Rabu Study Day

Lapsed, but not dead!

Japan is just over ONE WEEK AWAY (eek!), but I wanted to get at least a couple of these done before going. Then maybe I can use the post-Japan One Piece high to keep moving forward.

( Volume 57: The War at the Summit )

Not sure if this is rushing things, but at one point mangaroo was hoping to walk 54 and 55 back to the library tomorrow, so I figured I'd better post it. Will see if I can get through 56 this weekend.

( Volume 55: A Buddha in Hell )

So, mangaroo, you're not super attached to any of the Strawhats besides Luffy, right? I mean, you won't mind if we don't see them for... a while? /facepalm

On with Volume 53! From Shabondy to Amazon Lily.

( Volume 53: Quality of a King )

I had forgotten how dense this volume was. (Maybe I should say "confusing." Once again, it was a lot clearer on re-reading in retrospect.)

Also, this could be considered rather a nasty cliffhanger. I will try to get on to 53 quickly.

( Volume 52: Roger and Rayleigh )

I have so many things I feel I ought to be catching up on! Maybe another life post soon. In the meantime, I want to get the One Piece train re-started before I lose momentum completely.

I have a lot of favorite scenes in this volume. At last, Thriller Bark wraps up, and we're getting ready to move on to the Shabondy arc.

( One Piece 50 )

It's good to be home!

( One Piece 48 - Oars' Adventure )

Whoa, where did May go?

Besides end of semester craziness and beach travel, I've been having a little motivation trouble because Thriller Bark has never been a favorite arc of mine. It has some great moments, to be sure, but zombies are just not my thing.

I had hoped to make more progress at the beach, but we had such a run of good weather that I couldn't do much of anything on the computer at all. Not that I'm complaining.

But the arc isn't too long, so, on with it!

( One Piece 46: Ghost Island Adventure )

This is no doubt full of typos and I don't even know what all, but I am so far behind, I just need to get it out and keep moving. ^_^;;

Enies Lobby draws to a close, post-Enies Lobby awaits.

( Volume 44: Let's Go Home )

I feel kind of dumb that I didn't know this existed, but I was wandering around the koohii forums (I think I was looking to see if anyone had done a Kanzen Master grammar deck for the higher levels) and stumbled across a reference to this site.

(I switched into Japanese for good discipline, but you can actually get most of the menus and instructions to display in English by clicking on the thingy in the upper right corner.)

My challenge to myself, lately, has been to really focus on listening practice and see if I can get my comprehension levels up. It's just so frustrating to listen to the news every night (TuneIn on the iPhone, ILU) and have to feel proud of myself when I recognize that they're talking about the Ukraine (because believe me, that is ALL I'm getting).

Anyway, Erin's Challenge was recommended for listening practice. It's a really clever site - you can do all sorts of things to customize how much or how little help you get from subtitles, etc. But what I think I love most is how culturally localized and specific it is, at least judging just from the first "chapter". It's like reading manga, only better. (I now know where to park the bike I don't own next time I'm traveling in Japan. Cool!)

Probably not so fun for those who have actually lived in Japan and can understand all this stuff, but highly recommended for anyone else who is studying Japanese.

Now I have something to do for practice other than listening to old One Piece episodes!

This one might be a bit rough in terms of proofreading, but I'll hope for the best! I haven't started 43 yet.

As I thought, a lot of shounen fighting in this one. A few good moments too though. :-)

( Volume 42: Pirates Vs. CP9 )