📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

It even contains a link to the にし combo when explaining the different usages of も :eyes:

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Norway was weird, but funny.

If you wanna watch creepy, look at Serbia’s. Their performance evokes kinda medical psychological thriller vibes for me.

I liked Australia’s, it was wonderfully different that worked so well for the song.

(There was one performance that had a good pop song but the performance just clashed with the song so they kinda ruined each other somehow. The performance could have worked for a different song though, it was kinda cool, if also a bit evocative of mental hospitals. This year’s theme? :rofl:)

As I said, I don’t watch Eurovision song contest for the great music. It can have that, but it is more about the performances and what they bring. And I also enjoy those that just have good dancing/performance with a good song, it doesn’t need to be weird. But honestly, I mostly watch ESC for the weird. xD

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Summary Post

Day 45: May 15th
What did I read?: クマとカラス
How much did I read?: 47 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hr 27 min

I finished this today and low-key cried my eyes out :sob: The situation wasn’t what I suspected yesterday, but uh somehow this is worse, WHY IS IT WORSE :sob: After a certain point I could kind of see that Crow was going to have to “go” somehow once his wish had been fulfilled, because ヤタガラス did say that it was just a little more time, but why did Bear have to forget Crow too?? :sob: :sob: :sob: They were bestie friends and now :sob: No memory, just vague feelings that someone was there helping him :cry: Like he almost remembers but not quite and it hurts me, Bearrrrrrr On the bright side, Bear made it to the other island and found some bear buddies finally :heart: But my heart though

So yeah, this manga is extremely sweet and pretty cute, but it’s not pure fluffy-happy lighthearted animal antics like a lot of the other animal-centered manga I read. I recommend it but only if you want to cry, like a lot, at the end :smiling_face_with_tear:

Soothing my soul with some cute panels

Words
  • 存続 (そんぞく) - duration; continuance; survival; persistence; retention
  • 個体群 (こたいぐん) - population (e.g. of animals)​
  • 収容力 (しゅうようりょく) - capacity; accommodation
  • 鳥獣保護区 (ちょうじゅうほごく) - wildlife sanctuary; protection area for birds and wild animals
  • 武者震い (むしゃぶるい) - trembling with excitement

Idk :smiling_face_with_tear: The whole thing definitely has more bittersweet undertones than I thought it would when I bought it, but it mostly felt like things were ok/not too sad until the end wrecked me

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I read four more pages of “Hikoichi and the Living Umbrella”. It appears that Hikoichi is in a world of trouble for deciding to sell the umbrella (which doesn’t work) to the Lord of the region. I will see how wise Hikoichi is tomorrow.

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Summary post

Well, today’s reading sure was different.

I decided to take one of those full scale JLPT practice tests (thank you @NicoleIsEnough !) so I’ve been at that for the past 3 hours. That involves reading. I took the N2 just to see how hard I could push it and what would happen.

And I umm… theoretically passed? All I can do is assume equal weight to all questions because the JLPT grading can’t be replicated, but if I do that, I got 109 points, with 90 needed to pass! The reading section is indeed brutal, wow. I almost auto-failed due to that with like a 38% on that section. Honestly might’ve gotten a little lucky cause I didn’t understand all that much :grimacing:. There is a pretty big difference between these essays and visual novels. I’m normally a fast test taker but I finished that section with only 5 minutes left, heh. Anyway, the others carried me. I’ll talk about this more in my study log another day or something; I have the worst headache I’ve had in a long time lol.

But I did it, and I’m extremely pleased and honestly slightly shocked :partying_face:. If my energy returns I’ll do a little Summer Pockets to mine words tonight, but hey, I read! Just, you know, some of the worst reading material ever since starting to study this language :stuck_out_tongue:

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There are some benefits to using a better Furigana syntax (with an extra syntax parser), and one of them is guiding to learn Kanji readings.

  • (ばん)(そう)(こう) bandage, all in Hiragana in text - first Kanji is (きずな), third is 膏 (paste in toothpaste)

Another benefit is when I don’t use auto-Furigana inserter. Should I unnaturally type in sub-vocab or omitting-Okurigana, or type in a real vocabulary? (And seeing suggestions in the IME might help learning too.)

Of course, I can just 百鬼夜行 (ひゃっ.き.や.こう) , only that it is less Kanji specific.


May 16, Mon :cherry_blossom: calendar post

I’ve just relearned to look up vocabularies along the way :rofl: (and use Google when vocabulary isn’t found)

Week 8 of Spring 2022’s planning

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Day 44

  • ジョジョの奇妙(きみょう)冒険(ぼうけん)

72-91

The talk about what newspapers published was a pain in the ass to read. I’m also glad to finally finish off the parts with Speedwagon in them, he grinds my gears (sorry to people who like him).

I hope to read the last 50 or so pages today… We’ll see how that goes

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He seems like a joke character, who always survives… (although may be helpful occasionally)

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Yeah, I think most of my dislike is from the character’s popularity in the fandom. Although that could stem mostly from my dislike of the behaviors of the Western side of the fandom. I don’t feel like the Japanese fandom overdoes it. I don’t think I’ve seen the same joke from them 20x in a row.

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May 15th (Calendar Post)

ハロー、メランコリック! => 146 pages (198 min)

A nice quiet Sunday, best days to get some good amounts of reading done.

Today’s haul of fun panels:

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あ…

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#hugeSmiles

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お願い~

にひ~

え?

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:basketball:

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The secret technique of ストップ!! with a pet bottle.

Bonus fun panel: this is from the あとがき of volume 2 where the author talks about how their cat takes over their chair when they go for coffee

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May 15
Slept in late. Did usual routine very slowly today. ごろごろしていた
Watched about halfway of Kaji Yuuki’s latest tokimeki stream.
Started on the haikyuu 小説. managed to read all of one page lol

I should probably get back to the graded readers… i have level 3s and 4s remaining…

Edit: Was feeling guilty so I read a quick level 3, and saw that they updated the site with a new look, new level 5 readers, and added an extra level 1. ooh boy

Progress on Tadoku graded readers
44 / 44 level-zeros
12 / 13 level-ones
10 / 10 level-twos
1 / 18 level-threes

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Read 47% → 53% of モテ薬. Another relatively boring chapter. I have ~3.5 hours left in the book so I’m just going to keep plodding along, one chapter a day. I should finish in 8 days if I stick to that. Today was more sexism in STEM and complicated interpersonal relationships. I really do think if the material was presented a different way I’d be all about this story.
Wondering what I’ll jump to after it, although the advanced book club pick, 海辺のカフカ, starts in 13 days. Maybe I’ll finish some of the books I started in between. Orrrrr I’ll go off on another 青空文庫 binge. Who knows.

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Home

Had an exhausting day at work today, and then not long after I got home, I got the worst nosebleed I ever remember getting (it lasted for like 45 minutes and I dripped blood everywhere, even with a tissue shoved up my nostril. I could feel it running down onto my throat, which does often happen, yeah, but not for nearly that long. Most of my nosebleeds take 3 tissues max, but this one took something like 10, it was awful. I hope that never happens again), so, yeah, that was fun. The only reading I did was playing DQ Heroes for a few hours. I recruited Isla (named Julietta in the original??? Why so different. But then, Akuto & Luceus and Meer & Aurora are also wildly different, and it’s not like this doesn’t happen in other DQ games…), Alena, and Clift/Kiryl! I think Terry might be next? idk, I don’t remember, but hopefully. Anyway, I have the distinct feeling he’s gonna end up being my highest-level character by a longshot… well, barring Luc, whom I chose as my MC this time around. But Terry’s my favorite DQ character, and any time I come across someone who hates him (also that one person in the comments on Steam who’s being all misogynistic and whatnot and is like Terry’s Actually A Woman Crossplaying As Link, And Here’s Why. Well screw you, he’s trans/nonbinary now, so there [“I traded my gender for this cool sword. No regrets.”]), I just love him even more, and I already loved him a lot to begin with, so yeah. Don’t hurt either that he’s one of the easiest for me to play as. Julietta/Isla is probably the most difficult so far. I am so not good at judging distances, so the boomerang is less than ideal.

I unlocked the feature where you can rewatch cutscenes. I forgot this game had that! That’ll be nice.

Some stuff about the actual reading today:

Since I was tired again, the percentage of words I didn’t know or was unsure about that I looked up was probably about the same as yesterday, so: not very many. I mostly just wanted to hack and slash some monsters while listening to the DQ OST I love so much. I did figure out generally what 襲う means from context though, and for now I still remember the reading, so I feel a bit proud of that.

The way Diluc talks is fun, but also hard to read. I think he speaks Kansaiben, or at least something close to it (actually, if it were Kansaiben, I think he’d be using や a lot more; instead, it’s じゃ). At any rate, it’s very colloquial. He reminds me quite a bit of Daruk, although Daruk’s speech is definitely easier to follow along with.

“遠くの敵を攻撃できます” How the hell is that not できる being transitive? What the hell, why does imiwa only list it as intransitive, then? The “to be completed” sense, yeah, but the “potential form of する, which can be transitive or intransitive depending on usage”??? So transitive verbs don’t just suddenly become intransitive when they’re put in the potential, as I thought. That wouldn’t even make any sense, anyway.

lol it’s hilarious that they use 匹 even for the large monsters

So the Stonecloud is classified as a 空艦, and a few hours later, I came across the second kanji in Duolingo (軍艦巻き, “battleship sushi.” Okay then). Hopefully I won’t be forgetting that it’s read かん anytime soon then.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to meet Terry, but also, I don’t have work tomorrow so I’m hoping I’ll be less tired and can get some manga- and/or novel-reading in, so we’ll see how much gaming I do.

Some vocab of note:

薙ぎ払う (なぎはらう) [ワ五, transitive] to mow down (the enemy)
一時的 (いちじてき) [な-adjective] temporary
氷結 (ひょうけつ) [noun, する verb] freezing; freezing over
万全を期す (ばんぜんをきす) [expression, サ五] to make absolutely sure
防具 (ぼうぐ) [noun] guard; protector; defensive armament; personal armor
健闘を祈る (けんとうをいのる) [expression, ラ五] to wish someone good luck; to wish someone success
百聞は一見に如かず (ひゃくぶんはいっけんにしかず) [proverb] seeing is believing; a single eyewitness is better than much hearsay; a picture is worth a thousand words

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May 15 :cherry_blossom: Home Post

Just some Story of Seasons today! I’ve been having a lot of fun with it; it’s really the first time I’m comfortably playing a game that’s like… primarily a game? In my experience I have way more patience looking things up and working things out in media that’s more text-heavy, ie. novels, VNs, the like. I think because in those cases reading really is the point regardless of the language situation, compared to most games where it’s just interspersed with the gameplay and so I felt more weighed down by reading slowly? But now I rarely feel the need to look stuff up in Story of Seasons so it’s a good time! I’ve absolutely latched onto the villagers and my animals :joy:

Woah congrats, that’s pretty cool regardless! I should probably look more deeply into JLPT stuff sometime, somehow it wasn’t the most appealing prospect during finals :joy: and congrats on the one year! :tada: You’ve made some wild progress for sure, it’s awesome to see!

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:blossom: May 15th :blossom: :house:
Just one class left now and then I should have plenty of reading time, although I’m going on a trip right after I should still be able to find some time. Read this week’s 夜カフェ and then I’ve mostly been reading 悪魔のパズル, definitely a kids book but it’s entertaining so far and has some good messages. Occasionally it has riddles (that I have not been able to solve at all so far lol), and the last few chapters have had anagrams which I absolutely can not do in Japanese. They relate to the location of treasure hidden in a shopping district, the first one was 嚙むの速いな which rearranged to はなやのむかい and the second was ほんと嫌やあのパンダ which was ぱんやとほんやのあいだ which I could figure out a little bit of. I’m about 70% through now so I should be able to finish this one tomorrow. Also remembered I had some money left on my Japanese nintendo switch account and bought the otome game 幻想マネージュ on sale, I’ll probably start that once finals are over.

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Main Post

Finished reading shiba volume 2 today. I think this one is a little better than the first volume, because it feels like it has found its place. It shakes up the paneling a bit more and I feel it tries to dose the text better. That said the returning and new characters are just as bizarre as the previous one.

I haven’t taken any pics this time and I’ll start reading volume 3 tomorrow. I’m gathering my persona 4 golden screens and making a separate post some time this week. Still very early on.

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:tiger2: :books: Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220516 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

Tanuki Scroll XLVI: 【ジブリの聖地】映画の舞台となったスポット12選! :shinto_shrine:

Today I read about places in Japan that have resemblance to or have influenced places in Ghibli movies!

Now I want to visit them all and pretend that life is a Ghibli movie.


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

New Things

温泉街「おんせんがい」ー Onsen district in a town
彷彿「ほうふつ」ーReminiscent of; close resemblance to
ワンシーン ー A scene (of a movie eg), literally “one scene”
運動公園「うんどうこうえん」ー Sports/athletic stadium or park
グッズ ー Goods or promotional items
「こけ」ー Moss

Names
宮崎駿「みやざきはやお」ー Hayao Miyazaki. All this time loving Ghibli films and I think this is the first time that I’ve properly been aware of how his name is written in kanji.

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20 pages read today! :smiley:

I decided to just read the rest of 四十七人の侍 and I’m enjoying getting a bit of historical/samurai vocabulary. A nice small dose because graded reader. So very manageable. ^^

Now I only have one more booklet in this volume and then I will have finished all graded readers for Japanese language learners that I have. O_O

What am I gonna read next?! I need to decide soon.

What will I pick?!?! Info on poll choices

So while I have a couple of graded readers for Japanese children, I think I want to tackle something with a bit of a longer story. Perhaps a short-ish manga series or even a book-book.

Some options would be:

Continue with Sailor Moon: I’m in the middle of the Dark Moon arc, well I think I’m close to the end of that, so could pick that up again. But towards the end is gonna be the area with a lot of talking with enemies (and between enemies) and those things tend to be very hard to understand, and I’ve mostly read Sailor Moon in a 多読 fashion, so those areas make that very hard. Also I didn’t realize when I picked it up from sentimental reasons of seeing the dubbed original anime as a kid, that the manga was written to be an anime. Meaning the pacing is very fast and you don’t really get a deep sense of the characters nor many character moments over all. It is mostly plot plot plot plot. And I think I’d rather dive into something with more characterization. (This had a misc book club here.)

Yotsubato / Aria: I have both (well I don’t think I have quite all volumes of Yotsubato, but almost all) and both are recommended for beginners. And with both having book clubs here on WK, I can use them. I know they are episodic/slice of life but at least it will be same characters each time and hopefully the narrative do move forward somewhat.

結婚しても愛してる: I could read volume 2 and 3 of this, having read the first volume along with the book club way back when. But volume one was a bunch of 1-3 page separate stories, and I think the rest of the series is basically the same. And I think I want more of an overarching story. However, it might be time to investigate if there are still people interested in reading volume 2 & 3 together, perhaps with a rereading of volume 1.

Orange: I’m thinking about picking this one. A six volume manga series, finished. I should know a lot of the vocabulary since it slice of life(-ish? I think it has an overarching story), set in modern times, which is where most of my vocabulary exists.

コードネームはセーラーV (Sailor Venus): Could read this 2 volume story that was the idea that started Sailor Moon, and actually made to be a manga, so I’m assuming the story/characterization is more appropriate for manga pacing rather than cram-in-as-much-plot-as-possible-because-the-anime-will-catch-up-in-no-time-and-we-want-avoid-too-many-filler-episodes. But I don’t actually know if that is true. (It’s also covered by the misc sailor moon book club.)

不思議駄菓子屋 銭天堂 (Zenitendou): This is a children’s book instead of a manga, and probably the next book-book I will go for. Not sure if I wanna do book-book next or manga. Although if you look at how many manga options I’m thinking about, I think it is clear where I am leaning. :joy: This has book club, and contains several short stories, but depending on how long they are, I don’t think I’d mind that. Although I am more leaning towards getting to read longer stories.

I also own an assortment of other stuff (several other long/completed manga series for example). ( My bookmeter has my full list of owned volumes (mostly, I haven’t added all the random first volume free-to-own manga/books I’ve picked up on kindle).

Maybe a poll is in order. If you have an opinion or suggestion on what I should read next, feel free to vote! Or just vote on your favorite, whatever is good. :slight_smile:

For difficulty, I’m not looking for a spike of difficulty, if I was I would be suggestion some other things I own (Rurouni Kenshin :eyes:). I know native comes with extra look ups and grammar and stuff, I’ve read a few native things (Sailor moon kanzenban volume 1-3, the nyannyan books (book club), etc.). But I’m hoping to pick something that is close-ish to +1 rather than many +X or greater sentences (X = any number higher than 1. :rofl: Okay, maybe I can stand +2 or possible +3, but you get my point xD ).

What should I read next?
  • Sailor Moon (continue)
  • Sailor V (2 volumes)
  • Yotsuba to (Volume 1 and more?!?!)
  • Aria (Volume 1/all of them)
  • 結婚しても愛してる (volume 2 + 3 with a quick reread of vol 1 to start)
  • Orange (Volume 1 with intention to read all of them)
  • Zenitendou (first book)
  • Something else (tell in comments! <3 )

0 voters

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I voted for Orange since it sounds like you are hoping for story and I think that is the one most likely to deliver! I also saw that you have Fruits Basket, and I think that would be good too, if the difficulty level is right. (I’ve watched the first few episodes of the anime, and based on that I would recommend it for sure!)

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I was thinking about Fruits Basket. I read the first couple of chapters of it last year, and I’ve watched 1-3 episodes (I’m not sure exactly how many I’ve watched). So I know the rough difficulty shouldn’t be hard, but it is also a pretty long series. I honestly don’t think I’d read all of Yotsubato in one go if I picked that because that is a lot of volumes, haha. Or maybe I’d get stuck in.

I’ve also heard about Aria that many feel like taking a break after reading a few volumes.

I am leaning towards Orange, but I thought it might be interesting to see what you guys think. I think someone just finished Orange during this challenge? (Or maybe I’m hallucinating/remembering wrong. xD Or they talked about a different Orange.)

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