I’m amazed. Mine was full of stuff like this and this on the sidebar 
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I got a bunch of 朗読 for 太宰治, 江戸川乱歩, and the likes, plus regular recommendations.
But clicking on those links you just provided did indeed provide stuff relevant to my interests
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I was also curious, so I looked it up and found out stuff like this. If the gif is correct, it depends on the season, so it cannot really be pinpointed with our current system. That being said, さがり (so, “past” in that context) is pretty vague anyway.
Otherwise, that was a fun read. It had some creepypasta vibes, although I felt the end was a bit too drawn out for full impact.
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Yep. Pre clock reforms there were (complicated and expensive) mechanical “daimyou clocks” that would auto adjust the length of the hour they used with the season:
There’s a little one room museum of them in Tokyo.
It’s interesting that this story didn’t use the traditional 丑みつ time when ghosts are usually supposed to appear.
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Wow that truly was short and somewhat anti-climatic. The story really is just a short story of a ghost child. 
The thing from this story that left the biggest impression on me was the fact that most of the sentences were extremely long. 
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“Read” through 辛夷の花 | L35, but I’m so dang tired this morning I’m not sure how much I absorbed. Although quite honestly, skimming like I did might’ve helped my reading comprehension a bit; it’s written with older kana standardizations, so not trying to read too deeply + @pm215’s wonderful guide still gave me an okay reading experience. I would also definitely recommend reading along while listening to the audio.
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I really liked 辛夷の花! Perfect winter reading. Very descriptive, good vibes. The older kana usage was annoying, but I eventually got into a rhythm with it.
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December 9’s mystery pick:
Natively link: 川端康成へ | L38
朗読: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2RfWzsCsls
I’ll request this also be moved to nonfiction. I won’t say much beyond this piece made me curious and so I went googling and got this gem of a line:
太宰治といえば、日本文学史が誇るダメ男、いや、クズ男として有名だ。
(source)
Shots fired!
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Read 毒もみのすきな署長さん | L33 this morning. Uhh what? Really not sure what was going on with that ending. It felt like there should have been an obvious moral, but it just ends.
Edit: @cat The explanation you linked in your review last year helps a lot, thank you!
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Mmm, it definitely feels like a small piece of an ongoing argument. Reading the Wikipedia page on Dazai and matching up the dates you can see why some of the literary establishment might have taken a dim view of his personal life. The brother he mentions in the letter as giving him money is presumably the politician Bunji.
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This was pretty funny to read. A lot of the famous authors back then had beef and mailed petty letters back and forth between each other - there is in fact a whole book of these called 文豪たちの悪口本 I believe? Somewhat off topic, but there is a hilarious letter exchange in that book between 谷崎潤一郎 and 佐藤春生 regarding 谷崎s wife who was the inspiration for Naomi in 痴人の愛 and it’s so deliciously petty and immature. Will request it for natively now! 
Edits edits since this post had all the typos and wrong kanji
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I’m glad it helped! The ending is great after reading the explainer. I also have noticed with a lot of 宮沢’s works I hate them on the first read, then either a) it sits and takes up space in my brain until I appreciate the story it was or b) go google why on Earth he’d write something like that
That does make sense - such a scandalous life. I had been wondering reading it why his brother was giving him so much money. Maybe I should throw reading about Dazai on my ‘next year’ planned reading
Or maybe just read all the angry letters from back then
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Not taking part in this advent, but I still wanted to thank you for the guide. I never expected it to be useful for a book written in 1979 ( 穴 | L30??), but a letter from a 70-year old is full of things like おまへ instead of おまえ, 思ひがけない instead of 思いがけない, 言ふ instead of 言う and even an ゐたら instead of いたら. I’m very glad I had seen your post and remembered where to find it. 
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…I wonder if I should find a home for it that isn’t buried in a forum thread?
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December 10th’s mystery pick:
Natively link: 特攻隊に捧ぐ | L36
朗読: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4589gfpRpJw
This was an interesting essay to read after getting home from watching the new Godzilla movie (which also takes place during/after WWII and features a 特攻隊員). I quite enjoyed reading it although I did have to go slow to follow the sentences. Still not amazing at essay reading yet.
Which speaking of - @nikoru , I know you haven’t been able to participate as much in this as you planned, but I believe your initial interest was in reading essays? This is the first one so far this year that isn’t super tied up in historical figures you need to know the names of
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I’m 4 behind now because of work, booo.
But today I read 朝. It wasn’t bad. I don’t drink so I’m not sure if I can really relate to it. It was quite readable for my current level though, which is nice.
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Finished reading 特攻隊に捧ぐ | L36. It isn’t very surprising that the Occupation authority censors refused to allow it to be published at the time, I guess.
Having recently finished the Fatal Twelve VN I found the line 戦争に真実の自由はなく、所詮兵隊は人間ではなく人形なのだ had a familiar ring to it especially in connection with a suicide attack, though I suppose the 人間/人形 wordplay is one likely to have been thought of by multiple unconnected writers.
Wikipedia tells me that 坂口 安吾’s most famous essay is 堕落論, about the role of bushido during the war, and that he also wrote an award winning “ironical murder mystery”, 不連続殺人事件, both of which are on Aozora. I might read the bushido one later.
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It felt very readable to me as well. I’m really glad it ended the way it did, and not in the way it was implying events could have gone.
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You take the bushido, I take the mystery 
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I think I’ll finish before you, given the lengths (though if the mystery is any good I might add it to my wishlist)
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