Quick updates

Hello, I thought about posting a few times over the past couple of months, but then I got lazy, lol. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on:

• Buying digital manga at honto: Yes, honto is still my number one site to buy manga. I think they have the best deals for digital manga, even though the discount/coupons are not as good as they used to be a few years ago. The normal discount is usually 20% for digital manga, but sometimes you can get lucky and find a 30% deal (usually for manga sets). I’ve spent more money on manga in the past two months than I did over the past couple of years, lol. I’m trying to finish up some of the series that I was reading back then, like Perfect World and Totsuzen Desu Ga, Ashita Kekkon Shimasu. I also started buying a few new series that look interesting: Amakunai Karera no Nichijo wa; Cinderella Closet; and Koi wo Surunara Kimi Igai.
• Translating for ShoujoHearts: The group is semi-active again, yay! I’ve missed the camaraderie of our scanlation family, so I’m really happy that we’ve started working on several priority projects regularly. The web site has been updated, so go and check it out: ShoujoHearts
• Playing otome games: I started playing 7’scarlet (English version) and Chou no Doku Hana no Kusari (Japanese version). So far 7’scarlet is kind of meh, so I’m hoping that it gets better. As for Chou no Doku, I initially got it because I like the art and the time period (I usually prefer historical backdrops over current stuff). The storyline isn’t overly imaginative which isn’t surprising for this type of game, but there is a little mystery involved so that makes it somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that I’m not as enthusiastic about otome games anymore, and I get a little bored after playing a game for an hour or so. That kind of makes me sad and I hope that I can rediscover my love for them in the future.
• Watching jdrama: I finished Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo; Totsuzen Desu ga, Ashita Kekkon Shimasu; and Imouto yo (1990’s drama) and I’m currently watching Watashitachi wa Douka Shiteru. Next up is 30 Kin. Yeah, most of the dramas are manga adaptations.
• Studying Japanese: I am attempting to improve my knowledge of Japanese, once again… I’m pretty sure that I won’t make too much progress though, lol. It seems like I’m kind of stuck at the current level that I’ve been at for the past 10 years. I did purchase a new electronic dictionary (Casio Ex-word) through Amazon Japan since my previous one is probably 15 years old and no longer works. This new one has so many more bells and whistles with a ton of J-E and E-J dictionaries; thesauruses; kanji dictionaries; encyclopedias; and math, science, social studies, and language study guides for junior high students. It has videos and sound! And it’s in color with a stylus! Despite all the functionality, I’m kind of surprised that Japanese electronic dictionaries are still popular when there are so many mobile apps that can do most of the same things. I also bought an awesome kanji study app (Kanji Study) that pretty much has everything you need to help boost your kanji and vocabulary skills. I was chatting with someone about Japan while watching a Twitch stream and they turned out to be the app creator who suggested that I look into the app! That’s pretty cool.