Interestingly, it’s the proper way to do a strike-through on formal documents in Japanese (i.e. when you are filling a form and made a mistake; you would usually affix your 印鑑 as well)
Unfortunately, there’s no new locations visited this chapter. There are a few mentioned, however, some of which I’m not sure if they visit later, so I’ll list them here just to be on the safe side.
Firstly, I’m not sure we’ve ever heard Ema’s beanie-wearing coworker’s name before - she’s named for Ibigawa, in Gifu Prefecture. The photo Ema is asking about comes from Nozori Lake (and that’s definitely not the reading I would have guessed for that). The other coworker mistakes it for Nojiri Lake, who also mentions that the latter is near Togakushi. In any case, I’d say the photo resembles this one pretty closely, aside from the fact that the picnic benches are missing.
Page 18, the photos that Aya shares are from the Atsumi Peninsula - though Irago Michi-no-Eki is the only one I can readily idefintify, largely because the name is written in the picture. Rin replies with images from Chichibu, which I shared the locations of last volume.
The route Aya is describing at the bottom of page 21 is something like this, albeit with the map rotated such that North is somewhere to the right. The photos shown on page 23 are from all the way back in volume 11. That was a while ago. November 2021.
Well, I gotta say, the second panel of page 14 captures my feelings on this chapter perfectly. だんごおおおおお. And now she’s transformed into short-haired Shimarin from the Tricity special chapter AU. It’s nice that she gets some Shimarin dango to take home, though.
Looking forward to seeing what Ms Tamosaitis makes of that, uh, creative use of furigana at the bottom of page 14.
Season three of the anime started this week. It’s telling the story from way back in volume 10, though, so there’s no need to worry about overlap between the anime and the manga like there was back when season two was airing.
So, this chapter has a lot of locations mentioned, but since it’s basically just Nadeshiko detailing exactly what she plans to do throughout this volume and the next, I might wait until they actually visit the locations before linking them. Think of it as… a teaser trailer. I’ve generally flipped through the volume, but haven’t read it in detail, so it’s possible they won’t actually visit all the locations mentioned (especially after Ena and Ema’s sanity check), but I might have to re-read this chapter after we’ve finished the arc and retroactively link anything that got missed.
Page 36, Jorudan gives me… a similar route to the one shown in the first panel - the trains taken and the transfer stations are all the same, the travel and wait times are not, with the end result being that it doesn’t arrive at Karuizawa until 4:45pm, three and a half hours later. The Minobu-line train departs Utsubuna at 7:52 as per the manga, but then it immediately diverges, arriving at Kofu at 9:22 instead of 9:21. Can’t work out how to get the same route - maybe it’s an old timetable. Closer inspection shows there is a train departing Kofu at 9:29 as shown in the manga, but it’s an Azusa express rather than a regular Chuo-line train, though it arrives at Kobuchizawa at 9:53 as per the manga. (Now why can’t I get Jorudan to suggest it as an option for the route? What setting have I set wrong?)
If you don’t mind taking a Shinkansen, you can change at Sakudaira instead of Komoro, and arrive at 12:59. (Can’t seem to get Google Maps to cough up a similar route - it wants me to go via Tokyo Station instead.)
I almost did this route myself on my trip last year, albeit Otsuki Station to Takasaki Station rather than Utsubuna to Karuizawa. I strongly considered taking the Koumi line (which visits the highest-altitude JR station in Japan, though I didn’t actually realise that until later), but I eventually decided I’d prefer to spend time sightseeing in Takasaki rather than seeing sights from a train.
In the fourth panel, Ema’s research is entirely correct - there’s only one bus a day, which leaves Karuizawa at 12:55. (Could have sworn there were more services the last time I checked…)
Bottom of page 39, since (spoiler alert) we don’t reach day 2 of this arc during this volume (or even finish day 1, for that matter - in the latest chapter released on Comic Fuz, they’re still en route to their campsite, so day 2 hasn’t even been written yet), then as a further teaser trailer, rather than link this location, lemme just link mah blog instead.
Page 42, the map in the third panel is something like, uh… this. Are we gonna go there? We’ll see.
Page 50, I’ve definitely linked this before, but just so I have something to link in this chapter: Kofu Station
Afro neatly sidesteps having to do a lot of travel scenes by having Nadeshiko suddenly wake up at Karuizawa Station. For the purposes of compleness, though, their intermediate stops were Kobuchizawa Station (mentioned in dialogue here) and Sakudaira Station (mentioned later in the chapter). I could probably find the second panel of page 59 if I watched a forward-view video of the Koumi Line… like this, for example (I’ve posted the southbound trip here because I presume the panel shows their northbound train heading towards the camera), though as the video is two and a half hours long, I might leave that as an exercise for the reader. I recommend it though - this type of video is quite nice to watch.
(The title page will be visited later, so no link now.)
They head downstairs and hop into the taxi, who takes them over the Usui Pass and into Gunma Prefecture. First panel on page 60 is from here, though it seems a bit out-of-the-way from the direct route from the station. Everything from the fourth panel of 60 to the second panel of 61 is visible in this view. (I’ll link the location that the trio ask the driver to take them later on, when they actually visit.)
Lot of travel shots from pages 61 to 63 - the manga is not exaggerating how winding the road is - until they arrive at the Kumanotaira Parking Lot. Final panel of page 62. Page 65, I stood at the top of these stairs on my visit and looked down them, but didn’t walk down - didn’t want to have to walk back up, after all. It looks like this (not my photo, to be clear).
Which brings them to the former Kumanotaira Station, the top end of the Apt-no-Michi, and now we’re in territory I’ve actually visited myself. I linked my blog post from this day in the home thread, if anyone who’s interested in reading it missed it. But we’re not here to hear my story, so moving on. Kumanotaira Station opened 131 years ago (and two weeks), so while Ema’s 100年以上 is technically correct, she’s also under-selling it by thirty percent. They were gearing up to celebrate the 130th anniversary when I was there last year.
Page 69, the places the taxi driver mentions camping at are Akagi and Haruna. Second panel of page 70 is the Mount Haruna Ropeway (lower station).
Page 72 (and also the title page), they arrive at Usui No. 3 Bridge, more colloquially known as Megane-bashi… which they stay at for all of a single page. There’s stairs to climb up to the bridge, but they don’t seem to even consider it. (Though if anyone can explain to me why it’s called “megane-bashi” - usually that nickname is reserved for bridges close to water, so the arch plus the reflection makes a full circle, like a pair of glasses… no?)
But just a single page later, on page 73, the driver drops them off at Coffee House Mini Mini. Not Clubman, though the sign is otherwise the same - the last panel of page 73 can be seen here. (I pondered if it used to have a name more similar to “Clubman”, but from street view photos, it was still Mini Mini as far back as 2012.) I saw this place from the Apt-no-Michi, but didn’t go in.
Page 77, I should have read the whole chapter before making comments, because when Ema mentioned at the bottom of 73 that it’s currently 10:43, I spent a whole bunch of time researching and writing up that they could not possibly have arrived at Karizawa any earlier 10:37 via the route described last chapter (and it takes 20 minutes to drive from Karuizawa to Mini Mini)… and then I reached page 77, which not only confirms the issue I calculated, but then tells me they solved it by using a different route, so all that research was for naught. By taking the Shinkansen from Sakudaira, they can indeed reach Karuizawa at 9:59.
Though, Nadeshiko mentioning page 74 that the train they want to take from Yokokawa departs at 1:10… trains depart Yokokawa at ten minutes past the hour most hours of the day, it’s true, but the 1pm train departs four minutes past the hour.
Proper nouns
Most of the ones mentioned in this chapter that didn’t already come up last chapter are written on signage, and so have the romaji written next to them, but here are the ones that aren’t:
Page 69
赤城＝あかぎ
榛名＝はるな
Page 59, kinda surprised they’re telling the taxi driver to take them all the way to Lake Usui - I thought Nadeshiko vetoed the idea of skipping the Apt-no-Michi (though on closer re-reading, I guess all she did was grumble about it).
Page 71, Ena being even further behind the times than Nadeshiko made me laugh.
Page 74, ohhh, Clubman. I thought they were saying Crab Man back on page 59.
We open in the middle of a conversation. The 小山町のサーキット appears to be the Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Shizuoka. The Kofu-Kawaguchiko route mentioned probably looks something like this - that’s about forty minutes longer than Google’s suggested shortest route, but perhaps some of the roads Google suggests taking didn’t exist back in 昔 days.
For a change, the title page image is where they currently are now rather than some landmark they’ll visit later - if you turn around and walk back up the path from there, you can see Coffee House Mini Mini on the north side. They then enter the tunnel that’s in the middle of the view. They missed most of the best tunnels by taxiing all the way to the cafe, so it’s good they at least get to enjoy one of them.
At the bottom of page 86, they emerge from the tunnel to reach here - curiously, the rails that Ena points out aren’t visible in this street view, but you can spot them in this photo which I took on my visit. The 中山道 sign which catches their attention at the bottom of page 87 is here.
Page 89, they reach Toge-no-Yu and the Toge-no-Yu Station (which lacks a marker on Google Maps, probably because it’s part of the museum rather than an actual train line). Kinda looks to me like it’s closer to a third of the way along their route rather than the quarter that Nadeshiko (?) mentions in the second panel.
Second panel of page 100 is here, though the bridge is a bit overexposed in this photo. (Not that I managed to get any photos of the bridge that I liked either - unlike how it’s depicted in the manga, there’s overhead power lines that get in the way.) On page 101, they’ve jumped all the way down to here (the signpost in the second panel is visible to the left, and the barrier across the path is almost right under the camera). And on page 101, they finish up at the Usui Sekisho. My photo with sakura. Google says it takes about 45 minutes to walk that distance from Coffee House Mini Mini, so for the three of them to make it there in 55 isn’t too bad (especially considering they needed a bit of time to finish up their drinks).
And so they’re off to the museum. What museum? We’ll find out next week. Same Yuru time, same Yuru channel.
Page 84 panel 3, Nadeshiko muses that 電車 used to run through the tunnels, but those were originally constructed as 汽車 tunnels. There is a 電車 route, but it ran along a different alignment further north. I confess I’m not sure whether the tracks were outright removed or just buried.
Page 88, I’m with Ema here - what does that face mean?
Page 90, the museum train only running on weekends and holidays must be new, because I rode it on a Wednesday last year. The museum website backs up Nadeshiko, though.
Most of this chapter is spent at the Usui Pass Heritage Railway Museum, aka Poppo Town. I could probably link street view images of every spot they visit, but they’re all in the same place, so it’s easy enough for all y’all to find them. Instead, here’s a (literal) overview:
The procedure that Nadeshiko describes on page 116 for driving the real train is practically copied directly from the museum’s website. Only it’s flipped so the order of steps reads right-to-left instead of left-to-right. As Ena notes in the final panel on the page, it’s rather costly - to complete the 500 trips necessary to become a supreme engineer would cumulatively cost about as much as a regular-sized car.
Page 128, they’re out of the museum and heading for the train station - the first panel looks to be about here. Final panel of 129 is here.
Page 117 third panel, that’s dieselpunk, Ema. Yes, I know it’s an electric train, but electricpunk is something else.
Page 124, the camping thing is real, but it appears to be in summer rather than April and May.
Page 126 second panel, will someone please explain what this face means, already?
Page 130, I can’t believe they left without kamameshi because they didn’t have time for a leisurely lunch. The whole point of Yokokawa’s kamameshi is that it was Japan’s very first ekiben, literally designed to be eaten on the train. You can buy the kamameshi in Takasaki proper - here, specifically - though whether this is where they were planning to get it as mentioned in the narration (or if it’s gonna turn out they forget completely) remains to be seen. This is the last main story chapter for this volume (sad face), and even in the latest half-chapter released on Comic Fuz yesterday (the first half of 94), they’re still only just arriving at their campsite on this same day we’ve just been reading. So… cliffhanger!
I got the kamameshi, though. Bought it from the shop shown on page 129 immediately upon arriving in Yokokawa, and carried it up to Kumanotaira Station where I ate it sitting on a bench. Very nice.
Enjoyed chapter 92 quite a lot, was very nostalgic for me. Many, many decades ago I used to go visit some relatives in a rural town by train.
That town was very small back then and there wasn’t much in terms of entertainment (very few houses had a landline phone back then, and the black and white TV had only one channel), so I’d usually spend a lot of time at the train station. There was backyard with several abandoned locomotives, some very old. Sadly it was more like a garbage dump, as they weren’t maintained and were all rusty, but it was still fun to see them.
Well, since we’re not continuing the main storyline in this chapter, finding the start location isn’t gonna be as simple as moving the last marker from the previous chapter a few hundred metres to the right. Fortunately, the chapter’s name outright tells me where we’re going: Inagako. The sign depicted in the final panel of page 133 is here. (There doesn’t seem to be a real 森林公園 in the area, but it is a prefectural forest.)
On page 138, Nadeshiko mentions she’s arrived in Kajikazawa, though from the glimpse of a bench in the background of her selfie (and reading between the lines of Nadeshiko saying 今から自転車で), I reckon she’s at Kajikazawaguchi Station, which is actually in the adjacent Kurozawa. Google pegs it as being fifteen kilometres from the campground (does that fall in the range of 約10キロ?). Rin, meanwhile, is at the aforementioned viewing deck. Bonus location I found: this drone view is incredible.
Page 145, the onsen that Nadeshiko finds appears to be here, but… that’s definitely not on the shortest route to the campsite, which probably explains Rin’s confusion - going that way adds at least another five kilometres. Though it does explain why she’s going downhill afterwards, considering the actual shortest route is uphill the whole way.
Page 150, ah, another chapter where I should have read the whole thing before starting my research. Rin says Nadeshiko missed a turnoff here, though Google didn’t really advocate coming this way in the first place. It does explain why she winds up at the onsen, though, because it’s on the same road. So let’s see if I can tweak things so I get the route that’s depicted in the manga… there we go. (And looking at this route let me work out where she was back at the top of page 147 - she was here.)
Proper nouns
Page 138
鰍沢＝かじかざわ
Page 150
平林＝ひらばやし
Page 138 first panel, Shimarin dango! You’re back!
Page 148, speaking of Diamond Fuji, I managed to see a Diamond Fuji on my trip last year, albeit a sunset one, from Kanagawa. There were at least a dozen other people there watching with me, most of them with cameras on tripods.
Page 152 first panel, is it just me, or does a five-tined fork look weird? It’s like an AI-generated hand with too many fingers.
Page 153, Rin, don’t copy Nadeshiko. Roll the thing up like a normal person. That does look nice, though.
May the fourth be with you also.
Indeed we are. I also vaguely lumped the 放課後 strips in with this reading when I wrote the schedule, since there’s only four pages of them. (And they’re daft, even compared to other 放課後 strips. )
Now we’re back out in the cold wastelands of waiting for the next volume. Though the magazine I mentioned last time remains unread. If I can remember where I put it…
