📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #12 by DIO-Berry)

  • ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 17巻

6/28
69 - 94

Once again realized that I had to go to sleep in order to function later lol :sweat_smile: :sob:

Enya says something really graphic that she wants to do and I want to check if it’s “via xyz” or “and xyz.” It’s so gory though, I’m not sure I should ask on WK :joy: :sweat_smile: and I worry I might concern my friends if I ask them :sweat_smile:

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If anyone like snails, here’s an adorable one in the rain with an ENG+JP caption.

I read 5 pages of 明日をくれた君に, leaving off on pg 46. I completely forgot Kaito’s surname is Ichinose lmao when someone mentions an Ichinose-kun and the way Midzuki acts in front of him, I’m like, what? It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out who they meant, even though he’s really the only guy she interacts with. I am so bad with names.

I continued with 青年ドリーミー, finishing the volume. No but it’s cute because even though their first meeting since middle school is when Kazunari drops his phone while scrolling through the feed of the idol he stans (uh, what’s it called? His bias? Or is that just Kpop? I don’t go here lol) and Wataru picks it up and calls him キモッ for being an idol otaku, but he still finds him and it interesting, and he supports him and even joins in, like when he goes to a concert with him and cheers for his fave with him, and he also learns the dance for their latest single with him. Wataru likes fashion, so even though he doesn’t particularly care about idols, he becomes interested in the different outfits they wear during their shows. He finds a way to participate in Kazunari’s interests even as a normie. He’s the best boyfriend. I really liked this one.

I also read わたしのかみさま, the third story included in 竜のかわいい七つの子. It’s the shortest story in this collection at only 17 pages, but it’s a good one. It’s set in a world where gods are everywhere, ranging from giant puppy-shaped gods who play around apartment buildings to teeny-tiny humanoid gods living on grains of rice, but only children can see them. Yukie, a 6th-grader studying to get into a good middle school, meets a god of the hills and fields who looks like a fish who, as the local river is being filled in for construction, now no longer has a home. Thinking that if she prays to the god she can get better grades, she takes them home and puts them in her old rhinoceros beetle tank, buying a few minnows to put in as well so that her mother won’t dump out the water (and the god). As the god’s power wanes now that they’re no longer a god of anything, they grow smaller and more transparent, until finally Yukie can’t see them anymore. She buys enrichment for the tank (sand, plants, etc.) and starts taking proper care of the minnows, and the god appears again, now minnow-sized but properly able to exist because this fish tank has become their new domain. They pray for her success, but as they’re just a fish tank god and not a god of academics, they aren’t any help and she still fails the entrance exam lol

Some vocab of note:

下校 (げこう) [noun, する verb] leaving school (at the end of the day); getting out of school; coming home from school
気が引ける (きがひける) [expression, 一] to feel awkward; to feel ashamed; to feel inferior; to feel shy (about doing something)
ヘソを曲げる (ヘソをまげる) [expression, 一] to go into a sulk; to get cranky; to become cross
非の打ち所がない (ひのうちどころがない) [expression, い-adjective] impeccable; unimpeachable; cannot be faulted; beyond reproach; perfect
力む (りきむ) to strain oneself; to bear down; to exert oneself; to try (too) hard; to draw one’s body taut. to put on a bold front; to make a show of strength; to swagger; to bluff; to boast
帯びる (おびる) [一, transitive] to have a trace of; to be tinged with
せり上がる (せりあがる) ]ラ五, intransitive] to gradually rise
陰口 (かげぐち) [noun] malicious gossip; backbiting; speaking ill behind someone’s back
立ち竦む (たちすくむ) [マ五, intransitive] to be petrified; to be unable to move; to be paralyzed (with terror); to be stupefied (with amazement)
鉢合わせる (はちあわせる) [一, transitive] to bump heads; to bump into one another; to collide head-on. to meet by chance; to encounter; to run into.
オタ芸 (オタげい) [noun] type of dancing and shouting performed by fans at concerts (usu. idol concerts)
立ちくらみ (たちくらみ) [noun] dizziness from standing up too fast; lightheadedness; vertigo; orthostatic syncope
ソリが合わない (ソリがあわない) [expression, い-adjective] unable to get along; unable to cooperate; unable to hit it off; not seeing eye to eye
つかぬこと [expression] something unrelated (to what has been discussed thus far)
神も仏もない (かみもほとけもない) [expression] it’s a cruel world

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I rather like the literal translation of this. It evokes a stronger emotion than it's a cruel world, at least for me.

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That’s true, but in the context, it was spoken by a god to the main character who’d prayed to them to pass her entrance exams but failed because they were merely the god of a small fish tank, not a god of academics. It wouldn’t make sense for them, as a god, to say, “There is no god or Buddha.”

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I hope you enjoy! I’m excited to get started. And I’m really glad to know that sharing those videos was useful for someone. Sometimes the default auto speed on VNs even in English is pushing a rate where I have to stay focused, so the pausing is more than understandable.

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June 28 :cherry_blossom: Home Post

Well after talking about wanting to read more manga in the summer challenge, I apparently decided that I’m gonna start that now actually :joy: I just have too many first volumes of things I’ve accumulated and never touched, and I keep finding other books I wanna read but I’m like “I cannot buy more books until I get through some of these, that’s just irresponsible” lmao so we’re making progress!

Anyway I’m vaguely going through them from lowest difficulty according to natively, which for today meant 俺物語(おれものがたり)!!I’d actually “read” the first volume like a year and a half ago back when I did a tadoku challenge, which means I really just skimmed it since I wasn’t at nearly the place I am now and I didn’t look anything up :joy: So I reread that to remember what was happening and ended up reading the other two volumes I have also, so… that’s progress for sure! It’s just as cute as I remember from watching the anime ages ago :grin: It’s been a while since I’ve really read any manga honestly, but I don’t think I’d ever read a whole volume in a day, much less three, so it feels pretty good! It definitely helps that I went in with the mindset of not really looking stuff up, and it was at a level where I either understood or could figure it out from context :man_shrugging:

Progress will definitely slow once I get to some of the harder manga I have (looking at you banana fish) but so far so good! Reading a bunch of first volumes of series will probably be kinda weird lmao but also fun, lots of variety :grin: and it’ll help to know what I actually want to continue in the future of course!

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Jun 29, Wed of Week 1 of Summer :beach_umbrella: (end-of-Spring :cherry_blossom:) 2022

I feel like it’s the best to prepare for a marathon and not juggling too many concurrent series at once. Also, it might be better to try to read through multiple volumes, if there are.

I read Night Cafe Vol.1 Ch.10-11 (almost caught up with the book club). At least, I will try to get the impression of the volume and notice possible cliffhangers; but I can’t promise I would continue to the next volumes.

About SPY x FAMILY, I am not sure if should just skip to Vol.2 MISSION 7, and rely earlier on on Anime instead. (As I have skimmed to the end of Vol.1, actually quite properly read latter chapters in the volume.) So, I simply watched EP.2 without re-reading MISSION 2.

Honestly, VNs are still nice learning materials, as it can usually be stopped anywhere. For ATRI, I can save anywhere, and look up when I need. (Still, I don’t really want to look up too much.)

  • Loopers on YouTube playlist, looks nice too; and vocabularies seem simpler, and might be fun.
    • However, not on Steam. With Steam, I can sync between devices (almost always possible) – I have PC and laptop. Steam accepts refund within 2 hours of gameplay (and 14 days after purchase) as well. Also another reason is that I am not sure if I should try a new store.

I read How to use つもり by adapting from Maggie Sensei (again). Yesterday was 〜たい & がる and 〜がり.

  • I’ll try to keep steady with 1 article of grammar per day.
  • I feel I might end up creating an Anki deck for sentences (which would be practically impossible to cover everything in grammar text).
    • However, the thought of Anki desktop and AnkiDroid being incongruent and inconsistent, with each other, scares me.
      • Next options? Bunpro? I care most about customizability. How about Kitsun.io?
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Today I read another sample from a Horror Awards winner: 生き屏風. This seems to be about a female demon (who incidentally sleeps in a horse’s head or neck, whatever 首 means in this context), forced to deal with a pesky dead wife who is annoying everyone from within the folding screen she now inhabits. I read the whole sample, and, once again, I would never have guessed it’s supposed to be horror if I hadn’t already known. It feels very much like ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 so far: Weird beings coexisting with humans, bizarre happenings needing solutions. More cute than scary. It may well get scarier/gorier later on, but judging from the reviews, probably not. Not exactly what I’m looking for right now, but I’m keeping it in mind for later maybe.

Later today or tomorrow I’ll go over the 化身 sample again. I get the feeling that it may be much closer to what I’m seeking, a kind of abstract existential horror maybe? My main worry is that reviewers have commented that the third story (of course it’s a collection of stories, no one seems to write full length novels for some reason) was actually scary. Can I handle it? I guess I’ll know if and when I get to it.

I really want to make some time for grammar too, somehow! But with the summer Read-every-day challenge about to start, and with the concurrent Listen-every-day challenge (which I’m not doing that well in, but still), I really don’t see how I can fit any more Japanese in my day without completely giving up on everything else (work, family, sleep). I have the Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns rather than the Grammar Dictionaries, and I do use it for reference, but I was really hoping I could find the time (and inclination) to read it from cover to cover some day… It’s looking increasingly unlikely though… :sweat_smile:

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:tiger2: :books: The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220629 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

No Longer Tanuki Progress: 56.89%

Almost time for the summer challenge!

Also wondered about getting a physical copy of No Longer Human in Japanese, but then looking at the prices… I might have to wait on that.

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

Learnthings

朦朧「もうろう」ー Dim; hazy; vague
(either I’ve come across the same word for hazy each time and keep forgetting it or there are a lot of words that mean hazy in Japanese)
無益「むえき」ー Useless; futile
生半可「なまはんか」ー Half-hearted; superficial; shallow

Places
帝国大学「ていこくだいがく」ー University founded between 1886 and 1939 (historic word); also the name of the University of Tokyo until 1897.

Forms
頸 = 首「くび」(Neck)

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June 29

Zenitendou :candy: 34 → 36 (3 pages)

How is it almost July already? I don’t know why I feel that way today (since it felt normal/not weird to be close to the end of the month yesterday), maybe because I have to figure out how to make a weekly thread (for book club) on Friday, and now that is only two days away! :scream:

Amazingly (to me), Zenitendou didn’t feel that hard to read today. It still took forever and a bit to read my three pages, but that had to do with me stopping several times to look up grammar points to see if I could fully understand the nuance that was used. Nitty gritty stuff.

An incomplete list of grammar I looked up in DoBJG and on Bunpro.jp
  • は (particle) - I was trying to figure out what kind of は it was, pretty sure contrasting
  • しまう
  • じゃないか - just to double check I did remember the meaning right (I suppose maybe this isn’t grammar)
  • ようとする - Because I can never remember which is which of the many similar ones… :sweat:
  • かのように/かのようだ - Hello N2 (or N3 depending on resource) grammar I’ve never seen before
  • ば (conditional) - just double checking if it had a nuance that made the sentence clearer to me

I could have kept going, but I felt like this was about enough. I guess my stamina have grown by a whole page. :muscle:

I also played a lot of Atelier Sophie today, in fact so much I was starting to think “I should just get it over with” aka rush the story/end, but thankfully I recognized the sign as “you’ve been playing too long and you’re getting bored”. This has a slice of life story kinda feel. Because each character have their own stories that you both discover (backstory) and develop. It is very nice, and I like the listening practice.

I think in this game, Cory is best girl/char. I like a lot of the characters and their stories, but Cory’s transformation in my affections, from a character I found a bit annoying to being completely enamored with, makes her best char. Best boy (to keep the nomenclature) is probably Harol, maybe because I totally ascribed the wrong motivations to him and then when I learned I was wrong and what he was actually thinking/feeling, it was just so :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:.

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June 29th!

I started Volume 12 of Yotsuba today, and read the first chapter. It was a sweet one, I really enjoyed it. I’m starting to feel a bit sad that I only have a few more volumes left to read! At least its still being written at the moment so there isn’t really a proper hard end yet :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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Summary post :bookmark:

June 29th :cherry_blossom:

・詩的私的ジャック - Jack the Poetical Private (30% → 31%)

Did a tiny read, then got distracted :caught_durtling:


Thank you for sharing the playlist! :grin: Haha, I had no idea it was a default auto speed thing, I thought it was the person reading along the whole time :next_track_button:

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Ok I love this entire description and I’m putting this on my to-read list, it sounds so precious :pleading_face:
I actually don’t know if j-pop fans also call their favs their biases, now I want to know
30 minutes later
I did some brief(ish) research and it seems like the answer might be yes, sometimes? I also learned that the corresponding Japanese term seems to be 推しメン or just 推し. …Maybe you already knew that if it was written that way in the book. :rofl: But this felt like important information for me to know and I’m happy that I’ve learned how to talk about biases in Japanese now, thank you for sending me on this learning journey :rofl:

I found a Japanese-language guide on how to talk about idols in English and I wanted to share it because the example sentence for “bias” is KiLLiNG mE :rofl: Bob is my bias now

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Bob = ult bias!

I didn’t know “stan” was a combination of the two words “stalker” and “fan”

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Wait I thought it came from this song

edit: Should probably add a content warning of…most things on that video :sweat:

domestic abuse, self harm, murder, suicide iirc

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(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #12 by DIO-Berry)

  • ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 17巻

6/29
94 - 145

I pretty much finished the arc (it was a long one), but it feels like a page or two is just missing. The anime handles it by making it a pretty obvious time skip, but it’s not super clear in the manga.

There’s another moment that’s very clear in the manga, but blink and you miss it in the anime. When I went to check, I couldn’t find the Jpn dub, so I played the Eng dub and… wth. They changed the tone of the scene completely. In the manga, Jotaro is more polite than usual, he actually uses さん with Enya. I am tempted to try to count how many people he uses it with because I think it’s a very low number. Also, it seems to me that he’s hamming things up when talking to her. 「ほんとに(あよ)ねえなあ」Like that’s drawn out like he’s pretending to be concerned, or is being mockingly so, which fits with how Enya is hamming it up pretending to be a sweet granny. In the Eng dub of the anime, he’s his usually rude self. It feels like they completely ignored the tone of the scene…

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Shinkai Makoto’s got a new novel coming out late this August, すずめの戸締り, and it sounds good. Dunno if I’ll be getting it then, but it’s definitely on my wishlist!

Today wasn’t a very good focus day, so I didn’t end up reading very much.

I read the preview for 僕らのごはんは明日で待ってる. It seems like it’ll be cute, so it’s going on the wishlist. It’s a single-volume manga adapted from a movie, so I may try to watch it if I can find it somewhere.

Well I am glad I started putting down which page I leave off on in novels, because I accidentally put down 明日をくれた君に without putting in the bookmark and I could not remember where I left off. I have good ideas sometimes. Anyway, I read about 1 page, leaving off on pg 47. After overhearing Ritsu’s two friends talk bad about her (Midzuki), Midzuki runs off before they can see her and finds herself going to the school library without really thinking about it. It’s her safe space.

Some vocab of note:

規則正しい (きそくただしい) [い-adjective] regular; well-regulated; systematic; orderly
可視化 (かしか) [noun, する verb] visualization (data, results, etc.). making something visible (that was previously unseen)

Ah, cool, thanks! Like, that’s the only word I could think of for it, but I’m so far out of the loop that there could very well be another word in use and I would not know. Also I’d come across 推し a few times before and I was like, “…I have no idea what that means,” but now after reading this manga I do! which is nice. Also, you’re welcome! And I’m happy you’ve found something else you’d like to read

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June 29 :cherry_blossom: Home Post

I read a couple more manga today! Theoretical next easiest was 高校(こうこう)デビュー, which took a while because it has almost 300 pages apparently, very dense little manga :joy: It was a little rougher than 俺物語(おれものがたり)!!, mostly because of using just kana for words I didn’t want it to and tending towards more weird slang, but it was pretty chill still. Very much standard high school romcom energy, I got more invested over the course of the volume but probably not enough to read more, but who knows :man_shrugging:

The other one I read today was (わたし)がモテてどうすんだ which is… as advertised :joy: I remembered the gist from seeing the anime a while back, and yeah it’s romcom satire nonsense; it was a lighter read than 高校(こうこう)デビュー for sure, pretty fun, but idk that I’ll read more of it either :man_shrugging: I do love a good romcom but I think the me that placed this mandarake order was way more into them and only them than I am lmao, there’ll be some variety in the next manga on my list though :eyes:

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I have heard about “bias” = 推し before, but I don’t get its origin. K-Pop (Korean)?

I think it is weird by using in an English sentence, but I am not a native speaker.


Jun 30, Thu of Week 1 of Summer :beach_umbrella: (end-of-Spring :cherry_blossom:) 2022

I read How to use でも today, while listening to Japanese News (FNN Live, MBS).

  • I chose grammar point by – 1. interesting topic 2. cover many JLPT N’s.
  • I started from JLPT N5, but the grammar point may cover other levels.
  • Sentences in the topic will naturally have other grammar points as well.
  • I did learn something new today, or at least makes me strongly notice.
  • As I go through a lot of small sentences ordered grammatically, it might be more worthwhile than breaking down WaniKani Context Sentences (for now).

About background listening, I still look at the video from time-to-time, so sometimes I infer meaning from sound, and sometimes from writing (sometimes at vocabulary level, sometimes at Kanji level). It reminds me that I need to learn much more, as my listening is far far from sufficient. (Also, my reading speed can be improved.)

  • I was watching about heat-related illness and deaths, btw.
  • It does take my attention away from grammar, so I have to pause (once) as well.

Actually, I tried with LOOPERS first, but some of the sentences aren’t spoken. News is generally more interesting (for now), anyway.

I am still looking for easier, yet immersive, Japanese games (saw some above). Yet, limited mostly by – the price tag.

I read aloud 童話, progressed in another topic, which I really plan to do everyday. I generally take about 50-100% longer than the native audio.


I will progress in the newer topic tomorrow :beach_umbrella: :sunny: :sunglasses:

Also, next week will be busier than this week; so I have to seize the opportunity, and get into habits.

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Home post

It’s been a while since I posted, but I thought it would be nice to sum up the spring challenge, as the new summer one starts tomorrow and I’ve already read something today.
Because of uni’s stuff I put off the reading challenge since around the middle of May. Because of that I decided to include the last days of June as well, since I had some time to come back to reading before the start of July.

Overall I’ve been doing the challenge for 44 days, during which I’ve been reading mostly 博士の愛した数式, but also others books, as well as manga and some articles for a change.
It’s something that I noticed in my readings habits in general some time ago, but I can’t focus on one thing only. :sweat_smile:
That thing aside, the challenge has been a tremendous help for me to work on my systematicy. Seeing the gradual increase in number of read pages has been a huge motivation to keep going. Although I wasn’t reading that much in each day, after a few ones the progress was visible. I’ll definetely continue the challenge in the summer, starting tomorrow!

Summary of what I managed to read during the Spring Challenge
  1. Books:
  • 博士の愛した数式 (5-65%) ~151 pages
  • 失はれる物語 (1-6%) ~26 pages
  • 走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること (1-5%) ~12 pages
  1. Manga:
  • 聲の形 #5 (47-100%)
  1. 8 articles on different topics
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