セーラー服と機関銃🏫🌺 (IBC) - Week 22

[Domjcw]

せーラー服と機関銃
Intermediate book club
Home thread

Week 22	13 July 2024
End page	363
End point (kindle)	4554
End phrase	End of 第四章
Pages	22
Previous week	Week 21
Next week	Week 23
Home Thread	せーラー服と機関銃

Vocabulary

Google sheet:

セーラー服と機関銃 vocabulary sheet

Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.

2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).

3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.

Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Proper Nouns

Name	Hiragana reading	Notes	Kindle location first mentioned
赤川次郎	あかがわじろう	the author	cover
尾田医師	おだいし	Doctor Oda	24
目高組	めだかぐみ	Medaka clan	86
Izumi’s family
星泉	ほしいずみ	main character, Izumi	170
酒井好子	さかいよしこ	aunt Yoshiko	172
星貴志	ほしたかし	main character’s father, Takashi	179
酒井呈一	さかいていいち	Uncle (Yoshiko’s husband)	201
知子	ともこ	Tomoko (?Izumi’s mother)	211
マユミ	-	mysterious woman in Izumi’s apartment	348
土田恒美	つちだつねみ	Tsunemi, real name of the woman pretending to be Mayumi	1,827
岡崎真由美	おかざきまゆみ	The real name of Mayumi, friend of Izumi’s father, photographer.	2,549
Classmates
奥沢哲夫	おくざわてつお	Classmate of Izumi, Tetsuo (son of an executive, smart dresser, family expect him home for dinner on time)	251
渡辺周平	わたなべしゅうへい	Classmate of Izumi, Shuhei (stocky, bowlegged, loves Judo)	251
竹内智生	たけうちともお	Classmate of Izumi, Tomo. (Smart, heading for Tokyo university, wears glasses)	261
和子	かずこ	classmate,	433
Schoolteachers
三浦久子	みうらひさこ	Miss Miura, teacher	357
保科校長	ほしなこうちょう	Headteacher Hoshina	368
Yakuza
健次	けんじ	Kenji, Medaka gang member, short, unbalanced (brought the doctor in the car in the prologue), chews gum	555
英樹	ひでき	Hideki, Medaka gang member, skinny and unhealthy looking, wears thick glasses	556
武	たけし	Takeshi, Medaka gang member, stocky and overweight	558
佐久間	さくま	Sakuma, Medaka second in command, unusually tall (‘beanpole’), in 50s	558
浜口	はまぐち	Hamaguchi, local Yakuza chief	1,034
関根	せきね	Sekine, head of the Matsunoki clan	2,141
元	げん	Gen, Yakuza henchman in the Matsunoki clan	2,306
剛	つよし	Tsuyoshi, yakuza henchman in the Matsunoki clan	2,306
萩原	はぎわら	Hagiwara, messenger from a ‘big fish’	3,211
Other characters
黒木	くろき	detective, head of the S section	870
浜口物産	はまぐちぶっさん	Hamaguchi trading company	936
野田代議士	のだだいぎし	Representative Noda, politician, waiting for Hamaguchi	1,064
岩田	いわた	Night watchman at Izumi’s apartment block	1665
関根正明	せきねまさあき	Son of Sekine, the head of the Matsunoki clan	2,073
円谷重治	つぶらやしげはる	Shigeharu, left name on business card at Izumi’s apartment	2,665
マクシム	-	Maxim’s [I presume this is a reference to the famous Parisian restaurant]	2,480
三大寺一	さんだいじはじめ	Hajime, ‘big boss’, kidnapper of Izumi, nicknamed ‘the fat man’, and ‘Doc’	3326
—	—	—	—

Participation

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[Domjcw]

This is our longest week’s reading. How did people find the scene in Hamaguchi’s office?

I know that Hamaguchi and Sekine obviously underestimated Sakuma and Izumi, but it still seems fairly incredible that the pair would be allowed to just walk in armed. (Sakuma even told them that he was carrying a machine gun. (Did they think he was joking??)

Anyway, some notes/questions

かけたまえ

I needed the kindle translation for this - and it wasn’t in my dictionary.
But this was helpful

椅子に座りなさい。
と言う意味です。
「椅子に座る」事を、「腰かける」と言ったりします。
その「腰」を省略し、命令口調にした言葉です。

来やしません

Izumi asks if the police are coming, and this is Sakuma’s reply

This stumped me for a while until I found this N1 grammar point

Izumi says もう一生、何も起こらなくたって不思議はないわね。

Is she saying - “it wouldn’t be strange if nothing happened in the rest of my life”
(because so much happened in such a short space of time)

Sakuma's wisdom

人間はいつだったって死ぬ時は死にますよ

Whenever it happens, humans die when they die?

しかし、ヤクザの世界は後ろを向いているんです。

However, Yakuza are facing backwards ???

義理とか仁義とか言いますが、

They talk about duty and justice,

何のことはない

But there is no such thing?

本音は先へ進むのが怖いだけなんですよ。

It is scary to show your true face when you are advancing backwards?

だから前をけっして見ないんです。みんな、臆病なんてすよ。

And so they can never see forwards. They are all cowards.

any corrections/comments on the above? I can sort of understand what he is saying, but I don’t think I have it quite right

And then there is his last bit of pithy wisdom -

本当に確かなものは、一見平凡でつまらないものですよ

Real life?? (certain things??) always seem boring at first glance?

[pm215]

@Domjcw

かけたまえ

I needed the kindle translation for this - and it wasn’t in my dictionary

This is the masu stem of かける (tons of meanings including “to sit down”) plus the command form of the auxiliary verb たまう which is a way of saying “please do…” (compare なさい). Your dictionary probably has the parts but not the combination. EDICT has this for たまえ:

たまえ 《給え》 (suf) (uk) (male) (after the -masu stem of a verb) (See 給う・2) please …

来やしません

Interesting that there’s a grammar point floating around for this. I assumed it was just the usual kind of は-to-や casual speech but it sounds like it’s more established than that.

Izumi says もう一生、何も起こらなくたって不思議はないわね。

Is she saying - “it wouldn’t be strange if nothing happened in the rest of my life”
(because so much happened in such a short space of time)

That’s how I read it, yes.

Sakuma's wisdom

人間はいつだったって死ぬ時は死にますよ

Whenever it happens, humans die when they die?

This is a response to what Izumi just said (that she should stay away from the world of the Yakuza because it’s way too dangerous). Sakuma starts by saying no, that’s not why he’s advising her to stay away - it’s true for all people, Yakuza or not, that when their time comes to die they’re going to die.

しかし、ヤクザの世界は後ろを向いているんです。

However, Yakuza are facing backwards ???

It’s the world of the Yakuza that’s the topic here, not the Yakuza, which indicates that this is “looking backwards” in a metaphorical sense. They won’t face the future.

義理とか仁義とか言いますが、

They talk about duty and justice,

何のことはない

But there is no such thing?

本音は先へ進むのが怖いだけなんですよ。

It is scary to show your true face when you are advancing backwards?

“Their real belief (their 本音) is just that it’s scary to move forwards”.

だから前をけっして見ないんです。みんな、臆病なんてすよ。
And so they can never see forwards. They are all cowards.

More “they will never look forwards” than “can never see” – because they are cowards they choose not to look to their future and instead look back at the past.

And then there is his last bit of pithy wisdom -

本当に確かなものは、一見平凡でつまらないものですよ

Real life?? (certain things??) always seem boring at first glance?

I think I would go for 確かなもの = reliable things, trustworthy things.

The subtext here I suspect from the author to the reader is “so go to school and study hard, kids!”

[Domjcw]

thanks - really helpful!

[Sasabonsam]

Week 22

Doc’s pretentious gloating was especially gross in this week’s reading, eesh. blech. yuck.

@Domjcw

I know that Hamaguchi and Sekine obviously underestimated Sakuma and Izumi, but it still seems fairly incredible that the pair would be allowed to just walk in armed. (Sakuma even told them that he was carrying a machine gun. (Did they think he was joking??)

Besides the way they walked in, what amazes me the most is that they apparently expect zero retaliation from Hamaguchi or Sekine. Izumi and Sakuma don’t even mention the possibility of it afterwards. They walk in, shoot up the place, destroy all that heroin that everyone spent the whole book chasing, and then… what, the baddies just shrug, forgive, and forget?

Although despite all that, I am happy Izumi finally got her hands on a machine gun

[Jiell]

week 22

@Sasabonsam

Besides the way they walked in, what amazes me the most is that they apparently expect zero retaliation from Hamaguchi or Sekine.

Yeah, as much as I liked that scene, their plan seemed a bit lackluster to me too Did Hamaguchi not have more than one bodyguard? Surely everyone in that building can hear what’s going on, wouldn’t someone come in and try to stop/kill Izumi?

Maybe they won’t go after Izumi after this, because she is no longer part of the Yakuza world? Not sure if they have some kind of honor system that would prevent them from killing her. They know her school and everything, so I doubt it would be all that difficult for them.

I am not sure what to expect from the epilogue. And then there are also two sequels, so maybe she will get roped back into yakuza shenanigans?
Also, I wish her father being the heir to some yakuza group and this whole drug stuff had an actual connection. Maybe that would have been the more obvious path to take, so it being a huge coincident was more surprising, but I don’t like it as much

Why did the father write that letter for Mayumi to begin with? That’s what made Izumi believe that he was involved in some shady and dangerous business. A lot of red herrings in this story, not sure how to feel about that

[pm215]

@pm215

来やしません

Interesting that there’s a grammar point floating around for this. I assumed it was just the usual kind of は-to-や casual speech but it sounds like it’s more established than that.

The read-through of the Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar has just got to its “wa” entry, where I discovered that this dictionary does treat Vmasuやしない as a casual speech sound change of Vmasuはしない. Of course if you don’t already know that then your chances of figuring out that you should look this up under “wa” seem very low…