Started reading Yokohama Shopping Trip volume 1 (first edition) yesterday. Wanted to read something alongside spy x family novel and I think this one looked best. Also serves as a sorta back-up, if I’m too tired to read before bed then I already read something that day most likely. I only read the prologue. From the spy x family novel I also read a few pages, the introduction of this first chapter. It’s definitely a novel and that does take me more time, there is furigana but not as much as the manga. The furigana doesn’t seem to align with the kanji necessarily, looks more like a little note. Story wise this probably takes place after volume 4, given bond is there and the last story is about the family portrait.
Played some more Persona 4 Golden recently and I’m right about to head into the first dungeon. Game introduced me to various shops, velvet room and I also talked to some NPC’s. There’s someone that’s really into bikes:
I’m about 7 hours in at this point, which is still early in. Modern persona games (since 3) are pretty slow paced, but that suits me fine for the level I’m still at so I don’t mind it that much. Not sure if I’ll tone down the difficulty eventually, so I can just enjoy story and dialogue. While initially the battle system drew me in back when I played it years ago on the vita, there’s better options out there. The main draw will be me trying to soak up all that Inaba (稲羽) has to offer. I’ll try to post more of my playthrough whenever I can.
TIL the kanji for that! Oh man that looks lovely. I half want to get the game in Japanese again for a third play through (not counting ng+, heh) and another 100+ hrs, but i should probably actually finish Persona 5 first. And then maybe get Royal in Japanese instead.
It’s funny as I had trouble typing the second kanji from the compound and went with the counter instead. In names it can be read as ba. Name probably comes from the hare of inaba legend.
The high school is also called Yasogami 八十神, which refers to the many gods/deities. Cute wink, considering they pull from different kind of mythologies.
I read chapter 4 yesterday! When I finished I realized that the chapter was actually 11 pages long (not 8 like I originally thought, for some reason). So that’s cool.
And! The vampires have arrived! Sei / 霧島くん’s older brother Kou is totally giving all the pretty girls at school anemia (at least that’s what it looks like right now). And maybe he can transform into a black ferret? Luckily Miu seems to be at least partially resistant to vampire magic.
Kou talks like this
「あれ?『鬼了』 の能力が効いてない?」
I don’t know what テンプ or 鬼了 are, and could not find them in any dictionary. Miu doesn’t seem to know either, though. But I wonder what clues 鬼了 would give me if I had a more intuitive understand of kanji …?
「セイじゃん。人の獲物に手ぇ、ださないでよ」
I’m guessing that the 手ぇ part indicates some kind of delinquent drawl? That’s all I’ve got.
One nice thing about this book is that I feel a lot more able to let go of the little things that I don’t understand. I guess because it feels more like entertainment than like a Valuable Learning Opportunity. It’s a nice change of pace!
Words I can remember
イタチ – weasel
つかむ – after looking it up about a dozen times I finally learned “to catch, grasp, grab”
首すじ – nape of the neck
目元 – area around the eyes (or expression of the eyes)
泣きぼくろ – crying mole (mole under the eye “supposedly due to having cried”)
I learned 泣きぼくろ at one point (from someone else’s word list, I think) and remembered it because I was watching A Lull in the Sea (凪のあすから) and one of the characters has one. But this is the first time I’ve run across the word myself!
Thanks for the encouragement. I actually read the first page of Ch.8 in advance before, and I find it not too hard (though a little on the challenging side); rather, I find chapters in this book on always a little too long…
Nonetheless, Ch.8 is divided to many small sections (5 sections, I think); and each section is fun on its own. I actually read Ch.8 on smartphone to the end as well (and opening a dictionary means switching apps – not as convenient as having two devices…)
Ch.9 is longer and has like two sections. Nonetheless, I managed to finish it in one go. (I have a tablet, a laptop, and a smartphone this time.) So, I guess I have caught up.
There was also a write-up on Listening Everyday Challenge. My guess is it will start anyway at the beginning of July. I will still probably use Read Everyday Challenge as a main plan to post weekly wholesome Japanese language learning, anyway.
I reckon that I will eventually need a place to connect seasons of learning myself, although it is currently at Extensive Reading Challenge. A post of my own would be a better place, as well as for:-
My favorite tools, and a list of abandon tools
After all, I am more of a forum and outside-WaniKani user. And I installed UserScripts on smartphone (Kiwi Browser) as well.
My mods, my creations, and tool failure – according to my experience
Vocabularies of note:
ブランコ swing, that you sit on (乗る) and swing/rock (揺らす) from loanword Portuguese’s balanço
ホイッスル whistle
バイブ音 – not sure of the pronunication – vibration sound (on a mobile phone)
目配せ signaling with the eyes / winking
しょっちゅう always, constantly – etymology is sound changes from 初中
始発 first departure (of a train) – opposite is 終発, although I normally knew 終電
懐 purse, bag, bosom, depth of thought – I think Goo JE explains well
邂逅 chance meeting – this vocab is from a 試し読み of Date-A-Live, Tooka part; which looks fun to read, tbh
There’s some pretty obscure kanji here that don’t have furigana, but then it gives me furigana for 空.
I um… also have an announcement, that’ll quickly be never spoken of again.
Somehow I completely forgot that I needed to times my character calculations by 100 to get the correct reading percentage. So… my reading is actually at 9%. and all my past readings will be two decimal places higher now.
I did think that my reading had been extremely miniscule, even by my slow standards.
Anywayyy…
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
所謂「いわゆる」ー As it is called; so-called (have I come across this before in this book? Probably. This will most likely be a common recurrence until the words finally get rooted.) 目障り「めざわり」ー Eyesore; Unpleasant sight 滅多「めった」ー Seldom; rare; thoughtless; reckless 真夏「まなつ」ー Midsummer; height of summer 脚絆「きゃはん」ー Gaiters; leggings レギンス ー Leggings 袖口「そでぐち」ー Cuff; armhole 上京「じょうきょう」ー Going up to the capital; going to Tokyo 怖ず怖ず「おずおず」ー Timidly; nervously 性癖「せいへき」ー Disposition; propensity; inclination お正月「おしょうがつ」ー New year (especially the first three days of one) 獅子舞い「ししまい」ー Liondance (traditional dance) 手帖「てちょう」ー Pocket book; notepad; memopad
I’ve been reading more 生命のスペア recently and kind of put the manga I was reading on hold, or focusing on it less at least. I try to hit at least 5k characters a day in the VN just so it won’t take me too long to finish (I think at that pace, it’d be almost exactly 60 days to finish this one which isn’t bad for me). I had a lot of free time this past weekend so I was able to go a bit above that. I’m at about 43k~ characters read in total and the story is about 300k long. I like all the characters so far though, they’re really cute and funny. The premise is kind of sad though so I’m a bit fearful of what’s going to happen by the end but I’m enjoying the ride.
The heroine of the story is cute and makes a lot of good jokes & facial expressions
Read chapter 12 of Yotsuba& today. I love Yotsuba’s dojo for swimming. Do it like a fish! Think like a fish! The humor was a bit more repetitive than usual. Perhaps they should have gone to Waterworld. But Yotsuba saved the chapter with all the humor bits around her.
Feeling a bit low today. Several things in my life kinda going a little bit not right, so everything is shaded with some wrongness. Makes the whole day(s) feel rather dissatisfying at the moment.
Finished chapter 5, nine pages. Things are heating up!!
I kept track of some of these words today while reading because I didn't want to forget them.
ひざ and ひじ – reminds me of まつげ and まゆげ. One is elbow and one is knee. Do I remember which is which…? Yes! (Because Kirishima-kun totally sucked the blood off Miu’s skinned knee!!! )
こめかみ – temple (part of your head)
鼻にかける – I love this! To be full of pride, boastful. Like, so full of pride that you hang a little sign on your nose letting everyone know why!
気が散る – to get distracted
口づけ – to kiss (as a prince kisses a princess’ hand)
ooh, one more
高鳴る – to throb!
I keep wanting to update but I’m playing quite late at night and I’m always tired right after so I never do. Haven’t done today yet but I’m about to so might as well just add it. Sadly not much to say without disclosing heavy spoilers, but it’s been getting more and more spicy.
Oh I love Persona 4, super cozy memories just looking at that screenshot. Hope you have a great time, and definitely keep us updated.
Another quick update, but another 8000 characters! Hanging in there much better today. Not much I can say without spoiling the game structure a bit too heavily, but my general feelings remain from before. Still waiting for things to heat up. Nothing huge good or bad when it comes to my reading, just continuing the grind.
I had a call with a friend and we read a page of the 君の名は light novel together.
I also read chapter 67 of Yotsuba which had a few hilarious panels of Yotsuba trying a Bucking Bronco exercise machine.
I played some more AI: The Somnium Files today! I’m going down pretty much a completely different path than I have in the past so lots of new stuff; 硝子 is still a garbage mom though, she really told her daughter she wished she was never born huh?? Awful, the whole sequence in that somnium with アイボゥ comforting みずき through her mother’s voice was really depressing, that poor girl needs so many hugs
There was fun little part that I think is a Haikyuu reference? I could be reading Haikyuu into everything lmao, wouldn’t surprise me, but:
And then she just spikes this giant panda head full force powerful, I love Haikyuu
On a different note, I was in the mood to read a book today and I’m all caught up on 海辺のカフカ sooo I picked up 風が強く吹いている again! And I ended up reading 20 pages in like two hours so yeah, safe to say I’ve improved since I last touched it. I also briefly attempted 錆喰いビスコ again and I’m at the point now where I can actually tell how much weirder the writing is in it than in 風つよ 風つよ is miles easier for sure. But yeah it was really nice to go back to it! It felt really doable with some lookups here and there, and I always love seeing the character interactions and such. I’m finally living up to my avatar again haha
Read chapter 13 and 14 of Yotsuba&, finishing volume 2. Favorite chapter was probably どんまい, but also loved the revenge chapter and the cake chapter. As for chapter 13 and 14:
Miura-chan… Poor Yotsuba, at least Ena has got her back, and then poor Ena. Seldom goes well for Ena, eh? The stillness at the end when we cut to Asagi was very nice. Then chapter 14, an Asagi chapter!, even called as such (sneakily). Although pretty tame appearance from her. Winding Fuuka up with making it seem like their dad is dead. There is some interesting stuff going on there potentially, considering the facial expressions of Asagi and mom. While Ena happily announces that Asagi will kill their dad soon.
So neither were laugh out loud chapters, although a couple of chuckles slipped out. Poor Fuuka though is the butt of a lot of jokes and supposedly not very skilled at anything. Her T-shirts are a highlight even if her family can’t appreciate them. I hope she gets to show off some brilliance at some point.
I’ve continued reading everyday. I’m keeping up with the book clubs and finished 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん. I’ve also started 糞尿譚 (currently at 17%), which I’m finding hard. I mean, it was written in 1937 so there’s really no way it would be easy, but still, my newly-found confidence took quite the hit. It didn’t help that I tried listening today (something I haven’t really actively practiced so far), and, what do you know, Japanese is still very much a foreign language. I mean, I do catch most of the words I already know as long as they’re spoken slowly and with adequate pauses (not happening), but connecting them into a cohesive whole that makes sense? I’m still not really doing that.