📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2022 🏖 ☀

july 3 :sunflower: home post

Reading a little bit of everything today.

  • Read a page of 夜カフェ (ignore my natively activity for that one, i’d forgotten to update last time i read so it looks like i read a lot more today than i actually did)
  • Read a chapter and a half of 極主夫道
  • And then I read Satori Reader for the first time in a while! I only read one section of Koibito, but it was very informative since not only did the story use one of my WK leeches, but it had an entire note about the usage of that word!
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Home

I did not get very much sleep last night. Someone in the neighborhood was blaring their music well past midnight, plus there were still scattered fireworks even that late. And it was the 2nd! It’s not even the 4th yet! Oh, god, it’s gonna be more of the same tonight, isn’t it.

I read the preview of 青春サプリ。自分がここにいる理由, a club activities short story collection that Kabei Yukako recced on twitter, as the second story is about the Fukui HS boys’ VBC relief server (I think? I can’t find the tweet again to check…). 青春サプリ。seems to be a series of true short story collections written for elementary/middle schoolers, though so far most of the characters are high schoolers. So it’s easier than what I usually read, but not overly so, and there’s a lot of furigana without everything having it. It also has definitions for some of the jargon (like 仮入部 and ビブス), which is cool, especially if any of the other stories use ones that I don’t know already. I also read the preview of a couple others in the series, 好きだから負けたくない and 乗り越えられない試練なんてない. I don’t know if I’ll end up getting every book in the series, but it is certainly a series I’m interested in!

I read about 2 pages of 明日をくれた君に, leaving off on page 54. I’m now more than a fifth of the way through the novel!

Some vocab of note:

兼任 (けんにん) [noun, する verb (他)] serving concurrently as; holding the additional post of
早鐘を打つ (はやがねをうつ) [expression, タ五] to beat fast (of a heart); to hammer. Literally “to strike the alarm bell.”
指折り (ゆびおり) [noun] leading; prominent; eminent; foremost; distinguished
怒号 (どごう) [noun, する verb (自)] angry roar; bellow
渾身 (こんしん) [noun] (using) one’s whole body; (putting in) all one’s efforts; (exerting) all one’s energies. Usually as “渾身の~.”
年度 (ねんど) [noun, suffix] fiscal year. academic year; school year.
敵視 (てきし) [noun, する verb (他)] looking upon (someone) as an enemy; regarding as an enemy; being hostile toward
致し方ない (いたしかたない) [expression, い-adj., 謙譲語] there’s no (other) way; cannot be helped; unavoidable; inevitable; (there’s) nothing one can do; having no choice. The humble version of 仕方がない.

And I am really tired, my lack of sleep has caught up to me, it’s not even 7:00 but I can barely keep my eyes open or remain sitting upright, and as there’s not currently any loud music or anything outside, I’m turning in early. Dunno if I’ll actually fall asleep early or not though. I’ll update later/tomorrow with the vocab, and also if I end up reading any more.

Update: I did not end up reading any more, though it took me until like 9:00 or later to fall asleep, because of course it did.

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Home post

REDC
Week 1
:confetti_ball: 1 0 0 % :confetti_ball:

July 3
Final Fantasy 7: 1h 40m.


:tada: Week 1 completed :tada:

Work done:

Video games
    Final Fantasy 7 -> 3h 55 min.


Total reading time: 3h 55 min.

In previous challenges I had my reservations about tracking time because I thought it would add unnecessary pressure, but I’m discovering that on the contrary, when I see what I’ve done in total at the end of the week, it seems to be highly motivating, especially now with the weekly planning. It’s only been three days but I’m already excited about reaching the end of the week and summing up everything that I’ve done, really feels like I’ve done something. It reminds me of when I was reading 君の名は about an hour a day and I had a nice feeling of accomplishment.

This is mainly what I wanted to achieve with dividing the two months in small chunks. Tomorrow I’m starting fresh with the mentality of completing seven days, and nothing else. These Sunday reflections feel like giving an end to something and moving on to another thing. Perhaps I’m starting to discover how my brain likes to work :smile: about time, really… But anyways, it’s way too early to judge anything at all, I’m mostly just guessing. I’ll be on the watch for potential burnout as always.

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:house_with_garden: Home post :house_with_garden:

:four_leaf_clover::sunny: Days 1, 2, 3, & 4 :sunny::four_leaf_clover:

I read and translated the last couple chapters of よつばと! volume 1 which I started during the last challenge. It’s my first completed manga volume :upside_down_face: I also read the first two chapters of volume 2 just now (but didn’t transcribe or translate them yet) and found my unaided comprehension way higher than when I started out in January:)

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Would subtitles still be hidden if you select Japanese as one of your subtitle languages? My account gives me the option to not only choose what display language I want but what language(s) I want to see subtitles in. So I had Spanish, Japanese and Korean in addition to English selected and I have been seeing some of my shows with the option for Japanese subtitles.

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:question: I don’t know to specifically do this one, but if there is already a Japanese subtitle, there is only one thing to do…


Jul 4, Mon of Week 2 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Planning and results

Thinking back about the last week, there are some things I want to keep in mind.

  • How about finding an easier novel, or non-fiction “books”? Although I don’t exactly give up on Night Cafe, I don’t feel like I understand enough.
  • I need to learn grammar more deeply and remember well in advance. Although there might be less beginner level grammar points that vocabularies; they are usually harder to look up (with Bunpro or Renshuu search engines). Also, what about unlisted nuances or weird Kana/conjugations?
  • Mangas also have different ways to be difficult – vocabularies, Kanji, grammar/language?
    • I try to approach both volumes-to-volumes and natural learning materials.
  • Most useful dictionaries aren’t offline in the app. I find online entries in Goo to be more useful. From time-to-time, I really have to Google; and there are many websites dedicated to explanation; usually in Japanese language.

  • Reading
    • 1 volume of manga
      • Finished JoJo Part 2 Vol.3/4 monochrome
      • Finished 進撃の巨人 Vol.1
    • Death Note Vol.3 Ch.20 ( 先手(せんて) )
    • (Finished) 進撃の巨人 Vol.1 Ch.4
    • Extra reading
      • (Finished) JoJo Part 2 Vol.3/4 monochrome
        • Solitary Caesar arc (from 2/6 to 6/6)
        • Lead-in to Wham! arc (1 chap) + Wham! arc (2 chap)
      • SHADOWS HOUSE Vol.1 (from 34%)
      • SPY x FAMILY Vol.1 Ch.2+ (re-reading)
      • うらら迷路帳 Vol.1 (from 21%)
      • A chapter of Night Cafe (or any novel)
        • (Finished) Night Cafe Vol.1 Ch.12+
  • Unplanned extra materials
    • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.2+
    • Chain Saw Man Vol.1 (3 chaps, 51%)
Fonts / Pictorial differences
教科書体 Actual text
:beach_umbrella:
第2週目 4前 :bookmark: 5 :man_playing_handball: 6 :closed_book: 7 8 9 10

Today’s progress

Today, I listened and read aloud to 佐々木小次郎ツバメ返し, where I find vocabularies and Kanji a little more difficult today.

The story is from 福井県, and said to be a few years before the actual fight.

It's about this guys, who share the names in Japanese version


Vocabularies that caught my eyes.
  • 弟子入り – で.し.いり apprenticeship
  • 根負け – こん.まけ beaten down by persistence
  • 小間使い – こ.ま.つかい maid (servent of the master, I think)
  • 腰に差す – こし.に.さす to hold (a sword) at the waist
  • 武者修業 – む.しゃ.しゅ.ぎょう samurai drill (exercise)
  • I confused (わざ) and (えだ)
  • There must be more misleading Kanji ones. I should have let Yomichan add to Anki.
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If that’s an option now it probably fixes the issue I had been working around, which @omk3 gave a reasonable explanation for. My partner will be delighted to know we can switch Netflix back to English :joy:

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:green_heart: July 3rd :green_heart:

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険18

28 - 69 + 30

I was too unfocused last night :sweat_smile: I got excited because I offered to buy a set of goods and split them with people for a deal. People replied really quickly positively. I ended up just fiddling/pacing unnecessarily past 1am because of getting nervous excited. I ended up nodding off a couple of times while reading so late consequently, but I was so close to the end of the fight that I wanted to finish. The end of the fight felt much shorter than the anime, I’m pretty sure they lengthened this one.

Edit: I realize I also read 30 pages of a doujin.

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I did not realize that’s what that is. I need to buy some now :running_man:

Surprisingly, it doesn’t taste awful. Gatorade without the flavoring imo

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:thinking: preventing the whole thing from falling if a cat jumps onto it? :smile_cat:

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:spiral_calendar: Day 3: July 3rd :ocean::surfing_man:

spacer:tangerine: orange Volume 1 (10% ➨ 29%)
           I made a mistake and read two book club weeks worth on this one. Looks like I’m taking a break from it for a couple of weeks!

spacer:rabbit2: ご注文はうさぎですか? Complete Blend Volume 1 (40% ➨ 41%)

🎀 ふだつきのキョーコちゃん Volume 1 (20% ➨ 37%)


As is often the case in manga/anime, Kenji has the usual back window seat.

image image
From chapter one to two, Hibino’s starting to transition to the bushy eyebrows seen in other series.

It seems this series started publishing in 2013 (September) shortly after 「からかい上手の高木さん」 (July). The latter had its art style slowly change through 2015. I wonder if the same was true for 「ふだつきのキョーコちゃん」.

Whether I make it far enough to find out depends on how much the series leans into the things that I don’t care for in here (“angry” character + “sharp teeth” character design), which are probably going to be a common story beat.

spacer:girl: からかい上手の(元)高木さん Volume 4 (91% ➨ 100%)

🥷🏻 くノ一ツバキの胸の内 Volume 1 (50% ➨ 64%)

Coincidences can be funny at times.

Tsubaki’s design often reminds me of Yucie from ぷちぷり*ユーシィ, so my internal voice for Tsubaki is Yucie’s voice. And one episode of ぷちぷり*ユーシィ, Yucie is babysitting a pet named Mokurin.

Then, in Tsubaki, although not quite the same name, there’s a character named Mokuren.

image

This has the unfortunate side-effect of me “hearing” her name pronounced incorrectly anytime Tsubaki says it…

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July 3 :blossom: Home Post

Well I went a little wild; I didn’t start reading until pretty late and so really had no reason to read an entire chapter of 海辺(うみべ)のカフカ, and yet :laughing: So yeah I read chapter 13 to finish up this week’s reading, which was almost 30 pages in about two hours? While trying to not fall asleep toward the end lmao, what a feat :joy: That also puts me at the halfway mark, we’re getting there! チェズレイ prepared me a bit for all the music talk haha. It was pretty smooth sailing overall, some bits of philosophical/literary stuff that was a little tougher, but generally far smoother than the keigo letter for sure. So yeah, not a bad day’s work!

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:house:
4th of June

I stayed up until 1am finishing a novel in English last night, woke up before 7am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I spent the day more groggy and unmotivated than usual. I only managed to read page 74 and 75 of かがみの孤城 (20 – 21%).

Tomorrow I’ll be spending the entire day studying in the state library, so needless to say I will be crashing early tonight!

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I really enjoyed the Winter reading challenge when I took part, and then entirely side-stepped the Spring one so coming back for Summer! Starting on the 4th July due to the JLPT yesterday. :sparkles:

Jul
01 x 02 x 03 x
04 ⍟ 05 ⍟ 06 ⍟ 07 ○ 08 ○ 09 ○ 10 ○
11 ○ 12 ○ 13 ○ 14 ○ 15 ○ 16 ○ 17 ○
18 ○ 19 ○ 20 ○ 21 ○ 22 ○ 23 ○ 24 ○
25 ○ 26 ○ 27 ○ 28 ○ 29 ○ 30 ○ 31 ○
Aug
01 ○ 02 ○ 03 ○ 04 ○ 05 ○ 06 ○ 07 ○
08 ○ 09 ○ 10 ○ 11 ○ 12 ○ 13 ○ 14 ○
15 ○ 16 ○ 17 ○ 18 ○ 19 ○ 20 ○ 21 ○
22 ○ 23 ○ 24 ○ 25 ○ 26 ○ 27 ○ 28 ○
29 ○ 30 ○ 31 ○
Reading Plans

I’m pretty much going to keep my target from winter which was a single page of anything a day, unless I can read the page without looking anything up, in which case I have to keep going until I hit something unfamiliar.

I wanted to make serious progress through よつばと! in winter but got completely distracted finishing off レンタルおにいちゃん and starting カードキャプターさくらクリアカード so I might use よつばと! as an easier starting point and then see where the summer takes me.

July Reading

4/7/22: NHK Easy News
5/7/22: 5分後に意外な結末 「バス停」
6/7/22: よつばと! Vol.2, Ch.8

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I feel that :smiling_face_with_tear: I also just noticed that the book club is already on week 6. Where did all the time go?

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10 more pages of よつばと! this morning; now up to page 65.

Am also reading Murakami in English at the moment (1Q84) - doesn’t count, I know, but seems worth mentioning. I think it’s unlikely I’ll ever read Murakami in Japanese, but as a literature teacher who is also interested in Japan, it seems necessary to keep up with him. I have a vague desire to develop a Japanese literature course, although I’m not sure I’d put him on it. I used to teach Yoshimoto’s Kitchen in a few different courses. I’m wondering if there are any other literature teachers on here - if so, have you ever taught Japanese novels (translated into your native language) and would you recommend them?

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:tiger2: :books: The Tanuki Beach Resort: Date 20220704 :beach_umbrella: :raccoon:

No Longer Tanuki Progress: 70.68%

Surprised that, even this far into the novel, there’s still a good bunch of new words each time (and that’s not counting the ones I’ve forgotten).

:beach_umbrella: Japanese found in the sand :beach_umbrella:

Learnthings

無頼漢「ぶらいかん」ー Ruffian; scoundrel
襦袢「じゅばん」ー Kimono undershirt
足音「あしおと」ー (the sound of) footsteps; sense or sign that something is approaching
白兎「しろうさぎ」ー White rabbit
慎ましい「つつましい」ー Modest; humble; reserved
竹箆「しっぺい」ー Bamboo stick used in Zen Buddhism to strike meditators so they can reach greater wakefulness
大義名分「たいぎめいぶん」ー Just cause; good reason; justification
図々しい「ずうずうしい」ー Shameless; impudent; audacious

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:sunny: :beach_umbrella: Memoria’s Summer Readin’ :beach: :sunny:

Day 4:

Suuuper quick one today. I just got back from work an hour ago, and I’m gonna go look at an apartment soon (!!!). I don’t have a lot of time, but I read 10 pages of ピーチガール just now. It was a really smooth read, and it even felt like I understood most of the jokes. Anyway, I’m off!! Have fun reading today, everyone :sunny:

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July 4th!

Today I finished the Chapter of Mitsuboshi Colors that I started yesterday, and then also read the first half of the first chapter of Orange, since thats the amount the bookclub is reading this week.
I’m really excited to be starting Orange, its been on my to read list for ages.

I’ve also been playing a bit of Pokemon Legends: Arceus today, but mostly running around in fields catching pokemon and doing the odd side quest rather than any of the more text intensive story bits!

(Home Post)

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Jul
01 02 03
04 05 06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Aug
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31

I continued reading in my graded reader today. Doing a chapter a day for now, and I have 12 chapters left. Then I will have to find something new to read. :blush:

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