かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog Saves Tokyo 🐸 Week 2

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog Saves Tokyo :frog: Week 2

This is our second week of Super Frog, and the action is building! Join us as we learn about the characters’ problem, as well as the backstory of the characters.

Please remember that there are two versions of the book: one is a bilingual book, while the other is a short story collection. The bilingual book is only available digitally in Japan, but if you have a VPN, you can also get it outside of Japan.

Week 2 August 21, 2026
Bilingual Book Parts 6 to 10, pages 66 to 112
Short Story Collection page 61, para. 14-pg. 63, para. 3
End phrase いったいこれは何の話なんだ？ みみずくん？
Pages 56/1.7
Last Week Week 1
Next week Week 3
Home Thread かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog Saves Tokyo :frog:

Vocabulary

Vocabulary list
Thank you very much to @Phryne for creating this list! For those who are reading the short story collection, please note that it includes some items from the introduction to the Bilingual Book.
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice

  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

Proper Nouns

Name Reading Notes
片桐 かたぎり Mr. Katagiri, Main character
かえるくん Froggy, Main character
ミミズくん Giant worm, villain

Discussion Questions

1. Mr. Katigiri has definitely encountered an unusual situation. What would you do in his place?

2. What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!

3. What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?

4. Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?

Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
  • I’m no longer reading the book
0 voters

If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

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In case you would like some cultural context for this week’s reading, Mr. Katigiri references information about the stock market crash in 1989. This article provides a bit of background about the causes of the crash and the economic recovery of the Japanese stock market.

Another fun part of the reading is Frog proving he is a real frog by ribbiting loudly for an extended time “げええこ, うぐっく, げえええええええこおお, うぐっく.” Obviously, each language has its own way of expressing these sounds, and Duolingo has an article about the differences here.

3

Alright alright alight. Barely started, we’ll see how this one goes, but that first sentence, while not very important, is already something.

First sentence

もちろんごらんのとおり本物の蛙です。暗あん喩ゆとか引用とか脱構築とかサンプリングとか、そういうややこしいものではありません

The important part of the answer is easy enough (yes, he is a real frog). Then: it’s nothing complex like a metaphor, a quotation, a deconstruction or a sample. He is just basically saying:

  • I don’t say I’m a frog as a metaphor
  • “I’m a frog” is not a quote from something
  • I don’t need to deconstruct what a being a frog actually is
  • … and something with sampling ? What’s up with sampling ?
4

Is this the right spot? 「 話なんだ？ みみずくん？」? Searching for みみくん didn’t have any results for me.

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いったいこれは何の話なんだ？ みみずくん？ this is the last two sentences. In my copies, there are some accent marks over the みみずくん？ which might make it more noticeable.
I edited this in the post information: thanks!

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Maybe sampling is related to biological specimens? Like a representative of the species that is held in a museum of natural history or university for biologists to study?

7

Possibly, yeah. Makes sense with rest of the sentence and the next one. Kaeru is basically ironically answering “Am I a frog ? Yes. Unless you wanna go all philosophical about the concept of frog”.

Another one right after that.

Kaeru is a frog

あるいはぼくは総体としての蛙なのだと言うこともできます。しかしたとえそうだとしても、ぼくが蛙であるという事実に変わりはありません。
ぼくのことを蛙じゃないというものがいたら、そいつは汚いうそつきです。断固粉砕してやります

Phew. Again, a quick Deepl on one part of the sentence was enough to untangle the whole thing.

Or perhaps one could also say I’m the whole idea/union of frogs. But even then, that wouldn’t change the actual fact that I’m a frog.
Someone saying that I’m not a frog would be a dirty lier. I’d crush them.

I’m slightly confused about the を here. Is this marking a passive, indicated that telling lies would be something done to Kaeru ? That would mirror the てやる that comes after.

Edit: it’s actually XをYという “to call X a Y, to say that X is Y”, and it’s という者, so “someone saying that”. Things make sense now.

… hey I just saw the word 火の手, “flames”. Cool kanji writting.

one sentence in Kaeru description of the situation

都市としという集約的しゅうやくてき状況じょうきょうがどれほど脆もろい存在そんざいであるか、人々ひとびとはあらためて認識にんしきすることでしょう

This one took a couple reread because of “unexpected” vocab (I know the kanjis but when put together they don’t make the exact word I thought they would), but I think this translates as:

People will once again be made aware of how fragile the condition of the city is. I’m struggling to put all the japanese words in the english translation, but the idea is here I think.

8

Finished this week part. A couple tricky sentences, but I was able to push through.

A couple expressions I picked up (and will promptly forget about because I’m not mining):

  • 闇から闇に apparently it’s supposed to be used before the verb 葬る, but here Murakami uses it before 流れる. Appears to mean “something that happens in the dark and stays in the dark”, so basically “shady stuff”.
  • XならXばいい “if (it has to) X, then let it X”
  • うまい具合 for “happiness” which is.. funny.
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Thank you for this, I didn’t understand what 総体 was meant to imply in this sentence at all.