コンビニ人間: Week 9 Discussion

Japanese Language Reading
#1

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コンビニ人間 Home Thread

Week 9

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Start Date: August 24th
Previous Thread: Week 8
Next Chapter: Week 10

Reading:

End Page (PB) End Page (HB) End % End Phrase Pages
111 103 65% 口に運んだ。 11

Word lists - Learn the vocabulary for コンビニ人間

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

Read-along Sessions

Come and read from the previous week’s section, join in the chat about this book or just lurk and listen. Readers of all speeds and abilities welcome - we are here to help each other out. Reading sessions will be held every Sunday at 9:30pm JST.

Week 9 session (in your timezone): Sunday, September 1, 2019 12:30 PM TZ

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.

  • I’m reading along
  • I’m still reading the but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m skipping this book
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0 voters

5 Likes
コンビニ人間 Home Thread (Intermediate Book Club)
コンビニ人間: Week 10 Discussion
#2

Can I get a paw with some questions, please meow?

At 61%

そう書置きを残し、私はいつも通り8時に店に着くよう出勤した。

I can’t figure out which of the various grammatical constructs that use よう is this one… does this mean she left home at 8, or left so that she’d arrive to work at 8?

A few sentences later:
男と同棲でもしてくれたほうがずっとまともだって妹さんも思ってるってことですよ

I am particularly puzzled by まとも here. According to jisho it can mean “the front”, “honesty, uprightness” or “decency, normality”. I’m not sure which one fits here.

Is 白羽さん saying that 恵子’s sister’s main issue (“at the front of her concerns”, maybe?) is the fact that she has invited a man for cohabitation?

Or is this about how the sister would be concerned about the decency of the situation? I don’t see that fitting very properly into the sentence structure though…

Any help is appreciated!

1 Like
#3
Summary

そう書置きを残し、私はいつも通り8時に店に着く よう 出勤した。

I believe this is “so that I arrive at 8”. つくように出勤した (Maybe に was omitted?)

まとも

まともなこと is something’s that’s decent, upright, conforms to what people think is good…

男と同棲でもしてくれたほうがずっと まとも だって妹さんも思ってるってことですよ

Just by living with a man, you’ll be thought of as a proper woman (if you want to say it like that, because this in opposition to living alone in your middle age and with no proper job), your sister thinks so too (referring to how she’s acting all excited about the situation)

6 Likes
#4

I liked this week much better, but I still don’t know how to feel about their arrangement.

Some questions

59%

He says 既成事実みたいなのを作られるのはね、ねえ、男としては警戒しないといけないんで…いきなり妹さんに電話するなんて

He later says how it’s frightening and he often reads stories online about situations like this.
Can someone enlighten me what he means by 男としては警戒しないといけない, and also what his worries are with her calling her sister?

61%

白羽 has monologue time again and then says 少子化が進んで、どんどん縄文に回帰している、生きづらい、どころではない。ムラにとっての役立たずは、生きていることを糾弾されるような世界になってきてるんですよ
First, why どころではない? Isn’t he saying the opposite here; that the world is actually returning to the 縄文時代?
Also, why is the passive used here for 糾弾される and who is denouncing whom?

#5
59%

男としては警戒しないといけないんで…いきなり妹さんに電話するなんて

And as a man I have to be worried about these things… Suddenly calling your sister like that

Basically, he’s saying that he should be careful because she’s been acting too weirdly, or clingy already.

@Myria Edited for your edit:

61

生きづらい、 どころではない

Living a hard life, it’s far from just being that (continues next sentence).

ムラにとっての役立たずは, 生きていることを糾弾 される

Those who aren’t helpful to the village, they’re being blamed just for simply existing.

1 Like
#6

Oh, I see, so not like thinking she would murder him or other sinister stuff, just worried about her clinginess? I see.

Edit: thanks for your edit! I think I get it now

1 Like
#7

I see, I had never seen the に omitted from ように before.
The other sentence is also very clear now. Thank you for the help!

2 Likes
#8

Finished reading but have a few questions

Summary

小さな和室で、古い造りなので風呂とトイレは別になっている。換気があまりよくないので、白羽さんの入った後の風呂場のドアから、湿気と湯気がむわりと部屋にたちこめていた。
I couldn’t understand what the bolded was and was halfway through writing this when I thought about googling the whole sentence and it seems someone had that same question from the book so I’ll just leave the answer in case anyone had the same issue.
In short: むわりと -> もわっと : thick with smoke, moisture or odor; hard to breathe (air)​

And when 白羽 says
「僕さえここにいれば世間は納得しますよ。あなたにとってメリットしかない取引だ」
is he saying that there’s “nothing but” advantages (aka a lot of advantages) for her, or that there are only advantages for her (and not for him)? Or something else? I’m not good at しかない yet ):

I’m also not entirely sure I understood their conversation, since some things don’t make too much sense/aren’t clear to me, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the Japanese or because it’s just weird.

For example, did he say that he just wants to hide in her house and never come out? How is he contributing to anything then? And then I understood she would pay him by feeding him? But he wouldn’t be doing anything? Even if she can use the “I’m married” card now, I don’t think having a husband holed up in her house is really up to society’s standard. She’d be expected to show him around at least, right? Or else she might as well just make it up.

I feel it is likely I just completely misunderstood a bunch of things so I might have to go reread.

2 Likes
#9
Summary

むわりと

Thought that was weird too, but didn’t look it up, thanks.

Yes. “This whole deal is pure advantages for you.” He’s saying that to convince her that it is after all a good deal. He’s not saying this to say there isn’t anything for him.

I’m also not entirely sure I understood their conversation…

You understood it fully :sweat_smile:

If I remember, Shiraha even says “you can say anything about me”, so it’s like, as long as she has a man society will be content. You’re right in thinking that it’s weird, it is weird. And that’s pretty much it, everything you said is right.

8 Likes
#10

:see_no_evil: I’m kinda relieved I got it right, but also worried.
The book is keeping me intrigued every week though so I can’t complain.

8 Likes
#11

I haven’t been enjoying it quite as much with all the 白羽 stuff. Every conversation with him makes my head spin.

5 Likes
#12

That’s because you are actually stuck in the 縄文 period despite society pretending otherwise.

14 Likes
#13

I had the same reaction. Did I just read what I think I read?!?! What a wild turn of events. Very intriguing indeed. This book gets more interesting by the page.

1 Like
#14

Oh, I was wondering that there were so many new replies here… I forgot to put this thread’s notification settings on watched. :man_facepalming:

#15

Finally finished this week’s section. I am enjoying the unpredictable (for me at least) nature of this book.
Some parts which I found interesting or amusing

  • 白羽 saying he was 潔癖症 (poor man, I shouldn’t laugh but it was so ironic given the state he was in)
  • Finding him sleeping half in the cupboard (I guess it shows you how small her apartment is)
  • How excited 妹 is despite knowing nothing about the man or the circumstances
  • The kanji for uterus 子宮
  • The middle of p110 involving 餌 and her explanation for why she used that word
  • The food on p111 - did you notice? - only white things. I have a niece who eats similarly.
12 Likes
#16

Some comments from me on this week’s reading:

Summary

First I was quite worried that she was letting him take advantage of her, with her having him stay at her place, and him drinking the cider she already had and the new one as well, as soon as she brought it.
But I almost laughed out loud when she nicely paid it back to him with comparing him to a pet she is keeping and talking about his 餌 :wink:

Looking forward to next week’s reading and how this uneven relationship is going to continue.

11 Likes
#17

Finished just in time for the read-aloud session tomorrow. I’ll read all the comments here later.

All I'm gonna say is...
  • I hope the rest of the book isn’t just 古倉 and 白羽 talking, because that would be very unpleasant.
  • It would be a nice little surprise if 白羽 knows how to cook and adds something positive to the relationship.
  • There sure were some interesting words used this week. Certainly some stuff I never expected to look up on jisho.

:crossed_fingers: that it picks up pace again soon.

10 Likes
#18

Ooh, this week was fun to read. Quite a bit I had to look up, but I really love the conversations between 古倉 and 白羽. :smile:

And yeah, the part with the 餌 was nice. Gotta love 古倉’s comebacks to the nonsense that comes out of 白羽’s mouth.

Looking forward to next this week the next part!

8 Likes
#19

Repeat Club Discussion Starts Here!

6 March 2021

End Page (PB): 111
End Page (HB): 103
End Kindle Location: 1071
End Phrase: 口に運んだ。

Welcome to Week 9!

Feel free to use past discussion for reference, but please don’t hesitate to post any questions or comments! The more we discuss the more we all learn, and the more fun it is! Also, I strongly recommend setting each week’s thread to “watching” to stay abreast of the discussion. Please try to mark any spoilers as such.

  • I’m reading along
  • I’ll catch up soon
  • I have no intention of catching up or the club has already finished, but I’m using the forums as reference

0 voters

Live Reading Sessions

The next live reading session will be 2021-01-24T03:00:00Z If you haven’t already, join the Japanese Book Club Discord. When the time comes to start, just enter the コンビニ人間 voice channel.

For live readings, we will take turns reading as much as we feel comfortable with (up to ~1 page), then go back and translate a section of our choosing together. Expect sessions to take anywhere from 1-2 hours, but feel free to join late or leave early as your schedule allows. We will be starting promptly at the designated time. Please post any questions regarding live reading session logistics in the Discord channel or on the home thread.

Vocab Sheet

Anybody should feel free to add to the vocab sheet. Read the guidelines on the first sheet- even if a word is not yet included you can use the spreadsheet as a tool to get help.

Discussion Questions

  1. 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!

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

  3. 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?

  4. Is Shiraha and Keiko’s arrangement mutually beneficial? Does one of them benefit more than the other? Is it potentially damaging for either of them?

3 Likes
コンビニ人間 :bento: Repeat Book Club
#20

I finally caught up!

So when I first saw Shiraha I thought they would be love interests but I didn’t know it was going to be this weird…

It’s sad that I’ve grown attached to Keiko and I don’t want her to be in this (potentially?) “abusive” relationship.
I say “abusive” because this is all her idea and she seems pleased with the idea as well? So who am I to judge?

I have all the feels here :sweat_smile:

5 Likes