ゆるキャン△ Vol. 15 🏕

[Naphthalene]

Volume 15 Discussion Thread

Start Date: 25th November
Previous: Volume 14
Next: Volume 16

ゆるキャン△ Home Thread

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Vocabulary List

Laid-Back Camp Vocab

Please read the editing guidelines in the first sheet before adding any words!

Reading Schedule

Start Date	Chapter	Page Numbers	Page Count
November 25th	82 - イヌ子とメイの山梨縦断 サイクリングロードの旅	3 - 26	24
December 2nd	83 - 千明と美波の雁坂のんあるキャンプ	29 - 52	24
December 9th	84 - イヌ子とメイの雁坂ヒルクライム	55 - 78	24
December 16th	85 - はらぺこと雁坂の晩ごはん	81 - 106	26
December 23rd	86 - トンネルまであと少し	109 - 132	24
December 30th	87 - イマジナリードッグとGWの予定	135 - 158	24

Participants

There will be participation polls throughout this discussion thread as we reach each chapter

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[Naphthalene]

82 - イヌ子とメイの山梨縦断 サイクリングロードの旅

Start date: November 25th

• I’m reading along
• I’m taking my time
• I’m dropping out

[Belthazar]

Alrighty! Let’s see if I remember how to do this!

There’s a lot of en-route shots here, which I’m not sure I can easily pin down in Street View without trying to guess their route and then following the whole thing step by step. I did, however, come across page 3, panel 2 by complete coincidence, so that might give me a good place to start from. Page 5, panel 4 is just beyond that point.

At the bottom of page 8, they’re at Biologic Bread Kuga.

Bottom of page 13 is here (you can just make out the サイクリングロード written on the path below if you zoom in). On page 14, they’re here. The map that Mei’s looking at on page 15 is this, which should make a good reference to work out where they are in upcoming pages.

On page 18, they’re here (in the pedestrian underpass to the left of this road, though unfortunately there’s no street view down there). All in all, they’ve travelled 44.4 kilometres. Give or take some, depending on the specifics of their route. Oh, wait. They go into detail on that one page 25. They’ve measured it as 54km, though there’s a big ol’ spike in their route that mine lacks. Though, if I adjust the route like… this, now it’s 53.5km.

On page 20, they’re here, just around the corner. With a view of this at the top of 21. At the bottom of page 21, they’ve gone to the zoo (I’m impressed they have so much free time).

On page 22, they’ve met up at Foods Market Okajima, so I guess that’s the supermarket they mentioned last chapter.

Page 27, capybara onsen.

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I see Mei is coming to learn Aoi’s true personality.

Anyone know what series Aki and Toba-sensei are listing on page 17? Vaguely pondered if ウォーキング・ラット might be The Walking Dead, but that’s 11 seasons and 177 episodes, not 6 and 133 as they mention here.

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Proper nouns:

Page 8
釜無川＝かまなしがわ

Page 15
昇仙峡＝しょうせんきょう

[Naphthalene]

I barely finished the previous chapter on time. As usual, I have too many books I need to read at the same time

83 - 千明と美波の雁坂のんあるキャンプ

Start date: December 2nd

• I’m reading along
• I’m taking my time
• I’m dropping out

[Belthazar]

Aki and Toba-sensei start the chapter at Michi-no-Eki Mitomi, and Aki points the way to Fuefukigoya Campground. As they mentioned at the end of last chapter, it’s 20km from where they were, uphill all the way. Page 33, Aki mentions Karisaka Pass (which, according to signpost in the first image on Google, has an altitude of 2082 metres).

When we briefly cut across to Rin’s adventures on page 36-39, she’s at Takizawa Dam, so she’s actually on the same road as the other characters (i.e. 国道140号). She planning to drop in and say hi on the way through? Guess we’ll see.

[Edit] I just realised that Rin is in Saitama Prefecture. After that whole conversation a few weeks ago in the home thread about how noone’s left the Chubu Region yet, Rin just straight-up drives to Saitama, completely without fanfare. Just in an aside mention in the middle of a different storyline. The prefectural border is between them, along the line that includes Karisaka Pass. [/Edit]

Amaretto Tea recipe.

Page 47, even with the map and the specified distance and travel time, there’s a few options for which onsen they’re talking about here, so I might wait and see where (and if) they actually visit before linking it. And on page 51, I could probably figure out where Aoi and Mei are by following the road on Street View, but I might leave that as an exercise for the reader.

Page 53, Raiden Todoroki Bridge.

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Is there really that much variation in butter cookie flavours that you’d need to taste-test all of the brands?

The voices coming from the TV on page 43 are too small to read…

Page 48, I’m willing to bet that “The Dentalist” is The Mentalist. Especially given that the protagonist (named Patrick rather than Frederick) looks like this:

Wikipedia says he was dubbed in Japanese by Goda Hozumi, though it weirdly doesn’t mention if he’s currently working as a campground manager in Yamanashi Prefecture.

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Proper nouns:

Page 29 et al
雁坂＝かりさか

[Naphthalene]

Well, I started reading a bunch of stuff and got late on most book clubs including this one

84 - イヌ子とメイの雁坂ヒルクライム

Start date: December 9th

• I’m reading along
• I’m taking my time
• I’m dropping out

[/quote]

[Belthazar]

Page 57, the bike squad stop at Michi-no-Eki Hanakagenosato Makioka - the first panel of page 57 is here.

Starting at the bottom of page 61, Rin is at Mitsumine Shrine (spent far too long searching the route Aoi and Mei were following for this shrine, because I hadn’t turned the page to discover we’re following Rin now). On page 64, she’s eating lunch at 大島屋, also on the shrine grounds. While heading back downhill, she mentions this dam and this michi-no-eki, though we never actually see either onscreen.

Meanwhile, back with the bike squad, the third panel of page 70 is here. On page 71, they’ve reached Mitomifuefuki-no-Yu.

And then we’re back at the campsite.

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I’ve been meaning to visit Mitsumine Shrine, but I could fit it into my schedule for Chichibu when I visited in 2019. Losing a day’s sightseeing to Typhoon Hagibis didn’t help. I need to go back again someday to finish the Chichibu 34 Kannon, so I’ll definitely make time. I did happen to almost see the Unkai that Rin mentions on page 62, albeit in town, and only from the ground.

Why’s Imaginary Nadeshiko speak in an old-man dialect?

Anyway, here’s the waraji katsudon that I ate, albeit at the food court attached to Seibu Chichibu Station (very yum):

And the miso potato (not the best, though - I might try it again from a different place):

Page 71: Heh, we’ve seen this map before, back on page 47. I’m reasonably sure Mitomifuefuki was leading my list of suspected locations, but not completely certain.

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Proper nouns

Page 63:
秩父＝ちちぶ

[Belthazar]

So, I have a subscription to one of those monthly Japanese snack boxes. This was today’s snack.

[anon9242278]

So these butter cookies have been refined to 100% butter cookie with no impurities? I wonder how you’d do that without burning them. Or are the cookies formed after crude butter cookie is refined?

[Naphthalene]

85 - はらぺこと雁坂の晩ごはん

Start date: December 16th

• I’m reading along
• I’m taking my time
• I’m dropping out

[Belthazar]

There are almost no new locations this week, though we pay for that by getting another word-heavy chapter. All those recipes…

Anyway, the one new location is Rin’s campsite, starting on page 89, which I’m pretty sure is Masakado Falls Campground. I’m basing that assertion entirely on this image of the bridge that appears at the bottom of page 92, because I can’t find anything that quite resembles the establishing shot on page 90.

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Page 90 (and 107), Googling turned up this photo of the Japanese wolf souvenir:

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Proper nouns:

Page 101
Well, not exactly proper nouns, but some of these cheese names took me a surprisingly long time to research, so I figured I’d save other people the trouble.
ブリ― = brie
ミモレット = mimolette
ロックフォール = roquefort
スチルトン = stilton
エクストラオールド = extra old, which is just a sub-type, so not really identifiable. Googling, though, turned up extra-old beemster in a lot of the top results, so that might be it. (That or, they’ve got very good publicity.)
ゴルゴンゾーラ = gorgonzola
ゴート = goat, the opposite issue with extra old in that it’s a general category of cheeses
ブラスカス = vlaskaas
パルミジャーノレッジャーノ = parmigiano reggiano

[Naphthalene]

I’m nearly done with the books I was reading otherwise, so I’ll be able to catch up soon!

86 - トンネルまであと少し

Start date: December 23rd

• I’m reading along
• I’m taking my time
• I’m dropping out

[Belthazar]

From the campsite to where the bike gang are heading is about 770 metres in a straight line… or 2.3km by road, which includes a climb of 120 metres in altitude. The route is short enough for anyone to follow the whole thing from page 112 to 116 in street view, so I might leave that as an exercise for interested parties, but it starts here from the second panel on 112 (or even here at the bottom of 110) and continues on. The first panel of 112 appears to be a shot of the bridge they’re about to cross, from below (like so), but since they haven’t gotten there yet, it feels a bit out-of-sequence.

Page 114 contains A Clue for narrowing down where Mei and Aoi live - though since the not-Selva Aoi works at is already 7km from the school, maybe she lives at the Selva. (That said, Chiaki’s outfit and demeanor when she’s seeing Aoi and Mei off at the end of the final chapter of the previous volume does imply she lives within a fairly casual walking distance of the Lawson across the road…)

Page 116, their goal is the Karisaka Tunnel Toll Booths. Even if they weren’t about 90% dead, this is as far as they can go - bikes aren’t allowed in the tunnel. Luckily for Rin, who went through prior to chapter 83, scooters are allowed - under the current pricing, they cost just seventy yen.

The sign being pictured on the third panel of 118 is probably this one. And in the final panel of the same page, I didn’t realise Yamanashi and Kanagawa shared a border, but turns out they do - the whole length that’s (roughly) marked in this map. Guess I didn’t look closely enough. I mean, I’ve caught the train that passes through there…

And on page 120, they’re back at Michi-no-Eki Mitomi, which they (very) briefly visited back in chapter 83. カツカレー.

Pages 122-124, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but チャリくま is チャリたぬ in real life - here is the website. Can’t seem to find any evidence there’s a branch at this michi-no-eki, though. Yet?

We’ve heard Mei’s family name before, right? I seem to recall mentioning that it’s adjacent to Ena.

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Page 126, hah. This is the same Hanpen as the illusory dog a few volumes ago. This really is a small world.

Page 128, when they get around to animating this volume, I wonder if they’re gonna get Goda Hozumi to voice this guy…

[Naphthalene]

I just realized I won’t have internet for a few days, so I am posting this a bit early.
Also, wow, it’s already the end of the book. Never opened it past the second week
(And I have a pile of books to read otherwise, so I don’t think it will be any time soon that I read this again …)

87 - イマジナリードッグとGWの予定

Start date: December 30th

• I’m reading along
• I’m taking my time
• I’m dropping out

[Belthazar]

Welp, I don’t have anything going on, so I’ll reply early too.

No locations to research, though. We’re back at school, and then Ena’s place. Though, page 148, Mei’s new workplace is here - Aoi’s workplace is the building in the centre of that view, Mei’s is on the left, and Aki’s is on the right, though curiously the real-world inspiration for that last one seems to have turned into a cafe.

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Page 137, this might be the first time I’ve seen GW furigana’d with just やすみ instead of squishing all of ゴールデンウィーク in there.

Page 144, what is this box that pops up referencing? (And what are those codes short for?)

Page 154 first panel is funniest panel.

That abbreviation on page 160, though… “F-BULL”…

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@Naphthalene

Also, wow, it’s already the end of the book.

Always seems to sneak up on us, huh? Curiously, it’s not a 放課後 chapter like other volumes (though it’s surreal enough that it’s not too far off).

@Naphthalene

Never opened it past the second week

You’d better read it, or Rin’s gonna come to your place and, uh… break all your pasta in half.

Though, if we’re looking for something to fill the time for the however-long until the next volume is released, I picked this up from a bookshop at Sakuragicho Station back in March and still haven’t read the thing…

[2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz]

@Belthazar

Page 144, what is this box that pops up referencing? (And what are those codes short for?)

This is a reference to the old megaman (Rockman in japan) NES games.
Starting in Megaman 3, if I remember correctly, there’s a companion robot dog that can be summoned via similar screen.

The two letters usually represent an abbreviation of a weapon (or addon) that you can pick for Megaman, but in this case, these seem to be names of dog species (e.g. SH - shiba inu, GO - gorgi, etc). Ema’s face followed by a number is the number of lives left you have in the game, though obviously the game shows Megaman’s face.

Actually the visual effect of summoning the robot dog is exactly as it is depicted in Ema’s imagination, with that “vertical light” thing that appears before the actual robot dog shows up:

Page 154 is how the megaman screen shows when you acquire a new weapon (usually by defeating the boss robot of some stage) The weapon is always based on the boss that was defeated (usually, the same weapon the boss used, but not always)

This final screen is the megaman stage selector, where you pick which robot you want to defeat next - game can be played usually in any order, but there’s an “efficient” route where you always get a weapon that the next boss is weak against.

[Belthazar]

Oh, most informative, thank you.

@2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz

(e.g. SH - shiba inu, GO - gorgi, etc)

Yeah, I figured SH was shiba, but, uh… “gorgi” feels a stretch for GO. Expecially when “golden retriever” is right there. BO could be border collie, DA dachshund or dalmatian, and PO pomeranian or poodle, but I’m still drawing a blank for KU. Could be kunming wolfdog, but they’re not really as round as the dog she actually summons.