📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 🍁🍂

:snowflake: :christmas_tree: December 24th :christmas_tree: :snowflake: (Home Post Link)

Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays, everyone! :santa: :christmas_tree:

I ended up spending about 5 hours playing through Emily is Away <3 instead of doing a lot of studying today, and man that was a real nostalgia trip.

semi spoilery/rambly thoughts

I was in high school during that whole “fb official” relationship era back when young people weren’t (rightly) scared of having all this public facing info so that part really hit home, and then I especially appreciated a lot of the music in the playlists. It’s not the best music from that time period, but if you were a “hip” kid hanging out on youtube in the late 2000s/early 2010s, this is absolutely the stuff you were listening to (actually audibly cracked up being reminded of hollywood undead :upside_down_face:).

Making lil playlists to send to people might be a lost art now, I think, but it’s definitely something my friends and I did a lot of. I also never thought I’d get another chance to have a fun poke war in between sending messages with no looming guilt for using the panoptic tool for misinformation spreading that facebook/insta/meta has become again. (Although, even in the game, I couldn’t escape japanese entirely, Bad Apple!! shows up on their fake version of youtube with some japanese comments :joy: )

It really was a different era of the internet, no doubt about that, and this game captured that snapshot of time super well. It might only really impact people within specifically like a 5-6 year age range who grew up in a particular culture, but, hey, I am exactly the target audience here, and so it did.

Then I was still waxing nostalgic so I went and played piano for a while, dug out the some of the songs I learned back in high school and had a nice lil trip down memory lane.

But hey, it’s holiday time! Even I deserve to take it a lil easy sometimes! …but I still did a little bit of studying anyway

Read:

Good Words

NHK
気象庁「きしょうちょう」ー Japanese Meteorological Agency
滑る「すべる」ー to slide, to glide

ホリミヤ
退屈「たいくつ」ー boring, dull, tedious
醜い「みにくい」ー ugly, unsightly, shameful
こげ ー scorch, burn (黒こげ describing カップケーキ)

Replies

For some reason I remembered 2.43 being in hokkaido (I only watched the first episode or two, and I mostly remember a lot of snow, so that might be it), but nope! Nice to see more and more of these little connections popping up, really feels like my web of cultural knowledge is starting to get more dense. I was sorta wondering if there were any good examples of this dialect in anime/manga/books/movies but you answered my question before I even asked! I’ll give it another shot at some point and see if I can pick up on the fukuiben

ohoohoho this looks excellent (eventually), thank you for sharing :eyes:

18 Likes

December 24th

Today I read Chapter 36 of Happiness. Not sure why the mangaka chose to name it “Happiness” though, its consistently pretty harrowing to be honest :sweat_smile:

(Home Post)

18 Likes

But he looks so cool!

Also, no idea what kind of dog he’s supposed to be. The story’s fun though.

15 Likes

I immediately think of an Samoyed (サモエド)…
image
image

They’re big floofers. I see them around sometimes and it appears they’re around in Japan as well

14 Likes

Overshot this week’s schedule with my two favourite book clubs this week.

24/12 32 pages シャドーハウス (both chapters, didn’t count blank pages as reading, then started next chapter; skimmed another 16 pages)
31 pages Spy Family (whole mission) plus 9 pages next

I was already thinking I may read ahead with シャードホウス, and with the break coming up and an intriguing point in the story I’ve basically done this. The extra bits I’ve read have answered a few of the overarching questions in the story but possibly posed more.

I read a few extra pages of Spy Family but probably will pause now till next week, and read the other clubs instead.

18 Likes

Home post :bookmark: // :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf: Dec 24 :snowman_with_snow::christmas_tree:

・ 封印再度 (21% → 25%)

Slowly reading along. Today’s a new book club week. Still a few pages left from previous week. I’ve watched a lot of JP content instead. I don’t think I’ll recover from falling into vtuber rabbit hole from during exam time. I kinda like it here actually

help

20 Likes

2022-12-25T03:00:00Z

It’s just an hour early for my time zone but Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

20 Likes

he is a very good boi, the best boi even (yeah he’s probably a samoyed)

edit: oh! the wiki says he might be a Pyrenean Mountain Dog - Wikipedia, maybe some sort of mix?

14 Likes

There are even some short stories on the 2.43 official website (might have to poke around a bit, I found some in a few different places) to read—there’s even one that briefly features the dinos at Fukui Station!—as well as mini anime (including a 福井弁講座 series) and short audio dramas, though you may need to be somewhat familiar with the characters first. There are three novels currently with the fourth in the middle of serialization online. If you like dramas and character-driven stories, you might like it, and the novels are a lot better than the anime (though it’s still my favorite anime despite its flaws lol)

10 Likes

Home

Since my family’s German, we actually celebrate xmas on the evening of the 24th, so I’ve already opened presents! It was mostly books, of course, and most of those English novels, although I did get a couple relating to learning Japanese and Japanese culture, and Amazon US actually had 魔女の宅急便 pretty cheap so I put that on my list and got it too!

Picture below:

image

From top to bottom, I got:

  • 魔女の宅急便 by 角野栄子
  • Star Trek: Section 31: Control by David Mack
  • The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore by Michael Dylan Foster, with original illustrations by Shinonome Kijin
  • Sensing Strange and Twisted Travels by M. Kuriel
  • The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
  • The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Characters by Christopher Seeley and Kenneth G. Henshall, with Jiageng Fan
  • a genkouyoushi notebook, which is a lot bigger than expected, which I guess makes sense since they want to give you the room to write the kanji properly. I write tiny though, and actually have a tough time writing big, so we’ll see how this works out.

There’s one more on the way, Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You by Jay Rubin, which has apparently been delayed due to the weather. As long as it does get here eventually though, I don’t mind.

Yeah I just went through my Amazon wishlists and threw some books (plus two movies, Dragonslayer (1981) and The Last Unicorn (1982), figuring my mother might get mad if it was all books) that weren’t particularly expensive into a new list, absolutely not expecting to get everything, but then my dad just ordered everything off it, so. I mean, hey, I’m not complaining.

Anyway, today I read this week’s reading of 極主夫道, chapters 84-85. I also read like 2 pages of 夜カフェ. And then I got distracted by Six Four sitting there on my shelf, not even directly in my line of sight or anything, so I started reading that. This is, of course, the English copy that I picked up years ago when I wanted to start reading more mysteries but then never did. If I like it, I’ll be getting the original (and I’m only a couple chapters in, but it’s good so far). It’s cool though that the inside of the front cover has the cover image of the original:

Photo:

18 Likes

Love that book :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: My copy has a different cover though (two actually)

Covers


I like yours better :sweat_smile:

15 Likes

:frog: Home :phone:

December 23 and 24

人間椅子 -

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険59
23) 90 - 115
24) 116 - 133

SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE

😭

Finally read Abbacchio’s death and damn, I cried so much! I thought he was killed when ignoring the kids, but no, he was actually helping them! I was too worn out after that part to read more.

16 Likes

I forgot I was meaning to answer this: 現代小説

That site has absolutely horrible browsing, though. I know my way around purely from using it a ridiculous amount let’s not talk about how much money I spend on audiobooks…

edit: Also Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates :christmas_tree: :santa:

14 Likes

December 24 :maple_leaf: Home Post

Well I wanted to finish off the main series ブルーロック that I have before I started anything else, and with finishing volume 21 today I’ve now done that so :tada: uncertain where I’ll go from here, but I’m sure I’ll find some nonsense to get up to until the next BU$TAFELLOWS section :joy:

Also happy holidays to you all, I hope you’re having a wonderful time whatever it may entail! :blush:

Edit: I did end up doing one of the natively polls, I’ll throw it here in case any of you wanna give input, shameless promotion :joy: "What should I read next?" Megathread - #143 by natarin - Reading - Natively Forums

18 Likes

Home Post

Day 45 Progress:
お隣の天使様 四冊 - 88.00% → 98.89% 四冊完成!!!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and other assorted holidays!!

Actual hilarious reading today where it was obvious the author had written their relationship into a corner with 真昼まひる basically pulling an insane, unforeseen, and uncharacteristic stunt by practically confessing to あまね in front of the entire school, siccing practically the entire male student population on him, and then forcing him to deal with the consequences. I got the romantic development I wanted but I should know better by now than to expect something actually well-written and engaging…

Word of the Day: 剣呑けんのん - risky, dangerous, insecure. What could be more dangerous than trying to swallow a sword whole?

18 Likes

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I was too busy even posting in this thread. Until the new year I will read some manga and play some video games and visual novels in japanese. Yesterday I read 75 pages of Kiss X Sis volume 3.

There are way to many sales over the holidays in japan. I bought too much and my backlog grew ones again.

16 Likes

December 25th

:snowflake: :christmas_tree:Home post:christmas_tree::snowflake:

Card Captor Sakura volume 3 – progress report

Yesterday: Finished chapter 11 and 12, continued up until page 118.
Today: Finished chapter 13, continued up to page 158.

I played with the thought of finishing volume 3 today. After 40 pages, however, I felt exhausted and when liar-kun showed up, it put the final nail in the coffin and I decided to stop at that page. :melting_face:


Word or expression of the day:
ぎりぎり - just barely, only just, at the last moment

Honourable mention(s):
評判 - (ひょうばん) - fame, reputation; rumour, talk
よっぽど - very, greatly, much; just about to

18 Likes

Dec 25, Sun of Week 13 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

  • SPY x FAMILY Vol.4 Ch.19

A-nya is getting forced to be married ?

  • うたわれるもの

Resting time in a daze. I might hold back on some vocabulary genre.

Interesting words
  • はがす = to tear off. From ()がす (or ()がす, probably the first Kanji to know of having a different unicode form and then electronic dictionary failure)
  • ごまかす = to lie about. Kanji form is 誤魔化(ごまか)す.
  • ふりだし = starting point. From ()()し.
  • じゃれる(.) = to joke around
  • たたずむ = to stand still. Kanji form is (たたず)む.
  • はしゃぐ = to be merry. Kanji form is (はしゃ)ぐ.
  • めっぽう = extraordinarily. Kanji form is 滅法(めっぽう).
  • たわいのない = absurd. Kanji form is 他愛(たわい)()い, where the particle might be different or dropped.
  • (こう) = name suffix, of a lord?
  • (しゅうとめ) = mother-in-law. From (しゅうと) + () (乙女(おとめ))?     嫁姑(よめしゅうとめ) later on in context.
  • ()ぶ = to jump; to leap (rather than, to fly = ()ぶ)
  • ()らす= to focus on
  • (いろ)っぽい = voluptuous. Probably like 色気(いろけ) in the same context just before.
  • きな(くさ)い = smelling burnt. Probably from incense in this case.
  • 門構(もんがま)え = style of a gate. Also means gate radical.
  • 風情(ふぜい) = elegance; charm. Also means, the likes of, as posted before.
  • 品定(しなさだ)め = evaluation; commenting on
  • 手筈(てはず) = arrangements. It’s the same はず as in grammar points.
  • 緑豊(みどりゆた)か = lushly green
  • 浮上(ふじょう) = rising to the surface
  • 頓挫(とんざ) = deadlock
  • 鑑識(かんしき) = discernment
  • 充当(じゅうとう) = allocation
  • 主賓(しゅひん) = guest of honor
  • 野菊(のぎく) = wild chrysanthemum
  • 硬直(こうちょく) = stiffening
  • 成敗(せいばい) = delivering punishment / judgement
  • 身代(みが)わり = substitute; scapegoat
  • 湯船(ゆぶね) = bathtub
  • 浴槽(よくそう) = bathtub
  • 大浴場(だいよくじょう) = large bathroom with a large bath (in a hot spring resort)
  • 水鉄砲(みずでっぽう) = water gun. I have seen this one only in full Kana before, in Pokemon.
  • 無理心中(むりしんじゅう) = forced double suicide; murdering loved ones, followed by suicide. Base vocabulary is 心中(しんじゅう) = Shinjū - Wikipedia = double suicide. As a proper word, I find this one easier to be remembered in Romaji.
  • 一件落着(いっけんらくちゃく) = a case being settled. It’s all Kana in context, because A-nya
  • 一部始終(いちぶしじゅう) = from beginning to end; the whole account
  • 禁断症状(きんだんしょうじょう) = withdrawal symptoms
  • 異国情緒(いこくじょうちょ) = exotic atmosphere.
  • ()ちくたびれる = to get tired of waiting. The latter part’s Kanji form is 草臥(くたび)れる.
  • ()()める = to keep in mind
  • 墓穴(ぼけつ)()る = to dig your own grave. First vocabulary is all On readings (墓穴(ぼけつ)), which I don’t know of second Kanji ((あな)).
  • (きびす)(かえ)す = to turn on one’s heel; to turn back. The first Kanji has Furigana, but I only knew of (かかと) before.
  • 切羽詰(せっぱつ)まる = to be at one’s wits’ end
  • 一糸(いっし)まとわぬ = stark naked. 一糸(いっし)(まと)わぬ in context.
  • 一風変(いっぷうか)わった = unconventional

SFX

  • ジャバジャバ = some splish-splash?
  • ちゃぷちゃぷ = splish-splash
  • なみなみ = filled to the brim
  • ぷるぷる = trembling
  • ぱぱっと = quickly (of movement)
  • キョロキョロ = looking around restlessly
  • おろおろ = in bewilderment; trembling (voice)
  • もうもう = thick (fog). Also written as 朦々(もうもう) in the same context.

Kanji

  • (ケイ) (頚)

    • neck part; cervical part
    • 頸部(けいぶ),     頸椎(けいつい),     頸動脈(けいどうみゃく),     斜頸(しゃけい)
    • 子宮頸癌(しきゅうけいがん),     刎頸(ふんけい)(まじ)わり
    • 頸木(くびき),     喉頸(のどくび)
  • (トン)

    • stopping for a while
    • Radicals: (とん), Level 28
    • 頓着(とんちゃく)しない,     頓挫(とんざ)
  • ()

    • crushed; bruised
      • 捻挫(ねんざ),     挫傷(ざしょう)
      • 頓挫(とんざ)
    • let down
      • (くじ)ける,     (くじ)
      • 挫折(ざせつ)
17 Likes

:maple_leaf: :jack_o_lantern: :snowflake: :christmas_tree: December 25 :christmas_tree: :snowflake: :jack_o_lantern: :maple_leaf:
Home Post

神さまがまちガえる :shinto_shrine:

I’m glad December is an off month, because I keep missing a lot of days because Christmas. Even the UK trip was partly to take in Christmas in London.

Anyhow, I read 1,5 chapter of Kamisama today, and I will probably finish the last two chapters (or close) tomorrow, to finish off all the in progress things I can before the new year. I’m leaving Bustafellows chapter 1 for some high paced reading after that to keep up, but what can I do?

Hopefully I’ll read better during my next busy period which covers most of the first half of January. O_O


ALL THE REPLIES!

I see! Sorry for the late reply! :sweat_smile: I totally get that.

I’ve gotten to a stage with Japanese were reading a random NHK easy news article doesn’t feel like sitting down to read, so I didn’t note that some time in the last month when I had a zero day. :woman_shrugging: I guess I care more about intentional reading? So if I wasn’t in so many good books/VNs right now, I’d probably take a pause posting. Although my current consistency still means I lack posts a lot of days so the difference would be minimal? :crazy_face:

M-m-more? :face_with_spiral_eyes:

:joy:

Too true. :pensive:

I’m so glad! Now, I just need to find time to read it too. :joy:

I knew Sweden wasn’t the only place, but it had to be said. Let’s be weird together!

Sounds like you had a fun day. :smiley:

Best Christmas present, fite me!

16 Likes

:snowflake: :christmas_tree: December 25th :christmas_tree: :snowflake: (Home Post Link)

Merry Christmas everyone!

I did some reading while we were waiting for everyone to wake up and get moving, but I was sitting downstairs with coffee and some breakfast, so I couldn’t do as many look-ups as I normally would. Surprisingly, I don’t think there was all that much I really needed to anyway!

Read:

  • ホリミヤ chapters 37 and 38
  • I will do a quick NHK later but god I need a nap first
  • woke up and watched an episode of 宇宙よりも遠い場所 w jp subs just to see how hard it was. Technical terms went by really fast, but I did get a few words and understood a lot more than I expected!
  • NHK News Web Easy: 政府 原子力発電所についてのきくえる - barely read this as I was passing out but thankfully mostly had words i’ve already seen :yawning_face: bed time
Good Words

ホリミヤ
凹む「へこむ」ー to be dented; to give in; to feel down (omg it’s just a box w a dent :joy: )

よりもい
ざまみろ ー sort of like “just you watch!” “serves you right!”
どうぞ ー gets used at the end of radio transmissions, kind of like “over” in english
南極「なんきょく」ー Antarctica (just a cool kanji idk if you could make it through the show without picking this one up :laughing: )

NHK
原発「げんぱつ」ー nuclear power
原子力発電所 「げんしりょくはつでんしょ」ー nuclear power plant (quite a mouthful)
国会「こっかい」ー national diet

Replies & Christmas Books!

Book buddieeees!

No japanese books for me this christmas, but I did get some gift cards that will inevitably end up going towards those :sweat_smile: I want to wait to finish the N3 新完全マスター reading book I had before getting the n2 book, but that is probably an early goal for me in the next reading challenge. I’m sure I can find enough japanese books/movies/reference/textbooks on amazon to spend a gift card on

I really like reading the translated versions of eizouken because the translator notes in the back are so dense for all the little visual gags/references, but they come out super slowly. I think it’s only about one volume a year, and it usually happens to line up with christmas for me. Then a nice piano score book, a a music psychology book, and some fun shoujo romance they found for me on a whim (if I like this, i’ll probably pick it up in japanese for the rest of it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5TqeS9ATo

If you want a good way to remember this one, it’s the title/prominent in the lyrics of the season 3 kaguya love is war opening :blush: I’m physically incapable of reading ぎりぎり and not hearing Masayuki Suzuki’s voice

21 Likes