#upper level japanese books

[tokidokitokyo]

February 2024 Seitokai Bookclub | レーエンデ国物語

This month our first book club read of the year kicks off! We are reading レーエンデ国物語 (which is around middle school level, with a lot of fantasy type vocabulary).

Join us in the Seitokai Discord Server and grab the Japanese bookclub role to get started! Message me with any questions you might have!

Bookclub FAQ (courtesy of @onigiriforears)

What if I've never read a book in Japanese yet? I'm not confident in my skills.

That's fine! Not only do we always have a group vocab sheet that we collectively add to (anonymously), but we have ongoing discussions about whatever book we're reading. That means you're free to ask questions, send screenshots, rant about a character or anything like that. You'll definitely find me asking about certain grammar points or if using a particular set of kanji for a word changes the nuance in a particular sentence.

What's the goal of your bookclub?

We're interested in fostering confidence in reading in your target language without feeling that you have no one to turn to. Our server has people of all levels of fluency, meaning that there's always someone who can answer your question. And if we can't, we have people we can reach out to ask. We won't leave you hanging!

You don't seem to choose books I'm interested in--how can I change that?

We take suggestions and vote as a bookclub for what we'll be reading next. If your book doesn't win the first time you submit it, try, try again!

Where can I get this book?

I got a digital copy on bookwalker.jp but you can also get it on other Japanese book websites, like Kinokuniya or Amazon. Ask in Discord for more information!

We hope to see you there! Seitokai Discord Server

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

Happy 1106 day!

1106 is also known as the Adler dorm number for Rayne Ames (and his roommate Max Land), so November 6th is commonly celebrated in the Japanese fanbase as "Rayne Ames Festival Day".

As a celebration, I've roughly translated Rayne and Max's fan book profiles under the cut! It's full of interesting information about them as an individual character that doesn't manage to get explored much in the main series, so hope you enjoy it!

"A taciturn sword that sticks to his convictions, and a Divine Visionary that strictly speaks on one's back."

Rayne Ames

Quote: "You need to shut your mouth, before I shut it for you." (from Volume 13, chapter 117)

Small memo (near little Rayne and Finn image): A minimalist with a penchant for saving money, except for things related to rabbits and his younger brother.

A magician who becomes a Divine Visionary to change the Magic World from the ground up for the sake of his family. He's pursuing such a dream as he balances his work as a Divine Visionary and his responsibilities as a student. Profile (these have been translated in wiki and thus taken from there)

Birthday: March 3 Age: 18 years old Height: 175cm Weight: 67kg Dominant hand: Left Foot size: 27.5cm Family: Finn Ames (younger brother) Good subjects: Magic History, Magical Zoology Bad subject(s): Fortune telling Hobbies: Rabbit sucking, sewing Favorite food: Bean sprouts, vegetables Favorite words: Say what you want Favorite type of the opposite sex: Never thought about it Dislikes: Talking more than necessary Frequently visited school spots: Purchasing department How to spend money: Savings, rabbit breeding expenses How to spend holidays: Taking care of rabbits

Relationship Chart

Rayne to Mash: A troublesome junior Rayne to Finn: Must be protected at all costs Rayne to Kaldo: Thank you for taking care of my brother Rayne to Max: Only best friend Rayne to rabbit: *sighs softly* Rayne to Wahlberg: Old geezer who likes to boss people around

Magic: Sword Magic

A magic that can summon countless swords. The personal magic, named "Partisan", has a power level measured through percentages that can be adjusted, an average student usually can't even handle 10% of it.

The caption of Rayne calling out Partisan picture: It's one of the most deadly magic in the Magic World, but he brandishes it only for the sake of justice.

Divine Visionary: of Sword Cane, as well as one of the Directors of the Magical Items Department

All the magical items existing in the Magic World have very strict control. Newly manufactured tools are delivered to the Bureau of Magic to ensure safety. After carefully examining them and making sure the new items are safe, they'll be delivered to the citizens.

The caption of the Magic Mirror (used by Cell War against Mash): The loss of the Magic Mirror marks a great mistake for all of the directors of the department.

Pick-up: An Awkward Big Brother

Rayne, who rarely talks but always shows through his actions, makes people have a lot of trust in him, and many students follow his way too. However, his lack of words often causes many misunderstandings.

Quote for upper image: "I've always been really terrible at encouraging people." (Volume 6, Chapter 47)

Caption for upper image: He tried to put himself in the position of the junior who's taking reckless challenges.

Quote for left image: "I'll make sure that brazen kid, goes as far as he can go." (Volume 6, Chapter 46)

Caption for left image: He forced Margarette, who was after Mash, to retreat by using his Thirds.

Quote: "Words only have a meaning when paired with actions. If you can't act, it's the same as not saying anything at all." (Volume 6, Chapter 45)

Caption: This principle came from his late parents who passed away without words or promises. Since that time, he always lived up to his words.

Quote: "I still remember you used to come crying at me over the smallest things. You've grown up." (Volume 14, Chapter 119)

Caption for his moments with Finn: For the sake of his younger brother, he had always been shouldering many burdens. However, after seeing his brother's growth, he changed his mind.

Pick Up: A Genuine Rabbit Lover for Life

It all began when Max suggested Rayne, who was at that time aiming to be the Divine Visionary, to start having rabbits out of concern for Rayne's mental health's well-being. Now, Rayne has never stopped to pour an extraordinary amount of love for his rabbits.

The caption of Rayne surrounded by rabbits: This scene too is a display of Rayne's "survival of the fittest" between the strong and the weak (?)

The caption of Rayne's rabbit handkerchief: Should you ever find a lost rabbit-patterned goodies, please give it to Rayne first and foremost.

Mash's Room Corner (a corner to talk about gossip relating to the character, with Mash's commentary)

"I've been in the same dorm as Rayne since middle school but...that Rayne...there were quite a few times when the screws in his head were loose. He takes jokes a little too seriously, and because of that, I had to teach him lots of them." (from Max)

Mash: An unexpected side of a good person.

The Secret Story of Rayne as told by ***!! (a corner about various characters' opinions of a character, in this case, their opinions of Rayne)

Ryoh: I understand the feeling of pushing yourself away for your family's sake, but sometimes relying on others is what makes a man, Rayne.

Margarette: I saw Rayne trying to help a lost child in the city. However, he accidentally made the child cry even more because of his unfriendly looks and unsociability.

Brad: So you've become the Divine Visionary through hard work. Well, depending on Mash's hard work, my promotion might not just be a dream anymore.

Cell War: Since you're one of the directors of the Magical Items Department, it's really difficult to sneak in. Still, the staff canteen's foods are really delicious.

"Summarizing the Adler Dorm: Honest and full of conscience"

Max Land

Quote: "Let's solve this together!" (Volume 6, chapter 49)

Small memo (near the picture of running Max): His foot speed is number one! He also has a playful side when he pulls a prank and runs.

A third-year at Adler dorm who is open-minded and friendly. Since he is well-liked within the school, he often shares his wisdom and consults others.

Profile (these have been translated in wiki and thus taken from there with slight adjustment)

Birthday: November 19 Age: 18 years old Height: 168cm Weight: 64kg Blood type: O Dominant hand: Right Foot size: 26cm Family members: Father, Mother, Eldest brother, Older brother Good subject: Magic history Bad subject: Broom class Hobbies: Exploring the school while making his body smaller Favorite food: Deep-fried salamander Favorite words: 平凡 (Heibon: Ordinary or commonplace) Favorite type of opposite sex: People who have their own world Dislikes: High places Frequently visited school spots: Purchasing Department How to spend money: Book fees (mainly comic books) How to spend holidays: Going to Marchette Street with friends and taking care of rabbits when Rayne is away

Relationship Chart

Max to Mash: Junior Max to Rayne: You're so awkward I can't leave you alone Max to Finn: Like my own little brother Max to Carpaccio: Lately, when I look around, you're suddenly sitting next to me.

Magic: Size-changing Magic

This magic can change the size of people and objects. Up to 3 different people and/or objects can be resized at one time. This personal magic is very handy for support, as shown during the selection exam where he helped his ally.

Image caption: He made himself and Mash smaller to get away from the eyes of Deadervants.

Mash's Room Corner

I consulted with him the other day, but that guy has the face of an ordinary person but still manages to look handsome. It's plainly and doubly frustrating. (from Dot)

Mash: I feel sorry for Senior Max for being blamed unreasonably like that.

Pick-Up: A Selfish Desire as a Senior

He has a naturally caring personality who won't ever leave his troubled junior behind. But the truth is he just wants to "prove himself like a man", which he despises himself for.

Quote for upper image: "My premonition was right..." (Volume 6, chapter 50)

Quote for left image: "Say, Rayne. Did I do my best for the younger students?"

Caption for left image: Supporting the junior that Rayne is interested in.

The Secret Story of Max as told by ***!!

Tom: I invited him to join Duelo, but he declined because he is scared of heights. Senior Max, you're like a bamboo that's stuck on the ground!

BONUS (from the Q&A session with the original creator Komoto Hajime-sensei):

Q17: In the final chapter, are Rayne and Finn of the Ames brothers able to get along again?

A17: Rayne (addressed as 'onii-tama here) is a tsundere, but I think they're able to get along well!

Q18: Why does Finn call Rayne with "Nii-sama" instead of "Nii-san"?

A18: Because of the distance between them...

(A/N: In the original Japanese version, Finn does not call Rayne by name, but calls him "Nii-sama", this has a lot of meaning and nuances that unfortunately are hard to translate and doesn't have an English equivalent, hence the change. "Onii-tama" on the other hand is a baby talk version of "onii-sama".)

[rigelmejo]

Some learning apps I've liked (in no patrticular order)

Renshuu (japanese): good lessons, a bit slow paced for me

Readibu (chinese reading app): free version is good, paid version includes full sentence audio and translations I think which may be useful.

Pleco (chinese dictionary and reader app): top level app, get it now if you study chinese and use your phone at all. Its free version includes a huge great dictionary, and Clipboard Reader which has ALL the Reader features just that you have to copy and paste the chinese text in (their paid Reader you can upload epub txt files etc directly). Their paid features are nice because they are all 1 time fees: pay 5 dollars once and have the purchased item forever. I hate subscriptions so i love that this app does single purchase instead. I bought some graded readers on this, and expanded dictionaries. Its Dictate Text text to speech feature is nice in the Reader/Clipboard reader because it highlights the word as it reads and shows translation, making it easy to follow along.

Duoreader: a free basic app, has a few parallel language books for many languuages. It includes text to speech audio and click word translation. Excellent for free reading with parallel text set up.

Smart Book by Kursx (also under the name Parallel Translation of books by kursx on the app store): it uses mtl, but you can search for books or import books, and it will show sentence translations or make an entire parallel text for you, it also has click translations, word saving, progress information (which is motivating to me), and text to speech read aloud function. Its currently what i use the most for reading. Trahslations are as good as Lingq or Google Translate so NOT always reliable but useable and the sentence translation helps for figuring out grammar. But Pleco and Readibu have BETTER translations. For chinese this app is good, for japanese its useable if youre upper beginner but if you dont know basic grammar and particles then the japanese individual word translations are often wrong and unreliable - sentence long translations are useable though.

Tofugu: good hanzi study app.

Anki: great app especially if you import decks made by people around the internet. I look up decks by going to a search engine and typing in something like "4000 hanzi mnemonics anki deck" or "common chinese words in sentences anki deck." I have recommended some anki decks I've used on this blog. A tip about anki: their website works fine in mobile browsers, you do not have to pay for any app to use anki on your phone, you can just use the site if you'd prefer. For initial uploads of flashcard decks created by other users, you will need to install anki on a computer, then download the anki deck from the deck's page online, then put it into your computer anki program. After you do that, you can sync your computer anki to the website one. Then you can use anki either online or on the computer or on both. I use anki only on my phone mobile browser. It seems the main benefit of anki phone apps over using the internet mobile browser, is flashcards are easier to Make if you end up wanting to make your own anki flashcards on your phone.

Immersive Chinese: chinese lessons. I haven't used it much but I like the structure

Glossika: I specifically recommend getting the old cds, possibly through your library, or finding the mp3 files online. I think the audio files are easier if youre not good at focusing on consistently doing SRS flashcards, since spaced repetition study sentences are the new glossika model and require a monthly subscription. Plus side to the new model: most languages have around 6000 sentences where the old cd courses often had around 3000 sentences. Plus side to the old cds/mp3s: can be found in many libraries for free, and online, and if you do buy them theyre a one time cost. Excellent resource if you like audio review (i do), with common grammar and vocabulary taught. I like that even the 3000 word old courses will get you at least to upper beginner or lower intermediate, enough knowledge to start learning by reading or watching shows and looking words up, and enough words to have some conversations. Pimsleur is similar but tends to cover less vocabulary, so afterward you need to learn more words on your own before you can immerse and look up words to study.

Japaneseaudiolessons.com: a website with free japanese audio lessons, a free textbook, free notes. They also have nice kanji learning books with pre written mnemonics and sentence examples for sale.

Your local library: a lot of libraries have deals with language learning sites/apps, your specific library may provide some courses for free. In addition, apps Hoopla and Libby have a lot of courses and digital textbooks and audios you can check out. You can use those apps with a library card. If you are a college student, a lot of college ebook collections include MANY textbooks and independent study books for languages. Nearly every Tuttle book I got for studying Japanese and Chinese, I was able to check out the ebook version first using my college library and only bought those books because I ended up finding them so useful I wanted print copies. (For that matter, some under $20 dollar reference books I owe for teaching me hanzi and kanji: Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters: HSK Levels 1-3 - this book gave me a foundation in hanzi and was the easiest guide for learning hanzi for me and learning HOW to remember them. I found it more useful than Heisig's Remember the Kanji/Hanzi books by far, although they utilize a similat idea, and less effort to remember than Kodansha Kanji Learner's Guide - although I like that reference book as a reference. Runner up is Tuttle Learn Japanese Today: The Easy Way to Learn 400 Practical Kanji by Len Walsh. It was more basic than the hanzi book, less in depth, but a very approachable understandable and quick to learn kanji book to start out with when studying Japanese, that will not overwhelm you the way say Heisig or KKLG might. For hanzi I used my Learning Chinese Characters book for a few months, then an anki deck "hanzi 2000 mnemonics pinyin" while also just regularly looking up new words while reading graded readers then chinese show subtitles then webnovels, and making up my own mnemonics which got easier over time. For japanese, I followed up with a vocabulary deck as I found vocabulary easier to remember than isolated kanji, and kanji.koohi.com was a useful site for free user submitted mnemonics to remember kanji when I struggled to remember. Its also a good site for free flashcards and study of kanji generally.

ChinesePronunciationTrainer: a really simple free app. It's biggest usefulness is practicing pronunciation. You can record yourself trying to pronounce a sentence after hearing the chinese pronunciation, then play back your recorded attempt compared to the chinese pronunciation. The app makes shadowing easier to evaluate, so you can compare and notice if you're making pronunciation errors and work on them. It's also very simple low feature speaking practice.

LingoTube: free app, uses machine translation. If you want to watch youtube with dual subtitles, or click translations on subtitles, or instant replay/loop of dialogue lines, this is an app that can do that. Very useful for immersing with youtube videos like youtubers and shows on youtube.

Idiom app: it is orange with an i on the icon. Click skip for the "helm" offer when you first download it, helm is a paid add on for better translations and you may not want it right away. The core app is free (helm add on costs a subscription). This app is basically Lingq but free. Translation quality is the same, which appears to be google translate quality on Lingq and Idiom. So some errors, but useable especially as you hit upper beginner and above and can notice when you may want to reference a word in an external dictionary (like Pleco app for chinese, yomiwa app for japanese, etc).

Satori Reader: a graded reader app for japanese, absolutely amazing quality material. I recommend exploring the free content on the app. If you decide you'll use it a lot, or plan to get into a reading kick for a few months, it's worth getting a subscription for a while. I plan to get a subscription once I have the time to read japanese 1-2 hours a day for a few months. Satori Reader has tons of reading materials branching from approachable to an upper beginner (say you can read Yostuba manga a bit, or are in Genki 2, or know around 2000 words) to you're almost ready to read webnovels or regular japanese novels but the difficulty bump is just a Touch too steep. If you go through the various reading level material on the app, you shpuld be prepared to handle at least some japanese novels for natives once you can handle some of the higher reading level stuff on Satori Reader. In addition: the translations are done by professional translators with in depth notes on grammar points (incredibly useful and the best explanations on Japanese Graded Readers Ive used), fully narrated stories by real people, and many of the graded readers are designed to be enjoyable long reading material in their own right. There's also some multiple difficulty versions of reading material if you'd like to read an easier version before trying a more complex version of the same story. There is so much reading material on the app you can get significant practice and vocabulary/grammar improvement if you have time to read. I lnow a few people who got through a few hundred+ chapters on this app, and generally they went from N4 or N3 reading level to N2 or N1. Then they transitioned to reading novels for natives. As far as high quality well made well explained plentiful graded reading material for japanese, this is one of the best resources I've found. (The other 2 great graded readers I have are textbooks, one being a Tuttle Read Japanese book that goes from basics through to being able to read 2000 kanji, newspapers and documents, formal and informal, and is dry af to read but generally leaves you fairly prepared for japanese reading, and a more basic Beginning Japanese Reading book thats part of a 4 part textbook collection and absolutely drills the basic 500 most common kanji and many words, hiragana and katakana and many words in them, for 500 or so pages).

Microsoft Edge. I know, weird. Edge on computer and mobile internet browser has a Read Aloud tool. It is the best sounding text to speech Ive heard. This Read Aloud tool is also in Microsoft Word if you copy paste text into Word. I find going to sites in my target language, and using the Read Aloud tool, is a nice way to get audio in with my reading when I can't find an audiobook. The tool also highlights the word as it reads, helping you keep up with the reading, and for me it helps improve my reading speed. In addition, ANY web browser (and any phone/tablet Reader app like Kindle, Moonreader, Kybooks etc.) often has the ability to click or tap or highlight a word to look up the translation. So when reading on any of those internet browsers/Readers, you can look up words just like you would on Lingq but free.

Japanese.io: a site with japanese graded reading material, and tools like click translation and saving words.

https://www.sosekiproject.org/about.html If you like the author Soseki, this site is awesome. It features full audio of his works, full parallel text translation, and individual word translation.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: March 2024

……….FILM……….

Dune: Part Two (2024) Every piece of technology felt and looked so tangible. The baby worm too! Love the tactile nature of this whole production and I hope studios take note that CG can't be the only tool in your belt. So much bigger than I imagined and just enjoyed the whole thing.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Ages surprisingly well and a script that lets the main quartet be both funny and layered.

……….TELEVISION……….

Columbo (1.01 to 1.03) Hey I'm starting Columbo! Love that each episode is feature-length and Columbo appears fully formed right out of the gate. The sets and costumes are all so glamorous and L.A. Very excited to keep going.

Succession (2.05 to 3.04) The Kendall play at the end of season 2 felt very much like the Kendall play at the end of season 1 and while I'm still a huge fan of this series, I just hope it's not the same going into season 3 and 4.

Delicious in Dungeon (Episode 1.09 to 1.13) Great adaptation that isn't just a straight recreation of the artwork in the manga. The more kinetic/frantic moments in the animation are a nice departure and while they don't pop up in each episode, now that I'm 13 eps deep I can appreciate how they're sprinkled throughout.

Love is Blind (Episode 6.02 to 6.13) It still amazes me that anyone goes on reality tv.

……….YOUTUBE……….

Twilight | ContraPoints by ContraPoints Yes I did watch a nearly 3-hour essay on Twilight, sexual expression, and all that comes with that. And you should too. VIDEO

Instagram fatigue and the rise of 'Resentment Reels' by Taylor Lorenz While I haven't noticed this specific phenomenon, I have noticed Instagram declining as an app (both as a user trying to see anything other than ads, and a creator trying to get my work seen in between those ads). It's a bummer. VIDEO

Saltburn: The Tumblr-ification of Cinema by Broey Deschanel Every since I saw Saltburn, I've been thinking about what wasn't quite sitting right with me. This unlocked a lot of what I couldn't describe and most of it stems from the writer/director's upper class upbringing. Saltburn isn't a "take down the rich" movie, it's a horror story from the perspective of a wealthy family. VIDEO

Why Is It So Hard To Cross The Street? (& What You Can Do To Help) by Strong Towns Accidents where drivers hit a pedestrian are going up in my area so this really hit home. And for those feeling like there's nothing you can do at ground level, consider taking their course (not a paid sponsorship I'm just in real support of community-lead initiatives). VIDEO

……….READING……….

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (Complete) After picking up the last book in this series (which I've yet to read) I figured I'd start at the beginning. Love the fast pace pulpy action and I can see how this influenced the creation of D&D.

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Complete) This one would lose me for stretches but the final quarter of the book is stronger. A lot less cozy and a lot more action than I was expecting but skimming other reviews it sounds like this was written during her more...adventure-focused era. Three books deep and I have to give Christie credit that each has been a completely different experience.

Adventures of a Japanese Business Man by Jose Domingo (Complete) Always love going back to this nearly wordless epic that follows the titular Japanese business man. I love the complexity of the earliest panels and wish that could carry throughout more of the book, but it's always such a treat to discover just where each new panel will go.

Delicious in Dungeon Volume 5 by Ryoko Kui (Complete) Enjoying rereading this with shorter breaks between volumes as I certainly missed/forgot details on my first read. It's here that the story and tone shifts from light romp to a more dramatic and dangerous affair but it never loses its spot-on humour. Love those dryad pumpkins.

Ultimate Spider-Man HC Volume 11 by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente, and more (Complete) Going from some of my other comics back to this, I'm struck by just how wordy it can get. Now knowing where the story goes, it was a great idea to prime readers to the idea of Peter Parker dying even if it's not from this event.

……….AUDIO……….

Blank Check with Griffin & David (Podcast) Late to the game on this but really enjoying burning through their back catalog. Obviously started with their episode on Speed Racer as it's a near perfect film that you should watch right now.

……….GAMING……….

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Tuesday group just killed a mayor! So the aftermath of that is going to play out over the next couple of sessions. And the Mof1 crew is investigating the aftermath of their own district-wide catastrophe and it's all looking rather suspicious!

Spot It (Blue Orange Games) I can't recommend this game enough. It's so easy to learn, rounds last maybe 5 minutes, it plays well with small or large groups of any age, and all it requires is pattern recognition and quick reflexes. Every time I've played this someone says they're going to buy a copy for themselves.

And that's it. See you in April!

[lonestarbattleship]

Workmen repairing to the main deck aft, and re-gun turret no. 3 of USS Nevada (BB-36) in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, circa May 1945.

"THE JAPANESE SHORE BATTERY which scored five direct hits on the NEVADA before her main battery could be brought to bear and silence the attackers with seventy-one rounds of 14-inch ammunition, caused the above damage to port side of main deck aft. This shell passed completely through the ship.

THE SHELL ENTERED A BLISTER at the water line (upper left), passing through living compartments, killing two (upper right): through ventilation ducts (lower left), and out of the ship on the port side at main deck level, gouging out a groovn and severing a hose, as it plunged into the sea (lower right)."

USS Nevada Cruise Book: link, link

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 18 Part 2: The Map

Here's my team for this map.

This was a hard one, because the eggs on this map are amazing for boosting experience, so it's tempting to bring everyone, which of course is impossible.

I'm bringing both Moulder and L'Arachel because they can both use Restore Staves, and I may need them.

We start in the lower-left corner of the map, with one initial path up and right.

Moving the screen up, we can see more eggs, and a Gargoyle. This is where the path splits and either continues up, or goes right.

And even farther up, there are more eggs, another Gargoyle, and a Gorgon.

To the right of the starting position, here's the other path that heads right, with more eggs.

...and a Gargoyle and an Eye.

Up from the above photo, we see more eggs and another Eye.

And in the upper right, where the two routes converge again, there are more Eyeballs, eggs, and a boss Gorgon.

Here is one example of a Gorgon enemy. They have a "magical illusion wave movement" ("Demon Surge" in the official translation) as their weapon.

The second two characters in the weapon's name are "hadou", like Ken and Ryu's "Hadouken".

Funny enough, this very weak Gorgon is the boss!

I think this boss may have been powered up in the US release, because I saw a higher level and better stats listed when I looked the map up online. In fact, I almost wonder if it was a mistake that the boss ended up so weak in the Japanese release.

The eyeballs are different than the ones earlier in the game. The name in Japanese says "bee-goo-loo", so...

"beagle"??? "biggle"????? (I like "biggle". That's a cute name!)

I looked it up, and I think they were called "Arch Mogall" in English.

Their attack is called "Evil Eye".

Here's another Gorgon. I'm showing this one because, even though it's a lower level than the boss one above, it has better stats! It really seems likely that the boss being so under-powered was due to some sort of oversight.

Here's an example of the Gargoyles we'll be dealing with.

And here's another Gorgon. This photo is here to show off the other weapon that some of the Gorgons have, which is the reason why I'm bringing two Restore Staves.

"Stone" has 1-3 range, and if it hits, the unit gets turned to stone and is unable to move for a couple turns. They also cannot avoid attacks, and enemies who attack them have a base 30% crit rate, <D.A.R.E.> so it's pretty dangerous to get stoned </D.A.R.E.>.

Syrene found Lute shortly before the small front line force was to head out. Lute was sitting on the ground near her horse, writing something in a book.

Syrene really didn't want to think of herself as an overbearing older sister who kept tabs on who Vanessa spent time with...but she also was so used to looking out for her sister since she was little that she couldn't help herself.

"I'm not going to be nosy and weird about it" she thought to herself. "I'm just going to say hi and see what kind of person she is."

"Hello, Lute, right?" Syrene stood in front of Lute and spoke to her.

Lute looked up at her. "Hello," Lute said in return. "You are the woman with the Linder's Pegasus."

"Uh, yes. My name is Syrene. I just wanted to thank you again for coming to my rescue."

"I did not know you were there. I was following Vanessa because she saw the townspeople from the air, and we wanted to try to save them."

"Right..." Syrene was struck again by how the conversation didn't quite go where she expected whenever she talked with this girl. "Well, thank you anyway for helping me, even if that wasn't your original goal."

Lute nodded and said nothing.

Syrene waited a moment, but it didn't seem like Lute was going to talk, so she continued. "Actually, I also wanted to thank you for helping out my sister."

Lute looked at Syrene blankly. "Who?" she asked.

Syrene smiled. "Vanessa! Vanessa is my sister! I'm sorry, I guess you didn't know that yet. I guess she hasn't ever mentioned me to you, right?"

"No, she has not mentioned you." Lute tilted her head slightly and looked at Syrene's face. "I can see the resemblance though. It is not surprising to find out that you are sisters."

"Well, at any rate, Vanessa told me that you have been good friends with her, and I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you looking out for her. She's my only sister, and I used to look out for her myself when she was younger, but we haven't even seen each other in almost 4 years now..."

Syrene stopped talking and looked at Lute's face. Lute was no longer looking directly at her, but instead was looking up in the air slightly and twirling a lock of her hair in one finger.

Without looking at Syrene, Lute suddenly asked, "Vanessa said I was a good friend?"

Syrene nodded, "Yes. And, well, not to embarrass her, but ever since she was a kid, Vanessa hasn't always made a lot of friends, so I was really relieved to hear that she had someone she was getting along with in this army."

"I also have never had many friends," Lute stated matter-of-factly. "I am glad to hear that Vanessa said that."

Lute was still twirling her hair as she spoke. "Although, to be fair, I do not think Vanessa is judging the situation accurately. I have not been a good friend because I am bad at explaining things sometimes, and I collapsed in the library and made her worry. I think that Moulder is a much better friend to her."

Syrene didn't respond at first. "It sounds like she's confessing to me! What am I supposed to say to this?" she thought.

As Syrene was looking at Lute, wondering how to respond, she noticed Lute's gaze drift beside her.

"Vanessica Vanessicus!" Lute said suddenly, and got up into a half-crouch position.

Syrene followed Lute's gaze and saw a bright green beetle perched on a tuft of grass near her feet.

"Oh! What a pretty beetle!" Syrene said. Then she asked Lute, "But what did you just call it?"

"I called it Vanessica Vanessicus. That is its scientific name. I gave it that name because I discovered it, so I get to name it, and its wings are a pretty green color, just like Vanessa's hair. It is a type of dung beetle, and I have seen it a couple of times in pegasus dung, though this is the first time I have seen it alighted upon the grass like this."

Lute spoke all of this quickly and excitedly, all while keeping her eyes firmly locked on the beetle. "Do you really think it is pretty?" she asked suddenly. "In my experience, many people do not like insects, so I was very happy when Vanessa saw it and thought it was pretty. But I guess since you are her sister, maybe you both share opinions on insects. I do not have any siblings."

"She named a dung beetle after Vanessa?" Syrene thought. But listening to the excitement in Lute's voice as she described the beetle (and she was still describing it as Syrene was thinking all of this) Syrene could tell that naming the beetle after Vanessa was done with only good intentions, as odd a "gift" as it was.

"...not sure what it might eat in the winter, although, if it is similar to other dung beetles..." Lute was still talking about the beetle.

Syrene felt bad for interrupting, "Um, Lute, thanks for talking with me, but I think your unit is marching out soon, so I don't want to take up too much of your time. Please keep looking out for my sister, and be careful out there yourself!"

Lute finally broke her gaze from the beetle and looked at Syrene. She smiled slightly, the first time Syrene had seen that, and said, "Ok, I will. Thank you..."

Syrene heard the pause in her speech. "Syrene" she interjected.

"Thank you, Syrene. I will be careful, and I will make sure Vanessa is safe."

Syrene started to return to her own battalion and left Lute to prepare (though she wasn't preparing, she was now crouched by the beetle and sketching something in her book, like she was on a picnic, not at war!)

Vanessa had made an interesting choice of a friend, but, well, at least this Lute girl did seem to be genuine. Syrene felt somewhat relieved, though she still had some questions...

Next time: Sweet, sweet egg exp

[eien-no-gakusha]

Touken Ranbu:  The Contradictory Tale of Genji

Part 3/3 - Overall Impressions:

On a technical level, the show is quality.  The main cast sang melodiously and music composition was suitable to the time period and mood of the show.  There was not so much dancing to judge but acting was superb.  Many actors had to play double roles such as anyone possessed by Genji or anyone on the Genji side of the plot.  The contrast was evident and well-done.  The child actor was very professional and I had no issue with her when I’m usually not impressed.  That was a pleasant surprise.  Set design was minimalist, which made for some creative setups but there were enough hints for the audience to suspend disbelief and jog their imagination.  The transitions were incredibly fast and most of it was done using a giant cloth sheet that represented a page of the novel that was waved about. 

Of course, I loved the costumes.  Combined with the actors, they effectively brought the characters to life.  Ladies and lead role Nanami Hiroki got the best picks.  Akira got an epic evil costume in the end to represent Genji going rogue.  It was a chaotic costume by design with mostly Japanese silhouette but what’s with the Chinese style double skirt, armor design, and hairdo?  (jkjk lol) I suppose turning evil turns you into a jumbled mess of modern art.  The real moral here is treat your fictional world with care or risk it biting you back.

 Now this is a sword show so naturally the fight choreography was incredibly smooth and stylistic while being cleanly executed.  Genji is no swordsman but a scholarly prince so his weapon was a fan that Akira wielded gracefully and skillfully in her fast-paced battles.  In fact, there was a lot of fan twirling and all done to perfection.  My praise is for the effortless ease actors were wielding fans.  I would expect them not to drop them as part of the job.

 The overarching theme concerning the value of fiction was compelling.  When the creeper fan confronts Murasaki and later curses all of Kyoto, the five precepts of Buddhism is referenced.  Among these precepts is the prohibition against speaking lies or falsehoods, which encompasses anything ranging from thoughtless remarks to “great fictions.”  The fan praises the book but is worried that spreading of such an influential fictional work will result in leading people astray and thus Murasaki would be punished in the afterlife for her sins.  In fact, in medieval history a memorial service was held to rescue Murasaki’s spirit from Buddhist hell over this very matter.  One can take the traditional Buddhist interpretation of life being hell because life is suffering and impose it over the musical.  Therefore, the isekai is a type of trial.  Just as the Empress and other readers of The Tale of Genji are grappling with their reality through the novel, they are reliving the parts of the book they resonate with to find a solution to the problem in their lives.  An even darker interpretation is the ghosts of Heian-kyo are in purgatory by living in the fiction they became consumed with instead of being present in society.  During Murasaki’s time, the upper echelons of society were obsessed with the Cult of Beauty at the cost of governance and economy so was quite corrupt and detached from reality.  What more fitting punishment in the afterlife than eternity in their vapid world?  Perhaps the touken danshi stumbled upon such a purgatory.

 There is also more contemporary views of fiction in this play.  Murasaki pushes back in the debate by respecting the intelligence of her fans and expressing the love she has for her writing and its very real value to herself.  Furthermore, her avid readership stand in solidarity by citing the novel’s beauty and meaning to their lives either as escapism or example.  Here we see more modern values on display with fiction enriching and enhancing reality or supporting readers through their struggles and triumphs.  One can also glean commentary about parasocial relationships as well with Murasaki’s interactions with her fanbase and the fans’ earnest love of a fictional character.  In short, this is a story about the influence and impact of stories on people and how wonderfully weird and beautiful that relationship is.

 The story I enjoyed a lot.  Many videogame and anime musicals are shallow cash-grabs but this one went out to tell a meaningful story.  I respect that.  I’m even tempted to buy the DVD lol.  Not like there’s any merch left anyways.  All that sold out before the curtains even rose.

[studyyblrring]

had a strange realization today while i was booking my next japanese conversation class on italki.

the lesson's description say that you must be at least at B1 level in order to take the class ?? i certainly don't feel like I am nowhere near B1 (i consider myself upper A2 on a good day and i don't have many of those). maybe its imposter syndrome and my comprehension skills are at least around upper A2 if not B1? because im assuming otherwise my teacher wouldn't keep accepting my lessons and would suggest i pick another lesson plan.

my learning has been so sporadic and chaotic for the past almost 5 years now that i have so many gaps in my knowledge and ive lost track of what level im at because of it so ive defaulted to saying im a little above N5 but not really N4. so this basically sent me down a spiral and amade me question everything (but in a sorta good way i guess??)

[fallynleaf]

i was going to post my 2023 resolutions in december, but totally ran out of time lol so here they are now:

keep doing TJPW translations as long as there is a need for them

get better at Japanese and become faster at translating

get better at Spanish

read at least a dozen books

get back into giffing!!

keep up a list of fave wrestling matches/shows/moments etc.

finish an old fic for international fanworks day (feb 15)

finish two fics for femslash february

reply to fic comments

get some sort of original short story or essay published

edit last year’s nanowrimo

write the sequel to it

finish knitting temperature scarf

get a Japanese papermaking setup going

get a basic bookbinding/boxmaking setup going

do a drawing challenge in october

fix my tumblr theme

finish cleaning/organizing my room

i’m not really much of a new year’s resolutions type of person generally, but i wanted to refocus a bit this year, since my life kinda pivoted pretty hard away from where i thought it was going to go in 2022...

the most important things are continuing with studying Japanese (and with doing the TJPW translations, now that i have hundreds of people relying on me lol), and hopefully trying to move back to doing more writing. i’m hoping to reach an upper intermediate level in Japanese by the end of the year. i have a lot more specific Japanese goals that i won’t go into lol because the list is too long and probably largely incomprehensible, but that’s more or less what it boils down to.

last year, translating was too difficult and stressful to be truly enjoyable (not to mention doing it while extremely depressed lol), but i stuck to it long enough, i think i’ve started to make it to the other side. i kept telling myself that the beginner phase is the hardest lol and as long as i forced myself to keep going, it would get easier. and it did!

it’s looking like 2023 is going to be the year of, like, actually reaping the rewards from all of my hard work. not only am i getting lots of wrestling story stuff i’ve been wanting for years, now with an actual bilingual bonus understanding, haha, but i’m also starting to reach a point where manga and books are much more doable. so that’s my carrot on a stick rn.

shame i’ll probably never have an actual career as a librarian, but, well, that was always supposed to be a means to an end for me.

[tokidokitokyo]

March 2024 Seitokai Bookclub | 花野井くんと恋の病

Our second book club read of the year is underway - 花野井くんと恋の病 - this manga is about an N3 level.

Join us in the Seitokai Discord Server and grab the Japanese bookclub role to get started! Message me with any questions you might have!

Bookclub FAQ (courtesy of @onigiriforears)

What if I’ve never read a book in Japanese yet? I’m not confident in my skills.

That’s fine! We have ongoing discussions about the book we’re reading. That means you’re free to ask questions, send screenshots, rant about a character or anything like that. You’ll definitely find me asking about certain grammar points or if using a particular set of kanji for a word changes the nuance in a particular sentence. There is also a READING PACK with Vocabulary for this volume available on @onigiriforears shop (for a reasonable price) if you'd like a little cheat sheet.

What’s the goal of your bookclub?

We’re interested in fostering confidence in reading in your target language without feeling that you have no one to turn to. Our server has people of all levels of fluency, meaning that there’s always someone who can answer your question. And if we can’t, we have people we can reach out to ask. We won’t leave you hanging!

You don’t seem to choose books I’m interested in–how can I change that?

We take suggestions and vote as a book club for what we’ll be reading next. Submit a book or manga you would like to read (but please nothing X-rated). If your book doesn’t win the first time you submit it, try, try again!

Where can I get this book?

You can get this manga wherever you normally buy your manga. Ask in Discord for more information!

We hope to see you there! Seitokai Discord Server

[dojae-huh]

regarding pre-debut belts. it’s only 1 or 2 that really get talked about, most of his best notes are pretty recent. it seems that before getting into sm he had a more “by the book” approach and afterwards he had to carve out a space for himself next to taeil which resulted in an overall lighter, more stylistic approach and unfortunately regression, from which he also bounced back, albeit he has some quirks he could work on, such as not sounding open enough. his breathiness is stylistic fortunately and he can “turn it off” where he wants to, but he does tend to sound light. he’s very consistent when it comes to his upper range and feels at ease in a territory where many singers around his level very often struggle. it definitely seems like he knows and wants to improve, and i hope wanting to debut solo sometimes soon will push him to get seriously into training (cause only a good teacher will allow him to progress further, he’d need to learn really advanced stuff) and push him to new highs. busy as he is, it’s probably tricky to fit consistent vocal lessons into his schedule.

i honestly don’t pay that much attention to jaehyun’s live singing, but improving on details comes with experience and if he’s more “stable” live then that’s stamina. no technical progress from him whatsoever.

You support my suspicion that he developed the voice both because of his role in Tende/127 (Taeil and Doyoung can and do sound alike on some notes, so widening the gap is benefitial) and getting "instantly recogniseable voice". Doyoung used to talk a lot about wanting a voice that stands out.

I know that his breathiness is a choice. All YT vocal teachers point it out after first listen. The kpop "vocal community" often thinks otherwise, heh.

He can fit in Japanese lessons. Vocal lessons can be done via online as well. He is always busy, ans still found time for lessons for the musical. He needs a teacher who can "push him to new highs".

Jaehyun sounded noticeably weaker then IlDo upon debut, and now he is the 3d most technically advanced neo. Really, no progress?

Jaehyun will participate in a musical in half a year. There will be enough live singing to judge.

[isfjmel-phleg]

Before literature became my specialty around high school, history was always my favorite subject in school. I still love it. Minored in it. But only minored because I found that the farther along I got in studying it, the more everything I enjoyed about it vanished.

The fascination has always been with the people. Who they were, what they were like as individuals, how they lived, what they did every day, the thousand and one details of their humanity. I eat it up.

But somewhere around middle school, they stopped teaching that. History morphed into dry, impersonal politics and wars, with people only worthy of consideration in terms of what power they wielded. I started turning to biographies from the library for the kind of information I really wanted to learn.

By college, my upper level history classes were taught by men and attended almost entirely by men (the classes were small, but I don’t recall there ever being more than three women in any one of them) and nearly all of what we learned was politics and war. The times when a professor would pepper in a stray personal anecdote about some historical figure were highlights for me, more memorable than the More Important things we were learning. I struggled with essay tests that wanted discussions of how this law or that battle had whatever effect. It was hard to find books in the university library (for book reports) that were actually readable. But I did memorize all the monarchs of England since 1066 and could tell you how they were related to each other and a little something about most of them personally. Tests didn’t ask for that sort of thing. It was insignificant. Politics and battles are the serious things that really matter; interest in the more human side of things was silly and frivolous and...well, exactly the sort of thing only a girl would care about. 

No one ever said that in so many words, but...it was still there.

I still encounter this approach. A friend’s husband is keen on history. He’s impressively knowledgeable and passionate about military history in particular--battles and strategy and WEAPONS. But if our conversation takes a historical turn, it will consist of him monologuing about, say, the Russo-Japanese War, and if I try to chime in with some information on the Romanovs, I get brushed off and talked over. I know he doesn’t mean anything unkind by it (he’s excited about his interest--I can relate), but the message is still clear. Military history is Real History, and talking about people is trivial and possibly even “feminine.”

Anyway, I was thinking about all this as I was devouring a biography today, getting to know people I’ll never meet. There are plenty of books like this out there, and I’m grateful for them. There are plenty of approaches to history, and social history is entirely valid. I am not alone in my interests. But I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s very telling what is generally allowed to be taken seriously in history, that the subject is often skewered toward the interests of a specific sort of person, and anything less tends to be dismissed. Nevertheless, there’s merit to be had in all these aspects (political, military, and social/cultural), and shouldn’t they all be afforded equal regard for what insights they add to the puzzle of understanding the past?

[spacetravelwriter]

Langblr reactivation challenge

Week 1

Day 1: Create an introduction post about yourself. What's your name? What languages are you studying? What languages do you hope to study? What do you hope you'll get out of this challenge? Add whatever else you’d like to your introduction post!

Name: Kanita

Nationality: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Native in: Bosnian(+Serbian, Croatian), English

Languages learning:

Spanish (upper intermediate) - I haven't taken any DELE exams, I don't really learn Spanish, I use it on a daily basis and I gotten myself up to a high level like this;

German (B1 from 2 years ago) - I haven't used German in over 2 years (since I started uni I haven't had much use for it) and the German I knew was from school, I plan on getting back my level and exceeding it one day, but for now I'm not in the mood to get back to it, maybe next year;

Basque (beginner) - I'm not a total beginner, I have been learning it since May, I can express some of my thoughts, I've been learning it mostly with the book "The Basque language: A practical introduction" by Alan R. King and I had done a 14-day challenge before that to get myself into the basics. I'm totally in love with this language and I plan on being conversational until May-June 2023, aka in around half a year

Special mentions: Arabic(Syrian), Japanese - I'm really interested in learning these languages but I'm making myself put it on hold before I get a bit more comfortable in my Basque

Main target language: Basque/Euskara + I want to take a DELE Spanish exam next year (C1 hopefully)

I've already explained it here that I'm far away from the Basque Country, and that I don't plan on working there (at least anytime soon, my love for the culture of Euskal Herria is growing every day) but that I still somehow fell in love with this language. I might not need to use it anytime soon, but I feel happy learning it. Plus, I did use it once in real life. Here's a fun short story:

In the same post I've mentioned where I got the idea of studying Basque from. This August I visited Madrid to watch Real Madrid's women's team play in the Champions League. Long story short, I met the player I mentioned in the post (Nahikari) and while most of the conversation we had was in Spanglish, I told her something in Euskera. I totally messed up the word order (also giggled) the first time I said it but she asked me to repeat it and understood me. So, I count it as using the language even though I said one single sentence (it was pretty long though, I had to think about it a lot).

What do I hope to get out of this challenge? Well, hopefully connect with more people that are studying the same languages I mentioned, especially Basque because it's really hard to find another person studying Basque.

[adhyatmikvikasmission]

All About Reiki: How The Type Of Energy Healing Works & Its Health Benefits.

What is Reiki? Reiki is a spiritual practice method developed by Mikao Usui in 1922. It is a Japanese method of stress and healing, which is very similar to yoga. According to the belief, India is the real origin of Reiki. Thousands of years ago there was knowledge of touch therapy in India. Evidence of this has been found in Atharvaveda. This knowledge continued to exist in oral form through the Guru-Shishya tradition. Due to the lack of this knowledge in writing, it gradually disappeared. Two and a half thousand years ago, Buddha taught this knowledge to his disciples so that while roaming in the forests of the time of country, they do not lack medical facilities and they can do their treatment. There is some description of it in Lord Buddha's book called 'Lotus Sutra'. From here it reached Japan via Tibet and China with monks. The work of rediscovering it in Japan was done by the Japanese saint Dr. Mikao Usui in his lifetime from 1869–1926. According to its ideology, energy flows only from living beings. Reiki experts believe that the invisible energy is called life energy or ki and is the life force of life. Experts say that "ki" is all around us and can be absorbed by the brain.

How many seventies are there in Reiki? There are usually three or five seventies of Reiki training. Each engagement has a force of reason, depending on the education and practice you practice.

Why is Reiki important? Reiki has been linked to a number of physical and emotional health benefits, including improved sleep, improved mood, and pain relief in published studies, with research showing that Reiki helps to return to a state of relaxation that helps it recover from stress, injury, or illness. Allows you to potentially better recover from damage caused.

Where can Reiki help you? Or you can say which things can be healed, where can you take the help of Reiki in your life, and which diseases and problems are cured with the help of Reiki, let me tell you that Reiki works everywhere in everything. helps you (everywhere everything) but still, many people are confused and ask if will it be cured with reiki or if can it be useful in this thing can I do healing this thing, will tell you where to do reiki And in what things will Reiki help you?

Reiki Benefits:- 1. Mental problems, physical problems, financial problems, emotional problems, relationships, and spiritual life. 2. Pets, Plants Animals, Non-Living Things, 3. Married Life Problems, Maternity Problems, Tension, Stress, 4. Problems with studies, concentration, memory focus, not getting good marks in studies, lack of focus in studies, 5. Problems in Business, Partnership Problems in Sales and Profits Business, Valiant Issues, 6. Goals and Desires that are not being fulfilled, or any wishes that have not been fulfilled, 7. Psychic Problems, Evil Eyes, Negative Energy, Upper Air, Witchcraft, Ghosts, Pirate Doshas, ​​Increase Karmic, 8. Problems in property, whether to buy or sell a house is not happening, 9. Abroad Statement Issues, Visa Not Lagna, Documents Problems, Funds Problems. 10. Disputes. You can also cure all these problems through Reiki. Reiki is useful everywhere, you can take the help of Reiki in everything, Reiki will help you everywhere, whether it is your problems or problems of family friends, problems of home or problems of Vastu, your star in astrology is not in your favor. That too Reiki helps you and with the help of Reiki, you can fix and improve anyone's problems through Reiki. There are many basic problems learning Reiki, which you can fix by learning Reiki in 1,2,3, levels.

Reiki Crystal Products In Reiki, we take the help of many crystals, there are some healing crystals, with the help of which our healing is more powerful and good results come, and results come quickly, with the help of crystals we clean our auras. Can clean aura with the help of a crystal pencil, and can balance, apart from this, we use crystal in healing, crystal garland is worn while healing because it is good for our aura, we get positive inspiration in healing And crystals should be worn, should be used, when doing the healing, then the patient is applied to the eyes, there are dumbbells, and the patient can hold them in his hands. It is even better, it gives relief to the patient and gets happiness, prosperity, and peace, everything feels good.

5 Levels of Reiki Healing Many people are confused about the 5 levels of Reiki, what happens in Reiki 5 levels, there are 5 levels in Reiki in which you do your own healing, you get powerful symbols and harmony and You can do healing yourself well, you can also heal living and non-living things, you can also do emergency healing, you can also learn mastership level in Reiki and Grand Mastership, in both, you are taught Healing Attunement in which you are in a relationship. Attunement Students Study Attunement, Attract Money Attunement also learn and you can also learn, you get more powerful symbols.

You should work hard by yourself to solve your problems and you have not learned Reiki yet, then soon you should learn Reiki from work, you should learn 2 levels of Reiki so that it can be known what is this science after all because You can and will be self-dependent by learning Reiki, you do not need to depend on anyone else, you can solve your own problems, and your family's problems by yourself, not only yourself but also heal others' problems. You can do it through Reiki, the best and easiest way to become self-dependent is to learn Reiki, so register today to learn Reiki, the knowledge of Reiki is very valuable, it can change your life.

Reiki Training Life Time Service is Provided in Our Adhyatmik Vikas Mission Reiki Healing Center and Shri Vikas Duggal Ji Guruji is India's Best Reiki Healer Master, you guys join our Adhyatmik Vikas Mission and learn Reiki.

The best Reiki Healing Centre in India is Adhyatmik Vikas Mission is the best reiki healing center.

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[falseandrealultravival]

Water and Soil: What is water? (4) (4/6)

Soil Purification Method

(6 episodes in all, I will post an article I wrote in a mini comic magazine from 1984 to 1985. It is old, but I admit that it still has a certain value. My writing This is an article about training. Episode 4)

‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥

"My elder brother is doing the food, thinking that I am doing sewerage --- the one who goes in, so this one is the one who goes out (stools)." --- My friend S  talked to me. This clarity took my breath away. "Well, it's most important  of everything." --- At that time, both he and I were in the "water treatment group" that researched Jun Ui's sewerage technology. In other words, I was doing monotonous experiments of boiling and baking sewage all day long.

By the way, the "sewer" is a technology that goes from the hose of the kitchen or toilet to the sea through the sewer pipe and the treatment plant. What we do at the core treatment plant is "water clearance". For example, put miso (Japanese seasoning) in water and stir it. If you leave it for a while, the upper part will become thinner and the mass of miso will sink to the bottom. The treatment plant is very similar to this. The pollutants in the water are "nutrition", and when the soil is put in and stirred, the microorganisms in the soil feed on the nutrients and grow. At this time, a large amount of air is sent in to help their breathing. Next, if left without sending air, microorganisms (called "activated sludge") will settle because they are heavier than water, so the water from the upper will be released. Activated sludge, which is a living thing, is charming because it really turns red miso when it is in good condition. However, there are quite a few things that cannot be removed because they are not big enough to eat anything.

Then, what to do with activated sludge after draining water --- what you borrowed from the soil is returned to the soil --- this is the iron rule, but that is not the case. The current sewerage system is easy to accept not only domestic wastewater but also factory wastewater, and if heavy metals and other harmful substances are mixed in the latter --- activated sludge containing a large amount of it is It is a weak point of sewerage. “Even if it is boiled or baked, it cannot be eaten.” If sludge is incinerated, the area around the chimney will be contaminated with heavy metals. We can't even return it to farmland. Mostly, they are outsourced to a contractor and landfilled or dumped in forests or oceans. (Author's note: Sludge ash containing radioactive substances generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake cannot even do that.) However, the problem is not limited to factories.

A huge pyramid is about to be built on such an uncertain foundation. Regarding "basin sewerage", which treats sewage at the level of one million people a day, there are proceedings against construction in various places, and in reality, many books can be written, but I will not mention much here. (For details, see Junko Nakanishi's "Urban Revitalization and Sewerage" (Nihon Hyoronsha). This is a good book about sewerage full of contradictions.

Actually, what I want to stick to is something more modest. I have vaguely used the word "dirt" in this series so far, but what exactly is this? To put it a little out of the ordinary, isn't it a "flush toilet"? Those that have a two-sided relationship with the benefits of "sewerage". In other words, let's do "dirty things", useless things, and foreign things far away and invisible. That's because I think it's based on the idea that the rest will be somehow. The first half of this idea is the arrogance that "I" has disappeared somewhere. The second half is irresponsible for pushing your luggage against something else. ――― In other words, the “flush toilet” is made up of arrogance and irresponsibility! ――― Is that too much to say? Will the end result be "nothing can be done"?

There is a sewerage technology called "Soil Purification Method". This is a technology that can be made one by one, which is said to be a reaction to the unnecessarily huge sewerage system. Instead of the conventional method of "treating water as water", it is intended to guide water to the basement and purify it with the powerful power of microorganisms, plants, earthworms, etc. in the soil. Since it depends on the power of the soil from the beginning, it seems that the water is actually considerably purified. However, not everything can be shed. For example, synthetic detergent. The soil dies. Also, stool. As I wrote in the first part of this series, soil is relatively incapacitated, and nitric acid, which is decomposed by proteins, causes groundwater pollution. The problem with this stool is the weakness of the soil purification method. (Although it is the whole sewerage system.) With that in mind, I think it is effective if only the wastewater is drained intermittently instead of always emission.

However, the idea of ​​"leading water into the soil" is not perfect. Sure, there is nothing more convenient than soil to suppress odors, but isn't that exactly the "flush toilet"? In that case, I think it is more straightforward to sprinkle water, and like the old farmers, I feel familiar with the idea of ​​using sewage as a fertilizer for the fields, keeping it close to every one. The other is that once you make a fixed device, you tend to overconfide in its ability and start to shed "dirt" as much as you want.

Now again, we have to think about what "sewerage" or "water treatment" is. Sewerage technology can only be completed by connecting water and soil. It's a good fertilizer. And I think that the blessings of that will help grow vegetables that can be eaten with peace of mind. However, does the analysis show that the "dirt" that is currently treated only as a monster can be used as fertilizer? ――― I think there is an infinite gap between “throwing away” and “keeping it alive”.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is my current situation. One of the things I was thinking about when choosing my current apartment was that it wasn't a flush toilet. In reality, it is an apartment with a flush toilet in Koganei City on the Chuo Line. Although I can evade that there were other factors, I am firmly benefiting from the "sewerage". "Am I making something?" --- "…" At best, store the kitchen drainage without draining it, and sprinkle it later. I pee outside as much as I can.(as fertilizer). Fortunately, there is a vacant lot nearby, so I go to fill the vegetable dregs in my spare time. What a modest resistance. What's more, there is a delicious spring water nearby, and at the same time, the breathless "Nogawa(small river flowing nearby)" is flowing. What can i do?

For less than a year, I have been indebted to the neighboring greengrocer "P" in Kokubunji city. Right now, I work part-time at a store number two or three times a week, and I have a lot of fun, but I still have some concerns. It's the destination of yellow leaves and moldy tomatoes. Of course, depending on how you handle it and the understanding of the customer, you don't have to throw it away, and if I have a surplus, I can eat it, so I think this is a big difference from quarters. However, when arranging radishes in a store, I picked up the frost-damaged leaves, casually pushed them into a bag, and brought them to a garbage collection spot. I think this may be a big deal.

(Note: My teacher, Junko Nakanishi, actually called an installer to install this "soil purification method" and tried water quality analysis, and found that there was no water purification effect. )

Postscript: Human activities reduce soil

* * Water gets dirty,

Soil is gone.

Unexpectedly neglected soil (soil) is rarer than water. I made a trial calculation. In the science chronology (1993 edition), the area ratio between land and ocean is 1: 2.42. Also, the average depth of the ocean is

3795m. One-third of the land will be farmland or forest land, and the depth will be 1.5m. Then the amount (volume) of soil

1 * (1/3) * 1.5 = 0.5 (unit)

The amount (volume) of ocean water is

2.42 * 3795 = 9184 (unit)

There is an overwhelming difference.

However, since ocean water is not available, let's calculate the amount of land water, especially river and lake water. For this, we will use the landwater data of "EIC Net". http://www.eic.or.jp/ecoterm/?act=view&serial=2657

2.5% of the water on the earth is fresh water, of which 0.88% is river / lake water.

So fresh water

9184 * (2.5 / 100) = 230 (unit)

River / lake water

230 * (0.88 / 100) = 2.03 (unit), so river / lake water is soil

2.03 / (0.5) = 4.1 (times)

Although the amount of water in rivers and lakes is small compared to the total amount of water, it is about four times as much as soil. Even if the above settings change, the order (digits) will not change. Do you understand that soil is rarer than water? The soil (soil) here is a soil with a rich biota in which crops can be cultivated.

In the past log, I wrote that "pottery reduces soil",

Here, I would like to broaden my perspective and write with the theory that "human activities reduce soil." In the Ashio copper mine incident in the Meiji era, the forest died due to the sulfur dioxide gas emitted from the smelter, the soil flowed out, and the mountain became Bald Mountain. In addition, harmful metals flowed out from the slag to the downstream area, and the rice fields became barren. "Human activity is reducing the soil" wonderfully. In addition, due to the so-called global warming problem, if the sea level rises, the land will be submerged and effective farmland will become unusable. This would also be a practical example of "human activity reducing soil". Oh yeah, one thing that Southeast Asians think is very short-sighted is that they are crushing fine paddy fields and adding seawater to make them "shrimp farms" because "shrimp sell well in Japan." There is. Paddy fields that can surely produce their own food are turned into farms based on Japanese tastes and economic conditions, and they rely on cash income, so they can only be called stupid. And their activity is "reducing soil" by contaminating it with salt. Back in ancient China, how much wood was cut down and burned when making the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of “the First Emperor”(始皇帝). Rough logging leads to desertification ... China's history is certainly desertification ... a history of reducing soil.

Civil engineering and architectural engineering come first in the classification of the departments of the Faculty of Engineering (in the case of the University of Tokyo), but there are probably fewer fields that "reduce soil" as much as these two academic fields. This is also mentioned in the past logs.

Well, unfortunately, I think it is the truth that "soil is reduced" in return for "human activity".

However, as I did at the beginning of this article, "soil is rarer than water." I think that the time when "soil" disappears is the time when humans perish.

In addition, even if you are engaged in farming, you may reduce (kill) the soil. It's time to cultivate chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but when you think about it, the chemical industry intervenes. If you set up a thesis there, it seems that "human activities related to industry reduce soil". I would call this the "human extinction theorem". (By the way, there is a collection of essays by novelist Shichiro Fukasawa called "Song of the Fall of Humans" (Tokuma Shoten). I sympathize with Fukasawa's sensibility.)

* * Water gets dirty,

Soil is gone.

A word of the day: Even in the ancient Chinese thought "Yin-Yang Five Elements", soil is the most important of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, gold, and water (gogyo: the element that makes the world).

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 6: I spy a spider in the fog

Chapter 6 starts out with Riev and Novala discussing plans to capture Eirika.

Novala uses this interesting expression in Japanese that I was unfamiliar with. "(Like) A mouse in a bag". It seems kind of similar to the English "Like shooting fish in a barrel". Basically, Novala is convinced that Eirika is trapped with no way out.

Oh, and here is Novala's name in Japanese: "Nobera"

Or maybe "Novela"? Is he named after Spanish-language, daytime TV???

Anyone who has played this game knows that Valter is creepy, especially in his interactions with Eirika. But here, Novala also creepily opens with "As beautiful a woman as rumored..." before demanding Eirika's bracelet.

And again, Seth insists that Eirika not hand over her bracelet, even though he has yet to explain why it's so important.

So Novala shows his hand and reveals that he has captured some Renais civilians that he will kill if Eirika doesn't hand over her bracelet.

So why am I spending so much time introducing this one-off villain? Well, this chapter's opening has always stuck in my mind. I like what it does with the situation, and with Eirika's character.

Here, after Eirika expresses her shock at Novala's actions, he belittles her for not understanding that "this is what war is" and that "in war, you can do whatever you want to your enemies".

This scene nicely illustrates what I like about Eirika's character, which is that she is at heart someone who believes in the goodness of people, and in fairness. She shows shock at Grado's sudden invasion in the beginning of the game, and then here too when she is confronted with an enemy willing to mercilessly sacrifice civilians.

However, she is not a naive pushover. Once it is clear to her that Novala has no interest in negotiating in good faith, she declares that she will not allow evil actions like the ones Novala is taking. She is willing to fight when needed, even if it is not her first instinct.

I also always found this line chilling for how real it is. Here, Novala tells the villagers that, if they want to be mad at someone, they should be mad at Eirika for forcing his hand. This kind of blame-shifting excuse is not uncommon to hear from people who do bad things in real life.

The three villagers end the scene by asserting that "someone" will surely come to rescue them.

This is the team I'm thinking of using. There are some hard choices to make here.

I wouldn't mind having Natasha in order to have a second healer, but I don't feel like I need one so badly that I want to use a slot on that.

I'm bringing Colm because he'll help me see in the fog.

And I've dropped Garcia in favor of Ross. I think I do want to use Ross, but I haven't leveled him up much yet, and it's going to get harder the more I put it off.

I wanted to bring Neimi since I like her, but I feel like I already have enough squishy characters deployed, so I'm leaving her out for now.

I also use the dragon shield I got on Vanessa to raise her defense by 2. In Fire Emblem games, usually it's better to raise stats for characters who already are good in that stat since leaning into a gimmick typically pays off better than having a well-rounded character. But I feel like my two tankiest units, Seth and Franz, have enough defense already, and Vanessa is pretty much the next closest after them.

Since she can fly around (and there's only one archer on this map to watch out for) she also may spend some time on her own, and it's good if she can be self-sufficient.

I give Lute the secret book to raise her skill because

LUTE!!!!

She deserves all of the nice things.

Finally, here's the layout of the map. We can't see much due to fog. All of the enemies are to our right / upper-right, but after a couple of turns, some reinforcement cavalry will appear right about where we are starting, I think around where Franz and Joshua are now.

There isn't much straight up in this map, so everyone is going to head right. Notice the hills to the right of Joshua, those can make a useful choke point for dealing with the enemies who are right and up from our starting position.

This is to the right of the above picture, and I think the boss is right around where I've left the cursor. Defeating the boss ends the map, which is important since rushing the boss can potentially save the villagers before they're ever in danger.

Down from the above photo, and due right from our starting position we find the villagers. A giant spider will head at them from the mountains above. You have quite a few turns to finish the map (or potentially rescue them out of there) before the spider reaches them.

In the past, I've often sent Vanessa flying over to save them, but she can't really do much against the spider, so I'm thinking that this time I might just have her stick with everyone else and help rush the boss.

And we've come clockwise back around almost to where we started, so this photo is to the left of the one above. I don't remember what's in the village, but I remember it being something disappointing. Aside from the hills above that I pointed out in one of the photos above, the scattering of forests to the right of our starting position, and the fort all are useful in handling the enemies since they hinder movement and give avoid.

While Sacred Stones is overall not a very difficult Fire Emblem, especially on normal mode, this map does have a bit of a jump in difficulty from the ones before. If nothing else, the fog makes it much easier to make a mistake, and it's early game, so most units are doing well if they can take even two hits without dying.

To be continued!