Looks like I was first to the vocab sheet this time. Please don’t shoot me if I made any mistakes.
I was able to read an understand what’s going on but I think there are some nuances going over my head. I think Aria is easier reading in many respects. At least the chapters are short.
I know tanuki are often associated with being mischievous magical creatures in folklore but there doesn’t seem to be any inference of that kind in this instance. Do people keep racoons as pets in the countryside?
Comedy manga can definitely be harder sometimes. In this regard, Aria is definitely easier.
I read this chapter before the book club started and didn’t understand some key parts of it. I’ll re-read it this weekend and I’m sure I’ll have some questions.
It heavily features the logic of a six-year-old girl who’s more than a little bit of a cloudcuckoolander. And then there’s Natsumi. I think even the other characters are confused.
First, no, there’s nothing magical about the tanuki mentioned in the story. It’s just a regular old one.
I’ve never heard of anyone keeping a tanuki as pet, especially since they are frigging pests and eat everything. But I don’t think there’s anything preventing you from trying to keep one at home?
You know what, let me just google that.
Edit: it’s possible, but you need some permit. Ref
Yeah, it seems a bit wacky in an all-over-the-place kind of way. There might be a couple of small grammar points I’m not getting to grasp the precise meanings. I’ll have to look over it again for some examples if I get time.
I expect you’d need more than a permit to keep one with a psychedelic name like 「具」
Weirdly, in the English translation, they’ve gone with “Pom Poko”. No idea why. (Which is to say, I understand the relevance of “Pom Poko”, but not the reason they’ve elected to completely change the meaning behind it.)
Alright, I just reread this chapter, and I think I understand all of it this time.
@hachiken You may know this already, but tanuki are real animals, despite also being in folk lore. They’re not actually related to raccoons, despite them looking similar.
Stuff I didn’t catch last time, but think I did this time:
Some spoilers inside
Renge was excited by some ojisan doing radio calisthenics outside of the window of the TV host. Previously I didn’t realize 司会者 could also mean host of a show, so I thought Renge was watching politics for some reason. And I didn’t realize the radio calisthenics was in the background of the news.
I didn’t realize Hotaru and Komari ran for the bus and missed it anyway. And subsequently Natsumi says that she’s glad they gave up and didn’t bother rushing.
@hachiken I finally get why you were asking about whether people eat tanuki. I had assumed on my first read through that it was just the “tool” meaning of 具, but your interpretation makes a lot more sense.
I didn’t get Natsumi’s reasoning on page 25 bottom right panel. But now I realize she’s saying that things being inconvenient is synonymous with the countryside, and since cows and tanuki aren’t inconvenient, it doesn’t mean they’re in the countryside. Of course, because I missed that, I only half understand Natsumi’s realization on the last page that they are in fact in the countryside.
Is anyone able to make sense of the extra sentence at the end of the chapter?
この話を書いた、数日後、実際に1日3本しかこないバスを見逃すことになるとは思いもしなかったのです。
Two questions.
Can 本 also be used as a counter for vehicles like buses? I thought 台 would be used for that.
I’m mostly confused by the 思いもしなかった part, unless the sentence is supposed to have an odd meaning. Logically, I’d think this is the author saying that the thought she’d miss a bus three times in one day or something like that? But then しなかった being negative is throwing me off there, so she didn’t think that?
本 is also the counter for bus routes - so not the bus itself, but rather the entry on the timetable.
“I never thought I would”, maybe. Or “you wouldn’t think so, but”? And she’s missing the bus in an area where it only runs three times a day, same as the characters (not missing the bus three times in one day).
More seriously, I noticed I have no way to comment on stuff like “what do they say on page bla” since I don’t have the book, and my visits of the forum are too erratic to be here at the right moment to answer grammar questions.
Also, my memory of the story is already fading away (although it does come back when I read others’ comments)
