2025-04-08

Another “cultural difference”: butter comes in singular 200g blocks that are big and flat, like a bar of soap sort of, and don’t have dividers to help you cut off a bit of the bar.

2025-04-11

Harumi Chihiro did start her new series. Unfortunately, it looks like the release schedule is going to be one chapter every two months, so I wonder if I’ll keep my comic-fuz subscription vs just buying the magazines…

2025-05-03

I’ve finally finished reading the Japanese edition of Starting Over, one of my favorite light novels. There’s just something compelling about the premise and execution, even if I can’t really condone the protagonist’s behavior, it’s fascinating to watch his evolution. After all, as he himself notes, who gets a chance to redo life…then decides he doesn’t want to change a thing?

I do feel a bit more accomplished now that I can sort of read “real literature” in Japanese, even if I’m being boosted by reading things that I’ve read before in English.

A choice quote (translation, and mistakes, my own):

I think my mistake was that I played it too safe. For example, take the 100 meter dash. If a hundred people run, there’ll be someone who always comes in around third, right? But that person ended up third while trying their very best to be first. If they had aimed for third place from the start, then they would have finished seventh, even ninth, right? I think the mistake I made was that kind of mistake.

2025-05-17

I’ve finished reading 「愛しさに気づかぬうちに」by KAWAGUCHI Toshikazu which is in the series of novels starting with Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Now, I do think this series is rather formulaic, but it’s still enjoyable, and actually very easy to read—text is not too dense and it’s lots of dialogue, plus chapters are a bit repetitive. Compared to the light novels I’ve read, this “real” novel was a walk in the park.

No choice quotes from this novel—I didn’t write anything down. Next up is another book by the author of Starting Over called 「君の話」 (Your Story).

2025-05-18

I went and tried out a Uyghur restaurant in Ueno, 天山見·新疆本場料理店HALAL. I can’t claim to know the cuisine too well but it was still good, on par with the Uyghur restaurants I’ve been to in Ikebukuro.

2025-05-19

I have been looking for the Japanese equivalent of NPR’s Books We Love but haven’t managed to find one. Of course, there are bestseller lists, but those aren’t curated. I have found some recommendation lists too, but they still aren’t curated as nicely as NPR’s list, which slices and dices books across multiple categories and not just genre. The best I’ve managed to find so far is 話題の本.com.

2025-05-23

I went and saw Princess Principal: Crown Handler 4. Overall, I think I would’ve been happier if I hadn’t had to wait so long for it to come out; hopefully the 5th movie comes out sooner rather than later.

2025-06-08

Chipped my tooth today when I hit a curb a bit fast on my bicycle. It turns out going to the emergency dentist and getting it checked out and patched cost…2390 yen.