I haven't shared one of these in a while, but this is just too good of a haul to resist. I got the Japanese books just because mostly out of convenience since I'm going to read at least one of them with my friend (her and in English and me in Japanese), but the three English books mark what I think was the first time I went to my favourite bookstore this year?

I've been avoiding it because the weak yen has made import books incredibly unaffordable and I know myself--I would buy six bajillion even though they cost a fortune and then I would be homeless. They did a 20% off sale this weekend though and pairing that with the points I've saved up from previous purchases, it ended up being a pretty economical book haul for me.

My TBR remains embarrassing, but sometimes we just need to buy ourselves a nice thing or five.

#BookHaul

I haven't knit with any consistency for several years, as is my habit, but I finished a dishcloth yesterday. I started it quite a while ago in an attempt to use it as a kind of physiotherapy for my hands, but life is chaotic and it hid under the junk on my desk for many months. Yesterday though, I was listening to a very rambly audiobook and needed something to focus on that was simple enough that I could still pay attention to the audiobook. And thus, I knit the remaining half of the dishcloth and then decided I was going to start a really confusing and difficult to knit scarf.

Let's see if I can finish the scarf before I forget what pattern I'm using and where I am in the pattern.

#knitting

I've had this introductory book on the transgender experience(?) for awhile now, but just couldn't find the time to read it. I really want to learn how to be more articulate in Japanese when I talk about these topics. So while I think a lot of the basic stuff isn't going to be new information, I'm really looking forward to what I can learn from this book. And hopefully I can use that knowledge in positive ways that help people even if it's just dealing with misconception--something I'm definitely less equipped to do in Japanese.

#AmReading #TransRightsAreHumanRights

I intended to spend the day at home today, but I just couldn't shake off how groggy I felt even after breakfast and being awake for a few hours. So I decided to go get lunch outside and have a small adventure...where I promptly ended up at a quaint little secondhand bookstore.

Most of the items were in clear bins that were laid out on the ground in front of the shop so it was a bit hard for me with my crummy knees and currently crummy neck, but the owner was incredibly kind and I ended up finding a few books I wanted to buy. I always try to buy something when I go to an independently owned shop, so I'm really happy I managed to find some things. I only paid 650 yen too--brand new these books would have been closer to 3,000 yen these days!

#BookHaul #UsedBooks #bookstodon

Spent a week in Kyoto and broke all my "rules" on book buying. Not that it had been going super well anyway. At least I can count these purchases as souvenirs and not mere stress purchases. And quite a few of them I've been thinking about buying for quite a while and had just been holding back, so I think I can count this as mostly mindful consumerism 😆

I also got one novel that was a complete impulse purchase, but it kind of ruined the vibe of the picture so I didn't include it lol

#bookstodon #manga #BookHaul

Bought myself some Japanese dictionaries the other day after being inspired by @renkotsuban. I got a regular dictionary and a character dictionary, and while I think the character dictionary is very cool (it was kind of a stress purchase), I think I'll probably get a lot more use out of the standard dictionary. I'm particularly happy about the fact that I can access both on my phone through the included app codes, but it's also nice that if they decide to kill the app, I'll still have the actual dictionaries too.

These are both the standard versions from the publisher meant for high schoolers and above, but they also have a series from different editors that's more directed at middle schoolers. I'm sure they're all fine dictionaries, but these versions have more words, so I thought they'd be better for my translator purposes.

#translation #Japanese #辞典

Life is chaotic, so a few weeks ago I picked up this cozy-looking manga about a secondhand bookstore. It was a good decision. It seems that the plan for this story wasn't for it to be anything more than a few one shots, so it's not incredibly cohesive or anything--it's more like a compilation of interconnected short stories. In any case, it was the easy comfortable reading that I was anticipating when I bought it, so that's a win.

Would definitely be a great manga for anyone who's into books to read. Real books are referenced throughout and there's a list of the books mentioned and their publication date at the back of the volume. I was interested to discover that there's a manga adaptation of an incredibly wild Japanese novel I read late last year. Looks like there will be another volume published in a few months too, so that's something to look forward to!

#AmReading #manga #bookstodon

The first of what I hope are many lovely books that I'll read in Japanese this year. This one is a short stort collection by You Ashizawa. It's an SF collection, but it's my understanding that the author largely writes mysteries or mystery adjacent work.

I'll admit I was drawn to this book because of the compelling title and the, ahem, interesting choice of cover design. This is the first of anything I've read from the author, so it's all I really have to go on. And I was not disappointed.

This collection was filled with such a variety of different stories taking place of different periods of time, both in our world and ones that are parallel to ours. I could feel the origins of the author in mystery writing and it made all of the stories a lot of fun. Really hope to see more SF works in the future!

#AmReading #JapaneseLit

Home from work today because I have an appointment with my rheumatologist this afternoon and I ended up getting a super cool delivery (that I probably wouldn't have got until the weekend otherwise).

Awhile ago @ettaB_1 wrote a post about handcrafted hot water bottles from Gifu, but I didn't have the money and they went out of stock. Well, I got a notification on Saturday that more were ready and bought one and a lovely linen cover.

This thing is so cool! Everything but the rubber seal is handcrafted and apparently it'll hold heat for up to 24 hours. I'm so excited to try it out.

I love supporting craftspeople making awesome stuff like this. I'll also share the link for any Japan-based people who may want to order one!

https://enkel-mn.shop-pro.jp/?pid=120616879

#pottery

I finally finished a game that I bought! It doesn't matter that I bought this game like 3 years ago and it didn't even take 10 hours to finish because I finally finished it! It seems that recording my video game collection on Backloggery and writing small updates every time I play has in fact been very motivating and made the experience more fun.

Carto was such a lovely and thoughtfully put together little puzzle game with really interesting mechanics. I really like that the puzzles are centered around manipulating map pieces, which are central to how the story progresses. There were a few moments where I craved a bit more, but overall it was super fun and the illustrations are absolutely adorable and I love the style. I was also very happy to see localization teams and play testers credited properly at the end of the game.

Overall a really great experience. It would really be great to see more from the developers in the future!

#AmPlaying #VideoGames #carto