October has been a month for discovering new paths: I have started studying Japanese history and I have watched my very first Japanese drama.

The two books I had ordered about Japanese History have finally arrived, but before that, I had started reading as many things as possible on the Internet. I am taking notes in a notebook too, which allows me to use the new three Pilot Iroshizuku inks I bought this month (namely, 深海 shin-kai、月夜 tsuki-yo and 松露 syo-ro).

I have finished watching the drama 『シグナル　長期未解決事件捜査班』(シグナル ちょうきみかいけつじけんそうさはん) and this is the first Japanese drama that I watch from start to finish. I am looking for other detective dramas now!

But most importantly, I have achieved my goals for the month, which were:

It was not a difficult challenge, but it helped me to stay focused and make an effort to finish the books I had started before commencing new ones. I finished『流星の絆』at the beginning of the month, 『未来のミライ』two weeks ago and 『日本語びいき』this weekend (I will write my review on Wednesday).

I wanted to finish these three books because I have realised that I don’t have much time left to complete my 2018 reading challenge. My challenge was to read a book per month in Japanese and I had brought back 13 books from Japan for this purpose.

Now, my goal of reading one book a month is largely completed because I have read much more than 12 books this year, sometimes even reading several books in a single month. However, I still haven’t read all the 13 books of my initial list, and I want to read them all before the end of the year!

As I have given up reading one book of my list (『悪と仮面のルール』 by 中村文則), I still have 3 to read:

• 『リカーシブル』 (Recursible) by 米澤穂信, a long novel of +500 pages
• 『往復書簡』 by 湊かなえ, a collection of four short stories, I already read the first one
• 『探偵倶楽部 （クラブ）』by 東野圭吾, a collection of five short stories, I already read the first one

If I want to finish them all in 2018, I need to start the novel right now and read at least one or two short stories in November, hence my goals for November:

I also added some other goals, though “study Japanese History” and “watch a drama” are not very challenging ones! As for writing on a daily basis, I don’t know if I will be able to do it, but I will try. I have been writing in Japanese every day for some months and I was quite positive that it had become a habit, but I have given up at some point. I want to renew with writing, and November seems perfect for it!

So that’s it! What are your goals for November? Only two months left in 2018, let’s make the best of them!

Monthly review: September

I have tried a new thing this month, which is to define some monthly goals and publish them on my homepage. The goals I have chosen for September were:

And now, it is time to see how far I went!

First of all Anki! My usual practice is to save in my electronic dictionary all the words that I look up and want to add to my Anki deck later. The problem is that I tend to never add these words to Anki and end up with a hundred or more words to add at a time.

I got down to adding these words right at the beginning of the month. It doesn’t take too long with a cup of tea and some good music. So I managed this task very soon, but what did I do for the rest of the month? I looked up a lot of words while reading books and the news, saved them in my dictionary and didn’t add them to Anki gradually as I should have done. So today, I have more than hundred words saved in my electronic dictionary. All in all, I don’t know if I succeeded in this task! 😅

The task of starting a book might look like a strange challenge (I mean, the challenge is usually to finish a book, not to start it), but I read very little in August, and I wanted to get back on tracks. Keigo HIGASHINO is one of my favourite authors, and I know that I can read his books without problems, this is why chose to read one of his novels. The one I chose is 『流星の絆』. I certainly could have finished it in September if it were not so long (617 pages). So I would consider this task as a success.

I am reading a History book called 「それでも、日本人は戦争を選んだ」. I don’t expect to finish it soon, but I don’t want to leave it untouched for too long. This month, I only read 20 pages of it, but it is better than nothing. My initial goal of 40 pages may have been too high. Anyway, I am glad that I did read this book in September. Even if I haven’t reached the 40 pages, I still feel satisfied with what I have done.

Lastly, I followed and read a lot of articles about the election of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, so that was a complete success. It also allowed me to pass a milestone, I think. I feel much more confident and at ease now when it comes to reading the political news in Japanese.

What about October?

As you might know, if you have taken a look at my last Wednesday posts, I am reading several books right now (in order of difficulty, starting with the easiest):

• 『流星の絆』by Keigo HIGASHINO. The easiest of the 5 books, I will finish it in October.
• 『未来のミライ』by Mamoru HOSODA. Another easy book that I will finish in October.
• 『日本語びいき』 by Yumi SHIMIZU. This one is an essay. It is not difficult to read, but it does require more concentration from me than the two preceding titles.
• 『こころ』by Soseki. I still haven’t mentioned it on my blog (I will certainly write about it on Wednesday this week), but I have started 『こころ』. It is challenging of course, but not as much as I thought. Still, I am reading it very slowly and don’t expect to finish it this year.
• 『それでも、日本人は「戦争」を選んだ』by Yoko KATO. This is by far the most difficult book of the list. As I said previously, I read 20 pages this month and to be honest with you, it was a lot of pages… If I were to read 20 pages a month every month, I would not be able to finish this book by the end of 2019. And it is more probable that I will read less than that, so…

My monthly goals for October are related to these books. I want to finish the three easiest ones:

Miscellaneous

I said in my last review that I was training myself to be ambidextrous. I haven’t practised every day, but I can still feel some progress. I can now write in an acceptable way but very slowly (slower than you think). I thought it would be cool to have two different handwritings, but my handwriting with my left hand (the new one) is more and more resembling my handwriting with my right hand. I don’t know how this all works, but it looks like my brain prefers to reproduce familiar patterns that trying new things. 😞

I still haven’t finished reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, mainly because I devoted all my reading time to Japanese books this month.

As for fountain pens, I think that my favourite brand is Sailor. There are still a lot of brands that I never tried, but from the ones I know, Sailor is the best to me. It seems that they make a lot of limited editions and looking at some of these opened me a new gate into the Japanese culture: the 京野菜 （きょうやさい）, or vegetables originating in Kyoto prefecture (Wikipedia).

It is strange to discover vegetables through fountain pens, but this is what happened. Sailor, together with the Japanese retailer Kingdom Note, releases fountain pens that match a particular Kyoto vegetable.

This is the release date of the fountain pens.

At first, I was very frustrated to see these kanji because I had absolutely no clue what they meant and how to pronounce them. I later realised there were the names of Kyoto vegetables and I didn’t need to add them to my Anki, haha!

I am not particularly interested in vegetables, but I was happy to have learned something new in this way!

Conclusion

I would say that September was a success to me. Setting monthly goals allows me to feel a sense of achievement at the end of the month, even if I didn’t complete all my tasks. I think that I will continue doing it for the months to come.

I hope you are all doing well with your language studies!

August, or summer in general, is not a good time to study… at least to me. I have struggled with books and haven’t read as much as I should have. I blame my lack of productivity on Korean summer heat and hope that writing this monthly review will put an end to this Summer curse, chase away my laziness and put me back to study!

August hasn’t been a productive month

Books

Do you sometimes have moments when you don’t feel like reading at all or start several books and feel unsatisfied with them and unable to go beyond the first 20 pages? August has been this kind of month to me.

First, I started 『往復書簡』by 湊かなえ （みなと・かなえ）and loved it but was disappointed to find out that it was a collection of short stories. I stopped after the first story and decided to start another book instead, one from my reading challenge list. I picked up 『悪と仮面のルール』by 中村文則（なかむら・ふみのり）. I haven’t even talked about it on my blog because I only read around 20 pages before deciding that this book was not for me. It is not what I expected, and I found the beginning both strange and hard to read in Japanese.

Then I thought that the best thing to do would be to read another novel by Kanae MINATO, and chose one that would be a novel beyond doubt (and not a collection of short stories). I chose the novel 『リバース』but here again, I had a hard time getting into it. The first time I started it, I understood very little. The second time I gave it a tried, I could understand it quite easily (I must have lacked focus the first time) but did not feel interested by the story. Finally, I let it down during these two weeks when I haven’t done any Japanese. I was tempted to start another book, but I was afraid I might let it down too, and three defeats in a raw would have made me feel like a complete failure, haha. I even thought of reading a Keigo HIGASHINO, which I love, but I was afraid it would be cursed too, so I preferred to stop reading in Japanese altogether. But I think that I will take 『リバース』 again and give it another try, so it will certainly appear this Wednesday as my “currently reading” book.

The only success I had was  『ちょっと今から仕事やめてくる』by 北川恵海 (きたがわ・えみ).

I don’t know if I should blame the books or myself. As I haven’t gone very far (just reached Part II) of Atonement by Ian McEwan, I guess that I am the one to blame. I mean, you cannot possibly blame Atonement! This is a masterpiece of prose, the kind of novel that instantaneously killed any pretention I might have had to write a novel myself. I love reading it, but for some reasons, I am very slow at it.

So I guess it is just me, I didn’t feel like reading this month. It happens, I guess.

Fountain pens

I was much more successful in pursuing my newly born passion for fountain pens. I acquired a Sailor and a Platinum (both Japanese brands) when some months ago, I would have considered utterly useless to have more than one fountain pen.

One good thing with the fountain pen hobby is that it makes me want to write. Sometimes, I just don’t feel like writing in Japanese or taking notes about what I read, but then I thought “but I could use my newly acquired Sailor Shikiori Yozakura to do it!” and I end up studying Japanese!

Also, I focus on Japanese brands, not because I think they are better, but because it relates to my learning Japanese. And seeing breathtaking Maki-e on Pilot pens really fed my fascination for Japan and Japanese art:

(I spent too much time watching Brian Goulet’s videos…)

I will never be able to buy these pens but just looking at them somehow makes me happy.

Last but not least, I am training myself to become ambidextrous, at least, only for writing. I have always been fascinated by people who could write with both their hands and I have always wanted to train my left hand to write as well as my right hand but never really had the patience to do it. What helped me this time is that I have learned an alternative keyboard for French two years ago. It is called “bépo”, and I am using it since then, even when writing in English. And learning it was frustrating too. It took me weeks, maybe months (I can’t remember) to use it comfortably. In the beginning, I could only type very very slowly, it needed patience and regular practice. Well, I think that training your non-dominant hand to write requires the same process. It is frustrating, but as I know I succeeded with the keyboard, I know that I can succeed with my left hand too!

I didn’t know there was such a thing as a “Fountain pen hobby”, now I am completely in it…

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun this month with my fountain pens, and I enjoyed practicing my handwriting with both my hands (I also want to improve my handwriting with my right hand.)

I hope I will soon go back to study, or at least read in Japanese. I need to catch up with the news too, especially with the LDP elections approaching… I have a lot of words stocked in my electronic dictionary that wait to be added to my Anki deck… I also want to go back to my History book that I haven’t read for quite some time now… and so many other things!

We are entering the last week of June and almost reached the half of the year! 😮

If I had to sum up the month of June, I would call it: “going back into my comfort zone.”

Though I am still drawing and journaling with as much enthusiasm as last month, the focus of this month is reading, so let’s talk about books!

I have been reading several books at the same time this month, but I was not convinced or as enthusiastic as I thought I would be by most of them. Though I have been quite diligent during the first half of June, I finally gave up the battle and returned to the safety of my comfort zone by reading easier and more familiar authors.

Japanese books: disappointment and frustration

I will post about all these books on my Wednesday section, but this is an overview:

• 「君たちはどう生きるか」by 吉野源三郎: I finally finished it and will post my review the day after tomorrow, but I can already say that I did not enjoy reading this book. It is a novel for children written in 1937 that, for some reasons, is very popular now in Japan. But, even if I can see all the qualities of this novel, it just wasn’t for me… To say it plainly, this book was the most boring reading experience of the year. I am not at all blaming the novel in itself but it addresses young readers, and I really cannot fathom why it is so popular among adults now…
• 「在日」by 姜尚中（カン・サンジュン）: I absolutely loved the first third of this book, and I don’t regret a second having bought it even if I am abandoning it now. The truth is, now that I am reaching the half of the book, I am losing interest in it. I was interested in the first generation of Korean who decided to go to Japan during Japanese rule. I was also interested in knowing how they lived in Japan and 「在日」was describing exactly that. But then, the book is not as much an essay on this part of history as an autobiography, and as the author goes on with his life (his student life, his experience in Germany, his married life…), I feel that I am not that interested anymore. The book is also hard to read, with a lot of political references so… I gave up!
• 「光」by 三浦しをん: I like this book, I like the story, but I am not that enthusiastic about it… It is almost impossible to tell why exactly. I really think that it is a good novel, but somehow, I have to force myself a little to open it and read it. There is nothing that I could possibly criticise about the book though… well I guess this kind of things happens!

So you see, I was not happy with my readings, and last week I decided to go back to familiar places and started a book by Keigo HIGASHINO. I am convinced that achieving a good balance between challenging books and easier ones is vital to keep going. Challenging books are there to make us progress and have a sense of achievement, but regularly going back to easier books is also essential to not feel overwhelmed and regain confidence. Higashino’s novel gave me exactly what I was looking for: a book that I want to open as soon as I have some time to read and that I can read without any effort.

So now, I am happily enjoying my comfort zone again!

English book: I thought I could read in English, but maybe I can’t…

I finished The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, and this is one of my favourite books ever. I was so obsessed with this story that I bought the audiobook read by Dominic West and keep listening to it.

After that, there was a novel that I absolutely wanted to read: White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I saw this title on almost every list of recommended contemporary British novels. I was very excited to read it, but the author’s writing style really took me by surprise. I am sure that her writing style is full of liveliness and vibrancy, but it is also hard to read for English learners. I mean, I can read and understand it, but I am definitely out of my comfort zone.

I just began it and judged that it was not the right time to read this book. I really think it was a problem of timing. When I first opened White Teeth, I was struggling with my three Japanese books, and I didn’t want to also struggle with the book I read in English. Also, I was at a point when I doubted my Japanese abilities because 「在日」was hard to read and 「光」is a little challenging. But then, realising that I could not even read properly in English really gave me the final knock-out blow.

So here again, I decided to go back straight to my comfort zone. I closed White Teeth and made the solemn promise that I will come back to it and read it this year, and headed to something more familiar and easier to read: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. My “English reading challenge” was to familiarise myself with contemporary British authors and it is true that Jane Austen is not exactly “contemporary”, but I will incorporate classics to my list and just name it “journey into British literature” or something like that.

I read Jane Austen at school but in French translation and at a time when reading classics was more of an annoying duty than anything. So it’s time to read her major works in English!

The same kind of magic that happened with Higashino worked with Jane Austen too. I felt reassured in my abilities to read in English, I was drawn into the story right from the first page, and I can read it without efforts in English. So everything is fine.

Conclusion

I really enjoy being in my comfort zone, why do people always want you to go out of it 🤨? It is so delightful to stop making efforts for a while and just enjoy what our present level allows us to have. I retreated so far in my comfort zone that I even started a new village in Animal Crossing New Leaf, haha. I was maybe a little tired of my old one and even though parting with it was heartbreaking, starting a new one was very exciting! I sometimes wish that life would be as easy as fishing, catching bugs and trading pieces of furniture with talking animals.

My June hobby-life consisted in trying to draw my cat, reading detective novels, English classics, watching the World Cup and playing Animal Crossing New Leaf. I’m sure July will not be much different! 🙂