Reading and language learning blog

November recap

Kikuo Tsunoda (角田喜久雄)

In terms of reading, November has been a Kikuo Tsunoda month! I finished the works featured in the Anthology of detective fiction (日本探偵小説全集 vol.3), and my conclusion is that I still prefer Saburo Koga (甲賀三郎) and Udaru Oshita (大下宇陀児). BUT, the Keisuke Kagami series is different! The novel 高木家の惨劇 is a real masterpiece of whodunnit! I found some tricks better than others, but still, it’s such a great detective novel: motives that are too obvious, alibis that are too perfect… and what looks like the perfect murder.

Published in 1947, it belongs to the great post-war detective novels along with outstanding works like 本陣殺人事件 or 不連続殺人事件.

I loved this novel so much that I immediately wanted to read the whole series. Fortunately, all the short stories of the series have been recently published by Sogensha in a complete collection. My goal was to finish the book in November, but I barely started it lol, but what I’ve read so far confirms that the Kagami series is excellent!

Other readings include two Korean novels, but that’s about it…

Arcane season 2

I rewatched Arcane season 1 and watched season 2 when it came out. Arcane is my favourite show on Netflix, the animation, the music, the voice acting, the combat scenes… everything is breathtaking. But most of all, the characters are incredible. There’s so much conflict in the series, yet no one is all good or bad, they all have reasons to do what they do and their personalities are the result of their past experiences. It’s fascinating to see how they evolve, for better or worse, and how some conclusions seemed impossible to avoid. The story and characters are all so vibrant, some scenes are so memorable, and I’ve been listening to the ost a lot since I finished season 2.

Vi is just one of my favourite fictional characters of all times.

There’s some violence and several combat scenes, so I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I heartily recommend this series. More than everything, it’s about family and friendship, being lost and betrayed, vision and ideals against harsh economic disparities… there’s so many topics. Oh, and a beautiful love story too (and it comes from someone who hates romance as a genre).

Genshin concert

It’s the first time I go to a Genshin concert, and wow, what a great experience! The music in Genshin is a great part of why I love the game and the characters so much.

“Hang by a Thread” is my favourite track in all Genshin (not just because I’m a Xiao main, I just love this track), and it was featured in the concert!! Some of the instruments were different (for example, the flute was not the same), but it didn’t matter at all. The music in Ayaka’s trailer “Tsubaki in Thawing Snow” was also one of my favourite moments in the concert. I also couldn’t believe that Cyno’s theme “Order of Silence” was featured! It’s one of my favourite demo music. Overall, I love Sumeru desert the most in terms of ost.

I was wondering if we’d get some Natlan music and we did! in the Encore! It was so joyful and energetic, it was perfect to end the performance on that.

  • A building with a facade that looks like a cathedral. Blue sky in the background and some people waiting in front of the building.
    The concert hall (평화의전당) has been designed to look like a cathedral in Brussels.
  • The inside of a concert hall. Several lines of seat, the stage and a big screen behind it.
    There was a big screen behind the stage that displayed trailers and in-game scenes.
  • A metallic badge displaying a female character with cat ears playing the violin.
    I got a Lynette badge! She’s one of my favourite characters.

Seoul Pen Show

I went to the Seoul Pen Show. I found that it was not really well advertised, like it was hard to find info about it, especially if you don’t speak Korean. I bought a pen pouch made by 샐리의 바느질 상자 (link to their online shop) and two inks of a brand I had never heard of before, I think it’s called デルタオリジナル? I couldn’t find a lot of information about this brand.

One ink is “Creation of Myth” and it is a beautiful orange, but there’s not much to it. The other one, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of colour I like. It’s called “Home Sweet Home” and is a pinkish brown with shimmer. Very cosy colour, perfect for winter!

  • A pen pouch made of fabric with cute sloths drawn on it and two bottle of ink still in their carton box.
    There was a lot of different designs of pen pouch, I like this colour and the sloths are adorable.
  • Picture of a fabric pen pouch opened. It can hold four pens, each has a separated slot. The pouch is filled with four fountain pens.
    I like that it can hold four pens, even though the pouch is very small and compact.
  • Ink drawing featuring trees and bushes. It displays several shades of the same ink.
    Ink swatch from the ink “Home Sweet Home”. It also has a purple shimmer, but it doesn’t show on the drawing.
  • Large room filled with long tables and chairs and crowded with people.
    The room was bigger than I expected and there was a lot of people!

And that’s it, I had a great November overall, did a lot of cycling and played a lot of Genshin Impact. I really must go back to reading though! Hope I’ll feel more motivated in December.

About

I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read mystery novels and play video games in these languages.

Learning languages has always been one of my favourite hobbies, but I’m not a social person, I don’t like to meet new people and make friends, this is just not me. I keep hearing that languages are meant for communication, that we have to actively use them, talk with natives, etc. and for a long time, I thought it was weird to learn languages just to read books, with zero interest in communication.

Now I don’t really care what people think, and this blog helped me a lot to stop doubting myself and just do what I enjoy doing.