I think I’ve seen at least two young children’s books which go left to right, that my teacher had (so I don’t think it’s that they were aimed at foreign learners)
The answer to why the book is backwards is because it is a foreign book. (Heh, it’s “unflopped manga! Like the original!”) I actually found myself poking through picture books on several occasions during my last trip, but never paid attention to which side the cover was on.
Using the knowledge gained from this adventure, perhaps the last book was this one?
I guess I’ll kick off the chapter 70 discussion. Pretty excited to have finally caught up with this book club! When I tried to read よつばと！ back when it started I had no hope at all, but now I can read through most chapters pretty smoothly!
As I’ve been trying to catch up I’ve been reading through chapters pretty quickly, and skipping over particulars that I may not have 100% understood, as long as I got the gist of it, but I think I’ll be more in depth now that I’ve caught up.
Page 11: お客さんとこの子
While I understood this meaning, とこの was tripping me up as I was thinking it was broken down to とこ・の・子, but I think I see that it’s と (and/with) この子 (a child of that type), right?
Page 12: やりよんの
I’m guessing this is slang for やりようの; the way to do something.
Page 12: かまん
All I could come up with myself was that this might have meant “come on”. After a bit of Googling it looks like it could be short for 構わない, which still seems like a slightly odd fit in that conversation. Thoughts?
This chapter reminded me of Japanese lessons I’ve been in, where questions like うどんとおそばとどっちが好き？ are very common.
お客さんとこの子かいな? means お客さんのところの子かいな?
Here the ところ means “one’s house” but in terms of “belong to”.
So yes, she’s definitely saying “this is a customer’s child, right?”
かまん = かまわん = かまわない = no problem
And やりよんのが means doing, as in やっているのが
On an unrelated note, I see the lady in the shop is using おる instead of いる in the first panel. Good job I’m not actually reading this volume of Yotsuba (yet) as I can tell I’ll get a headache from all this!
Wooo よつば！久しぶりね ^^
I want udon now. I love those fat noodles xD
That was a nice, chill way to start off the volume ^^
I figured it out!
It’s 商い中, which is apparently a more traditionally Japanese way of saying 営業中. HiNative says it’s favored by shops that are going for a more traditional atmosphere (such as noodle shops).
I forgot that よつばと！ is one thread for the whole volume. I could have been discussing this week’s chapter since this morning already…
I know someone’s been waiting to read the discussion:
(I hope I have the page numbers right.)
Page 35, after Yotsuba’s father gives examples of things ordered, Yotsuba uses the word せいようふう. I can’t believe I didn’t realize this was 西洋風. (I had to look it up.) To repent, I’ll play more Japanese video games in kana-only mode.
Page 37, I spent longer than I should have trying to figure what Yotsuba meant by 「これはあかいからからい？」 I had difficulty on parsing it out. Once I figured it out (asking if it’s spicy because it’s red) I realized I was overthinking it. From now on, I shall recommend to anyone not to overthink the words of a four-year-old.
Same page: 「これはみどりだから…バッタ？」 I had actually skipped the last line, then reading this one caused me to go back to it and understand it. As for this one, I knew she couldn’t be saying バター. Looking up バッタ has taught me that the sense of children…is nonsense. (You’d think having young nephews, I’d know this by now.)
Page 43, Yotsuba’s 「ぴざここです」 sign makes me feel much better about my Japanese handwriting. (It’s not a very high hurdle, though.)
Page 50, my small victory was being able to recognize and read 想像 (WK level 13).
Page 55, empty pizza box. This is just bad parenting, not letting Yotsuba experience refrigerated pizza for breakfast the morning after! (I know, it’s not for everyone.)
you just tossed off the cliff? 
