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風洞 ふうどう Wind tunnel. 「メルセデス・ベンツF1チームとパートナシップを組み、徹底した風洞実験の結果生まれたのが、Foil（フォイル）だ。」 (If I'm going to be wasting time reading bicycle reviews I might as well do it in Japanese.)

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"Captain Nemo," I told my host, who had just stretched out on a couch, "this is a library that would do credit to more than one continental palace, and I truly marvel to think it can go with you into the deepest seas." "Where could one find greater silence or solitude, professor?" Captain Nemo replied. "Did your study at the museum afford you such a perfect retreat?" "No, sir, and I might add that it’s quite a humble one next to yours. You own 6,000 or 7,000 volumes here …" "12,000, Professor Aronnax. They’re my sole remaining ties with dry land. But I was done with the shore the day my Nautilus submerged for the first time under the waters. That day I purchased my last volumes, my last pamphlets, my last newspapers, and ever since I’ve chosen to believe that humanity no longer thinks or writes. In any event, professor, these books are at your disposal, and you may use them freely." I thanked Captain Nemo and approached the shelves of this library. Written in every language, books on science, ethics, and literature were there in abundance, but I didn’t see a single work on economics—they seemed to be strictly banned on board. One odd detail: all these books were shelved indiscriminately without regard to the language in which they were written, and this jumble proved that the Nautilus’s captain could read fluently whatever volumes he chanced to pick up.

20000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

This passage, first read long enough ago that I would prefer not to say, could possibly have been what sparked my desire to learn foreign languages - to have all your books jumbled together because it just didn't matter what language they were written in, - made a tremendous impression on me. And I've wanted to do the same thing ever since.

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五月雨 さみだれ early summer rain (I love that there is a specific word for this.)

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とんずら fleeing, escape

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I guarantee you'll remember what a ヒトデ is after this.

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異彩を放つ いさいをはなつ to be conspicuous; to stand out

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And so it begins

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馬が合う うまがあう to get along with well, to be well suited to (of a horse and rider) to suit each other well

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無酸素運動 むさんそうんどう anaerobic exercise 有酸素運動 ゆうさんそうんどう aerobic exercise 〜〜〜 Quick note: for my three faithful readers, or was it down to two by now, apologies for the bit of a hiatus. I haven't had many new words or expressions lately, because I was concentrating on finishing Remembering The Kanji with Japanese keywords, on Skritter. The rest of my Japanese time (as near as all the time as I can make it, but some days it seems it isn't a lot) has been taken up by listening. But JRTK is done now so I think I should be back on track. I think it was a valuable exercise, but time will tell. About this picture, having been in Nori's exact situation many times I can assure you that one does not actually think anything near this articulate.

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Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura fits over 350,000 volumes in just one room. The interior of the room is four stories tall to allow for maximum shelf space, and also houses a small collection of sculptures, paintings, and coins. (photo by Wilson Santana)

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眼鏡の地平線

The true purpose of glasses.

If you're not watching Log Horizon you really should be. Brilliant. Also has the greatest OP ever recorded.

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歌劇が終わり、ホールに出た観客たちは、余韻冷めやらぬといった興奮した面持ちで、それぞれの感想を述べ合った。 余韻（よいん）：reverberation, trailing note; lingering memory, aftertaste; suggestiveness (of a book, poem, etc.) 冷めやらぬ（さめやらぬ）：lingering (usually feeling, emotion, etc.)

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「昔、まだ気候の制御が今ほどコントロールできなかった頃、ともすると水没しかねないネオ・ヴェネツィアで言われていた言葉があるの...」

ともすると：apt to (do);  liable to;  prone to

しかねない：capable of anything;  liable to do

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Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum, Osaka, Japan. The Shiba Ryotaro Museum is the former house of the Japanese author Shiba Ryotaro. Inside, one sees the huge bookshelf which is 11 meters high with 20,000 books in it. With these books the author wrote about 500 historical novels, essays, critical essays and many other works. The museum was designed by Ando Tadao, a famous Japanese architect, to show the creative world of Shiba Ryotaro. (Photo by Alex Roman)

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japanese classic audiobooks free download - and an app to play them

Khatz had an excellent post today on learning through the spoken word, which inspired me to start looking for some audiobooks, and also to find a way to play them properly on my iPhone.

I've been half-heartedly collecting podcasts* but seldom actually listen to them, because I have little idea whether they'll actually be talking about anything I'm interested in for one thing, and there's usually also no transcripts so if you want to follow along you can't. Not a problem of course for natives or more advanced learners but for an intermediate whose reading is much stronger than listening it removes a significant potential advantage.

So then I thought, well yes let's get audiobooks; they're a known quantity, they have text, they're pretty long, there's no real downside here.

A problem I ran into right away though is that every audiobook player app wants to lock you into its own store or market or at least file source. It seems like most will not allow you to import your own mp3 or other audio files, or if they do the description at least says nothing about it. I did eventually find one that does, and looks like it should be easy to use and work well; namely Bookmobile. It does also handle podcasts to some extent with a built-in RSS capability, but I imagine dedicated apps like Downcast will be better for that.

Then the books themselves. The #ajatt IRC channel has had a link in the header for a long time to some that user Decoface converted to MP3 and shared - those are here. From there I also found a link back to the original list of files on the RTK wiki, which I'm not sure why I'd forgotten about; that's here.

If you import them into iTunes and it doesn't recognize them as being audiobooks, which is quite likely, select all the files, Get Info (⌘I will do it), go to Options tab and in the media type list pick Audiobook. Also make sure all the files for a book are in a single album.

Should be set for a good long while now.

* surely I'm not the only one who always types "podcats" first? and then conjures up a little mental image of podcats?

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歴然

（れきぜん）

はっきりとして間違えようもないさま。明白なさま。

歴然とした 形容詞 【明らかな】obvious, evident, clear, ｟やや書｠ positive【決定的な】conclusive; 【間違えようのない】unmistakable.

”今回購入した iMac 27インチとMacBook Pro 15インチとの差は歴然としています。まるで巨人と小人です。”

from オーケーマック

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明日やろうはバカヤロウ