ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 🛵 Volume 6

This is a continuation of the Intermediate Book Club reading ヨコハマ買い出し紀行.

We are continuing with one thread per volume. You can read the chapters at your own pace.

Intermediate Book Club Home Thread: Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: TUGUMI・Next: おばちゃんたちのいるところ
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Volume 6

Volume 6 cover

Start date: April 30th, 2022
Previous volume: ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 🛵 Volume 5
Next volume: ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 🛵 Volume 7

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.

  • I am reading along
  • I have already read the series beyond this volume
  • Maybe I’ll read this volume later
  • I have decided to drop the series
  • I am a tomato, show me the results :durtle_tomato:

0 voters

3 Likes

I read the first two chapters so far.

Chapter 43: a nice poetic colour chapter :slightly_smiling_face:

Chapter 44: more on the airship! I don’t think we’ve become much wiser, though, and it seemed that the Alpha in the air and the housekeeper also don’t know much about what is going on. Or did I miss something?

Also, I didn’t know that gasoline can go bad, but apparently that happens a lot faster than I thought. (Do they even have refineries anymore in that world?)

1 Like

I get the distinct impression that the Taapon is entirely automated, whatever it is that it’s doing, leaving Room Monitor Alpha with little to do other than look out the windows. So what she knows is basically whatever she can see.

2 Likes

The last few weeks have been busy, so it’s been a while since I last posted. I did read up to chapter 48.

I had a bit of trouble figuring out the first page of chapter 46 (page 44), but if I got it correctly, then she’s saying that she can find books with specifications of Alpha-type robots everywhere, but she can’t find any books about the story behind the Alpha series. Is that about right?

Any ideas what is written on the stone on page 45?

It also took me a minute before I realised we’re talking about records of the vinyl kind here and not written records :sweat_smile:

Page 55: yay, we have a nerdy character :smile:. I have a feeling we will see him again some time in the future.

Page 63: that does not look like a particularly comfortable pose :upside_down_face:

Chapter 48: lots of questions

Not sure what the guy is doing on page 68. Is he repairing the street light?

And that brings up the question: those street lights do probably need to be maintained in any case, so why are they still maintained? Just because the lights are pretty? (The conversation between them does seem to go along those lines.)

And finally: what is the connection with the previous chapters? (Why is this chapter titled レコード・III?) The only common point that I saw is that Kokone ends her chapter with some contemplative remarks about sound and the guy is similarly contemplative. But maybe there is more to it? :thinking:

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Well, she is also having trouble finding the specs of older models, but yes.

アルファ型機之碑 (memorial monument to the Alpha type machines)

Well, she was looking for the latter but found the former :joy:

Maybe she just locked her servos and is just using balance :upside_down_face:

Ch 48

That’s my guess too, on all counts.

Do you want to hear my theory about it? I have no idea if I am right or not, but based on recent discussions, I’d rather ask first :sweat_smile:

1 Like

I want to hear all the theories.

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Theory

So, my idea is that they were trying to make the robots (especially the old ones?) as close to human, in terms of brain/emotion/thinking. In volume 5, we learned that the old doctor woman was trying to make training data for that purpose when she was young (experience of adrenaline rush in her case).
In this chapter, one of the old guys say

オレよう
人ってなんか根っこの方が光とか音とかで動いてんじゃねえかって思ってんだけど

(emphasis mine)
So I think the record is literally training (or more specifically stimulating) data to train the MK-2.
(And I think this chapter was just here to make us reach that conclusion)

2 Likes

Haha, I read it at my own risk :smile: Your theory seems sound to me :+1:

Thank you for the replies!

1 Like

I finally finished the volume today. I think I will create a thread for the next volume next week.

Chapter 51: I’m pretty sure that’s the Kan-Etsu tunnel, right? I’m not sure why he’s travelling in this direction, though. I guess he went to Niigata via a different route first.

Chapter 52: an alcoholic mixer does not seem the best way to get used to drinking milk :smile:

Chapter 54: the nervous guy was pretty great :joy:

Page 169: it took me a minute to realise that こーみいし is 子海石, but what is the young version of the old guy saying? Also his name? (We never got a name for him so far, right?)

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Oh yeah, heh, we were reading this…

Well, it certainly fits the evidence provided - it’s on the current driving route from Niigata to Gunma, the northern entrance is in the territory of Yuzawa-machi, and it’s more than 10km long (it’s pretty close to 11km). Neither of the tunnel entrances are actually shown in the manga, though, so it’s a bit hard to be completely certain.

Maybe it denatures the dairy somehow?

Nope.

Page 158, I love that even in a post-apocalyptic-ish future, pizza menus and real-estate flyers still make up the majority of their junk mail.

1 Like