different way than I learned. They are, essentially, every word that isn’t just a grammatical function. Enough unknowns overwhelm me enough to trigger the frustration. Doesn’t help that I think he’s talking about doing something like “みのむし腹筋” that isn’t even a real term because he was hanging upside down or something. I can’t distinguish if the headache I have is from screen fatigue or just reading fatigue, heh.

Feels like because I can’t read more/faster than this, there are so many unique words that nothing repeats in a timely manner. Without anki I wouldn’t be getting suitable reps of much of anything. Of course, not long ago I was having an easy time, but… blah. Perhaps it’s obvious this is my first time learning a language, heh. And things are tumultuous outside of this, which is probably the real problem, but the way any progress feels so fleeting is frustrating.

All the same, enjoy this image of a “77 year old man,” as he prepares to hurt me :fearful:

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Short on time again today! I read 8% → 12% of モテ薬 and the current section is another one sided interview, but the person speaks in a very polite, standard way so it’s much easier to follow along with outside of the medical words. I haven’t been looking them all up because looking things up on an iPad while listening along with an audiobook is kind of a pain, but I might have to start depending on how much these medical details matter to the plot. I’m getting the gist from some from kanji alone and others I’m not sure.

I also read (some of) this article: 幽霊・亡霊・死霊・生霊・怨霊(その1) – 京都cf!
Basically I wanted to know why a tv show I was watching was exclusively using the term 亡霊 instead of 幽霊 and this article helped!

「幽霊」=死者が成仏できずにこの世に姿を現す現象。
「亡霊」=死者の魂が人の姿になって現れる現象。

basically (not exact translation):
幽霊 = dead person whose soul didn’t ascend and appears in this world
亡霊 = a dead person’s soul that takes on human form and appears in this world

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Day 34-37 / Calendar

Yes, that’s 4 days… these 4 days I was so tired by the time I was free to do whatever, that this whatever often turned out to be sleep. Nevertheless, I still managed to read (some). I’ve read about 22 pages of Spy × Family, with most of the reading happening on the first and last day of the 4, around 9 pages each, the rest happened the other 2 days.

It’s really interesting, how the language usage differs wildly from character to character.

Twilight uses so many kanji that reading whatever he’s saying is a nightmare usually. On the other hand, Anya only uses hiragana, not even kana (she’s also very friggin cute). Really enjoying it sofar, even though I’m watching the anime as well and they seem to match up mostly.

There was also this bit:
image
These are words I’m not sure I understand in English even, but I guess that’s the point, huh?

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In today’s reading of the Shinymas 「五色 爆発!合宿クライマッス!」 event the girls had a campfire. Was a cute chapter, most of it was spent between Kaho and Rinze talking with each other and reminiscing over the past few days, looking at the photos Kaho took.

Kaho seemed to really enjoy the trip so far and doesn’t want it to end but its as Rinze said, all things come to an end, although she shares the same feeling. I have one more chapter left to read for this event and I’ll be finished. It’s been a fun read so far and I’m looking forward to checking out the other hokura events later on.

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I only read a couple of pages of Book 1 in “Learning Japanese with Stories”. It’s abouit a boy who is very wise, and rumors about him reached the king. It’s taking a while to get used to it, and I was having computer problems, too. I’ll do more tomorrow.

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Summary Post

Day 36: May 6th
What did I read?: クマとカラス
How much did I read?: 11 pages
How long did it take me?: 19 min

Why am I so tired tonight :sleepy: Really not very much energy left for reading.
This is a manga about…a bear and a crow! :laughing: Surprising, I know. Same author as クマとたぬき, with a very similar art style (so - it’s cute haha). The crow is from the city, but he got lost and ended up in the forest somehow, and he’s hanging out with a moon bear now. :crescent_moon: :bear:

In honor of this manga, please enjoy a cute bear

I was too lazy to take pics of the manga panels today, maybe tomorrow

Good words
  • ツキノワグマ - Asian black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus); moon bear
  • メソメソ - sobbing; weeping; whimpering​
  • うじゃうじゃ - in swarms; in clusters​
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Home

Day before yesterday, when I decided to get SPY x FAMILY, Amazon didn’t have a Global listing for vol 1, but it did have one for a vol 1-3 set. When I checked this morning, that was sold out, but there was now a listing for vol 1 as temporarily out of stock. Granted, there was no guarantee an order placed today would even arrive when my parents are on vacation, as the earliest projected date is a week before they leave and the latest is a couple days before they get back, so I’m probably gonna wait until they leave and get the expedited shipping (which surprisingly is only like $4 more? At least on the test order I put together—and subsequently saved for later—today to check dates). So it’s possible it might be back in stock then. But I hate waiting and poked around on eBay and found a 9-vol set, brand new, for $70 with free shipping, and I had a gift card so it only came out to $50! And while that might be practically a steal, it also means I’ll be taking at least a couple books off the list I’m planning on getting off Amazon, because $200 is a little more than I was planning on spending, especially after just getting those games, even if this is my “get a bunch at once to tide you over then finish your shelves and then do smaller, more regular orders.” But which ones, though??? Decisions are the worst…

I read the 描き下ろし ch 12 of クールドジ男子, finishing vol 2, and then started vol 3 with ch 13! In this volume, it’s the 3rd and 6th chapters that are 描き下ろし, rather than the 5th and 6th. I wonder how sensei planned those, which would go on pixiv and which only in the collected volumes. And when she knew the series would be published.

Into uncharted territory!

It’s the day of Shun’s handball tournament, and I’m a bit disappointed that when he greets Hayate, he calls him “Hayate-san” rather than “sensei,” ngl. Hayate and Mima are waiting for him together, but Souma accidentally took the wrong train, so he doesn’t arrive until after the game starts.

We learn from Shun-and-team’s uniforms that their school’s name is Yuzuki… whaddaya wanna bet it’s written 柚木 (or maybe 柚子木). Souma’s vocational school must be named after a fruit too, then.

Anyway, he’s super nervous and making lots of mistakes (more than usual, that is), but when he sees Souma in the stands with the lens still on his camera, he thinks he’s lame as usual but that the lamest one here is him himself, and he manages to pull himself together! (Souma still thinks he’s cool even before he does, though.) The team still loses, but at least Souma probably got some good pictures, since he noticed after the first photo that the lens cap was still on and took it off (and Shun gave him a pleased lil smirk when he noticed ). lol and he gets called cute by one of his senpai so he tells him to please retire and not show his face at club activities again. Cute’s not an insult!

Should you two really be speaking…? lmao

Turns out Igarashi-sensei refers to himself as ボク!

Ch 13 follows Mima! We open with him enjoying a book on a rainy day… and accidentally reading the same line twice.

He thinks that the power to enchant people with words (or something like that: 文字の羅列で人を夢中にさせる力) is cool, and we get a short flashback to his school days (4th grade) as he remembers someone close to him he knew a long time ago who was like that: a boy named Motoharu who wanted to be an author and wanted Takayuki to be his first reader. A boy who has become the published author Igarashi Motoharu, a favorite author of Mima’s whose works he’s has apparently read all of, who is at Mima’s workplace today as a client, as they’ll be designing the promotional materials for his upcoming film adaptation! (Or at least the website.)

Mima doesn’t realize that Igarashi Motoharu-sensei is his childhood friend Motoharu though; he just feels an affinity for sensei’s works because his name is familiar. Even when they meet, his only reaction is that Igarashi-sensei is younger than he expected. Igarashi realizes who he is when Mima gives him his card and he sees that his given name is Takayuki, though. When Igarashi hints that he knows who Mima is, Mima just thinks that writers are amazing and that Igarashi-sensei must be some sort of diviner asdfghjkl. He doesn’t even consider that Igarashi-sensei and Motoharu are the same person until Souta points it out to him that they surely know each other after the meeting. He’s so dumb, I love him. And it seems Igarashi feels the same way.

We learn that their elementary school was named 葉山小学校, which certainly fits with Hayate’s uni and Shun’s high school being named after plants. So the theme’s not fruits anymore, then.

I skimmed ahead a bit, and we’ll be getting a longer flashback to their school days in Igarashi’s chapter later in the book! I’m excited for that.

I just realized I have no idea what color Mima’s eyes are supposed to be. Sometimes they’re brown, sometimes they’re slate-gray, sometimes half is brown and half is slate-gray (and which half, top or bottom, isn’t consistent). Sensei’s consistent about how she colors everyone else’s, though. Unless they’re supposed to be like hazel or partially heterochromatic or something?? I doubt black, since there are multiple characters with black hair and eyes, and sensei doesn’t color them like that.

I played quite a bit more of ゼルダ無双 today! Did some side challenges and continued the main storyline, recruiting Daruk, as well as completing several tasks where you give items to people to unlock combos, stores, recipes, etc. It’s really hard getting myself to try and read stuff that I wouldn’t even really read in English. Like those unlock tasks. When I played in English, I might glance at the text at most, but all I cared about was if I had the required items or if I could easily get them if not and what I’d unlock. So I find myself not paying attention when I play in Japanese as well. I read the stuff on the loading screen, though! I always did in English too, even if it was one I’d seen a hundred times already… The upside to doing it in Japanese though is that the time it takes me to read it is about the time it takes for the stage to load.

Yeah no, it’s definitely because I’m biased that I like how Revali will refer to himself as この僕. It has a rather similar feel to 俺様, and TeniPuri’s Atobe Keigo will refer to himself as 俺様, and I really did not like that at first because I really did not like him at first. Now I’m just like, you’re an idiot (affectionate). So yeah, if I didn’t like Revali that would just be one more thing I didn’t like about him, but luckily for him I’ve loved him from the beginning. When Daruk refers to himself as このダルケル様, though (and even as 俺様, to some extent), it feels more like just stating a fact than arrogance. Maybe because of his attitude? Unlike Revali, he’s not haughty. Also, the way he talks is just super fun. Playing him today, I’m not sure why he was my lowest-leveled character before I reset.

Some vocab of note:

あざっす (and variations) is an abbreviation of ありがとうございます. I’d heard it quite a bit in sports anime, but only on its own, so I didn’t know what it actually meant. This is my first time seeing it in a -てあざっす construction.
読み漁る (よみあさる) [ラ五, transitive] to read a large number (of); to read widely; to read everything that one can lay one’s hands on (usu. of a specific type or genre)
満タン (まんたん) [noun] full health. Literally it means “full tank.”
中腹 (ちゅうふく) [noun] halfway up/down a mountain; mountainside
猛者 (もさ) [noun] tough guy; wild one; fearless fighter
麓 (ふもと) [noun] foot (of a mountain or hill); bottom; base
操る (あやつる) [ラ五, transitive] to operate (e.g. a machine); to handle; to manage; to control; to maneuver; to steer. (みさお) is Aoki’s (2.43) given name, and the kanji quite aptly also has senses of manipulating a person and masterminding and of fidelity and loyalty, and I have seen it in compounds before as well, but this is my first time seeing it as a verb!

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May 6 :cherry_blossom: Home Post

Just played a bit more ZTD today, nothing major! All still goes well :+1:

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April 6th (Calendar Post)

Bookclub friday let’s go~

からかい上手の高木さん => 12 pages (12 min)
それでも歩は寄せてくる => 15 pages (12 min)
ゆるキャン△ => 9 pages (35 min)
Flying Witch => 24 pages

Some fun panels from today:

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Haha I wonder whether that’s because people are already starting to place orders as it seems to be the next pick for the Intermediate club :grin:
Bookclubs moving the markets again, it seems :rofl:

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Woo! I voted! It was a hard choice, there are so many great options :star_struck:

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Learning a new language is never linear. Unfortunately.

I can’t speak much for my Japanese, but when I was getting myself to fluency from a good base (the base I got from 1-2 English lessons a week over many years in obligatory schooling), there were times it all felt so bad.

I remember I was speaking to some English people and I had to say volcano for some reason or other. Turns out, that I’d internalized the w sound for English so well, that I basically said wolcano. And they pointed it out, so after that I practiced until I got the v sound down right. Swedish doesn’t have a w sound, just a v sound we use for both.

Not to mention even to this day, I don’t naturally do the English j sound correctly (meaning I do have some trouble with certain Japanese sounds too), because to me it sound like its like dj (kinda). Such emphasize on the sound that I just can’t figure out, and even when I try to practice a j-word in isolation (say juice) I’m not sure I get it right. (Maybe I need to get someone to explain to me what to do with my mouth to get the right sound, although by now I’ve mostly just gone *shrug* and figure it is part of my charm :rofl: )

All this too say, that yes, language learning is up and down. Eventually you get to a place where most things are pretty smooth, and maybe you just have some idiosyncrasies. (WOOT, I spelled that word correctly on first try. Holy moly.) I still use singular verb tenses for plural pronoun quite a lot, because Swedish doesn’t have a difference between how many is doing something. (SEE! I wrote “is” for how many… I decided to leave it in even though I noticed this time. Is this irony? Or just funny? I can never remember what irony actually is…)

Anyways, there you got a story or two or three.

Side note: If I seem like I’m all relaxed about this, I haven’t always been. I had to make conscious decisions to let go of the need to be perfect. And every time I learn of a new little idiosyncrasy I have to make that decision again, because I’d like to say/write everything correctly, but then I wouldn’t enjoy my life so much. One thing I still struggle with is picking the right pronunciation of soup vs soap, I always have to sound it out in my head first to make sure I don’t pick the wrong one for the situation. It can lead to some hilarity, but still feels very embarrassing if I do. (Basically my brain seem to have mixed up those two words pronunciation so it doesn’t know on an instinctual level which one goes with which word.)

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