📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2023 ☃❄

:raccoon: :books: The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den :snowflake: :raccoon:

February 19th
新書太閣記 progress: 10.95% // Volume II: 25.39% :japanese_castle:

Today’s dilemma: when you don’t have much time to commit to reading but the story gets exciting.

Words found under the kotatsu

羽振り「はぶり」ー Influence; power
深傷「ふかで」ー Major wound
浅傷「あさで」ー Minor wound

Character Name List

Probably some spoilers, but this is a historic novel, so can spoilers really exist for things that have (for the most part) actually happened :thinking:

Volume I: 1535 - 1555

日吉「ひよし」- Hideyoshi (as child)
Nicknames: 猿「さる」/ 針売り「はりうり」
Name serving Nobunaga: 木下 藤吉郎「きのした とうきちろう」

Family
木下弥右衛門「きのした やえもん」- Father
– – 乙若「おとわか」- Old friend (serves under 織田)
筑阿弥「ちくあみ」ー Step-father
大政所「おおまんどころ」// also お奈加「おなか」ー Mother
おつみ - Older sister
小竹「こちく」- Baby brother
加藤清正「かとう きよまさ」// also 弾正「だんじょう」- Ojisan (only distantly related (before marriage))
– Married to: おえつ (sister of お奈加)

Friends & Acquaintances
仁王「におう」- Big kid friend
於福「おふく」(Nickname - full name: 福太郎「ふくたろ」) // 楊景福「ようけいふく」(Chinese name/birth name) - Timid kid friend (older than Hideyoshi)
– 五郎大夫 「ごろ だゆう」// 祥瑞「しょうずい」(Chinese name) - Father
– 梨琴「りきん」- Mother
捨次郎「すてじろう」- Previous servant to 五郎, later the adoptive father of 於福, and owner of a tea ware shop - and employer of, and master to, Hideyoshi

Hachisuka Clan
蜂須賀小六「はちすか ころく」(also 正勝 「まさかつ」) - Head of the Hachisuka clan
– 七内「なない」- Younger brother
– Married to 松波「まつなみ」
– – 亀一「かめいち」- Son

Retainers:
稲田大炊助「いなだ おおいのすけ]
青山新七「あおやま しんしち」
長井半之丞「ながい はんのじょう」
松原内匠「まつばら たくみ」

Others:
国吉「くによし」- Gunsmith/blacksmith
渡辺天蔵「わたなべ てんぞう」- Deserter - Nobushi (Nephew to Koroku)
難波内記「なんば ないき」- Spy disguised as a Komuso
仁田彦十「にった ひこじゅう」- Subordinate

(蜂須賀正利「はちすか まさとし」- previous head of the Hachisuka clan)

Saito Clan
((questionable) Alliance with the Hachisuka clan)
斎藤 道三「さいとう どうさん」- Head of the Saito clan
– 斎藤義龍「さいとう よしたつ」(also: 高政「たかまさ」) - Son

明智 光秀「あけち みつひで」(common name: 十兵衛「じゅうべい」) - serves under Dosan
– 又市「またいち」- Underling / foot soldier

堀田 道空「ほった どうくう」- Chief retainer
弥平治光春「やへいじ みつはら」- Retainer (cousin to Jyubei)
– 明智光安「あけち みつやす」- Father
春日丹後「かすが たんご」- Military commander

Oda Clan
織田 信長「おだ のぶなが」- Leader of the Oda clan (Married to the daughter of Saito Dosan)
– 卯月「うづき」- Nobunaga’s faithful, old horse :horse:
– 織田信秀「おだ のぶひで」- Father and previous leader of the Oda clan
– – 織田与三郎「おだ よさぶろう」- Younger brother
– – 織田信行「おだ のぶかつ」(Other name: 信成「のぶなり」) - Son (half-brother to Nobunaga (different mother))

Retainers (Under Nobuhide rule):
平手 政秀「ひらて まさひで」
– 五郎左衛門「ごろうざえもん」(nickname: 五郎左「ごろうざ」) - First son
– 監物「けんもつ」- Second son
– 甚左衛門「じんざえもん」- Third son
– 雨宮勘解由「あめみや かげゆ」- Servant
林 秀貞「はやし ひでさだ」(common name: 新五郎「しんごろ」/ nickname: 佐渡「さどう」) (served under Nobunaga too)
– 美作守「みまさかのかみ」- Younger brother
青山 信昌「あおやま のぶまさ」(common name: 与三右衛門「よそうえもん」)
内藤 勝介「ないとう しょうすけ / かつすけ」

Retainers (Under Nobunaga rule):
柴田勝家「しばた かついえ」(Nickname: 権六「ごんろく」)

Others:
市川大介「いちかわ だいすけ」- Archery master/instructor
平田三位「ひらた さんみ」- Master of military strategy
浅野又右衛門「あさの またえもん」- Military commander
– 寧子「ねね」- Daughter
がんまく - Former worker/servant, friend of Hideyoshi

Shiba Clan
斯波義統「しば よしむね」- Head of the Shiba clan, at Kiyosu castle
– 斯波義銀「しば よしかね」- Son

Imagawa Clan
今川義元「いまがわ よしもと」- Daimyo

Retainers:
松下之綱「まつした ゆきつな」(common name: 加兵衛「かへい」)
飯尾豊前「いのお ぶぜん」
多賀能八郎「たがのう はしろう」(nickname: 能八「のうはち」)

Takeda Clan
太郎義信「たけだ よしのぶ」- Commander
(Married to the daughter of Imagawa Yoshimoto to tie the clans)

Non-affiliated
上泉 信綱「かみいずみ のぶつな」(also: 上泉 伊勢守「かみいずみ いせのかみ」) - Founder of the 新陰流「しんかげりゅう」school of Kenjutsu
– 疋田小伯「ひきた しょうはく」- Disciple
– 神後五六郎「かんご ごろくろう」- Disciple

塚原 卜伝「つかはら ぼくでん」- Kensei; legendary swordsman

Historical People
  • 阿倍仲麻呂「あべ の なかまろ」ー Japanese scholar & poet (700s)

  • 白楽天「はく きょい」ー Chinese poet (Bai Juyi / Bo Juyi) also known as: 白楽天「はく らくてん」in Japan. (Late 700s)

  • 道元「どうげん」(or 道元禅師「どうげん ぜんじ」ー Japanese Buddhist Priest, writer & poet (also known as 栄西禅師「えいさい ぜんじ」) (Early / mid 1200s)

  • 空海「くうかい」ー The one and only Kukai or Kobo Daishi - a Buddhist monk. Posthumously given the title of: 弘法大師「こうぼう だいし」born as: 佐伯 眞魚「さえき の まお」(late 700s / early 800s)

  • 源頼政「みなもと の よりまさ」ー Prominent poet and warrior (1100s)

  • 平 重盛「たいら の しげもり」ー Military commander and court noble, claimed to be an ancestor of Oda Nobunaga (Mid-1100s)

  • 桓武(天皇)「かんむ(てんのう)」ー 50th Emperor of Japan, claimed to be an ancestor of Taira no Shigemori, thus ancestor to Oda Nobunaga (Mid-Late 700s)

Volume II: 1555 - 15??
(currently 1556)

Oda Clan
織田 信長「おだ のぶなが」- Head of the Oda clan
– 織田 信広「おだ のぶひろ」- Older brother
– 織田 信行「おだ のぶゆき」(also: 信勝「のぶかつ」) - Younger brother

木下 藤吉郎「きのした とうきちろう」- Hideyoshi
– 木股 権三「きまた ごんぞう」(Nickname: ごんぞ) - Servant

浅野 又右衛門「あさの またえもん」- Military commander
– 寧子「ねね」- Daughter
柴田 勝家「しばた かついえ」(nickname: 権六「ごんろく」) - Military Commander

山淵 右近「やまぶち うこん」- Magistrate
– 山淵 義遠「やまぶち よしとお」- Father (Chief Vassal)

Maeda Clan
前田 利家「まえだ としいえ」(childhood name: 犬千代「いぬちよ」) - Military commander

Saito Clan
斎藤 義龍「さいとう よしさつ」(also: 高政「たかまさ」) - Military commander
– 孫四郎「まごしろう」- Brother
– 喜平次「きへいじ」- Brother
– 斎藤 道三「さいとう どうさん」- Father

Akechi Clan
明智 光秀「あけち みつひで」(common name: 十兵衛「じゅうべい」) - Military Commander
明智 光安「あけち みつやす」- Military Commander and adoptive father of Jyubei
– 明智 秀満「あけち ひでみつ」- Son, and retainer to Jyubei

Imagawa Clan
今川 義元「いまがわ よしもと」- Daimyo

Takeda Clan
武田 信玄「たけだ しんげん」- Daimyo

Asakura Clan
朝倉 義景「あさくら よしかげ」- Daimyo

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:spiral_calendar: Day 49: February 18th :cloud_with_snow:

spacer:scream: 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 Volume 1 (0% ➨ 7%)

spacer:dragon_face: ルリドラゴン Volume 1 (0% ➨ 10%)

spacer:tangerine: orange Volume 7 (0% ➨ 7%)

🔍 名探偵コナン Volume 14 (9% ➨ 16%)

I always enjoy the cases where Ran suspects Conan is Shin’ichi.

image

spacer:sun_with_face: 夢みる太陽 Volume 5 (19% ➨ 36%)

A very productive-feeling Saturday!

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Home Post

:snowflake: Weeks 6 & 7 - Feb 6th to Feb 19th :snowflake:

I’ve been too busy to read much (or rather, so busy I’ve been too tired) and I’ve thus only read sporadically (a page here, a couple sentences there) but far from every day… シメジシミュレーション is cute and fun so far but reading with the vocab sheet and looking up kanji by radicals when I don’t have that on hand is quite cumbersome compared to the first few manga volumes I read at the start of the challenge:) I’ve deliberately let reading take a back seat to things like gaming and watching movies + anime with English subs in order to recharge after uni/teaching practice each day. To switch things up I’ve downloaded the audiobook of ハリーポッターと賢者(けんしゃ)(いし) with the intention of listening through it once (without worrying too much about my level of comprehension) before trying to read the book properly this summer (and listening to each chapter again after having read it). I’ve read the book in English 10-20 times over the past 20+ years (the series was my introduction to extensive reading in English and since the first book is so short I used to use it as a warmup before reading more difficult books in English whenever it had been a little while since I used the language) so even though the grammar and vocab will be beyond me, my familiarity with the content should carry me through the experience without too much pain :upside_down_face:

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February 19th!

Today I read Chapter 59 of Mitsuboshi Colors, and then the next 2 chapters of Orange.
I can’t believe this is the last volume of Orange already… I’m going to be sad when its over!
I’m considering reading the light novels soon after I finish the manga though, since I need more practise with reading prose, and doing it with a familiar story where I should already know the majority of the vocabulary seems like a good way to do that.

(Home Post)

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February 19th

:snowman: Home post :snowflake:

Card Captor Sakura volume 10 – progress report
Yesterday: Continued up to page 103, finished chapters 39 and 40.
Today: Read up to page 185, finished chapters 41 and 42 & volume 10. :tada:

I did finish volume 10 today but I don’t feel good at the moment and will add/edit my thoughts and words of the day at a later point.

Edit: I still don’t have much energy, so I’ll just add one sentence worth of impressions; the last two chapters were pretty wholesome and I liked seeing Sakura being cheerful again, including her treating Yukito as ‘family’.


––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Word or expression of the day:
こぼす - (零す) - to spill, to drop

Honourable mention(s):
下駄 - (げた) - Japanese wooden clogs
(now I know what that footwear often used with Kimonos or Yukatas looks like in its Kanji writing)

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:bookmark: Home post // Feb 19 :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake:

・薬屋のひとりごと3 (64% → 67%)

I spent all my eyes on studying today :durtle_megane: Fortunately, I had read a bit in the morning hehe :smirk_cat:

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:snowflake: Day 50, 19th of February :snowflake:

:open_book: Back to my Home Post

In today’s page, the two travelers go along the street for a long time without seeing anyone. Romano says something that I get the meaning of, but am clueless how the grammar works. There’s an い-Adjective that was negated but followed by a な and a と that I don’t know the purpose of. Is the と a conjuction or a quote? The な does not indicate a な-Adjective, because they’re conjugated differently.

In any case, the two ready their weapons.

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February 19th (Day 50) :snowflake: :cat2:

Home post :books:

1Q84 Book 1 前編 (82 - 84%)

Just a very small read today, too tired to do any more :melting_face: Gotta say though, the start to chapter 11 really caught me off guard, what on earth :laughing:

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と is a quote.

な has several meanings. Here it means

now, …; well, …; I tell you!; you know – ​when seeking confirmation, for emphasis, etc.; used at sentence end

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Day 49
Read more Kindaichi Shounen. The police officer started to try to solve the case and of course did get the murderer wrong. Good work Mr. Police Officer. Kindaichi was quite the whole time because he still didn’t solve the whole case yet.

3532 pages read

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Began my focus on 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 and got 25 pages down, but started to lose focus on the last couple pages. I’m gonna reread them on my lunch. I don’t know if I will finish chapter 2 today, but I will probably get really close. As motivated as I am to read, I still have my own physical/mental limits I need to respect. I don’t want to push myself to finish over enjoying the book. While I put 3-4 books as my finishing goal, the goal has always been quality reading > quantity reading.

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:performing_arts: Home :it:

February 19th

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険9
110 - 127

ルリドラゴン 1
-

That was more than I thought I read, but there were more dialogue light pages than I had expected iirc. The party is headed to Switzerland! I was really surprised by the changes the anime made- they cut out the post office shakedown scene AND Suzie calling Joseph an ass but added content to the guys in the car who almost hit a dog? wth

I’m hoping I finish this volume tonight because I’m quickly falling behind on my reading and I’m 75% sure that I will be more motivated when reading other JoJo Parts lol.

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Home

Just read a couple pages of この本を盗む者は and played a bit of きみのまち ポルティア.

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February 17th
February 18th
Just Aomi Japanese these days.

February 19th
What did I read?: 魔女と猫の話
How much did I read?: 7 pages
(Started 5th Story )
How long did it take me?: 1 h 27 m

For the first time ever, the meeting between witch and cat actually went well! Mary (this chapter’s witch) was just momentarily taken aback that her cat is an おじいさん, and, thankfully, Snow (the cat) didn’t feel insulted at all!

Kitty Pictures

Snow, not showing his age in the slightest~ (And he has heterochromia eyes! I’ve only seen a cat with eyes like that once.)

I feel like he shows his age a bit here, though, eheh!

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I’ve not kept up with the daily threads as late, but I’m slowly getting back into my routine. In the past few days I’ve caught up on my missed readings for この本を盗む者は and 七回死んだ男, tomorrow I need to dig into all my missed 半落ち readings, although I doubt I’ll finish them in one night. I’m low mental energy today so I might try for a few pages of the newly due readings for the two other clubs.

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Summary post

Whoops, meant to post an update like well over a week ago :sweat_smile:. I had a couple pretty big milestones! I finished Minna no Nihongo, then took (and passed) a full length N4 practice test, so I’m considering myself officially having graduated out of the beginner phase!

I also finished 小説 ミラーさん, so I guess I’ve technically finished my first novel in Japanese, though since it’s for learners, it probably only half counts.

I started Tobira, which marks the first book on my Natively profile to have a higher level than the first manga I ever read in Japanese, haha. Tobira is going well so far, but I’m not counting it for this challenge, despite it being fairly reading-heavy.

I finished two Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling translations! The first was for their February 4 show, and then their February 11 (part 2) Korakuen Hall show, which was about as heavy of a workload as the Korakuen shows tend to have.

The day before the Korakuen show, they did TWO press conferences, which I extremely was not able to translate in time, haha. One of them was for Miyu Yamashita announcing that she was going on a three month long excursion in the US after TJPW’s America show next month. I tried to jump on translating that one as soon as I could, fearing that something in the announcement would get machine translated wrong and then more false rumors would make the rounds in the English-speaking wrestling world, but so far things seem to be going alright.

I think Miyu has already gotten contacted for more bookings in America (despite not remembering how to say “please contact me for all bookings” in English and causing TJPW’s ring announcer Sayuri Namba to worry about her ability to survive here, haha), so I’m hoping that everything goes well for her and the trip is a success!

Here’s a photo from the Korakuen show, featuring Miyu Yamashita and Maki Itoh after they won the tag team tournament that TJPW just had:

After the match, Itoh got annoyed at Miyu for calling her her “business partner”, and Miyu said, “Whether we’re business partners or not, now and forever, no matter how many decades or hundreds of years that I live, you are my only partner.” Miyu had tried telling Itoh she loved her, but her public professions of love made Itoh uncomfortable, so she had recently gone too far in the other direction. Maybe she’ll finally figure out the right way to express how she feels about Itoh when they win the tag belts…

Reading in Spanish

So, funny story: I thought the book I was reading was titled Sí, sí es contigo because that is what it says on the amazon page and the kindle file, but I got to the climax of the book, which had the title drop, and it said ”Sí, si es contigo”! I was like, hey, wait a moment, wasn’t it and not si? So I googled the book, and I found out that the amazon page is wrong! The title is actually Sí, si es contigo! It’s a small change, but makes for a much better title, I think, haha.

My reading pace picked up a lot as I got further into the book and more invested in the story. I’ve been trying to fix my terrible sleep schedule, but haven’t had a whole lot of luck, haha. One night, I started reading at 5:30am, telling myself that I’d just read a few pages and then go to bed, then ended up reading for TWO MORE HOURS :pensive:… I think that’s the first time this has ever happened to me with a non-English book? So on the one hand, it’s really cool that my Spanish has gotten good enough for a book to pull me in like that! On the other hand… it’s not exactly good for fixing my sleep schedule :sweat_smile:.

I ended up finishing the book much sooner than I expected, thanks in part to reading like 20% of the whole book that one night. Next, I tried picking up En el jardín de lirios, which is an academic study of GL media. I got through the prologue and am still interested in reading the rest of the book, but I had to do so many vocab lookups, I’m not sure it’s really worth trying to read it now. I’d look up words like “eje temático” and the dictionary would give me “thematic axis”, reminding me that I sure am reading academic theory :sweat_smile:. I ended up deciding to put it aside until my vocab is better.

I chose to read Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis instead, which was another book I had discovered on recommended lists of LGBTQ Spanish books when researching possible books to add to the library collection. I tried to look for an amazon preview so that I could see if the writing style looked to be at a good level for me, but they only had an audiobook preview. I listened to that and was able to understand a surprising amount, so I figured it was probably a safe purchase.

So far, I think that was a correct assumption! The book uses a lot of more literary words that I don’t know, but I found out the incredible benefit of reading it as a (properly formatted) kindle book is that I can use my kindle’s built-in dictionary to do instant look-ups, which is way quicker than having to look up words manually by typing them out. Currently, this is the most convenient media format I’ve found for reading in Spanish, and I’m really happy with it.

So, in sum, things have been going very well with the challenge so far!

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February 19 :snowflake: Home Post

Been thinking about ブルーロック again after getting caught up on the anime, so I started the 凪 spinoff manga! It’s just the one volume at the moment so shouldn’t derail me too hard :joy: It’s fun so far, but somehow I feel really out of practice reading manga, too much VN time lately I suppose :stuck_out_tongue:

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Been there.

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:chocolate_bar: :love_letter: 2月19日 :love_letter: :chocolate_bar: (Home Post Link)

Ended up working on a bunch of stuff today and not a whole lot of time for reading, oh well

Read:

  • 三ツ星カラーズ ch 17

Word of the Day:
狩る 「かる」ー to go looking for (flowers, etc.); to gather (mushrooms); to pick (berries)​

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For the first time in ever I read for an hour in Japanese. Cherry Magic of course. Since i have watched it about 3 or 4 times I could follow the story very well. There were ofcourse vocabulary I didnt know and grammar thats above my level but I just love this story. I will be reading through without look ups on the first go round then I will tackle it intensively. It really is accurate when they say read something that youre familiar with when youre just starting out with native material. Way better than Yotsuba to.

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